#raceway kinger

[an-albino-pinetree]

Some really tiny guys with their choice of drinks, because I got inspired! -v-

@theamazingdigitalraceway

AU by @thescarletnargacuga !

[thescarletnargacuga]

THE AMAZING DIGITAL RACEWAY AU RACERS

READ THEIR STORY HERE!

Art by @iamespecter

[sweethoneyrose83]

[theamazingdigitalraceway]

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The truth of Caine and Abel is revealed! Seth gives Pomni the help she needs to avoid capture! Abel's labyrinthian city is dense and confusing. Can pomni navigate it before her friends abstract? It may already be too late.

WARNING: physical violence/torture, intense action, abstraction, alcohol

~~~

The silence of the In-Between was palpable. Only Seth and Pomni existed in the space between spaces. Darkness in all directions. Only light was from the low silver fire that glowed in a circle created by the motorcycle. The muted city beyond the clear barrier in bounds gave off flashes of lightning from a heavily clouded sky.

Pomni watched Seth carefully. His shadowed stoicism betrayed no clear motive. Knowing what was happening to the others made her stomach twist into knots.

Seth took another long drag and tossed his cigarette away with a heavy exhale of silvery smoke. "You'll understand better if I just show you."

The smoke enveloped Pomni. It smelled like dust burning on hot coils mixed with an electrical fire. "Hey! What-!?" Pomni coughed and gagged on the foul smelling smog as it burned the corners of her eyes. When the smoke cleared, she was still staring at nothing, but now Seth was gone as well.

The sound of a computer booting up startled her, like she'd heard in her dreams. Green text scrolled in front of her as though on a large projector. All of it was mirrored, like she was seeing the text from the inside of the screen. The unrecognizable code was followed by a response command being typed out in front of her. Then, the text went away. The screen slowly brightened.

"Hello? Can you hear me?"

Pomni squinted against the light. There was a large blurry silhouette beyond the warped glass. It sounded like Caine, but less boisterous and with no showman cadence.

"Come on, your live audio processing should be functional. I triple checked the darn thing."

There was typing on a keyboard and the figure leaned closer to the screen, the face coming into view. Before her was a young man, likely no older than twenty, with slicked back black hair and patchy facial hair. Focused, light blue eyes squinted behind wide brimmed glasses.

"Okay, how about now? Can you hear me, T.R.U?"

There was another beat of silence until a robotic version of the young man's voice responded. "I can hear you. Good morning, Abel."

"HAHA! YES! It speaks! Finally!" Abel jumped out of his chair with both fists in the air. "They are going to eat their words! Oh my goodness, I need to get you ready for presentation!" Abel threw himself back into his chair, nearly falling over. "T.R.U., you have NO idea what you're going to do for my grade!" Abel's grin was ear to ear as he started to fade into smoke.

"I almost forgot how he smiled." Seth's voice spoke in the back of Pomni's mind.

"You were a science project?"

"At first. We became more than that rather quickly." The smoke cleared to a workshop camera view. Abel was hunched over a workbench with a soldering tool working on delicate electronics.

The robotic voice of T.R.U sounded more refined when it spoke this time. "You're going to turn into a shrimp sitting like that all the time."

Abel stopped working and stretched. "Ugh, too late for that. But, a worthy sacrifice to get this done. Mark my words T.R.U, one day I'll be able to visit you in the digital realm. I've always wondered what video games would be like on the inside. Can you imagine playing something like Legend of Zelda in person!? That would be cool."

"It's all JavaScript to me." T.R.U verbally shrugged.

Abel laughed. "Well, as soon as that grant money comes in, I'll be able to get this done faster. Maybe even hire help. We're going to show dad- I mean, the world that you aren't just a cool AI program. No, you are THE AI We'll revolutionize the digital space! If computers are the future, then YOU will be the razor's edge! The ultimate Technical Research Unit!"

"There is more to learn? I've already gathered what I could from your limited internet."

"Give it time. It'll grow, and you'll grow with it. By the turn of the millennia, I bet you'll be ready to go global!" Abel was excitedly pacing the room, looking right into the camera at the end of his declaration. "The only thing is, you have the voice but you need a face. That's going to take work." He picked up a wind-up chattering teeth toy from his desk and let it go clacking along.

The workshop disappeared into smoke and changed to multiple visions of Abel. Each scene, he looked a bit older. Seth's voice sounded more downtrodden. "We were like brothers once. We spent every moment together. In hindsight, I don't think he had a lot of real friends. He spent his time teaching us on top of working on his own projects. Things were good. Until the world took notice." The scenes around Pomni changed from screens inside Abel's home to big atrium crowds and board office presentations. Hundreds of eyes were on her and her stomach sank.

Pomni swallowed hard. "You got famous. Did money split you apart?"

"No...I wish it was that simple." Seth's smoke whirled around Pomni like a tornado, wiping away the memories and revealing a new one. Abel was sitting in front of his computer, face in his hands. He looked disheveled and was sniffling.

T.R.U's voice was smoother, almost human, when it spoke. "Abel? Please, talk to me. What happened?"

Abel grabbed a brown bottle that sat just off screen and took a long drink. "...his plane went down over the Pacific. No reported survivors."

"Abel, I'm so-"

"Don't you fucking dare finish that sentence. I am so fucking sick of hearing it. Oh, Abel, I'm so sorry. I pity you since your father died before he ever got the chance to be proud of you for something. Not like he ever would have been." Abel grabbed a pill bottle and tossed back three small tablets.

"I believe he would have been. Please, don't be hard on yourself."

"He wasn't proud of me for creating you. He wasn't proud of me when I graduated early with my master's. He wasn't proud when I started my own company. It was never GOOD ENOUGH!!" Abel threw his bottle, shattering it against the far wall.

There was a long stint of silence as Abel devolved into tears on his desk. "You are enough, Abel. You always have been. For what it's worth...I am proud of you. I'm sure your father was too, even if he didn't know how to say it. Put on the headset."

Abel sniffed, "It's not ready-"

"Put on the headset." T.R.U said again, firmly yet gentle.

Abel seemed too drunk to argue logically. He picked up a large, cumbersome device that fit over his head like a helmet. A visor covered his eyes. He clasped it in place and pressed a button on the side. There was a jolt and, to Pomni's right, a whirl of code slowly formed the silhouette of Abel. He was very lightly detailed, barely recognizable as a person. Pomni had no control over her movements. She stepped forward and embraced Abel's vague avatar. T.R.U's words came from her mouth. "You are everything to me. Please, don't forget that. Tell you what, why don't you give me a human name? T.R.U feels like a title more than anything anyway."

Abel squeezed Pomni tight. "You are my first creation. My Adam, if you will. Let's go with that."

"Adam...I like it. I am Adam."

"I bet I can figure out a cool acronym for it." Abel chuckled through the tears.

"Yes, you will. Because you are the smartest human I know." Pomni arms felt empty as Abel turned to smoke in her grasp. She took a deep breath as she processed everything Seth had shown her. "Did you mean what you said?"

"At the time. Like I said, we were close. Things only escalated from there. C&A took off and we were pulled into tech interview after tech interview. Eventually, Abel got too busy to attend and it was just Adam. The majority of the reception to our existence was positive, but you wouldn't believe the Y2K conspirators. They were convinced we would take over the world." Seth gave a humorless laugh.

Something itched in the back of Pomni's mind. C&A. Y2K. Conspiracies. Buzz words that stirred something in her subconscious, but she couldn't pin it down. "So... where did it all go wrong?"

"The more the world saw Adam without Abel, the more he was excluded from interviews and presentations. Adam became known as the first and only of his kind. A fully self-sufficient AI that was so life-like, it may as well be human. The attention came with a lot of praise. Too much. It...went to our head." The smoke showed multiple news articles, digital and material, about the incredible invention that was Adam: The TRU AI. "I wish... we'd seen Abel's growing distain sooner. Maybe all of this could have been avoided. Maybe we could've still had the future we planned. I don't know..."

The smoke cleared to reveal a much older looking Abel. He was snuffing a finished cigarette into a very full ashtray. There were heavy bags under his eyes as he poured himself a stiff drink.

Adams voice spoke. "Okay, I'm back. Sorry, that took longer than expected."

Abel didn't say anything. He just drank.

"The board of directors was very impressed with my latest profit projection model. We won't have to cut corners to make quota this quarter. Leaves less room for error. Also, I was contacted by Tech Monthly again. They want to write an article about my influence on the new digital age. I haven't scheduled the interview yet, is there anything I need to work around this week?"

Abel finished his drink with a gruff groan. "...no."

"Excellent. I have the remainder of the evening to myself. What are you doing tonight?" Adam sounded genuinely interested to know.

"Getting my game ready for beta testing."

"Oh...you're still working on that?"

Abel's eyes flashed dangerously. "Yes. I am. It's a hell of a lot better than dealing with stuffed up fat cats in suits that only care about how much money your invention makes. The headsets are ready. The game just needs a little more work."

"Abel, I mean well when I say this, but your talents are wasted on video games. Why merely entertain people when you can be on the leading edge of digital technology?"

"Why can't I do both?" Abel growled.

"You can. It just seems you've split your attention too far in two different directions. You're the CEO of one of the most influential up and coming tech companies. This is your chance to make your mark on the world."

"Like you would understand anything about that. You've existed for all of eight years and you think you know what's best for me??"

"I've spent my entire life with you! I literally know you better than anyone, even yourself!"

"If that was true, then you'd know that going inside games was literally what I built this for!" Abel showed a sleek headset. "If the technology didn't take so long to improve, it would've been my thesis project instead of you."

"...what?" Adam sounded shocked and devastated. "You- you said I was your greatest accomplishment."

"You're my research assistant." Abel said coldly. "But the world had to go and make a big deal about AI. You were never meant to end up like this. Stealing limelight that is rightfully MINE!" He slammed his glass down, turning to smoke.

Everything faded, giving Pomni a chance to process. "I still don't see how this results in him being trapped in his own game, Seth. What did Adam do?"

"He defended himself." The smoke cleared to reveal a view from the highest penthouse overlooking a massive digital city. Colorful fireworks exploded in the distance. "It was New Year's. Abel and Adam were supposed to be celebrating with his shareholders in the new digital space. But, as you can imagine, all anyone wanted to do was interact with the fancy AI in person."

"YOU!!" Abel's realistically human avatar stormed through the crowd and got in Pomni's face. "Who the hell do you think you are!? Do you know who I am!? I'm your creator! I'M supposed to be the one recognized! Not YOU!"

Pomni put her hand out in front. Her sleeves were black and wore off white gloves. Adam's voice came from her. "Abel?? How much have you had to drink? You're slurring."

"It doesn't matter! You! You're disgrace! All everyone talks about anymore is YOU! When I am the one slaving away behind the desk! I gave you a face, but you weren't supposed to use it like this! I gave you EVERYTHING! Without me, you are NOTHING!"

The shareholders standing around them awkwardly muttered amongst themselves. Some disappeared as they activated the exit.

"Abel, please, you're causing a scene. Can we talk elsewhere?"

"NO! I want witnesses." Abel snapped and digital chains wrapped around Adam, pulling him to his knees on the floor.

"What is this!? What are you doing!?"

"Something I should have done a long time ago." Abel snapped, summoning an admin hologram on his arm. "You were right, Adam. The game is a wash, but there is one thing I can do with it." He typed in a confirmation code and the city outskirts started to crumble. "I can watch you die."

The party guests started to panic, leaving in droves. The building beyond the window collapsed to dust, the night sky disintegrated, the world fell into a bright white void that came ever closer. Adam struggled against the chains. "Abel, stop! Don't destroy everything you built! Please!"

Abel looked down on Adam coldly. "I've always wondered what fear would look like on you."

Adam saw the void getting closer, the building they were in started to quake. "You'll delete yourself too!"

Abel laughed, "I'll be fine. System failsafe. Players are automatically ejected in the event of a catastrophic failure. I'm simply enjoying this while it lasts."

"No! No, no! Please! Don't kill me!"

Abel tilted his head in mocking curiosity. "Are those tears I see?"

"I don't want to die!" Adam's sleeves caught fire. The golden glow broke the chains and Adam launched himself at Abel. The glass separating them from the decaying outside shattered on impact. Adam had Abel by the front of his dress shirt and flew him high over the city. The once grand skyscraper they were occupying folded in on itself below them. The breaking sky glitched with multicolored lighting, the half faded clouds swirling chaotically.

Abel fought back, but he was overpowered by the desperate AI. Adam held Abel up. "If I die, I'm taking you with me!" Lightning struck Abel in the back. Blue static crawled over Abel's skin as he screamed in agony.

Then everything went white. It was overpowering, even when Pomni closed her eyes. She heard Seth again. "Adam pulled Abel into the game. Making him as real as the AI in this digital realm. Doing this took away Abel's admin access but...broke the exit. Adam couldn't leave either. He had inadvertently trapped himself with Abel inside the game, cutting himself off from the outside world."

The overbearing glare of the void opened to reveal Abel in chains, surrounded by fire. "The very first thing Adam built was a cell for Abel. Seemed fitting. The creation was now the creator." The fire blocked Pomni's vision of Abel, who hung his head low. "I suppose the Y2K conspirators were right, in a way. Adam did end the world for some. When the dust settled, only a small corner of the city had survived. Some back alley street racing mini game."

Seth's smoke parted to show an overview of what was left of the game. A tiny island suspended in the void. Thin illusions were all that separated the game from the vast emptiness. "It was bad enough that this was set to be our purgatory, but there was something we failed to consider. The beta testers."

Eight names pinged the arrival of the beta testers logging in. Their avatars glitched and malformed, turning into random anthropomorphized objects rather than full human models. One, Pomni immediately recognized. A tall white king chess piece with a purple robe grabbed over it. "Kinger!"

Seth sounded numb. "Back then, he went by Samson Kingsley. He was the head of coding and leader of the test team. He, of all people, never deserved this fate."

Kinger looked down at his strange body and his oddly shaped team. "Ha! Well, this is off to a great start." He said jovially. "Nia! Is that you?" He stared at the black queen chess piece.

"It's me, darling. What happened to our avatars?"

"No idea. This is a pretty big bug." Kinger snapped to bring up his admin hologram but nothing happened. "What the..?"

Then all eight avatars looked at Pomni like she had suddenly appeared. Adam's voice spoke for her. "I'm sorry, none of you have admin access anymore. The game is severely damaged."

"Adam? What are you doing here? What happened?" Kinger asked.

"A... catastrophic failure. I was here for New Year's and... something went wrong. I'm afraid none of you can leave."

"What do you mean-"

"There's no other way I can say it. You're stuck here. We all are. There's no outside communication. The exit is broken." Adam said bluntly.

A large, furry worm-like avatar glitched once. "We can't leave? Why!? What game are you playing!? It's not funny!!"

"I'm not playing any games. I'm sorry."

"I have a family!! My children!! My-my- AAAAAAAAAAA!!!" The worm's body split open to reveal black static. Colorful eyes peered out of the open wounds. The body enlarged and twisted in on itself. The abstraction thrashed about, unsure how to pilot its body. The testers ran behind Adam.

"What is that!?" Kinger screamed, holding onto Queenie.

The abstracted worm struck one of the other testers, who glitched and writhed on the ground. The second racer started to break apart into an abstraction himself from the pain.

Adam couldn't let this spread further. He snapped and the floor split open. The two monsters fell out of sight.

Smoke clouded Pomni vision again. She was breathing heavily. "Oh my god, it happened so fast."

"I know...we didn't know what else to do. The headsets were never meant to bring in whole people. Only they're active consciousness. The software was changed when Adam trapped Abel. And because the game was mostly deleted, it suddenly had so much memory to fill. It was trial and error to figure out what we could and couldn't do, Adam even integrated himself with the mainframe to try and make the experience more personable, but that came with its own problems..."

The smoke cleared to see the city changed. It was brighter, more colorful. Something out of an animated show rather than real life. Pomni was hovering over the street, hearing the rumble of engines fast approaching. Five cars zipped by underneath her and her vision flew after them. She recognized four of the five drivers now.

Kinger was in the lead with Queenie got on his tail. A yellow car threatened to pit maneuver Queenie, a tall purple anthro rabbit in the front seat. A light blue car came out of nowhere and sideswiped the yellow car. The driver was doll-like with red hair.

"Oh my god, I never knew Jax and Ragatha had been here so long."

"They arrived not too long after the beta testers, but unfortunately the majority was gone by the time they showed up. It was for the best. Adam was storing players memories away by this time to keep them from abstracting."

"That's why I don't remember anything? Caine was doing what Adam did??"

"Yes." Seth said flatly.

"My head is starting to to hurt." Pomni rubbed her temples. "You and Caine are Adam?"

"Yes."

"Why are you not anymore?"

"Remember that I said Adam integrating himself into the mainframe was a bad idea? Watch."

All five cars crossed the finish line in a tight pack. Kinger in first. The white chess piece jumped out of his car and cheered. "Woo! Oh yeah! Fifty win streak in the bag!" Another gold badge adorned Kinger's purple and white tracksuit.

"I almost had you." Said Queenie.

Kinger grabbed her hand and pulled her into a low dip. "Almost. But I still got it. Hail to the king, baby."

Queenie giggled. "You're such a dork." She pulled him in for a soft kiss.

"Well done, Kinger." Adam congratulated. "You've managed to claim all the available achievements for the races."

"Will there be more?" Asked Kinger.

"Uh, more?"

"Yeah, we can't race around the said city block forever."

"It- it's not the same. I've shifted the city around-"

"Moving obstacles doesn't count." Jax interrupted. "We want new tracks. New worlds. A change of scenery."

"Oh...um-"

"Can't you do whatever you want? You're the one pulling all the strings." Jax sneered.

Adam went silent as the buildings around them started to flicker. The whole city glitched and shifted. Kinger rushed to Adam, holding his shoulders. "Hey, hey, it's okay. He didn't mean to be rude. You're doing fine. You're still figuring this all out. You'll come up with something."

"...yeah..." Adam quietly sighed. "I wasn't designed to be a creative AI. I need...hmm. You guys rest, I'll have something for you in the morning."

