Chapter 2
Mike was sitting on the recliner in the Burner HQ, sinking into the chair with his arms on the armrests and his leg going up and down very rapidly, he clutched his hands on the armrests edges.
Mike had been on edge ever since he saw that photo of Chuck with that other guy. He had to know what had happened between him and Chuck, and it had to be something really bad that Chuck doesn't even want to talk about it with him. He could understand if the blond didn't want to talk about it but…
He clenched his jaw and frustration and began to tap his long finger against the armrest. 'It's driving me crazy! I mean he always tells me everything, and even if he hasn't told me something when it comes up he always comes clean and spills. Like when he said he couldn't drive and then I started to teach him how and that was something special we shared... But then I find out that Chuck was with some "other guy".' His eyes narrowed in disdain.
'What's their relationship?!'
Julie, Texas, and Dutch watched him worriedly; he had been sitting like that for three hours straight. Ever since he and Chuck came back to listen to the distress call from Kane Co. he stayed glued to that chair. At first he seemed to snap out of whatever funk he was in, but now he was just ignoring the world around him.
"Uh…Mike? You alright? You've been sitting there for three hours straight muttering things to you self… And well quite frankly, we're worried about you." Julie asked as she had drawn the short straw of the three of them. Dutch and Texas were standing at opposite sides of the recliner that Mike was sitting in.
"Yeah dude, you totally need to get TEXAFIED!" Texas shouted striking one of his poses but Mike didn't acknowledge him.
"Hey Mike, come on, you know you can tell us if something is up." Dutch said leaning down to Mike's level. When Mike didn't respond he waved a hand in front of his face. No reaction. Just the same finger tapping.
"Uh Mike?" The Burners' mechanic asked concerned.
Julie put her hands on her hips and her eyes narrowed.
"Huh, well I'll just go get Chuck. He'll know what's wrong with him, I mean, he knows him better than any of us." Mike's head shot up at the mention of Chuck's name.
"Oh! So that's why we keep him around!" Texas added "Because he keeps Mike from going crazy silent! Totally makes sense. But then again maybe he just needs some of Texas's fire karate kicks to smack him back into place! Hoo-wah! Heee-yah!" This earned him an elbow to the ribs from Dutch.
Mike then abruptly stood up wand placed his hands in his pockets. "I gotta know…" he mumbled.
"Gotta know what Mike?" Julie asked and he seemed to snap out of his trance and finally noticed Julie standing in front of him.
"Oh…hey Jules." He asked as his regular self and then took noticed of Dutch and Texas standing behind him. "You guys need something?" He asked with a raised brow and his signature smirk.
"Mike you been sitting around for three hours straight looking like a zombie while muttering under your breath. Dude, what's up?" asked Dutch in an attempt to get an answer out of him.
Mike was outwardly surprised; he blinked a couple of times before smiling and shaking his head. "Ah well you see its nothing. I was just feeling the aftershock of jumping the Detroit Jump of Doom and it was so awesome that I kept replaying it in his mind...I hadn't realized that I was talking about it out loud. Sorry about that, I'll keep my crazed moments to myself." Mike lied smoothly with a shrug of his shoulders. He scolded himself for being caught off guard, he never realized that he had been talking aloud for the duration of his freak out.
They seemed to buy it but Julie was still suspicious.
"Oh, then what is it that you have to know then?" Julie asked with her arms crossed and her brow raised.
Mike nervously laughed rubbing his finger pads into his palm which were buried in his pants pockets. "Uh, I wanted to see if Chuck would be willing to do it with me again! Once Mutt is fixed up again I mean…heh."
Julie's eyes narrowed, she knew Mike was lying but she could play his little game.
"Oh man! There's no way I'd ever jump that jump let alone with you at the wheel! There is a way better chance of Kane turning over a new leaf than Chuck to willing go on that jump with you again!" Dutch emphasized and Texas was nodding along in agreement with someone other than himself for once. He blinked his mind processing what Mike just said. His face contorted into rage as he tensed his arms up at his lean sides and glared at Mike fiercely. "WHAT DID YOU DO?!" he yelled profusely. Mike just laughed nervously again digging his heel into the dirt ground. "I kind of-in a way-sort of-brokeMuttwhileIwasdriving." said Mike smiling sheepishly. Dutch's face was red with pure rage as he breathed heavily in and out of his nostrils trying not to bash the idiot in front of him. "HOW?!" asked Dutch looking more and more vindictive by the second.
