Monkey ran into the garage and searched the area quickly, spotting some of the Teku by SpecTyte and started over to them. "Hey guys." From inside the car they were crowding, Nolo rolled down his window all the way and raised an eyebrow, silently telling Monkey to elaborate as the other Teku looked over at the Metal Maniac. Pointing behind him with his thumb, Monkey shrugged, "Tork said something about sitting back and relaxing since we've finally settled down after everything. I don't know, but he wanted everyone to meet him in the conference room."
Nolo turned to the rest of the Teku and silently asked for their approval as they nodded once. Facing Monkey again, Nolo nodded, "Yea, we'll meet you guys there in ten minutes."
"Alright, good." Monkey said, mostly to himself and turned to walk away, but ran into Mark and immediately apologized quietly. "Didn't see you there, Wyl-"
"Markie." Mark corrected him and gave a small smile. "Just Markie."
Nodding, Monkey passed Mark and turned, slowly walking backwards, "Right, sorry Markie." To Monkey, it was unusual to call him Markie after all the time he's been calling him 'Wylde'. Sighing, Monkey turned and went to tell the others to meet in the conference room.
Mark turned to the Teku and sighed, rubbing the back of his neck with his right hand and clenched his left black and green, robotic hand. "Hey, uh, Kurt, can I-" He glanced somewhere else briefly as he chose his next words carefully. "Can I…speak with you?" He asked finally and pointed in a general direction as Kurt nodded and silently followed his little brother a little ways away from the Teku.
"Is it bothering you?" Kurt asked worriedly and glanced at the arm before making eye contact with Mark.
"What? No, no, the arm is fine. I was just going to ask…" Mark trailed off and stared at the floor, unsure if he wanted to finish his question.
Realizing this, Kurt placed a hand on Mark's robotic shoulder and retracted immediately when he saw Mark flinch, "Sorry, you're still a little shaken. Markie-" Mark glanced at his brother to scan his features and even if it was only a brief moment, he noticed the support and care in his brother's eyes. Kurt continued with a sigh, "You're thinking about Mom and Dad and what they're gonna say." Placing his hands on his hips, Kurt looked up to the clear, blue sky and closed his eyes as the breeze blew through his hair. Opening his eyes, Kurt looked down at Mark, "I honestly don't know what Mom and Dad'll say about this, but this time, Markie-I'm not going to lie to you-I will have your back. Plus, Mom always wins the arguments, so I have to be there when she drags you to the hospital to fix your arm." Hearing groaning from his little brother, Kurt laughed and placed his arms at his side. "I'm kidding, I wouldn't let her do that. You've already been through enough. Look, I don't know what'll happen, but we'll discuss it once we're home, safe and sound. Okay?"
Nodding in agreement, Mark sighed, "Yea… Okay."
"Kurt!" The pair heard and turned to the Teku crowded around SpecTyte as Nolo motioned them over. "We're heading over to the conference room now. You coming?"
Turning to Mark, Kurt waited for his little brother to nod before he shouted back, "Yea." The brothers walked with the Teku to the conference room with minor conversations between each other and sat on their respective sides of the table when they noticed Tork wasn't there yet.
Eventually, the rest of the Metal Maniacs filed into the room silently and sat down on the Maniacs' side. Everyone waited for Tork to announce what this meeting was about and a few of them raised their eyebrows. Tork cleared his throat before speaking, "Since we have a night to ourselves, I thought we could sit back and relax for the rest of the night to watch a movie or something."
"You're asking a lot from us if you were going to have us all decide on a single movie." Karma pointed out as others nodded in agreement. "We should just flip through the channels to decide on a show to watch."
Giving a knowing look and smiling at Mark who chuckled, Kurt laughed and shared what was funny to them. "Markie and I would always criticize movies and old TV shows when we were younger. I'm not saying we should do that, but we can do something like it."
Holding his chin, Monkey thought before saying, "Hmm, I think it'd be fun to criticize old TV shows." The hand holding his chin shot up with his pointer finger up, "Oh! What about TV shows that aired while we were kids?"
"We could just enjoy our childhood again." Taro said flatly as the others considered this, but the Wylde brothers immediately got up and slammed the table simultaneously.
"No!" They said in unison which startled some of the others. The pair looked at each other as Mark sat down and leaned back in his chair with his right arm supporting his head, refusing to look at the others. Kurt sighed, "I'm sure some of us wouldn't want to relive our childhood."
"It'll be fine, it's just a show or two." Karma said.
"So we flip through channels until we find something?" Tork asked and looked around the room to find any objections, but he found none. "Alright, let's go." They stood up and walked out of the room, heading to the common room and filing in silently.