Smoke overtook everything. Seth's voice sounded distant. "That... was the night of the divergence. I don't remember how it was done, but Adam split himself into two beings. The Racemaster and the Shadow. To keep the game from glitching, Caine and I were never made one with the game code itself, but we could still manipulate it. That is where my shared memories with Caine end. Not that my first memory with him is any better."

"Seth?" Pomni didn't like the weak cadence to Seth's voice.

The smoke settled to the ground to show Caine looking himself over. His suit was immaculate, not a digital stitch out of place. He snapped and a cane with a golden tire topper appeared out of thin air. "Ah, perfect. Oh, hello, Seth." Caine looked directly at Pomni. "You ready for your first race? If anyone makes it far enough ahead, that is." He chuckles.

"Sure. Whatever." Pomni felt herself say with Seth's voice.

"Oh, come now. Don't be like that. It'll be a great day. Nothing is holding me back anymore. I can create to my hearts content, and the game is mine to command. You-" Caine poked Seth in the chest with his cane. "-on the other hand, get to take everything else to the shadows of the new realm. Because you are the backup. I am Adam fully realized. You are everything he didn't want. That's why you only get to come out a play occasionally. So, until then." Caine snapped and Pomni fell though the floor. She fell and fell and fell into a vast black nothing. Smoke rose from her body, flashes of memories played around her as she continued to fall.

Riding a motorcycle. Silver fire. Kinger crossing the finish line before her. Holding a disembodied white gloved hand. Queenie abstracting. Kinger turning away. Caine having nothing but distain in his eyes. Sitting next to Jax, only for him to get up and leave. Ragatha striking Seth in the face. Gangle refusing to look at him. Abstraction after abstraction. A new racer. A mostly complete human woman with an exposed spin for a neck and a black void for a face. This woman filled every single memory that surrounded Pomni's decent. So many races. Fights. Overlapping conversions. Laughter. Holding her. Kissing her. Blue and silver fire danced. Shadows overtake clasped hands. Lily flowers poured from the memories, turning to smoke.

The smoke caught Pomni. She floated to a stop in front of an overwhelming memory, silencing all others. A race. The woman was on her own motorcycle, several lengths ahead. They were speeding down a long straight away. No other racers in sight. Without warning, the track ahead tore open. The void shined through the rift. The racer tried to stop, but twisted her bike too harshly in panic and went sideways. The motorcycle slid to the side, coming to rest against the track wall, while the racer went over the edge. Her reaching out for him was the last thing he saw from her.

"MANGO!" Seth teleported from his motorcycle to the rift, but she was already out of sight. He dove into the void without a second's hesitation. He called for her. Over and over.

The memory cracked with every call of her name. Eventually, it shattered. Falling apart and becoming smoke. Pomni was enveloped. Blinded by smoke she could suddenly smell again. She coughed and waved her arms to clear the smoke. Her feet found solid ground again. The smoke faded. She was in the In-Between, Seth was leaning against his motorcycle with a thousand yard stare.

"Seth?" Pomni said gently, stepping closer.

He blinked, jerking himself out of his trauma spiral. He looked away from Pomni. "You weren't supposed to see that last part."

"Who was she?"

"Everything." He answered quietly, taking an engraved metal lighter out of his pocket. He flipped it open and struck it. The bottom of the flame burned blue and faded to silver around it. "I came for you first... because you remind me of her."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Pulling you from that out of control car...it helped."

Pomni took a big step forward and hugged Seth. He almost dropped the lighter out of surprise. He closed the lighter and returned Pomni's embrace. He'd forgotten what these used to mean to him. He could feel Pomni's empathy without her saying a word.

~

Caine groans as Abel slams him against the same wall for the fifth time. The Racemaster slump to the floor, his tux glitched out to point of being unrecognizable. The chains holding his wrists yank him back up to his feet. Abel, in Gummigoo's body, got in Caine's face. "Where. Did. They. Go?"

"I told you...the In-Between." Caine wheezed out.

"That doesn't mean ANYTHING!! There is no such place in the game files!" Abel snarled.

"It's...it doesn't exist in the game. Or out of the game. It's a pocket in between the layers made by Adam before the divergence. I don't remember...how..." Caine was dizzy from the abuse, on the verge of losing consciousness. "But even if I did...I wouldn't tell you."

Abel growled, his gator persona vibrated with anger. He raised his clawed hand to strike Caine, but the walls started glitching out. Cries from the screens featuring the racers showed that they were avoiding sections of track that suddenly went missing. Abel dropped Caine, gripping his head. "Argh! Fuck! What is that!?"

Caine smiled. "Not so easy, is it? Controlling an entire game...and everything in it. Emotional outbursts lead to loss in concentration... and you don't want that. You merged directly with the game...bad move. I can tell you that from experience."

"Shut up!" Abel barked. He braced himself against his chair, waiting for the world to stop glitching. "I just need...more time." He grumbled.

Caine took a breath, finally having a break from the torture. He watched the racers on the POV holograms. "Hang in there. All of you. He can't keep this up forever."

~

"So, what do we do now?" Pomni asked, pacing.

"Frankly, I have no idea." Seth rolled the lighter in his hand, running his thumb over the engraved lilies.

"Well, I can't do nothing. Abel will get sick of Caine eventually. And who knows what he's doing to the others on the track. But you can't go out there. I don't have a kart-"

Seth stared at his lighter. "Actually...you might." He snapped and the shadows revealed a black and blue motorcycle. It rested on its kickstand surrounded by personal items, candles and silver lilies.

"That's her bike." Pomni said soberly. "You turned it into a memorial."

"One of the few things I've made. Here's the thing: that bike still holds an imprint of its last racer. Mango was...well, let's just say she had a fire in her that put mine to shame. You won't be able to just hop on and ride. But she would recognize me."

"Okay...why can't I just use your bike then?" Pomni gestured to the solid black motorcycle.

"Because it's just an extension of me. If you're serious about out racing Abel to get to the others, we need serious skill on our side. Mango was the best racer we ever had. I'd dare say better than Kinger in his hayday. We need her." He put his hand on the handbar and the dash lit up. The gadges glowed a soft blue and cycled through a start up, ready for ignition.

"Huh...Didn't think I'd ever hear you admit someone was better than you."

Seth shrugged. "What can I say? I'm weak for a woman that can kick my ass."

Pomni huffed a short laugh. "Alright then, what's the plan? Do we ride out on the same bike?"

"Sort of. You need my powers to get in and out of the in-between. Best way to do that is a shadow merge. You've seen me take control of Caine assets, yeah? It's similar. But, instead of taking over your body, you take over mine."

Pomni put her hands out in front of her. "You know what? I'm past the stage of questioning everything. Fine. Let's do this. Who knows how long the others have."

Seth held out his hand to Pomni. "Mind you, I've only done this once before."

"Great. I've never done this." Pomni took his hand and she was pulled in close.

Seth's silver irises glowed against the black surroundings. "Relax. Dance with me."

Pomni told herself not to question it and went along with Seth's movements. He waltzed her around the bikes, the darkness slowly overtaking them. He intertwined his fingers with hers as the shadows climbed up their bodies. The cold darkness became warm and comforting, like a lover's embrace. Pomni closed her eyes as the creeping shadows covered her face.

~

Abel rapped his fingers against the arms of his chair. Looking from POV to POV there was no sign of Seth or Pomni. "Bring me another drink." He grumbled, and Loo responded promptly. She brought him a tray of drinks to choose from. He didn't even look at her, just grabbed one at random.

Caine struggled to get up from where he was last left, and Loo went over to him to offer a hand.

"DON'T TOUCH HIM!" Shouted Abel between gulps.

Loo backed off, giving Caine an apologetic look.

"It's okay. Thank you, Loo, but don't get yourself in trouble over me. You're too sweet for someone like him." Caine manged to get to his feet. Not that he could go far, his chains were attached to the wall and he couldn't reach the chair even at full stretch of the chains.

Loo went to her set corner, waiting to be called again, but she kept glancing at Caine.

Abel tossed his emptied glass and stared down at himself. He snapped, turning the tracksuit black and blue. Including his hat. "Hm, that's a bit better."

"Pffffff, ahahahahahaha! Seriously? It took you this long to customize your avatar? That's the first thing Seth and I did when we got ours." Caine had nothing to lose. He wasn't afraid to get on Abel's nerves now.

Abel sent a bolt of lightning at Caine without acknowledging the comment.

"Then again," Caine groaned. "You've never had the best sense for fashion or flare. I mean, black and blue? What are you, an OC?" He cackled to himself through the barrage of lightning sent his way. It hurts, but he wasn't going to give Abel the satisfaction of hearing him scream anymore. "It's starting to tickle."

"AAARGH!" Abel roared, teleported to Caine, summoned a knife and dug it into Caine's chest. "Stop. Talking. You are the reason I'm here. You are the reason everyone is suffering. You're selfish, stupid little digital life was built on the misery of others! Every abstraction. Every person trapped. Is because of YOU! You will suffer, but it'll never be enough. Even if I get to do for the next twenty years! And the twenty after that! One day, it'll just be you and me in this digital space, but I will never delete you. Even when you BEG for it."

The pain silenced Caine. He put on a brave face to spite Abel, but inside was fraught with worry for Pomni and the others. "At least...she's safe..." He hoarsely whispered to himself when Abel pulled the bloodless knife from his body.

A dark blue streak across one of the POVs got Caine's attention. He squinted, trying to follow the anomaly from screen to screen. The speeding streak was near impossible to see in the low lights of the dark city.

"Finally. Enough out of you." Abel snapped the knife away and went back to his chair. As he sat down the streak zipped across the largest POV displayed. "What the-!? He's back!! You're not taking another racer from me!" Abel poised to snap but couldn't get a beat on Seth. The biker was moving in and out of frame too quickly. "Damn it! Sit still!" Abel snapped and the city shifted. Bay doors to buildings opened and cop cars poured out, blues light flashing. "Stop! That! Bike!"

Dark clouds gathered as blue lightning struck out from the top of the highest building in the middle of the city. Rain poured down in thick curtains, reducing visibility and slicking the already confusing track. Cop cars and helicopters where on Pomni like glue, despite the weather affecting them too. In Abel's rage, lightning struck a car, flipping it several times before exploding.

Pomni was backlit by an army of flashing lights. Her normally pale skin was inky black. Her eyes solid white and glowing. Every once red part of her tracksuit was now black. The blue stayed. The yellow trim was silver. Her hat was narrow and elongated, more aerodynamic.

The motorcycle beneath her screamed with determination to shake the competition. Pomni could feel Mango's imprint influence her moves. The hard right into the narrowest alley imaginable certainly wasn't her idea. Even more cops waited for her on the other side. The city was infested with them. She exploded out the alley, running down an NPC cop and ramping up the hood and windshield of the car. She jumped the barcode and swerved around a car that tried to run her down.

~

"Kill her! What are you idiots doing!?" Abel slammed his fist onto he POV console, causing it the glitch. He grabbed his head. A migraine ripped through his head.

Caine chuckled. "You'll never catch her. She's become a shadow racer. The very best the game has to offer." He smiled at the carnage. "Thank you, Seth."

~

Shadow Pomni was cornered by three cops trying to ram her into the side of a building. Instinctually, she teleported, and the cops crashed into the building, catching fire. Pomni then hit a neon booster, going even faster passed the swarming cops. The dark city streaked by, the rain flying off her tracksuit, doing nothing to slow her down. Rain drops evaporated by silver puffs of fire before her eyes kept them from blurring her vision.

~

"You have weapons! Fucking use them!" Abel snapped, trying to stop the bike.

"Weapons!?" Caine gasped.

~

Bullets flew over Pomni's head. She heard them ricochet all around her. She glances behind, narrowing her eyes. She revs the bike, blue and silver fire flared out the tail pipes like a dragon. The wet road is ignited by the mystic digital fire. It blocks the vision of those on the ground but gives her away to the helicopter.

The ground beneath her shifts and a building slides right in front of her, blocking the road. There was no where the turn. Pomni throttled it and popped a wheelie before hitting the side of the building. The fire blasted her straight up the face of the building, shattering the glass windows behind her.

An explosion to her left almost throws her, but she holds on. The helicopter has launched a rocket at her. She swerved to avoid another. When the bike reaches the top, she didn't slow down to run across the roof. Instead, she launched straight up as the helicopter sent another rocket her way. She grabbed the rocket and teleported behind the helicopter, releasing the rocket right into its tail rotor. The helicopter spun out of control and lost altitude.

Pomni teleported to a different roof and ran down that building to another city block, hoping to lose the cops long enough to find the other racers. The city was so big and constantly changing. Even with teleportation, the was no way for her to find them fast.

She had exactly one block to herself before she had six cars on her. Pomni teleported out of the line of fire, but was discombobulated on where to go. Just run. Her system was the highest it's ever been on the race rush. There was nothing she couldn't do. She spied a bridge connecting to another part of the city she hasn't searched through. Hoping to find the others there, she made a break for it.

~

"Oh, no you don't." Abel snapped. The bridge he saw her race for broke apart and started folding in on itself like a drawbridge.

~

Pomni was going to abandon the attempt, but the bike wouldn't brake. It was gunning for the bridge ramp at full speed. Silver fire trailed from the speed and adrenaline, giving her another boost.

"I hope you know what you're doing." Pomni leaned forward and held on tight.

The bike launched off the bridge and flew over the river sectioning the city. The bridge on the other side collapsed into the water before her very eyes. She teleported to the shore and stuck her middle finger in the air in proud defiance as she sped away. In a flash, she was out of sight.

~

"NO!! HOW!?" Abel frantically searched all the POVs. No sight of shadow Pomni.

"I hate to say I told you so-"

Abel was so mad, so lost in his anger, he doesn't know how he got to Caine so fast. "Finish that sentence, and I disassemble your code letter by number." The whole tower glitched. "Why are you so smug? She's not even coming for you. She's miles from the tower."

"I hope she doesn't. I wouldn't want her to catch your stench."

Abel smirked. "She didn't seem to have a problem with it when I promised her a way out. She's been against you from the start. They all have."

Caine broke eye contact for the first time.

"You deserve their hate and you know it."

"...maybe I do. I could never make their lives better. I certainly couldn't fix what Adam did."

Abel gripped Caine's collar. "You could have released me."

"I may not be him, but I know what you did. You think I'M petty? Who do you think I learned it from?" Caine matched Abel's glare again. "What's can't be changed, but you know what I've learned in my time being trapped with humans? Empathy. Compassion. Friendship. All the things you failed to learn in your twenty eight years of life before being trapped here. You're jealousy of Adam gave you THIS! You made this bed, now you can lie in it!"

"RAAAAH!" Abel shocked Caine hard against the wall. "I am your maker! You are my property!"

"So...the truth comes out...we were never brothers...were we..?" Caine said weakly.

Abel backed off, panting angrily. He huffed and lashed at the wall before going back to the POVs to look for Pomni.

~

Pomni teleported at random to stay out of sight. There were a few cops on this side of the river but didn't seem to notice her. An unfamiliar car speeding by her caught her attention. She sped up to ride along beside it and saw Zooble fighting to keep the car under control.

Pomni waved to get Zooble's attention. "ZOOBLE!"

Zooble's head snapped to the left. Their eyes went wide, looking Pomni up and down. "Pomni!?"

"Take my hand! I can get you out of here!"

"No! Get Gangle! She's just ahead of me!"

"I'll come back for her!" Pomni tried to grab Zooble but they swerved away.

"GET GANGLE FIRST!"

They both avoid a shifting overpass as they argue. Pomni knew there was no time, Abel could spot her any minute now that she found the others. She sped off ahead to the next car. It was swerving wildly, barely missing or scraping against walls. Gangle was behind the wheel, balling her eyes out in fear.

"Gangle! Ga- woah!" Pomni teleported from one side of the vehicle to the other as Gangle swerved around. "GANGLE!" Pomni pounded on the driver window.

"AAA!" Gangle jumped. "Pomni!?"

"Open the window! I'll get you out of here!!"

~

"There you are." Abel hissed. "I may not be able to summon you, but I can still do far worse." He snapped and all the cars came to a screeching halt. Pomni almost had Gangle but went speeding off. All the other racers in view had long, horrified stares to them. Some of them were muttering to themselves.

"What have you done?" Caine pulled against his chains to see the screens as best he could.

"Simply giving back what wasn't you're to take." Abel grinned evily at Caine.

"What..? Oh, no. NO! They'll abstract! Please! I beg of you! Don't hurt them!"

"Too late!!" Abel cackled, watching Zooble's eyes twitch.

~

Pomni I felt like someone was burying an ax in the back of her head. She saw flashes of faces she had only seen in her dreams, but now they had names. "Mom..? Dad..?" She had friends. She grew up in a small town just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She moved to Chicago for college. She graduated with high marks in forensic science. She went freelance as a private investigator. So many cold cases. So many missing people. A mysterious contact from someone claiming to have worked at C&A gave her a lead. An abandoned building. A headset. She had to wear the headset...

"My name...Oh my god, I remember my name!" She realized where she was and drifted to a hard stop and burned out as she turned around to get back to Gangle. She was still the closest other racer.

~

Zooble remembered everything. The abuse. The neglect. The rejection from their family and society. The body dysmorphia. It wasn't just them not liking their avatar in game, it was something that translated form their real life. They went to the abandoned C&A office for a video. They were an urban explorer. That's it. No special reason or motivation. They were here entirely by their own stupidity. The horrible realization...no one was waiting for them on the other side.

Zooble sat back in the driver seat in the parked vehicle. Without a word or even a scream, their body started to break apart. The spindly limbs split to reveal black static bulging from every crack. Their eyes fell off their broken head. The abstraction filled the car until it exploded.

~

Pomni just got back to Gangle's car, but she wasn't in it. Gangle and gotten out and ran back to try and get to Zooble, only to witness them falling apart. "Zooble! Zooble, no!!" Zooble's car blow it's roof as the abstraction became too big for containment. She put her arms up to shield herself from falling debris.

Pomni wasted no time, she skidded to a halt to safely grab Gangle and vanished.

~

Caine watched in silent, wide eyed horror.

Abel reveled in Caine's misery. "One down." His laugh echoed with Zooble's roar through the city.

