⛭ Chapter 26 ⛭

“Racers, start your engines!”

As the crowds watching from behind the blue rails were gathered together in excitement for the next race that was about to take place, Chelbie wondered if she would ever get the chance to actually share what happened to her with her newfound friends. They had stuck by her side for quite awhile, but she had also grown attached to them.

Even Hisa had been acting differently. Whether it was Trax and his vibrant yet go-getter personality, Zadz and his moody ways, or Mache and his quiet but emotionally supportive nature, they all had a lot more about themselves that she wanted to explore.

The only thing left beside that was the mystery surrounding Drift’s know-how about Styra. Then again on a more separate note, she couldn’t forget about beating Lucila properly this time.

Whichever Lucila that was anyways.

“Ready… Set… Go!” shouted the referee as he waved the Blazethon flag.

Immediately focused on the sandy road in front of her, Chelbie changed lanes and started driving faster than previously seen.

This got the attention of Lucila herself while driving against Trax’s Spedflare.

“You’re not winning this time Trax,” Lucila said to herself as the two other blue Corvettes that had taken 5th and 6th place began to gain up speed behind him.

Because Chelbie had the most height with her vehicle, she could see Lucila attempting to have her other team members launch what looked to be some sort of attack using the explosive flower grenades again.

“Trax, look out!” she yelled while veering over with Mache following behind her to try and help him out.

Fortunately, during this time, Zadz used his rocket-powered skateboard to distract the two of them. By slamming the weight of the board on top of their right rear view mirrors, they couldn’t get a glimpse fast enough at Chelbie and Mache riding past them.

However, during this frantic chase, the racers were coming up towards multiple loops and tunnels that were gushing with water. It was at this moment though that other racers began to get more violent in their pursuit of pushing players off of the racetrack.

Shank, the leader of the Neon Mohawks, appeared from behind as he shoved Mache’s jeep from behind with an indigo sports car that had neon strips of red and green lining his sleek vehicle.

It was also known as The Neon Roadster.

During what was so far an anticlimactic race, Chelbie decided to run over the two blue Corvettes. This however did not go as planned since both of them started kicking up water into her windshield.

“Dammit! They’re really askin’ for it now!” Chelbie told herself as she started to make her way up to a strange loop that had two alternate paths.

The first would lead a player across the entire loop itself, but the second had a strange lifting mechanism that allowed for any vehicle to end up going down another tunnel path.

With this in mind, Chelbie formulated an idea. Since the timing between when the flap would rise and fall had a strange tendency to randomly change, she decided to bypass it by pulling a tail wheelie. In return, she was able to land her wheels in front when it came time to complete the loop itself rather than enter headfirst into the tunnel.

Most drivers ended up going down through the tunnel which led them into the ocean where they would end up drowning.

This included Shank who was too busy trying to trip Mache over to the point where he fell headfirst into the water.

Once the remaining racers had driven past this final hurdle, they were able to move on to the next stage.

But it was here, where there were no preparations set beyond this point, that could help any of the racers see what would be coming up next.