Chase remembered the previous method of entering the Drive Pit, and he also remembered how he and Go had had to surreptitiously extract the Ride Macher and Ride Chaser once Chase had repaired and detailed them both shortly after Go had brought him back. It was easier, getting in when the Pit was authorized for use.
Given that Chase was reasonably sure the Drive Pit had been locked down, such as it was, before the fight, he could only assume that Shinnosuke had moved quickly in getting them authorization to go back. Chase wasn't exactly surprised, either, since the Roidmudes' reappearance was both unexpected and unwelcome to the people who had defeated them over two years before. They weren't supposed to come back; their creator had been killed, and the Roidmudes were supposed to stay dead with him.
The massive specimens that had squared off against both Go and Shinnosuke had had unanticipated levels of both speed and strength; Chase hadn't expected so much of either one, when they'd interrupted Drive's fight. The strength, perhaps, wasn't entirely outside the realm of reasonable possibility. Their speed, though, that had been something else. All three Roidmudes had been much faster than Chase would have guessed, particularly since there had been no Heavy Acceleration Field in evidence.
Chase had seen Go attempting to beat his opponent to death using its own arm, and the sight had brought a flare of warmth and hope. He'd been sure that he was going to be too late to save Go, when he'd seen his friend dangling with his feet half a meter off the ground in a chokehold, but Go had proved tough and resourceful. The added power the Mach suit had given him hadn't hurt either, Chase thought, though if he'd been asked, he wouldn't have predicted Go having enough strength to pull the Roidmude's arm clean off.
"I would miss you," he said softly, although Go was ahead of him in the passenger seat of Shinnosuke's car and couldn't hear a word of it. "I'm glad you're okay."
Shinnosuke parked in his usual spot in the center of the Drive Pit, which meant that the only way to reach clear floor space was to park the damaged Ride Crosser between Tridoron and the exit. His own opponent had been lethally quick, its lower mass giving it the advantage there, and Chase's only option had been to let it wear itself out; the Ride Crosser wasn't fast enough to keep up with the Roidmude, but it had given Chase enough protection to weather the Roidmude's overclocked assault. It hadn't been his intention to wait it out, but he also hadn't thought it would vanish when its comrade was destroyed.
The damage to the Ride Crosser was regrettable, though. Chase climbed off of it, pacing around it slowly to see exactly what needed to be done before the Ride Chaser and the Ride Macher could be separated.
Shinnosuke walked up behind him, letting out a low whistle. "Really did a number on it, huh?"
Chase looked behind him, but Go was nowhere to be seen. "Where's Go?"
Shinnosuke shrugged. "Asleep in the front seat. Suit wore him out, I think." He held up a hand when Chase started around him. "He's fine," he said. "He's breathing okay."
"Humans don't respond well to trauma to the throat," Chase said. "Swelling can commence minutes or hours later."
Shinnosuke eyed him. "Since when do you know first aid?"
Chase shrugged. "I've learned a lot of things," he said, which was, strictly speaking, true. He started around Shinnosuke again, but Shinnosuke took his shoulders and steered him back to the Ride Crosser.
"You know how to fix that, and I don't. I'll make sure my little brother doesn't choke to death in his sleep, and you separate the bikes."
Chase fixed him with what he knew was a baleful, expressionless stare, and Shinnosuke backed toward the Tridoron.
"I'm going, I'm going."
Part of Shinnosuke's Roidmude turned out to have wedged itself into a critical juncture, and once Chase removed it, separating the Ride Chaser from the Ride Macher would be fairly simple. He dropped the piece into a basin for later examination, although it wasn't a core piece and wasn't likely to yield any useful information. It appeared to be part of the base form for constructing a Roidmude body, much like Chase's own, even if it had come off of a Roidmude whose base form had been extensively modified.
"Find anything interesting?" Shinnosuke wandered over again, peering over Chase's shoulder.
"Go?" Chase said.
Shinnosuke threw up his hands. "He's fine. He's completely fine. Just asleep." He pointed to the padded bench against the back wall, not three meters away from where Chase had blocked the exit to the Drive Pit. "See?"
"There," Chase said, pointing to the basin. "That was preventing the separation." He triggered the separation, and the Ride Crosser disassembled itself into two somewhat battered motorcycles. "Though some repairs still need to be conducted."
Shinnosuke nodded. "Feel free to stay here as long as you need to," he said. "I have to go talk to the special investigation team."
"If the team has been reassembled, it would benefit from the addition of Go and myself," Chase said, returning his attention to the Ride Macher. It was less damaged than the Ride Chaser, and would require less time to repair.
"Actually, I was hoping you would both act as consultants," Shinnosuke said.
"Understood," Chase said. "Please keep me informed of your superiors' decision."
"But I need you to agree before I can suggest it to – oh. Well, then. Yes." Shinnosuke glanced over his shoulder at Go, and then back at Chase. "I'll let you know."
By the time Chase finished with the Ride Chaser – it had gone more quickly than he'd expected, with the majority of the damage being cosmetic – Go was awake and looking around the Drive pit in evident confusion. "What are we doing here?" he said, unfolding himself from the bench and stretching as he wandered the short distance to where Chase was putting the motorcycle back together.
"The bikes were damaged," Chase said. "I was repairing them."
"Right, right." Go rubbed his hands over his face and then through his hair, making it stand up in odd places. "What time is it?"
Chase told him, and Go frowned. "I swear it wasn't that late two minutes ago," he said, and Chase stood up to see if he'd sustained a concussion on top of nearly being choked. Go batted his hands away and dodged to the side when Chase tried to see if his pupils were the same size. "What are you doing?"
"You appear disoriented."
"What is it with – everything is fine. That was a figure of speech." Go backed up, putting Chase out of arm's reach, and walked around him to the Ride Macher. "Did you already?" He examined it closely, very obviously not looking at Chase.
"It's been repaired," Chase said. Go had been very careful about not touching him accidentally or on purpose since the disastrous trip to the abandoned amusement park, and Chase missed it. He wasn't sure what the appropriate social rules for initiating physical contact were, though, and he didn't want to somehow make things worse by breaking them. Go ducking away now, Chase thought, meant that he wanted the current state of affairs to continue. It was disappointing. "Go," he started, and then stopped.
Not knowing what exactly he wanted to ask made it harder to find the words for it. Chase didn't know how to explain the bubble of warmth in his chest every time he looked at Go, or the hard knot of worry that had lodged itself under where his breastbone should have been when he'd thought the Roidmude was going to kill Go right in front of him. He didn't know how to explain what he wanted, or even really what it was.
"What?" Go said, curiously.
Chase closed his mouth with a snap. "Nothing," he said, and was obscurely disappointed that Go took it at face value.
"Where's Shin?" Go asked after a pause slightly too long to be anything but awkward, and Chase explained the situation with the reunited special investigation team. For some reason, Go looked smug about it.
"I knew it," he said. "I knew he was going to do that."
Chase let it go; Shinnosuke would contact them when he was ready, and when Chase's skills as a fighter were necessary, he would offer them. In the meantime, Chase had other work to do.