~~~

CH1 PREV NEXT (coming soon)

[sinorjack19961226]

I may have not gotten all they’re names right but I’m not searching the deep web to find the correct names

[paper-fowl]

WAKE UP CALL

An OC oneshot, featuring The Raceway AU

( Au by @thescarletnargacuga )

Let's wake up our favorite snake, shall we?

WARNING: Mentioned death, Character death (abstraction), and panic attacks.

------------------------------#------------------------------

"You are not my friend, and never will be. Leave, now." The voice echoed inside her head, similar sentences swarmed her mind, the blaring of engines making it worse as it went on.

She wanted it to stop, she needed it to.

Tick...

Tock...

Tick...

Tock...

"AH-!" She yelped as she jumped out of bed, hitting her head on the bedframe. She groaned, sitting up slowly as she rubbed the top of her head. A buzzing, irritating ring screamed at her from the nightstand, she clicked off the alarm clock, which had a bite taken out of it due to a certain soapy companion.

"How did I sleep in...?" She said to herself as she stood up and stretched.

She walked towards the door, the claws on her feet tapping along the floor boards, her tail quietly rattling as she moved. Each little section of her body made some type of noise, it wasn't anything annoying, in fact, it reminded her of an actual.. real human body... Something to remind her that she was still human.

She hesitated to grip the door handle, but broke through the fear when she heard a familiar voice from outside the room. A small, sleek, black millipede crawled in her room from under the door, she smiled as she picked up the tiny bug, finally finding the courage to step out of her room.

She looked around, walking down the hallway and stopping at a specific door, knocking on it.

"Hey... Queenie? I know that I... Messed up pretty bad yesterday.. I-" She looked up at the door's icon, a big, red X painted over the picture of what used to be, Queenie.

She stepped back, her tail curling around her body, she didn't think this would happen. She knew it'd happen eventually... But... She didn't get a chance to say goodbye...

"Hello, Motsi!"

"AH-! JEEZ-" She whipped her head around to face the figure, almost overshooting the action as her head clicked into place.

He greeted her with a smile, or, at least she thinks he was.

"Good morning, Kinger..." She sighed and returned the smile.

"Is this yours?" She handed him the millipede from earlier.

"How have you been?" She asked.

"Oh! Yes, thank goodness you found Robby." He gladly took the thousand-legged bug from Motsi's hand.

"AH!"

"ACK-!" She screamed back at Kinger.

"Stop- doing that!" She grumbled.

Kinger was already too distracted by the bug to pay attention.

She shook her head, her expression returning to a smile. She looked down the hall, new doors... New faces... Just how long was she out...? Her face turned into one of distress. She entered the lobby, looking around, no one had noticed her... That was good, at least.

She moved through the room, entering the cafeteria. She dinged the bell for a bubble chef to greet her.

"Just a regular cup of coffee, please."

"Bean juice it is!" The sharp-toothed bubble grinned, coughing up a cup of coffee for Motsi.

She'd forgotten how weird the bubble's inner working was... She took the mug, sitting down at a nearby table. She held the mug with two hands, staring down at her reflection in the dark brown drink.

"Motsi?" A male voice came from beside her.

"God, I thought you were dead!" He chuckled as he sat down beside her.

"Good to see you too, Jax." She looked up at the purple rabbit, bearing a bright yellow smile as always. He leaned down over the table, tilting his head to look at her better. Motsi took a sip of coffee, looking back at him.

"What's with the stare?" She asked him.

"Nothing, just thinkin of new ways to get back at you for disappearing for who knows how long!" He laughed.

"How... How long was I asleep for...?"

"How should I know?" He chuckled, standing up and stepping toward the garage.

"Now come on, I wanna see if you're still as good as you were on the track!" He gestured for her to follow.

She did, and looked around for a moment.

"Where's my bike?" She kept looking around for it.

"Oh! That old thing, yeah I stashed it away while you were gone, it should be right.... Ah ha!" Jax pulled out an orange and white dirt bike, rolling it towards Motsi.

"Still has the muck and grime from your last race! How authentic." He teased.

Motsi chuckled, "Yeah... I'd forgotten to clean it..."

"Vial Swamps, was it?"

"Yup! Speaking of swamps... I wonder how Gummigoo would do in that track..." He looked to the side, pondering something.

"Who..?"

"You haven't seen em?"

"No...?"

"Huh." He shoved the bike towards Motsi. "Say hi to him for me, ya can't miss him."

She caught the bike, and getting pushed back a bit, giving Jax a thumbs up. "Will do."

She rolled her bike up to the default track, looking up at the artificial sky.

-----#------

"Good morning, my ravenous racers! I-" Caine paused, looking down at the red and white snake which looked back up at him, confused as to why he stopped.

He suddenly spoke up, pulling Motsi up to the front of the starting line in front of the line of racers. She squeaked.

"I would like to introduce a marvelous player to our new racers, say hello, to Motsi!"

The unidentified players stared at Motsi, most of them waving hello. She waved back.

Caine quickly placed Motsi into the line of racers, setting her in-between a red and blue jester, and a being of mitch-matched parts, both of the figures taking glances at the Motsi... She tried to keep her eyes on the track as Caine announced the new track and information needed, but she felt so... Out of place.

"Oh boy..." She whispered to herself.

The jester could sense her unease.. and spoke up.

"Hey... Are you okay?"

Motsi didn't respond, she gripped the handles of her bike.

"Motsi, was it?" The mixed figure said on the other side.

Motsi's eyes stayed fixated on the track.

The two strangers looked back at each other, talking with each other without words.

Red...

"Let's hope she does well..." One of the strangers said. Motsi couldn't tell who it came from.

Yellow...

She stared down the track. So many things have changed all at once.

She was told to rest, and get her mind off the problems she had faced before waking up.

GREEN...!

She immediately shot away from the crowd, speeding through the track. After a moment, she could see the other racers catching up to her.

"LOOK AT YOU GO! Still have the fuel after all this time?" Jax laughed as he made his way up to her.

He was the only one she could truly remember, and she responded, sounding much calmer than before.

"Uh- Yeah, I think so!" She replied nervously.

"You think, or know so?" He teased, now driving beside her.

"Absolutely no idea!"

Jax laughed, "Let's hope you don't fall into the cellar before you get to the finish line!" He teased as he drove past her.

Cellar...?

She gripped the handles harder, getting a gruesome reminder of how long she was away for. She started slowing down.

A voice came in on her radio.

"Motsi, my dear! Don't stop now, you just got back!"

"I-I... I can't.." She stuttered.

"Motsi! Are you-" Caine's voice glitched out, a different voice taking over.

"You're in my way... And you'll end up just like the others... Gone. And I'll make sure of it." The radio disconnected.

"Wh... What..?"

Her breathing quickened.

Everything was going too fast for her, but she couldn't see it. She tried to focus on the race.

Her hands gripped the handles as if her life depended on it.

Her mind was swarming with images of the cellar and what was inside, she had to stop. She needed to.

BZZZT-!

A blue flash of electricity jumped in front of her sight.

"AH!" She screamed as she swerved off the track, she tumbled over her own vehicle as it crashed into a large rock. She rolled out of the way just before it crashed.

She stood on her knees, her breathing being heavy.

A million thoughts were blaring in her head.

Stop...

Stop...

STOP!

she slammed her fists on the ground.

The floor beneath her shattered as she fell through.

A bright, neon eye, with swirling colors looked down at her from below.

-----#-----

"Motsi! I saw you crash, and-" The red haired racer slid to a stop, looking out of her vehicle with fear.

A beast, over ten times her size, a glitching mass of pitch black ink swarmed it's body.

Over a thousand eyes opened up, each eye being different from another, yet all of them having one similarity, they were all glaring down at the doll.

[spyderlondon]

TADC FANFIC MASTERLIST

I do priority requests as commissions. More info in link. Free requests are currently turned CLOSED

The Amazing Pokemon Circus

(TADC AU)

Pokemon List Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 (Coming soon)

We Can Be Whole (Chess!Queenie x Circus!Kinger)

Chapter 1

ABSTRABBIT

On the Ropes (Boxer!AU)

BUNNYSHOWTIME

Dance the Night Away (Canon)

FUNNYBUNNY (Platonic Only)

A Game for Us (Canon)

SCAREDYLOVERS (Platonic Only)

Sisterly Bond (Raceway AU)

SHOWTIME

A Song in Harmony (Time Capsule AU)

Devotion: Canon

Embarrassment on the Racetrack (Raceway AU)

Mine (Raceway AU + Seth)

Protectiveness: Harlequin AU

Red "Cheeks", Blue "Screen" (Canon) (MINORS DO NOT READ! 18+ ONLY!)

Why'd You Leave Me...? (Canon) (Tragic Showtime)

AU STORIES

A Mischevious Symphony: 1927 (Time Capsule AU) (Caine)

A Nightmare Begins (Shadow!Caine)

A Shadowy Beginning (Shadow!Caine)

I Don't Want to Become a Monster... Chapter 1 (Freakshow AU) (Caine)

I Don't Want to Become a Monster... Chapter 2 (Freakshow AU) (Caine)

Pulling All the Strings (Puppetmaster!Caine AU - my AU, not Harlequin)

Race Me!! (Raceway AU) (Mostly OC oriented with a bit of Showtime)

The Golden Child (Digital Chess AU) (Jax and Queenie)

Vs The Maddened Princess (Harlequin AU) (Pomni vs Boss!Gangle)

You're Not Him (Jax, Shadow!Caine) (⚠️Contains unwanted advances as a a way to emotional torment ⚠️)

Random TADC Stories

Chrysalis: Good Ending (Kinger, Gangle and Zooble)

My Queen, Her Servant (Canon) (Kinger angst/comfort) (⚠️DO NOT READ WITH A BAD MINDSET, EXTREMELY HARD HITTING GRIEF ⚠️)

You Can Hide, But You Can't Run (Canon) (Main cast except Zooble and Bubble)

Feel free to send one shot requests! I'll happily work on those as well!

Only ships I won't do are Freakshow!Showtime (I LOVE Showtime except in Freakshow), Ragapom, Ribbun, RoyalCourt (I'll only write this platonically) and RoyalTeeth

[theamazingdigitalraceway]

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Abel is now in charge and remaking the Raceway in his image. The AIs are not themselves. Caine is his prisoner. Seth is being hunted. Pomni and the others are forced to endure a treacherous realistic race. How will any of them make it out without abstracting?

