Mamoritai 4 - A Llorumi story

16. Speedway Five-Billion

Words: 1605

We drove over to the racetrack. God, we're going to be late! We drove as fast as we could. Seven was in the lead, after her was Lloyd, then me, then Nya, Jay and lastly Cole and Kai. Seven turned quickly as they navigated to the racetrack. We're probably late already! Fucking hell! We finally reached the Speedway car paddock, but I could swear I heard a "GO!" from the track. We're too late! Seven still kept driving and drove straight onto the race track. "The Fast Chickens are in the house! And it looks like they got company! Red Visors in pursuit!" The announcer said as we curved to the racetrack. Are you kidding me! The Red Visors have cars?! I glanced at them from my mirror. Yup, they're definitely following us. For fuck's sake! "I'd say that's against the rules, but... it's the Speedway! There are no rules!" The announcer said. Great... Well I just have to focus on driving right now. We had now reached the other drivers. There were two of them ahead of me. I guess they were from different teams, because their vehicles didn't look the same.

There was one red and one black one. Then a bomb was thrown out the red one and into the black one! The black one exploded and the red one sped up. I tried to look ahead. It was hard because of the smoke of the bomb. I saw something in the middle of the track. I quickly drove to the right side of the track, so I wouldn't hit whatever was in the middle. Turns out, it was a divider! The red driver drove right into it and crashed! I shrugged it off. I have no time to mourn these people. Then we approached a swarm of cars. Now there were three kinds of them. "There's another vehicle down and out, as we pass the second mile marker! The Whack Rats are in the lead and the Fast Chickens last!" The announcer said. Wow, I've driven one mile without crashing already! Then ahead of me was a portal. I jumped in and we teleported to another race track. Someone drove in front of me, but I couldn't make out who it was? Then it made sense, as two Red Visor cars drove on each side of me. Oh boy.

The one on the right bumped me! Then both of them crashed on both of my sides, trapping me! The car in front of me prevented me from driving past these guys. Oh god what should I do?! The cars on my sides let go of me, to hit me again. Then I got an idea. I pressed my brakes and backed up. The cars hit each other and crashed! Nice! Now I just sped up and passed the car that drove in front of me. I drove into another portal and teleported to the next track. "That's two more out of the race! The Whack Rats are still in the lead, Chrome Domes coming in second, and surprisingly, Fast Chickens moving into third!" The announcer said. Yes! We're rising! "They're boxing me in!" Nya suddenly yelled through the comms. "Guys! I need help!" She yelled out again. "I'm coming!" Seven yelled. Okay, so that situation is under control. "Um.. Guys. I could use a little help!" Jay asked through the comms. "Hang on, buddy!" Kai answered. Then I heard an explosion. "NO!" Jay yelled. "What happened!" I quickly asked. Then I drove by two cubes. "Kai!" Nya yelled in disbelief. "Cole!" I yelled.

This isn't happening! I...I... "Fast Chickens are moving into second place. Neck and neck with the Whack Rats. And we're approaching the four mile marker!" The announcer said once again. This isn't happening, they did not just... Focus, Rumi! You need to focus! Just, turn it off. Do the thing your mother trained you to do. Put it away. "Whoa! Racer Seven takes the lead! You heard that right. Racer Seven takes the lead and steals first position! They're past the fourth mile marker. We're seeing Speedway history here folks!" The announcer said. Great. They're doing great. "Those rats are trying to take them out!" Jay said through the comms. I reached the others, all four of us were now right behind the rats. "We gotta help them!" Nya answered. "Hang on Seven, we're coming!" I said. The rats started bumping Seven's car. There were three cars. Lloyd took one of them, Nya another one and me and Jay the last one. Me and Jay started bumping the car, so that it would crash.

