Chapter 9: Mechanically Sound
Neon City, The SNaXX Dimension, 3023
"So you just… left Alpha and the other Brat Girls behind with the vague promise that you might come back and free them all some day?" Tawna asked, watching Garnet carefully, a hint of skepticism in her tone. "I mean," the bandicoot woman went on with a light chuckle that had something faintly nasty about it, "You did make good on that promise, right? If nothing else, you liberated those three Brat Girls in your patrol… right?"
"Tawna, what're you doing?" Coco asked quietly, but the elder bandicoot ignored her, only eyeing Garnet with a firm, unwavering gaze.
Garnet shifted uncomfortably in her seat, awkwardly reaching forward to push the wrapper her burger had been served in to the far side of the table, the bat girl clearly trying to avoid the conversation topic. "That's… Well, you see…" She grimaced. "Look, I wanted to help them, okay?" she insisted. "It's not my fault I fell through a one-way time-space rift when I did."
"So you just forgot about them?" Tawna demanded, her eyes narrowing. She wasn't even trying to hide her disapproval now. "You just said to yourself, 'Well, they're screwed. Nothing I can do about it. Oh, well! Life goes on… for me!' Do I have that about right?"
"Hey," Garnet started warningly, "Do not…" She paused for a moment to let her breath out in a low whoosh, not wanting her anger to get the better of her. "Don't assume to know how I think, alright? Of course I wanted to go back and help them, but I didn't have the means to do so. The best I could do was to just try and, well, keep myself safe," she concluded. "I mean, assuming that it was possible for me to go back and free Alpha and the others, that wouldn't mean much if I couldn't even manage to stay alive. Besides, Alpha's probably…" She hung her head. "She's probably gone by now anyway."
"So that's it? You just gave up on them?!" Tawna exclaimed. "You didn't even try to find a way back?!"
"Well, what I was supposed to do, according to you?" Garnet demanded, her fur visibly bristling. "Research quantum physics every day for the rest of my life, come to understand the interwoven layers of reality itself and open my own rift portals? Life isn't as simple as that, Tawna! Sometimes, you just have to accept that there are certain things beyond your power! Things like…" She bit her lip. "Things like saving those who mean something to you. Besides, who are you to judge me?" she then asked coldly. "You've got all your buddies right here at this table. It's not like you've ever had to leave anyone behind and fend for yourself."
"Uh-oh," Coco, Crash, Dingodile, Aku-Aku and the Quantum Masks all muttered in perfect unison. Even as they spoke, Tawna was already leaping to her feet, her blue eyes livid, her orange fur appearing bristled due to rage. She drew her cutlass with the swiftness of a lightning bolt and immediately had it pointed at the spot between Garnet's eyes, much to the bat girl's bewilderment and alarm.
"Outside! Now!" Tawna barked, paying no mind to the fact that everyone in the restaurant was staring at her. "I said, we'll settle this outside! Come on! Get up!"
"Oi! Ain't you bein' just a little bit—?" Dingodile started, but Tawna turned her head with almost supernatural speed and shot him an acidic glare that made him fall silent instantly. The dingo-crocodile hybrid visibly sagged in his seat, quietly picking up his soda and slurping it warily.
"T-Tawna…?!" Garnet managed, her eyes wide, having no idea what to make of her fellow adult's behaviour.
"Out!" Tawna barked again, pressing the very tip of her cutlass against Garnet's face lightly - not enough to break the skin, but enough to show that she wasn't kidding around. Terrified, Garnet slowly moved out of her seat, warily turning towards the restaurant's exit. She felt Tawna's cutlass press up against her back as she did so. Cautiously, Garnet started walking, Tawna keeping her at knife-point all the while.
"What do we do, tykes?" Dingodile asked Crash and Coco uncertainly in a hushed voice. "I ain't never seen her fly off the handle like this. Granted, I've only been going out with her for a little over a month, but still, this is some fair dinkum madness on her part if I've ever seen it."
"We'd better head out there," Coco stated, getting up. "Before they do anything—"
"Monumentally stupid!" Lani-Loli finished for her, the neurotic mask starting to hyperventilate again.
"Aye, this is some bad juju waiting to happen," Kapuna-Wa mused.
"Troubling," Akano said, nodding(?) in agreement.