Mike shrugged his shoulders half-heartedly thinking about the recent incident. "I dunno…" he said lamely "I guess it sort of happened. I mean, I was going really fast and then I tried to eject Chuck but he refused to and then I guess I got distracted and then boom! Mutt's totaled. But hey, the important thing is that we both made it back okay!" He saw his mechanic's eyebrow twitch with every off second and his dark eyes blazing with anger. He opened up his mouth to tell his "leader" EXACTLY what he was thinking-
"Yeah dude! I may be totally brave and muscular and fearless but there is no way Texas is ever going to get in a car with you at the wheel, nothing personal man." Interrupted Texas not phased in the slightest by Dutch's anger whatsoever.
Dutch's nose flared to the point where it looked like his head would explode and then he slumped his shoulders, giving up completely. There was no way that was going to change so he might as well get used to it.
Texas gripped his own chin. "Actually" started Texas "When we are all up in Kane's evil HQ and you were driving I was scared that we were going to crash the entire time."
Dutch let out a deep breath and nodded his head in agreement. "Yeah" he said feeling his sanity slowly creep back "I was scared for my life when Mike was driving that droid we tricked out. Now I know how good I have it." Dutch sighed and gripped the back of his neck, rubbing the sore muscle. "I mean, I know I complain about how you DESTROY Mutt on a daily basis and I always have to REBUILD IT FROM SCRATCH. But hey, I have it pretty good"
This earned him an offended scoff from Mike.
"You know I just fix the damage done to Mutt, patch it up here and there and give it this nice polished shine thinking 'Wow, look at the nice work I did for Mike and all the hard work put into it. He's gonna love it!' But now that I think about it, I don't think I could ever imagine being in the car when it's happening. I mean it's no wonder Chucks so jumpy all the time he's still feeling the rush of surviving whatever dangerous stunts you pull on a whims notice. If it were me I would basically kill you if we survived"
Mike rolled his eyes feeling the piercing death glare Dutch was shooting him."Okay maybe-emphasis on the 'maybe'-some of my driving could be 'safer', but it gets results when Kane sends his bots down here to do his dirty work. And besides, if Chuck had problem with it he would have said something right?"
To this the others agreed Mike's actions, although they were outrageous, but were justified by the results that they received even though their rides get totaled in the process.
"Wait, where is Chuck anyway?" asked Julie looking around. She hadn't seen him since he and Mike got back, he would usually do his techy stuff on his virtual screen. Mike then did a quick scan of their HQ and it was true his blond haired technician was nowhere in sight.
"Oh yeah, last I saw he went heading towards his room he looked kind of depressed." Dutch responded scratching the back of his head. "It was weird seeing him sad."
"What is with you and Chuck? When you came back to be briefed about the mission Chuck was pretty sour and you seemed to be some kind of-I don't know-'funk'. What was all that about?" Julie asked with her hands still on her hips.
"Yeah man, it looked like that you ate some of Jacobs's rank barf biscuits." said Texas while he played his hand held game. This earned an offended "Hey!" from the elderly hippie.
They all looked at him expectantly.
Mike gave them a look and waved his right hand lightly in front of him."It was nothing, besides if it was you know I would tell you guys." Mike replied smoothly. Their gazes did not change, he huffed and stuffed his hands back in his pockets. "Look, I'm gonna go check in with Chuck okay? And I'm telling you, everything's fine, I'm sure of it. I'll tell you if anything out of the ordinary happens but I'm telling you that won't happen." Mike turned on his heel then walked off making his way out leaving the others to watch him as he left. 'I hope…'
Mike walked around car parts and junk piles hearing the echoes of his boots as they clanked against the ground as he made his way to Chuck's room which was on the top of the Burners' garage. It was completely isolated from all the other rooms all together and the others wondered why Chuck had wanted that room. There were many more available rooms out at ground level but yet he had insisted, when asked he just smiled mysteriously and said that it was just like his old home. They had assumed that it was destroyed along with his family since he always went quiet when family was mentioned.
