Burners Unite: Trouble With Misunderstanding


Tinkering was just about the only thing that could temporarily keep Mike Chilton's mind off of the troubles of the day. He had tried having a couple drinks, he'd tried playing video games with the rambunctious Texas, attempted having a civil conversation with Jacob over his can collection, and intended to have a good time discussing new battle strategies with Chuck. But alas none provided the comfort he longed for. He'd finally resorted to that of rolling himself under a car and setting to work with his tool box. Blonde Thunder could always use more work, and as far as Mike was concerned, he was never too tired to do it.

So there he lay, under Blonde Thunder's undercarriage, tinkering away. He was not going to think about the next morning's meeting with the Duke, nor was he going to wonder why on the very day he had finally realized the deeper feelings he held for Julie that they had to have had their first big fight! He wasn't going to think about how he'd wished the drive back to headquarters with Julie in his lap could have gone so much better... And he certainly wasn't going to contemplate how unfair it was that Julie seemed to have all her cares centered on Duke... Nope, not at all.

An hour into his work on Blonde Thunder and Mike sighed heavily, lowering his hands. He was depressed and he was tired. Despite his best efforts, thoughts of Julie plagued him and he felt more alone than he had in a long, long time. The garage was empty and quiet in the night, the lights above buzzing with the sound of electricity. He needed to stop and try and get some sleep, for he would need a clear head in the morning to deal with what awaited him. Mike rolled out from under the car and got up, removing his rubber gloves and putting the tools away. It was as he did so that he suddenly noticed his bike sitting and looking rather lonely in the corner of the garage. He hadn't ridden it in a little while... That fact alone made him feel a bit guilty, not to mention he still hadn't decided on a name for the motorcycle. Mike thought back to the suggestions Foxy had made. Hound? At the time it had sounded fine, but now it had seemed to loose its charm. He needed something more familiar, something close to Mutt...

Extending a hand, Mike rubbed his palm over the bike's leather seat with an affectionate smile. He'd have to dedicate some hard thinking time to it. With a yawn, Mike left the garage, flipping off the lights, and headed towards his bed. In the morning, he would strive to solve all his problems. He would get on right terms with Julie, and then he would figure out the extent of what was going on with Duke and the Terra Dwellers...

...

"What's going on Duke? Explain yourself!"

By the look of Kaia's dark penetrating glare which was settled unwaveringly down upon the Duke of Detroit, she did not appear to be one willing to put up with any double-crossing mischief. He would have to talk pretty smoothly to get himself out of this one. Duke offered a small, sly smile, brows cocked in attitude above his red sun glasses.
"Well... Kaia..." he began, "I was hoping to ask YOU the same thing," he retorted sassily.

Babs stood just behind him, chewing bubble gum with hands on her hips, along with six other suited guards standing around for some amount of protection. They were currently all within the wild green lands separating Duke's territory from the Terra Dweller's jungle. As soon as Duke had his butt rescued by the Burners, he and his team had split away from that lake party to go and confront the Terra Dwellers personally on the cusp of their boarders. It had taken hardly any effort to draw the jungle people's attention to themselves, and when Duke had demanded to see their leader, Kaia arrived on scene.

Now they stood in a circle, the lights of Duke's limos and the Terra Dweller's very big, tough looking humvees illuminating the night. Each gang faced the other in a highly intense stare down amidst the cool night air. Needless to say, the discussion wasn't starting off well...

Kaia's eyes narrowed into mere slits of disgust.
"Our agreement was that you would provide us with enough tanks and hum-vees to over take Detroit Deluxe in exchange for the location of the cars Abraham Kane stole from you. We got you Kane's private pent house security drone with more than enough information stored on its hard drive for you to find your beloved cars, and you return the favor by sending men in to spy on us!" she barked, "Who hired you hotshot!? You better speak up!" she commanded, her voice growling out from behind her mask speaker.