"Even I can't be positive about this," said Ika-Ika's more optimistic persona.
"I sense a lot of anger in Tawna," Aku Aku confirmed. "I fear that she may indeed do something rash if left unchecked."
The group made their way outside (though not before Crash dropped a couple Wumpa coins into the tip jar on the restaurant's main counter) to find Garnet and Tawna standing at opposite ends of the nearby waiting platform from which hover taxis regularly came and went, Garnet still looking terrified while Tawna just scowled at her from afar.
"You told me not to assume how you think!" Tawna called over the roar of passing hover cars, her dyed buzz cut ruffling in the breeze. "I'll thank you to not assume anything about me, either! Now, brace yourself!" she declared, raising her cutlass.
"Tawna, I'm not duelling you!" Garnet responded in what she hoped was a firm tone and not one that expressed how afraid she felt. "This is crazy! I…! I don't even have a weapon!" This wasn't exactly true; she did have one means of combating Tawna's cutlass and grappling hook, but she hoped to avoid using it, and not just because she didn't want a fight to begin with…
"You said that your world's Crash could use his Mojo tattoos to pull off all kind of tricks. Who's to say that you can't to the same?" Tawna jeered. "Or are you too cowardly to fight as well as being too cowardly to save your comrades?"
"Tawna, this is way out of line!" Coco snapped as she and the others hurried onto the scene. "What would they say?"
Garnet had no idea who 'they' were, but the subject seemed to make Tawna hesitate, a look of shock passing over her face for a brief moment, as though she were horrified at her own actions, but then her expression hardened.
"They… are… DEAD!" she screeched, flailing her cutlass about wildly as she spoke, as though she had lost her mind. "They're… They're gone! Forever!" she went on, her words becoming distinctly tearful. "I had to leave them behind and try to move on! Little Miss Brat Girl over here has no excuse! Her friends could still be alive! Unlike… Unlike mine." With that, she sunk to her knees, her cutlass falling from her hand, and broke down into heaving sobs, unable to keep herself together any longer. Coco walked over to her, knelt down and pulled her into a hug, trying to comfort her. Garnet, meanwhile, was flabbergasted, but she was slowly starting to piece the whole thing together in her mind.
"So, you had to leave behind people you cared about, too," she summarised quietly, walking over to the emotionally compromised Tawna. "That's why you lashed out at me; you couldn't stand that someone else might've had to go through something like that."
Tawna, whose entire body was quivering with great, hiccoughing sobs, suddenly looked up at Garnet, tears running down her cheeks. Her woeful expression then became a furious scowl and she reached up to wipe her eyes.
"You… You have NO IDEA WHAT I WENT THROUGH!" she roared, and with an angry scream, she leapt up, snatching up her cutlass as she went, and lunged at Garnet, but Garnet was already leaping back in an expertly executed backflip, the tribal tattoo on her wrist glowing an electric blue. Tawna stared at it, and then she chuckled coldly. "So you do have some tricks up your sleeve," she hissed, a deranged grin forming on her face. "Guess that means I don't have to hold back!" She reached for her grappling hook and began swinging it like a spiked ball on a chain in one hand, keeping her cutlass at the ready in the other.
"Then…" Garnet started nervously, but then her expression grew serious. "Then I won't, either," she stated, deciding that if Tawna was so insistent on a fight, then she could have one. As Tawna had said, Garnet did have tricks up her sleeve, but the adventurous bandicoot had no idea just what she was dealing with. No idea whatsoever…
Tawna suddenly lashed out with her grappling hook, attempting to strike Garnet from afar, but the bat girl side-stepped it almost effortlessly, her Mojo tattoo again glowing as she did so. The former minion of Cortex then curled her hand into a fist, the tattoo on her wrist shimmering brighter than before. She then very suddenly opened her hand and thrust her palm forward, creating a visible shockwave of magical energy that knocked Tawna off her feet, sending her rolling along the ground several feet, almost rolling over the edge of the taxi platform, which would've sent her plummeting a hundred feet through hover car traffic to the gardens far below.
"A Force push?!" the bandicoot woman spluttered in disbelief as she picked herself up, staring at Garnet with a mixture of disdain and awe. "That's not possible!"
"Not a Force push - a Mojo pulse," Garnet elaborated. "The end result's pretty much the same, though."
