Typhoon

The ocean is a force of both serenity and power. One moment, you're braving the toughest current you've ever faced, but if you manage to push through that riptide, if you can crest the last tidal wave... you could be in for miles and miles of calm seas and clear skies.

That's the situation I've found myself in, readers. Clear skies. Finally, some relief, and some happiness. A lot of good news, I can say that much, but if I spoiled it all in the opening paragraph, that'd just defeat the point of you guys checking the whole post out, wouldn't it? The Blue Thunderbolt is back at it again with another post, and one that, admittedly, I haven't been sure how to nail the wording on for a while. After fixing up Impavido 1, I made sure to slip the Jungle Realm Accelecharger back to Emma. The good news is that she's starting to walk again after her wreck in the Fog Realm (see "Hazy Future" for more details). I might have made good use of it during the Cavern Realm, but in the end it wasn't mine. My performance in the Jungle Realm was way too subpar for me to be worthy of it. If I was gonna win a Racing Realm, it would be through my own skills. And on that note...

Right after the conversation I had with Emma, the alarms started blaring and denoting the start of a new Realm. The majority of us rushed over to ready up, and out of the fifteen drivers that were called into the Realm, here were some of the most important participants. First and foremost-- myself, Mike, Shuvi, and Wyre were all called in, giving us a full squadron except Veronica, who still didn't have a car built. Other drivers of note were Thomas, Willem, Brick, and Robin, each of whom I've talked about before on this blog, for better or for worse. As we raced down the drag strip into the portal, Terra and Dresden informed us over comms that we'd be zipping head-first into a Water Realm. If you know anything about me, the Blue Thunderbolt... you'll know wet road conditions are my forte. Unfortunately, when we crossed the portal, we found out that this was a bit different than just wet road conditions.

Underwater. The Accelerons just full-on dropped us underwater. When we first dropped into the dark abyss, no light to be found and no motion from our cars, there was a whole lot of radio-wide confusion, but when I flicked on my Hyper Beams and found myself falling slowly down while surrounded by all of these huge, terrifying, alien fish... I think Kyle put it best when he said "oH GOD I WISH I WAS DEAD" over comms. Fortunately, the Accelerons are race track designers, not masochists, and not long after, we banged down onto a platform, which would generate a bubble around it as it lit up with green lights, giving us room to drive around and breathe. Not long after, part of that bubble rippled outwards, forming a tube-like path of solid water for us to drive upwards, like a car-sized pipeline. It's surreal, hard to describe, but clearly the Accelerons knew what they were doing... and before we knew it, we had surfaced.

Now this was a breath of fresh air, both figuratively and literally. Oh yeah, all footage from this Realm comes from Impavido's dashcam-- I figured it was picturesque enough to go back and grab some shots for. Point is, the tropical surface of the Water Realm was a lot more my speed, dotted with the occasional section where the track was drenched and forced us to manage our oversteer. Once again, this is the exact kind of environment I excel in. Shuvi and I sped through the track nearby each other, with Mike and Wyre being separated by the positioning as all of us drivers shared some light banter back and forth. Unfortunately, it was then punctuated by a heavy storm on the horizon.

I'll admit, seeing those grey clouds in the distance was tense-- bringing back memories I didn't want to relive. Shuvi and I were holding off both Robin and Scraps and continuing to blaze down the oceanic track when, in the far distance, we spotted worse news. Remember when I mentioned tidal waves at the start of this blog post? Yeah, far away it looked like one was revving up to form in the far distance. Fortunately, the Accelerons are, again, thrill seekers and not masochists, and up ahead there was a way back down underneath the surface-- the track dove underwater, encased in a tube of that solid water substance from earlier! Slipping into a draft with Brick, I and everyone else made haste to reach that tunnel right before the wave could roar right over us. I get the feeling it would've been fatal had we been caught in the midst of it.

