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Chapter 22: The Bullet Express

Gizmo, breathing heavily, attempted to stand up but found he couldn't get his legs underneath him. The sight of a dog wrapped up in a net with a grappling hook, cables, and a lifesaver is highly uncommon, but immensely hilarious. The only thing keeping everyone from laughing out loud was the dire nature of the situation they were in. Skye, Rubble, and Rocky all raced to help untangle their new friend from the wrapped up ropes and wires. Marshall also made a move to help, but slipped on the train floor. Thankfully he didn't collide into anyone, but at the current clip their ride was racing at, he decided it would be better to stay put while the other seven helped free Gizmo.

"Zuma, give a bit more line."
"Alright Tracker, try pulling now."
"¡Está atascado! It's still stuck!"
"You really can just cut my net…
"No, we might need it later."
"Why a life preserver?"
"Well, it was the only thing I have that could catch you."
"Fair enough I guess."
"Rubble, pull on that bit while I push this through here."
"Okay, this one?"
"No, Tracker's cable."
"That one there, Rubble."
"No, that's Everest's cable. You can tell it's thinner."
"Want me to close the grappling hook part yet?"
"No, it'll just jam up in the net."
"I never realized how strong metal cables were before now. I can barely bend this at all."
"Okay, now Tracker!"
"¡Bien! I got one of them out!"
"Alright, now close the hook."
"Okay!"
"And pull! No, not you, Tracker. Everest."
"¡Lo siento! Sorry!"
"Got it out!"
"Now go, Tracker!"
"Wait! Let me pull this first!"
"Alright, now go!"
"Yes!"
"Help me get the net off now!"
"Ouch!"
"Watch out for his ears."
"Please do."
"Three, two, one, heave!"

Rubble, Rocky, and Skye hoisted the net up and over Gizmo, who hastily rose to his feet. Chase reeled in his net. The black Lab looked down at the lifesaver still around his stomach. "How you got this thing around me I'll never know."

Zuma chuckled, "Heh, lots of practice I guess."

"Incredible aim. Now help me get it off."

As Zuma helped get the circular float off of Gizmo, Rocky ran over to examine the controls. "How do I stop this?"

Chase joined him by the front. "Last time I was in a runaway machine I just mashed buttons until it stopped."

"NO!" Gizmo exclaimed. "Don't mash buttons! The main brakes must have failed. Pull back the LSM throttle, reverse power to the jerk control unit, then activate the lift brakes!"

"Do what?!" Chase shouted back in confusion.

Rocky tried finding the controls Gizmo had listed, but one glance at the labels told him it would be hopeless. All of them were composed of series of dots arranged in three rows; nothing the mechanic could understand. He couldn't tell a "⠋⠜⠈⠀⠐⠺⠻⠆⠃" from a "⠞⠃⠅⠭⠸⠠⠑⠁⠀⠀⠲⠀⠃⠀." His head spun as he skimmed label after label, but all of them looked the same. He could not have been more confused. "Are these labels in braille? Why are they printed and not raised?"

"Don't do anything until I get there, I'll be thirty seconds."

"Hey, Gizmo, is there an end to this tunnel?" Everest worriedly questioned as she tried to look out the front windshield. "I can't see anything; it's too dark."

"No, or we'd be long dead by now; we're going in circles. We're-" Gizmo paused to get the life preserver off over his head. He ran over to the door and glanced outside. "From the looks of it we're going well beyond the relegated max speed. That's over five-hundred-seventy-five kph, or almost a sixth of a kilometer per second! Or for you I guess it would be three-hundred-fifty miles per hour. That's approaching half the speed of sound!"

Everyone gasped. They had no clue this train could even go that fast, much less that they were going that fast. "How is that possible?" Rubble questioned.

"We're on an island that might as well be from the future," Rocky reminded him, "We should start expecting the unexpected."

Tracker shook his head, "Well this is definitely unexpected!"

