M.A.S.K:

THE PERFECT BLEND

WRITTEN BY ZARIUS

NOTE: This is a follow-up of sorts to a story called "Runaways" by the excellent M.A.S.K writer Miratete, although it does continue plot threads elaborated on in my other two M.A.S.K fanfics, "Her Fragile Aura", and "No Finer Weapon". This, however, should not provide too much of a distraction. I also based Scott's reason for calling off what amounted to T-Bob's only appearance in the M.A.S.K racing series...during a P.S.A of all things.

Enjoy

Gloria Baker pulled her Lamborghini, Stiletto, up to the Nevada hotel's parking lot and got out, tightening her arms around her shoulders gently as she power walked towards the entrance, trying to shake off the light breeze.

She wasn't exactly on the up and up when she got out, but as she made her way to the entrance, she spotted three other vehicles parked near her. Wildcat, Razorback, and Bulldog. As soon as she looked up and recognized them, she knew just what mood would define her for the rest of the evening.

As soon as she got in, she worked through her pockets looking for the key to her room, one of two that she shared with her roommate.

A roommate she now had every intention of throttling.

'This can't go on' she thought, "It's getting too complicated"

It had been an exhausting day, and an equally exhausting race. One she had completed with seconds to split rather than spare.

It hadn't been without it's usual complications either, V.E.N.O.M had set their sights on a new prototype fusion engine that had been entrusted not to the usual prize driver of the nation for publicity purposes, but this time to a M.A.S.K agent: Gloria.

Initially, she had protested the P.N.A's decision to test out the engine in a race, she felt it was a monumental cheat and an injustice to the many drivers who were all there as equals. A car equipped with a device that would propel it far ahead of the pack and give it a distinctly greater advantage on the track compared to the regular cars made everyone in her chosen profession look like quite the fool.

This kind of compromise was not what she had in mind when she finally agreed to participate full time in M.A.S.K's many racing gambits against V.E.N.O.M. If anything, it was one of her great fears of the job being realized.

She was assured that the whole race would be stricken 'off the record' once the fusion engine was put through its paces, and that only the public and V.E.N.O.M would be convinced it was a legitimate contest, at least until the following day. The decision to make the public privy to the testing of the engine was a marketing notion taken by the sponsors, who convinced the P.N.A it would do wonders for everyone.

V.E.N.O.M would question why they weren't part of the race, so the officials had no choice but to place them in it. They would remain oblivious to the fact the 'race' was phony through a 'reliable source' in Vanessa Warfield, who had surprisingly over time slowly become an informant for Gloria's own team.

Gloria still felt angered when the day came, she believed it was a waste of the day for the drivers and the public, but she swallowed the bitter pill, took the ball, and ran with it.

And boy was it a tight run.

V.E.N.O.M came down hard and heavy, creating diversions and trying to cut her off in Nevada's Valley of Fire. It seemed like, under any normal circumstances, that she'd be finished. If she had her original vehicle, Shark, she'd be a fish out of any visible water.

But those were the perks of joining M.A.S.K on the track. You got an upgrade.

The car she was driving this time was of the unique 'Split Seconds' line developed by Alex Sector and a crack team of Trakker's top men. A vehicle that had the ability to 'splinter' off and become two. In her case, her car had a choice between a raider plane and an attack chopper. Stiletto came in real handy dealing with the combined attacks of Buzzard and Vampire. Operating the raider plane by remote, she was able to get the better of the Mayhem brothers and the slightly inebriated Floyd Malloy, who had been seen drinking a few minutes before the 'race' had started, a habit he had picked up in Mexico many years ago. The combination of drunk driving and piss-poor aiming allowed her to weave circles around the aerial combatants, ultimately leading to Floyd inadvertently hitting Buzzard with a most shoddy laser shot. Gloria allowed the plane to hold the fort long enough for her to finish the race with just the chopper, once again taking to the Nevada road when she felt the coast was clear, and putting the fusion engine to the test.

She didn't absorb the cheers when she came back, she couldn't, for none of this was real, none of this was right.

