I was only trying to help, you know.
He didn't have to go stomping off like that.
Oh well, I guess that's what happens when your best friend throws a book that weighs heavier than you do into your stomach. You catch the grumps.
…but then again, Brandon's always grumpy, so I also guess his mood shouldn't have surprised me. That's what I tell myself anyways, as I slide into the hammock in my pad, and pull the seashell rope hanging from the ceiling. The floor from under the hammock opens up and lowers me down, like I'm a baby in a stork's cloth. Secret elevators INSIDE a secret base! How cool is THAT! Being Red Skull is the best.
I get lowered into the Garage Room, where Gage and Wyatt are already waiting near the Big Screen. I see Gage tapping his foot and looking kinda impatient, until he spots me. I grin at him, and he returns the grin wholeheartedly. It's instinctual for us both. Our town may be in mortal danger, but as long as I've got my best friend, I know things will turn out okay! At least, I know they'll turn out MOSTLY okay. Minimal damage at best, you know?
"Hey man." he says, holding out his hand for a high five, which I gladly return. "What was the holdup?"
"Brandon got crushed by a book.", I reply.
Gage raises his eyebrows.
"Don't worry, though.", I continue. "He's fine."
" 'O Course he is." Wyatt interjects, elbowing me out of the way, "He may be flimsier than a piece 'o trace paper, but it'll take more than Gammy's scrapbook to put that boy outta commission."
"Are you sure about that?"
We all stop at the sound of the raspy old voice. Everyone turns around to see a really tall figure with a white beard and white afro standing right behind us. Wow, I didn't even hear him come in. He's good.
"Heya, Boss!" I say. My grandpa says it's always polite to greet your elders first.
Yep, that's our boss, we call him Larry. That's not his name, but he won't tell what it is, so Larry's what we call him.
"Are y'all ready for this one?" he asks, leaning down and adjusting his tiny glasses to look at us. "It ain't pretty."
"I was BORN ready." Wyatt answers, cracking his knuckles.
"Well, I was born READIER." Gage retorts, cracking his neck.
Ooh, I should say something too. Something cool and heroic, you know?
"-and I'M here too!", I shout as heroically as can.
All three of the people in the room turn to look at me, Wyatt annoyed, Gage slightly disappointed, and Larry mildly confused. …Maybe I should've just kept my mouth shut.
Larry shakes his head and raises an eyebrow at us. I think he might be wondering where Brandon is, but it's hard to tell anything with the Boss. He's completely senile, you know. I, on the other hand, am only half-crazy, so there's only so much I can understand.
"The sooner you boys get on the road, the sooner we can clean up the mess going on out there. Now, where's my fourth kid?", Larry asks.
"I'll text him." Gage says, pulling out his phone.
Wyatt eyebrows seem to ascend above his forehead at this statement. Uh oh. He doesn't seem too happy about that.
"HEY! Since when do YOU git to text my buddy what to do!" he snaps, seemingly offended.
"Uhh, since Wheelie gave me his phone number and told me he desperately needed friends other than YOU." Gage said with a hint of teasing, as he texted.
I can sense this might be a fight if nothing changes, so I slip in between the two guys and smile the best I can.
"C'mon guys, it's just one text. It's not gonna hurt anybody, is it? Also, Wyatt, you CAN'T text remember, you don't know HOW. Gage is doing you a favor.", I say, hopefully disarming the conflict.
Wyatt just grimaces at me, but Gage gives me a wink and hits send.
"Thanks, bro.", he chuckles as he elbows me.
Ok, good. Conflict avoided. I always hate when they argue. It happens ALL THE TIME, but that doesn't make their bickering any easier on the ears...
"All right, listen up Team, because I'm only gonna say this once!" Larry starts. "Hot Wheels City has a pest problem!"
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Wyatt deflate.
"Pests?" he asks, "...like l'il critters? That don' sound very excitin'."
Larry takes a small remote out of his pocket and turns on the Big Screen. A terrifying picture of a creature lights up the room. At first, I can't really tell what it is, but looking again I realize it kinda looks like a shark, but not…
It had metal skin, and vicious buzzsaws where its lower fins should be. All of its teeth were metal too, all about 50 of them. …and the eyes: purple, glowy and ominous. I'd think I was kinda cool looking if it didn't make me feel like wetting my pants.