"Well, so what do we do?" Rubble replied.

"Get in your seats. We're going to have to try to stop this thing before we crash while rounding a corner too quickly." As everyone raced to their seats, Gizmo pulled on the lever labeled "⠋⠜⠈⠀⠀⠮⠟⠖⠬," but it didn't budge. He activated his boots, stuck one on the control panel and one on the lever, then pulled with all his might.

"¡Alto!" Tracker shouted, "I can hear something about to break!"

Immediately Gizmo stopped pulling, "There must be a lock that activates while you're riding I didn't know about… I don't know what to do. The lift brakes won't do anything with the LSM still going."

"That's just bad design," Rubble complained.

"What would happen if we short circuited the panel with water?" Skye asked.

"Well, we wouldn't be able to do that, but we might be able to trip the breaker."

Rocky jumped up, "I'll unscrew the panel. Marshall, you get your water cannons ready."

The firefighter gulped, "But this floor is really slippery; I don't think I'll be able to get there without getting sucked out of the side!"

"Don't worry, buddy," Chase reassured him, "you can use this. Ruff! Net!" The police dog shot his net across the floor, creating a web of rope for his Dalmatian friend to walk across securely.

Rocky finished unscrewing the panel, and Gizmo used his magnetic boots to pull it off and set it to the side. "Alright, Marshall, now!"

"Wait, no! Not yet! Aaaaaaaauuuuughhhhh!" Rocky shouted as Marshall's water cannons drenched him, Gizmo, and the control panel with water. "Gross! I am wet! I am wet! I am very much wet!" the mutt complained. A 'click' from the circuitry signaled the trip of the breaker. The Bullet started to slow down as drag kicked in before another 'click' sounded from the box. Suddenly the train lurched forward as propulsion took effect again. Then Rocky slipped in the water.

Even before the suction pulled Rocky towards the door, Everest could see what was about to happen and barked out her grappling hook. She fired it at him with just enough time to alter his trajectory as it caught the arm of his screwdriver, pulling him out of the door's way. Then the train rounded a corner. The centrifugal effect flung Everest off her feet and onto the net, almost throwing Rocky completely out of the train car, his two back paws flailing outside. Gizmo gasped, activated his helmet, and grabbed the control panel with his magnets. Skye jumped off her seat and struggled to help Everest get upright, pulling at the line with both her and her thruster's combined strengths. Rubble joined in tugging with all his might. Just as they got Rocky back in the train, Gizmo slammed the panel sideways in front of the doorway, blocking off the majority of it. The air pressure started to return to normal as the vacuum died down, letting the pressurizing systems catch up.

"That was too close," Everest panted.

"At least I'm mostly dry now," Rocky said through deep breaths, clearly shaken.

"Come on," Gizmo pressed them, "we have to do something. That breaker definitely tripped, but it must be an auto-reset circuit breaker. We can't constantly soak it with water or it would completely break, so it seems like we'll only have about seven point four seconds after tripping the breaker to activate the brakes. That means I need to go back out there."

"What?!"
"But we just pulled Rocky and you back in!"
"You'll get crushed!"
"You can't do that!"
"¡Ay, caramba! ¡No puedes volver a salir!"
"You'll die!"
"Why?"
"What are you doing?"

Gizmo continued once everyone had finished talking over each other, "I'll use my shoes and climb around to the front of the train where I'll be able to activate the lift brakes myself."

"But- but what if another side panel falls off?" Zuma asked worriedly.

"It won't. It shouldn't. This thing doesn't need maintenance for another year."

Rubble objected, "But then the first panel shouldn't have fallen off either!"

"And the door definitely shouldn't have," Rocky pointed out. "And if everything was okay nothing would have broken in the first place and we wouldn't be in this mess!"

Gizmo hesitated, "But I have to. It's the only way to manually activate the brakes."

"Going out there is reckless," Rocky argued, "It's more likely you'd survive using that portal gun as opposed to doing what you're proposing."