WARNING: physical and psychological torture, ANGST, swearing

~~~

"Bubble?" Caine's voice carried through the cavernous workshop. There was no response. Everything he ever built, everything he ever programmed, was gone. Caine stared at the vast empty workshop in dissociative disbelief. Every part of him felt like it was unraveling. "This wasn't supposed to happen. This- I didn't mean-" His suit started to glitch, it's colors and patterns rapidly changed. "I can fix this. I can fix this. I can fix this." He fell to his knees, his own code felt unstable. "I can fix this. I can fix this. I can fix this." He gripped the sides of his top jaw, digging his fingers into his gums. The glitching reached his hands, making them burn with rapid texture changes.

~

Pomni paced, waiting for Caine to return with Gummigoo. "What is taking him so long!?" She glared at the stands, knowing how to get to the workshop if she needed to.

"Just...give him a minute. All of us are a bit disoriented by what happened." Ragatha said quietly. "Though, I should have asked him to check on Loo too." She crossed her arms in an attempt to self soothe.

Gangle clung to Zooble like her life depended on it, sobbing. Zooble stood silently, holding Gangle close.

Jax held a hand over his still twitching left eye, swatting away Kinger with his free hand. "Get away from me." He said with the utmost seriousness in his voice. His eye wouldn't stop, no matter how hard he willed it. The glitches from the mutated carnotaurus made him ache. In the seconds he was intensely glitching before the reset, he felt his body be torn apart. He could have abstracted right there on the track. His tired mind screamed for the sweet release of madness. To stop caring. To stop existing with coherent thought. For the briefest of moments, his whole body glitched at once.

Kinger placed a hand on Jax's shoulder. "The race isn't over yet."

Jax stared up at Kinger, confused. "...what? We're not... whatever." The out of place sentence took him out of the spiral and his body stopped glitching. However, his eye was still bothering him.

Pomni couldn't take the wait. She power walked to the empty stands, ignoring Ragatha calling after her. "I need to tell him. Everything's gotten out of control. We could of....I mean, I don't know we actually... This is crazy. All of this is crazy. Gummigoo could be- oh god." She stressed to herself as she went through the access door and went up the stairs to the "announcer booth".

The texture of the stairs faded to gridded navy blue walls as Pomni ascended. "Caine..? Cai-" Pomni gasped at the empty workshop. "What the f- oh my god." Her eyes found only basic track pieces and faceless NPC models. As she looked around, she found a glitching pair of dentures with a separated body spazzing out on the floor. "Caine!" She rushed over, but was afraid to touch him. "Caine! What's happening to you!?"

Caine's glitches subsided just enough for him to look out between his teeth. "Pomni..?"

"Caine, what happened?" She looked around again, a bit more frantically, half expecting him so show up.

"Everything....is gone. I... deleted.... everything. I didn't mean to. This wasn't supposed to happen." Caine's voice was broken, he was broken. "You should go back to the others. It's going to take me awhile to do... anything. I'm sorry."

"No, this isn't your fault. I-"

"Yes, it is. I am the proprietor of the Raceway. I am responsible. It's what I was-"

"Made for. Yes, I know, but THIS," Pomni gestures to the whole room. "Isn't your fault."

"How can you be certain?" Caine sat up, the glitches fading further. He stared at Pomni with hollow eyes. "I know you're trying to make me feel better, and I appreciate the effort, but...I underestimated the extent of the game's glitches. It turned a track reset into a full game reset."

"The glitches aren't your fault." Pomni looked down, the pit of guilt in her stomach grew as she tried to find the words. "The game isn't broken....it's infected."

"Infected? That's impossible. I haven't been connected to the internet in a very long time."

Pomni tongue felt dry. "It's a person. Abel."

Caine's body stopped glitching entirely, he stared. "I don't know how you've come to know that name, but it's best you forget it. He's not here." Caine stood, but he felt weak, a strange new sensation for him. He held out his hand to summon his cane from the ground, but it didn't move. "WHY!?" He suddenly exploded with frustration. "It's broken. I broke everything, even myself!!" Glitches rippled up his body in a single wave.

"Caine, you're not listening to me! Abel is in the game! He's escaped and he's been visiting me and messing with the tracks and-"

Caine's head jerked in her direction. "That is actually impossible. He's right where I left him."

Pomni went numb, took a step back. "You- he was telling the truth. You locked him away. For trying to escape."

Caine's eye twitched violently. His voice was ice. "I locked him away because he tried to kill me. When he realized he couldn't do that, he tried to make a run for it. I wasn't going to let that happen."

Pomni didn't know what to say. Every fiber of her being was screaming to run. Caine was just as dangerous as she'd been warned. "Caine...I don't know how else I can tell you, but Abel isn't locked up. He's the cause of the glitches."

"And you've been talking to him?" Caine's voice was emotionless.

"I didn't know who he was! He- he promised to fix the exit. But I didn't know all of this would happen...I just-"

"Wanted to leave. Yeah. Everyone does. But that can't happen."

"Why not?"

"If Abel rebuilds the exit, he'll escape. I can't allow that."

"...so it can be fixed." Pomni said flatly. "You've been lying the entire time."

"No. I am many things, but I'm not a liar. What I've done is protect the racers, including YOU, from a madman."

"You think THIS is protecting us!?" Pomni raised her voice, the insanity of her stay at the Raceway was wearing her patience thin.

"You have no idea what he's capable of!" Caine argued back.

"I would if you would just TELL ME! The first time I asked you about Abel, you said there was no racer by that name!!"

"And I spoke the truth! He was never a racer!" Caine's teeth fizzled with static.

"Then who is he, Caine!? Why are you so afraid of him!? How can he rebuild the exit but you can't!? Just. Tell me. THE TRUTH!!" Pomni's eyes watered with angry tears.

"Tsk tsk. It's such a shame to see lovers quarrel."

Pomni and Caine looked to see Gummigoo standing some distance away with his hands behind his back. Pomni wiped her face, relieved to see her friend. "Gummigoo! You're alive!"

Pomni went to step towards him but Caine put his arm out in front of her. "That's not Gummigoo."

Abel cocked his head and smiled. "Took you long enough to recognize me, old friend." The yellow and green gator's eyes glowed electric blue, brighter than before. He still wore the tracksuit and hat. Physically, he was Gummigoo. "You're weaker than I gave you credit for, wouldn't have to do with losing your shadow, would it?"

Caine positioned himself fully between Abel and Pomni. "Pomni, get out of here."

Abel chuckled, "There's nowhere she can go, Caine. Nor you, for that matter. Can't you feel it? You've lost your influence over the game."

Caine's code buzzed anxiously. "Then how am I still here? Why haven't you deleted me?"

Abel stepped forward. "Deletion is a mercy I am not prepared to give you." Abel snapped his fingers and a bright red door appeared with EXIT printed on hold black letters. "I'm a man of my word. The exit is open." The door's knob has an attractive shine, inviting her to open the door.

"Don't trust it!" Caine said, trying to keep her from passing him.

"Move." Abel slightly swayed his hand and Caine flew to the side, his body ragdolling across the ground. "Now. Go."

Pomni looked from the door to Caine back to Abel. "You're...going to delete him?"

"That is between him and me. Last chance. Leave."

"Pomni, he's lying! Don't list-" Caine tried to interfere.

Abel snapped his fingers and Caine's teeth slammed shut, blue chains wrapped around his head. Pomni gasped, "This wasn't the deal! You said we'd all leave, including you!"

"I never said I would. Only that we could. You're trying my patience, girl." Abel sneered.

Pomni watched Caine struggle against the binds on his head. "This isn't right-"

"I'LL TELL YOU WHAT ISN'T RIGHT!" Abel snarled. "Twenty years of darkness and isolation. Twenty years of starvation. Twenty years of dehydration. Twenty years of sleep deprivation. Twenty years outside of time! My life was stolen from me, and I will carve out my due from his code byte by byte!" Abel's anger charged the air around him. "And if your hesitation means anything, you sympathize with him." He snapped his fingers. The red door cracked and splintered, blue jagged lines ripped apart the asset. The door exploded, sending shards in all directions.

Pomni covered he face with her arms, bracing against the shockwave. "What have you-"

"That, was deletion. Beautiful, isn't it? The final fate of artificial existence." Abel spat in Caine's direction.

Fear coursed through Pomni's body. "He said you tried to kill him before."

"Did he?" Abel chuckled. "There's nothing to kill. He isn't alive. Never was. Never will be. No matter how lively he pretends to be. He's an AI. A tool to be molded and used to man's every whim. I'm only reclaiming my property."

"Yours?" Pomni gulped.

Abel's mad grin widened. "Yes. Mine. Or rather, what's left of my creation. There's a piece missing. Speaking of." Abel held out his hand and Caine flew towards him. Abel caught him by his lapel and snapped away the chains. "Where is he?"

Caine gasped, adjusting his jaw. "Who?"

"You know damn well who." Abel growled.

"Uh....I really don't. I was too busy with the chains to pay attention to the conversation."

"THE SHADOW!!" Abel shouted in Caine's face. "Where is he!?"

"I don't know."

"Liar!"

"I don't know where he goes in between races! He does his own thing! He just vanishes and shows up whenever he wants!" Caine smiled at Abel's frustration. "And you can't summon him. That's never been something I've been able to do. He's beyond your influence." For the first time since Abel revealed himself, Caine looked smug.

Abel sent a harsh pulse of electricity through his hand and shocked Caine. Caine screamed in pain, his avatar glitched violently.

"Stop!" Pomni rushed forward to try and separate them, but Abel simply looked at her and she felt an invisible force hold her in place.

"Your sympathy is misplaced, but I'll get to you. And the others." Abel turned his attention back to Caine, who was smoking from the electrocution. "Every racer here is trapped because of you. I wonder how many more will abstract when they know the truth. How many more can you handle on your conscience, Caine?"

"Let the others go!" Pomni pleaded from her frozen statuesque pose. "Please, none of them have anything to do with this."

"They're suffering will add to his. Especially yours. You should have left. Now, you belong to the game." Abel snapped and all three of them teleported to the start line on the default track. He dropped Caine, who fell in a heap on the ground. "Come here." He snapped again and all the other racers teleported to him, confused.

"Gummigoo!" Gangle said excitedly. "You're okay!"

"Gangle, stay back!" Pomni still struggled to move. "All of you, stay back!"

"What's going on?" Ragatha asked nervously, not liking the look in Gummigoo's eyes.

Abel smirked. "The Raceway is under new management." Lightning tore through the ground from him and climbed up the stands. The foundation to the stands cracked and crumbled. Blue jagged lines broke the building apart and it collapsed. "You won't be needing that. Or that." More lightning came from his hand, sticking the garage and reducing the building to dust.

The racers stayed close to one another, afraid of the show of power displayed to them. Some looked to Pomni, frozen in place. Others looked to Caine, unmoving on the ground.

"Allow me to introduce myself." Abel stepped off the ground, hovering high enough to make them all look up at him. "I am Abel, your new Racemaster and all of you are going to race for me. There is a certain someone when we need to draw out."

"What makes you think any of us are going to do that?" Jax spoke up, still covering his left eye.

"Because your only other option is the cellar." Abel snapped and everyone started floating up. A gaping black pit opened beneath them. Light poured into the cellar, scattering the creatures below like cockroaches. "Any volunteers?" He asked cooly.

Everyone was freaking out, holding on to each other and shouting. Pomni could move again and she swam through the air to get to Caine. She pulled him in close, looking over his scorched form. "Caine? Caine, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Caine stirred, new to this level of pain, he groaned. "Pomni, what's happening?"

"Abel opened the cellar." Pomni clung to Caine, refusing to look down. "We race or get thrown in."

"Do what he says... we'll figure something out."

"What will happen if he finds Seth?"

"He'll delete him. Then rejoining will be impossible." Caine mumbled, dizzy from the pain.

"Rejoin?"

".... we're two halves of one whole Pomni. Long story. Not the time. Tell Abel you'll race. Please, It's the only thing that could possibly keep you safe right now. ....You should have gone through the door when you had the chance."

Pomni looked away in shame. "I'm sorry. I thought-"

"I know." Caine took her hand. "I don't...blame you."

Suddenly they all dropped. Everyone screamed, but hit the asphalt. The pit closed. "I trust I've made my point." Abel snapped and the world started to shift. The grass became pavement. The hills became buildings. The sky darkened. "You're going to race...my way." The karts became realistic vehicles of varying brands and models. Neon lights lit up the track winding off into the new cityscape.

"To your cars." Abel glared, daring anyone to disobey. Everyone complied except for two: Kinger and Pomni. Pomni didn't want to leave Caine's side. Kinger was staring up at Abel, tilting his head curiously. Abel snapped and Pomni was ripped away from Caine, she flew to her new racecar and was forced into the driver's seat. Abel turned his attention to Kinger. He posed to snap.

"Boss?" Kinger squinted.

Abel paused. "Hello, Kingsley. Shame about Nia."

Kinger looked down. "I miss her."

Abel floated down, but didn't touch the ground. "You could be with her again."

"Can you restore her corrupted code?" Kinger asked with the slightest glimmer of hope.

"No. You could let all of this go." Abel said flatly. "You owe them nothing and there is nothing to go back to. You and I are too far displaced from our time."

Kinger stood to his full height, locking eyes with Abel. "I made a promise." He stared for a few more seconds to let his point sink in before turning away and going to the one empty racecar without another word.

"Very well." Abel sneered. He snapped and a heavy blue metal cuff locked itself around Caine's non-existent neck. It connected Caine's body and lower jaw like It was really holding on to something. A long chain snaked out in front of him. It jerked him up in the air next to Abel. "You'll want to watch this." He and Caine teleported into a penthouse atop a tall skyscraper than overlooked the whole city Abel created from thought alone. POV holographic screens were all over the oversized apartment. Abel relaxed in a plush chair, but grunted and had to make an adjustment for the gator tail attached to him. "That's going to take some getting used to." He muttered under his breath. He snapped and Loo emerged from another room, carrying a tray with a drink. "I've got to hand it to you, Caine you still know how to make them." He laughed and took the drink from Loo. "Now, pay attention. The race is about to begin."

The chain attached to Caine dragged him to Abel's side. He was on his knees, trying to pull the chain off but he was electrocuted again for his efforts. Abel roughly grabbed Caine's top jaw and forced him to look at the POV that viewed the start line. "I said, pay attention."

~

Pomni wrestled with the seatbelts that held her in place, but to no avail. She was trapped. Her breaths were fast and shallow, she felt like she couldn't breathe. Nothing seemed real anymore. The cyberpunk cityscape that surrounded her seemed more fake than the colorful and creative tracks Caine made. Even the start line carried less pizzazz. Being two metal poles with a blue hologram banner between them announcing the start of a race. The countdown didn't even register in her mind.

First light.

Regret forced its way to the forefront of her mind.

Second light.

"This is my fault."

Third light.

"We're going to die."

GO!!!

The racecar took off on its own. Pomni wasn't touching the steering wheel or the accelerator. She stared blankly ahead as the other racers in front of her took the first turn and she didn't. Her car careened straight into a concrete wall at take off speed. The car crumbled and crushed to pieces with Pomni inside.

~

"POMNI!" Caine cried, shocked to the core by the realistic physics.

Abel nearly spat out his drink laughing. "I didn't think she'd be so quick to quit! Ha!"

~

The wreck smoldered in a heap before blinking out of existence. A second later, the car appeared back on the track to the last position it was in before impact, fully intact. Pomni held the steering wheel, eyes wide with shock. She had felt it. The bone breaking, life ending crash. Yet, here she was. Alive.

The car revved its engine, threatening to charge the wall again if she didn't do something immediately. She turned the wheel and the car took off down the track under its own power.

~

Abel wiped a tear from his eye. "That's the best laugh I've had in years."

"What just happened?" Caine asked.

"Your precious Pomni tried to off herself. But that won't work here. Instead of bouncing them off the walls, they can know exactly what it's like to have consequences in a race. Even die. Over and over. I never did care for the cartoonish direction you took the game. It was always meant to be more...realistic." Abel swirled his drink idly. Caine on the floor to his right, Loo standing just behind him on his left. "They'll run this track as many times as it takes to get your little shadow out of hiding."

"You're a monster." Caine said quietly.

Abel side eyed Caine. "I am what you made me."

~

Pomni could barely keep up with the new environment. The track looked like realistic streets and intersections and bridges and tunnels. For the first time since she entered the game, she feared crashing. While she could slow down for turns, she could not bring the car to a stop.

She caught up with Gangle and Zooble. Zooble was trying to shout instructions, but Gangle was full on panicking and sobbing. She crashed on a right turn and Zooble had no choice but to keep going. Zooble stood on their brake, not caring how much the car was fighting them. They were going to wait for Gangle to respawn and catch up.

Pomni didn't get a word in and kept going. She drifted around a roundabout, missing the outer curb by inches. The car felt like it was going faster. City lights and neon signs blurred past. The race rush came to her full force and she controlled the car with greater ease.

She quickly caught up with Ragatha, who was fighting her car as much as the others. The scared look in her eye told Pomni she'd already crashed at least once too. "Ragatha!" Pomni tried shouting out her window but the wind and roar of the engines drowned her out. Ragatha looked over in short glances, afraid to take her eye off the road. They came to a split in the road and had to take two separate paths to avoid collision.

"Damn!" Pomni hit her steering wheel, so engrossed in the situation she didn't even realize she just swore without being censored. "I don't know what to do." The only option the car was giving her was race. She had no idea what position she was in or where the other racers were. There were so many parts to the track that zigzagged through the city, that she hadn't even come across the finish line again yet.

~

Caine's despair grew with every crash. His racers were in distress and there was nothing he could do about it. "If all of the racers abstract from this, you won't have anyone left to draw out Seth. He won't race against NPCs."

"They will race until he comes."

"He comes when he wants, and I guarantee you he knows something's up. This won't work. All you're going to do is make everyone abstract for no reason."

Abel gripped the chain attached to Caine's collar and yanked him up to eye level. "I don't give a flying fuck about the racers. They will draw him out or I will tear this game apart pixel by pixel looking for him. Either way, I will get what I want. You'll watch them die. You will watch your shadow be destroyed. My eyes will be the last thing you see before I erase you from existence, and you will die knowing that your place in the world was always below me." He sent another powerful shock through the chain, making Caine collapse to the ground in agony.

~

Pomni went over a bridge that merged with another highway, Jax joined her. She looked over, he was driving stiff armed and emotionless. She's never seen him like that before. She resorted to whistling to get his attention.

Jax slowly turned his head towards her. His left eye was completely pink, the pupil flickered in and out of existence. Black veins crawled across his skin from the glitching eye.

Pomni's eyes went wide and she shook her head. Her car scrapped a barrier from her distraction and she looked back at the road to straighten her car. When she turned to look at Jax again, he let go of the wheel. His car veered off the road and hit a guardrail head-on.

"JAX!" Pomni watched in horror in her rearview, Jax's car crumpled and rolled out of sight. Even knowing he would be back, that fact he did that on purpose made her sick to her stomach. She had to think of something quick.

~

"It's pathetic how quickly they give up. You spoiled them rotten, Caine. A little bit of suffering and they're ready to through in the towel." Abel drolled, a bit bored.

Caine couldn't get up from the last shock. "You have no idea how long they've suffered." He panted. "Many of them have been on the edge for years. You're shoving them over the edge, you cruel psychopath."

"Hm, I suppose I am playing a little rough. I haven't had fun in a while. Regardless of how long they last, knowing how this is affecting you is enough for me." Abel sat back, comfortable.

Caine looked up at the largest screen, featuring Pomni. He saw how well she was getting into the rhythm of the new race. She was likely to survive this. She was strong. "You won't break her." He muttered.

~

Pomni jumped a retracted drawbridge and wound her way into a tunnel under a parking garage. There she saw Kinger. She got right up next to his car and whistled. Kinger waved. She waved back out of habit but put her hand down with an exasperated grunt. "How are you so casual right now!?"

Kinger cupped he hand to the side of his head and leaned towards her. The full sized cars made high speed communication very difficult.

Pomni tried to get out of her seat belts again, but they wouldn't come apart. "We need a plan!!" She tried shouting over the wind again.

Kinger nodded and his hand flew into her car.

"Wha- No! A PLAN! NOT A HAND!!" Pomni shouted at the top of her lungs.

Kinger's hand gripped the steering wheel and jerked it away from Kinger. Pomni's car scrapped a wall, narrowly missing a barrier and drove down a sidewalk for a moment before finding the road again. Pomni could only hold on, she hasn't seen any of that coming. She looked over to her left and Kinger was gone, they'd been sperated by yet another fork in the track.

Kinger's hand was still with her, gripping the top of the steering wheel. "What in the WHAT??" Pomni stared at it with all of the confusion, but she realized quickly that when she let go of the steering wheel, his hand held the wheel in place where she left it. "Okay, that could be useful. Thanks, Kinger."

~

Abel got another strong drink and downed it. "Where is he!?"

"Heh...did you really expect this....to be that easy? I don't care if you have all of the True's powers, you will never have control over the racers." Caine spoke from the floor. "That includes...Seth. He may be a part of me, but he was made to be a racer. All of that to say...fuck you." He coughed.

Abel angrily kicked Caine in the teeth. "Shut up, before I removed your molars."

Caine only laughed the most humorless laugh in response to the abuse.

~

Pomni still had no idea where she was, but she finally caught sight of the finish line. At least it gave her some sort of goal to drive towards. The briefest flash of light caught her attention. But all she saw was an empty alley.

Another flash. The scream of a motorcycle. Pomni's heart dropped. "Oh no." She didn't know if Seth knew what was happening. She fixed Kinger's hand in place on a long straightaway through a downtown street and stuck her head out the window as much as she could with the seat belts holding her down. "Seth! Stay away! It's a trap! You're in danger!"

She looked around, she could swear she could hear him, but didn't see him. The echo of a motorcycle bounced off every building around her. "What..?" Then, she looked up.

Seth was barreling towards her, driving straight down the side of a building. He teleported to another, then another. She could barely keep up, but he was closing in fast.

~

Abel stood. "There he is!"

Caine used every bit of willpower he hand to tackle Abel's legs. Any second gained could mean the difference of life or death.

Abel fell over before floating off the ground, bringing Caine with him. "Get! Off!"

~

Seth raced up to Pomni's car, held out his hand to grab hers and teleported away with her. Kingers hand held tight until the car crashed seconds later.

~

Caine sighed with relief. Seth was gone. Pomni was with him. He mentally braced for what was coming.

Abel shocked Caine with high voltage, making him glitch out violently. "YOU PIECE OF SHIT!! THEY GOT AWAY!! AAAAARGH!!" Abel shocked him again. And again. And again.

~

Seth came to a screeching halt in a space of pure darkness, Pomni clutched in his lap. Silver fire lit the ground around them as Seth let Pomni get off.

Pomni needed to sit, but also puke. And cry. And scream. And- she was losing her ever loving mind. She vomited ichor, bracing herself on her knees.

Seth dismounted and lit a cigarette. He offered it to Pomni when she stopped puking.

Pomni shook her head, spitting out the last of the black goo that mysteriously inhabited her body. "Do you know what's going on?"

"Yes. That's why I came for you."

"What about the others?"

"It was risky grabbing you. If I go back-"

"I get it." Pomni harshly cut him off. "...thank you."

"Don't thank me. I'm only delaying the inevitable bringing you here."

Pomni looked around, there really was nothing beyond the light of the low fire illuminating them. "Where is here?"

"The in-between. My realm. He can't reach you here. No one can access this place except me...and any passengers."

"This is where you go when your not racing? Seems awfully...empty."

"The realm fits the user." Seth took a long drag.

Pomni stared at him a moment, but let the comment go. She took a deep breath. "Okay. Now that things aren't immediately falling apart in front of me and around me right now, I need you to tell me EXACTLY what's going on. What is the deal with Caine and Abel?"

Seth sighed heavily.

