Disclaimer: Obviously, I don't own the Teen Titans… As a matter of fact, I don't own very much at all…Oh well…
Gunsmoke and Black Roses—Chapter Twelve
Cyborg was worried. For a while now, there had been a lot of… strange noise… coming from the garage. He wasn't so much worried about the garage as he was worried about his car. He hoped Smoke was being careful down there, whatever he was doing.
Smoke must've been working on something, something big, because when Cy had gone down to investigate the sounds, he'd found a makeshift cardboard sign with red, spray painted words, "Very Busy Right Now… Please Do Not Disturb".
The other Titans were a bit worried by the fact that Smoke had skipped several meals recently… although the noises coming from within the garage let them know he was still alive and kicking.
Come to think of it… The last time Cyborg had seen Smoke, he'd been carrying numerous, large bags full of what looked like paint cans and spare parts… and then, he'd seen him rolling some huge tires into the garage… What was he doing in there?
"He said he was gonna make some tune-ups on that humvee, but… what kinda tune-ups was he talkin' about…?" Cy muttered curiously to himself.
Cy looked curiously at the sign on the garage door for a moment, before sighing, shrugging, and turning to walk off… until…
"…Hey….Hey, Cy…"
Cyborg stopped dead in his tracks, and turned to see none other than the gunman himself poking his head out of the entranceway…
"It's about time, man! Do you know everybody's been worried 'bout you in there? What've you been—"
Smoke held up a hand to silence him and gave an apologetic grin. "I know, I know. I've been trying to keep this under wraps… but now that I'm done… I'll show you what I've been doing in here…"
With a Cheshire cat grin, he motioned for Cyborg to follow and went back in. Cy glanced warily at the entrance for a moment… before following slowly, bracing himself for any damage that might have been inflicted on his precious T-Car.
Once in, Cyborg's eyes immediately drifted to said car, and he was immensely relieved to see it in perfectly good condition. He let out a soft "Phew!", and Smoke looked at him in amusement.
"What? Worried I'd blow up your car?" He teased, but in a very chummy way.
"Well, no….but…" Cy seemed unable to explain, and felt a little guilty for having doubted Smoke's responsibility.
"Don't worry about it…" Smoke said waving his hand. "I wouldn't have trusted me either."
Cy looked around… he could've sworn that something was… missing. After a moment, he realized what it was.
"Yo, Smoke… where's your truck at?" He asked curiously.
Grinning even wider, with a strangely manic gleam in his eyes, Smoke pointed over to the far left corner of the garage, where a large… actually, an utterly massive lump sat under a camouflage-painted leather tarp. From the looks of it, whatever was under that tarp was about… 12 feet tall…
Striding up with a soft 'click' of cowboy boots on metallic flooring, Smoke approached the object and carefully took a corner of the tarp in both hands. "Okay… 3… 2… 1…" Smoke counted under his breath. Then, with a soft grunt, he gave a mighty yank that pulled the tarp from the concealed mass.
For a few brief moments, all Cyborg could see was a rippling mass of camouflage as the tarp flew away from whatever it had been hiding. When this cleared, he looked back… and gasped sharply.
In front of him stood Smoke's truck… a very tricked out truck.
No longer the drab, militaristic camo color, it was painted jet black, with a pattern of fiercely burning red, yellow, and orange flames on the hood and the back. A pair of broad, gray, racing stripes ran all the way down both sides of the giant auto in a straight line.
A long antenna protruded from the hood, with a large, decorative, antennae cover shaped like a bomb with a fuse, with a fanged smiley face on it. Furthermore, Smoke had customized the hood in such a way that the engine stuck up from an opening in the hood slightly. Also, a pair of neon green fuzzy dice hung from the rear view mirror.
The revamped army truck's tires were huge… large enough to literally roll over just about anything else on the road. A long row of spotlights was mounted on the top, near the front. Large, polished exhaust pipes jutted out from the back of the truck, and slashed upward at a sharp angle.
Various stickers were placed on several locations, carrying slogans such as 'I don't call 911! (complete with a pistol logo in the background)', 'Get in, shut up, and hang on!', and the largest of all, saying, 'Give a man a bullet, and he'll want a gun. Give a man a gun, and he'll give away the bullets.'
Last, but not least, the license plate on the rear of the truck read: 'MY TANK'
As Cyborg stood and stared in awe, the drool almost dripping from his slack-jawed mouth, Smoke crossed his arms and leaned on one of the truck's titanic tires with a pleased smirk.
"Well, sorry Cy old bud… but I think I just out-pimped your ride!"
Finding his voice, Cy managed to snap out of his trance. "Holy… " He still seemed at a lost for words, though. "Smoke, you… you… built this?"
"Yeah!" The young gunman declared proudly. "Of course, after tonight I'm gonna replace the tires with normal sized ones…."
