Disclaimer: Dudes, two stories later and I still don't own the mice. Damn my luck...
'Tou short for otou, the Japanese word for father.
Throttle, Modo, Vincent, Charlene Davidson, Rimfire, Chef Andy Steinhaur, One-Eyed Jack Monterrey are all characters from the original show. Silva (Modo's Momma) and Auri (Modo's lost wife/mate) are my characters, along with any others that pop up. Thanks!
Shattered, Repaired, Renewed: Brothers
Chapter 2
The little boy giggled madly as he was set down in the garage bay in a small playpen off to the side of the various workbenches and tool boxes scattered about. Charley smiled at the sight as the toddler began to play with some of his toys. "Just like when I was a kid."
"That's right, I had heard that you are a third generation mechanic," the young man said respectfully. "If you have need of anything here, please let me know. Welcome to the High Roller Garage."
"A pleasure to be here," she said politely. "This is Throttle and the loud mouth is Vinnie."
"Hey," the mouse protested. He gave her a dirty look before glancing over at the other mechanic. "So, Suzie, how do you know about Charley-girl? Oww!!" (Throttle had just smacked him in the back of the head.) "What?!"
"My name is Tsu," the Asian mechanic bit out. "T-S-U, Tsu." He calmed after a moment. "Tsu Kawasaki, at your service."
"I'll bet you hate Johnny Cash," she said with a rueful smile.
"Only the one song," he replied. "'A Boy named Sue', what a joke."
"I understand completely. Charlene Davidson, call me Charley," the girl said.
"Oh, I know who you are," he said cheerfully. "One of only five women in 700 years to win the Flyers Tournament since accurate record keeping started."
"The what Tournament?" Throttle asked.
"The Flyers Tournament," Tsu replied. "The most dangerous race on Earth."
"It's not that bad," she said.
"Says one of the winners," Tsu said sarcastically. "The location of the track changes with each year. The course changes length at the whim of the organizers, the most powerful criminals in the entire Underworld. They claim so that no one can study the course or sabotage it to gain an advantage. Whoever reaches the finish line in the most pieces first wins."
"Sounds like my kind of track," Vinnie said with a manic grin.
Throttle raised an eyebrow at the man. "The most pieces?"
"It could get a little rough out there," Charlene said with a shrug.
"A little rough? It's a no-rules war zone! Riders are allowed to pack their own weapons on the track, and are encouraged to take out as much of their competition as they want!"
Charley glanced over to the mice beside her, one of which was getting a twitch in his left eye. "It wasn't that bad, really."
"No, not that bad," Tsu agreed. "That's just the first stretch. Then it gets even better! Snipers are placed all over the field to try and thin out the slower ones, and most of the track is peppered with land mines!"
Vinnie looked ecstatic. "When's the next tournament?! I want in!!"
"Vincent, no. We came here for a reason and racing is not it," Throttle said firmly.
"Aw, man," the white mouse pouted.
"So, what exactly did you think was worth all that trouble, Charley-girl?" Throttle asked.
"A wish," she answered.
"Any wish within the bounds of human ability. You see, the organizers make more money on this race than all the other racing events on this planet combined," Tsu explained. "To get riders to take such insane risks, they have to offer a prize worth dying for. They say John F. Kennedy was assassinated because of one of those wishes."
"And you won," Throttle said with a look at his girl.
She nodded. "I was 17."
"How did you even get into this?"
She looked down, a slight blush on her face. "I won the only public slot in the race."
"You mean you won the qualifier?" Vinnie asked.
"Yes and no. See, all the other riders are issued an invitation by their respective bosses. You know, Japanese yakuza, mafia gangs, drug runners, guys like that. Only one person outside of the Underworld gets invited to race. The winner of the Sutterfeild Tournament. They're crowned as the greatest rider on Earth, and thus get an automatic invitation."
"The Sutterfeild Tournament. The same one that Rimfire won," Vinnie said incredulously. "You won the Sutterfeild and the Flyer?! That's awesome!!"
"Yeah, well, the Sutterfeild winner doesn't exactly get a choice," she said wryly. "To keep the Flyer a secret, any one who gets an invitation and refuses, 'disappears.' And most of the winners never made it past the first stretch of the Flyer, so they 'disappeared' too. A lot of people thought the Sutterfeild trophy was cursed. That's the reason for the code that Tsu used when he met me. Its the code used to be sure you were invited to the Flyer."
Throttle gave her an odd look. "Charley, what did you wish for?"
She gave a small smile. "I'm not allowed to say. I'm sorry, but its part of the rules. If I tell anyone, the Underground has the right to revoke my wish."
"Ah. So how did you know about Charley if it's such a big secret?" Throttle asked, dropping the earlier subject.
The mechanic smiled. "Heard about her when I entered two years ago."
Charlene gave him an appraising look. "You won?"
"Yep. That's how I got out of the Kanto yakuza and got this garage," he said, glancing over to the crib where the little boy, Bic, lay sleeping. "His mother just dropped him off with me, never even told me she was pregnant. I couldn't raise a baby in a yakuza house, so I opted for the Tournament. Even if you don't win, they give you a free out for being brave enough to face near certain death." He smiled. "A new home, a new chance. I don't want him to ever have to worry like I did.
"So might I ask what brings you here? Come to compare jackets?" At the bikers' confused looks, he explained, "The winner gets a little something, like proof they ran the Flyer. Anybody who's got one of those jackets has automatic immunity and safety in any Boss's territory, out of respect. They earned it. Mine's upstairs. Your lady's currently wearing hers."