Going back underwater gradually deafened the noises of the rising storm behind us, and it was a racing experience that I don't think you could get anywhere else. Willem had been in the lead for the majority of the start of the race, but going down, the Hyper Beams duo of myself and Shuvi were able to slip past him, leaving the prick in the dust despite his attempt to leech off of my slipstream. Fortunately, we soon approached a fork in the road, and as a team, we agreed to all go left to try and rendezvous. Most of the major contenders to our throne-- Brick and Willem in particular, took the rightward road, giving myself and Shuvi a solid lead for the time being. Of course, being in the lead meant we were the hot topic on this path, and Scraps started to give us one hell of a fight-- until that showdown was interrupted by a break in the tube, a rippling and pulsating stretch of water being our only way forwards.

Turns out, the intended thing to do here was to find the right balance of easing off the accelerator and keeping your speed up to glide over the water without either sinking through or oversteering. Terra was there to explain it to us, and with that, I made a sleek and clean glide over the hydroplaning stretch. According to Ashton's radio chatter with him, Vert's actually a skilled surfer, so I can only imagine what it'd be like if he brought Power Rage into the Realm. I'm sure he would've done great! I was snapped out of that train of thought, however, when one of those monster anglerfish swam through the pipe behind us, being a stark warning that this Realm still wasn't smooth sailing-- those hydroplaning points were exposed to the open sea.

When the tracks merged, the underwater pipeline snaking around a colorful and gargantuan coral reef that I wish I had a good shot of, before I knew it Willem and Brick were slotting in ahead of us and Suki was right behind us. Oh, and worse, right in the back, CLYP made their presence known and began to attempt a charge up the pack, their robotic squadron accompanied by two Zed Agents. To make matters more complicated, Mike and Wyre were still separated from us. Thomas and Ashton had given them enough trouble that we were still scattered. A shot of Nitrox from both Shuvi and Suki kept us evenly matched as we sped suspended in the sea like submarines. Faced with another hydroplaning section, I'd finally take the lead of the draft as Shuvi would cloak, and when we raced out of it, we would continue to descend deeper into the sea, leaving behind the coral reef in favor of a dark blue abyss in a gradual decline. In the front of the pack, it was myself and Shuvi in a desperate stalemate against Brick and Willem. In the rear of the pack, CLYP was taking on Ashton, Thomas, and Wyre. Despite attempts from Bassline and Super Volt, there was no stopping the big bot's SUV, and it didn't held that Zed-34 and Zed-35 were giving the three constant harassment backed up by 5 Zeta units. Long story short, CLYP managed to zip by, and spilled mines down the track... and while Wyre was able to desperately swerve around them just in time, when they got remotely detonated, Super Volt got taken out, leaving Thomas to EDR just before his car was left as a burnt out husk.

The Drones continued to make their climb up to the front of the pack, approaching at a terrifying degree as we were soon faced with the mother of all split roadways-- two that went upwards, two that went downwards, and we were faced with too much of a varying choice for the Hyper Beams to all stick together. So, we agreed to go our separate ways and take our separate chances with independent choices. Not wanting to face the storm that had no doubt brewed on the surface, I sped down the downwards middle-left path, whilst Shuvi and Wyre both went on separate upwards routes-- far left and middle right, respectively. Mike followed me onto the middle left route, and in a shocking twist of fate, we shortly realized that we were the only SCRIM drivers who took this fork. It was just us, the deep blue waters, and the purple raceway that lied ahead. Or at least, so we thought.

Initially, we were in the middle of the most serene and calming Racing Realm experience we'd ever had. Racing past a hydroplane section left only a tube of solid water, no track, like the pathway from the start of the Realm. It was now just a blue void around us, and the sound of our engines being pushed to their limits at speeds over 200 miles per hour. A perfect time to take some deep breaths and maybe share some snarky confidence. Unfortunately, that would be cut away when Chicane would uncloak out of the blue, hitting the Nitrox and deploying its Lava Plow in an attempt to ruin our day. We swerved out of the way as it blazed path, before the vehicle would flick on its Mega-Bass, some warbled and dissonant nonsense tones emitting from it, the soundwaves deterring us from being able to get up close to reclaim first place. However, it's not that easy to get rid of us when you're dealing with the Hyper Beams-- and especially when you're dealing with me and Mike. Flicking on the Scramblers, I made sure to engulf Chicane in them long enough to fry the Mega-Bass, allowing Mike to slide right in with his OWN Mega-Bass use, and the moment the driver broke focus... I was there to hit the Nitrox and slam into its rear to send it spinning, easily dispatched of. Confident in our victory, the purple track returned to use as we must've been just inches above the seafloor, and our confidence was only heightened when we spotted the prize of this lonesome pathway off to the side of the road.

