Hey, y'all!

Again, thank you so much for the reviews, follows and favs!
Your kind words warm up my heart, that's for sure.
And it always helps to stay motived :)
So, THANK YOU!

Anyhoo, on with the story.
Enjoy and feel free to leave a review after reading it.

Till next time, dudes!

Later!

Chapter 11

"The nerve of that guy!", Vinnie spat out as he paced through the garage, rubbing the sore knuckles of his right hand.
"Who does he think he is, saying stuff like that?!"
He spun around to face Modo.
"I mean, do I look like a fucking lab mouse to you?"
The grey-furred giant looked up from his bike at his furious little brother.
"Nope. You look…"
"Great. I know", Vinnie cut him off and continued his pacing.
Modo shook his head for that was not what he wanted to say, but he focussed his attention back on his bike.
Right now, it was for the best to let the white-furred mouse act out his anger.
That is why he had picked up the bikes right after leaving the Clubhouse.
He needed something to do while listening to Vinnie's ranting and nothing better than tinkering with his beloved bike.
He couldn't wait to get back in the saddle again, to feel the wind going through his fur and...
"Has he looked in the mirror lately? Shit, with a face like that there's no other way that he's out of a fucking test-tube, and he still has the balls to call me a lab mouse. Me! Can you believe that shit?!"
Modo glanced over his bike to Vinnie, who was still pacing, and he noticed that his limping had gotten worse.
Even though Martian Mice healed rather quickly, taking things a bit slower than usual was still highly recommended, especially with a nasty bone fracture as this one.
Now, it so happened that Modo was not a doctor, but even he knew that climbing fences, dancing, fighting and pacing hardly qualified for taking things slow.
Then again, 'slow' didn't exist in Vinnie vocabulary, so it wasn't really world-shaking that the young mouse did the exact opposite.

Mode opened his mouth to say something about it, maybe to even tell the hyped-up mouse that he needed to calm down, but then he closed it again.
As if that walking bundle of stubbornness would listen to him.
No, instead of sharing this particular concern, the grey-furred giant decided to share another one.
Something he'd noticed during the day.
"You're unusually cranky today, bro."
Vinnie froze and slowly turned his head to look at his bro, his ruby-red eyes fuming.
"Are you saying that I'm overreacting?"
Modo calmly shook his head.
"No, the guy had it coming, alright. I don't trust Max as far as I could throw him, and you know it. What I'm saying is; you're not your usual cheerful self."
Of course, he could just ask straight out what was eating his tail, but experience had shown that it didn't work that way.
Not with Vinnie.
And indeed, he took the bait.
"Me?", the white-furred mouse asked with disbelief as he pointed at himself. "You're asking me what's bothering me? You should ask Throttle! He's the one who's completely loco ever since we set foot on this planet!"

As Modo already suspected, the young mouse was suffering from Throttle's imbalance.
He himself wasn't sure about it either, it somehow didn't feel right.
Ever since he knew the tan-furred mouse, the guy had been calm, wise and balanced.
His current behavior was the exact opposite and therefore concerning.
They were friends, yes, but most of all; a team.
And they all had their place in this little team.
Vinnie was the dare-devil, the one you needed for extremely dangerous missions, the one who brought 'taking life-threatening risks' to the next level.
As for himself, he was the muscle, the one you wanted to have by your side in a fight, the one who was able to do things on sheer strength.
Throttle was the brain, the one who controlled the dare-devil and the muscle, plus he wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty either.
The three of them working together was, as Stoker always said, the perfect mix with Martian Thunder as a result.
But the keyword here was cooperation.
And with Throttle being this distracted, the team fell apart instantly.
That wouldn't be such a big problem if there weren't Plutarkians here on Earth.
But there were.
And now, all that kept them together was their bond of friendship, which wasn't that easy to break, though.
But you didn't win wars with friendship.
And without a good team, death would soon be their only friend left.
So yeah, Modo did understand his white-furred bro's concern.
He felt it too.