The two mice glanced back over at Charley with a new respect as they eyed the red butterfly of her black leather jacket. "Never knew you were such a bad mf, Charley-girl," Vinnie said admiringly.
"I've been telling you guys for years," she said in exasperation. "Tsu, we heard that some friends of ours stopped by here after the Sutterfeild. Have you seen them? Three, um, unusual kids with some tripped out bikes."
Tsu paused a moment, eying the three of them. "How unusual?"
Throttle pulled off his helmet.
"Oh, wow," the man breathed. "Is Mars starting a colony or something?"
"Might have to someday," Vinnie said flippantly, "but we're working on it not getting that bad."
"Vinnie," Throttle said with a shake of his head. "You know we're Martians, so I take it you've met Rimfire?"
"Rimfire, Thrash, and Link," Tsu said proudly. "Nice kids, but a shock to the system if you know what I mean."
"Are they okay?" Throttle asked. "We're here to get them home."
"Last I saw, they were a bit banged up but fine. Well, I've got their bikes, according to the boys they were trashed when they got them," the man explained.
"Trashed?" Charley frowned. "How bad?"
"I've never seen one working, so I have no idea how to go about fixing them, the fine-tuning stuff. But I can take care of everything else."
Charley smiled, "And I can teach you everything else about the fine tuning."
"You know how they work?" Tsu asked in excitement.
"I know how to make them go faster," she said with a devious grin.
"Master! Sensei!!" He cried, going to one knee before her. "Teach me thy ways!"
"'Tou?" A sleepy voice called.
"Sorry, Bic," Tsu said sheepishly. "Go back to sleep."
"Okies." The boy turned back over, popping his thumb in his mouth as he slept.
Charley smiled. "I always wanted to teach an apprenticeship."
"I'm at your disposal," Tsu said proudly. "I'll call Chloe and let her know you're coming over."
"Chloe?" Vinnie perked up at that. "Who's she?"
"The lead singer of Project M. They were the band playing at the Sutterfeild. Man, did you see that save Rimfire did? It was killer."
The three glanced at each other. "No, didn't get to see it."
"Seriously? Ask Chloe to tell you about it," he said with a smile. "It embarrasses the daylights out of her, but its worth it. That's why they got the Martians off the stage so fast, their way of repaying the favor. The girls took them all to Chloe's house. She knows me, so they stopped off and left their bikes with me to get fixed. But I'm in the middle of Bikers' Row here," he gestured outside, "so it wasn't safe for them to stay here."
"We appreciate all your help," Throttle said, reaching out to shake Tsu's hand.
"It's nothing," the man said as he walked with them to the door. "For the chance to work on bikes like those, I'd run the Flyer again."
&
Introductions had been made and a phone call was sent out. Chloe had called back with the all clear and an invitation to her house. Charley stayed behind with Tsu to help finish the bikes in case they were needed as the mice rolled out. Throttle had kissed Charley in full view of the bikers outside before they left, the crowd hooting and whistling as they finally broke apart. The girl had been too dazed to do much else but wave goodbye as they drove off.
"You know she'll get you back for that and not in the good way," Silva said over the private com unit.
"For kissing her goodbye? What's the matter with that?" Throttle asked.
"You should have kissed her longer; I don't think they saw you do it from deep space. She's not stupid, Throttle. And I hadn't thought you were either. She's not about to up and move to Vegas for the dating scene."
"It's not that."
"Then why the possessive streak?"
He didn't answer for a while, to the point that Silva thought he wouldn't answer her. "I'm not human. I can't give her the things a human could. I don't have anything to offer her, 'cept a name and a bike. I don't even have a house left on Mars.
"I can't even take my helmet off when we go on dates unless its
someplace we won't be seen. He could give her all of that. He even knew stuff about her that I didn't. I didn't know she was a legend on Earth. She never told me."
Silva sighed quietly. "Throttle, I might not know her very well, but I know she's not the kind of girl to play games. If she didn't' want to be with you, she would tell you outright. And you should know, she has her worries about you too."
"Huh? Why?"
The older mouse chuckled. "According to her, if you really wanted to, you could probably have half the female population of Chicago eating out of your hand."
"You're joking."
"Not at all. From what I've heard, not just from Charley, but from Andy as well, most of the city knows you three aren't human. And almost all of them don't care. A good many girls think you three are pretty cute."
"Oh." Throttle mentally shook his head in exasperation. They were supposed to be keeping a low profile, not be ready to go on public access channels for the Dating Game. "I guess we're not exactly subtle about things."
Silva laughed. "None of you three would know subtle if it up and knotted your tails. But don't try to change the subject, young man." He gave a guilty twitch. "I'm sure there are things that you haven't told her about your past. You both strike me as very private people. You have your reasons for not talking about certain things, and I'm sure she has hers. Maybe she was embarrassed about all the attention."
He nodded at that. Charley, for all her genius and pride in her mechanical creations, could be extremely shy about her own accomplishments. "Makes sense."
"As for the rest, Throttle-dear, you need to have faith in her. She loves you, not some other mechanic she just met today. She did just meet him today, right?"
"Yeah, just now."
"Then why worry?" The tan mouse found a smile as he considered her point. Charley wasn't some tease, and if her thing with Vinnie had been any indicator, she didn't take well to casual flirting. And if she someday wanted more than he had right now, he would find a way to give her what she needed. "Thanks, Silva."
She smiled. "Any time, dear."