Chapter 12 – Road Trip
It didn't take long for Bebop and Rocksteady to carry everyone back down to the base of the hill, with Rocksteady running down whilst carrying Scanty and Kneesocks on his shoulders and holding onto the back of Foxy's coat like a garbage bag, all the while Bebop glided down the energy lines from his boots whilst carrying Chi Bridal style.
"Where is that little rat!?" Scanty shrieked, jumping down from Rocksteady's shoulders after reaching the base of the hill. "I'm gonna ring his worthless neck!"
Instantly reacting to the demon's question, Bebop quickly started to sniff the air and scan the area with his visor, it didn't take long for him to pick up on G's thermal signature as he as and the rest of his group hid behind a nearby car.
"There he is!" Bebop yelled, pointing towards the car, issuing Rocksteady to charge.
"RUN!" G screamed after peering over the hood of the car to see the oncoming rampage.
The group was barely lucky to escape Rocksteady's assault as they ducked out of the way in time for the rhino mutant to ram into the car and send it flying into someone's roof. Soon enough the chase began, the group didn't even care about the growing amount of witnesses anymore as they continued to run through the suburbs, trying desperately to escape to perusing villains. However Bebop had an advantage in speed as he used his energy boots to glide over the group and jump in front of Laura.
"Well Hell-oh Foxy!" he chuckled, licking his chops in a seductive manner, causing Laura to cringe with horror.
Luckily, the Keidran was saved by the sudden interference of a certain Gizmonk.
"Hey, back off bacon-breath!" he yelled, before jumping in between them and pulling something out of his vest.
The object in question was in fact a small metal cylinder that instantly opened up into a long Bo-staff, a tool which allowed Googles to jump up and deliver a quick blow to Bebop's head, now normally such an attack would have no effect on the mutant but being the inventor her was, Goggles always made sure to put a Taser at the end of his staff. The second the metal hit Bebop's skin he was instantly shocked with several volts of electricity and collapsed to the floor. Sighing with relief, Laura continued to run and catch up with the group, Goggles running closely by her feet. Needless to say no one knew how they were all going to keep up like this much longer, not only were they all quickly getting tired from dodging Scanty and Chi's bullet's but narrowly dodging Foxy's Slow-Slow Beam wasn't making things easier. After turning a corner, the group were finally able to catch their breath if only for a brief moment as the villains ran past them after they hid behind a car.
"What do we do now!?" Laura asked fearfully.
That was indeed a good question, no one is going to be able to run forever and those villains aren't going to give up so easily. Quickly scanning the area, G saw a ray of hope literally came zooming down the suburban road, not even thinking twice about what he had in mind, he then ran out of hiding and jumped in front of the oncoming van. Thankfully he wasn't too short for the driver to quickly hit the brakes and come to a stop only a few inches from his nose, not wasting any more time than he needed to, G then ran around the van and forcibly opened the driver's door.
"Hello!" he said merrily as he grabbed the leather-clad teenage human by the scruff of his t-shirt. "Goodbye!"
Before anyone else could even protest, G then yanked the teenager out of the van and threw him into a nearby shrub, after which the boy simply screamed in fear and began running down the street, leaving his van in G's possession. Despite their fear of the current situation, the group was quite shocked at what G had just done.
"You can't just steal someone's…" Goggles tried to say, before G cut him off.
"Lecture me after we get out of here!" he snapped, opening up the side door. "Now everyone, get in the bloody van!"
Not even bothering to argue, everyone quickly clambered up into the van, and from first glance everyone could tell that whoever owned it certainly had style. While the outer paint-job consisted of a purple base with an orange flame pattern on the front, the entire interior was lined with green carpet, dirtied from age. However no one had time to admire the décor of the van since time was now of the essence, once everyone was in, with Edward in front and everyone else in the back, G quickly took the driver's seat, only to run into another problem.
"Damn these short legs!" he snapped, trying desperately to stretch his foot towards the gas. "Goggles I need someone on the pedals!"
