Realms: Heat Street
"Should we have stronger headlights? I couldn't see much in the Cavern realm." The blonde female asked her brother.
"Our headlights are strong. There may have been some effect in the realm to make all headlights equal in power." Aidan replied.
"Yea, the realms having effects like that wouldn't surprise me. Trying to keep things relatively even is usually good." Ronnie said, finishing the paint on his wrecked car. It was finally back in working order after his unfortunate crash in the Storm realm.
"Oh yeah, Ronnie. I noticed that all of our cars excel somehow, but what is yours good at?" Marie asked.
"If Jester is good at something, it's durability. It may or may not be lined with tungsten." Ronnie explained. They didn't need to know that it was only lined with tungsten to make bullets ineffective.
"That's a hard thing to work with, but I think it could be good in extreme heat or if we were fighting in the realms. Being a fast tank has perks. Mirror is super fragile though, so I have to avoid basically everything." Aidan said, comparing their vehicles.
"Well we all do well somewhere, I think it's inevitable that we all get some Accelechargers, especially if there are like, 50 realms, right?" Marie stated.
"You're right. Wonder who will get what though." Ronnie said.
–
"Hey Ethan!" Connor shouted, entering the control center.
"What? I'm getting the footage for you." Ethan replied.
"Not that, after the last realm I was thinking of teaming up with you." Connor said.
"Like a permanent truce? Why? And why me?" Ethan asked.
"I get the feeling that the others are teaming up too, and I asked you because I think we would practically dominate the off-road together." Connor explained. It was true. Together, they were the only rally car and real truck. Will had some off-road prowess with his chains, but the primary track was a huge weakness for him.
"Alright, sure. Did you have a team name in mind?" Ethan asked. Connor nodded.
"I was thinking Mud Masters, but I'm open to suggestions." Connor said. Ethan shook his head.
"I like it. I couldn't come up with something much better anyways. Well if that's settled, let's get to work." Ethan said, opening the laptops. Connor sat down next to Ethan and began watching the rest of the footage. Their Cavern video was almost done. The darkness made it a bit hard to watch, but it wasn't unbearable.
–
"So what do you think Luke?" Will asked.
"Well, I had already been thinking of making a team, so this works out well." Luke replied, happy that his first choice for having a teammate asked him the same question.
"Fantastic. We gotta have a name though." Will said as he continued to work on the large object in front of him. It was a huge stage light for the back of his truck. While he had an Accelecharger to see in the dark, he could only use it once and the light he was working on could also be used to blind opponents.
"Well, I'm a western stuntman and you're from an apocalyptic world, let's run with those. Maybe the Fallout Cowboys?" Luke suggested.
"I agree with that name. I look kinda like a cowboy with my raider outfit." Will replied as he screwed in a huge light bulb.
"I guess it's official then. We'll, I'll see ya later Will." Luke said, leaving the garage to get some food. Will waved at him before looking back at the new bed mod. It had yet to explode, so that was a good si…
–
*Boom*
"Another failed experiment." Aidan said, adding another tally mark to a white board in his room, making the new total thirty-six.
–
Brushing the dust off himself, Will decided that he needed food too, and left his workshop.
–
Connor was impressed with his videos so far. They gained a small cult following which watched and analyzed all of his videos. Many wondered if the footage was real, but the following thought it was, especially after Connor used higher quality cameras. They were going viral in the car and racing community, and even a bit beyond it. Connor wondered how popular they would be once all was said and done.
While Connor didn't know how many races were left, he guessed that there would be only as many races as there were symbols on the Wheel of Power. So, just under 50 total. If he wanted more content maybe he could do a tour of their base? He'd come up with something.
As his video of the Cavern realm finally finished uploading, he shut his laptop. He hadn't eaten yet, so he decided to grab something. As he walked out of his room, the realm alarm started blaring, and the golden wheel began spinning.
He sprinted to the mess hall, grabbed a sandwich, and sprinted to his garage in time to see the innermost wheel stop spinning. As it locked in place, a squiggly symbol lit up. If the drifter had to describe it, it looked like how soft serve ice cream is put in a cone; thicker at the bottom and moving back and forth up before tapering off at the top.
While the drifter put on his helmet, the Inventor lowered his contraption of choice onto his vehicle before securing it in place. As he pulled his engine lever and closed his door, his chains scraped against the ground while he pulled up to his slingshot.
