Alright, back again. Started redoing some older stories, so I'll be updating the schedule in my profile off and on.
Well, let's get started.
Chapter 12: It's Getting Boring By The Sea
"Leave your past at the front door and
Run away like you did before
Blisters
Blisters
Blisters
Let's consider a change of scenery
It's getting boring by the sea
Pictures
Pictures
Pictures"
- Blood Red Shoes
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"Are we really doing this?" he asked, tightening the helmet around his head.
"Aww," Caroline replied, clicking the buckle for her own helmet together, "Is Mordy too serious to overcome his midlife crisis?"
"No, but I don't think Lazer Tag is going to solve that…"
"Every journey starts with a single laser blast to the face. And don't think I'm going to take it easy on you."
Mordecai shook his head, "We'll see who takes it easy on who."
After sliding on their colored vests, they walked out of the locker room and joined the group that was waiting for the instructions.
"Alright," the bored looking referee began, "This is a Capture The Flag match, so after the signal you may leave your base and work toward capturing the enemy's flag. There are better blasters and power-ups hidden throughout the course. Does everyone understand?"
None of the group said anything, so he continued.
"Okay, it's cold on the course, so I'm not going in there. Try not to kill each other, and first team to get the others flag wins."
Pushing the button to activate the vests, he yawned and walked toward the employee lounge. After glancing at each other, the players ran into the course and started toward their bases.
"You're going down, red team!" Caroline shouted as they split down the trail.
"Get ready to eat those words, blues!"
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Lyle was gripping the door and shouting something that he couldn't hear over the screaming engine. Ignoring him, Martin ripped up on the parking brake and cut the wheel, making the rear end slide as he went into the S turn.
As it began to lose control, he slammed on the throttle and opposite locked to keep the drift going. With a mixture of heel and toe control as well as sudden jerks on the hand brake, the car held it's slide through the entire corner.
Instead of correcting and preparing for the next corner, the car held it's trajectory and sent them toward the mass of trees that littered the back roads.
"Either slow down or floor it," Lyle shouted, "If we're gonna crash I don't want to feel it."
Martin figured he scared him enough and jerked the wheel into the other direction while slamming on the throttle.
Using the inertia of the first drift to swing the rear end in the opposite direction, they entered the second turn and slid along the road.
Once the car straightened out, Lyle sighed and shook his head, "I thought you were going to do something stupid."
Shifting into third, he punched the throttle all the way, making the powerful engine roar as the tires struggled the keep from breaking loose.
"You know, there's a turn coming up."
He shifted into fourth.
"The turn's right here."
Fifth.
"It's right there!"
Sixth.
Lyle tightened his seatbelt and closed his eyes, afraid he'd glance over and see the speedometer.
Martin slammed on the brakes and cut the wheel earlier than he should have. The car plunged to the left side of the road and the front, driver side tire dropped into the trench that was dug along the road. Again increasing the throttle, the car launched forward and followed the angle of the road. Lyle opened his eyes and seen they were gripping the road better than they should have been.
Once out of the trench, he kept the speed under the limit and followed the rest of the road normally.
"Do you want to explain that?"
Martin shrugged, "I seen that in a TV show. Never thought it'd work."
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Mordecai's team was useless.
As soon as the signal was given, half of them ran for the trails leading to the enemy base while the other half stayed behind, not sure of what to do.
"Alright," he said, using his prior knowledge of the course to formulate a plan, "The idiots started rushing to get the flag. That's good, because they'll be keeping them busy. You two will stay here and guard the flag."
The kids blinked and looked at each other.
"This is our first time playing here, we don't have the skill that the other team does!"
The other one nodded, "They're here everyday, they know the locations of the best weapons."
Mordecai shook his head, "I'm sure they don't know the one I have planned."
He looked to the platform they stood on, thankful they hadn't changed anything. He began stacking boxes in front of the base the flag hung from.
"Okay, what you're going to do is stay behind these boxes and shoot anyone that tries to come around them."
"Anyone?"
Mordecai nodded, crouching down and looking to the right, satisfied that it provided enough cover from the sniper spot in case they did find out about it.
"Other than the girl on the other team, I think you could take any of them that come directly to the base. Once you tag them out, they'll have to return to their base and It'll be awhile before their weapons reactivate."
They nodded and followed his instructions.