"But… What's tonight?" Cyborg asked with mixed confusion and curiosity.
Smoke's grin faded somewhat, and he instead got a very suspicious sort of look on his face, as though he were hiding a conspiracy. "…Can you keep a secret, Cy?" He asked softly after a moment.
Cyborg's one organic eye blinked bemusedly, and he shrugged. "Uh… Sure. I don't see why not…"
Smoke reached into the pocket on his leather jacket, and pulled out a rolled up piece of paper. He slowly and carefully unfurled it, and tossed it to Cy, who caught it easily and held it up to look at it.
It was the poster for the Monster Truck Rally.
"That, my mechanical compadre, is my date location for tonight…"
Cy looked at him with something close to a grin. "Wait… Date?" Smoke nodded. "Heh… Smooth one Romeo… So, if I may be so bold, who's the lucky girl?" The bionic teen asked teasingly.
Smoke's smile seemed to dampen somewhat, and he blushed heavily. After darting his eyes around nervously for a moment, he walked up to Cy and leaned up to whisper something into his ear. Cy's one good eye nearly bugged out of his head.
"Dude… You got a date with Blackfire?" He demanded incredulously. Smoke tapped his index fingers together nervously and nodded with a blush.
Cy was not sure what to say… on one hand, he wanted to congratulate Smoke, but on the other hand, he feared for his friends safety should his piss Blackfire off…
"Uh… Well… Good luck with that, dawg." He said simply after a minute.
"Thanks…" Smoke said with a sigh. Then, he suddenly brightened up somewhat. "Oh, and by the way… just in case anything happens, I like to be prepared, so… I installed some…" Smoke paused in search of the appropriate words. "… 'Just-In-Case' features…"
"Just in Case, features…?" Cy repeated, puzzled.
Smoke smiled, and pulled the keys out of his jacket pocket. He pressed a small, red button with a biohazard logo…
Instantly, there came a loud, grating, shrill cranking from the huge vehicle. The Top of the truck slowly began sliding apart, revealing something concealed within the roof…
A thirteen-foot long gun mounted on top…
Cy stared in surprise while Smoke dashed over and leaped on top of the truck. He grinned and patted the top of the gun affectionately.
"This…" He explained. "Is a 2 gauge punt gun… y'know, like a giant shotgun? And just in case anybody decides to make trouble… this'll stop 'em. I configured it to where it shoots a giant steel slug that's basically like a mini tank shell…"
Smoke turned to his stunned friend with misty eyes and uttered one simple sentence…
"Man… I've outdone myself, doncha think?"
Cy grinned. "Think? Bro, I know. No offense, but… unless you're counting on getting attacked by some kind of dinosaur… that much firepower might be a bit…" Cy paused to think. "…Excessive, huh?"
Smoke smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head. "True… but hey, you never know…"
"Well, I'm gonna go tell everybody you're all right. But don't worry… I won't tell 'em about your little 'project'."
"Good… Thanks, Cy."
"No prob."
Smoke glanced back toward his room. "Well… I guess I should be getting ready… It's getting late."
The gunner started towards his room…
"Hey, wait a sec!"
Smoke stopped and turned back towards Cyborg. "Huh?"
"Just outta curiosity… what've you been doin' for meals all this time?"
Smoke grinned bemusedly, and embarrassedly scratched the back of his head. "Well…" Deciding it'd be easier to show him than to tell him, he opened up the door to his room…
… Upon which point a deluge of large, empty, Cheetos bags fell out.
Cy let out a loud sigh, and walked back out, as Smoke proceeded to wade through the sea of cheeto bags to his room.
A Few Hours Later…
Blackfire was looking herself over in the mirror in Star's room. She had opted to borrow one of Star's outfits again, which was much like her own except purple instead of black, and minus the metallic under armor.
Satisfied with her appearance, she started to leave out the door… but when she opened it, she found Smoke standing there with his hand raised as though he'd been about to knock.
"Oh! Sorry, didn't know you were…" Blackfire started to apologize, but stopped short when she got a good look at Smoke. He wore the same clothes as usual, but… she noticed that his brown, spiky hair was not quite as haphazard as usual, and also seemed to possess an extra sheen… like he'd just combed and washed it. Also, she wasn't sure, but… she could've sworn that she detected just a hint of what smelled like cologne…
"Um, I… I didn't know you were out here…" She stuttered. A slight blush spread across her face, and the faint scent of his cologne made her feel… light-headed, for some reason.
"No problem…" He assured with a shrug and a toothy grin. "Say… This may sound last minute, but… would you mind riding with Cy to the stadium? In his car? I would take you, but… I had some… business come up so I might be a tad bit late getting there, and I wouldn't want you missing anything."