That, my readers, is the Rocket Socket Hyperpod, the same kind that Kenji used to blaze down the track at unparalleled speeds back in the Glacier Realm. Needless to say, I quickly loaded Impavido into its cockpit and had Mike grapple onto its rear to catch the speed... and we took off. If you thought going 300 MPH with Nitrox was insane? Try 514 with this thing! When I say it's the most exhilarating experience I've had in my life, I mean it! Rocketing up the incline back up towards the surface as Mike and I instinctively shouted our heads off at the G-Forces was something almost indescribable, the whole world becoming a blur tinted slightly golden as we continued to shoot upwards, and upwards, and further upwards... until we shot up past the water's surface, kept going, and then launched out of the tube into the open air. The moment we did, however, we were immediately struck by culture shock on how polarizing the surface was compared to what it looked like before the storm clouds rolled in.

This was a far cry from the tropical seascape of the earlier portions-- a typhoon-like hellscape, with roaring waves crashing around the track, a deep blue sea under a grey layer of clouds. Dark red rock formations, made duller by the shadow of clouds, populated the landscape-- if you flew off the track, your car would likely soar right into one. Immediately upon landing onto the purple track, we were faced with rain beating down onto the roads, and strong winds preventing the use of the Jump Jets to skip parts of the road. And then, we were immediately greeted by a hydroplaning section-- but this was different than the previous ones on the surface. Here, the track dipped fully underwater for the duration of the waterlogged segment... in normal conditions, this would be fine enough, but in this weather? You either made sure you could skim and glide over the water's surface, or you'd be swept away by the waves... and of course, if you lost control, there would be no going back. This was it. And just like the environment and track was struck by dozens of waves, the same went for my emotions.

I've already delved into what happened to my old friend Alex Hysannes five years ago, and the stormy environment felt all too similar to the streets that crash happened in, just amplified to an Acceleron level. My adrenaline rush from the Hyperpod turned to tension as I ejected from it, and Impavido soared through the air down towards the track... time slowed down as I clutched the steering wheel tightly, as if reality was trying to distort to make me suffer my past mistakes again... but a thunderbolt crackling in the sky snapped me back to reality as my focus raced back to me. I'd gone through so much already... the Hyper Beams had nearly collapsed, Tetsuya had nearly died in the Fog Realm, but my own effort and determination didn't let that happen... so I let that determination flow into me, set myself to conquer this landscape, and began to ride on-- through the lightning.

Tension still ran through my veins even as Mike and I stormed through the roadway, determined, because there were still four pipelines side-by-side with the ones I shot up to the surface from, and before I knew it, the other drivers were starting to filter out through them. Including the last person I wanted to see-- Willem. With 25 minutes left on the clock and the rain beating down on Impavido's windshield, it was now or never. More drivers would reach the surface-- Wyre, Shuvi, Kyle, the works. Mike and I were in perfect sync, Impavido and Seared Tuner speeding along one by one, but Willem wasn't letting up, and as he made his approach on us, his vehicle, Split Decision, would cloak. Typical bitchless move. However, after our success in the previous Realm... we had an ace up our sleeves.

Mike's Cavern Realm Accelecharger works like a sonar-type form of echolocation, and likewise that allows him to counteract the cloak and figure out where Willem is to some degree. With Mike and Willem starting to get physical with their cars, I sped ahead and pulled away into the lead, a mutual trust between myself and Mike to hold off Willem. The end was inevitably drawing closer and closer by the second, and every one of those seconds mattered. With the lead mine and victory this close, I couldn't risk my success being stripped away from me when the portal had to be drawing nearby. And then, in the distance, I locked eyes with it. Glistening with a blue-green, wave-like symbol in the center, nestled in front of a cluster of maroon rock formations... and as thunder rumbled from the sky and waves crashed against the track, I knew everything was on the line.