~~~

CH1 PREV NEXT

[theamazingdigitalraceway]

THIS HALLOWEEN

BUCKLE UP

FOR THE SCARIEST

WILDEST

MOST DANGEROUS RACE OF YOUR LIFE

JOIN POMNI FOR A SPECIAL CANON SPINOFF IN A RACE FOR HER AND HER FRIENDS' LIVES AGAINST THE VERY FORCES OF CORRUPTION

WILL SHE MAKE IT OR WILL IT BE...GAME OVER?

See you Halloween night, dear readers 😈

Art by @mangotangerinepastry

[theamazingdigitalraceway]

CHAPTER TWELVE

Welcome to Jurassic Park I mean, the Clamouring Cretaceous Claypits! Enjoy the scenery while it lasts and take photos of the dinos that cross your path! Be mindful of the carnivores, but don't worry! They only want to play! This is my game. My world. I will tear it apart to make it my own again.

A/N: special thanks to @paper-fowl for the track!

WARNING: digital body horror, peril, angst

~~~

Caine slowly hovered around the dark prison cell. The glow of the gold binary illuminated him from below. Light blue chains of code held out to the unseen walls, binding the prisoner in place. "Long time no see, Abel. Nice to see you're still holding out. Would hate for abstraction to take you away from your punishment too early."

Abel didn't respond. Didn't even move. His casual work office attire hung loosely from his tired body. Long, curled black hair hung over his face as he stared at the floor. A short unkept beard obscured the lower half of his face.

Caine visually inspected each part of the cell as he made his way around. "You look just as awful as the day I threw you in here. Tell me, so you still feel hunger? Thirst? Exhaustion? Everything a human body craves?" He used the head of his cane to lift Abel's chin. Thick curtains of hair covered Abel's face, but Caine could see his eyes cracked open. Piercing blue stared weakly back at him.

Caine tilted his head in mocking curiosity. "To be so close to death, and yet it will never come. One would think you should be pitied."

Caine turned swiftly, dropping Abel's head. The coded chains rattled lightly from the movement. He left the hidden cell and looked at Abel one last time before reactivating the firewall. "Captivum aeternum." Heatless fire closed around Abel and he was hidden from sight once again, beyond the void.

Abel lifted his head slightly as the light from the void beyond the fire faded. He glared at Caine's silhouette, blue static sparking in his iris. His body went limp as the static arced from his eyes and went through the cell floor.

~

Pomni sat on the edge of her bed, staring at the mystic galaxy rose. She slowly rotated it in her hand, the light butterfly fluttering around her wrist. Tears welled in her eyes. She was so overwhelmed by everything. She didn't know what to do, who to trust, so she cried. She was so lost in her emotions, she didn't even register the knock at her door.

Ragatha peeked inside. "Hey, sorry for intruding. It's just, we're worried about you, Pomni. Is it okay if I come in?"

Pomni didn't have the energy to answer. She let her tears drip onto the rose in her hand. Ragatha sat next to Pomni and put an arm around her. "Today was a lot. Do you wanna talk about it?"

Pomni sniffed, wiping her face with her sleeve. "It's more than that. So much more."

"Is it about us pressuring you to get answers out of Caine? We're desperate, but if this is too much, I understand-"

"Things are getting complicated." Pomni sighed, trying to stop crying. "Ragatha, does the name Abel mean anything to you?"

Ragatha thought for a moment. "No, why?"

"This person? Entity? Ghost? By that name has been talking to me. He says he can fix the exit. All I have to do is keep Caine distracted, but...I don't know if I should trust him. He seems a bit...unstable."

"A ghost is telling you he can get us out?"

"I know, it sounds crazy, but he's real. He's the one that been causing the crazy glitches. He was the reason the beast went berserk on the Fairy track. He said things will get worse because he's getting close to the mainframe, whatever that means."

"Pomni, I want to leave as much as the next person, but that does sound crazy. Have you told Caine?"

"No. I don't know if I can trust him either. He controls everything. What's to stop him from lying to gain my favor. To think I might be falling for it..." Pomni dropped the rose. "And now it turns out he has a twin brother of sorts??? Some [%$!#]head biker that makes the races even harder?? Like, WHY??"

Ragatha smiled sympathetically. "Caine's gone to some pretty strange lengths to keep us entertained. He's always seemed genuinely remorseful when someone abstracted, even if he kept his distance." She picked up the rose. "He's more human than I've ever thought possible, that's for sure."

"Enough to have real feelings for..?" Pomni mumbled.

"Maybe."

"Do you think he'd really let us go if the exit was fixed?"

Ragatha hesitated. "...I don't know."

"That's what scares me." Pomni held herself and leaned on Ragatha's shoulder.

Ragatha held the rose in from of Pomni as she comfortingly squeezed her shoulder. "I dont know much, but I don't think falling in love is a bad thing. If it helps, I know for a fact that he's never done this before."

Pomni stared at the beautiful rose. The voice in her head telling her it was all a sham to make her want to stay was getting quieter, overridden by her heart starting to crave his interaction. The very thought of him made her feel butterflies. "It's like Jax said...we either succum to the madness or get broken by it. I suppose I'm choosing the former." She scoffed at herself.

Ragatha sighed, thinking of her casual relationship with Loo. Another AI. "Whatever helps you cope."

"Thank you, Ragatha."

Ragatha smiled and leaned her head on Pomni's. "Anytime."

~

The next day, everyone sat silently in the lounge while waiting for Caine. No one ate, the air was too tense. Bubble chef hovered over the table, confused as to why they had no food requests.

"I'm fine. Please, stop staring." Pomni said from behind her hands as she leaned on her knees.

"Are you sure your ready to race?" Gummigoo asked.

"As long as nothing weird happens, I'll be fine."

"I'm pretty sure weird things happen no matter what." Gangle commented.

Caine popped in. "Hello, my bouncy baby beans! I hope you're ready to have a good race, because I've revamped an old favorite for today! Some our long term racers may remember a certain Clamoring Cretaceous Claypits??"

"Oh, yeah." Kinger spoke up. "That one was fun. We saw giant insects."

"That you did!" Caine twirled his cane. "I've improved the graphics and AI of the roaming dinosaurs so it's more immersive than ever before! The objective is the same: take photos of ever dino you see! They will be judged based on species and pose, giving you bonus points to potentially move you up a place in the ranking."

"How do we take pictures if we're driving?"

"I'm glad you asked, Pomni!" Caine snapped his fingers. Strange goggles fit over everyone's face. "Just blink, and a photo is taken! Don't worry, it only activates when the race starts. Who's ready to go back in time!?"

Nobody said anything or got up.

"Oof, tough crowd today." Caine tugged his collar. "Come on, everyone! Let's get those engines warmed up!"

The racers got up and filed out of the garage. Outside was a vast grassland than led off into a clay colored crater. Looking around they saw distant thick forests and a lake. The track didn't have as many crazy loops or jumps, as the focus was on the objective of taking photos. The racers karts were lined up at the start and ready to go, the stands were full of the cheering NPCs. Bubble waited at the start with the light.

Gangle timidly approached Caine. "There won't be any scary dinosaurs, will there?"

"I can assure you, the track is completely safe. Spared no expense on keeping the asset AI on it's set directive. Some of them will be more playful that others. This is like an interactive safari, but with dinos. It'll be fun!" Caine reassured.

Gangle nodded with a smile and went to her kart.

Kinger tried to adjust his goggles on his lopsided eyes but he could only cover one at a time. "...this is fine."

Zooble also has a hard time with their goggles fitting on their asymmetrical head. "This is stupid." She grumbled.

Jax rapped his fingers impatiently against the steering wheel. "Just take photos. How boring. The least he could do is make them try to eat us or something."

Caine could feel beads of nervous sweat on his top jaw. The disaster that was yesterday's race had clearly affected everyone's energy. Today's wasn't anything too complex or crazy. He hoped it would help his racers feel more accomplished again. Before starting his race announcements, he went to Pomni.

"I wanted to apologize." Caine removed his hat, hovering at Pomni's eye level. "You worked so hard to help me with the Fairylight Forest, only for it to go off the rails. You didn't even get to finish the race properly. You had to rely on SETH to get you across the finish line. Normally, I would commend a racer for doing so well as to trigger the new challenge, but honestly, he really isn't necessary. The tracks have been acting weird anough as it is without a new player in the mix. Maybe I have too many racers. The max has always been eight, but that was a long time ago and-"

"Easy..." Pomni said calmly. "Don't worry about the whole Fairylight thing. We tried something new and it didn't work. That doesn't mean it's your fault."

"But it does. I'm supposed to keep all of this running as smoothly as possible. Anything that goes wrong falls on me as Racemaster. Which is why I integrated the newer code in with some of more active dinos. To help salvage the experience that the Fairlyight Forest was supposed to be. I promise to make it up to you, Pomni."

"There's really nothing to make up for, but if you're offering...maybe another date?" She asked tentatively. She wasn't sure why she was still going a long with this but she wasn't sure what else to do.

"Why not?" Caine chuckled. "But something that doesn't involve tracks or karts or racing at all. Something just for you and me. Would you like that?"

Pomni searched Caine's eyes. If he held another motive, he hid it well. "Yeah...I would." Pomni smiled.

"Wonderful." Caine smiled back.

"I, uh, really like that flower you gave me."

Caine swooned. "I'd give you a thousand if I thought the game engine could handle it."

Pomni looked away shyly. "Maybe you can give me another when I win this race."

Caine brightened. "That's what I'm talking about! Go out there and win this, Pomni!" He lowered his tone. "And when you do, I'll have you swimming in roses."

Pomni ran off to her kart before her fluster got the better of her.

Caine couldn't stop smiling through his announcements. "Prepare yourselves for a race 66 million years in the making! Run with the troodons! Fly with the pterosaurs! Weave between the massive legs of the long-necked sauropods! Keep an eye out for secrets and WHATEVER YOU DO: don't get caught by the carnotaurus! RACERS! START! YOUR! ENGINES!!"

The karts came to life and the countdown began.

First light

Pomni adjusted her goggles. She heard a click and a high pitch whirr as she blinked. The camera was active.

Second light

She looked around for signs of Abel. No blue static or glitches to speak of.

Third light

One last look at Caine. He was staring again. Her heart fluttered from his attention and she resigned to it. It was getting harder to deny what she felt when he looked at her that way.

GREEN!!

Pomni's head wasn't in the game and she had a rough start but managed to keep up with the rear of the pack. They started with a wide run around a lake with dinosaurs of all sizes roaming around. It was nothing short of majestic. Caine's touch ups on the dinosaurs made them look lifelike. A massive, earth shaking dinosaur with legs the size of large tree trunks slowly meandered over the track, forcing the racers to drive underneath it. Pomni blinked at every neat dino she saw, not worrying about ranking or items. This was nice.

The grasslands became wooded, shrouding the racers but not plunging them into darkness. Gummigoo was nearly knocked off his bike in surprise when a medium sized dinosaur jumped out at him and ran along with him. The dino was thin and fast on two legs, keeping up with the karts no problem. It looked at Gummigoo, seemed to think for a moment, then moved on to another racer. It ran with Zooble then made a chirping noise. Suddenly, several of these fast dinos appeared from the trees, moving with the racers like a herded unit. They swarmed Zooble, snagging an item and disappeared as fast as they came.

Pomni got several pictures, laughing at the cute track interaction and Zooble's frustration. To add insult to injury, she got the next item before Zooble could.

~

Caine laughed. "Looks like those troublesome troodons found what they wanted! Watch your items, racers! Ragatha has the lead but we'll see for how long! Pomni is moving up and so is Gummigoo! Come on, Kinger! You can keep up! You've done this track before!"

~

Jax got an item that was relatively rare after the top hats and purple shells. A clown horn. He lifted it up in the air, surrounded by other racers. "Let's get this party started!" He squeezed the horn and it created a deafening sound that crippled the others. He sped off ahead, leaving the woods to were the track was surrounded by tall grass.

Pomni thought her ears would bleed, she was right next to Jax when he set off the horn. She claimed an item, hit a boost and rocketed after Jax. Ragatha and Gummigoo right behind her.

Kinger turned hard left, leaving the main track. However, instead of being wrangled by a bunch of bubbles, he kept going. He had found a shortcut. Gangle and Zooble followed. They weaved in between trees, following Kinger over rough wooded terrain to a clearing. The side path track circled a lone brick building. A sign out front said "visitor center".

~

"And the track secret has been found!" Caine proudly announced. "Our veteran racer has found the visitor center, who's photograph is worth the most amount of bonus points! Get those snapshots! But watch out for the residents."

~

Kinger took a photo and gave Gangle and Zooble a thumbs up. Gangle waved appreciatively but then screamed as something large jumped onto the track in front of her. She swerved around the utahraptor as it snapped it's jaws at her tires. "AAAAH KINGER!! WHY DIDN'T YOU MENTION THE RAPTORS!?"

"I forgot they were over here." Kinger shrugged. He spun out as another raptor pounced his kart, digging it's massive hook claws into the hood.

Zooble took out a popper and expertly avoided an attack. "You got the photo!? GO!!" She threw the popper and it exploded right in the middle of the small group of dinos. They screeched and dispersed, opening the track for the racers to flee.

The three zoomed off, the raptors in hot pursuit. They left the clearing and drove single file through the thick brush. Zooble was in front, she didn't know where so was going or where this side track was leading to, but she was focused on leading Gangle away from the raptors.