Blackfire took a moment to digest all this information. After a few moments, she nodded. "Sure… that sounds fine, I guess." She wondered what he meant by 'business', but decided not to ask.
"Great! Don't worry, I'll catch up…"
And with that, he was gone, just as quickly as he had entered.
Blackfire glanced nervously at the clock on the wall. "Well… Guess I better go find Cyborg…" She muttered. She still wondered, though… what kind of business had Smoke been talking about? She just couldn't shake the feeling that Smoke had something else up his leathery sleeve…
An Hour Later, At The Jump City Stadium…
Blackfire turned around one last time to thank Cyborg for giving her a ride… seeing as how it was so last minute. He just nodded and drove back off. Blackfire didn't realize it, but Smoke and Cyborg had already planned this out ahead of time…
Taking a quick glance at her ticket, Blackfire walked up to the entrance to the stadium. She stared at the huge, arched entranceway, impressed by both it's size and architecture. She didn't know that Earth had stuff like this.
The stadium itself was a gigantic, dome-shaped building with an open top. Large spotlight posts and loudspeakers covered every inch of the top edges. There was no telling how many scores of people it could seat, but tonight it was absolutely packed.
"Excuse me…" Blackfire approached a worker. "But… which seat is this?" She handed him the ticket to look at.
"Hmm… A45… That'll be the front row, 45th seat down." The worker said, pointing down to an empty seat on the front row.
'…Front row? Wow… I didn't know Smoke gave me a front row seat… I wonder where his seat is?" She thought. She had kind of hoped that he'd be sitting next to her…
Instantly, Blackfire stopped dead in her tracks as if stunned. 'What did I just think…?' She demanded mentally. She'd… thought she hoped he'd sit next to her.
Why did she think that…? She wasn't even sure. Although… It would've been nice to sit next to him. After all, he… he wasn't bad looking. And he'd asked her on a date, hadn't he? So, was it really so odd for her to think things like that?
Shaking her head and attempting to clear her thoughts, Blackfire made her way down to the seat and sat down… It would be starting soon, and she didn't want to miss an instant.
Meanwhile…
"Excuse me, Miss…" Smoke approached a clerk working at the registration booth. "But, I'm here to register for the show, if there's any room left…"
The girl took a clipboard from under the counter, and read down the list carefully.
"Well…" She said softly after a second. "… Actually, it seems that we've still got one empty spot left. Are you interested in competing?"
"Yep! S'what I came here for!"
The girl looked at him doubtfully. "Do you have an appropriate vehicle?"
"If by 'appropriate', you mean a souped up truck with giant tires and an engine powerful enough to tow the Titanic… then yes'm, I'm set."
She looked at him oddly for a moment before shrugging and grabbing a ballpoint pen out of her pocket. "Okay… your name, please?"
"Smoke." She looked at him funny again. "Sounds odd, I know… but seriously, that's my name… don't have a last name, just… Smoke."
"Your address?"
"Well, uh… you know the giant building shaped like a 'T'….?"
"Titan's Tower?"
"Yeah… I'm staying with them right now."
Once again, the clerk looked doubtful, but decided not to ask. "Finally… what's your vehicle's alias?"
"Er… Alias?"
"You know… all the constestant's vehicles have names like, 'Samson', or 'Bigfoot', or 'Grave Digger'… what's yours?"
Smoke looked deep in thought for a moment… he hadn't counted on this. He had to think up a name, and quickly… preferably a cool one, but…
Suddenly, He had an idea.
"Just put down… Desperado."
While all this was going on, Blackfire was still waiting for the show to start, trying her best not to lose her hearing due to the noise all around her. However, everyone went silent all at once when the loudspeakers flared to life.
"Hello, Jump City! And welcome to the Seventeenth Annual Metallic Madness Monster Truck Rally!" The announcer shouted enthusiastically, eliciting a deafening roar from the frenzied crowd. "Tonight, We'll be having every professional Monster Truck in the business… legends whom need no introduction. However… Tonight is a special night, in the fact that special challengers have also been recruited! So, without further adieu, I will introduce our amateur truckers!"
Huge garage type doors began cranking open on the far side of the stadium, underneath the press box. It was dimmed heavily in there; it was difficult to tell what was inside…
Suddenly, the audience heard the sound of an enormous engine cranking from within. A moment later, a huge truck came roaring out, huge tires kicking up blinding clouds of dust. It looked like a giant pickup truck, except that it was deep green all over, except for the hood and small areas above the tires that seemed to be covered in some kind of transparent material that revealed silvery circuitry underneath… very hi-tech looking. A large flag on the antennae bore a logo with the letters, 'G' and 'M' on either side.
