Disclaimer: I wish I owned Biker Mice, then I could watch all the episodes.
This Chapter takes place the same day as last Chap, but it starts much earlier in the morning. And I know in real life Martian days are shorter than ours, but that's why it's called fiction
"regular talk", "(thinking)", ""air Quotes"", emphasise
Please forgive any small mistakes, I just lost my proof reader. If you see any big screwups please tell me so I can fix it.
9:00a.m.
Rimfire and Slate Had been riding as fast and hard as they could, away from the base and city, since 4:00 a.m.. They had found a place about half an hour outside the city that looked like it was once a farmhouse, it needed serious repairs but had been kept livable by the fact it had been built into the cliff side rocks and blended into the surroundings. Though the building was more than large enough for the Visitor team, the boys had no intentions of returning so soon. They raced through the desert, sight seeing, as Rimfire pointed out the trails and mine fields to be avoided. They finally came to a stop outside a rundown and filthy looking bar, to the the dark furred man's surprise it sat out in plain sight in the middle of nowhere. It was no surprise however why the striped youth had insisted they drive rusty looking non-AI bikes and wear clothes that had seen better days, when they walked through the swinging doors and Slate saw that the crowd inside matched the building. A mixed group of Martian's that probably wouldn't have reacted well to anyone in Army fatigues. As they sat on the wobbly bar stools, he looked at the other patrons reflected in the dirty mirror behind the counter, through the safety of his shades. He saw a table of SandRaiders cheating each other at cards, and a few too thin Mice sitting in a darkened corner getting stoned, but what kept his attention were the Rats on the other side of the room. Their were ten of them laughing at something the man who was obviously the leader said. The man's, homemade looking, tan leather jacket stretched over his bulging belly, and around his neck he wore a necklace with large odd-shaped beads, that appeared sharpened at the end, hanging down.
Rimfire watched The man beside him watching the people around them, untill both their attention was brought to the older rat, now standing in front of them, who put down two brown label-less bottles, and with a smile on his scarred muzzle looked at the young Mouse, "Lemme guess, rootbeer?"
Laughing He answered back, " You know me too well, Chase."
Rolling his eyes, Slate turned to the bartender, "I'll have a drink for adults, and make it strong." The old man reached under the counter and brought out a dusty bottle with an odd symbol on it, placing it in front of Slate, he chuckled and walked to a stack of glasses to clean them.
Seeing the symbol Rimfire nervously said, "Ummm, i'd sip that if I were you, very slowly.
"The kid's worried I can't handle my drink?"
"No, but I've seen bigger guys than you knocked on their tails by dragon whiskey."
"Does your family know your friends with a Rat?" Changing the subject, Slate asked, jerking his thumb towards the bar tender.
Popping the top from his drink, Rimfire absent-mindedly answered, "Chase isn't exactly a friend, more like he's a good source of information, for the right price of course. The Freedom Fighters give his family medicine and a little food, and if he hears anything of interest he gives us the heads up, as long as his neck is never on the line."
The two sat quietly sipping their drinks for several minutes before Slate, staring at his bottle, asked, "How do you stay so happy when you've spent half your life on a battlefield, surrounded by death?"
He smiled at Slate and said, "You've just gotta remind yourself of the friends and family you still have, and what your fighting for, and umm..." Rimfire put a finger on his chin in thought, a pose that reminded the Rat of Primer when she was thinking, and then cheerfully continued, "There's Rock, and long races through the dessert...And Root Beer!" Realizing he had been getting louder the entire time, he blushed at the attention he had drawn to himself."
Smirking, slate propped his chin in his hand, facing the boy, and said, "Your just an open book of rainbows and glitter aren't ya, kid." To his surprise Rimfire leaned in close and blew a raspberry in his face, an impressive act considering the buck teeth.
With a smirk of his own, as the dark man wiped a hand over his face, Rimfire, in a much quieter voice than before, stated, "I'm full of surprises. And I'm not that open, I have secrets."
"Oh yeah, how 'bout you spill a few, just for fun?"