"Yeah, well, Throttle ain't here, now is he? If he was, I would ask him. But he's not, so I'm asking you before the tension gets too high and you burn down half the camp."
Modo was partially joking for he knew his young bro wouldn't just destroy the camp.
Not on purpose, that is.
But he tended to react a bit impulsive, from time to time.
Especially when he was upset.
And it was clear to Modo that he was upset.
"So, you notice it too, huh? That he's gone wacko?", Vinnie asked in return, a bit hesitant.
"I notice that he's not himself, yeah. He's distracted."
The white-furred mouse continued his pacing, his hands now in the pockets of his baggy, army green Freedom Fighters cargo pants.
"Distracted by what? We're already with one foot in the next war against the Plutarkians, how can he be distracted? We need to be ready to whip some major tail! I mean, this is our chance to make them pay for what they did to Mars and he's distracted? Man, talk about bad timing."
"There are more things in life than war, little bro", Modo contradicted.
"Yeah? Like what?"
"Like women."

Vinnie stopped dead in his tracks and looked at the grey-furred giant with surprise on his face.
Not because he was surprised to hear that there were women out there, heck, he was more than just aware of that fact.
It just wasn't supposed to come out of Modo's mouth.
That was weird.
Beyond weird.
"Say what? What do ladies have to do with this?", he asked, his head a little crooked as he rubbed his chin.
Modo felt the urge to roll his eye, but he stopped himself right on time.
Of course, Vinnie hadn't noticed what he had.
Not that much of a surprise.
"Charley. I think this is about Charley."
Vinnie's lower jaw dropped and he stared at his older bro for a moment.
But then, he burst into laughter.
"Ha, right! That's the weirdest thing I ever heard. You're delusional, bro", he scoffed as he sat down on his bike.
Modo shrugged.
"Think whatever it is that you wanna think."
And he focussed his attention back on his beloved bike.
"Sure thing, bro. As long as you do the same", Vinnie replied, still a bit chuckling as he shook his head.

"Glad to see you smile again", a husky voice filled the room and both Vinnie and Modo looked up to see Throttle leaning against the doorway with his thumbs hooked into the loops of his deep blue cargo pants.
"Care to share what's so funny?", their leader asked as he walked inside.
Vinnie and Modo shared a look and the grey-furred giant softly shook his head, to let his younger bro know that now wasn't the time.
Not yet, that is.
This matter needed a bit more subtlety.
Another missing word in Vinnie's vocabulary.
The youngest of them bit his lower lip, not quite understanding why he couldn't share this, but when he looked at Throttle again, he suddenly felt the reluctance to say anything, for that matter.
"Nah, just some dumb jokes, bro", Modo answered his bro's question.
Throttle nodded understanding, knowing perfectly well that it was more than just dumb jokes, but he let it be.

"So. How is Max doing?", Vinnie broke the uncomfortable silence, still sitting on his bike and -of course- not able to keep his mouth shut for longer than ten seconds.
Throttle turned around to face him.
"How do you think he's doing? Never mind, don't even bother to answer that question", he immediately added. "Why is it that everywhere we go, I need to clean up your mess, hm?"
"You're the leader. I guess that's where you signed up for", Vinnie replied casually, but his body language told otherwise.
The minor twitch of his left ear, the tip of his tail almost dancing…
Signs which Throttle had learned to read over the past few years.
His young bro was annoyed.
But the tan-furred mouse ignored it and asked the most obvious question.
"And you couldn't, just for once, I dunno, at least try to control yourself?"
Slowly, the white-furred mouse slid off his bike.
"You heard what he said. He had it coming. Big time. Why are you giving me hell while it was him who started all this?", he asked, not really following his leader.
"Because it was you who threw the first punch. After provoking him. What did you expect, that he would let it slip? The guy hates us, and you gave him the first good reason why he should."
Vinnie snorted in disbelief as he glared at Throttle.
"Are you on his side now?"
Now it was Throttle's jaw that dropped.
"What?! No, of course not! What a load of bull."
He walked closer to Vinnie, who now leaned against his bike and didn't budge.
But the tan-furred mouse didn't expect him to.
He wasn't out on a fight, after all.
All he needed was for him to listen.
"But, as you so kindly pointed out to me, I'm the leader…."
He poked his finger in Vinnie's chest by saying the word 'you'.
"That means that I need to look at the bigger picture. If we want to stay here, we can't just pick fights with the residents who are already living here. We can't afford behavior like that, Vincent. I'm sure you remember what happened on Mars? We lost our home, our people, our everything. We've got nowhere to go. We're homeless. Wanderers. This camp is our only hope. And I won't let you screw it up because of machismo and pride. So, for the sake of clarity; Max is off-limits until we know more about him."
His tone of voice was soft, almost friendly, but Vinnie knew better.
Throttle wasn't amused, not even close.
Not that he cared.
Because he wasn't either.
And although he would usually stop at this point, he now persevered, not caring about the possible consequences.
Because he felt passed over, a thing he hated.
"What makes ya think that I wanna stay here, huh? Or Modo, for that matter?", the white-furred mouse asked as he pointed at the grey-furred giant. "Or did you already make that decision by yourself?"
Now it was him who poked in Throttle's chest to strengthen the word 'you'.
"I mean, you're talking about the bigger picture, so why don't we look at all the options here? Like, we could go out and fight. Or look for Stoker and the rest. Or we can try to find our spaceship, fix it and go back to Mars to show these stinkfaces that they've messed with the wrong mice. And the list goes on and on. But why do I get the feeling that you want us here to hide like cowards, even though we're everything but cowards?"
"For the record, I don't mind staying here, but I wished we had talked about this before the decision had been made", Modo intervened, who now sat on his bike.

