Hey you guys...

How are y'all doing out there?
I hope you're all safe and healthy in these crazy times.
My thoughts are with you all.

So, thanks for all the reviews, it really means the world, I just can't say it enough.
It creates a feeling of togetherness, which warms my heart.
Thank you for that.
For supporting me.
For sharing this adventure with me.

When I started writing, now almost two and a half years ago, I never thought I would reach this point, to be part of this small community that is now an important part of my life.
Thank you for being part of that, too.
I can't even begin to explain how much it means, and I won't even try because I don't wanna bore you with all the details about how messed up my life is right now.
As long as you know that this, all this, helps a lot.
THANK YOU!

Aaaaaaaaanyway, enough with the sentimental jibber-jabber.
On with the story!
Enjoy and feel free to leave a review once you're done. :)

Stay safe out there, everyone.
It's a mad world.

Later dudes!

Chapter 25

Again, Throttle woke up with a startle, but this time it wasn't because of nightmares, a thing he was grateful for.
He wasn't entirely sure what it was that woke him this brutally, but what amazed him the most was the fact that he'd managed to fall asleep in the first place, especially after seeing what he had seen on that rooftop.
Perhaps he had reached his limits.
Because from the moment he saw that he'd lost Charley forever, his mind had just shut down.
As if it was in shock or something like that.
He felt dazed ever since.
Numb.
Flat.
Empty.

Slowly, he got upright and rubbed his face before putting on his glasses.
From the moment his vision became sharp, his eyes immediately darted to Charley, he just couldn't help himself.
This attraction to her was simply impossible to ignore, no matter the status of their current relationship and his face softened as he watched her.
She looked so peaceful as she lay there, almost completely hidden underneath the thin blanket that was supposed to protect her from the cold at night but clearly hadn't been enough, seeing the way her fingers frantically held it on its place.
Except for that small detail, she was completely relaxed, that awful frown nowhere to be found and the tan-furred mouse heaved a sigh as his gaze wandered further and landed on his white-furred bro, who lay only a few feet away from this human creature that was the cause of their disturbed relationship.

He always thought that their bond was unbreakable, that nothing could come between them, but the painful truth was that he was wrong.
Very wrong.
The past few days on this weird planet were the proof of that.
And yet, seeing his young and usual restless bro lying on his belly with his head resting on one arm, clearly in a deep slumber, made him feel all warm inside.
Which was very confusing, because wasn't he supposed to feel anger towards him?
Or resentment?
Or perhaps even both?
For taking away -in his opinion- the one and only opportunity to feel some happiness.
To feel wanted.
Loved.
To experience true love, for he now knew that he had no idea what love meant before he met Charley.
And now it was taken away from him before he had the chance to explore this weird yet amazing feeling.
Even worse, it was taken away by his youngest bro, despite his warnings.
Wasn't that supposed to make him feel angry?
Or at least a bit annoyed?
It probably was.

But the thing was, he didn't feel any of that as he watched his bro.
No, all he felt was this warmth inside by seeing the white-furred mouse this quiet.
This peaceful.
Well, perhaps there was a small hint of disappointment.
But that's it.
Life.
It definitely wasn't a straight road.
It had all these unexpected and sharp turns, which made it more than confusing sometimes.
But he knew one thing and that was that all he ever wanted for his bro was to be happy.
To be wanted.
Loved.
After all the shit he had been through, he deserved to be happy.
By the Gods, perhaps no one deserved it more than he did.
He was there, when Harley died.
When she let out her final breath in Vinnie's arms.
That day was burned in his memory and not only because of his own losses, like his eyes, for instance.
Vinnie's pain had been almost too much to bear, that day.
It had gone through the bone, all the way to his heart, making it as cold as ice.

For someone who had vowed to protect the ones he loved from anything that could possibly hurt them, feeling Vinnie's pain had been beyond excruciating.
And not just because he had failed to protect him, but simply because he had been completely powerless.
There was nothing… absolutely nothing that could've either take away the pain or ease it.
His young bro was broken, and he didn't have the tools to fix him.
To make him whole again.
It was the worst feeling he'd ever experienced.
To feel so powerless.
Helpless.
He still was.
Because Vinnie's pain was still there, even though he did everything to cover it up.
To make everyone around him believe that he was okay.
But he wasn't.
Throttle knew he wasn't.
And again, there was nothing he could do about it.