Raising an eyebrow Rimfire looked at him with a thoughtful look before finally saying, "Okay, but if I do, you have to show me your eyes. Deal?"
"That's it? Alright, deal. So start talkin' fluffy, and make it good." The two scooted closer to each other, so that their shoulders were touching.
Rimfire with a pink tint showing across his nose from his embarrassment, took a deep breath and almost whispered, "I've been seeing a therapist for around a year."
Slate asked, with disappointment, "That's it?"'
Rolling his eyes in frustration he continued in a normal voice, "No, that is not it. Jeez. Ugh, as I was saying, about a year ago I was on a mission with my old team and things went horribly wrong, I wasn't sure who my friends were and who was the enemy. When I finally woke up in an infirmary I was told that I could never tell the details of what happened to anyone but my shrink, to make sure the incident hadn't left me completely screwed up, and what was left of my team was being split up so the army could sweep the mess under the rug. I got lucky, the base I was taken to just happened to host possibly the best Therapist on the planet. Dr Pepper usually only talks to high-ups, and severely traumatized soldiers, she also insists on talking to any Plutarkian prisoners we get, to try and convince them what they are doing is wrong. I don't know if she has ever succeeded, but the fact she tries is pretty cool. Anyway, I ended up with two reminders of the terrifying day. We ended up being friends, which technically we're not supposed to, and during my mandatory weekly vid-com session with her, to make sure I haven't snapped, we usually just play chess and then she signs me off as mentally stable."
"All right, your story's alot more interesting than I thought it would be, but what's the big deal with you bein' friends with the head shrinker?"
The boy's eyes grew in shock as he hissed, "Have you met my family!? If grandmama found out I was friends with a DR that looked like this," He pulled a picture from his wallet and slapped it down on the counter, "she'd start planning our wedding, and then uncle Modo would start arguing that I'm not old enough to be thinking about these things, because he seems to think I'm still in training pants!" He took several deep breaths before calmly saying, "Sorry, I had to spend last night listening to them discussing whether I should keep going on these horrid blind dates my grandmama sets up for me, and when I mentioned that my twin sis is pregnant that just upset uncle Modo, who thinks that Trek corrupted his baby niece, and he's just looking for a reason to break the dude in half. I guess it left me a little frustrated."
His eyes large behind his shades he kept his voice level, "A little?" The strong whiskey encouraging him to be more talkative than usual, he added, " Ya know, if your family loves you, you can live your life your way and even if they don't like it they'll learn to live with it,... eventually."
He finally looked down at the picture and almost spit out the drink he had just taken, "Wow! Are Therapists allowed to look like that?" Staring back from the picture was a beautiful female Mouse with soft cream fur and long platinum blond hair that had blue streaks in it, she was wearing a light brown shirt and leggings that showed off her soft curves very well, and a pink coat. On her face sat a pair of tinted purple rimmed glasses that made it hard to tell what color her eyes were, and in her hair in front of both ears were silver circle clips, attached to them hung a sheer, hot pink fabric. Slate pointed curiously at the girl, "What's with the veil?"
Rimfire sighed, picking the picture up and sliding it into his pocket, "That's kind of sad, I don't know if it's a birth defect or a war injury but her jaw doesn't move right all the time, so she feels the need to cover it, and won't even eat in public. Of course she doesn't let that little problem slow her down." He chuckled, before finishing his second drink in one gulp.
Stretching Slate smiled at him, "And the second thing?"
"What?" Asked the confused Mouse.
"You said you got two reminders." The black Rat wiggled two fingers in front of him.
Rimfire's smile fell from his face and he stuttered, "I,I,I, said that? I didn't mean to... I mean I,I,I,..Ah man." He squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his teeth before letting out a breath and opening his eyes saying, "Okay, but what you are about to see never leaves this bar." Rimfire slid his left boot off and started pulling up the leg of his pants. "When I woke up in the infirmary I had this...mark, I'll have to live with for the rest of my life. I've managed to keep it hidden over all this time, but if I ever find out who did this to me I'll, I'll, GRR!" The grey furred Mouse couldn't even finish the sentence.
