"You know Donny? You're a cool guy! I'm glad you decided to come work out here with us it's been a lot of fun!"
"Thank you Grem, you're too kind!"
"No man I mean it! You and Acer have become my best friends. Working on this oil platform payed off it seems!"
Was he really doing this right now? Was he really about to kill his best friend? Grem had so many thoughts going on inside his head. He was angry, upset, confused, and just had no idea what to do. The car in front of him had lied to him, he lied about his entire identity. His name wasn't Donny Gremlin, his name was Rod Redline. In fact, he wasn't even a Gremlin! He was a muscle car, a mix of a mustang and a challenger painted a deep blue, a much more handsome car than his AMC Gremlin disguise.
Just about the only thing Grem could do right now was remember, remember all the good times he and this car had for almost three months stuck in the middle of the ocean on an oil platform. They had bonded when they both arrived there as new recruits for a lemon car only operation that involved drilling for oil illegally for the all powerful Miles Axelrod.
During the time the two cars were on the oil platform, Grem and "Donny" quickly rose through the ranks, starting to work rather closely with the Professor himself. The closer to the top they got, they started to meet and befriend more lemon cars, most friendly of which being Acer Pacer, a green AMC Pacer that had been working with the professor for quite some time, and who would also become the reason Grem found out the things he did.
After the incidents with two British agents, Leyland Turbo and Finn Mcmissle, Acer had become quite suspicious of any other spies that might start to work their way into their top secret operation. Things seemed to go smoothly however for Grem, Donny, and Acer despite Acer's suspiciousness of almost everything until the night they docked in Tokyo. That night, the boss of the oil rig operation had a video conference with all the lemons on board the ships. As the cars were all watching, Acer noticed Donny acting strangely. He kept trying to get a good view of the screen and seemed to have something small pointed at the screen for a moment before quickly concealing it again. That's when Acer knew something was not right with this car.
When the cars arrived at the party, Acer had taken Grem aside to tell him what he had saw and finally convinced the Gremlin to help him spy on Donny as he mingled happily with the other cars. At about 10:00 PM, Acer and Grem followed Donny into the mens room only to have Acer's suspicions confirmed. As they watched the small Gremlin look around for a moment, they saw his body panels peel away to reveal a stunning blue paintjob; It appeared that under his Gremlin disguise, hid a very handsome Mustang/ Challenger mix.
While Acer felt quite accomplished by his correctly placed suspicions, Grem couldn't have felt more hurt. Here he was, a car that had shared so many stories with him, laughed with him, and became one of his best friends, now revealed to be someone who's job it was to take him down. After the initial shock, Grem and Acer realized that Rod spotted them in the mirror and had pulled out a small gun hidden in his hubcap. Overcome by anger, the pair sped to their former friend and beat him to a pulp. They dented his doors, messed up his mouth, eye and entire front end, and by the time they had gotten interrupted by a tow truck in one of the stalls, The blue muscle car could barely even drive.
After Grem and Acer got the tow truck to leave, the two moved in on the muscle car.
"What's your real name." Grem asked angrily.
"Rod… Rod Redline." the blue car choked out through labored breaths.
Overcome with anger, Grem rammed Rod one last time, knocking him out cold. With the car now unconscious, Grem and Acer alerted the professor about what happened and they soon had him taken to a warehouse underneath a bridge.
After arriving at the warehouse, Rod slowly woke up to find both his front wheels locked in place by parking boots, dangling above a car lift with a large tank of gas sitting beside it. After a few rude comments to Grem and Acer, he was dropped on the platform where the professor proceeded to tell Rod the danger of the Allinol fuel which was being pumped into his tank. As he was being told and interrogated about the information he was thought to have passed on, Grem, who was still very angry at Rod, was in control of a camera which was confirmed to be an electromagnetic pulse emitter. He had the camera pointed at Rod, himself only intending to damage his engine for betraying his friendship.
As Rod was starting to show clear signs of suffering, Grem was pulled out of all these thoughts he was having about the entire situation. Yes he was still mad at Rod, but he was starting to get worried for the car, he didn't want to kill him! But the professor still had yet to give him the ok to turn the pulse down. Grem was certain that when Rod had finally given up the person he gave the information to, that he would be told to turn the camera off, but what the professor did next, Grem was not prepared for.
As the professor explained to Rod what would be done to the "American agent" he passed the information to, he took control of the camera from Grem and turned it on the highest setting, causing Rod's engine to burst completely into flames.
Grem could only stand there in shock, this was not what he wanted to happen at all. As he watched Rod smoke up, the others began clearing out of the warehouse, not paying attention to Grem who was still staring at the car.