As soon as the fusion engine was removed from Stiletto,, she had to go back to the local embassy and report in to Trakker. It was not a pleasant experience for either of them. She had to be thorough about her mission, and relay just how powerful the engine had been. Matt nodded in approval, shook her hand, promised her many things like a raise and to make her more involved in key missions. She took it all with an insincere smile that Matt, sharp as he was, could see right through. He would register mild disappointment, but would still be satisfied that the right results had come through.

Passing the exam papers of an unruly student. Why couldn't he have left that part to Hondo? She'd get on with him better.

'Oh right' Gloria thought, 'Hondo left. Wise choice'

She knew she'd hate blending her professional hobby with her duties to world peace, but she knew why she had done it, and she had to bear the brunt of it to preserve what glued her to the job.

But as she stormed through the corridors of the hotel, the frustrations of the day building, it was apparent she was regretting even that.

It was made much worse by what she had been informed of only forty minutes ago, that she would have company in her room.

One agent had lost his hotel room key, one had given his room up to someone she knew she was still a potential candidate for trouble.

And someone close to her had been foolhardy enough to propose that they crash at his room.

The room she happened to share.

As she entered the room, she found it reeking of sweat, aftershave, and a slew of heavy snoring from the bed in the centre of the room, as Boris 'The Czar' Bushkin and Brad Turner both lay there, side by side, lost in slumber. Not even their boots were off.

She walked over to the side of the bed, and, to her surprise, found her boyfriend Buddy 'Clutch' Hawkes was sleeping on the floor, wrapped partially in a blanket that barely covered the fact he was wearing little to anything except a couple of dirty socks with some visible holes. His clothes scattered on a heap in the floor.

All of a sudden, her visible anger slowly dissipated. There was always something so endearing about a man sleeping the troubles of the day away. All the present mischief over, his sense of play temporarily lost to the indulgence of dreams.

She cursed herself for her sentimentality, before tenderly stroking the right cheek of Clutch's calm and relaxed face.

This was why she put up with her day-to-day missions.

Her reality.

She knelt down beside him and gradually started to unlace her boots, as she pulled the boots off, she could feel the searing blisters on her bare feet. She had spent way too much time at the pedals without letting off pressure. Considering she was evading shots fired by Buzzard and Vampire she didn't really have a chance to.

She gently removed the silver vest attached to the front of her bodysuit and set about unzipping what lay underneath it. She didn't think about changing into a nightdress, for one thing it would require making a choice between navigating her way through the dark, or switching the light on and risk stirring everybody. She instead decided to just get it all off right now and sleep next to Clutch.

Besides, with the exception of Boris, Brad and Clutch had already seen her naked several times, either through the occasional dip in a lake or through sharing the showers at M.A.S.K headquarters. She was rarely one to be bothered by the taboo notion of exhibitionism between friends, in fact she wondered why more people didn't do it often.

As she gently pulled off the bodysuit, she heard a slight ring coming from Clutch's pants. Alarmed that it would wake everyone up, she hastily panicked and fished the pockets, and grabbed what appeared to be a mobile phone. She finished getting out of the body suit and got up, she walked over to the left side of the bed and put the phone to her ear.

"Whoever this is, keep your voice down, people are trying to sleep" she calmly spoke, trying to be just loud enough to hear without causing a stir.

When she found out who was speaking however, she felt the urge to yell and raise the alarm with good enough reason.

"You? What do you want?" Gloria asked, a tinge of sharp venom in her voice.

"Quit stalling and put me through to Turner Baker" came a stern, assertive, and conceited voice on the other end

"You're gonna have to convince me that's a good thing Warfield" Gloria coldly replied.