While it was far from being in reach, the portal was now in our distant sights, and adrenaline flooded my mind as I skimmed over equally-flooded sections of track, careful to not lose control of my car throughout them. Before I knew it, Shuvi had slipped past Mike and Willem's battle, and things were getting more intense by the moment as the bright glow of the portal continued to shine even brighter through the sunken, stormy world around us. I don't understand how Shuvi got from 10th to 2nd so quickly, it doesn't really make sense to me, but hey, another Hyper Beams member in the mix is always welcome. With the lead drivers racing ahead, all that was left was one more left turn-- then two patches of crashing waves with short stretches of purple track in between them, requiring mastery of hydroplaning before a ramp into the shining portal! And fortunately, that mastery was trademark for the Blue Thunderbolt!

...Things, though, aren't always as simplistic as the surface implies. There's a whole ocean of underlying factors and waves to any given race, so to speak. Shuvi would pull behind me and recloak, as Willem would narrowly pull ahead of Mike-- and, with just two more patches of water to go, the mad doctor began to get desperate. Began to think the wind was with him... and he then proceeded to dump 3 bursts of Nitrox simultaneously to skip over the waves like a rock, trying to intercept me and knock me off the track, taking my car with me into the abyss.

...As if the Hyper Beams would ever let that happen to their leader. 

Y'see, Will made one crucial error in his calculation of the physics of his play. He forgot to account for the fact that, unlike him, I have friends. The Hyper Beams are a squadron who will fight with our backs against each other to ensure our success, and as he skipped over the crashing waves to try and crash into me... Trak-Tune uncloaked. Shuvi intercepted the strike, both of their cars colliding harshly and being swept away by the waves. Impavido 1, on the other hand, would zip into the portal like the strike of lightning that it was! Landing back into the SCRIMplex had me elated, as my vehicle would skid to a halt after flying out of the now-blue-green portal and landing. I was victorious.

I don't really know how to describe the feeling of winning an Accelecharger, because right after I flew out of the portal, I had other priorities. When, right after my car shot out, Willem and Shuvi went flying out into the EDR mattress, my priority quickly became making sure she was okay as Mike finished the Realm and landed beside me. The answer? No, not really, but she told me grabbing the Accelecharger was more important! And, granted, it probably was, but my concern for a teammate superseded that in the heat of the moment.

Going to the test track to experiment with the Accelecharger gave me some time to myself where I could reflect on the events of the Racing Realm, and truly grasp the weight of my victory. Once again it was just me, and the roar of Impavido's engine. It turns out that the only reason why the Racing Drones didn't rain on our parade was that Brick and the group on his route had made a valiant effort to hold off their lieutenant... a move that cost Jackhammer, the revelation coming as a major shock to me. Even though we had been winning the Racing Realms, it was becoming clear that CLYP was battering our defenses with each race. The Fog Realm took five of our vehicles as casualties. The Water Realm took four. Still, with the rush from winning on my mind, it was easy to look past that in the moment and focus on testing the Accelecharger, the prize for my success. My testing let me figure out that, in addition to generating a nifty blue-green glow around my car, it generates a static shield of displacement that diverts and disperses liquid and gaseous materials that come into contact with it. This also allows the car to glide over water like a deity. Pretty ironic, actually, since a lot of the early-race banter we had was Biblical jokes.

After testing out the Accelechargers, I had to swing by the infirmary to ensure the safety of Brick, Shuvi, and... of course, Tetsuya. He'd been out of action since his awful crash in the Fog Realm, and none of us were sure if he would ever wake up again.

...But he did.

I must've been waiting by his side for at least an hour, but his eyes opened. He came back to consciousness-- and god, was that such a relief. I can't even describe how overjoyed I was to know his life wasn't over, that he was still in it. It was tough to break the news about Road Rocket, sure, but the life of a driver matters more than the life of their car. We spent some time getting caught up before Emma, Brick, and Kenji filtered in, and from there I let them take over the conversation.

I may have won the Water Realm, but that victory wasn't purely for myself. It wasn't even purely for my team, as proud as I am to have won it for the Hyper Beams back-to-back. Instead, what speaks volumes are the words I said right before Impavido crossed the portal at the end of the race...

Elton.

Alex.

Tetsuya.

This one's for you. 

-The Blue Thunderbolt