Throttle's heart skipped a few beats by listening to Vinnie's rant and after taking a few steps back, he looked at his bro's.
His friends. His family.
They had never doubted him like this, ever before.
And it hurt more than he liked to admit.
"Bro's, bro's… I can believe my ears. You really think that I would make such a decision on my own? You know better than that…"
"Yeah well, with you acting all crazy, I guess anything can happen", Vinnie muttered under his breath.
The tan-furred mouse narrowed his eyes behind his glasses.
"What's that?"
"Nothing."
Even though the leader of the trio pretended he'd misheard, thanks to the great hearing that came with being a Martian Cave Mouse, he'd heard his little bro crystal clear.
And the weirdest thing was, he couldn't even blame him for saying it.
He was right, after all.
But the tan-furred mouse wasn't ready to say it out loud, not yet.
He still had no idea how to explain to his bro's why he was acting the way he did.
But he better come up with something, rather sooner than later.

It was Modo who broke the silence.
"Are we still welcome here, after what happened?"
"Yeah, Charley still wants us to stay. Max, however…", Throttle answered absent-mindedly, his mind still occupied with trying to find a good explanation.
"What about him?", Vinnie asked, his arms folded.
"He wants us gone. He's pissed. He thinks we're the same as the Plutarkians."
"Another reason to kick his ass", the white-furred mouse grumbled.
Throttle looked at his rebellious and wayward little bro and arched a brow.
Vinnie heaved a sigh and raised his hands in the air, finally defeated.
"Okay, okay, fine. Off-limits. Bigger picture. I get it."
"Good", Throttle said as he too took place on his bike.

They all three stared into nothingness, all occupied with their thoughts.
Eventually, Modo cleared his throat.
"Since it's still up for discussion, I want you guys to know that I wanna stay."
His two bro's looked at him, but he avoided their gaze and rubbed away a spot on the metallic paint of his bike as he continued.
"Seeing the women and children made me realize that we've been given a second chance. Just like that. And I wanna grab that opportunity with both hands and tail. I… I couldn't protect my nephew and niece, they died under my watch... "
The grey-furred giant swallowed with difficulty, still focussed on the small spot on his bike.
"I can't just walk away now. What if the Plutarkians come with greater numbers and breach through and we're not here? Well, I guess, after seeing the humans fight today, we all know that everybody in this camp is doomed from the moment they breach. I can't live with that."
He then looked up at his two bro's.
"So, I wanna stay."

Throttle slowly nodded, knowing that no words could ease Modo's pain and therefore, he didn't try.
No, he just turned his head and looked at Vinnie, who gave the impression that he had cooled off at last.
The white-furred mouse rubbed his chin, for a moment deep in thought, but then he shrugged.
"Forget what I said. I wanna stay too. I agree with that second chance thingy Modo just mentioned. It's time for some real payback for what they did to Mars. Besides, if there's a war raging, then Vinnie is gonna be there. Can't let them keep all the fun to themselves, now can I?"
"Very noble, Vin", Modo chuckled as he shook his head.
Some things would probably never change.
"Noble schmoble. Man, I can't wait to be on the road again", Vinnie snickered, almost bouncing on his bike in excitement.

