Hello you! Welcome to my first ever official work of fan fiction – by "official", obviously, I mean "published". If I actually OWNED AcceleRacers, we wouldn't have been left alone, at a cliffhanger, for almost nineteen years now... *sigh* I'll never forgive you, Mattel.
This is just something unpretentious, written as a bridge of sorts between the end of the Ruins Realm (which we never saw) and the start of The Ultimate Race.
Without further ado, read on!
No Clear Path To Redemption
The post-race routines come as a blur to Taro once he gets past the portal at the end of the Ruins Realm, landing steadily back at the safety of the AcceleDrome. What sticks out to him, in the couple of minutes he takes to wind down before taking Rivited to the Maniacs' side of the complex, is the sight of Nolo's SpecTyte emerging from the portal, coming to a halt right next the ambulance Lani readied.
It doesn't take long for the leader of the Teku team to help her ease Vert onto the rear seats of the Nomad, the blond surfer clutching at his leg with an expression of pain. Before long, Nolo is tailing Lani as she speeds off towards the infirmary.
Taro slowly shakes his head, watching as the pair of cars recedes. Yet again, one of them will be out of action. Knowing Kurt, he's already at the infirmary as well, waiting for his teammates. Whatever he and the surf rat had going on before all this has definitely become way more open since Vert returned to the AcceleDrome, ahead of the Junk Realm.
His thoughts about the two Teku men invariably lead him to thinking about Nolo... And Lani. A sigh escapes his mouth.
By now, he's sure that whatever it was that they shared during the madness of the World Race has been condemned to history. He knows it's mostly his fault, too, as he was the one who began shutting himself out more and more – something he's trying not to let happen again, given the interesting shift in dynamics between himself and Karma as of late. Their exchange after the Neon Pipeline realm, after the Silencerz's clever deception, still rings fresh inside his mind.
Taro also knows Lani is right. He can be hard to talk to, usually preferring to put up an impenetrable barrier around himself instead of opening up and exposing whatever's on his mind to someone, anyone, who might be willing to listen. Part of him still hopes to catch up with her at some point, though with things being the way they are, he's not sure when it will be possible. If it will be possible.
To her credit, the woman from Hawaii has not tried to make things awkward between them, what with her closeness to Nolo. That and dealing with the business they're all there to take care of.
Making his way down to the Metal Maniacs' garage, engine rumbling, Taro realizes he has no idea whether it's day or night outside anymore, or how long has it been since Gig showed up at the coast road to drag them back into this mess. He sometimes wonders if it is all worth the effort, risking his life like this, but then realizes he has no room to argue – wasn't he the same Taro Kitano who skied down Mount Everest not once, but twice?
Now that he thought of it, that seemed like a lifetime ago – a lifetime when interdimensional portals and sentient robots hell-bent on world domination seemed like something out of a sci-fi comic book.
He's not even sure how he ends up in the meeting room in the first place, having intended to head over to the sleeping quarters in order to get some much-needed rest. When Taro comes to it, the door is hissing closed behind him and he finds himself striding over to the massive glass wall at the far end of the room, facing the cavernous, hollowed-out interior of the mesa. The Wheel's hologram is a commanding presence at the center of the complex, slowly rotating on its vertical axis as it lies dormant, like a volcano before its eruption – or, in this case, before randomly deciding to open up the next realm.
But when will it happen? No one knows. Sometimes it's only a few hours, sometimes it takes nearly a full day for the klaxons to echo around the complex. Even Tezla, who knows more about the Wheel than all of them combined, cannot say for certain.
I really should get some sleep.
Except he doesn't make any immediate move to backtrack and head over to the sleeping quarters. Taro's tired gaze wanders aimlessly instead, admiring the intricate detail on the sides of the shimmering hologram. From this distance, it's hard to believe no one can actually walk up to it and physically touch it.
The realm symbols slowly become visible once again, and Taro shakes his head at this. He was the first of the drivers to make it to the Ruins Realm portal, only to find it deprived of its symbol, meaning someone else got to it first. Had it been the Drones? The Silencerz? It didn't really matter, other than the fact they lost again. He lost, yet again – something that's starting to become familiar as of late.
The Asian lets out a weary sigh, shutting his eyes for a few seconds. Taro doesn't really believe in luck, but he wonders if he's somehow been cursed. Since setting foot in the AcceleDrome, the list of failures and near-misses has grown, and quickly: escaping the worst in both the Storm and Lava Realms. Having to do the Water Realm twice after being dragged into the Drones' headquarters. Being tricked by the Silencerz on three different occasions, with the finish line well within sight. It's probably made him their laughingstock by now. Seeing a silver and purple car on the track feels personal at this point.
