Velocity
Chapter 5: Mad Scientist
"Just where the hell are we going again, Misty?" Misty sighed as she shifted, staying behind the dark brown car in them. "I asked you a question."
"For the last time, we're going to the Lab. It's a ways out, and we're not even at the halfway point yet. Just shut up and enjoy the ride." Ash rolled his eyes at her remark and looked back into the backseat. Pikachu was curled up in a ball in the seat, sleeping quietly.
"You know, being so irritable is very unbecoming of a lady. I'm still amazed at myself for even letting you touch my steering wheel. For all I know, you could knock me out and leave me out here on the highway."
"Yeah well, if I wanted to steal your car, I would have done it a long time ago. And letting me drive your car is the least you can do after wrecking my bike. I still want my damn money, Ketchum." Ash grumbled and turned his head towards the dimming sky through the window. "Yeah, I knew that would shut you up."
"Ash, wake up." Ash mumbled and turned over, trying to make the best out his small car seat. "Dammit Ash, wake your lazy ass up!" Misty screamed into his ear. Ash yelled as he jumped up in his seat and tossed a glare at Misty.
"What the hell is your problem!" Misty sighed and climbed out of the car, slamming the door shut. Ash could hear Pikachu yawning and stretching behind him as he began to climb out of his own seat and looked at the huge city around them. Skyscrapers littered the sky; thousands of electronic lights illuminated the night around them.
Pikachu slowly crawled out of the car again and yawned, smacking its mouth loudly. "Where are we?" Brock appeared out of his own vehicle and smiled at him.
"We're in Goldenrod."
"Goldenrod! How did we get all the way here! That's almost a twelve hour drive!" Brock chuckled and leaned against his car.
"Not if you drive to Viridian and take the ferry. It cuts down the time to three hours. But don't worry about that; we're here." Ash stared at Brock as if he were crazy.
"And just where exactly is here?" he questioned. Brock pointed behind him at a large building, lights flashed brightly inside as if someone had placed a pulse light on the interior of the building.
"It's the Lab. Come on, I want you to meet somebody," he said as he turned and walked inside leaving Ash outside with Pikachu. Ash glanced at Pikachu and shrugged before following Brock and opening the door. Almost instantly, a barrage of impulses overrode his senses.
The thick smell of grease and gasoline hung in the air like a veil as he walked inside. Ash was surprised; inside of the building was a huge garage. Car parts and tools littered the floor; at least three or four cars were elevated high off of the ground on lifts. A small purple Aipom skittered past him and Pikachu, carrying parts in its arms and a large wrench in its tail, which was shaped like a large hand. The entire shop was filled various pokemon doing work on the vehicles. The song "Dare" by the Gorillaz drifted throughout the garage, despite almost being drowned out by a loud hissing sound.
Brock and Misty stood by a large counter, its surface cluttered with papers and other various objects. "This is the Lab? Funny, I was expecting something...that actually has something to do with a laboratory," Ash commented as he swept his eyes over the place.
Brock chuckled and leaned over the table towards a figure that was crouched under a car, sparks flying from the frame as his blowtorch collided with it. "Hey Max, you do know you have company, right!" he yelled at him.
The blowtorch promptly went out as he walked over to them and pulled the huge visor up from his face. Max's face was lean and dirty, proportionate to his small frame. "Hey Brock, what's up?" His face suddenly fell as he adjusted the glasses over his eyes, barely able to hang on from the sweat and grease that covered his face. "Please don't tell me your clutch broke again, dude. I just fixed it two weeks ago. I told to go easy on all the drifting; this isn't friggin' Tokyo."
Max's eyes suddenly lit up at the sight of Misty as he grinned and leaned against the counter. "Well, hello beautiful. What brings you around these parts?" Misty rolled her eyes and pointed at Ash. Max raised an eyebrow at Ash and tossed his thumb at him.
"Who's this guy?" Brock smiled and pushed Ash closer to the counter.
"This is Ash and he's bound to be the new sensation in Kanto. Kid's got some real skills; I've seen 'em first hand." Misty scoffed and rolled her eyes. Brock ignored her and went on. "Unfortunately, his car can't really match up to his skill, so we're here to see what you can do."