Throttle cracked a smile, but it soon vanished for it was his turn now.
He knew he needed to tell them about Max, or at least what his suspicions were, but it didn't seem to be the right timing.
Vinnie had finally agreed that he would leave the human male alone, but what Throttle needed to tell them was gonna make Max even less popular, as far as that goes.
Perhaps Modo was now his biggest concern, this was, after all, about mistreating a lady.
But the tan-furred mouse couldn't just keep this to himself.
He usually never held things back for his bro's.
So why start now?

"I wanna stay too", he started before he would back out again.
"I agree with both of you. This all feels like a second chance, as if we can make up for our mistakes…"
"Aaaaaaand?", Vinnie almost sang when Throttle trailed off, for even he felt that there was more to come.
The tan-furred mouse took a deep breath.
"There's another reason I wanna stay…"
"Yeeeeees?"
"Will you stop that?"
"Noooooo…"
"Hey, is that a spider?", Throttle suddenly asked as he pointed at Vinnie's arm.
The white-furred mouse immediately jumped off his bike with sheer panic on his face and his hands flew over his body as he desperately searched for the only creature that was able to scare him.
"Where? Where is it? Tell me! TELL ME!"
Throttle and Modo shared a look and then burst into laughter.
When Vinnie heard them laugh, it started to dawn upon him and he slowly lowered his hands as he raised his eyes to heaven somehow tiredly.
"There's no spider", he concluded toneless.
"Nope."
"Low, bro. Low."
"I think it's a perfect new way to keep you in line", Throttle chuckled.
"And you said you didn't dance...", Modo added with a smug smile.
"Ugh, bite hard and shut it", Vinnie grumbled as he dropped back on his bike again.
The laughter slowly died and Throttle shook his head in amusement before he grew entirely serious again.
It was time to get down to business.
And no beating around the bush anymore.
He took a deep breath and braced himself.
"I think Max is abusing or has abused Charley…"

Both of his bro's jerked upright when they heard the words, Vinnie even fell off his bike.
"Say what?!", he squeaked from behind his beloved red racer.
Modo's eye was already glowing red as he looked at his friend and leader.
"What?! How do you know?"
Vinnie's head popped up from behind his bike.
"And he's still off-limit?"
Throttle raised both hands in the air.
"Easy now, bro's. I'm not entirely sure, it's a conclusion I drew based on what I saw."
And he told them what happened after they'd left.
Vinnie climbed back on his bike, sitting down cross-legged on the leather seat and rubbed his sore leg as he listened to what Throttle was telling them.
Modo sat on his bike like a frozen deer, his eye still glowing red.
"So, that's the other reason why I wanna stay. I wanna help her. No one deserves to be in such position…", Throttle concluded a bit hesitantly.
He wasn't sure what was gonna happen next, but he decided to just wait for their reactions.

"So you do like her", Vinnie remarked with a low voice and Throttle looked at him a bit surprised.
The white-furred mouse pointed at Modo who was still staring into nothingness.
"The big fella here already figured out that you being all crazy and all is because of her. I didn't buy it, though. But now… I can't believe me of all mice is saying this but right now, I'm starting to doubt myself."
Throttle had no idea what to say.
He felt the strong need to deny everything, but at the same time, that didn't feel right either.
But Vinnie didn't give him much time to think.
Not really surprising.
That boy's curiosity was gonna get him killed one day.
"Well, do you?", the white-furred mouse insisted.
"To be completely honest, I don't know. But it goes without saying that she's doing something to me..."
There.
He said it.
It felt somehow liberating to say it out loud.
Carrying all these thoughts and feelings alone made it a heavy burden.
Not that Vinnie was able to carry it with him, but that's okay.
He didn't mind to carry it alone, he was a leader after all.
He carried lots of things on his own.
But to unveil the tip of the iceberg was already enough.
To create some space.
Liberating space.
Modo was still awfully quiet, though…
And of course it was Vinnie who asked the one thing he didn't want to be asked.
The one thing he didn't want to think about right now.
"What about Carbine?"
Throttle closed his eyes for a moment, his heart aching by only hearing her name.
"What about her?"
"You tell me."
The tan-furred mouse wasn't sure since when that loudmouth cared about Carbine.
These two were like oil and water, they won't mix.
Next to that, things between him and Carbine were… complicated.
Not something he wanted to discuss with the young white-furred mouse, not now.
Perhaps not ever.