"Hey, if it were not for me giving you the cold hard facts, you wouldn't have been all warmed up for that race this afternoon" Vanessa protested

"You can't keep using the importance of your defection to call in favours like this. It's bad enough you're only a few rooms away, we don't know if V.E.N.O.M is having your calls traced. You could be putting your continued service to us in jeopardy, and endangering Brad at the same time"

"I'm getting a little flustered where I am. All my things are back at the hotel Miles has expelled us from, as punishment for failing to retrieve the fusion engine, everyone else is sleeping in or on their vehicles, or in Sly's case, has had to shelter in that damn pit stop catapult, I don't have any money so I can't take anything from the fridge because you have to pay for it later, it's a mess, a wise-ass man once said 'there's no finer weapon than reality', well, I need him here so I can teach him a thing or two about just how badly reality can bite"

"In other words, you're lonely" Gloria assessed.

"Just raise him from the dead so he can come over here and let me kill him" Vanessa replied.

"No can do, if your fellow agents find you or Brad in the same room together, you're both dead. Look, I'll tell him you called in the morning, but try to put things in perspective. Besides, he's out for the count at the moment" Gloria explained.

"I can tell from the snoring in the background, can I get an earful of that?" Vanessa cheerily asked.

"Fine" Gloria said, kneeling onto the bed and putting the phone close to Brad's open mouth. A few loud snorts could be heard

"Thanks, I'll be sure to let him hear it as my new ringtone when next we race" Vanessa replied, "Thanks...for nothing" she said

"Always a pleasure" Gloria satirically said, gritting her teeth. The phone on the other end soon went dead.

Gloria felt a gently breeze wrap around her naked body. She walked over to the window and pulled back the drapes to find an open window. Gently, she shut it, but the shudder she had felt moments before lingered. She wasn't sure if it was the phone call she'd received or the draft from the open window that was making her feel this way.

Before she could put the phone down and work out where exactly to sleep, she received another incoming call. The noise stirred Boris, who turned over, putting one hand over Brad's shoulder and mumbling a few unpleasant words in his sleep, he seemed to be dreaming of a young woman called Wu, and believed in his delusional dream state that Brad was the manifestation of her.

Gloria shook her head in amusement, and took the fresh call, notifying the caller of the situation as before and cautioning the voice to keep their tone down

While she initially hoped this conversation would be brief, the voice on the other end made it all too apparent that it wouldn't be, and Gloria was all the happier for that inevitability.

"Scott? Scott Trakker? Oh my gosh, I haven't heard from you in so long" Gloria yelled, her enthusiasm running away with her. So loud was her call, that she had again stirred 'The Czar' as he continued to mention Wu's name, and he briefly opened his eyes, looked directly at Brad, and reeled back in shock, as he fell out of the bed, he narrowly missed landing on Clutch's head.

The lamp on the dresser beside the bed, however, was not so fortunate, as Boris caught it on the way down, it titled over and crashed on Boris' head, knocking him out and sending him into slumber once more just as he gazed upon Gloria in all her all-out physical glory.

Gloria rolled her eyes, and, having little desire to stand about and wait for someone else to stir, opted to go to the bathroom and lock herself in. Kneeling down on the cold, tiled floor, crossing her legs as she did so, she indulged in a talk with a boy she had loved like a young brother or a nephew, a reminder of her happier days around Matt Trakker.

"Sorry about the ruckus Scott, some people just have a lot of difficulty at this time of night" Gloria explained, before asking why exactly he was calling at this hour.

"I just wanted to let Clutch know that T-Bob is doing just fine after his excellent repair job, although it's a good thing Clutch gave me that helmet to protect myself with. No sooner did I leave Boulder Hill did T-Bob struck a sharp rock in the road and I was swept off his seat and crashed to the ground"

"Now that does sound like a not-so-slick spill" Gloria joked. Scott joined in, "True" he said, "i didn't want to worry him too much, and I had errands to run, but now the day's complete and I've got an evern bigger day to look forward to, I thought I'd let him know how grateful I was"

"What kind of big day you got planned?" Gloria asked

"I'm going to visit Te Kaha" Scott revealed

"That charming little girl you married? That's so sweet Scott, I remember having a really good time with her tribe, I even got to put my kung-fu tactics on show, I rarely get to do that in recreational hours outside the dojo work" she said, "Mind you, they do tend to be quite obsessed with marriages, even after the danger had passed they were convinced me and Julio Lopez were hitched, or the very least ought to be"

"Well you do tend to get about, remember how attached you were to dad in your early years?" Scott replied, Gloria put one hand through her hair and scratched her head a little, looking a little distant.