His bionic eyes wandered back to Charley again.
Perhaps she was able to heal his bro.
Because by seeing the calmness Vinnie radiated at the moment, with his usual restlessness vanished into thin air, Throttle knew that what happened last night meant more to the white-furred mouse than just giving in to his… needs.
He just knew it was.
So how could he be angry?
All he ever wanted for his bro was to be happy.
Even if this happiness cost him his own.
It seemed a small price to pay after watching helplessly how Vinnie struggled with his pain, day in, day out.
Deep down he knew it was everything but small, but still, he would pay it.
Without blinking.
Like he always did.
A leader where people could rely on...

Not to mention it had been him who told Charley that they couldn't be together.
So how could he be angry?
That would be nothing more than blaming Vinnie for his own mistakes.
He needed to take responsibility for his actions, no matter how much it pained him.
It was all part of being a leader.
A position which carried a price, the fact if it was small or big left open.
Solitude.
He couldn't afford all this.
All this… drama.
There was too much at stake.
They all counted on him.
Mostly Carbine.
And he…
Well, he simply couldn't let them down.
Let her down.
Life.
It was elusive.
Incomprehensible.
Such a journey...

After one last glance at his young bro, Throttle leaned to his right to search his jacket for the small bottle of eye drops.
He considered himself, at the very least, lucky that Ben had given it to him right after their meeting with Dante, otherwise, he wouldn't be holding it in his leather fingerless gloved hand, given the rush with which they had to leave camp.
A blessing in disguise.
After taking off his glasses, he applied a few drops of the cold and emollient liquid in each eye and relief washed over him when it immediately did what it supposed to do, namely; making him able to blink without that poignant feeling as if his eyes were slowly crumbling into dust.
As he just sat there, his eyes closed, enjoying this moment of enlightenment, he suddenly heard that noise again and his eyes flew open as his ears almost danced in every direction in an attempt to locate the source.
If he had it right, it came from below them and he slowly climbed on his feet as he put on his glasses again, still listening very carefully.
Hm.
It seemed that whatever it was came from outside, which was actually quite reassuring, for it meant that they weren't discovered.
Yet.

Bending through the knees, he snuck towards one of the big windows and peeked over the window sill, his instinct telling him that he needed to stay out of sight as much as possible.
When his gaze landed on the situation outside, his heart skipped a few beats and he now knew why the sound had startled him so much.
Ambush.
Without thinking, he whistled a short melody between his teeth to wake up his beloved bro's.
It was a sign they used for emergencies only, so it wasn't really a surprise that both of them immediately jumped at their feet with Modo already raising his bionic arm and Vinnie holding one of his precious ray guns in his right hand.
"Where's the fire?", the latter asked as he looked around him bewildered, although his voice sounded a bit dazed after this abrupt wake-up call.
"Did you try to cook again?", Modo demanded as he gave Throttle this somehow stern look.
Kind of like the look his father used to give him, back in the days, when he had done something that wasn't allowed.
It wasn't unfounded though.
Him trying to cook came close to a natural disaster.
Yeah, well.
Nobody's perfect.

Ignoring Modo's question for many obvious reasons, the tan-furred mouse gestured them to come closer as he already looked outside again.
"We've got company, bro's. Check it out."
"Whoa, looks like my fan club has finally arrived", Vinnie breathed when he saw what his leader meant.
"And they got us surrounded", Modo grumbled, his eye already glowing red again.
Vinnie shrugged in return, clearly not worried at all, which was, of course, no surprise.
"So? When the going gets tough, the tough whip's tail, Modo my mouse", he imitated Stoker flawlessly.
"Maybe, but who knows how many there are hiding down the road, waiting to jump on us from the moment we show our faces?", Throttle mused, rubbing his furry chin.
"How did they know were here in the first place?", Modo wondered out loud.
"Beats me. But it isn't hard to guess why they are here…"
"The bounty."
"Yes, the bounty."
"Puhlease… Can you stop with repeating that word every time you hear it? It's starting to get really annoying", Vinnie snorted a bit grumpy as his two-colored eyes took in the situation below.