Slate gaped at the ankle, his brain trying to think of something intelligent to say, " I, uhm... Dam."
The soldier ruffly yanked his boot back on, and took a deep breath. "Ok, your turn, le'me see um."
After a large gulp of his drink, The mercenary laughed, "I think chugging down all that sugar so fast is making you hyper." He turned towards the boy next to him and pushed the shades onto the top of his head. He waited while the boy tilted his head to one side and then the other, finally leaning in for a closer look.
Rimfire stared into the odd coloring of the Rats eyes, his scholara which in a human would be white, and for a Martian should be a pale yellow, was a startling bright sky blue, and the iris was snow white. Still looking into the larger man's eyes he said, "What a rip-off, I thought they'd be gross, or creepy not cool looking. I don't get why your boss makes you hide them."
"Everyone's entitled to their own opinion I guess." Suddenly Slate went stiff, and asked, "Is it quieter in here?"
Turning their heads to look behind the bar they realized that Chase had disappeared, and reflected in the mirror standing behind them was the very large and dirty leader of the Rat group. They slowly turned back around to face the man with a large, jagged, yellow toothed smile. Behind him they could see the last of the other patrons sneak out the door.
The tall man, whose breath cold peel paint from a wall, leaned down in front of Rimfire, " What's a perty face like your's doin' in this dump?"
Slate slipped his glasses back on but made no other move, as he got a better look at the man's necklace. He realized, with a sick feeling in his stomach, that the beads were actually finger bones, and judging by the fact that instead of a rounded tip they had claws, he was guessing the long bones used to belong to a Rat. "(Does that mean the coat was...)" He inwardly cringed at the thought.
Rimfire gave a nervous laugh and said, "Um, me and my friend just stopped to let our bikes cool off and have a few drinks, we were actually about to leave."
The Rat put a clawed hand out to brush Rimfires long bangs aside, "What's the rush, the three of us could have a little fun." He then put the hand that wasn't now resting on Rimfire's shoulder, on Slate's.
Before the dark furred Mercenary could say anything, like a long string of profanities, Rimfire slapped himself in the forehead and said, " Oh, I get it now. I'm sorry bro, but there's been a misunderstanding, we're just friends," he waved his hand between him and slate, " Not ""friends"". We like girls."
The Rat leader stood back straight and stepped back, with his nails digging into their shoulders, forcing the two to stand up. He growled out, "You two have been lookin' awful friendly ta me, ya sure it's got nothin' ta do with you Mice bein' too good for a Rat?"
"Of course not, I mean for one Slate is half Rat. And if we had anything against Rats would we be in a Rat bar? And as for us looking too friendly, we may have had a little too much to drink." Rimfire put the most believable look on his face he could muster while trying not to breath too deep and thinking, "(Of course the fact you smell like death, and would probably eat our faces off afterwards is playing a huge part in the decision, yuck.)"
He let go of their shoulders and looked behind them at the bottle of dragon whiskey, and then at Slate before snorting, "Not much of a Rat. the guy has short nails, and his teeth aint even that sharp. But since I don't think you two are dumb enough ta lie ta me, I wont snap ya in two. He turned to walk back to his group, that had been watching the scene with morbid interest.
Rimfire turned to Slate sighing in relief, and at that moment several thoughts went through his mind. One, that they say before you die your life flashes before your eyes. Two, the memory of his Grandmama telling him how communicators and messagers used to be one machine before the war, but they separated them so soldiers would just take messagers that only vibrated because the men would forget to turn their communicators to silent. Three, he had let his sister add ""cute"" songs to his communicator the other night. Four, he had been so tired when he left his room this morning he grabbed the wrong thing. And last, he really really hated the song coming from his pocket right now. ["I'm a Barbie giiirl, in the Barbie wooorld."]
The two barely had time to put their hands on each other's chests to soften the blow before their muzzles were slammed together. Pain shooting through his jaw, Slate managed to bring his elbow up into the growling man, holding the backs of their heads, chest, knocking him back. He could taste the blood from where his lip had made contact with Rimfire's teeth, but the oncoming gang of Rats was a bigger concern.
