"Wow!" Pickle gasped. "This is your brother?! I almost forgot how CUTE you are in hedgehog form!"
"This your boyfriend?" Mauglie teased.
"N-No! We're just friends!" Crusher defended, cheeks flushing.
"He's still conflicted between me and another truck called Blaze," Pickle whispered to the hedgehog.
"Ah, I see," Mauglie chuckled.
"ANYWAY!" Crusher cleared his throat. "M-Maug, you can stay here with us while we figure out a way back to Mobius,"
"I'm all for it," Mauglie nodded.
"Yay! I'll go get the guest room ready!" Pickle cried before driving out.
As soon as the green truck was out, Mauglie looked around as he sat on the couch.
"Woah, this place is big,"
"It's for trucks, not Mobians," Crusher chuckled.
"Should've realized," Mauglie let out a chuckle. "So, what exactly do you do here?"
"I race, I invent, and I cheat on races," Crusher shrugged.
"You cheat? In races?" Mauglie looked puzzled. "Why?"
"I… I've been a little greedy on the win," Crusher gave a shrug.
"Yes, but WHY?" Mauglie frowned. "You're the son of the FASTEST THING ALIVE! There's no reason for you to cheat,"
"Um…" Crusher glanced down at his tires.
Mauglie followed his eyes. It took him a while but after a while, he finally realized the reason.
"…oh," his eyes widened. "OH! Oh, I see…"
"Yeah…" Crusher sighed. "I can't really go my fastest when I could burn myself out and kill myself because of unstable chaos energy,"
"Ah, I see now…" Mauglie nodded. "Wow, you had to restrain your Chaos Energy for so long?"
"Yeah," Crusher nodded and sighed once more. "I… I really wish I could speed and dash and race without inhibilator rings like you, big bro, but… I can't,"
"D'aww, it's okay, little bro," Mauglie assured him. "It took me years to finally stabilize my energy,"
"Yeah, and it's just… I want to be that ONE GUY to FINALLY beat Blaze!"
"The other guy that you're crushing on?" Mauglie grinned.
"I AM NOT CRUSHING ON HIM!"
"Mm-hmm…" Mauglie glanced over at him with narrowed eyes. "Huh, how did you manage to shift your form?"
"Oh, m-my Chaos Emerald helped with that," Crusher took out the green emerald from his chassis bag. "It only takes a small amount of chaos energy compared to Chaos Control,"
"Oh, I see…" Mauglie nodded and took out his cyan emerald. "Let me give it a try…"
He took a deep breath and muttered a few words under his breath. He soon glowed with his emerald before his form shifted into a truck, a lot larger than Crusher's, and when the glow ceased, in front of the dark blue truck stood an ebony black truck that looked almost exactly like Crusher, but instead of icy blue, he had cobalt blue markings instead.
"Wow!" Crusher gasped. "You look great, bro!"
"Thanks," Mauglie laughed and kept his emerald in his own chassis bag. "Tomorrow, you and I are BOTH gonna race!"
"You? RACE?!" Crusher looked shocked. "It would be an easy win for you!"
"At least you'll see someone else other than Blaze winning the race, right?" Mauglie raised an eyebrow. "That is, unless you like seeing the view of Blaze winning~"
"MAUGLIE!" Crusher's face heated up with gritted teeth.
"Kidding! Kidding!" Mauglie laughed. "But yeah, I'll be racing too, don't worry,"
"Okay, okay," Crusher sighed and nodded. "But it'll be too easy for you,"
"I know, but you know how our family LOVES to race!" Mauglie beamed.
"Oh yeah, we do, don't we?" Crusher let out a laugh. "Anyway, you want to have some chili dogs? I've got a couple in stock,"
"Chili dogs? YESS!" Mauglie cheered. "O haven't had a whole plate full of chili dogs since the twins' birth!"
"Oh, I see-- WAIT, TWINS?!" Crusher looked shocked. "You and Gionite are married?!"
"Bro, I'm 39 now," Mauglie reminded him. "You're 25, Shellfish and Sunshine are 40, and Sauron's 42. We're all practically adults,"
"Wow… you have twins…" Crusher still looked amazed. "What are their names…?"
"A girl named Mellow and a boy named Finn," Mauglie sighed with a smile. "Sauron's got three kids with Mercury; a boy named Saturn, a second one named Mars, and the youngest girl named Venus,"
"What about Shelly and Sunny?"
"Cute wild girls named Chica and Chaca from Sunny, and an adorable yet serious boy named Flint Shin from Shelly," Mauglie replied. "They're all almost teens by now, actually, but still as cute as possible,"
"Wow… your lives are so amazing…" Crusher let out a sigh. "Lucky…"
"Hey," Mauglie frowned and wrapped a tire around him. "Hey, hey. I never said that we never missed you. We live separately now, but we still meet up with Mom and Dad and reminisce the times when you were still there. We missed you so much, Shady…"
"And I… I missed you all so much…" Crusher began to sob as he hugged the other close.
From the doorway, Pickle watched as the brothers embraced each other. He sighed and turned away to give them some privacy.
X
X
{Next Day}
"And welcome to the Monster Dome!" Crusher introduced as they drove inside the huge place.
"WOW! This place is amazing!" Mauglie let out a laugh. "And are those the race tracks? They're awesome and ready to race on!"
"Yep! And those are the racing pits!" Pickle pointed to the pit row just nearby. "That's where the racers stay in before a race starts!"
"Cool!" Mauglie grinned. "Do YOU have one, baby bro?"
"Yeah, I do, but it's a mess," Crusher chuckled.