As he started to walk away he glanced back and couldn't see them in their hiding place.
Weaving through the artificial trees and bushes, he stumbled over something and turned around to see Caroline laying on the ground.
Not sure if it was a tactic or legitimate injury, he nudged her with his blaster.
"Are you dead?"
Amid the groaning she rolled over, "Running… to base… tripped…"
"Oh, alright then." Mordecai said as he raised his blaster and fired twice, her vest flashing and making ringing noises.
"Jerk," she mumbled as she began crawling back to her own base.
Crouching beside what he was sure was a plastic fern, he seen the entrance. With no sign of the enemy, he sprinted across the clearing and climbed up the hidden stairway, finding himself in what was essentially a tree house. Picking up the plastic sniper rifle, he flipped the switch and found the batteries were dead. Seeing as this was a secret spot he wasn't too surprised.
Hearing simulated gunfire, he swapped the batteries from the starter blaster into the rifle, trading the fast fire rate for the instant kill of the stronger beam it fired.
The fake scope not showing him anything, he jumped from the tree and headed toward the enemy base.
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Benson looked over the progress they'd made. With the daily work finished, nearly everyone volunteered to stay and help with the arrangements for the picnic.
The tables were nearly clean, the grill was taken from the garage and checked before being cleaned, the soccer field was cleaned, other than Muscle Man getting tangled in the nets for the volleyball tournament, everything was going great.
"Fives, how's it looking with those nets?"
"It wouldn't be an issue if he'd quit thrashing around," he answered from the side of the field, "Dude, knock it off!"
Still tangled in the nets, Muscle Man was squealing and rolling back and forth, "No! I'm drowning!"
"He's having Crab-Hut flashbacks!"
Benson began searching the pages of the clip board, "Cut him out of it if you have to, we'll just get a new one."
"Roger!"
Finding a box cutter in the box with the poles for the base of the net, he began cutting the strands farthest from him.
"No! Keep the harpoon away!" Muscle Man shouted and lurched to his feet.
"Get back here!" he yelled as he began to chase after him.
Benson looked up from the board and seen them running across the field, "Now what's going on?!"
"It looks like he thinks Fives is a whaler trying to kidnap him," Thomas answered, taking a break from scrubbing tables.
"They want my blubber!" Muscle Man shouted amid fits of squealing.
"Maybe a volleyball tournament wasn't such a good idea."
Thomas nodded, "The weather's a little too cold for volleyball. Probably a week or two left of summer."
Benson sighed, "Maybe we should think of something else to do. We haven't got a lot of people to visit the park the last couple picnics, so whatever we decide has to be a crowd pleaser."
"I'll leave that to you," Thomas said, starting toward the other end of the field, "For now, I'll try to get Muscle Man back in the real world."
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"Stop camping, noobs!" a blue team member yelled from behind their wall of boxes.
One of the members of the red team leaned out from their cover and began firing, "It's a legitimate strategy!"
Mordecai rushed through the bushes and tapped on their shoulders.
Screaming from the surprise of someone appearing behind them, they spun and began firing. Mordecai sighed, thankful friendly fire wasn't enabled for this match.
"What're you guys doing?!"
"We're trying to get the flag!" one yelled while firing over their cover.
Mordecai took a deep breath, struggling to keep from yelling, "But why are you just sitting here?"
"Because," he said, leaning forward to look at the base, "We can't get a shot on their guards."
"They're out of range, but you don't need to kill them to get the flag."
"So, you think you can do better?" one said while looking to the other.
They both stood up and let themselves get shot.
They began taking off their helmets and vests while they walked back to the locker rooms, "Let's hit the food court."
"Get back here, jerks!" he yelled but they didn't listen.
Now on his own, he assessed the condition of their base. The boxes were pushed against the railing for cover, and he could see the two guards peeking over.
"Caroline should still be out for another minute, so I have to hurry and hope they could handle our flag."
He usually had more competent team members to enact this strategy, but now he was alone against the entire blue team.
"Could've at least left me their blasters," he mumbled as he moved into position on the far right of the base.
Firing several shots, he ducked back into cover and ran to the left side.
"Over here!" he heard them yell as they ran and started to return fire.
Sprinting across the clearing, he crouched near the wall off the base and held the rifle over the edge. Firing several more shots, he followed the wall around and waited.