The second ring of the Wheel slammed into place and the alarm changed pitch. Marie grabbed a new piece of gum from her pocket before putting on her visor. Shutting her door, she lined up with the runway.
"All systems go." Kana said as Aidan put on his helmet and shifted to drive. As he stopped, the final wheel swung around the wheel, before crashing to a stop.
The seven drivers all instantly accelerated as the portal opened, and they vanished into the realm with a flash of light.
–
Under a blood red sky, hazed with heat, a teal rift tore open above a red-orange track. As lava bubbled well below the track, the competitors entered the realm. Speeding along the straight, a huge volcano loomed in the distance.
"This might be a stretch, but I think this is a Lava or Heat realm." Aidan said sarcastically.
"It's not a stretch, but I concur." Will replied, missing Aidan's sarcasm. A slingshot came up on the track, flinging the drivers across a break in the road. Looking down briefly, Aidan saw that the floor of the realm was just lava.
As they landed on the other side, the track turned right and split at a large rock. The left side moved down, while the right side moved up and looped around a few more rocks. Aidan, wary of the lava, took the right fork.
"Real pussy move Aidan. Are you scared?" Ronnie said, taking the left fork.
"Not scared, but I know Mirror can't handle extreme heat well." Aidan said as he banked around a rock. Luke had followed him, while everybody else had taken the left path.
As the left track dipped down, the heat from the lava below was intense. Burning rubber could be smelt, and even after turning his AC on full blast, Ethan could still feel the heat. As the track moved up and down, it turned sharply left. As Connor, leading the pack, tried to drift around the turn, his melted tires wouldn't turn. As he flew off the track he quickly inserted and activated his Accelecharger.
His car began to glow green and vines sprouted beneath his car. However, as fast as the plants were made, they were wilted and destroyed by the heat. Connor quickly grabbed his Accelecharger from its port, before slamming his EDR. In a flash of light his partially melted car was ejected from the realm.
–
Seeing an Accelecharger fail for the first time was… frightening to Marie. She had thought the cartridges to be unstoppable, granting immense power for a brief time. But seeing the incredibly useful Swamp Accelecharger being beaten by just heat made her realize that they were not unstoppable, and that the realms were even more dangerous than she thought.
As the remaining four drivers rejoined with the safer path, they headed towards ruins. Aidan and Luke were still behind, showing that the heated path was more dangerous. However, if you could handle it, it was significantly faster.
The track curled into a ramp, sending the drivers over more lava and rocks, before straightening into a vertical loop. Exiting the short loop, the track banked left along a rock. However, Ronnie noticed that there was a valley through the hot stone. Deciding to chance his victory, he broke off of the pack, traversing the stone.
The main path wove between the pillars of a huge structure, which looked Greek in origin. It was still standing, and was elevated on just enough rock that the Lava hadn't reached it yet.
While the main path wound around the ruins, Ronnie's decision had paid off. Hidden in the rock was a thin track. While it ran very close to the lava, Ronnie was stupid, confident, and knew that it was hard to melt tungsten. He took the thin road, snaking beneath the main path and going just around the impressive architecture.
–
Outside the realm, Connor was watching from the control center. After he extinguished his incinerated car, the realm timer read that there were 40 minutes left. The timer currently said 20. Glancing back at Aidan and Luke's cameras, they just finished the loop.
'No way those two win.' Connor thought. 'I'd bet that Ronnie wins this one. His car is very durable.' Looking towards Ronnie's camera, he watched as Ronnie flew off the end of his alternate path and back onto the main track. He was well ahead, but he could still lose if he screwed up. 'It's not over until it's over.' Connor remembered.
–
Aidan glanced up at the central volcano and saw that smoke had begun billowing out of it. The track slightly shook. If this realm wasn't finished soon, that volcano was going to cause major damage! Returning his gaze to the track, he could only hope somebody was doing well.
–
Ethan was leading the pack of three drivers when he noticed two things. First, that Ronnie was missing. Maybe he just fell off? But second, there was the end of a track to their left. Was there a path they had missed? Was Ronnie ahead? As the track shook, those questions were pushed to the back of his mind. This realm was clearly more dangerous, he had no time to think about that stuff.
