The Elemental Contestant (Running Man Animation Fanfiction) [Book 4]

Chapter 8: Running Man Express

The Running Man team was finally given a whole day off from games and, upon arrival at the train station, they looked at the train in awe. Popo then commented, "I guess the game directors have hearts after all. Giving us the whole day off? I was gonna cry if they make us race again today."

In response to that, Liu responded, "It sure was. And it'll give a chance to bond." Sabriye very subtly grimaced at that exchange of words; the other contestants were blissfully unaware of what would occur next. The realisation then dawned on her, which was that it would mean that she would have to deal with Popo crying afterwards.

The train had finally arrived and, as the contestants boarded the train one by one, Liu noticed that Pala was lagging behind them all. "Hey, Pala! Watcha doing?! Hurry up! The train's going soon!" Liu yelled out to Pala from the entrance of the train.

However, before Pala could respond, many obstacles appeared in his path at once - a huge backpack belonging to a green Pululu, a row of Pululus playing with multi-coloured balls, two Pululus carrying a huge glass pane and a bunch of Pululus crowding around him, who were apparently fans of Pala.

Liu again alerted him that the train was leaving soon, but, before Pala could get past the In the midst of the crowd, the same green Pululu, who had the huge backpack, used it to knock him down as the crowd of his fans swarmed him again. Pala was in a quite sticky situation until he found one of the herbs that he would use for his potions on the floor by pure luck.

That was when chaos ensued - after Pala used the herb to make a potion that could enhance his senses, allowing him to get past the Pululus more easily, the Pululus again tried to stop him from entering the train for a reason that even Sabriye didn't know. However, she had a good hunch that it was all Charming Gold's doing.

In the end, unfortunately, Pala didn't make it into the train and the other contestants in it left without him. Liu faced Sabriye, who was behind him the whole time, and asked, "Do you think that Pala would be okay?"

Sabriye immediately replied, without even needing to contemplate the question any further, while flashing a reassuring smile, "I don't think, I know that Pala would be okay. He may not be as strong as us, but we shouldn't underestimate him. Don't worry, I'm sure he'll catch up with us before you know it."

Liu smiled with her and nodded in agreement as they made their way to where the other contestants were. They then started a conversation about Pala not being able to board a train, which Sabriye tuned out. She was then snapped out of her stupor when Popo abruptly shouted, "Hey, everyone, look!" Liu then added, "That's the Soul Tree! Isn't it amazing?"

The contestants made their way to the windows of the train to look at the Soul Tree in awe. However, their reaction couldn't compare to that of Sabriye's as they noticed the sparkles of awe in her onyx gray eyes and smiled in amusement.

"It's amazing, isn't it?" Liu asked. Sabriye agreed, adding, "It's more than just amazing. I've always seen the Soul Tree behind a screen and I've always thought it was beautiful, but... it's really more beautiful when I get to see it with my eyes! Oh, I'm so taking a picture of this!"

Sabriye fished out her phone from her pocket and started taking multiple pictures of the Soul Tree, much to the other contestants' amusement. Sabriye could act so mature for her age at times, that they would forget that she was actually a child, even at heart. Lonky then inaudibly said, "Hmm... No big deal."

However, it seemed to not be inaudible enough as Kuga, who was right next to him, heard him clearly and scowled at him, causing Lonky to cower in fear. Lonky wanted to get away from Kuga as soon as possible as he quickly and stiffly walked towards the seats and asked the other contestants, his speech slightly faltering, "Shall we get going?"

As the other contestants turned to leave, Sabriye faced them and pouted, "Aww... Leaving so soon?" Liu cracked a smile and responded, "Well, we can do more than just look at the Soul Tree. Besides, we can always look at it back at the dorms." Sabriye supposed he had a good point, so she simply replied, "Fair enough," putting her phone away and following the others.

Miyo was looking for Seat 13 and when Gai noticed that his seat would be seat 12, he was rather sullen that he would not be sitting next to Miyo, but, oh lucky him, Popo's ticket for Seat 14 was held in plain sight as Gai, after he caught sight of it, swiftly switched his ticket with his own, getting the chance to sit next to Miyo.

That was when chaos ensued once again - from Gai buying drinks for Miyo, who claimed that she was thirsty, just so that Gai could stay away from her, to when Detective Frank led the contestants to the top of the train, much to Sabriye's displeasure.

Overall, Sabriye was livid with Detective Frank, but, as much as she wanted him to shut his trap by hurting him physically, she knew that she needed to play her role, so that the whole story would go according to the episodes (A/N: Yeah, we all know that I mean it literally. The fourth wall is broken, I guess.).

Apparently, the wind was too strong for Sabriye as her footing lost its grip on the metal roof of the train cart and fell off of it, much to the contestants' horror as they hollered to her, "SABRIYE!" The whole time, Sabriye gritted her teeth to stop herself from screaming as she fell.

She was terrified; Back at Mewni, when she fell off of the window, she had been enduring her fear of heights, she realised. She had also realised that she had to do it for the sake of her friends - her family. Memories of her newfound family returned to her as she closed her eyes and entered a state of tranquillity.

Reopening her eyes with determination in them, she checked her watch and found the star on it glowing. Knowing what that meant made her smirk as she spread her arms out and hollered, "Elemental Power!"

Meanwhile, when Pala was in the midst of getting arrested by Detective Frank, the former asked about Sabriye's whereabouts, causing guilt to paint the faces of the rest of the Running Man team. However, before they could answer, as if on cue, the pane of the only window at the crime scene shattered, revealing the girl in question in a completely different form.

The team looked at her in awe as they saw the newest Elemental form - Flying. The wings that sprouted out of the two sky blue glyphs on her back made her look like an angel from heaven before they disappeared into smithereens as Flying reverted back to normal.

Just then, as Sabriye had expected, the bright green Pululu that pickpocketed the team stood up, with its horrifying red eyes, and pounced on Pala.
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A/N: Hey, back so soon. Again... Thanks for reading this, I hope you guys liked it, stay tuned for more updates and I'll see you in the next chapter. Bye. 👋🏼