Grem then heard the warehouse door slam shut as everyone had cleared out in a hurry, he guessed the professor intended for him to take the camera out with him. Now that he was alone, he quickly snapped out of his shock and found a fire extinguisher which he used to quickly put the fire in Rod's engine out. He got the fire out quickly, and looked Rod over.
Rod was a complete disaster. He was banged up from his encounter with Grem and Acer in the bathroom, and now he had scorch mark under his wheel arches and all over his hood. Grem felt absolutely horrible for what happened to Rod, yeah he betrayed his friendship, but he still didn't deserve this. He nervously nudged Rod in the hopes of getting a response.
To his delight, he saw Rod take a small breath, he was alive. With a sense of relief flowing through him, he quickly dialed 911 on his car phone, and bolted out the warehouse with the camera, meeting up with the other lemons on a boat waiting for him.
Grem kept to himself for most of the journey, hoping that Rod would get the medical attention he needed.
It had been eleven months since the incident in Tokyo. Grem and Acer had a falling out after the oil rig operation was exploited, with Acer thinking they should continue what the professor had started, and Grem wanting to just move on.
Moving on turned out to be quite hard though for Grem. he had managed to land a job at a garage helping to do quick tune ups on cars and small things like that. He hardly made enough to live off of and cars would always poke fun at him for his make and model.
Currently, he called Detroit his home, since it was dirt cheap and he could sell illegal fuel grades to junkies for some extra cash. When Grem wasn't working, he would almost never leave his small apartment, considering all that would come from it was being made fun of by other cars. This however was a rare occasion, he needed to grab a few things to eat so he had no choice but to leave the safety of his apartment.
Once he was on the street, he made his way quickly to the store, bought his things, and left trying to stay away from any trouble other cars might caused, but luck just didn't seem to be with Grem that day.
As he drove up his block, an old Mustang Boss 302 came up to him.
"Now, what's a little Gremlin doing out here all alone huh?" The Mustang spoke as he circled Grem.
"Well I'm trying to get back home so if it's alright with you, I'd like to get going now." Grem spoke as he attempted to drive around the muscle car.
Not liking that this little lemon car was giving him attitude, the Mustang drove in front of Grem and bumped him with his bumper. "Actually I do mind, and I don't like hoopties like you giving me attitude you hear?"
Grem backed up slightly and looked the muscle car in the eyes. "So what would you like me to do exactly?"
"Well you're gonna have to pay for being out here on my street!" The mustang yelled, bumping Grem back again.
This time, Grem was starting to feel intimidated. This Mustang was a hefty car and he knew he couldn't win against him in a fight.
Just as Grem was about to speak again, another voice came from behind him, along with the sound of a Hemi engine.
"Listen pal, let my friend go past or you and I are gonna have trouble."
Grem knew that voice, it was a voice he hadn't heard in almost a year. Turning around, Grem confirmed who it was, Rod Redline. Seeing Rod was probably the last thing he thought he would ever do, and the fact that he was ready to fight someone for him left him speechless.
Looking Rod over, he saw that for the most part, he was fixed up nice, his dents were all removed, and he had his original blue paint restored. In fact the only thing that remained which made Grem feel horrible, was the fact that his mouth still appeared to be crooked and the left side didn't appear to move when he talked, he seemed to talk out the right side more. The only other indication of his attack being his left eye still didn't quite open all the way, the eyelid drooped ever so slightly.
Grem's evaluation of Rod was cut short when he once again spoke to the Mustang, this time with the gun in his hubcap pointed towards him.
"Now move along before I mess up that paint job." Rod spoke intimidatingly
The Mustang backed down and drove off, leaving Rod and Grem alone on the street surrounded by decrepit apartment buildings.
"Cmon, I'll take you home." Rod spoke as he started driving.
Grem quickly followed suit and drove up next to Rod. This being the first time Grem drove with Rod as Rod, he noticed things about him that greatly differed from himself. Rod's engine gave a low revving sound as his own engine just made clanking sounds. He also noticed his stance, Rod was very planted on the ground with thick tires and a heavy but fast appearance, he was not someone you wanted to fight with and he wondered how he was ever able to overpower him.
The two drove in silence for what felt like forever until Rod broke it. "I'm guessing you're quite surprised to see me."
"Yeah… Didn't think I would ever see you again…" Grem spoke softly.
Rod knew that Grem was very nervous right now. After everything that happened with the two, he couldn't blame him for feeling intimidated. However despite what happened, he knew he and Grem needed to talk, so bringing up the hard stuff now was the best idea to get any sort of communication going here.
"Look, I'm not mad about what happened." Rod spoke bluntly.
