Chapter 17: Trek On A Tank
Author's Note: Hello, dear readers, and welcome to Chapter 17 of Kind At Heart! What's this? A tank?! Be sure to read on, but first, let me respond to your reviews!
Guest #1, as for your guesses, you won't have to wait long, because it'll happen very soon!
BlackIce K1lls, thanks for the compliments! Don't worry; the movie's dialogue will be used less and less as the new and improved tour goes on, so I hope you'll look forward to that. I'm glad you liked the cottage moment, and you'll definitely see tons of new things, starting with this chapter! I hope you'll enjoy it!
Gage the Hedgehog, thanks for the compliment!
emeraldphan, I'm glad you liked the twist with the Chocolate Room, as well as the cottage moment. As I said to Guest #1, you'll find out the first elimination shortly.
Matt, I'm very honored that you liked the last chapter! The Fruity Frogs were so much fun to write about, as was the new welcome song. The Chris and Jenna moments have been some of my favorite moments to write so far, and you'll definitely see more of them as this rewrite progresses. I'll admit as well, I agree with you. I do miss my childhood as well, especially my younger years in primary/elementary school and middle school. Speaking of improvements, you'll for sure love this chapter!
Guest #2, that comment really flatters me! Thank you so much! I hope more people come across this story as well.
Guest #3, fear not, as that is one of my main priorities for this rewrite. You'll definitely see more of Chris' tough and assertive side during this rewritten tour. Now, on with the story, everyone!
"Where are we going next, Mr. Wonka?" Chris asked.
"Well normally," Mr. Wonka answered, turning towards Chris and Jenna, "we'd take the boat on the chocolate river in order to get to our next destination, but for this tour, we've decided to try something different."
"Oooo," gasped Chris and Jenna at the same time. "What is it?"
Right after they said this, Mr. Wonka took out a camo-colored remote with a black button on it. Then, facing towards an area far away in the Chocolate Room, he pressed the button. The children and their guardians watched as two large trees moved out of the way, revealing a door that looked like a safe, with a vault-like, circular lock. The door turned by itself, unlocking on its own, and it opened up, revealing a military tank that was painted in all the colors of the rainbow. Its large caterpillar tracks moved slowly towards the group, and the various guns on it, especially the main cannon jutting out the front, shone in the light of the room.
"Ohhhh, a military tank!" Antonio Ricci said, interested. "Now that's something for me!"
"You're one-hundred percent correct!" Charlie beamed. "But unlike normal military tanks, this one shoots out Gobstoppers and Exploding Candy out of its main cannon, while the secondary cannons shoot out candies like our Stickjaw for Talkative Parents, to put enemies in a truly sticky situation!"
"All aboard, everyone!" Mr. Wonka exclaimed, walking by the tank and pulling down a bunch of portable steps so that the group could enter inside through the top of it. One by one, the group did so, starting with Antonio, and Mr. Wonka and Charlie entered through a special hatch next to the one the group went through, in order to access the controls.
"Hehe, this is awesome!" Tyler Smith chuckled, whispering to his mother. "With this, we can destroy everything in our path!"
As if on cue, Charlie's voice was heard talking through a PA system in the passenger area of the tank.
"Welcome to the WonkaWar Tank!" Charlie's voice proclaimed. "Not only will this tank function as a transportation method to our next destination, it will also be a game of sorts!"
"A game?" Mindy questioned. "I'm the best at games! I will win this!"
"Correct," Mr. Wonka's voice boomed, as if he had heard Mindy. "If you look in front of you, you will see a joystick with a red button on it. The joystick will control your respective cannon, and the button fires it."
Everyone looked, and they did indeed see a joystick built into the seats in front of them. Each one of them were made out of black metal with a red button on top of the stick. They resembled old-fashioned video game controllers, and everyone in the group took the time to maneuver the sticks to get used to them.
"Let's do it now," Tyler smirked, "and pull the biggest prank of all time, that'll blow this whole room to bits!"