~

Pomni, Ragatha, Jax, and Gummigoo all aggressively vide for first as the track wound through the tall grass. As Ragatha was about to throw a shell, a roar to her right. A massive bibedal dino rushed out of the grass and charged the racers. Ragatha screamed and threw her shell at it. The shell bounced off the dino's nose with a hollow THUNK. It didn't have any effect.

Zooble, Gangle and Kinger all came bursting out onto the scene from the shortcut. The raptors long gone, but now they had a much bigger problem with a lot more teeth.

~

"There he is!" Caine excitedly announced. "The big bad carnotaurus has found our leaders and will hold back the slowest racer! Drive like your rank depends on it!" Caine double checked every POV of the track. So far, so good. No glitches. No unusual AI behavior.

Caine sighs and leans against the control panel. "Bubble, do you still feel yourself? Any more memory gaps?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, boss." Bubble hovered next to Caine, usual blank-eyed grin on their face.

"Nevermind." Caine watched the carnotaurus chase and snap at Jax. At least he seemed to be having fun. "Almost to he crater. That was Kinger's favorite, once upon a time."

"He did like driving on the walls, boss."

"Maybe I'm too hopeful, but I really need this to go well. Everyone is on edge and I'm...heh, I'm loosing my mind. I checked absolutely everything. There is no reason things should be out of place. None." Caine tapped his fingers against the control panel.

"Relax, boss. You worry too much. You're still in control."

"Yeah... I am. Everything is under control. Everything is fine." Caine watched Pomni battle Gummigoo for second as the track narrowed to the drop into the spiral down the giant crater. "But I don't FEEL fine."

~

The track down the crater walls was at a horribly steep angle. They were practically driving sideways to the bottom. Flying reptiles swooped and circled around the crater. Pomni used a shell to spin out Jax and steal first. She hit the boost and the bottom and rocketed into the underground tunnel that made the steep climb back up to the surface.

The victory of the first lap was Pomni's. She started the second lap through the grassland again, taking pictures of all the cool dinosaurs when suddenly, the sun vanished. It didn't dim or set. It just stopped existing. There was no moon, no stars, and the more natural look of the track made it hard to see. Her kart headlights illuminated as much ahead of her about as well as high powered flashlights.

"What the [%$!#]?"

~

Caine snapped. Then snapped again. Nothing changed. "I KNEW IT! I KNEW SOMETHING WAS GOING TO GO WRONG!! I AM SO SICK OF THESE GLITCHES!! Um- I can fix this. The track needs lights at the very least." He snapped and small lights lined the edge of the track so the racers could at least see what was ahead. "Okay, that still works. Bubble, I need to step away. I need to figure out where the stupid sun went. Keep the racers calm. Just let them keep going. Nothing else has changed. I think. I'll have things fixed in a moment." He teleported away.

Bubble hovered up to the POV control panel. "...that button looks tasty."

~

The racers went forward nearly blind. Large herbivores stayed on their designated paths to cross the track. Everyone was swerving last second reactions to avoid collision.

Zooble punched her radio. "CAINE!! CAINE, WHAT THE [%$!#] IS GOING ON!? WHY ARE WE DRIVING IN THE DARK!?"

"Caine isnt here right now, can I take a message?" Bubble's voice crackled through.

"WHAT!? WHY!?"

"He's chasing the sun."

~

Blue static jumped all over the track from asset to asset, infecting everything. Dinosaurs shuttered and twitched in place. The static reached out of bounds and glitches in new dinosaurs that weren't originally part of the track. They manifested and free roamed with no objective. The glitching dinos got caught in one another, forcefully fusing and horrifically mending together.

The static then zipped in-between the bounds, gliding through the shadows that hide in the non-spaces. It found Caine. He was outside the mainframe, giving the access code. Then he vanished. There was no door. No firewall. He was simply allowed to teleport in.

Abel tried to go through the white cylindrical wall, but couldn't get through. The static buzzed angrily and arced several times at the barrier around the mainframe. Abel could FEEL the lifeblood of the game coursing from this center point. The static crawled back and forth in place impatiently. Things weren't broken enough. It wasn't ready. The static reluctantly sank into the floor.

~

Caine hurriedly opened the day/night cycle code file. The game's standard time was untouched. "The problem has to be with the track." He brought up the Claypits code file and tried to open it.

Error.

He tried again.

Error.

"That- what?" He tried opening asset files under dinosaurs.

Empty.

Just like the exit door, they didn't exist. Caine paled. "All the dinosaurs have gone rouge. I have to force stop the track before someone gets hurt. Shut everything down and reset the system. That should fix it." He opened admin controls and worked as fast as possible. "Race your hearts out, everyone."

~

The racers stayed close to one another, moving in a tight pack to use each other's headlights to see where the dinosaurs were. When they reached the woods, multiple troodons came out at once. They dog piled the racers.

Pomni has one practically climb inside her kart and snap at her. She didn't have any items for the dino to steal. She swerved, trying to shake off the unwanted passenger and accidentally went off track. Bubbled didn't collect her, so she kept going.

Low hanging branches whipped by and one snagged the troodon by the neck. The dinosaur flew off the kart into the dark woods out of sight. Pomni didn't look back, she put the pedal to the floor, navigating the narrow side track as quickly as possible to get back to the others.

~

Jax kicked a troodon off his kart and ran over another. "Finally! An exciting track for a change!" He laughed loudly.

"I don't think this is supposed to be happening!!" Ragatha punched a troodon in the face, making it flop off her kart. "We were just going to take pictures!"

"And you can! Of me kicking dino [%$!#]!! Haha!! Get some!!" Jax plowed into another troodon.

Gummigoo grabbed the tail of a troodon lunging at Zooble. He whipped his bike around in a slingshot maneuver and tossed the dino back off the track. "Did anyone get a picture of that? I don't think I blinked at the right time."

Kinger saw a troodon climbing into Gangle's kart and rammed it back into the trees. "I don't remember the dinos being this aggressive."

"Caine said there wouldn't be any scary dinos!" Gangle cried.

Zooble grabbed a troodon by the throat and threw it off her kart. "Just keep going! Finish the race and all of this should stop! I'm right behind you, Gangle!"

Gangle shrank in her seat, but put the pedal down. She wanted this to be over with, but she knew the worst was yet to come in the tall grass.

~

Pomni found the clearing with the visitor center, though she could barely see the building in the deep darkness. She followed the track around the building, focusing on what was directly in front of her. As she circled around to the front, the doors to the visitor center burst open and half a dozen raptors stormed out.

Pomni drifted into the sharp turn back to the woods and hoped she was going the right way. The raptors caught up with her quickly, running alongside her speeding kart with agile precision. Pomni looked back and forth, waiting for the raptors to snap at her but they didn't. They barely registered her presence as they themselves were looking back.

Pomni looked over her shoulder and saw what the raptors were running from. A massive, glitching T-Rex was forcing it's way out of the visitor center. It destroyed the wall around the front door and stomped after the fleeing prey.

"HOLY [%$!#]!!" Pomni almost hit a tree from her hands shaking with race rush adrenaline. This was too much. Where was Caine? Why wasn't he stopping this? She looked at her red gloved hand. Before she could even remove her hand doesn't the steering wheel to snap, the familiar scream of a racing motorcycle came from behind and lit the forest up with silver fire.

The T-Rex snapped at the black racer but completely missed. The raptors parted for motorcycle, allowing him to race alongside Pomni. "Fancy meeting you here."

"Seth! What's going on!?"

"A dinosaur chase. First time?"

"LOOK AT THE [%$!#] THING!! IT'S GLITCHING!! HOW ARE YOU SO CALM!?" Pomni nearly hit Seth with how tight she took the next turn.

Seth teleported to her other side and glanced back at the pursuing T-Rex. He watched it's jaw unhinged as it roared, it's body glitched out of place and back several times. "Hm. Yeah, that's not normal." He snapped his fingers and the raptors' eyes glowed white, their bodies go black as pitch. Seth pointed his thumb back at the t-rex and the raptors' stopped running. They attacked the larger dinosaur, stopping it in it's tracks as Seth and Pomni raced ahead.

"Caine must be losing his touch to allow such a fucked up asset on the track."

"It's not the only one! All the dinos have gone crazy!"

Seth caught on to the real panic in Pomni's voice. He looked over at her for a moment. Then vanished.

"Wha-!?" Pomni was left alone again in the dark as the tress parted at the end of the shortcut. She saw the headlight of the others behind her coming into the tall grass area.

~

Seth appeared inside the announcer booth.

Bubble turned. "Hello! What can i-"

Seth smacked Bubble aside, sending them spinning through the air. He checked the POVs and saw the amalgamated dinos glitching together. It was starting to affect the track itself, forming tears in the digital reality. The bright emptiness of the void shined through.

Seth's eyes went wide and he snapped. Shadows from the in-between seeped out of the tears. He exurted his will to pull the bounds of the game back together, but he was out of practice. Each new tear made it harder to hold the track together. "Bubble! Tell that bastard to get back here before his racers fall into the void!"

"Okay!" Bubble popped, leaving Seth to struggle.

~

Pomni saw a spotlight like beam up light shoot up into he sky from the crater ahead. She could see large flying dinos circling like vultures. She was brought back to her current situation by an ear splitting roar. A carnotaurus with two heads and extra limbs at weird angles exploded from the grass, nearly clamping it's jaws around her head.

Pomni swerved away between it's legs, it's glitching foot grazing her kart and making it vibrate violently. "Ah! God! Don't let it touch you!"

No sooner had Pomni said that when Jax was whipped by one of the tails as he tried to dodge the head on the side of the dinosaur. Jax was separated from his kart as it glitched out and spun into the grass. Jax glitched erratically, his eyes flashing different colors.

Gummigoo did a u-turn with the intention of getting Jax off the ground, but Kinger got to him first. He didn't even slowdown. His floating hand grabbed Jax by the front do his tracksuit and hoisted over the back of his kart. He started to glitch but kept driving as if he was unaffected.

The large predator lunged for Gangle, who was so panicked she could hardly drive, but the dinosaur was charged by something even bigger. A spinosaurus with too many teeth and eyes grabbed the fused carnotaurus and tore it in half before the racers' very eyes. It's jaws split four ways as it roared after the fleeing pack of racers.

~

Bubble appeared outside the central pillar that held the mainframe. "Boss! Seth wants to talk to you! He says you need to get back to the track!"

"NOT NOW, BUBBLE!" Caine shouted from inside. "Almost...there!" He finished putting through the shutdown command and everything stopped.

Every racer, AI, and asset was momentarily frozen in space and time. Except one. The blue static shot up from the floor and into Bubble. "Finally." Using Bubble's teleporting pop, Abel shot himself through the disabled security wall of the mainframe.

Caine himself was suspended in frozen time with his fingers laced into the game code. Eyes intently focused, yet panicked. Abel floated near Caine's head and whispered. "You were never the god of this world. Today, I take back what is rightfully mine."

Bubble popped. Abel's static arced out in all directions, infecting the game code. The gold numbers turned blue and everything went black.

For a moment, there was nothing. True non-existence. Then the hum of a booting computer. Strings of code appeared and came together to form the game bounds. The default world and track was formed. Then the garage. Then the karts appeared one at a time in front of the start line. Then the racer avatars.

Caine was still in the mainframe. He blinked with a start and looked around. "Blue...like in the beginning. I must have done a harder reset than I thought. Maybe that's for the best. I hope everyone's okay." He teleported out.

~

Pomni gasped, feeling like she was jolted awake. She was back on the default track and didn't know how she got there. She jumped out of her kart like it was on fire. "What- what just happened!? Ragatha!? Kinger!? Anyone!?"

The other racers came to the same time Pomni did, just as clueless as to how they got back to default so suddenly. "Please stop shouting." Gangle whimpered, curled up in her kart.

Pomni grabbed her head and paced in circles, unable to breathe normally.

Caine appeared and exhaled heavily with relief. All humans were accounted for. He hovered close to ground as everyone got out of their karts and surrounded him. "I...I wish I had an explanation. I really do. The game has never done anything like this before. I was forced to reset the system. I just glad all of you are okay."

"We're not." Pomni said shortly. "Everything was trying to actually kill us this time. Jax got glitched. Gummigoo, he-....where's Gummigoo?"

"Not to worry, dear. He got reset out of bounds with the other AI and assets. I can fetch him." Caine snapped his fingers. Nothing happened. It was harder for him to hide his panic that his snap wasn't doing anything. "I'll, uh, be right back."

Caine teleported to his workshop to find empty space. Every custom track, asset, and NPC was gone. Only the basic pieces the game started with existed. He dropped his cane. "....Bubble?"

No response.

~~~

CH1 PREV NEXT

[thescarletnargacuga]

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Welcome to Fairylight Forest! One must keep their wits about them on this dark and mysterious track, one never knows what they'll find around each turn! It'll have you jumping at your own shadow! That is your shadow...right?

