The Oathsworn

by Liandra Jake

  "Alright. You can only bame yourself at this point." Rusty replied before unleashing hell.

  Two Drives working in tandem roared to life at over 20,000 RPM, delivering massive amounts of power to Guang Blau's four tires all at the same time thanks to properly tuned mechanics. Rusty and Hunter were thrown back by the sudden acceleration. Slower vehicles passed like lightning in reverse as Rusty passed them. A slight bump in the countryside, sent Guang Blau Sixty feet into the air. Hunter and Rusty had a moment of Zero-G before Guang Blau landed. They bounced three times until the rebound didn't send them back into the air.

  "Remind me to never tell you to do that again…" Hunter said as he tried to regroup his scrambled brain.

  "Agreed..." Rusty replied, trying to keep Guang Blau facing forward, a green tint to his face.

  After a few switches with Hunter, Rusty pulled into the first one hour checkpoint. Finch was far ahead, taking the lead on the second leg of the race. Rusty and Hunter both napped as they waited the mandatory hour. Hour up, Rusty and Hunter were woken up. They both quickly hopped into Guang Blau and Rusty started the Drives. Hunter rubbed his eyes sleepily. Rusty gave him no warning and floored it once again. They left two trenches behind as they flew from the checkpoint.

  "Whoah!" Hunter exclaimed as he was thrown sideways against the back seat.

  "I'm not going to lose to that rookie." Rusty growled.

  A while later, the car jerked to the right as Rusty encountered rocky ground common to the harshest parts of the wastelands. The giant explosion after it however, was not.

  "HOLY FUCKING SHIT!" Hunter exclaimed as Rusty wrenched the car back to a forward position.

  From behind a large outcropping of rocks, a tank drifted into view. The words 'Celestial Rim Racing' were painted on the side. A turret with six barrels was pointed in their direction once the tank straightened itself. "You've got to be fucking kidding me." Rusty said slowly with a slack jaw.

  The hellfire from the tank snapped him back to reality. Rusty swerved, weaving between the large outcrops of rock at 200 MPH. "You wanna be a drifting tank? Fine. But you'll never hit me at these speeds." Rusty said mockingly at his rearview mirror.

  The tank burst through the rocky outcrops at high speed, turret facing the other way to give an intense speed boost.

  "So you've got speed now, but you can't hit me like that!" Rusty exclaimed.

  Rusted slid Guang Blau down into a short trench. "HAHAHAHAHAHA!" He laughed as the tank dropped in after them. The turret was still facing backwards.

  "Rusty are you insane!? You can drive like this in here!" Hunter exclaimed.

  "He can't turn his turret in here. And his advanced movement won't serve any use in such a narrow-" Rusty stopped as the turret flipped over the top of the tank. "…Shit."

  Rusty flipped to switches on his dashboard, reversing the direction of the front passenger and rear wheels, sending them into a sudden quarter-spin. As the wide front driver and rear passenger wheels came into contact with the walls of the trench, Rusty cranked their power up so highly that the entire car "hopped" into the air, still twisting enough to land perpendicular to the trench, but up on the ledge. Rusty flipped the switches back and returned everything to normal.

  Hunter's jaw was hanging open. "Whuh?" He managed to say, raising his hands for answers.

  The man hidden in the tank had the same expression on his face. Rusty was too busy concentrating to reply. He ducked behind some rocks to stay out of sight. The tank raised its turret to the sky. Rusty was confident in their escape until a rocket from above exploded on impact with the ground beside the front driver tire.

  It popped, releasing a gas that kept the tires from igniting from friction. The gas had a chemical reaction with the air from which the byproduct doused part of the explosion, but created a massive amount of smoke. Rusty coasted briefly before stopping. Satisfied with the damage he thought he did, the tank swiftly retreated.

  Rusty doused the flaming tire with a fire extinguisher as Hunter called Kyrel. "Celestial Rim just tried to take us out. Rusty is currently assessing how screwed we are." Hunter said.

  "We're okay! We just need a replacement!" Rusty exclaimed.

  "What? Rea-" Hunter stopped and conveyed Rusty's exclamation to Kyrel.

  "Alright. So it's Celestial Rim then." Kyrel replied.

  "Many of the other teams have been dropping like flies. Few have even made it to the first checkpoint. Cris is already on the tire situation. A few of the survivors say the attacks were heat seeking, and annihilated their Drives."

  "I know our Drives create very little heat, but why did it go for the tires and not us?" Hunter asked.

  Malkex could be heard saying something. "Malkex says that the tires are meant to withstand the insane friction they have to deal with, but they aren't fireproof. It would seem your Drives as well as that air conditioner has saved you on that one. The tires were much hotter than the rest of the car, drawing the attention of the attack." Kyrel replied.

  "I've never heard you so serious before." Hunter said with a surprised look on his face.

  "… I have to go. Cris, Pike, and Duke just stole a one of the security vans."

  Hunter raised his eyebrows at his phone. "We've got a wait ahead of us." Hunter said to Rusty before climbing into the backseat to take a nap.

  [X]

  Arend parked his buggy beside Tommori's rental. "You four needn't worry, I just have to register our vehicles." Tommori called over.

