⛭ Chapter 25 ⛭

Today was a big day as the team woke up refreshed and did their regular routine. The only exception for it this time was the toolbox Chelbie had to explain overnight. Because Mache sided easily with her, it covered up what lengths she went to in order to get back at Daylight for sending a big robot to kill people in the final stretch of a level.

However, to make sure that President Daylight wouldn’t catch suspicions of her wearing duplicates, she stuffed them in her pockets (similar to when she was at the shopping center).

Otherwise, everything else went along normally when it came to entering Daylight Stadium.

When she got to revisit the terminal once again, she went to the bathroom to create multiple new outfits to bring with her as the announcer told the teams that they had 30 minutes to gather all of their belongings and vehicles so they could meet at the finish line of the race track.

Once this was done, she secretly stuffed Drift into her backpack and then hid the empty toolbox replica next to a random workbench in the mechanic station.

Last but not least, she recreated her Flamethrottle Fury with a new selection of tires she remembered having in her shop that were way more elastic, buoyant, and durable than the last set. She even went as far as to add fake MOZ-RE Rings.

Her teammates were still in on the secret of the gloves being kept that way, but they needed to double down once they started going to the next stages.

Driving their vehicles over with the other teams that made it through so far, they found Cyphra ready to guide them into yet another portal.

“Racers, your teams have three different stages left to complete. However, we will be starting off at the Splashwave Shore Resort in Sonus where you all will have another 30 minutes to settle your equipment at the specially designed terminals which you will see to your right. Each one has your team name plastered above. There will also be Gizmechs floating around to assist you in case you need help locating other places inside and outside the resort before we get started. Any questions?”

The teams remained silent, indicating that they were ready to enter this new location.

Chelbie and Hisa on the other hand were shocked to hear about yet another world that they recognized, was being brought up as part of the Blazethon.

Upon opening the portal, racers were greeted to an extremely large isle of sorts. It was genuinely fascinating to explore as the blue sky seemed to be brighter than Daylight Stadium and the lush locale was clearly a utopian paradise. Beaches were uniquely designed more like a super-sized amusement park from the looks of it.

It felt unreal to be walking into a place so lively and futuristic that it needed no introductions to make itself known as a luxury destination.

“Okay, not gonna lie, I kinda want to live here now,” said Chelbie as she touched a few strange exotic palm-like plants with red buds sticking out of hard spiky brown stems that were about as tall as her monster truck. It was stationed in a perfect pattern beside these blue rails that were used for observing the gorgeous view.

That of course being a ginormous obstacle course that looked to be a water park for racing vehicles.

As the teams started locating their new terminals and unpacking all of their equipment, she knew full well that whatever was to come next after this place was going to be an interesting time.

Unzipping her bag while everyone else was distracted looking at the gorgeous sandy attraction, she let Drift roam around freely outside as it immediately realized where it was.

After walking around for quite a few minutes to follow where it was going, Chelbie stopped and pulled off her armbands for awhile to get a freeing sense out of having made it so far in her racing journey.

This would be the last chance she’d get at facing Lucila head on.

And there was nothing holding her back from finishing what she started.

“Hey, the race is about to start,” mentioned Trax who had been following her for quite some time after she started walking alongside the rails.

Drift came right beside the both of them as they watched the view for a few more minutes before finally fine tuning and checking their vehicles.

The amount of wheelers present this time proved to be somewhere around a hundred compared to last time, but that didn’t stop the group from hunching over one last time together to discuss their final forthcomings.

“All right guys, this is our last race here. We’ve all been in rougher places, but if we want to really win, we need to reach out for each other. Otherwise, something more dangerous can take that all away from us,” warned Trax.

“No problem! Any advice before we start?!” asked Chelbie jokingly.

“Well, there is one, watch out for The Skullspiker,” he said in an attempt to play off of her words.

“Haha, good one Trax. I’ll make sure to keep an eye out this time. Not like it’ll only be the first time I take that thing on somehow.”

“Can we skip the sentimental stuff and get an actual strategy out of this before anything else happens?” asked Zadz

“Right… This race has fewer opposing teams than before. We split up last time since it was extremely crowded, but I want each of us to remain in close formation with one another. That way we can handle each challenge by assisting each other. We can also have it where big vehicles like The Flamethrottle Fury and Krashing Kavalry stay in the frontends and partner up. Meanwhile, me and Zadz will take on the backend to help push you guys to the finish line. Sounds like a plan?”

Everyone in The Flaming Cones, including Zadz, piled their hands on top of each other before getting themselves ready for the biggest finale of their entire lives.