As his eyes wander along the glowing characters inscribed in the outermost ring, Taro spots the sharp, bolt-like symbol of the Storm Realm, sitting right next to the mirroring triangles signifying the Junk Realm. A sequence begins playing in his mind's eye, in the same way it has been happening for several days now. It's a sequence Taro knows he will be unable to forget anytime soon, if ever.
The sky is completely obscured by ominous storm clouds, the occasional flashes of lightning being almost immediately followed by thunderous booming sounds. The elevated track, no support structures visible anywhere, stretches out towards the horizon, the finish line absolutely nowhere to be seen.
Lining the track, like street lamps, are metallic posts – except these serve a completely different purpose than harmlessly lighting up the track. Leaping from pole to pole, in a constant electrical dance above the track, are nervous-looking arcs of lightning, more than ready to strike out at the first mistake from any of the drivers. Looking up at them and losing focus is pretty much inevitable.
The air appears to crackle from all the static energy as Taro's Plymouth steadily gains on the tail of a black and green Racing Drone, Kadeem's Krazy 8s visible just ahead of it. A greenish ball of energy starts to form at the front of the Drone car, aimed directly at the back of the former leader of the Dune Ratz team. Taro smirks, not letting the opportunity go to waste. He accelerates until he slams into the back of the robot's car, pitching it into an uncontrollable spin. The Drone's ball of energy is launched, but it misses its intended target – instead, it strikes one of the metallic poles, turning the nearly blinding whiteness into a bright shade of green not unlike that of the Drone car itself. The intense electrical arc is broken into a series of disjointed bolts.
Kadeem appears puzzled by that bizarre vision as he races past, looking at his rear-view mirrors at the crazily spinning enemy car, before noticing Taro draw right alongside him as the Japanese man pulls ahead.
"Good, Taro! We can take on these Drones together!" Says Kadeem over the radio, relief evident in his accented voice.
"I'm gonna pass you," Taro replies dryly, not sparing his rival a second glance, continuing on his way. Taro does not see Kadeem grit his teeth in frustration, or the pair of Racing Drones tailing the two of them.
In fact, that is the last time Taro ever sees Kadeem's car – he is knocked unconscious a few minutes later, when the Plymouth is struck by a powerful surge of ball lightning, rolling over multiple times before coming to a halt in the middle of the track. He only wakes up much, much later, already back in the AcceleDrome, having been rescued by Monkey and a reluctant Wylde – and that's when he learns that Racing Realms close after only one hour, and Kadeem has been lost. It dawns for him, then and there, that perhaps what they are facing is a whole different animal to the World Race.
Taro inhales deeply, aware his heart rate has skyrocketed. After Tone's accident, he's caught Tork more than once in a similar predicament to his own current one, staring off into the distance, looking but not seeing what's there in front of him, the same scenes playing over and over in his mind's eye, like a corrupted movie.
I should've listened to him.
The waves of guilt are already crashing all around him, invisible tendrils that reach out, ready to disturb whatever's left of his night – assuming it is night outside, in the first place. He clenches his fist, using all of his restraint not to connect it with the nearest wall. How he could've been so naïve, so stupid, is still something he cannot find an answer to.
I should've realized something bigger was at stake.
Just as he knows Tork sometimes doubts himself regarding the loss of Tone, Taro knows he will never be able to rid himself of the blame for what happened to Kadeem.
We should've dropped this stupid rivalry from the start. We should've worked together, like we did back in Hot Wheels City, not fight between themselves like a bunch of spoiled first graders.
Now, another one has been lost. And it's not someone he has not seen for over two years, but actually one of his own teammates at the Metal Maniacs. With the Junk Realm completed – and Kurt winning the AcceleCharger, perhaps by a cruel twist of irony – there's no way they can possibly get back in there.
Taro partially blames himself for what happened to Wylde, too. Over the past few weeks, the younger man's pent-up frustration and anger did not go unnoticed on him – and yet, he did nothing about it. The race to decide the leadership of the Maniacs was also his idea, and look how that ended up.
Rubbing his neck, he wonders if he should look for Karma later on, and open up to her, at least a little bit, about everything that's been plaguing his thoughts. Taro feels like he's suffocating, hanging on by a fine thread, floating with only his nose above water. Karma is not the type to judge. She might understand him.
The distinctive hiss of the door sliding open all but derails his train of thought. A figure stumbles into the room, clearly out of breath. With the harsh lighting in the hallway outside, Taro is unable to see his face, but the man's spiky hair is unmistakable.