They sat down as Monkey grabbed the remote first and turned the TV on. "Well? What's first?" He asked as he started flipping through channels until Tork told him to stop. The voices of SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star filled the room as Mark sighed. The sponge character was going on an adventure as the star character insisted that he should go too.
"I always revered you, Kurt." Mark said suddenly which caused the others to look over. So he wouldn't have to look at his fellow drivers, Mark watched the two characters run around mindlessly, but still having a sense of adventure in every step they took. "I shadowed you everywhere you went." He added sadly. "I wanted to be just like you. I finally had the chance to be myself during the World Race, but I blew it. Guess I didn't know how to be my own person until I joined the Metal Maniacs."
As Monkey started flipping through the channels again, he stopped and the Grinch stalked onto the screen. Kurt sighed, "Whenever you received any kind of attention, I would always walk away sullen because I didn't know what to do. I was the older brother and I was supposed to watch over you. I didn't do a very good job of that."
"Guess we both regret our actions." Mark replied with a smile as Kurt smiled back. Porkchop took the remote from Monkey which received a "Hey!" as Monkey tried reaching for the remote, but to no avail. Changing the channels slowly, Porkchop stopped randomly as Betty Boop walked and sang across the screen.
Laughing, Shirako leaned back in his chair with his arms behind his head, "Always entranced people who would pass by me. Some of them even walked into walls or poles."
"That is not a weapon Shirako should have." Vert said, laughing, as the channels started flipping through again.
"Hey, it's cool." Shirako agreed with Vert as his head kept bobbing to the music only he could somehow hear, even though it was almost the highest volume.
Donald Duck appeared on the screen and seemed to be preparing for a prank set on Mickey Mouse. Groaning, Karma put her head in her hands and sighed, speaking with her voice slightly muffled. "Would any of you believe me if I said I was a prankster?"
"You?! A prankster?!" Vert nearly yelled incredulously with wide eyes. He chuckled and closed his eyes for a brief moment before opening them with a smile. "Actually, that's not hard to believe."
"What?" Karma asked, confused.
"I agree with Vert, you couldn't have been this serious before." Nolo replied and added. "Plus, you were the one who came up with the prank a few weeks ago."
"THAT WAS YOU?!" Most of the Metal Maniacs yelled simultaneously and stood up swiftly, staring wide eyed at Karma who just groaned louder as Taro rolled his eyes.
Nolo leaned back in his chair and crossed his left leg onto his right, putting his arms casually behind his head. "Yup, every single detail was her. The rest of us just played it out."
"Makes sense considering you're all idiots." Mark murmured jokingly which earned a few laughs from the Maniacs.
"What was that?" Kurt raised an eyebrow at his little brother who just smiled innocently.
"Speaking of things we used to be, I used to be like Alvin." Monkey said out of nowhere, returning the other driver's eyes to the screen where they saw Alvin the Chipmunk grabbing a makeshift rope and flying around the apartment as David yelled at him.
"What that you had a squeaky voice?" Taro responded casually and smirked pridefully, receiving laughs or snorts from the rest of the table.
"I used to be daring and took dangerous risks! Like what Alvin just did, except I swung on the chandelier." Monkey defended himself. "Though, I would flounce whenever my parents yelled at me. But it's true, I climbed a thirty foot tree once and jumped into a pool!"
Vert chuckled, "Yeah, okay, whatever you say, Monkey."
Suddenly, the sound of mock crying was heard and they turned their attention back to the screen as Bubbles from Powerpuff Girls smiled immediately when she got what she wanted. Taro nearly growled and mumbled, looking away from the screen, "Spoiled…"
"Something the matter, Taro?" Karma asked as all eyes landed on the quiet Maniac.
Sighing, Taro knew he was cornered and decided to explain, "Used to cry my eyes out 'til I got what I wanted."
"You being a millionaire and all means you got everything you wanted." Vert pointed out with a smile, but frowned when Taro didn't answer immediately. "Right?"
"It's a good thing you're wrong." Taro murmured and sighed. "If I got everything I wanted before, I would still be my dad's apprentice for his company."
To save Taro from elaborating further, Tork pointed at the screen, "Hey look, it's Popeye!" The sailor started twisting his arm and punched another sailor, his arm twisting back to normal as Tork cringed at the sight. Some of them raised an eyebrow at him as he sighed, "I climbed a tree and then I fell, my arm unexpectedly caught a branch and when I finally reached the ground, my arm was a bit wryly."
Shivering at the mental image, Monkey asked, "How long ago was that?"
"When I was six." Tork answered simply as Porkchop lazily flipped through channels again and stopped immediately when he spotted a glimpse of South Park.