The only way up was an elevator that Chuck had made himself. It was a whole elevator with four walls and a roof with precautious detail and was sturdy enough to hold a decent amount of people. It looked to be very professional and was no doubt preformed anything less than what was assumed. But at times, like now, when he wanted to be alone he would retreat up to his room and the elevator would be up there with him. No one else has ever been in the blond's room before, aside from Mike who had tied a rope to the railing to the edge of the room. He raised a brow at why there was an old mattress next to the elevator.
Mike grabbed the rope and started climbing using just his upper body weight. Chuck had always called him a show off when he did that, Mike would just smirked and shrugged his shoulders like he usually did and stated that "It's not that big a deal." to which Chuck responded with a scoff and claimed "Mikey, to most people three stories is a big deal." Mike would respond with another shrug and a smile every time.
Chuck's room was actually five stories high, while there were actually only three levels at the Burners HQ. The second floor where they kept their cars and the required equipment they needed to fix them, the first was where the Burners' different apartments like rooms were located. They had customized them to their own specifications and lastly the third floor were Jacobs's restaurant and the start of Chucks elevator was located, it went up about three stories and then had a metal walkway from the elevator to his room.
Finally reaching the top Mike swung himself over the railing and landed smoothly on the catwalk. He then walked over the catwalk and entered the wide opening of the room. Unlike the rest of the Burners' rooms that were previously garages, Chuck's room used to be a radio station and it was unfairly bigger than the other rooms but the height was half that of one of the Burners garages. There was an open vertical oval hole that allowed one a magnificent view of Motor City. Mike had always assumed that was the reason Chuck wanted this to be his room in the first place was the view you could see all of Motorcity from up there.
There was techy stuff everywhere you looked including schematics of Mutt, formulas which Mike could not comprehend but seemed to be for some kind of fuel, test tubes filled with different colored liquids, hand sized electronic chips lined up in some kind of safety case, and lastly there was Chuck sitting on his bed looking at the heart shaped necklace down in his hands.
"Hey Mikey..." said Chuck softly not tearing his eyes away from the shining accessory. Chuck had this weird ability that always told him know when Mike was around.
"Hey Chuckles." said Mike hoarsely. He cleared his throat as he slowly made his way into the room.
Chuck didn't look up.
Mike frowned at the sadness that was in the others voice and went to join Chuck on his bed sitting right next to him.
Hearing Chuck's depression took out all the anxiousness that had been pent up in Mike from wanting to know about the guy. He didn't even consider Chucks feelings. This guy could be his dead brother for all he knew and yet he kept pushing Chuck further and further until his usually fearful frown turned into one of depression. "Look Chuck, I'm sorry. You don't have to tell me who he is, I just really wanted to know why he was so special to you that you'd risk getting injured or even die for a picture of him." Mike looked away solemnly muttering "who could be more important to you than me…" under his breath.
Chuck let out a sigh and stood up.
"No. I'm the one who should be sorry."
He looked down at the picture in his hand.
"I mean it's not like it's really that big of a deal anyways…" Chuck went over to the widow that over looked Motorcity and placed his crossed arms down on the edge.
Mike joined him by the window placing his hands on the edge.
"Chuck, if you're not comfortable talking about it then you don't have-."
"No Mike, friends don't keep secrets from each other and especially not best friends!" Chuck exclaimed.
Chuck took a deep breath before letting it out slowly.
"Well…it all started a couple of years back. It was from back before I came to Motorcity, before I found out what had happened to Detroit. You see before I was a Burner-." He then turned to Mike. "-I was a Teku"
Chuck turned to Mike who seemed to be listening intently. He pushed his bangs back, his voice became lighter and feminine, his light blue eyes showing nothing boring into the golden brown that faced him.
"And back then I went by Karma."