But then, he suddenly froze and after blinking a few times, his facial expression switched from annoyed to determined with a touch of mischief, a sign that could only mean trouble, Throttle knew.
"Welly, well, well. Look who's here to join the party, bro's", and he pointed at something in the distance.
Both Throttle and Modo followed his finger and when Modo realized where he was looking at, he cracked his knuckles as a somehow devious smile appeared on his face.
This too could only mean trouble, the tan-furred leader knew.
"It's that mysterious biker again. The one who's responsible for damaging my bike. Oh, momma, revenge will be sweet…"
Yep.
Trouble indeed.

Usually, Modo wasn't one who was resentful but, as mentioned before, when it came to his bike, all bets were off.
Of course, Vinnie was more than happy with an ally, for he was usually the only one who was this eager for revenge.
"You said it, big fella. Oh man, I can't wait to show him what happens when you mess with the Biker Mice From Mars", the young mouse agreed with his older bro and after spinning it around his finger, he reloaded his ray gun with a loud click, all ready to whip some tail.
But Throttle shook his head as he laid a hand on their arm to stop them.
Although he shared their need for revenge, he knew they couldn't just dive in.
Not this time.
There were too many.
Besides, the mysterious biker had already proven to be a worthy opponent.
He alone would be enough to have their hands full.
"I hear ya, bro's, but we need to play this one by the book…"

The words hadn't even left his mouth or Vinnie already almost fell out of the window in shock.
"No way, man! I already told ya, that guy is really in for something when we see him again. No one catches this mouse without me teaching them the consequences. You can't take that away from me. That's like… taking away my dignity!", he protested, exaggerating as always.
But Throttle shook his head again, determined to stick with his point.
"No can do, Vincent. There's too much at stake here…", and he pointed over his shoulder to Charley, who was still peacefully asleep, not aware of the threat that was waiting for them outside.
Vinnie wrinkled his nose in annoyance, but the tan-furred leader knew that was because the young mouse realized that he was right.
It was general knowledge that they didn't mind risking their lives for the cause, heck, they were even used to it, how sad that may be.
But they couldn't play with Charley's life like that.
That just wasn't fair.
That just wasn't who they were.
Next to all that, Carbine, Stoker and the rest relayed on them to get them out of their precarious position.
That might prove difficult if they got blown up to smithereens in this town where one wouldn't want to be caught dead in the first place.

"Ah man, don't you just hate it to be the good guy sometimes?", the white-furred mouse breathed in defeat and Throttle knew he'd won this round.
Good.
Modo was still looking outside, rubbing his chin.
"I dunno, bro… Are we really gonna let him walk away?"
Throttle laid a hand on Modo's shoulder as he looked at the small silhouette in the distance, sitting motionless on his bike that was parked on a roof of a small building.
"Hey, I never said that we're gonna let him walk away. All I'm saying is that we need a plan."
"A plan for what?"
All three mice looked over their shoulder, seeing Charley sitting upright in her home-made bed with messy hair, rubbing her face a bit dazed.
"Good morning, sweetheart. Did you sleep okay?", Vinnie asked supposedly innocent with fluttering lashes and Throttle grinded his teeth when he saw Charley's blush.
Man.
Perhaps this was going to be a little bit harder than he thought.
Then again, what could he do?
This was how it was going to be from now on, so he might as well get used to it.
That would make things a lot easier.
Besides, he didn't want them to notice that he knew what went on last night, so he cleared his throat and pointed at the window with his thumb.
"It looks like that bounty is still hunting our tails."

Charley rubbed her eyes one more time before she scrambled on her feet and while letting out a big yawn, she walked over to the window.
When she saw what was going on, she was at once altogether awake.
"Oh."
Vinnie snickered by hearing this dry comment and casually stretched his arms.
"Oh is right. But don't sweat it, babe. We'll keep you aaaall safe and sound. You've got nothing to worry about."
Throttle rolled his bionic eyes behind his customized specs by hearing the honey-sweet tone of voice, he just couldn't stop himself.
It suddenly wasn't that hard anymore to get angry with his youngest bro.
Not now he was awake.
Man.