Max looked at Brock for a moment before taking off his visor and setting it on the counter. "Ok, what kinda cash flow and time frame am I looking at here?"
"About twelve grand and five hours; give or take thirty minutes." Max rubbed his chin as if he were deep in thought, and then finally grinned.
"Alrighty, I'll see what I can whip up. What's the model and year?" he asked Ash. Ash looked back at him with a confused look on his face.
"Huh?" Max let out an exasperated sigh and ran a hand through his short black hair.
"The car, dude! What year and model is it!"
"Oh, well it's a 2005 Silph Dodrio."
"Silph, huh? Well alright, roll it on in here." Brock grinned as he began to walk outside.
"Hey Max, is May around?" Max gave him a dirty look and pulled the visor back over his head.
"No, thank god. She's out. You keep asking me and I'm gonna have a restraining order put out on you."
"So what made you start racing, dude?" Max's voice snapped Ash out of his thoughts. Ash cleared a spot on the counter and hopped up on it; Brock and Misty had left him there, claiming he could "learn" something.
"Well, it was kind of an accident, really. I had revved up my engine and he thought I had challenged him. Somehow I ended up racing him, and he invited me down to the piers. I'm still kinda new to this racing thing."
Max looked up from the hood and chuckled. "Yeah, everyone's always overwhelmed their first time." The sound of a ratchet clicking echoed, lost in the commotion of the other pokemon doing their duties on the other vehicles. "Hey Charmander, you done welding that roll cage together?" A small red lizard appeared from behind a car and nodded.
"Good. You and Machop get over here and rip out this old exhaust. I don't wanna take all day installing the new one." Ash was surprised at the efficiency at which the pokemon did their jobs. He scratched Pikachu's ears and smiled.
"How'd you get all of these pokemon to work in here anyway, Max?" Max chuckled and walked over to a nearby computer, tapping a few keys and connecting a long cord to it.
"Well," he said as he dragged the cord to Ash's car and connected to something beneath the hood, "a lot of these pokemon were abandoned by their owners; they thought they were too weak or something. So I made an arrangement with the local Pokemon Center that if any strays or abandoned pokemon were left there, I would give them a home here."
He tossed his thumb at a small Squirtle; that oddly enough, was wearing a large pair of black sunglasses. "That Squirtle over there came here with a huge crowd of other Squirtles. He's got a lot of attitude, but he does a good job of keeping the shop clean. Hey Porygon!" he yelled at the computer he had just connected the cord to.
To Ash's surprise, the computer clicked on and an image of whitish creature adorned the screen. "I need you to start upgrading this onboard computer; I can't replace all these parts and not have the computer not recognize them." The computer answered in a series of beeps, causing Max to roll his eyes.
"Hey, Max, lemme ask you a question," Ash said as he fiddled with some of the things on the table. Max turned his head back to the hood and began working again.
"Shoot."
"Who's Ivy?" Without warning, Max burst out laughing and almost hit his head on the hood above him. After a few moments, Max composed himself and glanced back at Ash.
"It's kind of a long story. Sure you wanna hear it?" Ash shrugged.
"Ain't like I got anyplace to go." Max chuckled and lied down on a roller and wheeled himself under the car.
"Well, a couple of years ago, we were all out at the Piers racing; just screwing around and having a good time. Then out of nowhere, this purple Shinobu Sidewinder comes around and out steps this nice piece of ass. I mean she had it all; nice body, pretty face, and these gigantic ti-," he explained before Ash cut him off.
"Uh, can you get back to the story please?"
"My bad. You haven't known Brock long enough yet, but you'll soon learn that he hits on almost anything that walks, which is a prime reason why I wouldn't let him touch my sister with a ten foot pole. Anyways, he tries his usual sorry lines on her, and to my surprise, it actually seemed like she was actually falling for 'em. I couldn't friggin' believe it.
Then out of nowhere, she comes up with this bet. They'll race; nothing fancy, just a quarter drag. If he wins, she'll go home with him. If she wins, she gets to go him with his ride. Now, if she wasn't so hot, he probably wouldn't have even considered something crazy like that. But you have to understand; no one and I mean no one would pass any chance to spend the night with her, no matter how slim and far-off it was. Hell, I would've sold my shop just for a night with her."