"Ya think ya lyin' Mice are better than us?!" The large Rat whose fur was bristling, growled in anger. "Yer gonna regret insultin' me, but don't worry, ya won't live long." The group of Rats charged at them.
Rimfire jumped onto the bar, and using his tail grabbed a stool and flung it into the middle of the oncoming attack. Yelling to his companion, "Last one outside kisses Plutarkians!" He then jumped, flipping over their heads, to land on a nearby table.
Slate looked at the growling leader between him and escape and smirked as the huge man came at him. But the smirk was wiped off as he kicked at the leaders head and... missed! As he made the quick movement the room had seemed to tilt, throwing off his aim. "(Oh f# k, that dragon s&$t is messin' with my head!)" Leader had grabbed Slate's ankle as the boot went past his face, using the reeking giant to aim, he jumped, spinning, and kicked the Rat in the skull as hard as he could. Both men collapsed to the ground, the larger moaning while holding his head. Slate got up as fast as he could with the floor still spinning under his feet, he shook his own head to clear his vision, looking up in time to see two rats coming at him, he ducked, letting them crash into each other. He looked to where Rimfire was standing just as one of the three gang members he was fighting knocked him backwards.
Rimfire felt a pop at the base of his tail as he landed flat on his butt. He was sure it wasn't broken because he whipped it around to hit two attackers across the face, but he still felt the burn of the injury he was sure he would cry over when no one else was around. (think, like popping your knee out and back into socket) Hearing a shrill whistle the fighters all looked to where the black furred male stood with a lit flare in his hand, and with horror they watched him toss it over his shoulder, behind the bar.
The two stared, from where they sat on their bikes, up the trail from the flaming building. The men had all forgotten their fight and sped from the bar, barely escaping the first explosion, at least a few of them with singed fur. Slate said, "I didn't expect it to go up that fast. What the f&%k is in Dragon Whiskey, rocket fuel?"
Rimfire chuckled, "No, but Chase kept explosives back there so no one would get the bright idea to start a shoot out. That's why no one takes weapons inside."
"Now you tell me. So, how important did your bosses consider this place for info gathering?"
"Let me put it this way, if anyone at the base asks where we were, we were nowhere near here." Seeing Slate bend over the side of his bike and lose the contents of his stomach, Rimfire suggested, "How about we call it a day and go home."
Sitting back up, and wiping his mouth, Slate grumbled, "Sounds good ta me." Smiling he added, "Perty face." He laughed as he looked at the red face of his friend, before he turned his bike towards home.
4:00p.m.
She had been surprised when he had led her to a guard station posted inside the city against the base wall, where one of the guards had promised to make sure Modo's bike, (still parked back at the bar), made it safely back to the motor pool. He then led them inside the shed they had been playing cards in front of, to reveal the worn out shed was actually a large elevator. When the doors had opened at the bottom Modo had told her they were below the lowest level of the base. The tunnels and caverns that ran under the city had been used to hide and protect the non-fighting population of the city and anyone else seeking refuge during the war. Though most people had left, the schools, day care and orphanage where still kept in the safety of the caves.
Aurora stared at the sight before her, amazed that this was his choice of revenge, that he had chosen to use his win, the win he could have used to make her do anything, on this. She stood in the middle of a room filled with children of various ages, between two and eight. Modo had taken her to the nursery and orphan ward his mother ran, and convinced the adults working that day to let Aura watch about ten of them by herself for a few hours, or until she cried for mercy, whichever came first. Modo had made himself comfortable in a cushioned rocking chair, with his feet propped up and an amused smirk on his face, watching her. Aura looked around at the happily playing children, "(What's the big deal, so I'll have to change a few diapers and hand out some crackers. How hard can it be to watch a few brats?)" That was her last thought before she felt small teeth sink down into her tail.
Modo couldn't remember the last time he had laughed so hard, the second the caregivers had left the room the kids had gone berserk, some literally climbing the walls.