"Our first contestant tonight is actually a team… that's right, this dynamic duo may just have the talent to take down even the pros! They're mind! They're muscle! They're both rolled into one! Allow me to introduce… Gizmo Giovanni, and Mammoth Mascaras… Along with their truck, The Stinger!"
(A/N: Not sure if those are their real last names… but I've seen Giovanni in other fics, and I just pulled Mascaras off the top of my head.)
Sure enough, the two thugs we know and love stepped out of either side of the huge truck and stood on either side. Gizmo floated in midair with his jetpack, rubbing his hands together eagerly, and Mammoth just stood hunched over cracking his knuckles.
They got back in after a couple minutes of applause from the crowd, and drove over to the other side of the stadium, where they parked.
Another minute passed, and another engine roared to life from within the dark confines of the garage… possibly even louder than the first.
Without warning, another truck pulled out of the garage… one that looked like an old, scrapped eighteen-wheeler that someone good with mechanics had cobbled back together and souped up. Large tires all the way down from the cab to the trailer spun wildly, and the massive truck parked in the center of the stadium… right before letting out an impossibly loud and echoing honk from it's horn, and bellowing smoke from it's dual exhaust pipes.
The cab had been painted black with a skull-and-crossbones design on it, flanked on both sides by the letters 'J.R.'. The huge trailer had graffiti painted all the way down the sides in random patterns and loud colors, and the edges of the trailer were adorned with strips of black metal studded with silver spikes.
"Ladies and gentlemen… we have another special treat for you tonight! Street-wise… smart-mouthed… foul-mouthed… mechanic extraordinaire… our next contestant is all this and more. He's rude, he's crude, he's got an attitude longer than the Texas state line… Heeeeere's Johnny! Johnny Rancid, that is, and his homemade monster truck, The Junkyard Undertaker!"
A thuggish looking, tall, muscular teenaged boy with dank gray skin and greasy black hair stepped out of the driver's seat with a swagger. Bowing as the audience applauded some more, he stepped back in after a minute, and cranked the monstrous eighteen-wheeler back up, driving over to where Mammoth and Gizmo had parked.
Finally, there were a couple minutes of excited chatter amongst the crowd. Blackfire sighed worriedly. "Where's Smoke? He's gonna miss it if he doesn't hurry up…" And if he'd missed it when he'd been the one to pay for it anyway, she'd feel pretty damn guilty.
There was another engine noise… but instead of going nuts again…. The crowd went dead silent.
The rumbling that was coming out of the garage… was not like the other two. It sounded like some massive creature opening it's jaws and yawning… It was twice as loud as the other two's had been, and much deeper and more gutteral. After a moment, billowing clouds of smoke began to drift out of the garage.
And then, it was out. It did not hall ass out, as the other two had done… no, instead it took it's sweet time, rolling out lazily, kicking up rocks and dirt. It was Smoke's truck, flame paint job, fuzzy dice, bumper stickers and all.
"Ladies and Gentlemen… our final contestant tonight… a last minute entry, whom we know little about. A stranger, who emerges from nowhere with ambition to overthrow the Monster Truck world as we know it…"
Blackfire stared at the truck in awe… it was absolutely awesome, even compared to the other two. "Damn! I can't wait to see who drives THAT!" She purred. "Smoke's missing out! If only he could see this…"
"… The only name this mysterious trucker gave us… Smoke."
Blackfire choked on the soda she'd bought from a drink vendor earlier.
"And his tricked out monster… Desperado."
With eyes the size of dinner plates, Blackfire managed to look down at the truck… and saw the door on the driver's side swing slowly open… and a hand wearing a black leather sleeve, that she'd recognize anywhere, opening it up.
And there stood Smoke, in all his glory grinning like a kid in a candy store. He deliberately looked straight up to the front row, right up into Blackfire's eyes… and waved.
If Blackfire hadn't of drank so much soda and had so much sugar in her system, she would've passed out on the spot.
Heheh… Well, that's the end of another Chapter. I hope to update soon, and I promise the next chapter's going to have more action than this one.
By the way… to Slash Dragon, Clone Of Koga (or whoever can answer this question)…
I knew that there was a Mortal Kombat character named Sub-Zero… however, is there ANOTHER one named Smoke? If so, I honestly didn't intend for both my OC's to be named after MK characters… I guess It just turned out that way… I'll have to do some research and make sure the OC in my 3rd Fic doesn't wind up with a MK name…
Oh, and also… Next chapter, I'll be revealing a little bit more about what's been going on in Zero's Island whilst he's been gone… and I'll go ahead and tell you that this is NOT gonna turn out to be the vacation they thought…
Oh yeah… to Metal Overlord: Yeah, Dr. Wheelo WAS sort've the inspiration I got the idea for Myntull from… as for the name 'Myntull', it's a play off of the word 'Mental'.
Anywho… Read and Review!
--The Mad Phantom…