Smiling at a fond memory of his, Nolo's expression turned warm as he told them, "When we were younger, Tone and I would always play with toy lances and pretended to be on horses, galloping towards each other and seeing who would stick who first. Tone always let me win and claimed that I'm just a better swordsman than him." A hand was placed on his shoulder and he turned swiftly with surprise, but Nolo smiled warmly when he saw Tork looking at him apologetically. Nolo nodded at the Maniac assuringly as Tork retracted his hand, convinced that Nolo was okay.
By this point, Monkey had the remote and stopped his channel flipping abruptly as Porkchop nearly shouted with horror and quickly swiveled his chair around so he couldn't see the screen. Monkey raised an eyebrow, "What's the matter, Porkchop? It's just Porky Pig."
"I had a pig that looked just like him." Porkchop replied.
"What your stuffed pig?" Monkey asked, even more confused.
"No, a real pig!" Porkchop yelled defensively. "One day without me knowing, my parents fed his haunch to me! They killed him! He was so young…"
"I remember him being ten." Monkey recalled thoughtfully.
"That's not the point!" Porkchop shouted loudly at Monkey who was right next to him as everyone else watched with either indifference or wonder. "He was my only best friend."
"Porkchop, this happened last year." Monkey reminded him as Porkchop growled at him.
"Oh, would you look at that? A show we can all watch calmly and still be civilized." Vert said, who had stolen the remote from Monkey during their debate as everyone's direction turned to the screen, hoping to see something decent. Everyone stared at the screen for several seconds before most of their expressions turned to one of horror or shock as Vert started laughing hysterically. "You should all look at your faces!" He said in between laughs.
Ponies ran across the screen frantically as their world was turning to chaos and Vert continued to laugh. "I kinda like it." Taro said suddenly as some of them looked at him incredulously and it just made Vert laugh harder.
"Cool." Shirako commented casually.
"Shirako!" Nolo nearly shouted.
Soon enough, the chaos died down and the rest of their night filled with silence as they finally chose a decent show and enjoyed it. When the marathon ended, a couple of them yawned and stretched in their chairs. "Guess it's time to rest peacefully for once." Kurt said as several of them stood up to leave, but was stopped at the sound of a voice.
"Wait…" They turned to see Mark standing next to his chair and staring at Vert who sighed. "You didn't say anything." Mark said, still staring at Vert expectantly.
The others finally caught on to what Mark meant and some of them furrowed their eyebrows in confusion. Why hadn't Vert said anything about his past? Sighing once again, Vert walked over to his chair and sat down, staring at the floor for several seconds before looking up to their supportive plastered faces. "As much as I would like to disregard my childhood, I guess I'm a bit cornered here." Shaking his head, he couldn't believe he was going to be saying this. "I never really had a childhood out of sports or my studies and I never had someone really taking care of me."
All of them knew well that his dad was a Silencer and part of the government and the Teku knew the fate of his mom, but the Metal Maniacs didn't. Shirako even went to the lengths of pausing his music to listen to Vert. Monkey decided to be the one to ask since no one else seemed to do it. "What about your mom? Did she work too much?"
Vert clenched his hands until his knuckles turned white, "She died when I was six." Forcing himself not to cry at the memory of his dad giving him the bad news, Vert smiled to not cause worry among the other drivers, but mostly to reassure himself. "'Woe is me' I would say." Vert said jokingly and sadly, chuckling, but the other drivers still seemed to be watching him worriedly. "But it's okay, Alec kept me company during those years." No one wanted to remind Vert that Alec was dead and kept silent. Studying everyone's faces, Vert could tell that Mark regretted ever speaking up about Vert's absent memory in their discussion. "Hey, I'm okay and it's done. We settled everything and we won…" The next thought caused Vert to stifle his cries and he covered his mouth as tears slowly rolled down his face. "...even if it was at a cost."
No one dared to speak in case they had said something wrong and stood there, not knowing what to do. Mark clenched his hands into fists and stared at the floor, swiftly moving towards Vert and grasping the Teku's shoulders. "We're here now." Mark assured and looked Vert in the eyes. "For you… To support you. We're here to help you." Mark turned to the Metal Maniacs who nodded in agreement as Mark smiled and briefly closed his eyes before opening them and turning back to Vert. "Even if we are your rivals." Mark let go of Vert's shoulders and stood.
Vert looked behind Mark to see the rest of the Teku smile and nod as Vert smiled back. "Thanks guys." He stood up and walked out of the common room with them, all of them parting ways to head to their respective rooms.
A/N: Thanks for reading this! Please leave a review of how you think I should improve!