Chapter 2

The beaten-up old mini rolled into the salvage yard exactly fifteen minutes and forty-one seconds later.

"This doesn't look very promising," Chase groaned, squinting out the windshield, which desperately needed to be replaced.

"That Callie lady said it's the best place in MegaKat City," Jenna said, sticking her head out the window. "These guys are supposed to be really good."

Chase scoffed. "How do we know how reliable this Callie-lady is?" she asked. "For all we know, she's sent us to a slaughter house."

"She had glasses…and a briefcase. How bad could she be?" Jenna said, exasperated.

"What were these guys names again?" Chase asked, avoiding the question

"Tom and Jake, I think," she replied. "Wouldn't bet my life on it though."

They rounded a bend piled sky-high on either side with scraps of metal.

"Here it is!" Jenna said excitedly as they came upon a garage with four or five cars parked in front of it. "Wow. They look busy," she commented. She pulled her head in as she realized theirs was by far the most trashed of all of them.

"Splendid," Chase said. "Now get out and find someone."

"What? Why me?"

"What if they need us to move the car and I've already cut the engine?" Chase asked matter-of-factly.

"All right, all right," Jenna grumbled, pushing open the door and sliding down out of the car.

She tiptoed trough the line of cars, not touching anything – things had an annoying tendency to break when she touched them.

"Hello?" she called softly. "Jake and Tom?"

"Who's Tom?"

She yelped and spun around. "Whozzat?" she asked, scanning the yard franticly.

"Down here."

She looked down and saw a brown tail and a pair of black shoes sticking out from under a shiny, green car; and then a blue jumpsuit, brown paws and finally, a matching head topped with a red cap.

"Sorry about that," he said, cleaning a greasy wrench on the pant-leg of his jumpsuit. "We're pretty busy today."

"Yeah, I can tell," Jenna said, keeping her eyes on him. "…Tom?"

"Jake," he corrected her, pushing himself to his feet. "Who's Tom?"

"Nobody of any real importance. Moving on. Our car's busted," she replied, a little too quickly.

Jake followed her eyes and gave out a low whistle. "You can say that again," he said. "What happened? You guys get into a fight with an eighteen wheeler?"

"No," she sighed, "it's just old…REALLY old…and slightly battle scared."

"Slightly?" Jake asked, walking over to the car.

He examining the body, scratching his chin and ears in turn.

"Can I turn it off?" Chase asked.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Sure," Jake replied. He obviously hadn't noticed her before.

"Positive? Once it's off it takes much persuading to get it back on. It's very temperamental!" she warned him.

"That's alright. It's fine where it is," he assured her, bending down to check the wheels.

"Does it need a lot of work?" Jenna asked, joining him on the ground as Chase killed the engine and hopped out.

"Boy, does it ever," Jake said in amazement. "Have you considered getting a new car?"

"We can't – " Jenna started. Chase shoved her in the ribs with her heel. "Ow! Why must you abuse me?"

"How much will it cost to fix it, do you think?" Chase asked, ignoring her friend.

"Depends on what you want done," Jake said.

"It just needs to run," she replied, sinking to the ground next to them.

"In that case, I'll need to examine the engine, then check under the car. Could you give us half an hour? We should have a pretty good estimate by then."

"Sure," Jenna said with a sigh. "Is it all right if we stay here? You know, no car and all that jazz."

"Not a problem," Jake said, getting to his feet. "There's not much to do here though."

"That's okay," Jenna said, pulling a book out of her purse, "I'm set for several hours."

Jake smiled at her and opened his mouth to speak –

"We?" Chase asked, suddenly snapping back to reality – she had been staring under the car, trying to see what was wrong. Needless to say, she failed miserably. It all looked the same to her. "There's more?"

"I told you that already," Jenna snarled. "Remember? Miss Callie said…"

"Callie?" Jake said, his ears perking up. "She sent you here?"

"Yeah," Jenna replied. "She said you guys were the best."

"You are, aren't you?" Chase asked, still squatting by the tire.

"Heck yeah we are!"

A yellow tom stood by them now, cleaning his hands of grease on a white handkerchief. "What's the problem, ladies?" he asked, standing over Chase.

"Jam jar's up the pictures," Chase replied, still examining the mess of metal.

"What jam jar?" he asked.

"It's knackered."

"What's knackered?"

"The car's busted!" Jenna interrupted.

"Oh. That I can fix. So where is it?" he asked, looking around the lot.

Chase banged on the rims. "You're looking at her."

Chance stared at the white mini and burst out laughing. "This thing still drives?" he asked.

"Well not anymore!" Chase snapped, jumping to her feet. "That's why it's here!"

"Hey, cool it lady!" Chance snapped back.

"You first, knob-head!"

"Why I oughta…"

"Go ahead!" Chase growled. "I could take you any day!"

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!"

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!"

"Oh YEAH?"

"YEAH!"

"OKAY!" Jenna yelled pushing Chase into the car. "I think we've established that 'oh' and yeah' do go well together. Now, for the sake of my sanity, GO TO YOUR CORNER!" She pointed to a particularly large scrap heap.

"I go wherever I want!" Chase snapped back. "And right now, I'm going…" she looked around and found a small path leading deep into the scrap yard, "…OVER THERE!" She stormed off, hands in her pockets, bag swinging across her chest, and disappeared down the path and around a heap of rubbish.

"Sorry about that," Jenna said. "She's got a bit of a bad temper."

"Didn't notice," Chance growled sarcastically.

Jenna ignored him. "So…I think I'll leave you gentlemen to your work. I will…go follow her. Be back in thirty minutes," and she set off at a jog after Chase.