It was then when Modo finally came back to senses.
He stepped off his bike and walked over to Throttle.
When he stood next to his bro and leader, he pointed at Vinnie.
"You need to stop interrogate him like that, one cannot always control their feelings and emotions, you of all mice should know that."
"But…"
"No buts. Not now."
Apparently, the raw edge on his voice was enough to stop Vinnie from further protesting and the young mouse folded his arms in annoyance.
Modo ignored him and laid a hand on Throttle's shoulder.
"You know I've got your back, no matter what, right?"
The tan furred mouse nodded.
"Good. But this whole thing with Charley, it's dangerous, bro. You're distracted, more than distracted. And if there weren't Plutarkians here, I would've let you figure it out by yourself, on your own time. But if we stay here, we need to stay as a team. We're good, perhaps even invincible, but only if we work closely together. But you ain't here, bro. You're miles away. And we know better than to underestimate these stinkfaces. Next to all that, Max is a problem. We can't work with him, so I'd say; either he goes or we. Only then we have a chance to survive here. To do things differently. To make up for our mistakes."

Silence dawned upon them, his two bro's a bit awed by this speech.
"Amen to that, bro, or whatever it is they say. Shit man, you obviously picked the wrong business. You should've been a preacher with the Believers", Vinnie breathed impressed.
"Uh, thanks… I guess…", the grey-furred giant answered as he scratched himself behind the ear, a bit lost how to interpret this… statement.
He too was a bit amazed by his own wise words.
It didn't happen that often that Modo spoke up like this, but these were desperate times, after all. And desperate times called for desperate measures.
Maybe he needed to reconsider his thought about their team falling apart.
Maybe that thought had been presumptuous.
Because for a moment, the tables were turned.
For a moment, Modo was the brain, simply because Throttle couldn't.
And there was only so much one could expect from Vinnie.
But every star had an understudy, so to speak of course, especially in times of need.
A mouse couldn't carry the responsibility all by himself, nor could his friends expect that the mouse could.
Perhaps their friendship was enough after all.
Perhaps friendship was the key to their success.

Throttle heaved a sigh because Modo had just hit it on the head.
He didn't mind his older bro to stand up like that.
Unlike some others, he didn't have an ego standing in the way.
All he ever wanted was to do the right thing, to protect the ones he loved.
And right now, he wasn't able to do that by himself.
That was the unadulterated truth.
On days like these, he was more than just grateful to have his bro's around.
On days like these, he remembered why they were such a good team.
Because they weren't just colleagues.
They were friends.
Family.

The tan-furred mouse looked at Modo.
"You're right. You're absolutely right. It feels like I've let you down…"
"You didn't", Modo instantly reassured him.
"You did", Vinnie agreed with Throttle at the same time and Modo gave him a meaningful look, to tell him he needed to stop with whatever it was what he was doing.
But Throttle laid a hand on Modo's arm.
"He's right, Modo. My head is elsewhere while it should be with you, with us. Nothing is ever so uncertain as our future, now isn't the time to be distracted."
"You're only saying this because you like to control things, but some things just can't be controlled. Sometimes, the heart beats the head", Modo contradicted.

Again, the big fella was right.
Throttle was very aware of the fact that he could be quite the neurotic sometimes, he simply thrived on control.
It was a both good and bad quality to have.
But apart from the good or bad part, it was this certain quality that made this situation almost unbearable.
He had no control whatsoever and it drove him crazy.
The tan-furred mouse took off his glasses and rubbed his bionic eyes.
Even though it weren't real eyes, they felt more than just real and now, they were stinging by fatigue.
"Still… I owe you guys an apology, especially you, Vinnie."
Throttle put back on his glasses and looked at his young bro, who now gave the impression he wanted to run away as far as he could.
It was no secret that Vinnie didn't feel comfortable with conversations such as this one.
But that didn't stop Throttle.
He felt guilty for his behavior towards the white-furred mouse and he wanted to set things straight.
"I shouldn't have hit you, or make fun of you the way I did. It's hard to explain why I did it, but know that I'm sorry. It won't happen again, I promise."
Vinnie avoided his gaze and fiddled with the fabric of his pants.
"It's cool, bro. We're cool", he eventually said softly as he glanced at his older bro out of the corner of his eye.

