Author: Ninja

Duke had made a mistake.

"Hey, Lord Knight. Something catch your eye?"

"Hm? No...No. I'm fine."

"Huh. Whatever you say..."

Not long ago Duke would have had a hard time accepting that he had made a mistake. Now, however, he was all too painfully aware of his many shortcomings. One of these shortcomings, he realized, was his unspoken desire for others to accept him, or at least for him to understand why they might not. This desire led him to pursue paths he was not wholly confident in. This desire led him out into the suburbs of Daimon: one lone, gleaming white ambulance now chaperoned by a bright yellow power shovel.

I can go with Power Joe, he had said. I'll help, he'd said. Now here he was, exactly where he'd asked to be, only to find he no longer knew what to do with himself.

Concrete ground beneath the rubber of Duke's tires when he glided out of an alley and onto a side street. The deep rumbling of Power Joe's treads followed. Duke tried to look aloof (or as aloof as an ambulance could possibly look, anyway) when the tall power shovel pulled up next to him with unnatural speed.

"You're quiet," said power shovel observed.

"Sorry," Duke replied, unsure of what to say. "I'm... preoccupied."

"Eh? With what?" Power Joe asked, and his voice lilted in bafflement.

"The case."

"What case? This case?"

"Yes." Duke's headlights glinted with surprise when the Kung Fu Detective pulled up close and nearly licked the ambulance's side with his own in the process. Power Joe's scoop swung to the side and continued to bob in the most animated fashion.

"Are you serious?" the striped Brave said. "Car theft. What's there to think about?"

"We should still take it seriously," Duke insisted and felt his shocks tighten at the air of defensiveness in his voice.

"I don't know why you insisted on coming," Power Joe continued breezily. His shovel swung to face the opening of an alley that they passed before righting itself once more. "I could do this myself."

Duke focused his sensors straight ahead and said nothing.

"Ah, don't take it that way, Knight," Power Joe intervened after a few more seconds' silence. It seemed silence and yellow mechs didn't mix all that well. "If you wanted me to babysit you all you had to do was ask."

Duke's lights flickered in irritation. He pulled a few inches ahead of the power shovel with his tires digging into the asphalt. "You would have experience in babysitting, I suppose," he replied and hoped he hadn't risen to the bait. It was conversational. He was genuinely curious.

... And maybe a little bothered.

"Sure do," Power Joe chirped. "You're slightly more mature than elementary school kids, so this shouldn't be a problem."

Duke felt his wiring twitch. Power Joe continued to trundle alongside him, seemingly unbothered by the ambulance's lack of response. The sky above them was a brilliant blue and speckled with clouds. Duke tried to focus on the soft tufts of white against the limitless expanse above instead of the heavy machinery at his side. Somewhere in the distance he picked up the song of birds.

The next few minutes passed in silence. Duke's sensors whirred quietly beneath his armor. Their harmonic pings left trails of sensory information snaking throughout his A.I.. The occasional car passed without complaint. Duke scanned every one that did and cross-referenced his database for anything that might have been reported missing. The suburbs of Daimon were quite peaceful, and the temptation to be pulled into the relaxing lull was strong. Even Power Joe appeared to be responsive to the heavy heat of midday and sunshine.

Perhaps a little too responsive... "Sheesh," the Kung Fu Detective announced loudly and without warning, and followed this up with a very exaggerated, if mechanical yawn. (What..? They couldn't- could they?) "It sure is boring out here. I've got an idea! How about we find a nice patch of grass and relax for a bit?"

It took several seconds for this request to process for the Knight Detective. "We must continue searching," he responded, and hoped his tone was resolute and not simply baffled by what was quite obviously a ridiculous request.

"Like driving around in circles ever caught a criminal..." Power Joe grumbled.

"We are not driving in circles."

"Oh yeah?" Power Joe accelerated enough to enter Duke's line of visual before jerking his scoop at something off to the side of the road. "You see that shrub?" He didn't wait for an answer. "I know that shrub. Because we've passed it before! And a dog just peed on it."

The shrub in question did not look notable to Duke (though the dog was rather fluffy in a viscerally delightful way,) but it did inspire a feeling of trepidation within him. He quietly pulled up an internal map of Daimon and tracked their routes.

Two point three repeated loops so far.