Giving a small salute, Goggle quickly obliged and jumped from the back and towards G's feet, he may not have been familiar with the mechanics of the vehicle, but it wasn't too difficult for someone as smart as him. Once G finally managed to start up the van, there soon was another noise in the air.
"Freakshow dead ahead!" Bebop yelled, finally recovered from his shock and seeing everyone through his heat-seeking visor.
Not even having time to thing, only two words escaped G's mouth.
"FLOOR IT!" he screamed.
Following the command, Goggles leaned all his weight onto a single peddle and the van sped off down the street with G at the wheel. Needless to say it was a rough ride for everyone, it was only lucky that Edward was in front otherwise someone would have been skewered on his fingers by now, but terrible driving aside G seemed to have the advantage against the villains who continued to chase them.
"SLOW-SLOW BEAM!" Foxy cried, firing his Devil Fruit Power at the van as he rode on Rocksteady's back.
However even though Foxy's plan was brilliant, especially with how fast Rocksteady's rhino legs were, neither one of them counted for the reflective surface of the van, which easily reflected Foxy's beam directly back, causing both him and Rocksteady to instantly slow down. An event that Edward easily spotted in the rear-view mirror.
"Who is that?" he asked curiously.
"They don't like me," G responded.
It wasn't much of an answer but that was all G was saying at this point. Suddenly everyone heard a loud thud in front of them, after which Bebop revealed himself as he turned visible on the hood of the van.
"What up!" he yelled as he desperately clung onto the van's mirror.
"Who is that!?" Laura squealed fearfully, remembering the pig mutant from before.
"He doesn't like me either!" G snapped as he rolled down the window, leaned out and bit down on Bebop's hand.
Screaming in pain, Bebop let go of the mirror and lost his only anchor, within moments he slid off the hood and rolled down the street, in agony but still very much alive. Witnessing all of this from a few houses down, Scanty finally screamed in fury and started shooting her revolvers at that van, hitting the doors and causing several dents from the other side.
"WHO IS THAT!?" Nyx screamed, almost at the verge of tears at this point.
However that was when G's temper reached boiling point.
"LET'S JUST ASUME FOR THE MOMENT THAT EVERYONE OUTSIDE OF THIS VAN DOESN'T LIKE ME!" he yelled.
But screaming aside, the chase continued, the villains may have had trouble keeping up with the van but their efforts never wavered, and neither did G's cray driving as he avoided both villains and pedestrians. Finally he had enough, whatever G had to do, he needed to do it now.
"Everyone say ah!" he said calmly as he eyes shone a brilliants white, every luminous part of his body glowing more violently than ever.
No one else might have known what was going on, but regardless they all watched in awe as sparks of light blue energy pulsated out of G's body, through his hands and into the van itself, within moments the entire vehicle became electrified. However as wondrous as the moment was, the fact of the matter was that whatever G was doing only made the van go faster… right towards a brick wall.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" everyone screamed as the wall drew closer and closer.
Suddenly the amazing happened, within seconds to impacting with the wall, the blue energy surrounding the van glowed more violently than ever and another crack appeared in front of it. However unlike the previous crack, this one emanated a light blue glow like G's area and gave of a faint electrical charge. In a matter of seconds the van zoomed into it and disappeared in a flash of light, once the villains were finally able to open their eyes, both the van and the crack has disappeared, leaving all of their jaws hanging.
"Okay, I'm not gonna lie," Bebop said, finally breaking the silence. "THAT was frigging awesome!"
However that only earned him a double punch in the head by Scanty and Kneesocks.
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In a field of grass somewhere else across the multiverse of creation the very same blue crack appeared out of nowhere and the large purple van flew out of it, skidding for a few feet before finally screeching to stop, leaving its passengers clinging to their seats in fright. However while everyone else was still reeling from what had just happened, G couldn't help but laugh, much to everyone's distain.