"Look here, Jane," Duke snapped back, "I don't know what you're talking about," he declared. Folding his arms and cocking out his hip. It was a lie of course, but he was the master at lies.
"My men tell me the Burners intervened when they came to apprehend you," Kaia stated, "Were they the ones who hired you?" she interrogated sharply.
"For your information, I'm hired by no one... I make bargains..." Duke responded tartly. Kaia rolled her eyes.
"Did you bargain with them then?" she questioned in irritation.
"Did I bargain with them...?" Duke put his hands to his chest, feigning being taken aback and hurt, "Now why ever would you say that?"

Kaia's eyes blazed with outrage. As a leader, she was a lot of things, but patient was not one of them. The Duke played it cooled. He was getting under her skin now, but that was all part of his plan.
"YES! Did. You. Bargain with them?!" Kaia roared, now jumping down from where she stood upon the hood of one of the humvees and marching forward towards him. Duke refused to let himself be intimidated by this female. She was as scary as they came but that didn't mean he would let her manipulate him into talking.
"When you say bargain... what is it that you mean exactly?" Duke inquired curiously, scratching under his chin.
"YOU-! You are unbelievable!" Kaia exclaimed hopelessly, shoving him hard in the chest. Duke reeled back but caught himself.
"HEY! No one touches the jacket!" he squawked.
"When I'm done with you, the last thing you'll have to worry about is your precious jacket... This is your last chance pretty boy," Kaia hissed threateningly, "Tell me why you sent the spies or suffer the consequences!"

And that's what Duke had been waiting for! A different question! He'd just needed to infuriate her enough until she decided to try a different approach. Golly was he good or what!?
"Why, my dearest Kaia... the men in whom you found 'spying' on you, were not spies at all! They are some of my best mechanics and they snuck in merely to watch how the tanks and the humvees operated. They wanted to be assured that the machines didn't give you any troubles," he explained smoothly. Kaia was still glaring.
"If that is the case, why didn't they make themselves known, instead of slinking around suspiciously?!" she snapped. The Duke shrugged.
"I assumed our gangs would be on close enough terms to not have to go through all that protocol nonsense. They were just going to head in, see the tanks... then right back out," the Duke finished, waving his hand about.

Kaia stared him down with the most steely pair of eyes he'd been under in a long time. But the Duke did not falter in his act. He could not give away the information regarding his deal with the Burners because if he did, future business with the Terra Dwellers would be non existent, not to mention their gangs would not be on good terms...

Finally, Kaia's skeptical eyes eased and her expression changed to one of complacency.
"I'd hope you'll have learned something from this misunderstanding Duke. Next time you want admittance into my territory, you will go through me and only me, regardless of our peace contract, understood?" she ordered. The Duke nodded pleasantly.
"Of course... I understand perfectly," he bowed nobly, "And, now that we have cleared this little issue up, you will release my men," he said in turn. Kaia lifted a hand and made a couple signals, which her men interpreted and acted on. One of the humvees was driven forward and the Terra Dwellers opened the back canopy to push out those of the Duke's men who had been captured. There were four in total, and as soon as they were free they made a sprint to stand behind their leader.
"Well, I have what I want," the Duke sighed in contentedness, "I hope there will be no hard feelings," he said, extending his hand to Kaia to shake. Kaia's eyes glanced to his hand but didn't take it.
"Leave," she ordered stiffly. Duke retracted his hand with some attitude and turned away, loading himself, then his men into the limo.

Only once the limo was far from the meeting place, did the Duke speak to the men who had been captured.
"Excellent work boys. They didn't treat you too bad did they?"
"It was tolerable," the first spy replied.
"Remind us again why it was we had to get caught?" asked another.
"Because... if you hadn't gotten caught then we would actually have to give information about the Terra Dweller's plan to the Burners..." the Duke explained easily with a sly grin, "And I for one, want to see that Detroit Deluxe is attacked. Kane will pay for having stolen my beautiful cars... That's for sure... Whether the Terra Dwellers succeed in their take over or not...I'll have leverage," he shrugged.
"That Julie girl?" the spy inquired.

Duke looked at the spy, a dark, devious smile stretching across his lips.

...

Location: Burners Garage

Julie stood outside of the garage the next morning with Chuck, Texas and Dutch. They were waiting by their cars for Mike to join them and he was taking longer than usual. Julie hadn't seen Chilton since she'd stormed off the day before in the garage and she didn't really want to see him now. The awkwardness would be almost too much for her to bare... but he was their leader and if she was still a Burner, which she was, she would have to take orders. However... if he tried to make her stay behind, he had another thing coming!