"Racer Seven's teammates are trying to clear the road for them! But can they make it? We're in the home stretch and it looks like a nail-biter!" The announcer said. We're so close, I can see the finish line already! Me and Jay got one of the rats to crash! It crashed on the left wall! Yes! Nya and Lloyd also made the other two crash! We did it! We did it! We passed the finish line and we won! "It's Racer Seven! Racer Seven and the Fast Chickens!" The announcer celebrated. The crowd cheered for us. I hit my brakes right after crossing the finish line. We jumped out of our cars. Seven got carried away by the crowd. I ran to Lloyd. I hugged him tightly. "Are they..." I started quietly whispering into his neck. "I know. It's okay. We'll bring them back." Lloyd whispered into my ear. I felt tears forming in my eyes. "So we have to get the Keytana." Lloyd continued, letting go of the hug. He kissed me on my forehead. "Let's go." I said, wiping the corners of my eyes. We got taken to podiums, so the crowd could cheer for us. I tried to hold back tears, so I wasn't smiling that much. The Keytana floated in front of Seven. They grabbed it and gave it to Jay. Jay said something to Nya, but I couldn't make out what it was.

Then I saw Red Visors, trying to get to us through the crowd. "You should go." Seven said. "What about you?" Lloyd asked. "I'll go my own way. Thanks to you." They answered with a smile. "Thank you." Jay said, holding the keytana. After that we jumped off the podium and ran off. Lloyd was guiding us to the next arcade cabinet. Terra Techinca was now SWARMING with Red Visors. We had to be super duper careful. As Lloyd guided us further and further into Terra Techinca, he suddenly stopped. "Lloyd, what is-" I was whispering, but once I lifted my head, I saw a TV screen. Screen that showed the replay of Cole's and Kai's death... I hadn't seen it before... They had a massive crash and exploded... Jay sighed behind me. "Our friends wouldn't want us to give up. We have to keep going." Lloyd said, interrupting our mourning. "Well find a way, somehow. We're going to find a way and bring them all back." Jay encouraged us. "Yeah. What's next?" I asked, as Nya sighed next to me. She just watched her brother die... "Terra Domina. That's where the last Keytana is." Jay answered. "Follow me. I got it from here." He continued. We ran across the street to an alley.

The alley was dark and trashy, but it had the last arcade cabinet. "We must be getting close to the end of the game." Nya said, as she looked at the cabinet. The cabinet was red in color and read "Terra Domina". Jay pressed a button on the cabinet and it opened. I took in a deep breath and walked in. As we walked in it was like we were in the middle of a hurricane! In front of us stood a beautifully decorated temple. "Holy shit! Unagami's Temple of Madness!" Jay said as he looked at the temple. "I'd go mad too if I lived here." I chuckled. We walked over to the temple. Its big doors opened and let us in. Right after that though, they closed. The end of the temple was open. Now in front of us were these weird platforms? "Okay, that's freaky!" Jay gasped. "We should head back. Scope out the dangers and make a plan." Lloyd proposed. Then, the temple glitched. "Um, did you guys see that too?" I asked. "What?" Nya asked. "I think the temple just glitched?" I answered, starting to question myself. Then, the temple disappeared and we dropped onto one of those platforms. The platform suddenly started to disappeared from behind us! "Whoa!" Nya yelled as we jumped to the next platform. "What's happening!" Lloyd yelled as we jumped from one platform to another.

"Oh, man! I was afraid of this! We've entered the world of old-school platform games." Jay answered. "And those games force you to run towards chaos?!" Nya questioned. "Technically side-scroll towards chaos, but yeah." Jay said as we jumped to another platform. "There's rules to these games. One, you can't go backwards. Two, everything speeds up the further you go." Jay explained. Then, there was a jumping black skull in front of us! "Three, all the obstacles are pre-programmed. So, if you learn the timing you can evade the danger." Jay said, pointing at the skull. I studied the skull for a moment. 1, 2 it jumps, 1, 2, it jumps. Okay so as soon as it hits the ground, I jump. And so I did. We passed the first obstacle. "But the most important thing is, if you die we have to start over at the beginning!" Jay said.