"Yeah, so young, so impressionable" she said. Scott could detect a hint of awkwardness in her voice, but opted to ignore it. Whatever issues Gloria had with his father, it was best left to the two of them to deal with rather than caught in the middle of it.

"It's going to be a great day, I just know it Gloria" Scott said, "I really want some proper mana when I get back there this time"

"Don't be so assertive Scott, it can bruise your ego" Gloria advised

"I know, I just don't want to have the same issues as last time" Scott revealed, "I've worked out that list dad told me to make, it's a real Junior Woodchucks guide to marriage"

"That's great Scott, what sort of things are in it?" Gloria asked

"Paperwork, cooking, finding employment, as well as an accommodation I've already learned to file forms, I learned to cook before I ever had the slightest idea what true love was, and dad and I both sought out an apartment building in the Marble Hill neighbourhood, he bought it and it'll be entrusted to me when I turn Eighteen, me and Te Kaha can live there"

"You want to go to the Bronx? Hmm...that's a real slice of the standard American dream right there" Gloria assessed. "You sure want to take your golden apple and root her in the core of the States?" Why don't you just move to where she lives? Why does she have to move?"

"Gloria, the Bronx will really appeal to her tastes, it's ripe with music from different cultures like hip hop and Latino beats. She'd love it. She's always had a taste for what lies beyond New Zealand, beyond her promised land, and she'd be so taken in by the sights of the Bronx Zoo and the New York Botanical Garden, it's the perfect blend Gloria"

"Sounds like you've planned quite the happy ending for you and your bride" Gloria commented, "Question is, how are you going to pay for it when you get to that age?"

"I'm already working towards it" Scott explained, "T-Bob and I have got a job working a courier service at each race the team attends. I deliver and relay important instructions to the teams working in the pits and take notes and updates back and forth between them and the racing organizers, sometimes I even inform them of what dad's progress is in the race due to T-Bob's tracking equipment keeping tabs on him. I get paid pretty handsomely for the privilege"

"I couldn't imagine a handsome boy like you being paid in any less of a complexion" Gloria replied.

"I aim to make the most out of this Gloria" Scott vowed, "This isn't some childhood promise I'm going to outgrow. In that forest I made a commitment, and no matter how big the divide in years, I'm going to make that day we unite permanently one full of concrete promises"

"I wish you all the best Scott, but you better get some sleep, you wouldn't want your bride to see you in a state of exhaustion"

"I doubt she can sleep either, we'll both tire and rest on one another, lost in the lap of love"

Gloria smiled, "Oh you're such a love struck puppy, I could just pet you. Take care, bye, and...tell your dad I'm alright, and that, no matter how sour I get about things, I do understand, and he has my undivided attention and devotion to the cause"

"He'll appreciate that Gloria. Love you" Scott said

"Love you too champ" Gloria replied, and made sure to switch the phone off so no one else could call today.

As she walked back into the bedroom, and knelt down beside Clutch, she took a final gander at Boris, lying motionless on the floor, mumbling the name 'Wu' over and over again. She smiled, and wrapped herself in the makeshift blanket. She put her arm around Clutch, and thought of many things.

She thought of Scott and his mission, she thought of Vanessa and her slow gravitation to Brad, she thought of all the positive things going on, all the surprising things.

So many fragile things from yesteryear now felt so very durable today.

Would that last?

And if not, was this all just an all too pleasing temporary illusion?

If anything Matt had taught her over the years, it was that illusion was the ultimate weapon.

But as Vanessa had said, there was no finer weapon than reality.

Perhaps it was time to accept fragility and durability. To accept that reality and illusion were as fleeting as all things in life were.

To lose one's self in the perfect blend.