"Ha ha, of course it is!" Mauglie laughed again. "Just like Sauron's, Sunny's, Mom's… basically half of the family!"
"More like 4/7 of the family, buy yeah, I see your point," Crusher giggled.
"Now, where are those other racing rivals that I should beat?" Mauglie grinned.
"Yee-haw!"
"That sounds like one of them," Crusher sighed and turned to Gabby's pit to see the young mechanic fixing up Watts and Starla. "Make it TWO of them. Starla the cowgirl truck and Watts the truck with the electric tires,"
"Isn't that cheating too?" Mauglie asked. "Electric tires could make any truck go fast,"
"Beats me," Crusher shrugged.
"Rawrr!"
The group turned to see Stripes, Darington and Zeg drive up to the girls to meet up with them. Crusher sighed.
"And that's Stripes the tiger truck, Darington the stunt truck and Zeg the dinosaur truck,"
"Dinosaur? Like Chomps?" Mauglie's eyebrows shot up. "And Stripes? Like our Uncle Stripes?"
"Honestly? No and I have no clue," Crusher blinked. "I just realized that he had the same name as Uncle Stripes…"
Suddenly, a familiar horn echoed through the place, and they turned to see Blaze zooming towards the group with AJ on his back. Crusher sighed.
"And that's Blaze and AJ, my rivals,"
"Ah, I see why you 'hate' them, now," Mauglie chuckled. "The human kid… still a trauma with Towers, huh?"
Crusher glanced down and nodded, a little embarrassed. Mauglie sighed and patted his back.
"Nothing to be ashamed about, baby bro,"
"We have uncles and a bunch of cousins that are also humans, Maug," Crusher pointed out.
"Yes, but the trauma is still there," Mauglie shrugged before he smirked. "You sure you don't wanna ask the red one out, tho?"
"NO!"
Pickle giggled and zoomed over to the racers, dragging the brothers behind him as they came to a stop in front of the mechanic's pit.
"Hey, guys!"
"Hey, Pickle! Hey, Crusher!" Blaze greeted, as did everyone else before the red truck turned to the other truck. "Oh! And hello, newcomer! Who's this, guys?"
"Mauglie," the ebony black truck proudly introduced himself. "One of the fastest racers to have ever lived,"
Crusher chuckled and rolled his eyes at the statement. Everyone else looked surprised.
"Well, Blaze here is the fastest racer in the world!" Darington spoke.
"Okay, guys, let's not have a bragging contest," Blaze told them, driving forward. "Hi, Mauglie, I'm—"
"Yes, yes, you're name is Blaze, I know," Mauglie yawned, wrapping an tire around the dark blue truck. "Baby bro here just told me all of your names,"
"YOU'RE Crusher's older brother?" Stripes stared at him in disbelief.
"That explains the bragging," Starla muttered.
"Oh, but he's not kidding," Crusher smirked. "There's no one faster than MY brother! Well, except maybe for Mom and Dad, and maybe Sauron, but among all of you, HE'S the fastest!"
"Hey! I'm faster than that goodie-goodie big bro of ours!" Mauglie defended. "I can win this race easy!"
"Without cheating, hopefully," Watts murmured.
Mauglie overheard her and chuckled at her attempt to hide her opinion. Quick as a flash, he dashed to get some popcorn and dashed back to the group, whose jaws dropped in shock.
"As you can see, I don't need to cheat when I go so fast already," the ebony black truck grinned.
"Woah! Mauglie REALLY fast!" Zeg gasped.
"Yep!" Mauglie laughed.
"Hey, Crusher, why don't YOU go as fast, so you don't have to cheat?" Stripes wondered.
"I… have reasons…" Crusher turned away.
Mauglie noticed this and frowned before smiling. He handed the popcorn to his little brother and turned.
"Now, come on, you slowpokes! The race isn't gonna start itself, you know!"
Crusher smiled and munched on some popcorn before handing it to Pickle. They all lined up at the starting line as Bump Bumperman headed over to start the race.
"On your mark!"
Mauglie revved his engine for the first time as he grinned at his brother, who returned the grin.
"Get set!"
Mauglie narrowed his eyes at the track. This was gonna be too easy.
"GO!"
As soon as the light flashed green, Mauglie took off at super speed. He sped through the tracks and loops, and in no time, he made it to the finish line.
"And the winner is… Mauglie!" Bump announced. "And in the fastest time of… 1 minute!"
"That's my brother!" Crusher laughed as they all raced for second place.
Unfortunately, Blaze reached the finish line before him, causing him to sigh and take third place instead. Mauglie took the trophy and ruffled his brother's head.
"Nice try, baby bro," he told him.
"That was so amazing!" Blaze cried as he and AJ drove to the ebony black truck. "That was the fastest race I've ever seen!"
"Yeah!" AJ agreed. "How did you go that fast?!"
"Runs in the family," Mauglie grinned and patted his brother. "Little Crushy here just needs some help… speeding up,"
"Maug…" Crusher felt himself blush as he turned away.
"Come on, bro, next race, I'll help you out," Mauglie said before turning. "For now, Iet's go get some more popcorn!"
"You've got an amazing brother, Crusher," Blaze commented as the ebony black truck drove off.
Crusher glanced at him with a raised eyebrow. "Huh, is it only my family that's cool?"
"W-Well, I never said that you weren't!" Blaze gulped and felt himself heat up.
"You… think that I'm… cool?" Crusher stared at him in surprise.
"He does," AJ smirked.
"I… uh…" Blaze found himself stammering for a response. "W-Well, I--"
"Come on, little bro, popcorn!" Mauglie grinned but pulled on his brother using a tow hook before dragging him off.