She'd slept the night in one of Jacob's spare rooms and in doing so, was plagued into the early hours of the morning by her mind replaying her and Mike's fight over and over again. Each time she did, she had found something more to become mad at. Especially since, after much musing, she'd discovered the sole, entire reason she was upset with Mike at all was because she still loved him! There was no escaping the spell he had on her, and it was infuriating. Would she never break loose? He liked Foxy and that should have been the end of things. But for her... it wasn't. Her heart was wholly and hopelessly lost. And that was why she was furious. She was furious because she knew she would never get it back. She would never be able to move on.

"Hey Julie, watch this," Texas suddenly spoke up, jumping onto the front of Stronghorn's hood and doing a handstand. After a careful calculation, he removed one hand very slowly... accomplishing a highly impressive one hand stand. Julie cocked a brow and smiled, glad to have a friend like Texas around to dislodge her from her miserable thoughts.
"Impressive!" she praised, clapping.
"Took me three days to get it right!" Texas announced proudly, now rolling off the front of the hood to land on his feet.
"It was more entertaining watching you fail in practice," Chuck commented with a snort.
"I'd like to see you try and do that, chop stick," Texas returned.
"Chop stick?" Chuck questioned.
"Yeah! Because you are thin and stiff... and pale, like a chop stick!" Texas answered. Chuck wasn't amused but Julie couldn't help but hold back a giggle at the playful banter. She was riding with Texas today, due to the fact that her car 9 Lives was still parked at Duke's from the day before. She planned on picking it up and driving it home.

"Anyone know what's taking Mike so long?" Chuck questioned, leaning against Blonde Thunder's passenger side door. Julie honestly had no idea. Maybe Mike was just as nervous to confront her as she was him?
"Last I saw of him he was in the garage," Dutch spoke up. As if on cue, the garage door suddenly opened and out rumbled Mike on his motorcycle. He looked so incredibly masculine on that bike... Julie had to remind herself not to drool. She was supposed to be mad at him. Mad! It just wasn't fair how attractive he looked. Why did he have to torture her?

Chuck straightened from off the side of Blonde Thunder and blinked.
"I didn't know we were taking the bike today," he said.
"It was a last minute decision," Mike replied smoothly, "Think you could ride with Texas this round?" he asked Chuck. As he spoke, he held out the extra helmet in his hand towards Julie. She was gobsmacked.
"Sure no problem," Chuck answered walking over to Stronghorn and climbing inside the passenger door. Julie stood staring at Mike in disbelief as the others all loaded into their vehicles. Mike was still waiting for some reaction from her.
"I- "Me?" she croaked out finally. After what had transpired between them yesterday, the last thing Julie expected was for him to invite her to ride on his bike with him!
"Yeah, you," he replied, now tossing the helmet over at her. Julie nearly dropped the thing with how unprepared she was, but after just barely saving it from hitting the ground, she cleared her throat nervously and took a hesitant couple steps forward.
"Unless... you don't want to," Mike added, his tone shifting to one that was uncertain and almost... shy?
"No, no...! Oh, I mean yes! Yes I do!" Julie stuttered, feeling like a complete idiot as she came forward.
"I'm just.. I mean... I didn't expect you to-"
"I get it," Mike cut her off softly, "I just figured it was about time you had your chance to ride, that's all,"

Julie looked past his helmet visor and gazed into his genuinely tender brown eyes, thinking silently that she wouldn't be angry with him much longer if he continued behaving in such a gentlemanly manner. Maybe that was his plan? She tugged the helmet on and carefully slid onto the bike's leather seat behind him. Mike revved the bike's engine and the sound was startlingly powerful. She found her arms gripping around his waist as adrenaline began to pump wildly through her veins.
"I'm still upset with you," she declared, saying it out loud to remind herself perhaps just as much as she was Mike. She could not allow herself to be caught up in the thrill of this new experience and completely forget the valid points she'd made about Duke which Mike had ignored the day prior.