"You do know that I don't need you to keep me safe? I can take care of myself just fine, thank you very much", Charley responded as she pinched Vinnie's nose, but he was far from impressed.
"Whatever helps ya sleep at night, babe. If you sleep at all, that is..."
Throttle clenched his fists to stop himself from exploding.
By the Gods, this was beyond annoying.
But help came from an unexpected corner.
"He's right, Charley ma'am. We'll make sure they won't hurt ya", Modo joined in, chivalrous as he was.
Throttle wondered if the big guy noticed that something was different between these two or that he just blamed it to Vinnie being a hopeless flirt.
As far as he knew, Modo was completely unaware of the fact that the whole situation was escalated in just one night.
One night was all it took…
Stop.
He couldn't afford all this, remember?
There was a whole army out there, an army of amateur bounty hunters, all determined to collect their price.
And he…
Well, he was a leader where people could rely on.
Time to live it up, once again.

It was up to him to guide his bro's and Charley through this as safely as possible.
But that didn't mean that they couldn't play hardball.
Oh no…
Vinnie was right about one thing.
The time had come to learn these people that messing with them didn't go unpunished.
They needed to put a mark on this for them unfamiliar world.
Their mark.
Just like they had done on Mars.
Yeah.
It was time that these people learned what happened to those who crossed the Biker Mice From Mars.
All they needed was a foolproof plan.

Charley heaved a sigh as she turned back to the window, clearly knowing that there was nothing she could say to stop them from protecting her.
"There are so many of them… It's crazy. And here I was, thinking that I and my people were the only survivors", she eventually broke the silence, staring at the big group of people that were scattered throughout the small town, all preparing themselves for battle.
Some of them were already searching the buildings, for now still far enough of where they were located.
But Throttle knew it was only a matter of time before they would find them.
"Guess it's safe to say that humans are pretty resilient, huh?", Modo responded, leaning casually against the wall with one hand as his one eye scanned their surrounding.
"I guess it is…", Charley said softly.
"So, are we just gonna stand here and wait till they make the first move or are we gonna do what we do best and whip some major tail? ", Vinnie interfered impatiently, already as restless as always.

It was kind of hard to believe that it was only minutes ago that he'd been so peacefully asleep.
But seeing the over more than a hundred people outside was all it took to pump enough adrenaline through his veins to make him hyper as hell.
Nothing new.
"Rope it in, Vincent. Unless you've got a plan of course?", Throttle immediately stepped in as he grabbed a small bottle of water, knowing that he needed to use the time they had left before hell would break loose to prepare his body for battle.
Hydrating it seemed to be a good start.
In the meantime, Vinnie turned to face his leader and held up a finger in the air, all ready to share his plan and the tan-furred mouse folded his arms as he gave his younger bro an expectant look, all ears to hear this plan from which he knew didn't exist.
"Well, we could uh… No wait, maybe we should… Uh… Or we just…", the young mouse stuttered, thereby confirming Throttle's thoughts.
When he seemed to realize that he was making a total fool out of himself, Vinnie flashed him one of his trademark smiles as he put his hands behind his back.
"No. I don't."
"I figured as much", Throttle nodded as he popped the cap of the small bottle.

Charley turned her gaze away from the window and looked at Throttle, who looked back.
The coldness in her eyes was gone, but it was now replaced with a certain distance that wasn't there before and it hurt him more than he liked to admit.
But he didn't even flinch, he just looked back as his mind went blank again.
As if his body tried to protect him from his heartache.
Unaware of his inner battle, Charley opened her mouth.
"You don't wanna dive in because of their numbers, am I right?"
He slowly nodded, not sure where she was getting at, but he decided to wait and see.
"Right. Listen, I might have a plan, but it's dangerous", the human female started, but, of course, Vinnie couldn't shut his over-productive mouth for at least less than ten seconds.
"Dangerous? As in… life-threatening?", he cut her off eagerly, both his ears twitching in excitement.

Charley glanced at the white-furred mouse out of the corner of her eyes with a frown and then looked back at Throttle with a somehow questionable look on her face.
The tan-furred mouse shrugged as he raised his hands in the air.
"What can I say, he's a wild man."
"We're all wondering how he has lived this long, Charley ma'am", Modo added and Charley looked back at Vinnie, who was still waiting for an answer, looking at her eagerly.
But then, a somehow smug smile appeared on her face, as if she suddenly got an idea.
"Life-threatening… Yeah… that's exactly what I mean…", and she now looked at Throttle again.
"We need to take advantage of their numbers."