"I heard that, Tyler!" Charlie Bucket's voice boomed through the PA, shocking the boy and his mother. "About that, the tank's firing has been crafted to only work in designated areas. The aim of the game is to shoot the most targets as we go through our ride, and whoever gets the most points at the end will be the winner. If you look just below the joystick, you will see there is an electronic scoreboard below each of them in order to keep track of how many points you have. Just so you know, me and Mr. Wonka will also be taking part in order to create more competition."
Following the chocolatier's instructions, the group looked right below the joysticks, where they could see small LED screens with red lights that were currently turned off.
"This is going to be the best part of the tour for me so far!" Daniel exclaimed, getting himself all worked up. "I love shooters, so I'll definitely win this!"
"We'll see about that," Mindy Bell smirked, turning to face Daniel. "You're talking about the number-one winner here after all."
"You're on," Daniel grinned as the two gripped their joysticks. A few seconds later, the tank began to move throughout the Chocolate Room. A giant television was next to the PA, and it was through this that the group could see what was going on. As the tank was approaching the other end of the room, everyone could see two more trees moving out of the way, along with a second, vault-like door that was unlocking itself to make room for the large vehicle.
"You ready for this?" Jenna grinned at Chris, gripping her joystick.
"Ready," Chris grinned back.
As they travelled through the strange door, on the television the group could see a grey room that resembled a top-secret government facility. Desks, papers, and safes were everywhere in this area, and Oompa-Loompas, both male and female, were wearing lab coats, peering into microscopes, and writing papers. As the tank was passing through, several Oompa-Loompas waved at the group, and Charlie and Mr. Wonka waved back. The group approached an arch, where the tank suddenly turned to the left, then stopped. The group watched the television, where they saw a television in itself, and a man wearing a camo army uniform was saluting and talking on it.
"Alright, soldiers!" the man ordered. "The enemy has begun to overtake us, and you're our only hope! Be sure to fire those candies at the enemy soldiers to take 'em down! Good luck!"
The tank resumed moving onwards, then went around a curve. Through the television, the group saw that they were in a room that resembled a war-zone. Metal shrapnels (actually polished rock candy) were spread through the room, and brown rock candy boulders were also inside it to imitate destroyed buildings. The ride began to get bumpy, but everyone in the tank, including Mr. Wonka and Charlie, still gripped on to their joysticks, ready to fire. A few seconds later, metal cutouts of army soldiers wearing brown and yellow uniforms began to pop out, and they had red targets with white rings on their chests.
"Now!" everyone in the tank shouted at once, firing ammo at the metal cutouts as they got hit, then retracted back into their spot. Loud noises were heard as the group could hear the tap of the Gobstoppers, the boom of the Exploding Candy, and the squish of the Stickjaw for Talkative Parents.
"Yeah!" Daniel Sparkman cheered, putting his hands up in the air in excitement. "There's actually something fun in this factory!"
"I'm glad you think so, son," Mr. Sparkman smiled back at his son and patted his shoulders.
The tank began to ride straight once again, then go through another arch in the wall. This room resembled a jungle, with lemonade rivers, thick overgrowth, and even the occasional rainbow parrot flying around. The group could see large rocks, this time colored grey, and they aimed their cannons at it, knowing what was going to come up.
Just as everyone expected, various soldier cutouts, this time wearing plant-colored uniforms in order to blend in with the environment, popped out from behind the rocks as everyone held their joysticks eagerly and began pressing down on their controller. Laughter, disappointed groans, and cheering were heard as the tank began to travel over a bridge, then turn left through more overgrowth, where tons more soldiers were waiting. These ones, however, began to fire candy back at the tank!
"Now this is more like it!" Daniel smirked. "Take that!"
"Fire in the hole!" Antonio Ricci shouted happily. "Nobody can beat me when it comes to military knowledge!"
"You sure about that, Skydiver Boy?" Daniel Sparkman grinned.
"I'll beat you to a pulp, Daniel!" Antonio Ricci smiled as blasts were heard coming from all around them.
"Not unless I do it first!" Daniel smirked.
"I'll beat both of you!" Mindy exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear. Everyone was having so much fun that they didn't see Tyler Smith and Kitsune Kobayashi plotting right next to them.