It had only been half an hour and she was ready to scream, one two year old boy had stripped down and was running around the room screaming, "I gotta PEE!", while two small girls beat each other with baby dolls. Another child was eating clay, and the three oldest were being suspiciously quiet in a corner, but what had the small woman about to snap was the six year old spinning around on the ceiling fan. She looked up at the six ft nine Mouse that had stepped up beside her to watch the boy on the fan, "Sooo, give up yet?" Modo chuckled.
Aurora put her hands on her hips, and shooting a dirty look his way answered, "I am a highly trained Taiji warrior, I have stood against some of the stars most disturbing criminals, I think I've got this covered." She turned towards the wall with the switch to turn off the fan. All Modo saw was a large puff of white engulf the girl as he and the children froze where they stood, staring at the woman that had been hit in the face with a balloon filled with baby powder. He turned his gaze to where the three boys were laughing, several more balloons in hand.
He started to step towards them when he heard the now white haired woman chuckling, "That's how you want it, huh?" Before anyone could move she crouched down and jumped towards the nearest wall running up it and flipping back through the air, she landed behind the trouble making boys. She put two into a head lock while holding the last upside down with her tail, "How do you brats like it?" She said, shaking her hair and covering them in the powder that covered her. Seeing that the boys weren't in any danger, Modo pulled the six year old down from the fan and walked over to a large screen in the wall, after he pushed a few buttons the screen came to life and all the children, including the ones being released by Aura, stood mesmerized by the singing animated animals.
Modo grinned at the annoyed woman as he flopped back into his chair, "Didn't anybody tell ya, a couple of our techs managed ta hack into one of earth's satellite systems, we got cable now."
With a fake smile she clasped her hands together against her chest and said in a sugary voice, "My hero!" Crossing her arms, she smirked, "You realize you just made my job easy, right?"
Never losing his grin he pointed next to her and said, "I wouldn't call that easy."
Aura looked down next to her to see the very happy two year old smiling a huge grin up at her, "I no hafta pee no more."
He looked at the woman standing in the middle of the room wrestling with the three older boys, her hair still covered in baby powder, as the caregivers took the kids away to get cleaned up for bed, starting with the youngest first. When one of the women came in to say the last boy's dad was here to get him, Aurora collapsed onto the floor, laying flat on her back. Modo laughed again as he stood from the chair to kneel beside her, "I'm impressed, I didn't think you'd make it past dinner."
If it weren't for his sensitive hearing he never would of heard her mumble, "First thing in the morning I'm getting my tubes tied." She opened up her eyes and looking Modo straight in the eye asked, "Can we play a game?"
Modo raised an eyeridge, "A game?"
"Trading questions, it's a very popular way for people to get to know each other where I'm from. The rules are simple, if you choose to not answer a question the game is over." The corners of her lavender tinted lips pulled up as she gave him an 'I dare you' grin.
Chuckling, he made himself more comfortable sitting cross-legged, " A'right Miss Aurora ma'am, shoot."
" O.k. Modo San," Glaring daggers as she said his name, she began. "First off, are we really planning to walk all the way back to the elevator, then around the outside of this huge base, to get back in the front door, at night?" She asked, wincing at the thought of moving her sore, bruised, body anymore.
The grey giant rubbed his chin, debating with himself, "(Hmm, should I tell her that not far from here is the elevator that leads inside the base, not far from the housing quarters, ooor torture her a liiiittle more?)" He smiled down at the woman, staring up at him, "Tired already? It's not that far of a walk, and Mars may not be much ta look at anymore, but we have one heck of a sunset."
Aura sat up, turning to face him, and deadpanned, "The two moons creep me out."
He laughed, "Don't worry, I know a short cut. My turn huh, hmm." Modo thought about seeing the seriousness of the blue woman in battle, and how playful she had seemed all day. So he asked, "Do you have a split personality?" And then face palmed. "(You couldn't rephrase the question?)"