The tan-furred leader shared a puzzled look with Modo before focussing his attention back on the human female.
"What do you mean, take advantage of their numbers? I mean, how is being outnumbered even a benefit?"
"Hey, we do our best work when…", Vinnie started to protest, again, and Throttle suddenly had it, so he gave his white-furred bro such a deadly glare that the mouse in question quickly ate the rest of his words and glanced up at the ceiling, twiddling his thumbs, looking all innocent.
Throttle shook his head before looking at Charley again.
"You were saying?"
"Their numbers is their pitfall at the same time. Look, they came here because of the bounty, right?"
When Throttle nodded, she continued.
"As far as I know, there's only one price. Which means in turn that there can only be one winner. Do you really think that these people are willing to share the glory? To share the money? I don't think so. The fact that they're here says enough about what kind of people they are. Selfish. Handling in their own interest and in their own interest alone."
"I'm not sure if I'm following you, Charley ma'am", Modo told her, giving her a confused look, but Throttle began to understand where she was getting at.
"You want to turn them against each other", he guessed and Charley smiled.
"Bingo. That correct answer puts you in the lead."

"Wait, what? How come he's in the lead? Does that mean I'm second place?", Vinnie immediately jumped at it, clearly having the feeling that his position was being threatened.
So far for being quiet.
Well, it was nice as long it lasted.
Throttle also couldn't ignore the irony of Charley's comment, even though he was almost certain that she didn't mean anything by it.
That wasn't who she was.
Just like he knew that Vinnie didn't protest because of what happened on that roof last night, but simply because his ego didn't bear second place, no matter the context.
Man.
He could be so predictable sometimes.
Next to tiring.
"In a manner of speaking, Vinnie. Nothing more, nothing less", Charley sighed as she rolled her eyes, but Throttle could tell that she wasn't really annoyed.
And he wondered…
Did she love him?

"And how are you planning to do that? Ya know, turning them against each other?", Modo asked, thereby forcing them all to focus on the conversation again.
Charley shrugged.
"All we need to do is get their attention and tell them."
"And this is dangerous… how?", Vinnie grumbled as he folded his arms, clearly disappointed.
Throttle couldn't help but agree with his young bro, even though he wasn't planning on saying that out loud.
Perhaps humans had a different picture of 'dangerous' than they had.
But Charley wasn't done yet.
"Because we need to make sure that we have their undivided attention…"
"Undivided, 'ey?", Vinnie repeated, rubbing his chin.

But before he could come up with a plan that probably involved a lot of explosions, Charley quickly continued as that somehow smug smile reappeared on her face again.
"Before I'll tell you guys the plan, this… dangerous plan, I need a volunteer…"
Ah.
Throttle now knew what she was doing and he couldn't stop himself from smiling, for it was clear that she was starting to understand how to handle the white-furred adrenaline junkie.
And it worked.
Of course, it did.
This was exactly how to make that loudmouth do what you wanted because simply telling him what to do usually had the opposite effect.
This time was no different.
He took the bait without blinking.
Predictable indeed.

"Me! Pick me!", Vinnie yelled overexcited, bouncing on his feet as if he had springs under them, wildly waving his hand.
"Okay. I guess we have a winner…", Charley shrugged nonchalant, as if she hadn't planned this to happen at all and Throttle's respect for her grew even bigger, as far as that goes.
What a woman…
"Yes! I won! But why am I even surprised? Of course, I did! I always win! Aaaooww, this is gonna be epic!", the white-furred youngster babbled to himself, hyper as a Memphant having a blood rush.
"So what do you have in mind, Charley ma'am?", Modo asked curiously, his heavy voice raised to get over Vinnie's chattering and the human female smiled.
"Well, our beloved volunteer here is going to make sure that he has everyone's attention…"
"How? Explosions? Torture? An old-school fist fight? Do tell!", Vinnie almost demanded as he looked at her expectantly.
Kind of like a kid who was about to get a treat.
It was almost cute.
"Or maybe a firefight? Or a race? Or…"
"By letting yourself get caught", Charley interrupted him and Throttle almost choked in his water by seeing the look on Vinnie's face, which was absolutely priceless.
This was not what he had in mind, that just became painfully clear.