"I… I can't believe that actually worked," he chuckled. "Everyone okay?"
However G was only met with several groans of annoyance and a few hard strikes from Lug's fists
"YOU CRAZY FOOL!" he yelled, Mossy and Spud desperately trying to hold him back as he continued to lash out at G. "YOU COULD HAVE KILLED US!"
"Will you please stop hitting me!?" G retorted. "It was a spur of the moment thing okay!?"
It wasn't much of an excuse, but it was at least enough to make Lug stop attacking him. Now that everyone was finally able to take a moment to calm down, the atmosphere inside the van seemed to ease a bit.
"Who were those guys anyway?" Goggles asked, still resting down on the brake pedal.
"Villains," G responded bluntly. "And one of them was that Pirate Captain I told you about. They must have figured out how my portals work after they got sucked into my realm."
"But why were they trying to kill us?" Mossy asked fearfully, not expecting to hear a good answer.
G sighed at that.
"Well they probably wanted to kill ME to make sure they kept the new power they possess," he said hesitantly. "…that and I may have pissed them off when you guys were in the tunnels."
At those words G was met with another series of groans.
"Of course you did," Lug commented sarcastically.
"Hey, we're alive aren't we!?" G retorted. "It's not like I asked for this, you know!"
The others sighed at that, G did bring up a good point, heck if anything they at least shared in that department.
"So… are we safe now?" Laura asked nervously, peering over Edward's shoulder to look at the new world through the front window of the van.
"I think so," G sighed. "Although I can't be too sure until I sniff around the place, and I can't do so while stuck in here, this entire van stinks of Whisky and B.O."
That was indeed true, now that everyone had a chance to get over the adrenaline still coursing through them, they all noticed the rancid smell that lingered inside the van, of course G was too surprised, after all he did just steal the van from a teenager in leather, the guy probably LIVED in this van every now and then, that fact being evident with the blankets and the whisky bottles in the back. G was just about to open the door and step outside, when all of a sudden Edward grabbed him by his metal arm.
"Something the matter Edward?" he asked, raising an eyebrow as he noticed the fearful expression on Edward's face.
"S…scary dog," Edward whimpered, before pointing a scissor-blade finger at G's window.
At first nobody knew what Edward was talking about, however that was when they all heard heavy breathing from outside the van. Turning their heads towards G's side window, they're eyes shot wide as they saw what was leaving heavy breaths of steam on the glass as it growled at them from the other side. It was a large, wolf-life creature, with grey matted fur, cold black eyes, and a small muzzled filled with razor sharp teeth completely douses with drool, a creature that was simply known as a…
"WARG!" G shrieked, the beast roaring with savagery as everyone else screamed in terror.
"Drive! Drive! DRIVE!" Lug yelled amongst the screams.
Not needing to be told twice, Goggles then once again slammed all of his weight onto the gas pedal, literally putting in to the metal as the van quickly zoomed across the plains at high speed, the warg quickly following as it tried to hunt its prey.
"Oh man, where the hell is Sherlock Holmes when you need him!?" g yelled fearfully as he tried desperately to keep the van in control as Goggles continued to keep his weight on the pedal.
The van may have had plenty of speed going for it, but unfortunately the Warg was practically bred for speed and was easily keeping up with the van, for a few brief moments it even managed to jump onto the back door and dig its claws into it before slipping off again. The chase carried on for several minutes until finally another problem popped up, in the form of a sheer drop only a few yards away, clenching his hands against the steering wheel, only one word escaped G's mouth.
"BREAK!"