"Is that a fact?" Tawna asked nonchalantly before suddenly throwing her cutlass at Garnet from afar. The pirate blade whirled through the air like a boomerang, flying straight at the bat girl…
…Who leapt forward at the last possible second and caught the weapon by the hilt, holding it smartly in one hand. She couldn't help smirking at Tawna.
"Those who are trained in the ways of the Mojo warrior are pretty hard to get the drop on, and rest assured…" She paused, holding up the hand of her tattoo-bearing arm, drawing a pattern in mid-air with her finger before continuing her speech. The pattern formed a set of glowing letters that spelt out the bat girl's first name in cursive:
Barista
"…My world's Crash Bandicoot and Aku Aku trained me well," she concluded.
"Whoa…" Tawna found herself saying. She then shook her head, as though trying to shake her awe away. "I mean, hmph! So you can pull off a few feats of stage magic. That doesn't make you any sort of 'warrior'."
"Attack me again, and I'll show you just what this sort of warrior can do," Garnet said, beckoning Tawna slyly with her finger.
"Are you… Are you challenging me?" Tawna asked, her anger having dispelled somewhat to be replaced with intrigue and a faint hint of mischief.
"I'm warning you," Garnet replied, still smirking that sly, smug smirk. Tawna allowed herself a daring grin, and then she leapt at Garnet with a flying kick, letting out an over-the-top, anime style battle cry as she went. Garnet, meanwhile, reached into her pocket without a word, pulling out a glowing green orb. 'Well, guess it's time I let everyone in on the secret,' she thought to herself, and with that thought, she thrust the orb down to the ground at her feet. There was a bright flash of green light that made Crash, Coco and Dingodile raise their arms to shield their eyes, and then—
"H-Huh?!" Tawna found herself sitting on the ground before the big blue thing that her flying kick had harmlessly bounced off of, staring up at said big blue thing.
The big blue thing with a muscular body, beady eyes, jagged teeth and strong arms ending in claws that seemed to emanate a frosty aura. The bandicoot woman shrieked in alarm and scrambled back, wide-eyed. She then heard a familiar chuckle and caught sight of Garnet sitting atop the powerful ice monster, looking quite pleased with herself.
"You wanna call it a draw?" the bat girl asked cheekily.
Tawna could only respond with a meek, nervous chuckle, slowly nodding her head.
"THIS is the power of the Mojo!" Garnet proclaimed in over-the-top fashion, raising her arms for dramatic effect. North mimicked her gesture, roaring proudly as he did so, leaning back so as to face the sky…
…Causing Garnet to cry out as she lost her grip and slid off the Titan, landing on her rear behind him. North turned to face her, looking down at her with an awkward chuckle of a growl, putting a clawed hand behind his head sheepishly. Crash, Coco, Dingodile, Aku Aku, the Quantum Masks and even Tawna shared a good-natured laugh at Garnet's expense.
"Well, I never said my power was limitless," Garnet said quickly, trying to save face despite the embarrassed blush forming on her cheeks. "Heck, it's probably not even over nine thousand…"
The transport tube deposited Neil onto a street in an upper part of the West District, the young teenager's fists clenched, his eyes downcast. He stood there in silence for several long seconds, and then—
"Argh! I'm such an IDIOT!" he cried in frustration, his outburst going unacknowledged by the trash-collecting robots nearby, the automatons paying the young Cortex no mind as they went about scooping up any discarded paper cups or candy bar wrappers and tossing them up into their open lids, the walking bins ever-vigilant in their task of keeping the streets clean.
Neil started walking, careful not to get too close to the trash bots as he went; while their programming prevented them from actively harming civilians, there had been a few… incidents where they had grabbed passerby by the ankles and attempted to literally dispose of them, having mistaken them for trash due to their attire. Indeed, Neil's damaged shorts and t-shirt that was torn in several places certainly might look like they were ready to be thrown away, but that was a deliberate fashion statement on his part - a defiance towards and rejection of fashion conventions, and it wasn't the first time he'd worn something that might raise an eyebrow or two. Even well after transitioning, he still chose to wear clothing that was stereotypically associated with his former gender, with his favourite of such garments being a short black skirt with a ring of silver spikes all around the waist. He liked to pair it with a dark purple tank top that had the words 'Deal With It' emblazoned on the front in hot pink letters that were stylised to look like they were spray-painted on. In fact, he had half a mind to go home and change into that particular set of clothes right now - it would certainly go some way to alleviating his current mood.