To his relief she smiled, and after a short giggle answered, "I've spent my whole life being whoever I had to be to get the job done, living like that will eventually affect anyone's mind, and it gets hard to remember who you are. So I try not to think about it and just go with the moment, which probably does make me seem a little nuts." She paused to smile before adding, "Your niece says I have multiple personality disorder, Slate says I'm Bipolar, Gussandra says I'm psycho slit your throat while you're not looking wrapped up in childish goofyness." She gave him a thoughtful look before continuing, "You like rock right, well you know that song 'Bitch' by Meredith Brooks, that is so me." She leaned forward slightly, staring at him, hard, in the eye, "O.k. my turn. What's the deal with your eye?"
Modo couldn't help flinching at the question, talking about what Carbunkle had done to him had always been hard because of the painful memories it brought up, but he braced himself and cleared his throught, "Well, it glows because..."
"Yeah yeah." Aura cut him off, looking annoyed, " The wiring connecting your arm to your brain, allowing you to control it, and feel an illusion of partial feeling like heat, cold, pressure, and to some small extent pain, runs behind your eye causing it to glow when your mad. I figured that much out from listening to talk in the mess hall, and observing you, "(and Prime got hold of your medical file)". What I want to know is why your pupil is different from other Mice." She said looking into his eye, and it's almost cat-like pupil.
He just sat there for several moments with his jaw open, waiting for his brain to catch up with the conversation. "(I didn't see that comin'. Do people really talk about me that much? Well me an' the Bro's are kinda heroes, so people would talk. Wait, she's been watchin' me?)" He shook his head to clear it, and focus on what he had been asked, " My Mama's family is from a place we call the dark south, because it's in the southern part of the planet and the mining there is more dangerous. The cave systems down there used ta hold summa the most precious metals an' stones on the planet, an' most importantly, hard to find ingredients to medicines that could cure horrible diseases. The down side was that for some reason the rocks were harder to break through, but easier to collapse. Then there was the toxic gases that could be behind any a the walls. Maybe it was the environment, maybe it was breeding, or maybe way back in history some aliens married in, but we ended up bigger an' stronger than most, and our special eyes gave us better vision in the darker caverns." Seeing that she was about to cut him off again he raised a hand to stop her, "Mama's Mama was a Northern Mouse, an Mama took after that side of the family, but I got Grandpapa's eyes, although I'm not sure if me an' Primer got our height from him or my Papa, he might not of been Southern but he was a big sturdy man. An' the reason you don't see many like me is because they were from the south, because of all the minerals and gems it was one a the first places the Plutarkians hit, and they hit it hard." Wanting to change the subject he gave a weak chuckle, " I guess we should start home, my tails startin' ta go numb." Aura gave a short nod and easily hopped up, Modo on the other hand was much slower since not just his tail had gone to sleep but his entire back-end. He groaned, rubbing his butt, and followed the girl out the door. Taking the leed he looked at her, standing on his right side, and asked, "How can ya sit like that for so long and not get sore?"
Aura smirked, keeping her eyes on the tunnels, which had had their lights dimmed for night, memorizing their path, "Is that your next question, cutie?"
He hoped she couldn't see his blush in the darkened hallways, "Nice try, but I can do better than that." He was distracted by a tickle on his left ear, but when he swatted at it their was nothing there. "Er, o.k. let me think a second, how about what's..." There was that annoying tickle again. He turned fast to see what it was, but again, nothing was there. Facing forward he tried to continue his train of thought, "Um, what was I sayin'? Oh right, what's..." This time when he swatted he felt his hand brush against something soft, "(What the heck)" Looking at the woman beside him he noticed a slight twitch at the corner of her mouth that someone who hadn't grown up with Throttle would have missed. "O.k., how about, do you... GOTCHA!" Modo smiled, now holding the thin blue tail in his hand, the fluffy tip twitching. He could tell Aurora was surprised at his speed, her eyes opened wide, staring at the metal hand that held her. "As I was sayin', do you always cheat by distractin' the other person from thinkin' of any good questions?"
Recovering quickly, Aura half faced away from him with her arms crossed, huffing, "No." Peeking over her shoulder at him, with an eyebrow raised, "Do you always fondle other people's tails?"
Modo looking down at his hand to see he was still holding her, blushed darker, and released the appendage, which as she pulled back around behind him, flicked him in the butt.