After giving him a grateful smile, the leader of the Biker Mice from Mars cleared his throat.
"We need to come up with a plan for what we're gonna do with Max…"
"That's easy. We put a bullet in the guy's head and let him rot. Or we tie him up and quarter him with our bikes. No, wait, that's a no go for we only have three bikes… Maybe we can cut off his head? Or his dirty little wandering hands, for that matter", Vinnie babbled, but he trailed off when he saw his two bro's staring at him.
"What? Too much?"
Throttle sighed a bit tiredly.
That white-furred loudmouth could be so unteachable sometimes.
"Vincent, bigger picture, remember?"
Modo walked over to the white-furred youngster and swung an arm around his neck.
"Yeah, little bro, see this as a lesson; violence doesn't solve anything…"
"It doesn't?", Vinnie asked surprised and the grey-furred giant pulled him closer.
"Nah. Although a little practice never hurt anyone", he whispered in his young bro's ear.
Vinnie's lips curled into a smile and Modo let him go.
'Bigger picture', Throttle mouthed to him.
Vinnie scratched the back of his neck, smiling a bit sheepishly.
"Yeah, well, ya know what they say, old habits die hard. Still man, I think he deserves it."
"I agree with you on that point, but we can't just kill the guy based on a hunch. Come to think of it, why do I get the feeling that we've had this conversation before?", the tan-furred mouse asked to no one in specific.

He was tired.
So tired.
This day had been rough on him, and he was now starting to feel its effect.
All these emotions, feelings, thoughts, happenings from the last few days were taking its toll.
Why couldn't life just be simple and peaceful, even if it's just for one day?
A big yawn escaped his mouth and Modo clapped him on the back, seeing that his bro was about to reach his limit for today.
"Look, bro, we've been through a lot the past few days. Why don't we let it all be for what it is and fix the bikes, huh? We can tell Charley tomorrow that we've decided to stay. Maybe you can talk to her in private about Max, perhaps she'll be a bit more chatty without the whole camp listening."
"Yeah, and while you're at it, tell her I want my guns back. I can't fight a war without my babies, I mean, where's the fun in that?", Vinnie added, already started with patching up his bike. The sooner she would be ready to rumble, the better.
Throttle wasn't entirely convinced, but deep down, he knew that Modo was right.
There was only so much he could do right now, besides, Charley had taken care of herself in a broken world for six years already.
She was independent, no matter what was going on between her and Max.
Next to that, they needed to play this by the book.
They couldn't just dive in.
No, there was too much at stake here.
Their whole future, for example.
And right now, he couldn't think straight.
Too much was going on.
"Okay. Tomorrow", he therefore agreed.
Modo nodded and laid a hand on Throttle's shoulder.
"In the meantime, you need to try to figure out that thing you have with Charley. I really hate to ask this from you, especially after what happened on Mars, but we need you here, bro. We need you here."
The tan-furred mouse looked into his older bro's eye, which was filled with nothing but concern and compassion.
There was no judgment.
No hard feelings.
It felt strangely comforting.
"I know, big fella. I'll do my best", he promised.
Modo nodded.
"That's all I ask."