"Say what?! No way! Do you have any idea what that will do to my machismo rating?", the young mouse protested, his two-colored eyes still wide open in shock.
"Hey macho mouse, you volunteered, remember?", Charley retorted and Vinnie slumped down on his home-made bed, knowing he'd backed himself into a corner.
"Ah man, me and my big mouth..."
But Charley sat down next to him and patted him on the back.
"Don't worry, Vin, I promise you will have your moment of fame. Now, all of you, listen carefully. Here's what we're gonna do…"

...

"Letting yourself get caught, ugh, unbelievable. Is she for real? Honestly, it can't get any uncooler than this", Vinnie muttered under his breath as he pushed his bike up the stairs to the roof.
He had suggested driving up, but even that small detail hadn't fit into this alleged master plan of Charley, because she wanted to use the element of surprise while they still could.
So here he was, working up a sweat to get his beloved bike up to the roof, only to let himself get caught soon after he made his presence known.
This was officially the worst day of his life.
He really needed to learn to control that big mouth of his.
It tended to get him in situations he didn't want to be in.
Such as this one, for instance.

"Man, death to that Limburger clown for putting a price on our heads. Letting yourself get caught. Pfuh. I'm way too cool for this. You'll get your moment of fame. Right. Gosh, women. They can be so fucking frustrating sometimes", he continued his little grumble session as he took the last stairs.
When she promised he would get his moment of fame, he didn't expect it to be the small moment before he would let the enemy catch him.
The only reason why he was allowed to let himself go -and only for a short matter of time- was because this whole thing needed to be as credible as possible, Charley's words.
When he told her that letting himself get caught was light years away from his definition of credibility, she had only shrugged in response with a somehow apologetic look on her face.

And to make things even worse, his bro's had agreed with this plan without blinking.
Throttle even had the nerve to tell him that it was the only thing that could work right now.
Right.
As if.
They were trained soldiers, for fuck sake.
They could handle a crowd such as this one.
Heck, half of these people were amateurs, for all he knew.
But Throttle had remained adamant.
Their priority was to get to California as soon as possible and, quote; 'not picking a fight with the local residents.'

Ugh.
The guy was whipped, that's for sure.
His feelings for Charley had made him soft.
At least, that's what he concluded once the tan-furred mouse went along with Charley's plan without hesitation.
Which was weird and stupid.
Because as far as he knew, the 'local residents' were the ones who picked a fight with them by following them and backing them into a corner.
And look what that brought him.
Didn't that make him the victim here?

But, of course, Throttle had ordered him to do his part, knowing perfectly well that not even he could ignore a direct order, despite what it would do to his precious reputation.
Story of his life.
No one ever really understood him.
They didn't understand that his reputation was kind of all he had, at this point.
They had no idea what would happen to him if that crumbled into dust, too, just like everything else.
Like everyone else.
He needed it to feel alive.
But apparently, no one knew.
No one understood.

A small voice in the back of his head pointed out the fact that he never explained it to them either, but he wildly shook his head in return.
Of course, he didn't.
They would laugh at him.
They would know how weak he actually was.
He would rather die than explain it to them.
To tell them how this war fucked with his head.
Stop.
That's far enough, macho mouse.
Enough with the self-reflection.
It didn't exactly make things better.
Just think happy thoughts.
Like he always did when dark thoughts such as these threatened to take over.

Heaving an excessively loud sigh, he took the last steps of the stairs, trying very hard to think all happy happy joy joy, but his brain just didn't cooperate today.
Because he now realized that thanks to all this shit, he was unable to settle the score with that annoying mysterious biker.
The very one who had bruised his beloved ego more than he liked to admit.
The one who had trapped him like a rat.
Rats…
He hated rats.
Everyone hated rats.
And still, that knucklehead had trapped him like one.
That made it personal.
Because trapping him like a rat was the same as attacking his self-defense system which he had so carefully constructed in order to survive this crazy and fucked up world.
He needed to pay for that.
Big time.

But no…
Nobody cared about all this.
They just decided that it wasn't important.
That it was just his ego speaking.
Little did they know.
Even Modo, who was supposed to be his ally in this, had agreed with the rest.
Vinnie still couldn't wrap his brilliant mind around it.
As far as he knew, the attack on Modo was just as personal as on him, for it had damaged his super mucho holy moly bike.
And yet, he'd agreed with Throttle without blinking his one eye.
Aarrggghh.
This was most frustrating and that was an understatement.
He just wanted to go home.
To go back and fight the war he knew so well.
The war in which he grew up.
Here, everything was different.
And he hated it.
Some parts excluded, of course.
Of course, hehe.