"Hehehe," Tyler Smith chuckled. "While all those dummies are distracted by Wonka's game, we'll pull off the biggest prank of all time!"
"And what would that be, my sweet?" Kitsune asked, then Tyler began whispering into her ear, and her smile began to grow larger and larger. Once he was done, Kitsune chuckled and said, "Why, Tyler! That's a great idea! Let's do it now!"
"You can place me on your shoulders," Tyler whispered, "and then once I get on the top of this blasted thing, I'll pull you up. Sounds good, Mother?"
"Fine with me," Kitsune whispered back. A few seconds later, Tyler climbed on his seat, then used the extra height to climb on Kitsune's shoulders in order to reach the hatch.
"Dang it," Tyler whispered. "It's locked."
"Try using one of your signature Silent Scorchers," Kitsune whispered back to her son. "That way, none of those people will hear us as we're escaping."
"Great idea, Mother!" Tyler whispered, unzipping his backpack. He took out an object that looked like a white smoke bomb, but this one had the outline of a white skull on it. Kitsune took out her lighter from her kimono and lit it. Hurriedly, Tyler stuffed the Silent Scorcher inside the hatch, and it opened with no problem.
"Yes!" Tyler whispered triumphantly, pumping a fist into the air and climbing on top of the tank. After he did so, he reached his hand down for his mother to grab.
Chris and Jenna were playing happily together, and suddenly, Chris looked to his right to check on Jenna, and he saw Tyler and Kitsune escaping the tank.
"Jenna, look!" Chris exclaimed, pointing to Kitsune, who by now was on top of the tank. Chris' shouting caught the attention of the rest of the group, who in turn followed the boy's gaze.
"Hey!" Daniel Sparkman cried. "Come back here!"
"Haha!" Tyler laughed, poking his head down and blowing a raspberry at his rival.
"What do we do now?!" Jenna cried, fear overtaking her voice. Panicking, Chris ran to the wall separating them and Charlie and Mr. Wonka and began to bang on it.
"Charlie!" Chris screamed, banging as loud as he possibly could. "Mr. Wonka! Help!"
"What's going on?" Mr. Wonka's voice boomed through the PA. "Relay us the situation, Chris, and we'll take care of it."
"Tyler and Kitsune have escaped the tank!" Chris announced. "I repeat, Tyler and Kitsune have escaped the tank!"
"Oh boy," Charlie sweated in the control room, looking at Mr. Wonka. "What do we do now?"
"Who knows what those crazy maniacs have up their sleeves," Mr. Wonka said, and he jumped in his seat. Tyler's face was now visible in the camera, and he was dropping a handful of smoke bombs in the main cannon! In a panic, Charlie accidentally fired it off, and a gigantic cloud of smoke began to cover the area.
"Help!" Mr. Wonka cried. "I can't see! We're gonna crash!"
Mr. Wonka grabbed the steering wheel that controlled the tank and swerved it to the left as much as he could. A few seconds later, the smoke began to clear, and to everyone's surprise, they were still on the path. However, Tyler had one more trick up his sleeve.
"Good-bye, suckers!" he laughed as he took out another item from his backpack. It was one of his time bombs, and he dropped it into the main cannon with no regret as he and Kitsune continued laughing more and more maniacally as time went on. Then, they jumped off the tank, and ran ahead to the next area, leaving everyone to die.
Author's Note: WOAH! What's gonna happen now?! Will Tyler and Kitsune succeed in pulling off the ultimate prank?! All I can say is, you'll find out in the next chapter! Feel free to review and leave your thoughts, and stay tuned for the next chapter, everyone! :O
Fun fact, the rainbow tank is a revival of a scrapped idea from "Next in Line", where the group would've rode on it instead of a raft that they travelled down in the chocolate river in the final story. Matt told me while I was gathering ideas that he now regrets scrapping it for the raft, so I decided to revive it here. I hope you enjoyed reading about it so far, Matt, and you'll find out the conclusion to this cliffhanger soon!
Until then,
Gabe S. :)