"And why not? I beat you to a pulp, and nearly killed you!" Grem shouted.
"And saved my life. Grem I know you called 911, if you hadn't have done that I would've died that night." Rod said.
"How did you know I called? And how can you not be mad? This doesn't make sense!" Grem shouted once more. He was really confused, this car almost died because of him and here he was saying he saved him? This made no sense.
"I have my ways of finding things out, and it wasn't your fault I almost died, I saw the professor flip the switch himself. I got to know you well enough on that oil rig to know you would never kill someone." Rod said as they arrived at Grem's building.
"Well clearly I am the type to hurt someone. Look at what I did to you, it still hasn't gone away!" Grem said as he entered the building with Rod behind him.
" Only reason my mouth and eye are still messed up is cuz when my engine burst into flames it messed up the nerves or whatever and that apparently couldn't be fixed. It would've healed if the professor hadn't of flipped the switch." Rod stated.
"You wouldn't have permanent damage if I hadn't of beat you up." Grem spoke softly as he entered his apartment.
Rod followed Grem inside, closed the door and drove in front of him. "Listen, enough. You beat me up because I betrayed our friendship, I would've done the same thing. The scars I have now are there and are not going away just like what you and I both did is not going away. You beat me up, but I betrayed you. Grem on that oil platform you became such a close friend to me and you told me literally everything about you. I even remember your number one secret and I bet you would've thought I forgot that too along with how much you meant to me."
Grem stood there in silence. Rod was very stern with him and it was obvious that he wanted this meeting to re-spark their friendship. Not knowing what to say, Grem asked Rod a question. "You still remember the secret I told you…?"
"Yes I do. You, Grem Gremlin, have a thing for boys, but, not just any boys, muscle cars. However you were always too afraid to ask one out or even talk to one because you're a Gremlin and don't think you would ever have a chance." Rod spoke with a smirk.
Grem backed up slightly. When he told Rod that secret, he thought he was just another Gremlin. Now that he knew Rod was a muscle car himself, the small orange car shuttered at the fact that Rod still remembered it. Since Grem was little, he thought muscle cars were cool and after figuring out he especially liked male muscle cars, he was afraid just to even see one, now, there was one right in front of him.
"Look… Rod…It doesn't mean I… I like you like that…." Grem spoke as he backed up slightly.
"Oh? Why not? I'm a muscle car, I'm a dude." Rod said with a sideways smirk. "Is it because I'm not handsome to you? Does my mouth and eye bother you?"
Grem's eyes went wide. Just a few minutes ago this car was just trying to talk to him like he was a friend, and now… he had no idea.
"What!? No no no! I don't think you're not good looking!" Grem said as his eyes darted around.
Rod looked at Grem and laughed. Rod was always the one who would make a jokes out of everything and put his friends in awkwardly funny situations. This was a quality he carried over into his Gremlin act, so he knew Grem would get it.
As Grem kept looking around the room trying to figure out what to say, Rod drove up to him, and he kissed him. Grem could only stare in horror as this muscle car slowly backed off the kiss and smiled at him.
"Grem I'm trained by the CIA, from the moment you saw what I actually am I knew you were looking me over; checking me out. When we were just driving here I saw you looking at me. Remember that my job was to get inside your head and read you like a book, it really was not that hard to figure out that you were into what you saw." Rod spoke in a matter of fact tone.
"I… don't… don't know what to say…" Grem choked out almost in tears.
"Say that you wanna go out with me." Rod said bluntly.
"But… I'm not sure…" Grem could hardly make any words come out right.
"What? Is it the mouth? Does it feel weird when I kiss or something?" Rod stated.
"No! I… actually think it's kinda cute…." Grem said with an embarrassed look on his face.
"Then why aren't you sure?"
"Cuz you… you're a muscle car. A really really good looking car… and I'm just… a Gremlin…" Grem spoke sadly.
Rod gave Grem another peck on the lips. "I didn't track you down for almost a year to hear this. I wanted to find you again and restore our friendship, and I always had a soft spot for Gremlins…."
Grem looked up into Rod's eyes. They were filled with genuine caring, and he was smiling at him. The only muscle car that had ever given him a friendly look, was the car that he hurt so badly. With that in mind, Grem lightly let his bumper rest on Rod's and looked away; he felt horrible for everything they'd been through, and this car, this wonderful, nice car, just wanted to make him feel better, and he knew it.
"Ok Rod…. yeah… I wanna date you…" Grem spoke softly.
Rod gave Grem another kiss and beckoned him to look him in the eyes. "Good, now, lets get this dump packed up, you're coming to stay with me from now on."