"I see," Duke acquiesced, suitably chastened. Didn't he know better than to speak before thinking?

"Told you." Power Joe's voice was a shrug.

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"You're the one who wanted to play 'follow the leader'."

Suddenly and acutely aware of how far ahead he'd pulled himself in front of Power Joe during their patrol, Duke managed to ease into a stop. Power Joe slowed as well, but remained a few meters behind him. Far ahead a stop light blinked green. Several cars went on their way and each one pinged back negative for a match in their case. The case was not what had just edged its way to the forefront of Duke's mind, however.

"Why'd we stop?" the Kung Fu Detective asked. If he was hopeful Duke had spotted a nice patch of greenery to lounge in then he was going to be disappointed.

There was never going to be a good time for this. With limited options, the ambulance decided to be direct:

"What do you have against me, Power Joe?"

"Uh- wha?" This time Power Joe was the one sounding baffled.

Duke edged his tires and shifted to face the power shovel hunkered down next to the curb. "I would like to know what you hold against me."

"What kind of question is that?" Power Joe demanded, but something about his tone of voice sounded distinctly uncomfortable. Duke wondered if he was onto something. "Can't you take a joke?"

"A joke..."

"Oy." The power shovel's treads spun in aggravation, or maybe it was just exasperation. Duke was still learning his companion's quirks. "You get way too worked up over the smallest things."

"This coming from you..." Duke didn't mean anything by it but judging by the sudden growl reverberating from Power Joe's engine, intent was not quite good enough.

The power shovel transformed in a blur of glinting yellow armor. "What's your deal?!" Power Joe snapped with clenched fists, which is when Duke decided to transform and join him on two legs. As soon as he had, Power Joe jabbed a finger at his chest. "Why'd you want to come with me to begin with, if I'm such a bother? I was just fine!"

Duke lifted his chin and tried to appear as disarming as possible, though the finger pointing was decidedly unnecessary. "It's better to go in twos."

"So it had to be you?" Power Joe scoffed. "I don't buy it, Knight."

Knight. Maybe it was time to get to the heart of the matter. Power Joe seemed like a straightforward sort. Duke felt his brow furrow before responding, hesitantly, "I thought we could... bond."

Power Joe's finger drooped in mid-air. "...Huh?"

This was not quite the response Duke had been hoping for.

He didn't know how Power Joe would take the truth: That Duke wanted to get to know him better, because of all the Brave Police operating in Japan, it felt like he and Power Joe had yet to connect the most. Their relationship had been rocky from the start (the same was true for the rest of the Build Team,) but ever since Duke and Deckerd's successful union into Fire J-Decker a week previous, it had begun to feel like first impressions were starting to mend. Why, then, did Power Joe seem so resistant to accepting the Knight Detective as one of them? Deckerd and McCrane had both offered him a bit of insight into the volatile yellow Brave's personality, but both had also sort of shrugged and said the best way to get to know Power Joe was to spend time with him.

The Kung Fu Detective stared at him. Maybe this merited an explanation.

"I would like to be friends," Duke announced.

A couple of seconds passed. Slowly, Power Joe reached up and scratched the side of his helm and chewed his lip. "Well, this is awkward..."

"Why?"

Power Joe scowled and folded his arms. Glancing off to the side, his helm fins then flicked down before he muttered, "You're really dense."

"Dense..?!" Okay, now he was a little frustrated.

The yellow mech whipped his head back around and grit his teeth. "You want to know what my problem is?" He pulled his hand back into a fist, though it appeared content to simply contract and flex at his side. "My problem with you is: you never apologized! Not properly!"

An apology?

"That," Power Joe huffed, "and you try too hard."

Duke wasn't entirely sure what to do with this newfound direction of conversation. "What I said about you and the others was wrong," he began, attempting to untangle the words as they came to him. "Emotions are not evil. You are not inferior. I... know that now."

"Yeah?" Power Joe appeared nonplussed, though his shoulders had relaxed slightly from their hackled raise. "You really believe that, Duke?"

Duke...

"I do." He did, even though it was still hard sometimes. He'd assumed his change of heart had been obvious. Perhaps he'd been wrong. It wouldn't be the first time, and that knowledge stung, too.

"Well," Power Joe grumbled and shifted in place, "that's great and all, but that's not it."