'Maybe I'll even throw on some tights,' the boy thought to himself. 'I've been wanting to show off those ocean green ones I got for my birthday… Oh, who am I kidding? I'm just trying to distract myself from current events! Face it, Neil - it was totally dumb of you to just abandon Barista like that! You finally make a new friend outside of your LGBT support group and you ditch 'em the moment something bad happens!'
Neil sighed heavily. He felt so stupid for having just run off like that. What did Barista think of him for doing that? He'd promised to help her find her way around this district only to leave her hanging!
"Ugh! What was I thinking?!" he moaned quietly, stopping and putting his head in his hands. "It's too late to go back there now; she's probably gone about finding her own way by this point… or maybe she just took the next train back the way she came and cut her losses." He lowered his hands slowly, looking down at himself, at his combat boots, his intentionally tacky clothes, his painted fingernails, his bare wrists…
Wait. Bare wrists?
"Wha…? My bracelet! Where is it?!" Neil cried, finally noticing that his trans pride bracelet was missing. "Oh, man, don't tell me I've gone and lost another one! Oh that's just great, Neil. It's not enough for you to keep losing friends - you have to lose your belongings while you're at it!"
Now even more exasperated with himself, Neil strode briskly past the trash bots, one of them glancing up at the boy briefly before returning its attention to a huge wad of chewing gum on the walkway, the robot's limited AI having no idea how to go about detaching the sticky substance from the ground. Neil made his way past the row of shops, most of which were, of course, food-centric. He wasn't hungry, but his throat was starting to become a little parched. He was nowhere near the smoothie bar he had originally set out for, but maybe he could pick up a bottle of diet soda from one of these places…?
Clink. Clatter!
"Aw, graham crackers!"
Neil looked up from his mopey stride at the sound of someone exclaiming in frustration with a distinctly Southern accent. He found himself standing before a small building that looked like a garage, the sliding door wide open to reveal a sort of workshop, the walls on either side lined with tyres, hub caps and fuel canisters. A dark blue hover car was propped up on a holo-jack, someone positioned under the vehicle, only their legs visible, black waterproof boots with blue tips donning the person's feet.
"Ah ain't got no idea where that there lug nut went bouncin' off to!" the mechanic exclaimed as she wrenched herself out from under the vehicle, revealing herself to be an anthropomorphic individual with pale brown fur, a pink snout and twin pigtails of blond hair. She was clad in a one-piece light blue jumpsuit, black gloves, a hot pink scarf and a matching cap with sport goggles resting atop it. She had bright green eyes, animalistic round ears on the sides of her head and a long, thin, furless tail protruding out from behind her. Parts of her outfit seemed to be stained with motor oil, which she verbally called attention to as she sat up, a plasma wrench in one hand. "Doggone it, Ah went an' got kerosene on mah fave-a-rit scarf. Oh, howdy!" she then said brightly, noticing Neil standing there at the workshop's entrance. "Welcome tuh CTR Mechanics! What kin Ah do ya fer?"
"Huh? Oh! Um… I was just…" Neil began awkwardly, not having meant to intrude on the mechanic or her work. The mechanic, on her part, chuckled knowingly.
"Cat got yer tongue, kiddo?" she asked playfully as she got to her feet, the futuristic wrench still in her hand, the tool pulsating with a faint green glow. "Then again, Ah prob-lee shouldn't be sayin' that. Half o' mah clients are cats, after all, or 'anthropomorphic felines'. Gotta be politically correct an' all that."
"Uh… huh," Neil said slowly, barely able to understand the young woman's accent, which, not to be indelicate, was thicker than cold custard. "I should probably—" he began, but the mechanic girl cut him off.
"Hot dawg on a sesame seed bun!" she exclaimed suddenly, scrambling over to him, closing the distance at an alarming rate, her tail bobbing about as she moved. "Ah ain't never seen a boy wearin' nail polish!" she cried, taking hold of Neil's right hand in a grip that may have been firmer than intended. "An' those clothes… Well, they're 'bout ready fer greener pastures, Ah done reckon," she said with a light chuckle. Her smile faltered as she stared at Neil's pale blue face. "Hang on a tick… Is that… eyeliner? And lipstick?" she asked, gazing at Neil's face with a mixture of bafflement and awe. Neil, on his part, was wide-eyed. He wasn't used to having a stranger right up in his personal space. "Ah ain't never seen black lipstick before, let alone on a boy's face… You testin' them fancy cosmetics fer pocket money or somethin'?"