The motorcycle's engine growled as Mike pressed on the gas and they picked up instant speed, moving off steadily away from the garage to take the lead.
"I know... " Mike responded into his helmet microphone, "I actually wanted to talk to you about that..." Their motorcycle helmets each had intercoms inside them, linked to each other so that they could communicate while driving. Julie could hear his voice crystal clear.
"That so?" she responded. She was more than ready to continue their argument and put some sense into Mike's head if that's what he wanted.
"Yeah... I was thinking about what was said between us last night," Mike replied, his voice soft and full of remorse, "and I apologize. I spoke harshly to you, and that was wrong,"
Julie was somewhat taken back by how readily Mike was willing to apologize. The feeling of relief that flooded through her mind and spirit was most welcome. It was then that she realized that harboring anger and frustration throughout the night had been very draining. It was a heavy weight off her shoulders to be able to have things right with Mike once again. She wanted it more than anything...

"I... I wasn't entirely in line either..." she admitted, "I don't know what came over me..."
"I think I do," Mike replied, "Jules, I want you to know, I in no way meant to insinuate you having low worth in a man's eyes," Mike murmured, "You mean very much to me, and that's the reason I'm not trusting Duke. I just don't want him to hurt you..."

His confession was an amazing revelation. Julie would have never thought of him thinking that way! The words from his mouth caused more warmth and joy inside her heart than she had felt in a long time. But... did he truly mean it?
"Really?"
"Really," Mike assured, "I thought you would have known how much I care by now,"
Julie winced beneath her helmet. Now he was making her feel guilty!
"Well... I know that you cared about me.. but you don't... care care..." she blurted, instantly regretting it.

...

Mike cocked a perplexed brow. What was she supposed to mean by that?
"Care care?" he repeated, clueless.
"Uh- I- you know-" she sighed, her breath becoming quickened from what Mike could hear in his helmet. He wished badly he could turn around to see her expressions, and that in doing so it would help him determine exactly what she was talking about, but he had to focus on the road in front of him.
"Oh just forget it," Julie groaned pleadingly. Mike was still completely lost but perhaps it was best to leave the subject alone like Julie wanted.
"I appreciate your apology, and of course I forgive you," she said now, reverting the conversation back to where it had started, "But I want you to know, you don't have to worry about Duke hurting me. I promise, I won't be let down," she informed gently. Mike ground his jaw but said nothing. Even though her promise had sounded sincere, he just couldn't let himself trust that Duke would take good care of her. The man always had a reason for everything, and most of the time, his actions were motivated by pure selfish impulse. Julie deserved so much better...
"Well... I can only hope so..." he said finally. In reality, he really didn't. He wanted Duke to be exposed as the scum bag he was, and therefore freeing Julie from any false ideas about the man. Mike wanted Julie to see that in the end, he had been right, and perhaps even come to trust him even more. That was the most he could hope for at this point. Things were evidently clear that Julie felt nothing of attraction towards him, and as it was, he was getting close to Foxy. Still, it didn't make letting go of his relatively fresh hopes for Julie's love any easier...

Silence fell upon them for the next couple minutes. Mike could feel Julie beginning to fidget behind him. Her hands weren't staying still and she was moving them uncertainly from place to place on his stomach, holding around his torso, then resting on his sides, and finally with her palms gently pressed against his back. Mike wasn't about to say anything about it though. He thought her naiveness was kind of cute... Not to mention the feeling of her hands moving around his mid section made his stomach flip in delight. No, he couldn't let himself fall for that.

"So..." he began, at last breaking the awkward silence, "I thought of a name for my bike,"
Julie instantly stilled.
"Really?! What is it?" she asked eagerly. Mike grinned.

"Mongrel,"


This chapter came out a day early because I was too excited! lol I'm on a Motorcity writing spree! :D Can't seem to get these characters out of my head!

How does everybody like the name I chose for Mike's bike?! Took me a friggin long time to decide on it! I'm sure hoping you all think it's as perfect as I do!

However, I sincerely wish to know, am I doing these characters justice? Does everyone like the story plot so far?! Please PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW! I desperately must know my readers' thoughts!