An hour past.
All three mice were busy with patching up their beloved bikes in total silence, a thing that was uncommon for them and especially for Vinnie.
But even the white-furred mouse hadn't said a word for a whole hour now.
Usually, that only happened when he was asleep.
It was Throttle who broke the silence, surprisingly enough.
But Vinnie had planted a seed in his head by mentioning Stoker and Carbine and it had managed to grow into a tree in only one hour.
The tree of guilt.
"I keep thinking… Is it wrong to stay here? Shouldn't we go look for Stoker and the rest? It somehow feels as if we owe it to them… You know, after all he has done for us?"
"Why? They're probably dead anyway", Vinnie answered brusquely.
The wrench slipped out of Throttle's hand and clattered on the floor while Modo almost knocked over his bike.
He managed to grab the handlebar right on time and quickly put her back on her tires.
"What?", the white-furred mouse asked when he saw their reaction, but then it dawned upon him and he narrowed his ruby-red eyes.
"Oh, come on, bro's. Don't give me that look. I'm only saying what we all know, man."
Throttle shook his head in confusion and disbelief.
"What do you mean, we all know? We know nothing, Vincent. They could just as easily be alive."
"Okay, what we all think then, geez. Everyone's a critic", Vinnie snorted and he pointed at Throttle with the wrench still in his hand.
"Because let's face it, it must have crossed your mind."
Throttle opened his mouth, but then closed it again.
Of course it had crossed his mind.
But saying it out loud was an entirely different thing.
The truth was; they had no idea what happened to them, so he wasn't gonna make all sorts of assumptions.
A mouse went insane for a lot less.
And Charley had already rocked his foundation.
So, he decided to give the ball back to Vinnie.
"If you're so sure about this, then why did you suggest to go out and look for them?"
Vinnie sighed and leaned on his bike as he looked at his friend and leader, a usual serious look on his face.
It somehow made him look a few years older, Throttle realized.
"I only said that to make a point, bro. I mean, what are the odds of them being alive?"
"We're still alive", Modo answered that question by stating the obvious.
"Yeah, but we were lucky, right? Look, all I'm saying is that I ain't gonna keep my hopes up for nothing. Besides, I saw Earth from our spaceship before we went down. It's like five times bigger than Mars, so it would be like searching for a grenade in a minefield."

Throttle's heartbeat gradually slowed down for he now understood why the young mouse was so determined to believe that they were dead.
It was self-protection.
Having hope was a dangerous thing for those who live in a war, after all.
A mouse could better assume the worst and have low expectations, to soften the blow when it finally arrived.
It seemed callous, but the young mouse was everything but that.
Like mentioned before, he just had some strange coping mechanisms.
The tan-furred mouse shared a look with Modo, who now seemed to understand it too and they both relaxed a bit.
Sure, their youngest bro could be right, but unlike him, they both didn't mind to have a little bit of hope.
They used it as something to hold on to, to stay upright in this world that's upside down.
After glancing at Vinnie one last time, Modo cleared his throat.
"I dunno, bro, I think Stoke would've wanted us to stay put, I can almost hear him yelling at us…"
Vinnie suddenly jumped over his bike with a face like thunder as he put his left hand on his back and used his right hand to point at his two bro's.
"You stay and fight! For freedom! And don't even think about running, rookies! You hear me? You stay and fight!", he imitated Stoker's lower voice, his tail lashing.
Throttle and Modo burst into laughter for the young mouse did a perfect and accurate impersonating of their mentor.
One could say a lot about Vinnie, but he sure knew how to diffuse a tense situation.
"Haha, yeah, that's Stoker, alright", Modo grinned as he wiped away a tear.
"Oh man, those were the days", Throttle chuckled.
"He always said that, but come on… running?", Vinnie snickered.
"Never", they said in unison.
Throttle picked up the wrench from the floor, still with the shadow of a smile on his face.
"There's our answer. We stay and fight. Just like Stoker taught us."

As silence dawned upon them again, Modo still felt that nagging feeling of worry.
And it all had something to do with a certain white-furred mouse.
Next to being the dare-devil, Vinnie was the self-proclaimed Romeo of the trio, after all.
And he had been too quiet, too... agreeable when Throttle told them that Charley did something to him.
Most of all, he had named Carbine.
It was this fact that worried Modo the most, because he knew Vinnie couldn't care less about Carbine.
He was just one step away from hating her guts.
But naming Throttle's old flame, who now may even be dead, would act on his guilt.
And since their leader owned a great sense of responsibility, well...
Vinnie had played this move very smart.
Below the belt, yes, but smart.
If he'd planned it as a move, that is.
That was the question.

Modo glanced at Vinnie over his bike, looking for a sign that could tell him how the young mouse felt about all this.
Unfortunately, Vinnie had put on his game-face, meaning; it was completely blank and the grey-furred giant couldn't find any clue of what was going on his mind whatsoever.
And since he couldn't ask this in Throttle's presence, Modo made a mental note to himself that he would ask Vinnie as soon as he got the chance.
But this whole thing worried him to the core.
What if Max wasn't their biggest problem?
Or the Plutarkians?
What if both of his bro's had a thing for Charley?
Oh, momma.
That was gonna be the biggest test ever.
The test of friendship...

'We held our breath when the clouds began to form...
But you were lost in the beating of the storm.'