"AW yeah!" I hear Wyatt yell, happy as can be, "Now that's more like it!"
...and they say I'M the weird one.
"This…" Larry continues, "Is a Robo-Shark. At least that's what I take to calling 'em. Reports say there are hundreds of them out there with a ravenous hunger for anything they can lay their eyes on."
…AND there go my dry pants.
Why did it have to be man-eating robot sharks? Why can't we ever just get giant fluffy bunnies as a Code Purple? I'd LOVE that. -and I could go home without having to explain to my Mom why my trousers are damp all the time.
BAM!
"oof."
At the sudden sound of these noises, everyone turns around to see Brandon, on the floor, sprawled out on his beanbag chair. Ouch! He must've flipped the switch too hard. Let me tell you, I did that once with my rope, NOT a good day. Ended up belly flopping onto a cold, hard, metal floor. Only difference is that I wasn't lucky enough to have a beanbag cushioning my fall. There's a good reason why I don't go to the pool shirtless anymore…
I would ask if the guy's okay, but remembering how that went last time, I keep my lips zipped.
"Brandon!", Wyatt shouts (I don't know why, exactly. He's behind us, not a mile away.) "Git your tail over here! We got some shark-wranglin' to do!"
Larry stops what he's doing to look over us at Brandon. He seems concerned, but like I said before, it's hard to tell with him.
"Hit the switch too hard, son?" he asks.
Surprisingly, Brandon immediately sits up at this. He scratches the back of his head, looking kind of humiliated and nods.
"You injured? Nothing broken or bruised? ", the boss inquires some more.
Brandon responds with a shake of his head.
"Alrighty, then." Larry says, "Back to your mission. Where's my assistant?"
"I'm up here!"
I have to crane what little neck I have to look upward to see that the source of the voice that just responded is Wheelie… on the ceiling?! She's hanging upside down from a ceiling light by her legs, (how she gets up there, I'll never know).
Again, I'M supposed to be the crazy one? That light is like, twenty feet off the ground! Does she have something against ladders?!
"Sorry, boss." she says, seeming flustered. "I heard the alarm, just trying to finish up that list of things you asked me to repair last week."
I look to see the boss' glasses slide all the way down his nose as his eyebrows go upward.
"Child, where's that helmet I told you to wear when you're fixing on my ceiling?" he asks, narrowing his eyes like an old man trying to see something too far away for his old eyes to pick up.
Wheelie, who is definitely not wearing a helmet, doesn't answer at first.
"Um, well- ", she starts.
"She don't need it!", Wyatt interrupts. "Jus' like me! A Dandelion doesn't need safety equipment! We got natural-born skill! She's a chip off the ol' block!"
Weird. I didn't know Wheelie and Wyatt were related. I knew she was GAGE'S cousin, (they used to live in the same house when we were little, good times) but not this. Does that mean GAGE and WYATT are also related? That would explain SO much! …Like why they fight all the time! Or why I've never seen Wyatt's parents before! Or -
"Wyatt, for the quintillionth time, I'm not your real sister!" Wheelie shouts down, seeming slightly annoyed.
Awww, man. I thought I had something there.
For a split second, I think I catch a glimpse of sadness in Wyatt's eyes, but he readjusts the brim of the rugged old cap on his head to hide his face.
"I- I know." he says, kinda too quiet for Wheelie to hear. "I know."
I feel my heart sink for him. Wyatt can be kind of a jerk sometimes, but I know he's a pretty sensitive guy deep down. He's just too scared to show it.
RUMBLE RUMBLE
Oh geez! That was my stomach. I've got the rumblies? Weird. I ate like fifteen minutes ago.
Gage, who is right next to me, jumps at the sound of my tummy. Everyone turns to look at me again (even Wheelie, who is STILL hanging from the CEILING), this time with curiosity in their eyes.
"Whoa, dude." Gage says, slowly backing up a bit, like I'm an old bomb that might blow if he gets too close. "What did you eat this morning?"
RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE
Wait…
RUMBLERUMBLERUMBLE
Oh.
OH.
OH NO.
I completely forgot what happens when Rhett's stomach sounds like that.
Fault's on me, completely. It's happened quite a lot throughout our childhood together, so I should've recognized it on the spot. I wanna chalk it up to my tunnel vision but, let's be real, if you forget your best friend's stomach grumbles can predict the future, you can't really blame anything but yourself.
We call it the Rumble of Doom. Why, you ask? Just watch.
"OH NO!" Rhett yells in sudden distress.
He runs over to the Bossman Larry and starts shaking him around, like a kid in full panic mode. In his defense, that's exactly what he is right now.
"We have to get out of here!" he says, in full crisis mode.
I, still standing near the Big Screen with Wyatt and Brandon, still haven't yet recalled Rhett's Rumble of Doom at this point, but someone else has.
"Oddio!" Wheelie shouts from her hanging place. "Rumble of Doom!"
Her words hit me a little too late.
The lights in the Garage Room go dark. In fact, everything goes dark.
What the… Did the power just go out? We don't have TIME for a blackout right now, the city is in danger! Those Robo-Shark's are probably out there eating half the city away, and we've already wasted enough time waiting for Brandon!
No shade towards Brandon, I just HATE waiting. There are SO any better things to do with my time, so why would I spend it standing around WAITING for something to happen? If you want something, go get it and don't stop for anything! That's my motto. (That and 'It always comes down to speed -and waffles-.' That motto needs, uh, more context to sound as cool as the other one.)
…and right now, I want to stop those (admittedly cool looking) shark robot creatures from destroying our home.
This Garage is literally a secret underground base powered by liquid imagination. How does something like that go out? Surprisingly, through the pitch darkness, I hear Brandon of all people pipe up with the same thought.
"Wha- uh, d-did the power go out?"
I squint through the dark, trying to make my eyes adjust faster. Can't react the way I need to if I can't see where I'm going. Doesn't hurt to try moving too, so I reach out my arms and start feeling around for a wall or something.
Everyone's voice's echo throughout the room, each one trying to find the next.
"Boss? Guys!? I can't see!"
"Alrighty then, did the room just go dark, or did the blood rushing to my head finally get to me?"
"HANG TIGHT, WILLY! I'll come git ya!"
"Wyatt, you're, uh… on my foot."
I see a flashlight come on and scope around the room. It's Larry, I think. No one else is that tall.
"Alright now," he says, sounding like an old man about to grab his belt and start whooping somebody, "Who's been messin' with my power grid?!"
tink
CRASH!
I flinch at the sudden noise and, before my brain can react, my body immediately whips around to come face to face with a pair of glowy purple eyes, accompanied by 50 or so jagged metal teeth.
Guess, I don't have to worry about finding the Robo-Sharks anymore…
They already found us.
Ha HA! I'm late, but I deliver! Finally! Action! Intrigue! Drama!
Well, not yet, but the setup is complete! That's progress! I fully intend on showing out the next chapter, so say your prayers everyone, we're in for a bumpy ride!
Is it odd that I'm actually itching to get to the action part of this story? I'm not the biggest action gal, but I want butt-kicking! Despite my hunger for said butt-kicking, I'll be a good writer and take my time to make sure the quality of my is... well, quality.
If you're still here, it probably means you enjoy my writing. Thank you for being here. I love writing, and I'm glad you like it too. The grace of God allows me to still be here, so I do my best.
Oh, and P.S., there's a lore blog I've complied for your viewing pleasure right here: team-hot-wheels-imaginators (it's a tumblr blog, just copy/paste the name into the tumblr searchbar and you should find it)
It's got illustrations of all the main characters and mini-bios for each one. I'm going to add other things, like mini-comics and lore bits here and there as time goes on, so feel free to check it out!
As for Gage, hopefully you liked how I wrote him, because I'm on edge. If received word from an advisor that I my writing from the boys' perspective is a a little lackluster in comparison to Wheelie. I DO NOT want that. All these character are equally charming and should be written that way. Please let me know if he's interesting enough for you.
Until next chapter, my lovelies! 3