Just when he reached out to the door that led to the roof, a certain thought made him suddenly stop.
What if that biker was the one who caught him?
Again?
Could he really bear another defeat such as that one?
The answer to that question was quite simple, actually.
No fucking way.
So he vowed to himself, right here, right now, that when that happened, he was going to say 'fuck you' to this whole plan that wasn't even a plan but a humiliation.
To Charley.
To Modo.
Even to Throttle.
When that happened, he would unleash hell on that biker, no matter what and no matter the consequences.
No one was allowed to mess with him like that and get away with it.
No one.

Still with a face like thunder, he pulled back his hand and used his foot instead to kick the door open.
When he entered the roof, his two-colored eyes immediately darted to the place where he'd shared this… satisfying night with a certain human being.
It already felt like a lifetime ago.
Of course, it did.
Whenever he felt only so much of a pang of happiness, something happened and WHAM.
All gone.
Man, he was cranky.
He even managed to surprise himself, for it was nothing like him to be like this.
To be so negative.
Usually, he kept his head up, no matter what.
But being on this planet was beginning to take its toll.

He didn't regret what happened last night, heck, he would do it all again.
In fact, it was going to happen again, he just knew.
But man, he felt bad.
He never thought that he would, but he did.
It was like he was torn apart between his loyalty and this unexplainable need to be with her.
His loyalty to Throttle was undivided and infinite, at least, that's what he liked to tell himself.
Last night proved otherwise, after all.
He thought it wouldn't affect him, but it did.
He actually felt… guilty.
And yet, he knew he wasn't able to stop it.

Because truth be told, he was already yearning for her in a way that just wasn't healthy.
Gosh, all he wanted was to skip this entire day.
To just fast-forward to the moment when the moon had replaced the sun.
When his bro's were fast asleep.
So he could drag Charley with him and fuck her brains out.
Okay.
That just sounded downright terrible, even for him.
Well, it was clear, succinct and to the point.
Yeah, but still, man.
A little respect never hurt anyone.
Maybe.
…
Okay, okay.
He just wanted to have sexual intercourse with her.
Better?
Uh, yeah...
I guess…

Anyway, it was important to make sure that Throttle would never find out.
It would break his heart, he just knew.
In the meantime, he needed to find a way to stop this.
Throttle was right, it wasn't worth it.
His bro's were his family, they were all who he had left.
He couldn't betray one of them like this.
But deep down he knew that stopping this was like mission impossible, simply because he was known for having less self-control and discipline.
And it just so happened to be that it were these exact two qualities one needed to possess in order to stop this madness now it still could.
Holy-fuck-a-moly, what a mess.

Still softly muttering under his breath, he mounted his bike.
It was time to get this show on the road.
The sooner it was all over, the better.
The rest of his problems would still be there when this was done, but probably looking less complicated after checking this one off the list.
Perhaps he would be even capable to think happy thoughts again after all this.
Uhu.
Right.
Ignoring that annoying little voice, he closed his visor and started his engine.
"Alright, you motorcycle madman, let's rock and ride", he said flatly to himself in a weak attempt to cheer himself up, but a pang of anger suddenly made his tail lash through the air.
"Oh no, wait… you can't! It's more like let's rock and get caught! Yeah… Let's rock and get caught and be humiliated thanks to that big mouth of yours that brought you in this situation, like always, you just never think, you never doandnowyoureFUCKED!"

To add even more power to his words, he slammed his fist on his bike, who beeped angrily in return and the pain in his hand brought him back to reality.
Ahum.
Perhaps that was a bit... too much.
Maybe, but it felt extremely satisfying at the same time.
Still a bit out of breath after his outburst, he rubbed his sore knuckles with a frown on his face before he leaned forward and grabbed his handlebars in a tight grip.
He needed to stop with this shit.
It was time to make the best of it, like he always did.
Put on a happy face.
And just forget about the rest.
Lock it all away and keep it there.
Alongside the rest of the darkness in his troubled mind.
Like he always did.
And that's that.