  Isle scurried about checking the wagon, still half asleep. "Looks like everything's secure…" Isle called groggily to Tommori.

  "Ight!" Tommori called back, hopping back into the driver's seat. "Pull up behind us! We can tow you through the streets!" He called to Arend. Isle plopped back into Tommori's buggy.

  "What's with the kid?" Corenden asked Arend.

  "No idea." Arend replied.

  "Aren't you gonna say something?" Michael asked. "Tommori's working that kid like a slave."

  Arend turned back to him. "I know Tommori; he's not one to do something like that for no reason. As far as we know, the kid may be paying for trying to steal something. If you have a problem with it, you ask him. I don't have to always be the one getting into stuff like that." Arend replied.

  Tommori pulled forward, with Arend following close behind. Even with the thick smog, Arend could see the wagon in front of him. They collectively looked up as they passed under the gateway of the city. Arend bumped the back of the wagon gently. He stopped as Tommori and Isle hopped out. Tommori waved them over as Isle disappeared into a small stone house just past the gate. A man walked out afterwards, nodding to Tommori and hitching the wagon and Arend's buggy together with a chain.

  Arend and the others climbed out to meet with Tommori. A pitch black Pog standing about 6' 11'' blended in with the smog surrounding Tommori. Tommori pointed to the giant plateau at the center of the city and said something Arend couldn't make out. The Pog nodded and climbed into Tommori's buggy. Looking around closely, numerous black Floxes could be found, even more if you could pick them out of the sky.

  "This is Main Street; one of two streets that you can actually get a buggy down. Life here is pretty simple; wake up, go to work, get paid, go home. This isn't the place for tourists, so you'll find trouble getting a place to sleep if you don't know the right people. Any of the real interesting things are at the Central Foundry." Tommori explained as they walked alongside the buggies. Corenden had trouble waddling along fast enough to keep up.

  "There's a lift at the base of the plateau for the buggies, I should be able to find you a stable engine up there." Tommori continued.

  Arend' group continually bumped into the passing black Floxes, but Tommori walked without issues as they shifted to let him pass.

  "Could you wait up a bit?" Corenden asked as he tried to hurry after them.

  "Why not fly? Wouldn't it be faster?" Michael asked.

  "The air here is full of pollutants. The Floxes here are strong
enough to handle them, but you little friend is too small." Tommori explained.

  "That and it would dirty my fur to the point I'd look black." Corenden added.

  The convoy reached the lift in little time. It was a ten by fifteen piece of metal about five inches thick. It was hooked to a rolling system powered by a massive winch. A ratcheting system prevented the platform from falling. The Two buggies and the wagon were loaded onto the lift side by side, with barely enough room for everyone to stand. Tommori and Arend stood together, leaning onto Tommori's rental and looked out at the city.

  Just how poorly they lived struck Arend. "Why Tommori? There's nothing here but smog, death and pain. They work for hours with no end. How does it get like this?"

  Tommori was quiet for a long time before answering. "I don't know Arend. Try as I might, I can't get the standards to rise. I tried to find filters for the smokestacks, but they are used up in days. Not weeks, days. They have nowhere else to go, and only know work like this. I've tried forming a Guild to rake in more money, but we've never been accepted by anyone."

  "I could help." Corenden offered. "I'm an official member of Dragon's Den, and as a Pog, I can put in a good word for them."

  Tommori laughed quietly, no joy or humor in his voice. "Dragon's Den isn't much of a Guild."

  "What would you know!?" Arend snapped. "Dragon's Den is full of fantastic people who go out of their way to help each other. We trust each other to go head on into a fight others would say is impossible, just to help someone in trouble. Even if I'm a rookie and only known a small amount of people in my Guild, I know any one of them would die to help someone who needs it. I also know there are thousands of people who feel the same way throughout other Syndicates."

  Tommori shook his head slowly. "Stubborn and childish as always."

  A gigantic explosion rocked the entire city. The winch cable snapped a yard before the platform would have reached the top of the plateau. The sky was lit up by sixty foot flames. Chucks of rock and metal rained down with a blanket of ash and soot.

  Tommori's eyes widened. "The Korvan of the main furnace, they've overloaded!" The black Pog in the buggy exclaimed. Tommori was frozen in place until Arend made his move.

  He tossed his bag into his buggy and climbed up the ledge. He disconnected the motor from the winch spool and dislodged the cable, feeding it through the loop the cable used to connect to on the platform.

  "Corenden! Get that winch moving!" Arend yelled.

  Corenden hurried over, dropping from the sky next to the disabled winch. He kicked the spool back towards the motor, reengaging it. With a sharp rip on the starting cord, the motor roared to life.

  Arend climbed back onto the plateau with the cable in his hand. Gritting his teeth and digging his feet into the earth, he struggled to keep a grip on the cable as the winch began to lift the platform. Two incredibly muscular, black furred hands grabbed the cable in front of Arend' hands. The black Pog that was driving the buggy grounded himself and pulled back against the winch. The two hauled up the platform with the help of the winch, dropping the cable with equally bloodied hands.