It wasn't?

Power Joe appeared to mull for a second more before looking Duke in the optics. His expression was unusually solemn; Duke hadn't realized how unsuitable an expression it was on the normally enthused kung-fu expert until then. Power Joe then ventured, "What you said about Dekkado..."

Duke hesitated and scoured his memory banks. Power Joe continued, his voice lacking its usual light-hearted quality: "You get it now, right?! Why everyone was so pissed off at you?"

The Knight Detective made a mental note to ask why Power Joe chose to use such informal language at another time. "I admire Dekkado," he replied, and was surprised at how hurt he felt afterwards at the implication that others might think otherwise. It was true; he had nothing but respect for the Brave Detective. Deckerd was his model, his leader, his partner on the field; everything he was supposed to be, but different. The original. Special.

But it hadn't always been that way. Once he had seen Deckerd as expendable. That was before Duke had actually met him - back when he was still attempting to replace what he now knew was a treasured friend and leader to the comrades he'd since gained. Dwelling on the past did no good to anyone. It certainly had not done Lady any good, and many had suffered with her for it. But it was also important to learn from such things and become better for them. Duke knew his behavior had been less than welcome and his treatment of his now-friends less than stellar.

It had been a mistake.

Power Joe looked away again.

"Dekkado knows," Duke explained. After they'd combined, Duke imagined Deckerd understood him better than anyone other than Lady herself. Power Joe seemed to relax a little more, though his fingers still drummed against his arms and he only glanced back at Duke in little sideways squints. "I've apologized more than once. He's accepted them all. Is that what this was about?"

Power Joe twitched his nose and grumbled again, and his cheeks were a little red. "... Yeah. Alright." Without warning, he snorted and continued, "Ay. I like you, Duke... But you act real high and mighty sometimes."

Duke opened his mouth to rebuke this when-

"But I'm still your friend. Alright?"

If Duke could have blinked, he would have. Then, out of nowhere, a finger was being jabbed at his chest again, which might have necessitated two blinks.

"So don't think I'll let you get away with it!" Power Joe declared. "And don't expect me to go easy on you when you start acting up again."

If there was any greater irony than words like that coming from someone like Power Joe's mouth, then Duke wanted to know what it was. As it stood, he'd take what he could get. Feeling a smile coming on, he managed a short laugh. "Very well, Power Joe."

"Eh?"

"You have my permission to point out when I'm being unreasonable."

"Who says I need your permission?" Power Joe rebutted with a cocked hip. "There you go, sounding all superior again!"

Hm. Duke didn't quite see it, but he'd take Power Joe's word for it... for now. "Regardless, I appreciate it."

Power Joe's hand dropped again. He seemed to be searching Duke's face, as though seeking some hint of this being sarcasm, but appeared to fully relax when Duke merely kept looking at him with a half smile and inviting eyes. "Hmph. Sure." After a second, his face quirked into a slightly fanged grin. "You can rely on me."

"Deal?" Duke extended a hand.

Power Joe cocked his head down at the proffered hand before making an amused sound: "Deal."

CRUNCH!

The powerful shake of metal caused Duke to suppress a grimace when Power Joe enthusiastically shook his hand. How necessary it had been was, like other things, up for debate. "You're going to need it," Power Joe closed with solemnity.

Duke felt himself make a face (Really? He couldn't be that bad!) But before he could rise to his own defense, something caught his eye.

Just past the Kung Fu Detective's shoulder was the familiar white fluffiness of the dog Power Joe had pointed out earlier. The small creature was standing next to a gray car that was situated next to a curb. It lifted a leg and proceeded to relieve itself on the nearest tire, which would not have been much of interest to Duke except for the fact that as soon as he'd noticed it, the car pinged back as: STOLEN.

"There it is!" Duke cried.

Power Joe whirled around, confused. "Wh-?"

"Change!"

The yellow Brave had no sooner spotted the same car when Duke blew past him in ambulance form with his sirens wailing. The Englishmech registered the sound of sputtering somewhere behind him, followed by: "That guy really ticks me off sometimes..!"

Oh. Well. The damage could be undone later...

Another siren joined Duke's as Power Joe shifted form and sped after him; the car had already taken off down the street.

...They were friends, after all.