Opposite Sides of the Track
Chapter 3
Battle Scars
"You look like you got 10 minutes of sleep," Vanellope deadpanned as Hiro walked into the interrogation room.
Hiro raised an eyebrow and sat down in the seati n front of her.
"I'm not here to fight with you." Hiro said, running his hands through his hair.
Vanellope snorted, "Yeah, right. You're just not here to sarcastically fight with me. You know I'd win anyways."
Truth be told, Vanellope was trying to distract Hiro from seeing how little sleep she'd gotten. Because of his stupid, stupid, stupid "gift". Then he turned up the Mod damn air conditioning! It wasn't like they'd given Vanellope anything more than a cot, so no blankets or even a pillow. But Vanellope wasn't going to let them win. Not like that she wasn't. So she had been just really really cold that night. And had gotten very little sleep. Think of the devil…
"So, did you like your gift?" Hiro asked coily.
It was Vanellope's turn to glare.
"You do realize I have my own wardrobe somewhere in the world, right? How do you know that the 'gift' wasn't really just something I could pull out of my closet?" Vanellope accused.
"Because you'd be wearing it," Hiro answered matter-of-factly.
Before Vanellope could retort, Hiro moved on.
"Well, believe it or not, I did get information on your parents," Hiro said.
Vanellope's eyes widened. How? She'd 13 years looking for anything about them, and Hiro had gotten them in a day?
Hiro snickered.
"What?" Vanellope snapped.
"I thought you'd gotten rid of that."
"Rid of what?"
"The whole 'unconsciously thinking aloud' thing."
Vanellope tried to avoid sinking down into her seat. She remembered from ages 5 to 11 she'd had the embarrassing habit of saying what she was thinking aloud. On accident, of course. The more Vanellope had lied to Hiro, the more she'd stopped doing that. But having a voice box Vanellope could turn on and off had made her slip…
Hiro cleared his throat. It gave Vanellope some comfort that at least Hiro looked embarrassed too.
"So," he said, "Information swap. As tradition goes, the hostage goes first."
Vanellope growled, but obliged.
"There are bases all over the world. The main one is called Game Central Station."
Hiro rolled his hand for her to go on. Vanellope shook her head though.
"Nope. Not until I'm sure you have something on my family."
Hiro glared, "Fine. Your mom's name was Vivian and your dad's name was Victor."
Vanellope raised an eyebrow.
"You're kidding me…"
Hiro shrugged.
"I'm really not. And everything else in on this file," Hiro waved a tab folder, "So continue."
"The reason why our headquarters is called Game Central Station, or GSC, is because we use video games to test and find our recruits. Like I said, there are different locations. Each location's named after a video game; the one you were recruited with is the one you belong to."
Vanellope stopped. That was enough. She probably already betrayed half the people she knew.
Hiro cleared his throat, "Well…"
Vanellope clenched her teeth.
"GCS is at the very center of all the stations," she dragged.
Hiro sighed, getting that he'd have to ask in order to get it out of her.
"Which station are you at?" he asked exasperatedly.
"Sugar Rush," Vanellope said, trying to even her tone.
Hiro nodded, "Anything else?"
"Depends," Vanellope said, "What exactly do ya have on my family?"
"Dead and living relatives and their occupations. Well, some of them," Hiro responded, "But you're not getting out of here, so, really none of this matters."
Vanellope sneered. Thank you for that lovely reminder, Dweebette.
Every movement that was going on in Vanellope seemed to freeze. She… no. Since when… no. No, this couldn't be. When had this happened?
Whatever. That was just… a coincidence. The real problem here was why Vanellope had even thought about Hiro by her taunting nickname. That was are relevant and showed how much she was letting her guard down.
Before Vanellope could explode, she rushed out the last parts.
"The other games I know by memory are Hero's Duty, Wack-a-Mole, and Tappers *. Those in Hero's Duty excell in war, the guys in Wack-a-Mole have brute strength, and those in Tapper's are the guys you call to poison your ex." Vanellope kept her chin up (literally) and sucked in the side of her mouth.
"What about Sugar Rush?" Hiro asked.
"Huh? Oh, yeah," Vanellope had genuinely forgotten, "speed and accuracy."
Hiro nodded.
"You said you got recruited by games: how?"
"It depends on who you are," Vanellope replied, "I don't know for sure how you'd get tested on the others, but I'd guess it would be on your knowledge on your category. They watch you before sending you the games. I just know that the people in Sugar Rush had to play a go-kart game." Vanellope looked down, "I didn't actually. I mean, I did. And then I, uh… hacked it."
It wasn't that Vanellope was ashamed she had hacked it. It was that it reminded her of old times. She really just wanted to leave.
"Am I done? I think I'm going to get murdered in the morning by the people at GCS for the things I've said."
Hiro nodded reluctantly and handed over the files. Vanellope took them and opened it. She knew Hiro wasn't going to lead her back to her holding cell, so she could just sat there, looking at the files. It wasn't like there were chairs in the cell and once Vanellope went into her joint cell, the door would lock behind her. A throat cleared. Vanellope looked up. Or maybe she'd been wrong. Hiro was standing at the door where her holding cell was and nodding for her to go through it. Vanellope sighed and closed the files, walking over to the door and into her holding cell.
Hiro followed.
Now things were getting weird. Vanellope turned around and crossed her arms.
"What?"
Hiro looked down at the mint green hoodie, thrown onto the floor and left there.
"Even after you had to sleep through 60 degree temperature, you didn't put on the hoodie… why?"
"Well; 1, I wouldn't really call that sleep; 2, I've slept through much worse; and 3, I'm a stubborn harlot that doesn't listen to anyone, what's new?" Vanellope rolled her eyes.
"Harlot?" Hiro snickered.
Vanellope rolled her eyes. "You've heard me say 'son of a gun' before; are ya really being nitpicky now?"
Hiro stood there for a minute.
"You're not the same person, how was I supposed to know?" he said quietly.
Vanellope thought about the answer, and, at the same time, didn't. It just felt so right, she barely took the time to think about it when it popped up.
"Pay more attention."
The wound heals, but it never does
That because you're at (war with love 2x)
These battle scars
Don't look like they're fading
Don't look like they're ever going away
They ain't ever going to change…
These battle-
~ Lupe Fiasco and Guy Sebastian
A/N: (Warning: I get bitchy) A little on the short side, but… necessary. At least a little. So, normally, I don't update to less than 5 reveiws, but I'm so done with peeps on FF. So reviews will speed it up, yes. Without will I stop? Probably. Is there a tiny chance? Because I'm a pushover and like my plots as obviously some people don't, yes. A sincere apology for those that actually do take some time to show they care about my sleep deprivation. Or at least the story (Fun fact: I usually publish really late at night. As in, anywhere from 12 am to 3am. Tonight's was early (around 9 pm).
Back to the story; I was going to use the song "You Found Me" by the Fray, but this isn't as exasperated and angry and depressed as it is in denial and angry and depressed. So; Battle Scars. I plan on also using another song called Battle Scars in very very late chapters. If there are any.
* I didn't have Fix It Felix for later reasons that you will soon discover. ;)
~ Sam
(P.S. Dear guest that asked if I had a comic with this. I can't draw an apple. But I can edit with audio and whatnot, so I DO at least have an Opposite Sides of the Track Chapter One Trailer and I may make more. It's on my YT account fearingthepain . (Yes, exactly like that; no caps, no spaces, nothing)