"That bastard... Tezla... He lied to all of us, again!" Says the former leader of the Street Breed team, chest heaving as he pauses for a moment, head down as he grabs the backrest of the chair nearest to him. "Not just my brother... Not just Kadeem... Lani told me. He wanted her to be quiet, but she told me..."
Taro is unsure what to say, the unexpected new information already mixing with his own internal turmoil. He waits for Kurt to gather his breath and continue speaking.
"Remember Dan Dresden, from the World Race? Remember Alec Wood?" Kurt looks directly at him, eyes appearing to sparkle with unshed tears in the darkened space. "Remember Banjee?"
Taro nods, meekly, already sure of where this conversation is going, despite not really wanting to hear Kurt's next words.
"All three of them, lost in the Realms! Every single one! It was only a couple days before we got brought into this again. Kadeem was the last one of them left, and now... Now he's gone, too! Now Markie's gone..." Kurt's outburst fades out into silence, his heavy words lingering in the air. "They hadn't won any AcceleChargers... That's why they didn't have an EDR in their cars," he adds, a note of disgust in his voice.
Taro turns back to face the Wheel's hologram, somehow feeling worse than before. He was not as close with most of the names Kurt mentioned, but hearing Banjee was lost inside one of the Realms hit closer to home than he would ever admit.
The next words are an unexpected blow.
"Taro, Markie is still alive".
The Metal Maniac does an about-face, briefly wondering whether or not Kurt has already lost his mind. But the expression on the Teku driver's face means he cannot be more serious. He's looking straight at Taro's eyes as he continues. "The Drones took him. Lani and Tezla showed me his onboard. They took him before the realm closed. He's still alive".
The look of determination that crosses Kurt's features unsettles the Japanese man.
"Surely you're not considering..."
"What matters is he's still alive. And I'm going to get him out of there, with or without help".
Taro's natural reaction is a near-imperceptible shake of the head. He knows Kurt still acts on impulse sometimes, despite coming a long way since his World Race days – it's a shared Wylde family trait, at least he knows that much. "Do you at least have a plan in mind?"
A hint of a smile appears to form in the Teku racer's lips. He shakes his head, but the intensity of his gaze is unsettling. "You. You showed us the way, remember?"
Taro hesitates for a second, then remembers. Oh.
His unexpected winding up at the Drones' headquarters at the end of the Water Realm is something he's been trying to forget. He's already shaking his head in disbelief.
"That was just me, Kurt. Just one car, dragged through the portal by two of them. How in the world do you expect..."
Kurt shushes him, putting a gloved finger to his lips, a not-so-subtle gesture for Taro to stop talking. The Metal Maniac's voice trails off, suddenly aware of all the surveillance cameras around the complex. If the Doctor knows what they have in mind...
He couldn't stop us if he tried, though.
"We need to act fast," Kurt starts again, in a conspiratorial manner. "Not here. But we need to move, and quickly. By the time the next realm opens, we have to be ready to go".
Taro hesitates, weighing in all that's at stake. It's already dangerous enough going into each realm, not knowing what to expect – doing a sightseeing trip to the Drones' headquarters is an entirely different animal, however.
He already knows that as many of them need to go, if they want better chances to succeed. Could he convince the Metal Maniacs that quickly?
As if reading his thoughts, Kurt added, "I'm rounding the Teku up as soon as I get out of here. We need to be outside somehow. Just a couple of minutes. But it can't be in here".
Silence descends upon the room once more, Kurt's gaze focusing on Taro, the Teku driver trying to conceal his expectation. Taro is trying to find an actual reason, any valid excuse, to back out of it. But he already knows he can't. Their contingent is already small enough, and if there's a chance of rescuing Wylde, he knows he can't pass up on it.
Not to mention, Wylde's presence was the reason Taro made it out of the Storm Realm – if anything, Taro owes that much to the younger man. The other clincher is, Wylde is also a Metal Maniac – wasn't it what Monkey loved saying? "We're welded"?
The words are coming out of his mouth before he even realizes it. "I'll... see what I can do," he says, with a very subtle nod. Kurt appears relieved, and spins on his heel, sprinting back the way he came.
Taro follows him out the door.
Before anyone points out the fact we didn't see Taro in the Ruins Realm, let me remind you that in every mini-episode (besides the Cavern and Lava realms) only four of the Teku/Maniacs guys were ever shown. There's no reason for Tezla to only send four people inside these specific realms, so I went a bit creative there :)
Hopefully the characterisations were on point, as dialogue has always been a weakness on my end. Don't forget to tell me what you think!
As always, thanks for reading ^_^