Aura began walking again, with a satisfied smile on her face, "(The poor guy, he's practically glowing in the dark from that blush, HA. I better be careful though, for all I know he's a closet perv and he could snap and jump me any second if I keep teasing him like this. Then again, careful is boring.)" "I'll take that as a no. Your turn, big boy."
Flustered, he tried his hardest to keep his voice calm, "I'm thinkin', give me a second." "(Try ta think of a safe subject. Somethin' easy to talk about.)" "Do you have a favorite football team?"
"Football?" The girl sounded confused, and asked, "Is that the sport were the guys in tights stand in circles, slapping each other's butts, and the one guy puts his hands between the other ones legs so he'll hand him his ball?"
Modo froze in place, his mouth hanging open in horror.
Aura, realizing he had stopped, turned around, looking a little too innocent, she asked, "What? Is that the wrong sport, because I can describe some more and you can tell me when I get the right one."
"NO!" He yelled, putting both hands up to stop her. Taking a deep breath, he calmly tried again, "No, I think that'll do. And since I think you were tryin' to ruin football for me, I get ta ask a different question." Not giving her a chance to argue he continued, "I've seen most of your team helping the ex Pow's that volunteered to rebuild your ship, but I haven't seen you gettin' your pretty little hands dirty. So what I wanna know is, is it true you were banned from the work site for not bein' able to tell a wrench from a hammer?" Modo, happy with his idea for revenge, looked down to see the blue woman turning a cute shade of pink. Trying, and failing, not to laugh at her obvious discomfort, he choked out, "Somethin' wrong, Miss. Aurora Ma'am?"
Staring at the open elevator door, she could practically feel the smirk on the face of the large man beside her. She would have ended the game right there if not for a vibrating in her jacket pocket. Swerving on her toes to stand in front of Modo, she placed her hands on the door to keep it open with him on the outside and her inside. "Nuh uh, no redo's or turn skipping. You want me to answer your question, you have to answer mine." She looked up through her bangs giving him a crooked smile, "How big are you?"
The way she was looking at him, and the way she stood in the door with her hands slightly above her, with her hip cocked, didn't seem to go with the simple question, but he ignored the warming feeling in his stomach and answered anyway, "I'm almost seven f..."
Tiptoeing, she placed the first two fingers of her right hand over his lips, and in a low voice said, "I wasn't talking about your height."
"(Wait, if not my height, then wha... OH!)" His eye almost popped out of his head from the pressure of what he was sure must of been every drop of blood in his body rushing to his head. It wasn't until he saw her blow him a kiss as the door slid shut that he realized that, that woman, was pure evil. Sliding his back down the wall next to the door he waited for the large service elevator to come back down, "(It wouldn' surprise me if she locked it up at the top ta make me take the long way home.)"
in the elevator
Aura leaned up against the wall and pulled her communicator out of her pocket, answering it she growled, "This better be important Trek, cuz I just had to play seriously dirty to get rid of my company."
An exhausted sounding voice answered, "[You know how you promised the local government they could monitor all of our off world communications?]"
"Yes, I have some recall." the woman feeling as tired as the Fox sounded, mumbled.
"[You know how I hacked through their systems to get a line running that they couldn't monitor?]"
"Is there a point to this conversation, or did you just feel the need to annoy me?"
"[Someone piggybacked us.]"
Aurora stood straight, and her voice went cold, "Say that again."
Trek, whose voice never changed replied, "[Someone used our line to get into the Martians Military computer network.]" After a pause to let his words sink in, he continued, "[I managed to kick them back out before they did any damage. But I had to move so fast that I couldn't tell if they were from off or on planet.]"
"Did the Mice notice anything?"
"[No. We got lucky that idiot didn't leed them right to us. And just to be safe I covered all traces and put up a few extra fire walls.]"
Sighing Aura rubbed the bridge of her nose, and let her voice thaw back out, "Good job Trek. Your going to have to keep and eye out incase they try something again, if they're going to cause us any problems I want to know more about them than they do." She hung up and sighed again, leaning back against the wall she stared at the light above the door indicating the floor she was on. She mumbled to herself, "I'ts been a long day." "(And it was pliers, not a hammer.)"