Normally Goggles would have protested to such a thing since he couldn't really see anything from where he was, but thankfully he reacted on impulse and obeyed G's command, taking his weight off the gas and switching to the break. As the van skidded closer and closer towards the cliff, everyone inside prepared for the end, thankfully the van stopped before it could even reach three feet from the edge. However the Warg wasn't so lucky, with too much momentum build up, the beast couldn't stop in time and slid through the mud, past the driver's side of the van and over the cliff, plunging into the rock-filled river below. Needless to say, everyone inside the van couldn't help but feel relived, though all of them were definitely not able to take so much stress in the span of just one afternoon. After taking a moment to absorb everything that had just happened, everyone then finally clambered out of the van, some of which ever peered of the edge of the cliff just to makes sure the danger is really gone.
"That was WAY too close," Goggles gulped, looking over the sheer height of the drop.
"Where in heaven's name have you taken us, lad?" Mossy asked, clutching his chest with heavy breaths.
It was then that G closed his eyes and stuck his nose up into the air and took a few deep breaths through his nostrils, after a few sniffs, G's eyes opened up and narrowed with determination.
"By the smell of it, I'd say we're in a place called Middle-Earth," he said, much to everyone's curiosity. "Not exactly fields of flowers and butterflies, but at least we're safe for now."
Lug growled angrily at that.
"Oh and what about that wolf… thing!?" he demanded.
At those words G couldn't help but sigh and pinched the bridge of his beak, of course there was going to be questions like this, he probably should expect such questions every time he creates a new jump with these people. Still that didn't mean he enjoyed being an encyclopaedia.
"It's called a Warg," he said, before quickly looking down the cliff and correcting himself."…WAS called a Warg, not a common thing to see in these parts most of the time. Heck, you almost NEVER see one on its own, not without a pack or a rider. That one must have been a rogue or something."
"People actually RIDE those things!?" Laura gasped, cringing at the very thought of such an idea.
"Not the kind of people you'd ever want to meet," G replied with a shrug.
Nobody could understand how G was so calm about all of this, for the past hour alone they had been chased, shot at and hunted by a ferocious beast and the aftermath didn't seem to be phasing him in the slightest. Noticing this Lug narrowed his eyes and spoke again.
"Okay here's another question," he said. "Why did ya bring us here in the first place?"
That question seemed to have hit a nerve since that was when G started snapping back again.
"Well excuse me if I was a little panicked at the time of departure!" he said. "Besides, when I created the crack, my first thought was to find more dimensional refugees, and judging from the smell in the air, they aren't that far away if we continue to drive."
However that statement was only met with more gasps of fear.
"No way!" Goggles exclaimed. "I am NOT getting back into that thing again!"
The feeling was mutual amongst the others at this point, there was no love for G's crazy driving, and certainly no need for any more of it. However G new exactly what to say for this sort of situation.
"Fine," he said, trying not to look smug as he spoke. "We can always walk and get picked off by the Warg's friends, if there's one then there's bound to be more."
As expected everyone's eyes grew wide upon hearing that, he didn't like scaring the group but at this point he had no choice.
"I'll be in the van," Goggles replied quickly before dashing back towards the vehicle.
"Aye," Mossy added, following suit.
"Me too," Lug agreed, doing the same.
Before long everyone had taken up their seats in the van again, ready to set off into the unknown.
"So where are we heading, lad?" Spud asked curiously.
At those words, G opened up his window and stuck his head out to sniff the air again, trying to find the right direction of the other lost characters. After about a minute he smiled as caught the scent in the air.
"Westward," he said, pointing towards his left. "That way, the scent is faint but it's still clear enough to know where we're going."
"You think we can make it that far?" Nyx asked, unsure if she really wanted to hear the answer.
However those words only made G's smile grow wider.
"Sweetheart," he said, pulling out a pair of sunglasses out of his vest and putting them on. "You underestimate me."
And with that final word, G put the van into reverse and he and Goggles drove it away from the cliff and turned towards the west. Nobody knew where they were going, but for the moment all anyone could do now was to trust in G's leadership.
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Author's Notes:
The Character Nyx belongs to Pen Stroke / :iconPenstrokepony:
The Character Laura belongs to :icontwokinds:
The Characters Chi and Mimi belong to :iconbleedman: