disclaimer: Sonic belongs to Sega
details: T: 16, W: 20, future fic, lacking big bad, terrible mechanic lingo
warning: sex/drug references, possibly offensive, unchronological, possible AU, unreliable author, possible out of characterness, idk, more to come
The Garage
Welcome to The Garage P1
The building itself looked rather ramshackled and out of date, bright red bricks crumbling against their unpredictable weather, a few broken windows splintering and refusing to close- held together with duct tape of all things, a black flaking, roughly painted garage door; thin and seemingly easily break-in-able.
Despite how many times Tails' had asked Shadow to update it's outward appearance, the owner refused, exercising his century old tactic of 'separating the real customers from the phonies', whatever that meant. Customers were customers, in Tails' opinion. Even though changing the face of their establishment would definitely have earned them a few extra customers, they weren't in dire need of them.
The Garage, so aptly named to give off an air of pretentious and arrogant mystery, lived up to it's name as the best workshop in all of Empire City, as far as The Underground populace were concerned. Anyone who knew anything about Extreme Gear came to this place first when in need of service. Their name was travelling by word of mouth two months after starting the auto shop, and they'd become the go-to spot for any mechanical problem. A combination of Shadow's allure and Tails' friendly, helpful nature kept the regular customers coming back and recommending to their pals. It also helped that young fans of Tails and Shadow's heroic exploits years ago begged their parents to come simply to listen to the fox tell stories while he worked on cars and other vehicles alike.
It was five o'clock, the sun was setting, and they were about to call it a day. Their last customer had been serviced and Shadow was sitting on the hood of a car, one leg crossed over the other with a stopwatch balancing in his gloveless palm. Tails was rushing through the motions of an old fashioned car tune up, checking oil, gas, breaks, wheels, mufflers, the lot. There was an abnormality Shadow had planted in the car for him to find and the young fox was determined to find it. He knew the clock was ticking, and seconds before time-up sounded Tails found that the master cylinder for the breaks was missing.
"Found it!" he cried triumphantly, grabbing a spare one in his tool box and shoving it into place. He needed more time to properly meld the piece into place, but the race was won. Furthermore, he couldn't believe Shadow had sawed off the cylinder just to add flair to a test.
Marine threw down her tools and pulled at her pigtails, "Dammit, I almost had it! I just saw the empty fuel meter."
"Too bad, Drongo, Tails' beat you again," Shadow said monotonously, slipping off the hood and striding up to Marine to flick her forehead.
"Don't call me a drongo, you dirty mongrel. I almost had 'im this time," she waved her fist at Shadow vehemently, to which the hedgehog replied by flipping her the bird. Tails attempted to wipe oil from his cheek, laughing at the both of them light-heartedly. These were the two he spent the most time with these days, Marine being the newest addition to their crew, coming by after school to intern with the both of them.
"You're getting better, Marine. I'm sure you would have beaten me if I hadn't found the cylinder in time," he assured kindly, patting her shoulder and casting a venomous look at Shadow, "which someone conveniently decided to saw off for his amusement."
"Go hard or go home," replied Shadow, without missing a beat.
"Speaking of home, would you mind if I changed in your room, Tails? I'm absolutely filthy," the raccoon replied, wiping her sullied hands on her worn blue overalls.
"You don't have to keep asking me, Marine. I said you can go up there whenever you want."
"Just don't go into my room," Shadow said.
"I don't want to, you perv. There's all kinds of things 'm scared I'll find if I ever 'ave to go in there," Marine replied, pulling down the flesh of her right eye in a childish display of dominance. They might have only been a year apart, but Tails and Marine were leagues apart when it came to maturity. Shadow was always teasing Marine, riling her up because she responded to the taunts brilliantly in a way Tails used to, before he realised responding to such insults didn't get him anywhere.
"I'm just thinking about your safety, my dear. Wouldn't want you slipping on a condom wrapper." his half-lidded crimson eyes twinkled with mischief.
"Gross."
"Virgin."
Marine pinked up, body going stiff as her mind went blank. Tails tried to stop the laugh from escaping his mouth.
"Slut!" which was basically their base insult for the promiscuous hedgehog nowadays.
The put-out raccoon grabbed her gym bag and stormed up the steps to the second floor, which led to Shadow and Tails' apartment. The third story for the building was split into two rooms, Shadow's and Tails', marked out clearly by the large 'Stop' sign hanging in front of the hedgehog's door. Most of the time, Sonic hung around the apartment also, but he was never around long enough to claim more space than the front sofa whenever he unceremoniously dropped in to crash.
Tails stretched methodically, pulling up his jeans and scuffing his sneakers against the floor, wondering what to do next. It was the end of the week, and there were no commissions to be completed. Perhaps he had enough saved to perform the upgrades on his board he'd been putting off for a good few months. He made a few calls to some of his contacts, scheduling a meet up place. He changed his clothes, bid good bye to Marine, typed in Shadow's take out order, and picked up his gear by the entrance of the garage doors, setting off into the city.
He was cruising in between lanes, careful Extreme Gear riders given the same rights and regulations as normal motorcyclists, when the sounds of ringing sirens caught his attention. If he hadn't combined the screeching sound of tires and quick reflexes, he was sure he would have gotten run over by the car behind him. His board swerved and tilted, and he was too busy trying to right himself when another rider crashed into him.
In a flurry of limbs and a few possibly bruised bones he landed in a completely awkward position, but that didn't matter to the other rider who looped an arm around his neck and pressed something cold to his temple. He wondered absently, between the pain and the echoing sounds in his ears, if the rider was used to completely totalling on their board.
"Don't come any closer, or fox-boy here is a dead man!"
Surprise flooded Tails' face as the woman behind him hauled him up to stand in front of her, a shield between her body and the several policemen with their weapons aimed at him. Tails' heart raced, and for a second he forgot all the self defence his friends had drilled into him. What he felt was the sweat seeping through her violet feathers, and a large necklace that jabbed into the nape of his neck. His senses overwhelmed him with the familiar odour of metal rings, the high quality scent of MeteoTech Air Gear Polish, the taste of blood in his mouth, and the rasp of her voice.
His words were hoarse from near strangulation, "Wave?" but he was pretty sure the question reached her ears, loud and clear.
The fox shivered as he heard the swallow gasp, the press of the firearm faltering slightly.
"Tails?!"
tbc.
a/n: Hi, my name is Kacey, but you can call me Kace. Please review, favourite and follow. I love all the things. To those that know what an absolute dick I am; I know I really need to be shot for all the time I change my username and make promises that I can't keep. I know. But despite that I will keep experimenting, and I am going to keep making mistakes. I won't promise any more, because I am the most unreliable person, but I won't stop writing. This is an UPDATE WHEN READY story, meaning new chapters will be sporadic, and unpredictable.
take note: This story is being written as a companion piece/sequel/addition/prequel/continuation/alterna te universe piece to It's a Technician Thing. This can be read on it's own though.
Cheers.