Ash shook his head and chuckled. "So what did he do?"
"He raced her, of course. Poor guy never stood a friggin' chance. She dusted his ass by at least two to three seconds and she drove home with his car. Ol' Brickhead had to walk home to his house which was thirty miles away at three o'clock in the morning. It was probably the most humiliating thing I had ever seen in my entire life, but like I said; if I had his chance to spend the night with a woman like that, I probably would have done the same thing," Max finished from under the car.
Ash started laughing out loud himself from hearing that story; he honestly could see Brock acting like that. No wonder he had shut up after Misty mentioned her, he thought to himself. "So wait a second, if he hits on every girl he sees, how come he hasn't hit on Misty yet?"
"Oh, he has; but Misty put an end to that crap real quick." Max rolled out from under the car for a moment and shook his head. "And don't you think of trying to pull any moves on her either, dude."
"What, you trying to protect her or something?" Max shook his head again.
"Nope, I'm protecting you. Misty isn't exactly what you'd call 'girlfriend' material. She's broken a lot of hearts since she's started racing. Almost as bad as Venom in that area," he remarked before rolling back under the car. "She's a beautiful girl, no doubt; but she'll take your heart, throw it into a blender and hit liquefy. Then she'll smile at you while she drinks that crap. Besides, she's too wild and only one guy's been able to tame her."
"Oh? And who's that?"
"This guy named Livewire. You remind me of him a lot. That's probably why Misty treats you like that; you remind her of him too. Those two were in love pretty deep, and then boom. It's all over like that," he said as he snapped his fingers to drive home his point. "There we go." He rolled out from under the car and wiped his grease covered hands on a towel and tossed Ash the keys.
"You're done?" Max nodded and tossed the towel on the counter and hopped up next to Ash.
"Pretty much, I'm done with all of the guts of the car anyway. Machoke should be here any sec to go take it to get all the cosmetics done to it." Almost on cue, a huge gray pokemon came from the back of the shop and walked over to the car, gripping the underside of it.
"Hey, be gentle with that, got it?" He turned to Ash and Pikachu and grinned. "Give him a special one, something that's got something to do with thunder or something. And get rid of the yellow. It's just...blegh," he commented as the pokemon lifted the vehicle with almost no effort and carried it to the back of the shop.
"I liked that yellow." Max chuckled.
"You know dude, I like you a lot. You're probably the first person I've been able to carry a decent conversation with in a long time. You're cool, so I wanna give you something that I've been working on for a while." Ash raised his eyebrow, puzzled.
"What kind of something?"
"It's an upgrade to your ride; I've been working on it for a while. You just gotta do one thing for me." Ash scoffed; he knew there was some kind of catch. "I want you to take my sister out on a date."
"Excuse me?" Max raised his hands in defense and shook his head.
"I'm not expecting you to do anything fancy, just a dinner and a movie or something. All she seems to do is come here and bother me all day, and I have work to do. You got a cell phone, right?"
Ash nodded and pulled his small flip phone out from his pocket. Max quickly jotted down the number on a scrap of paper and sat behind them on the counter. "She'll probably be here tomorrow, so expect a call around that time, ok?" Ash nodded and stuck the phone back into his pocket before clearing his throat.
"So, do you race, Max?" Max scoffed and looked up towards the ceiling.
"I did, but I wasn't too good. That was before I realized my theory was right."
"What theory?"
"Well, it's like this. You see; a car and its driver have a sort of symbiotic relationship. You can have the greatest car in the world, but if you have a shitty driver, that car's not gonna win. It's the same way around too; you have a world-class racer, but if he's racing with a piece of junk, he's not gonna cross the line first unless Jesus himself came down and blew all of the other cars up. But, if you happen to find that rare occasion where a car and its driver are in perfect harmony, that's a beautiful thing. I've only seen it once, and I've never seen anything more beautiful in my entire life."
"Who was that?" Ash inquired. Max chuckled.
"It was about four or five years ago...and it was the only time I ever got to see Hyperspace race." Ash snickered and started to laugh.
"Hyperspace? God, that's a horrible name." Max rolled his eyes and continued.