8:35p.m.
Modo walked into the motor pool, and seeing his Bros where their bikes were sitting together on one side of the room, farthest from the door, went to join them. Smiling he asked, " Your not headin' out for a night ride without me are ya Bros?"
Throttle looked up from checking his brakes, and chuckled, "Wouldn't dream of it big guy." The golden furred Mouse stood, stretching his legs, and noticed the tired look of his friend, "You look beat, do I want to ask how your date went?"
Sitting on his own ride Modo looked thoughtful before answering, "It was weird. Speaking of dates wasn't Vincent bragging all yesterday about some hot date he was supposed to be on tonight?" The two looked at the white furred mouse that was grumbling to himself as he finished tightening a bolt on his red racer.
Knowing his friends wouldn't stop staring at him till they had the answers they wanted, he crossed his arms over the red muscle shirt he wore, and said, "It was not my fault, the babes around here are all obsessed with getting married. It was only our first date and the second I got to the restaurant, she picked out, she kept talking about our futures."
Throttle smirked at his younger bro, "Since when are you above stringing a girl along?"
Rubbing the back of his head nervously Vincent mumbled, "It was actually going fine till we got to her place and started making out."
"And?" Both Mice asked.
"I called her by the wrong name." He shot a dirty look at the Mice now laughing at him.
Throttle choked out, "Yup, that will end a date fast."
Modo turned to their leader and asked, "What about you bro, you've been missin' all day."
"Yeah well, I definitely wasn't having as much fun as you two. I was talking to Dr. Sheild, he thinks that everything we learned about Humans while we were there might aid Mars when we're ready to open communications with Earth. But if you ask me, I think the guy was obsessed with Charley girl, he got way too interested whenever I mentioned her name, and by the end he just kept asking questions about how we would hang out at the garage, or how often we stayed at her place. He loved the story of her using my boxers for shorts."
It was Vin's turn to laugh as he said, "Well it was pretty funny when you found out she had sewn up the fly, although you probably would have rather been told before you wore them again, and drank a twelve pack of root beer. HAHAHA!"
Modo chuckled, "Yeah, not the happiest thing to find out when you gotta go that bad."
Throttle with a sigh, added, "I may not cus often, but Charlie sure learned some interesting Martian words, through the bathroom door, that day." They all laughed at the memory, untill they heard the door at the far side of the room open for two bikes to pull in.
Seeing Rimfire, Modo smiled, happy to see his nephew, then scowled at the Rat that he didn't trust. The two newcomers didn't seem to have noticed the others, but the three bikers could clearly hear them.
Slate and Rimfire took off their helmets and stood from their bikes. Slate stretched his legs groaning, "Bodies just are not meant to stay in that position for so long."
Rimfire chuckled at him, "Maybe you should have stretched first."
"Ha ha, ow" he brought his hand up to his sore mouth. "I think your overbite split my lip."
"I don't know why you're complaining, I'm the one that won't be able to sit right for a week." He said rubbing his tail. Both men were laughing as Rimfire put his arm around Slate's waist and the Rat put his arm, heavily, around the young man's shoulders, and they headed out of the room.
The last thing heard was Slate saying, "I could really use a cigarette right now."
Throttle and Vincent stared openmouthed at the now empty doorway the two had walked through. Vinnie was the first to speak, "Umm, do we know what to think of this?"
Throttle numbly answered, "Nope."
"Did the big guy hear it?"
Hearing a loud thud as something heavy hit the ground behind them, Throttle said, "Yup."
The two looked down at their unconscious friend, "Sooo, how do you think he's taking it?"
okay so I have a few notes that involve you
1 if you want to know what horrible horror happened to poor Rimfire's ankle I will write a side story but only if I get five reviews otherwise tuff tooties teehee.
2 I'm going to be writing some short chapters for a little while as kinda like filler so if you would like a chap about any certain characters or for something to happen (as long as it doesn't interfere with the story) just ask, in fact I'd really appreciate it.
3 Rimfire's orientation has yet to be decided if anyone would like to place their vote.