"Over here, now! It's closer!"
Hearing them begin to fire, he climbed over the edge and shot both of them while their backs were turned.
"No way!"
"I guess this isn't your…" he said as he grabbed the flag from the pole, "Flag day."
"Dude, I hope you weren't proud of that. That was lame, like you."
"Well, I have the flag." he said as he jumped off the base and began running toward his own, "Ooooooh!"
He stopped when his phone began to ring. Pulling it from his pocket caused his vest to malfunction and think he'd been tagged.
"No way!"
Sighing to keep from yelling some unflattering words, he dropped the flag and answered the call.
"Mordy," the voice on the other line said, "We're heading back to the truck, so meet there when you're ready."
"Alright, shouldn't be much longer."
He could hear the voice become more distant and shout something before the line disconnected. He shrugged and went to return the phone to his pocket when an idea hit him. He grinned and continued back to the base.
"Hey!"
One of the two guarding the flag peeked over the box and seen him walking back, "What's going on?"
Mordecai motioned toward the path he came from, "I got tagged, but the flag is literally ten feet down that trail, hurry and grab it before they get it!"
Nodding, one of them jumped down and started running.
Quickly dialing a number, Mordecai hit the send button and held the phone to his ear.
[][][]
Caroline walked down the trail but jumped into cover when she seen the enemy running toward the flag.
Making sure her blaster was turned on, he held it in front of her and prepared to take him out. Her pocket began to play music and she quickly pulled her phone out and read the 'Call from Mordecai' notice.
Her vest began to malfunction the same as his did and read she had been tagged.
"You've got to be kidding me!" she yelled.
Mordecai grinned and ended the call.
[][][]
"We'll get you next time you don't plan on cheating," she said while they walked across the parking lot, still angry about the trick he played.
Trying not to burst into laughter, he swung his bags toward her, "Come on, you're just being a sore loser."
"No, I'm sore because I fell face first into a fake tree."
"That's not my fault," he began, hesitating when he seen his sister messing with something on the front of the truck.
"I wonder what they're doing."
Mordecai sighed, "Probably something stupid."
"As apposed to something smart?"
He laughed, "That'd be too much to hope for."
"So," she began, waiting for the joke to pass, "When are you leaving?"
"Probably tomorrow morning," he said, looking at the sky while they walked, "I don't know how much longer I can stand being around here."
"Well," she said, pretending to be offended.
He shook his head, "You know what I meant."
"All too well."
"What're you doing to the truck?"
They all jumped and turned when they reached the parking spot.
"Well," Farrah began, deciding it'd be worse to hide it from him now that he seen them, "I decided to buy a car mount for a camera, so I thought it'd be best to try it out and make sure it works."
He sighed, "This is about 'Forever', isn't it?"
"Psh, of course not! What're you talking about? Okay, maybe a little bit. I just need a short clip of some highway driving to make a trailer of it for a school project."
"What's forever?" Caroline asked, this being the first time she heard of it.
"It's a movie she's been writing for the past couple years."
"It's not a movie. It's a love story about a fictional team of street racers trying to destroy an underground crime ring."
"Sounds like a movie to me."
"Come on, Mordy, we just need to film a little bit!"
The girls all began pleading, begging him to let them film the drive home.
Eventually giving in, they quickly piled into the truck.
"If mom finds out about this, I'm driving back here and destroying that camera."
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Not even a minute after Mordecai dropped off the CD, Martin quickly put it into the computer.
Decrypting vehicle onboard diagnostics (OBD0)
The computer screen flashed while a line of code began scrolling across the screen.
Finished.
He scrolled through data the CD copied from the Black Tear's computer and he knew instantly that it was the same truck. The programming from the Mad Doctor was easy to recognize.
He began laughing, starting slowly and branching into full blown hysteria, the walls of the garage echoing his shouts and making them amplify.
With a sore throat, he turned and looked at the nearly finished car, yesterday's drive proving that everything was finished mechanically.
"Just a little bit more and we'll be ready," he said, talking to the car that was lifted off the ground on the pneumatic lift.
"If he's running the MD's computer, then so will we."
Alright, wrapped up everything I wanted to. This was originally supposed to be an intermission for another story, but I rewrote it to work here so it would help speed things up a little.
Thanks for reading.