"Laugh all you want, but this guy had to be the best racer in history. And not just street racing; I mean if this guy and his car were to enter NASCAR or the F1 circuit, they would totally dominate. Hands down, bar none, period, end of story. I've never seen anyone race like he and his car did. It was like poetry." Max glanced at his watch. "Well, they should be done by now."
Ash looked at him with a confused look. "Already? But he just took the car back there like twenty minutes ago." Max grinned and motioned for him to follow him to the back of the shop.
"What can I say, Ash? We work pretty damn fast." Ash quickly jumped down off of the counter and followed him, Pikachu riding on his shoulder. Ash turned the corner to where his car was supposed to be and stopped dead in his tracks. He couldn't even recognize his car anymore.
It was no longer a bright yellow, but a deep, dark blue metallic paint that glinted and sparkled in the light of the paint room. They had added a wicked looking body kit, complete with front bumper, side skirts, and rear bumper work. Worked into the blue paint were airbrushed pictures of lightning bolts and storm clouds all over the body. He glanced down and noticed that they even airbrushed his glittering blue wheels.
As he moved on down the car, he glanced inside and his eyes opened wide at the navy blue and black interior; they had completely reworked his seats, his stereo; hell, they even changed his pedals and shift stick for him. Underneath the side skirts was an ethereal blue glow emanating from under his car; Ash could hardly keep from smiling. They had added a large spoiler on the back of his car and even added blue lights into his shining chrome exhaust.
"I know the lights are a little much, but I think it ties the car up together nicely. Anyways, I switched out your clutch and the flywheels. Took out your old brakes and replaced them with some stronger racing versions. Upgraded your exhaust, gave you some better fuel injectors, and threw in a short shifter kit. I would have added a turbocharger and such to the engine, but I didn't have enough time to. Gave you a new ECU chip and replaced the wheels with some lighter aluminum versions. Did a whole weight reduction setup and gave you some better tires so you hear that beautiful squeal when you go flying around a corner. Spark plugs are replaced, changed out your battery and I even threw in some scissor doors just for the hell of it. It's not much, but I did what I could in the time I had. So what do you think?"
Ash was speechless as he ran his hand over the car and marveled at the sheer amount of work and craftsmanship. "I...I love it, Max. This is so awesome; I can just feel the speed pouring outta this thing."
"Well, don't expect too much out of it. I wasn't able to make a dramatic jump in horsepower in such a small time window; it's mostly just tweaks and little improvements here and there to the existing tech. Next time you come by, I'll do some serious work on the engine and transmission. That's when this thing'll turn into a beast and you can smoke anyone who steps up."
The sound of the front door opening and the voices of Brock and Misty drifted back into the room where Ash and the car were standing. "We're back here," he called out as Ash pulled on the car door and to his surprise, instead of the door opening outwards, they slid upwards. "Holy shit, these are Lamborghini doors!" Ash exclaimed as he jumped into the car and pulled the door down.
Brock whistled loudly as he walked into the room and caught sight of the car. "Damn Max, I knew you were good...but Jesus. This is amazing. How the hell did you do it so fast?" Max grinned as Misty came in and also stopped in surprise of the vehicle.
"Well, Scizor and lot of my other fast pokemon switched out a lot of parts. Smeargle can paint almost anything in a time span of ten minutes. Of course, it's not like I did anything dramatic to the car...yet."
Suddenly, a shrill ringing interrupted Max as Brock pulled out his cell phone and nodded for a moment. Clicking the phone off and placing it back in his pocket, he grinned at Ash.
"Well, Max it was cool being down here, but we gotta head back to Cerulean. Ash has got some racing to do." Pikachu chirped loudly and jumped through the open window into the car, ready to go.
"Thanks again, Max. I'll come pay you soon."
"You better. Knock 'em dead, Ash. Remember what I told you." Ash nodded as Misty climbed into the car and pulled on her seatbelt. "See ya round, beautiful." Misty rolled her eyes as Ash turned the ignition and brought the car to life, the engine giving off a loud whine.
Soon, they were back on the road, and Ash laughed loudly as he gunned the accelerator and sped down the highway, Brock following close behind.