  Michael tossed them both a roll of bandages. "Do you think you could dump out that wagon and collect any of the injured?" Arend asked the Pog as he rapidly wrapped his hands.

  A knowing smile spread across his face as he tightened the bandages on his hands. "Hell yeah I can." He replied with a deep voice. As the Pog hopped into the buggy, Arend headed straight for the building belching out smoke and fire.

  "Wait up Arend!" Corenden called as he followed him into the burning building.

  "Fuckin' hell! It's too hot in there!" Tommori yelled, charging after them.

  Tommori had to dive out of the way as his buggy swung around and scattered the contents of the wagon and sped off around the foundry. A burst of flame shot out through a hole in the thin metal of the building as Richard tackled Tommori to the ground.

  "God fucking…" Richard growled as he charged towards the building as Tommori hastily retreated to the platform.

  Tommori gave a shocked look to Richard as he disappeared into the flames. The large, superheated room blasted Richard with a hot wind. He could see Arend and Corenden helping Floxes trapped under a collapsed support tower though the twisting air.

  Richard joined them, shattering the crisscrossed frame with a rapid palm strike. "Put your whole body into the strike; have zero fear and punch through!" Richard shouted over the roar of the flames.

  Arend nodded, mimicking him and scattering the remaining frame with an impossibly strong strike. Corenden helped pulled the Floxes out of the remaining debris.

  A hanging crucible shattered in the heat, spilling molten metal across the floor in a wave of fire. Arend threw both Floxes over his shoulder and joined the others on a raised platform to avoid the molten metal. Tommori was on his knees outside, his tears evaporating in contact with the earth.

  "They aren't going to make it. With heat like that, nothing can survive."

  "Get out of the way." Michael growled. Tommori glanced back.

  Michael was in Arend' buggy, a massive net of sparks jumping above his head. Tommori could barely roll aside as Michael floored it; headed straight through the foundry's disintegrating walls. The Drive's shield defied the intense heat, protecting the tires from the molten metal. Michael spun the buggy around, touching the lip of the platform with the back tires.

  "Let's go!" Michael called out, revving the Drive.

  The buggy was soon filled with both people and Floxes. The buggy sank slightly in the molten metal. Arend was the only one left on the buggy, noting the sinking as he climbed atop the frame. Michael squirmed aside to make room for Arend as he took control.

  "Corenden, I need a favor." Arend said as he placed his foot gently on the throttle.

  "What?" Corenden asked, confused.

  "I need the power leak to stop for at least five seconds." Arend replied.

  "I don't…" Corenden stopped and glanced back at the Drive. With each rotation, the buggy would vibrate as the inner ring wobbled, slowing the rotation of the Drive. Corenden sighed. "This is going to hurt isn't it?" Corenden asked.

  "Yes, but its better than burning to death isn't it?" Arend replied.

  "Everybody hold on to something!" Corenden called out as he removed the Drive's cover.

  "Ya'll ready to rock!?" Arend shouted out as he revved the Drive.

  "Overclock!" Corenden shouted as he slammed both hands onto the Drive. The instant it clicked, Arend floored it. Corenden gritted his teeth as electricity arced over his hands.

  'One…' A part of the sheet metal roof collapsed, sinking into the molten metal.

  'Two…' The buggy pulled forward, sending most of the unprepared Floxes back into Corenden. Corenden had to resist the massive pressure to push down harder on the Drive.

  'T-three…' Corenden knew that if he gave in to the pressure, Five Pillar would activate and release a power he couldn't handle.

  'Four…' Corenden pushed back against the weight behind him. The front wheels bumped onto the fallen sheet metal, sending a second jolt through the buggy.

  Corenden's leg slipped, releasing the full force of the weight behind him onto the Drive, pushing it all the way to Limit Break. "FIVE!" Corenden shouted out as the entirety of the buggy was coated in arcing electricity. The shield absorbed most of it, but the remainder knocked out everyone but Arend, who was paralyzed to the point he could only keep the buggy facing forward.

  Jumping high into the air, the crew I the buggy were heads straight for the wall of the foundry. The thin metal crumpled like tissue paper as the shield collided with it, not slowing them down at all. They bounced as they landed outside, still driving forward as Arend tried to will his foot to brake. Tommori and the black Pog in the other buggy watched as they drove over the edge of the plateau.

  Free falling from the plateau, it was a miracle one of the large crane hooks was directly in their path, snagging on the upper frame of the buggy.
The buggy swung back and forth, turning slightly as it hung off the hook. The Dragon Drive sputtered and came to a stop just as Arend passed out completely.

  [X]

  Rusty pulled into checkpoint two at full speed, drifting to a stop. Finch was just preparing to take off. Rusty and Hunter finally got a good look at his car. It was bright red, resembling a high dollar sports car. "C.R Racing" was written in bunched letters across the side. The side of the vehicle was too short to fit all the letters. Rusty and Finch locked eyes as Finch started the Drive turbine at the rear of his car.

  Rusty was sure he saw a dark, smug look pass onto his face as he pulled away in a jet of flame. "Hunter, call Kyrel and tell him there may be a situation with the C.R Racing guy. Find out what C.R means."