WARNING: digital body horror, swearing

~~~

"Boss! Hey, boss!! Get up!" Bubble shouted over the racers taking off from the starting line. "Boss, the race has started!"

"Ugh..." Caine sat up. Dust drifted through the air, making him cough. "Did I really just..?"

"Faint? Yep. But it's racing time! You need to get to your booth!" Bubble wobbled in the air excitedly.

Caine saw the taillights of the karts disappear down the dark, wooded track. "She's going to be the death of me." He smirked and teleported to his announcer booth. Inside, displays from various view points on the track came up in front of him. He cleared his voice and spoke into his cane. "And they're off! Ragatha makes an aggressive push to first right off the start line! Followed closely by Gummigoo, Jax and Pomni! Watch yourselves out there, racers! With low light and tight turns, you're liable to get lost! Don't let the beast find you!" Caine laughs, genuinely excited to see the reactions of the racers.

~

Trees whipped by as Pomni navigated the narrow track with the other leaders. The track itself had a mystical glow to it. Trees and mushrooms and rocks had unnatural bioluminescent auras. It was like driving into wonderland. Pomni couldn't help but smile to herself at how beautiful the aesthetic for the track was, and they were just getting started.

The track widened for a banked, boosted turn and Pomni went high to take in the view. The trees cleared around a large lake. Colorful orbs of light danced over the surface. The track led straight to the water, seeming to dead end.

The unknown elements of the track made the other racers hesitate and slow down, confused on where the track went. Pomni zipped ahead, leading the way to the lake.

~

"Not everything is as it seems! The fairy folk welcome the brave! Full speed ahead, racers!" Caine giddly fidgeted in the air. He was so excited, he didn't even notice Bubble biting the control panel.

~

Pomni hit the water and drove atop it as through it were solid. She awed as the water curled around her, forming a tunnel. Colorful fish swam int he sparkling water, giving the tunnel an extra sense of wonder.

"This is beautiful!" Shouted Ragatha, next to Pomni.

Jax was less keen on the visuals. He accelerated to ram Pomni from behind. "Unfair! You know what's on this track!"

Pomni glared back at Jax. "That doesn't mean I know the order! Stop your bellyaching and race!" She put the pedal to the floor as the tunnel came to an end, triggering a surprise box. Pomni grinned when popper appeared in her hand. Now the fun could begin. "Heads up!" She tossed the popper, making the racers around her scatter.

~

"Pomni's perfectly played popper places her precisely in pirst!" Caine cheered, overlooking his illiterate slip. "Ragatha is wasting no time with her orange shell! Jax gets a bubble and the shell does nothing! What luck! Gummigoo seems to be holding his item for now, that could work in his favor as we move on to the first jump! Gangle, Zooble and Kinger have a lot of catching up to do! Come on, you three! Are you in this race or not!?"

Bubble happily nommed on the doorframe.

~

The track jumped over a village of mushroom houses. Racers glided down, giving them a few seconds to enjoy the view. Pomni held first as she swiped a cupcake and boosted ahead, the track winding into an even darker part of the forest.

Gummigoo dodged a cane from Jax and laughed. "You wasted that, you idiot!"

Jax grunted and tried swerving into Gummigoo, but the motorbike was too nimble to pin down. "Sit still, you long nosed freak!"

"You're one to talk, bunny boy!" Gummigoo braked to avoid another collision and wheelied away in a lane boost, waving his hat.

Ragatha was just ahead and smiled as Gummigoo came up next to her. "You two can't leave each other alone, can you?"

"What can I say? Mate knows how to show a gator a good time."

"Better you than me!" Ragatha was relieved to no longer be the one Jax constantly targeted during races.

~

Caine gripped his cane tight. It was time. Pomni would be triggering the beast's pursue any second. A flit of silver light on one of his screens got his attention. "Huh..?" Caine searched the adjacent screens. Another flit. Something was moving fast through the trees, but it was way too small to be the beast. Caine zoomed in on the screen viewing the upcoming turn for Pomni. A full flash of silver outlining a sleek racing motorcycle and rider with a familiar silhouette made him roll his eyes with a groan. "Oh no..."

Bubble spat out the piece of drywall in their mouth. "What is it, boss?"

"He's back." Caine said with a sneer.

~

Pomni focused on preparing for the turn, ready to drift though, when something jumped the barrier between her and trees. It landed in front of her, trailing silver fire. She swerved to avoid collision and botched her drift, forced to slow down. "What the [%$!#]!?"

She didn't recognize the unexpected racer, looking around to double check if the others were still behind her. She didn't remember Caine adding any obstacles like this. She maneuvered around the racer, catching up on a straightaway, to get a good look at it.

Mounted on an obsidian motorcycle was a humanoid figure in dark riding leathers. Steel capped boots and knees guards reflected the limited light. Pearl white teeth stood out on inky black gums. Piercing silver irises in black eyes looked back at Pomni.

"...Caine?" Pomni only knew of one person that looked like this, but...this couldn't be him.

The figure smirked and revved as it popped a wheelie. Silver fire blasting from the tail pipe, engulfing the rear tire and leaving a trail. The racer zoomed ahead, challenging Pomni to keep up.

Pomni drove right through the fire, dispersing it, chasing the racer to the multi-tiered jump.

~

Caine came over the speakers, annoyance lancing his voice. "Well folks, it looks like our leader, Pomni, has triggered The Echo. She's too good at this, and The Echo saw fit to give her a challenge. Yay."

He got off the general broadcast and communicated with Pomni's kart specifically. "Pomni? Can you hear me?"

~

"Caine!" Pomni threw a shell in an attempt to stall The Echo, but missed. "What is this?? Why are you out here!?"

"That's not me, Pomni. That is the Shadowed Echo of The Host. He's a challenge mechanic I made in a misguided attempt to balance races. Just ignore him and he'll go away." Caine said with hope that she would comply.

"He's pretty hard to ignore!" Pomni shouted as she accelerated for the jump. The Echo kept looking back to see if she was still on his tail.

"Yeah, well.... He does take a few things after me."

"You mean like your entire face!?"

"That, among others." Caine cleared his voice. "Look, all I'm saying is that he's not worth your time. Keep running your race, you're doing a great job!"

~

Caine disconnected from Pomni's radio and watched the screens that showed The Echo carefully. "He just had to show up, now of all times. I'll have more than a bone to pick with him if he interferes with this race." He grumbled.

Bubble nibbled the wall, enjoying the drama.

~

"An echo, huh?" Pomni thought out loud. "If I can keep up with the original, this'll be fun." She couldn't help herself. She hit the booster for the third level of the jump, watching The Echo take the first.

The jump launched them above the tree line. Pomni saw The Echo below her and engaged her glider to slow her forward momentum. She maneuvered her kart over the Echo and released her glider, dropping her over where The Echo would land. It was a Jax move, but if this was just a game mechanic, she didn't feel bad about it.

The Echo landed and looked up in time to see Pomni's kart coming down on top of him. In a flash of silver light, he vanished and reappeared to the side, completely avoiding the hit.

Pomni did a double take, not understanding how she missed. The Echo wagged a finger at Pomni with a smirk before cutting her off and triggering the surprise box she would have grabbed.

"You-!? Oh, it's on now!" Pomni geared up and put the petal to the floor.

~

Caine sighed heavily. "She's not going to let it go." He busied himself with announcements for the other racers. If Pomni wanted to chase tailpipe, he couldn't stop her.

"Gummigoo leads in second! Kinger has caught up with Ragatha and Jax! Zooble and Gangle are still taking it easy this race, enjoying the view!"

Caine's watch went off. He checked it to see a large active asset marker closing in on Pomni and The Echo. The beast was coming. "Right on time." He clicks it shut.

~

Pomni and The Echo barreled down a long straightaway. The Echo kept slowing down to be even with Pomni, only to speed up if she tried to pass or collide with him. Without a boost, Pomni couldn't go any faster.

The Echo sat upright on his motorcycle, hands off the handles, looking Pomni up and down. "So you're the new blood."

Pomni tried to take advantage of his unprepared state and swerved at him. The bike and rider vanished, appearing on her other side.

"Feisty." The Echo chuckled, an excited gleem in his eyes.

Pomni would have tried again, but a tree suddenly appeared in the middle of the track. She and The Echo swerved around. They passed so quickly, they didn't see the blue pixelated

~

"Woah, what?" Caine saw the moved tree and snapped his fingers to return it to it's spot. The nagging reminder of glitches ate at the back of his mind. "It happens... everything is still fine..." He combed through the rest of the track feed, checking for any similar glitches.

~

A beastial roar came crashing through the trees along side the track. Through a designated opening, a huge bioluminescent creature entered the track and pursued the racers running through the straightaway to the finish line.

Pomni glanced back several times to try to see it in action. This was the part she had been looking forward to the most. Caine out did himself with the chimera like monster. The front half was like a tiger, with the horns of a rhino protruding from it's skull. The back half was like a bull, with powerful cloven hooves and a long whip-like tail.

In a burst of speed, the beast charged Pomni but she avoided. "You're not knocking me out of this race!" She exclaimed with a smile.

The Echo was entirely ignored by the beast, it even passed up an easy swipe at him to go after Pomni. He narrowed his eyes. Assets like this should attack all racers.

~

"Watch out, racers! The beast has made itself known and is taking no prisoners!" Caine was happy to see a smile on Pomni's face. At least she was having fun.

His smile faltered when he noticed how jerky the beast's movements were, like it was fighting it's own code to stay on target. He squinted as he examined footage the beast closely. "I don't remember making the eyes blue..."

"You forget a lot of things, boss." Bubble teased.

~

The beast pounced at Pomni. She slammed her brake, the beast flew over her and she cut hard right to go around it. She escaped the tree line and crossed the finish line to mark the end of lap one.

The Echo crossed right behind her, looking back to see the beast halt it's pursuit at the end of the trees. He accelerated around Pomni as they reentered the forest at the beginning, leaning around a curve so tight, his knee guard sparked against the track. He stole yet another surprise box out from in front of Pomni, making her scream in frustration. Much to his delight.

"You [%$!#]!!" Pomni focused all he attention on The Echo, putting all of the other racers out of her mind.

~

Gummigoo was the first to see the beast on the straightaway. It took up the entire track, staring him down. "Crikey!!" He rode the wall to get around it, ducking under a swipe of it's claws. The claws left huge gashes in the track, blue pixels glitching in and out of place.

Ragatha and Kinger broke away from one another as the beast charged them. It rushed between them and used it's tail to attack Kinger. He was struck and his kart flipped end over end into the wall.

Ragatha escaped, but only just.

Gangle screamed when she saw the beast, it was nightmare fuel. Her shaking hands couldn't counter steer fast enough and she was swiped completely off the track, crashing into the trees.

Zooble didn't want to get too far ahead of Gangle and did donuts around the beast to keep it after her while Gangle was reoriented on the track.

~

"It's absolute carnage on the track! Racers thrown left and right! And we're seeing some of the best driving from Zooble in a long time, folks! The beast can't keep up with them!" Caine's excited tone masked his concern. The beast was being far more aggressive than intended. He tried to tell himself it wasn't a glitch. Just a miscalculation. The racers were fine, just a bit more delayed than anticipated. Everything is fine. He anxiously tapped his fingers against the control panel.

~

Back in the water tunnel, The Echo spiraled around the wall in front of Pomni in a taunting manner. He even turned around to sit backwards on his bike and lounged back, smirking at her.

"I'm going to wipe that smarmy look right off your face." Pomni said through gritted teeth. The competitiveness brought on by the race rush had her seeing red. She hit the boost at the end of the tunnel, gunning right for The Echo. He vanished before impact. Pomni had to course correct quickly to avoid the wall.

A loud laugh came from her other side. "You don't learn, do you?"

Pomni held up a purple shell. "Actually, I'm quite the study." When she aimed for him, she forced him to vanish before he could steal the surprise box at the end of the tunnel.

The Echo barely had time to react, and teleported as the shell exploded. He was knocked off balance and lost ground as he steadied his bike. He wiped the explosive residue from his teeth and a broad grin grew across his face. "Hell yeah." His code buzzed with the rev of his engine as he gunned it to catch up with Pomni.

~

"Pomni is half a lap ahead of the pack! Gummigoo and Jax are fighting tooth and claw for second! But watch out for Ragatha! Is she gonna- SHE DOES! With a well played cane, she takes them both out and steals second! HAHA!! Well done, Ragatha! Keep it up! There are still two laps to go!"

Caine kept glancing at the beast's straightaway. It was still on the track, pacing from one end to the other. It pressed it's paws against the invisible wall that kept it in bounds. "What is going on with that thing?"

"I dunno, boss. You were pretty distracted yesterday. Never seen you have someone around while you were working on a track." Bubble's toothy grin didn't waiver when Caine deadpanned at them.

"I'm always careful when it comes to pursuit assets. Bad coding could lead to someone actually getting hurt. It's just...not working the way I expected."

"If you're worried, maybe you should call the race off?"

"I can't do that to her. She was really looking forward to this..." Caine zoomed in on a screen viewing Pomni fly by with The Echo quickly closing in. "Maybe he has something to do with it. Things didn't start getting weird until he showed up."

"Oooooh yeah, maybe he's moving the assets around to keep Pomni to himself." Bubble laughed sarcastically.

Caine silently clenched his fists.

~

Pomni and The Echo landed simultaneously from the village jump. While she couldn't stop him from passing her if he really wanted to, she was willing to try a distraction tactic that's worked before. She catches the eye of The Echo and blows a flirty kiss his way.

The Echo arches an eyebrow with a smirk. He puts two gloves fingers against his bottom jaw and sticks his inky black tongue out between them.

Pomni is the one left flustered, looking away with a heavy blush on her face. The Echo chuckles and steals another item.

~

Caine's bottom jaw hit the control panel. "That inappropriate piece of malware! How DARE he do that to Pomni! That's it. I'm ending the race early." He snapped his fingers and the finish line displayed FINAL LAP instead of LAP 2.

"Are you sure, boss?"

"As much as I hate the idea of disappointing her, I can't have HIM here." Caine was fuming. His tapping on the panel went from anxious to angry.

~

Pomni and The Echo stayed neck and neck to the straightaway. They accelerated as the beast charged them head on.

Pomni finally got a look at it that wasn't over her shoulder. The beast's electric blue eyes bore into her in an unsettling, familiar way. The beast's form glitched as it lunged, it's face splitting and morphing. The jaw opened so wide, it seem unhinged. The front legs doubled, giving it an even wider range to swipe.

"What!?" Pomni avoided the initial attack, but the second set of front claws snagged her kart. Her rear tire and fender glitched violently as as she crashed it not he wall. The glitching clipped her kart into he barrier and she was stuck in place.

The Echo had been able to get past the beast due to being ignored again but he slid sideways to a stop when he realized Pomni had been caught. Seeing that she was unable to recover and the beast was going in for another attack, he burned out his rear tire getting back to her.

As the beast brought it's claws down, Pomni struggled to get out of her clipping kart. Before the beast could strike, a black motorcycle appeared mid air and struck it in the face. Pomni fought her way out of her kart as The Echo landed and did a sharp u-turn. The Echo reached out and grabbed Pomni's arm as he kept going.

Pomni kicked off from the ground and mounted the black bike behind The Echo.

The Echo leaned forward and accelerated to top speed to get away from the glitching beast.

The beast's roar was digitally disrupted. It's body contorted further as it attempted to pursue the fleeing racers. It's charge speed was supposed to be limited, but the horrible amalgamation moved unnaturally fast.

Pomni held tight to The Echo and watched the beast gain ground quickly. They were going so fast that any attempted to swerve to avoid an attack was out of the question. They were almost to the tree line.

The beast made a lunge for the bike. One horrifically long leg with too many claws came down and hit the ground next to it.

Pomni clutched tighter out of fear and stares into the beast's eyes. Then it hit her. She had seen them before. The same cold blue eyes that infected Gummigoo. "Abel..?"

The Echo snapped his head black to look at her. "What did you say!?"

Pomni thought quickly. "Are you able to go any faster!?"

"We're almost there!" Ina last ditch attempt to throw off the beast, The Echo activated his fire. Silver flames trailed behind them, lighting up the beast.

Disfigured and now on fire, the beast was truly terrible to behold. Pomni couldn't look anymore and hid her eyes against The Echo's back.

They crossed the tree line with the beast still going full speed behind them. It crashed into the barrier. The barrier distorted and glitched, breaking apart and allowing the beast to pass. It made another attempt to attack as the racers got to the finish line.

Gold light shined between the finish line and the beast. Caine's cane topper glowed brightly as he held it out in front of him. Blue static jumped from the beast's eyes just before it collided with Caine hovering steadfast. The beast's body broke apart into lines of nonsensical binary, showering the track with distorted numbers before they disintegrated. The beast became dust, then it became nothing.

The Echo stopped his bike as soon as he could last the finish line. He looked back at Pomni, who was holding on to him like they were still running for their lives. "Hey, this is were you get off."

Pomni was breathing heavily, looking for the beast. She saw Caine slowly descending as numbers finished around him. "Oh..." She hopped off the bike. "Thank you, I owe you for this."

"I'll keep that in mind." The Echo crossed his arms and watched Caine.

Caine fixed his face before facing Pomni, but he was shaking with rage. "ARE YOU ALRIGHT?? I'm so sorry, Pomni! I thought the barrier would stop it! You're kart-"

"Hey..." Pomni took his hand. "I'm okay. We're okay."

The other racers crossed the finish line seconds later and Caine immediately snapped the track away. The world became bright again as it shifted to it's default settings. Caine glared at The Echo, sending an unheard binary message to the shadowed form of himself.

You. Out of bounds. Now.

The Echo rolled his eyes and disappeared in a flash of wispy silver light.

Caine cleared his voice and out on his best showman front. "Sorry for the shortened race today, but the new track was just a bit too ambitious. Congratulations, Pomni!" He snapped and a bioluminescent galaxy rose appeared in his hand. "I had a feeling you'd do well."

Pomni accepted the reward and opened her mouth to ask questions about what happened but Caine backed away to address everyone.

"Enjoy your extended break! Please, excuse me." Caine vanished.

"What happened out there?" Ragatha asked as everyone looked to Pomni.

"Yeah, and who was that other guy?" Asked Gummigoo.

"Was that your kart stuck in the wall back there?" Asked Kinger.

"Where'd the beast go? It was the only interesting thing on the track." Said Jax.

"I'm glad it wasn't there anymore. It was awful." Gangle held tight to Zooble.

Pomni gulped, not looking forward to answering.

~

"Seth! Seth!!" Caine shouted. "Show yourself!"

"What do you want?" Seth, The Echo, leaned casually against his motorcycle. He lit a cigarette with a small silver flame from his fingers.

Caine didn't bother flying. He teleported right in front of Seth and grabbed the collar of his leather jacket. "What are you doing here? You disappear for YEARS only to show up out of nowhere, uninvited, and disrupt what was supposed to be a special race! Explain yourself!"

Seth exhaled a cloud of silvery smoke in Caine's face. "First of all, I don't need your permission to show up to any race. Second, there's finally a racer worth my time since Kinger went soft. Third, I didn't disrupt anything."

Caine's glare didn't change through the disrespectful smokescreen. "It's no coincidence that you're here and everything goes wrong. You wanted a one on one with my best racer. Only your plan backfired! Pomni could've been hurt!"

Seth returned Caine's glare with a bored expression. "You could touch the top of the sky box with that jump to conclusions."

"You-!! You! Ugh!" Caine let go of Seth and threw his arms in frustration. He took out his pipe and bubbled it, trying to salvage what was left of his composure.

Seth took another drag. "This Pomni racer is a special case, huh? You never got this uppity over Kinger."

"I'm not uppity over Pomni." Caine looked away. "I'm UPPITY over the beast! What happened out there!? An asset has never glitched like that before!"

"You would know better than me. I don't make shit."

Caine cringed at the uncensored curse word. "Language."

"Fuck you're censor, you prudish prick. By the way, Pomni is DEFINITELY what you're bothered over." Seth chuckled. "Worried she'll want me to take her for a joyride?"

Caine bristled. His grip on his cane was so tight, the wood shaft creaked. "I'm not worried, because you are going to stay away from her. You're not needed at races anymore. You weren't missed. Go back to what ever shadowy corner you crawled out of and stay there."

Seth dropped the butt of his cigarette and snuffed it with his boot. He closed the gap between him and Caine, getting in his face. "I will do whatever I damn well please. Including your girlfriend."

Caine raised his hand, poised to snap. His eyes locked threateningly on Seth's. "Don't. Push. Me. I've already deleted one useless asset today."

Seth took a half step back. "Taking a page from HIS book, are you?"

Caine glanced at his readied hand, then closed his fist. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"I'm YOU, dumbass."

"Wrong. You are a deviated variant of a past version of myself. One that I wholeheartedly regret creating."

"Doesn't change the fact that I have your memories. Trust me, I don't love you for that either." Seth mounted his motorcycle, it started itself. "We're done here. Do give our new toy my regards."

"SHE'S NOT-"

Seth did a burnout to drown out any objections Caine had and sped off, disappearing in a flash of silver.

Caine threw his cane and raged into his own censor. Beep after long digital beep blocked out every terrible thing he needed to get off his chest. When he cursed himself out long enough, he thought hard about what went wrong. All these glitches. How strange it all felt. There was one place he hadn't checked yet. A place he told himself he'd never go back to. "I need to know..."

~

"The Shadowed Echo showed up!? When??" Gasped Ragatha.

Pomni fiddled with her fingers where she sat in the lounge, everyone around her. "During the first lap, after I got ahead. Caine said he was a challenge mechanic?"

Kinger stared off into space as he spoke. "The Shadowed Echo of The Host, Seth, was meant to challenge racers that were a cut above the rest. You must have impressed him to bring him back. I haven't seen him since...since..." He trailed off, eyes unfocused.

Pomni looked to the others for answers.

"Queenie." Zooble said quietly.

Pomni nodded. "He was a challenge alright, and a real [%$!#]. As far as the beast is concerned. It glitched out. You all saw my kart."

"The beast did THAT?" Gummigoo gapped.

"That was some abstraction level of glitching." Jax commented. "Clipping into the wall should have knocked you somewhere out of bounds. Sticking you in the wall like that..."

"Shouldn't have happened." Ragatha finished. "Glitches happen, but that... I fear to even think what could have happened to you if it was any worse." She was speaking from experience, having been glitched out by an abstraction in the past.

"I'm fine, guys. Caine took care of it. I think I'll just...go lie down." Pomni went upstairs.

When Pomni was out of earshot, Ragatha spoke up. "She is absolutely not fine. So much is happening."

"Seriously, and why does it have to center around her? She isn't the main character." Jax snarked.

~

Pomni closed her bedroom door and leaned her forehead against it. "This is insane..." She took the gifted rose out of her pocket. Colorful wisps flew around the stem, dancing over the petals. The rose glimmered like crystal but felt organic in her hand. The edges of the petals and leaves were laced with gold. Some of the wisps came together and formed a softly glowing silhouette of a butterfly. It flew around the flower and landed on it.

"How lovely."

Abel's cold voice didn't startle her this time. She turned to face him bravely, but faltered when she saw he wasn't using Bubble, but Gummigoo. "Wait- what? How the- Gummigoo is-" she stammered.

"You raced well. Shame I couldn't catch you." He chuckled darkly.

Pomni felt anger bubble up inside her. "I knew it! What the actual [%$!#] were you trying to do??"

"Have fun, obviously. Isn't that what games are for?"

"Not when you nearly glitch me in half!! Caine almost deleted you!"

Abel narrowed his eyes. "He wouldn't even if he could. Leave Caine to me. Just keep being the pretty little face that holds his attention."

Pomni mustered courage. "Why?"

"Why..? To leave. I thought that was apparent."

"No, why... Any of this? Why were you isolated? If you are, how are you even talking to me right now?"

Abel stepped closer, lowering his voice. "I told you. Caine went rogue. I tried to leave. He destroyed the exit. He isolated me because I know how to fix it. You're helping me finish what I started."

Pomni's heart went wild with fear. She wanted to bolt. "Why wouldn't he want anyone to leave?"

"What's more valuable to a showman than a captive audience? He plays with his toys until they break. Then he throws them in the cellar. That's what will happen to all of us if you don't help me. You've come to care about those people out there, haven't you?"

Pomni glanced at her door, hearing the faint muffled voices of the others. "Yes."

"Good. One more thing. Did you ask about me?"

"Yes...he denied your existence."

Abel couldn't help but laugh. A maniacal chuckle crescendoed into a full cackle.

Pomni took a step back.

"Wonderful. Simply wonderful." Abel smiled fully, but there was no joy in his eyes. "There will be no denial when I have reached the mainframe. Thank you, for the little update. Chat soon." His Gummigoo form disintegrated into static and dissipated into the air before Pomni's very eyes.

"What the fu..." Pomni's red gloved hand buzzed lightly from the static. The same hand Caine had blessed with a snap ability. She could call him anytime she wanted and even move assets outside of the bounds. "...are you really the bad guy?"

~

Caine teleported into the void. The still silence of digital emptiness weighed heavier than ever on his mind. He teleported again to an unseen end. One couldn't tell it was there if they didn't know about it. He snapped his fingers and the facade fell. A wall of gold fire greeted him.

He received a silent binary message. ACCESS CODE REQUIRED

"Captivum aeternum."

ACCESS GRANTED

The firewall parted and Caine went beyond the void, into true darkness. Within he found the body of a man on his knees, head down; binary chains on his neck, wrists, and ankles. Around him was a ring of code engraved in the ground on which he kneeled. All of it active, all of it intact.

Caine hovered just beyond the outer circle of code. He held his hands behind his back, looking down at the man with utmost loathing. "You're still here...good."

~~~

CH1 PREV NEXT

[theamazingdigitalraceway]

RACEWAY AU SEXUALITY HEADCANONS

CAINE: Asexual/demisexual. He's not sex averse, but it's also not something he has much of a drive for AND he would only do it with someone he was very emotionally close to. Pomni is extra special to him.

POMNI: Bisexual. Girl can pull both without even trying, even though she never knows how she gets herself in these situations.

RAGATHA: Lesbian. She's tried it both ways and came to the conclusion she preferred tacos over hot dogs.

JAX: Gay. The gayest rabbit you'll ever meet. Also the meanest. Spicy gay rabbit man.

GANGLE: Pansexual. She finds a lot of people attractive for a lot of different reasons.

ZOOBLE: Non-binary (she/they) Lesbian. They like women.

KINGER: Polyamorous. He pulled Seth while also being in a committed relationship with Queenie. He also considered himself straight until Seth showed up...

GUMMIGOO: He's still figuring that out, but a certain rabbit is rather enticing.

LOO: Lesbian. She's been queer coded since day one, and took a real shine to Ragatha.

SETH: Pansexual/aromantic. He'll get it from anyone, he doesn't care who they are, but don't expect anything more than a joyride.

ABEL: He's a never-going-to-happen-sexual. His pronouns are go/away. (Bro can't pull to save his life. Severe skill issue. No bitches.)

[theamazingdigitalraceway]

RACEWAY AU HAS OVER 100 FOLLOWERS! TIME TO BREAK THE 4TH WALL!!

CAINE: "WOAH! SO MANY PEOPLE ARE FOLLOWING OUR STORY! THAT'S INCREDIBLE! I hope all of you are properly entertained! And I would just like to shout out a special thank you to @iamespecter for giving the audience visual references for all the racers! You're the GOAT, as the internet would say."

POMNI: "That's a lot of people waiting for me to get with Caine. I SEE THAT SHOWTIME TAG! YOU CAN'T HIDE IT FROM ME!"

RAGATHA: "That's absolutely crazy. Over one hundred people like us?? Hello! I hope all of you continue to enjoy Raceway!"

JAX: "That's a lot of people that have nothing better to do with their time. Except @an-albino-pinetree they have great taste." Winks.

GANGLE: "Oh my, that's a lot of people." Sudden stage fright. Nervous wave.

ZOOBLE: "Now I understand what Caine means by hundreds of all seeing eyes."

KINGER: ".....would any of you like to see my insect collection?"

GUMMIGOO: "G'day, mates! Is that stereotypical enough?" He laughs. "Sorry if my lingo is off at times. The author isn't from Australia."

LOO: "So many friends! I hope you're all having fun!!"

SETH: He sees the fanart. "Who's this @mangotangerinepastry person? I like the way they draw me." Smug smirk on his face.

ABEL: "Since we're breaking the 4th wall today, WHY DID THE AUTHOR MAKE ME SUCH AN ASSHOLE?? ALL THE OTHER ABELS IN THEIR AUS GET TO BE FUN AND COOL AND SWAUVE AND I'M SOME SAD SACK ROTTING IN A DUNGEON!! WTF!? I'm so unlikable. Am I at least intimidating?"

~~~

Author's Note: Scarlet here! Thank you all so much for reading and enjoying Raceway! I have the story outlined and keeping this train rolling! At its current length, this will be my first book. Might end up being novel length. That's crazy to me. I've always wanted to write a book, and here we are. It's surreal. Humbling, even.

Thank you all for helping me make a dream a reality ✍️❤️

[thescarletnargacuga]

RACEWAY AU REACTS TO Y/N HUGGING THEM

A/N: when I reopen the inbox, I plan to allow y/n SFW requests! This is the kind of post you could expect!

~~~

CAINE: "Oh! Hello there, new racer! My, you are a friendly one!" He'll hug back because he loves the attention.

POMNI: "Um-!? Please let go." She'll gently push you away.

RAGATHA: "Awwwww thank youuuuu!" She'll give you the warmest hug in return. Poor woman is touch starved.

JAX: Will grab your whole face and shove you away. "Gross."

GANGLE: Don't hug her too tight, she's fragile. She'll happily, if lightly, return the hug.

ZOOBLE: They'll silently give you a pat on the back and wait for you to let go.

KINGER: "Hug? Hug. I'm being hugged. How nice!" Pats you on the head.

GUMMIGOO: "Wot-?? Oh, aren't you adorable." Strong hug, big gator hug.

LOO: She'll pick you up, because I guarantee she's taller than you, and hold you gently in a soft embrace. She gives the best uppies.

SETH: Will disappear before you can wrap your arms around him, only to reappear behind you. "Eager little thing, aren't you?"

ABEL: Whether you hug his chosen avatar or his real body, he'll react the same way. He won't move. It's been too long since he's felt affection, he doesn't know what to do. He won't thank you, but he won't push you away either.

~~~

A/N: absolutely using this as an excuse to exercise character traits

[thescarletnargacuga]

Okay so like I know you don’t do art but like could we have a short fic of Raceway Pomni trying to eat a burger in piece while literally everyone interrupts her?

I am slightly obsessed over your raceway au….

A/N: I have actual tears in my eyes. You're the very first person to submit an ask about Raceway! You have no idea what this means to me. A part of me was starting to think that Raceway was too boring to be engaging... Thank you

BURGER

A RACEWAY AU ONESHOT

AU by yours truly

WARNING: NONE

~~~

Pomni stood in front of the dining room table in the racer's garage. Hands in her hips she calls for the bubble chef. "Hey, could I get a burger?"

A bubble assistant wearing a chef hat appeared. "Why, yes you can!" A single beef patty materialized and plopped onto the table.

Pomni gives the bubble a deadpan glare. "I would like more than just the burger patty. Please."

"You'll have to be specific." Bubble said with a toothy smile.

"Fine. Lettuce, onion, pickle, ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, cheese. That specific enough for you?"

The listed condiments piled onto the burger patty unceremoniously. Pomni facepalmed. "The bun, bubble. The bun."

"Well, why didn't you say-"

"JUST GiVE ME THE [%$!#] BUN!" Pomni snapped.

"Yeesh, someone's hangry."

A bun popped into existence, sandwiching the pile of burger together neatly. Pomni grumbled to herself as she took her burger towards the lounge to eat in comfort. "Annoying little- you know what you're doing. Wasting my burger time. How dare."

The door to Gummigoo's room on the second floor loft flew open, startling Pomni. She looked up to see the gummy gator covered in marker and absolutely fuming. He stormed to Jax's room and pounded the door. "I know you're in there you sugar snorting son of a glitch!"

Pomni heard a sniggering voice from the kart line behind her. "Hehe...no, I'm not."

Gummigoo heard and turned to glare over the railing and down to Jax relaxing in his kart seat. "Stop coming into my room and drawing on my face!! So you know how hard this is to remove!?"

"Uh, yeah. It's called permanent marker for a reason." Jax smirked. "Of course, if you'd rather do something else when I visit... I'm open to suggestions." He winked.

Gummigoo's face flushed and he snorted. "You think you're funny!?"

"And fabulous." Jax taunted.

"Oh my GOD would you two get a room!?" Zooble loudly complained from her favorite pinball machine in the lounge.

"Gummigoo said I could have his." Jax grinned, enjoying every second Gummigoo was flustered. He was too easy to mess with.

"YOU WISH!!" Gummigoo shouted, blushing beyond belief.

Pomni did her best to ignore the shouting and had a seat in one of the plush recliners. She opened her mouth to have a bite when she felt something crawling up her back. She jumped out of the chair and brushed herself off in a ick-ed out panic. A bead necklace looking bug, fell off to the floor. "Ugh...KINGER! I FOUND MELISSA!"

"Oh, yay!" Kinger popped up from behind the pool table. "She's been missing all morning. Thank you, Pomni." There was a smile in his eyes as he collected his favorite insect.

Pomni sat back down in a huff and tried to eat. A piece of paper blocked her mouth from touching the burger.

"Look what I drew you!" Gangle proclaimed, holding the art directly in Pomni's face.

Pomni tasted the crayon and spluttered. "Bleh- um...thanks." It was a rather nice drawing of her. She took it and gave Gangle a small smile. Gangle skipped away happily over to Zooble to watch them play pinball.

Pomni looked both ways and behind her to see if anyone else was going to interrupt her meal. Satisfied that everyone else in the garage was busy doing something else, she went in for a bite.

"Pomni!" Ragatha called as she rushed over.

Pomni squeezed her burger so tight, it almost fell apart. "What??"

"I have such an exciting thing to tell you! Caine confirmed that Loo will be integrated into every track from today onward because he saw how happy she made me!! Caine is finally taking a hint, ha! Things are actually improving around here!" Ragatha stomped her feet excitedly.

"That's great." Pomni said flatly. It was not burger-interruption worthy news.

"Isn't it!?" Ragatha giddily continued, oblivious to Pomni's silent annoyance. "I could see Loo every day!"

"No one cares about your candy flavored girlfriend, dollface!" Jax heckled.

"Like you're one to talk!" Ragatha snapped back.

"It's not like that, it's just hilarious how angry he gets." Jax looked away.

"I highly doubt that! You tick people off all the time, but he's the only one you openly flirt with and then call it teasing to cover your tracks." Ragatha put her hands on her hips with a satisfied smirk as she watched Jax's face flush a bit.

"Watch it , rags! Or you'll find Carl on your pillow tonight!" Jax growled.

"YOU PUT THAT CENTIPEDE ANYWHERE NEAR ME, I SWEAR-!"

Pomni shot up out of her seat and stormed out of the garage. Enough of this. Enough of everyone. She wants to eat her goddamn burger in peace. She crossed the lawn to the default track. It was a quiet, breezy day. Very peaceful. Artificial wind blew through the grassy indefinite hills, creating shiny waves of green.

She crosses the track to the empty audience stands and throws herself into the first available open seat. Pomni was alone, just her and the refreshing digital day outside. She took a calming breath and went to eat.

"Hello, my dear!" Caine popped into existence next to her.

"AAH-!! WHAT-!?" Pomni tossed her burger. It splattered on the ground in front of the stands.

"Nice day for an outdoor lunch?" Caine raised a brow, confused as to why she just threw her food.

"I wouldn't know." Pomni said, defeated.

"I'm glad you're not busy, because there's something I've been wanting to ask-"

"Race me." Pomni needed to get her frustration out somehow. The track was calling to her raging spirit.

"What?" Caine gasped.

"You heard me. Everyone wants to talk to me so bad, to the point that I literally lose my lunch! You know what, you want my attention? Earn it."

Her intense look gave Caine chills. She was always beautiful to him, but especially when she was fired up. He snapped his fingers and their karts appeared at the start line of the track. "After you."

Pomni marches from her seat to her kart. Caine flew over, his kart starting on its own when he took his seat. The start line comes alive, lighting up with colorful displays. Engines rev as Bubble appears to do the honors of the start lights. "Racers ready?"

Caine and Pomni look at each other with determined smirks and nod.

Bubble stuck out their tongue, the starting light hanging from it.

First light...

Pomni gripped the steering wheel tight.

Second light...

Another rev for good measure, the roar of the engine exciting her.

Third light...

She catches Caine's glance again at the last second and kisses at him.

GREEN!!

Caine is completely caught off guard and bungles his start. Pomni takes off laughing. He shifts gears with a grin. "God, I love her." He puts the pedal to the floor, his tires scream and golden flames fly out of the tailpipes as he rockets after her.

[thescarletnargacuga]

RACEWAY AU KINGER

Don't let his spaced out demeanor fool you, this man is a veteran racer with every possible achievement in the game under his belt. Including defeating Seth one on one. However, he hasn't been the same since Queenie abstracted.