As much as he wanted to, he couldn't use his Nitrox in this realm or his tires would melt. He hoped he would find the end soon. Taking a jump and landing on a rock supported track, he banked to the left, before banking back to the right and spiraling down once. As the track neared the volcano, the drivers entered a tunnel through the rocks.
Despite being so close to the volcano, the tunnel was cool. Giving their cars a chance to cool, they emerged from the other end and spiraled up and around the volcanic rock once, before breaking away and to the right.
As geysers of lava sprung up around the track, the blonde boy spotted Ronnie, who had reached another fork in the road. He took the right path, which dipped down. Ethan glanced at the left path, which swung and spiraled around rocks. Deciding to push his Beast to the limit, he pressed his Nitrox button.
As Marie and Will didn't press their buttons for fear of overheating, Ethan sped forward. As his vehicle's temperature rocketed, he took the right fork to follow the green speedster. As he descended, his tires began to melt, scraping off on the track, as more lava geysers erupted around them. His truck spun out from lack of grip, coming to a halt at the lowest portion of track.
Marie, seeing this, took the risk and chose the right path. Carefully managing her speed and positioning, she safely but slowly made her way down the hot track. Stopping next to Ethan's partially melted truck, she rolled down her window.
"Need a ride dummy?" She asked. Ethan nodded, getting into the passenger side of Petal. Closing the door, she began to carefully drive up the other side, leaving the red truck behind.
While Will took the safe left path, Ronnie had left the split track, and had banked left towards the volcano when the ground rumbled again. As the boy looked up, he saw two things. First, the volcano was now violently erupting, sending molten rock and lava everywhere. Second, he saw the portal just at the cusp of the volcano's top.
The realm symbol was proudly displayed on the portal in a beautiful scarlet. While Ronnie wanted to stare for longer, the volcano was erupting!
"Shit!" Ronnie yelled. The track here was wider but moved gradually up towards the portal. As the criminal moved from side to side on the red-orange track, rocks and lava came down to greet him, occasionally peppering his car with pebbles and drops of molten rock.
"It's now or never!" Ronnie cried, pressing his Nitrox button. As his rear wheels spouted fire, he was launched up the incline, barely outrunning the rain of terror behind him. Speeding toward the portal he vanished through it in a flash of light. As the realm symbol vanished with him, a burst of energy was unleashed over the realm.
The volcano ceased erupting, returning to a dormant state. The lava beneath the track receded slightly, and the sides of the track opened up, letting out a stream of cold air onto the remaining drivers tires. The lava geysers sank back down, and the only noise left was the faint sound of bubbling.
–
As Ronnie was flung out of the Wheel, he noticed that his landing was rough. He bet that his tires had melted from the combined heat of Nitrox and the volcano. Coming to a stop, a scarlet light glowed within his car, and a cartridge bearing the realm symbol appeared before him. The word 'Lava' was engraved on the bottom.
"My own Accelecharger…" Ronnie said, entranced by his prize. Taking it in his hand, the light died down. Holding it tightly, Ronnie stepped out of the car, only to be greeted by melted rubber. As the other drivers emerged from the realm, Ronnie pocketed his Accelecharger before starting to push his cooling car back to his garage. The wheel of power flashed once more, and the rings spun back to their dormant state, leaving the drivers to their devices.
–
The Siblings Music Playlist:
Aidan's choice is: Counterattack from Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Marie's choice is: Emotional Prism by Mikazuki BIGWAVE
Enjoy!
–
W.C.F. Lore: (Ronnie quotes are hard to do so if I can't think of any, I'll do a fact section instead, including stuff from development or just things that relate to the story)
The Seven drivers are all in some way related to the Author. All but one of them use their real names.
–
Will's Accelecharger Study:
"Hey Will, what the hell does my Accele-thingie do?"
"After running some tests, the Lava realm Accelecharger makes the affected vehicles tires regenerate at an incredible rate!"
"Can you dumb that down for me?"
"If your tires are damaged, the Accelecharger will repair them."
"Did you name it?"
"I've dubbed it 'Impervious Tires'."
"Thanks Will."
–
I know I'm late shut up. Lava was hard to write because references don't really exist for it. Water should be faster. I was also procrastinating and work took up a lot of my free time. Expect Water around the 2 week mark again but I guess we'll see how motivated I am. Anyways, have a good day, and I'll see you in the next chapter!
Next Chapter: Realms: Hadopelagic Pressure