Clearing the Air -Chapter 13
"Wait, how did you know who I am?" Stoker asked.
"I flew around Martian Command one night and heard a soldier call your name." She explained.
"What happened to the Freedom Fighters?" Carbine asked.
"Oh, they'll be fine. I used a simple illusion spell on them. It'll wear off in thirty minutes." She replied, then turning to Stoker, "Please help my mom."
"Here. Let me treat that wound." The command leader said, kneeling down beside Charla with a first-aid kit.
She got up and let Stoker apply medical aid to her mother.
...
"Arielle...?"
Modo was a foot from her. He approached her slowly, cautiously while gazing at her in astonishment.
"Don't look at me!" She cried, hiding her face from him, "I know I look hideous."
She then began running away. She suddenly felt a gray tail wrap around her waist and pull her towards him.
"I think you're beautiful and amazing." He replied, "I wish you had told me about all this before."
"Modo...I wanted to. So many times. But I was afraid you wouldn't understand. I'm not a Martian Mouse. I am a succubus Martian Bat. I come from a race of people that were exterminated by the Fish Faces. My mother and I are the only ones of our kind that are left. I took on the form of a Martian Mouse so I could find my true love. My mate of fate."
"Mate of fate?" Modo looked at her questioningly.
"We succubi must go through hundreds of males to find our soul mate or die in the process." She explained.
"Well...you don't have to look any further. I love you, Arelle." Modo smiled.
"Really?" She asked.
"Claws and all." He chuckled.
Arielle smiled as a faint blush shone on her cheek.
"I love you, too." She said, looking up happily. Then they kissed.
...
Charla watched them with a happy look on her face.
"Everything I did was for her. I wanted her to find happiness. Her true love."
With a good deal of tenderness, Stoker cleaned and placed a bandage on the wounded wing.
"Modo's a true knight in tattered armour. I know he'll be good to her." Stoker grinned, watching the two lovers.
"That's our bro." Throttle chuckled.
"Go, Modo! You loooove machine!" Vinnie teased.
" I removed the blast shell from the wound, but it l'll take two days for that wound to heal. So no flying till then." Stoker told Charla.
"I don't mind. As long as, uh, you and I can get close." She purred, giving him a side glance and smile.
"Well, you are pretty easy on the eyes." Stoker grinned.
"You shouldn't have gotten in the way, Charla. That was a dumb thing to do." Torris Rainer told her, interrupting the moment.
"For my daughter, I would give my last drop of blood!" She declared.
...
Rosalie watched the two happy lovers with envy and stormed off.
"You better go talk to her." Charley said to Vinnie.
"What for? After what she said about you?"
"I'm not saying what she said was right. It wasn't. But she was hurt and angry. She liked you a lot. She thinks you led her on."
"That's crazy. I-"
"Did you?" She tilted her head and looked at him closely.
"No...I don't think...I...okay, maybe I did...a little." He finally admitted.
"Then you owe her an apology as well as an explanation." Charley said.
...
The white mouse knew Charley was right. He was a self-proclaimed lady-killer in the extreme. He always liked flirting with girls and they with him. Sometimes he went a little overboard with it. The one thing he never wanted to do was play with anyone's feelings. He didn't want it done to him. He had to make things right with this girl.
He found her kneeling near her bike wiping off the handlebars with a cloth.
"Don't think you're gonna get it any shinier." He tried to joke.
"What do you care? What happened? You and your girlfriend have a fight?" She yelled, turning to him.
"Rosalie...I'm sorry I misled you. I didn't mean to do it. I do like you. I really do." He began, "But I like Charley, too. She's a good friend."
"Oh, so you always make out with all your friends?" She replied, flippantly.
"No! I'm not a sex crazed maniac!" He yelled, "I don't roll like that."
"So you don't like sex?"
"I didn't say that. I'm a guy, hello? Charley and I, well, we've known each other a long time. We both love each other. I..I should've told you how it was with us." He replied.
"Yeah, you should've before I started coming on to you." She continued to glare at him. She was far from forgiving him.
"At the time, Charley and I weren't together. We just got together now."
"This better be what you want, Vinnie, because I think you're making a mistake."
"Is dating out of my species really the problem or you don't like that I'm with someone other than you?"
"You know what? You do what you want. I don't give a crap!" She said, "Plus, I think Modo is making a mistake, too."
"Modo is happy and I'm happy for him. So leave him out of this." Vinnie replied.
"Fine!" She yelled.
Vinnie couldn't believe Rosalie's nasty attitude. He knew some Martian Mice would have a problem with interspecies relationships. But to meet someone and see them be so hostile about it was surprising.
Charley now walked up to him and stood next to him.
"My being with Vinnie bothers you this much?" Charley asked her.
"I just don't think it's a good idea for our people to intermingle outside our species. A lot of our species were already wiped out by the Plutarkians during the war. If the rest of our people don't have children with our own species, our race could die out. There are already fewer females than males of our people as it is. The Plutarkians took everything from us: our cities, our culture, our way of life, everything. We have to preserve what little of Mars we have left." Rosalie said, looking down, "I just don't want any more of our people to die."
Tears formed in the young woman's eyes. Charley placed a hand on her shoulder.
"We hate what the Plutarkians did as much as you do. But part of preserving Mars' culture is building understanding between Mars' culture and other cultures. Hating other species and seeing them as a threat is wrong. I'm helping Vinnie and the other Biker Mice to preserve and bring life back to this planet."
"I'm sorry, Charley. Sorry I acted like such a jerk. Sorry, Vinnie." She said.
"Truce?" Charley asked, smiling with her hand out.
"Truce." She said, smiling back taking Charley's hand and shaking it, "I'd be proud to call you my friend."