"This is the only way to do this without destroying the locomotive. I'll be fine."

"Okay dude, but it's dangerous. At least take this," Zuma said, taking off his pup pack. "You're going to want the oxygen mask."

The black Labrador smiled, "Yes I will. Thanks." After putting on the water dog's silver pup pack, he walked to the door, up the side of the wall, and prepared to exit the narrow opening still at the top of the doorway.

"Be careful! If you fall, then at least remember to protect yourself with the force field that you used when you saved me!" Marshall shouted over the thousand other noises in the train.

Gizmo turned towards him, clearly confused, "Saved you? When?"

Everest shoved a paw over the Dalmatian's muzzle, "He's in shock. Just forget it." Marshall's eyes widened, and he nodded vigorously with the husky's paw still covering his mouth.

Gizmo blinked a couple times, but nodded his head. Activating the oxygen mask from Zuma's pup pack, he stepped out of the Bullet into the rushing wind. At first Gizmo couldn't see anything as he hung on the side of the train. The only thing distinguishable in the pitch blackness was the wall above his head. The Lab turned on his night vision, but still found himself without enough proper lighting, so he activated his Lidar model generator. After a couple seconds, a fully detailed 3D model of the train and tunnel moving in real-time overlaid itself on his helmet, displaying his surroundings in an augmented reality format. Walking forward, the black pup started to make his way to the front of the train, grateful for Zuma's oxygen mask. It would have been incredibly hard to breathe in a wind speed of almost four-hundred miles per hour.

As the train shot around a corner, it started to lean to the right, threatening to press Gizmo up against the wall. Thinking quickly, he let go with his two right paws and turned his repulsors against the tunnel. His knees almost buckled as he kept the Bullet stable, but he was able to stay steady. As the wall receded, Gizmo re-planted his paws on the train. "Thank goodness that's the tightest corner in this loop," he thought to himself as he continued forward. It was slow going, moving one paw at a time, but he eventually made it to the front of the train. "It's been three minutes since that corner. I have about one minute left before we go back around it," he noted. Crawling near to the bottom of the engine, Gizmo found what he was looking for. He placed his front two paws on the panel for the lift brakes. Ducking his head and spitting out the oxygen pipe, he shouted into his headset, "Alright Marshall, NOW!"

Marshall sprayed more water into the circuitry. Once again a 'click' signaled the loss of power. Immediately Gizmo tilted his front paws forward, but it didn't budge. Knowing they had barely any time left, the black lab switched tactics, sending a massive repulsion blast on the bottom section of the panel. It did the trick. Across the entire vehicle, panels shifted, slanting downwards. The train jerked upwards as the entire aerodynamic structure of the train changed, turning it into a weak foil. Inside the rails, specialized brakes took effect as the train ran across the underside of the track, successfully decelerating the locomotive. But it came at a price. The shove Gizmo had given was too powerful for the magnets on his rear shoes to handle. They detached, sending the canine flying backwards over the top of the Bullet.

I sure do love my cliffhangers. Lol
Progress in writing has started to slow down, and it's a combination of multiple things. First is a weak case of writer's block, second is that I've gotten sucked into reading some other fanfics people have posted here, and third is that it's most likely just in my head seeing that chapters have been getting longer. This one, the next one, and the one after that all exceed 2000 words, and the next two each break the record for longest chapters.
While this isn't exactly an action scene, so to say, it's still very thrilling, and I loved writing it. These types of chapters are the ones that oftentimes write themselves. The part where Rocky almost flies out of the train was my personal favorite.
You know you're in trouble when you get so dedicated to a story that you create an entirely new encryption language. If you crack the code, let me know. It's meant to be uncrackable. But don't worry; I'll be translating anything of significant importance, just like I do for technical dialogue. I generally try to make it so that anyone can understand what I write, and try to describe things adequately. But I'm still just human, so if you don't understand something, feel free to ask and I'll be more than happy to answer!