"Testing…?" Neil repeated, developing an indignant expression. "No! No, this is all just… This is how I present myself, okay?" he elaborated firmly, folding his arms over his chest.
"Well, Ah'll be…" the mechanic mused, still seeming genuinely awed by Neil's attire and cosmetics. "Ah'd never have the nerve tuh walk around lookin' like that. You've got some gen-yew-wine moxie, kiddo, Ah'll give ya that."
Neil scoffed, but there was a hint of knowing amusement in his tone when he next spoke. "Moxie is one word for it, I suppose," he mused aloud, a small smile appearing on his face. "I'm Neil," he said, holding out his hand. The mechanic stared at it before slowly, warily reaching out to meet the appendage with her own, as though worried she might contract something from the boy's painted nails. He chuckled. "They don't bite," he assured her.
"Ah knew that," the mechanic responded quickly, her cheeks reddening ever so slightly, embarrassed knowing that the young Cortex had caught on to her uncertainty. "Name's Pasadena O'Possum. Ah keep this here place runnin' like a well-oiled machine, which is what Ah find mahself fixin' most days. You're a lil' young tuh be behind the wheel from the looks o' ya, but if ya ever git yer hands on an automobile in the future, bring it here an' Ah'll give it a right proper tune-up, no strings attached. You provide the car an' cash, Ah'll provide the elbow grease… along with any other greases y'all might need fer yer ride."
"Cool… I guess," Neil said. "So, uh… How's business?"
"Well, ya might say that it's bin all business an' no pleasure 'round here lately," Pasadena declared, turning to face the interior of her workshop. She exhaled deeply. "Ah love cars, Ah really do, but sometimes, Ah'd just like tuh pack up an' relocate to a nice sandy beach in the tropics… while there's still some unspoiled tropics left in this here fancy, ultra-modern world. Yeah, Ah kin see it now - me stretched out on one o' them fold-out chairs under a big, shady umbrella on a nice big beach, a nice big drink in hand… an' a dancin' hula girl walkin' over with nice big…" She cleared her throat. "Nice big bags o' ice fer mah drink." A dreamy look passed over her face for a long moment, and then she shook her head. "Anyhoo, Ah gotta git back tuh mah work, Neil. 'Twas nice meetin' you an' all, but…" She exhaled deeply, "These proton transmissions ain't gonna fluid themselves." On that note, she started forward, glancing back at Neil with a warm smile that showed some hints of sadness, and then the opossum proceeded to clamber back under the jacked-up hover car, softly singing to herself as she started to tighten - or possibly loosen - another lug nut. "When Ah was just sixteen, Ah had a car that was lean an' mean, put a dice pair in mah window, 'twas the coolest thing Ah'd seen…"
"That was… interesting," Neil mused quietly to himself as he went on his way. "Could tell that she was kinda sad under the hood, though." He then smirked. "'Under the hood'. Oh, God, Neil…" he said with a quiet chuckle, amused yet exasperated at his own unintentional pun. He soon came across a parked food truck, the vendor selling frosty beverages made with shaved ice. Neil glanced back at CTR Mechanics, an idea occurring to him…
"…We've got roadie pride forever," Pasadena concluded her song a few minutes later as she set the last lug nut in place, the oil change having gone smoothly. With that, she was done - another hover car was road ready. Well, sky ready, rather. She pulled herself out from under the vehicle, flicked one of her blonde ponytails out of her face and sat up. She set her tools aside and was just getting to her feet when she heard footsteps. She looked up in time to see Neil step into view at the workshop's entrance, a beverage in a large paper cup in each hand, a straw poking out of each container's lid.
"Ah… I mean, I thought you might like a cold drink after all that work," he said modestly, an awkward blush forming on his face. He felt a little silly; was he really trying to do something nice for someone he'd just met… again? At least when he'd agreed to escort Barista, it hadn't been completely out of nowhere.
Pasadena looked surprised, but then she smiled, putting a hand on her hip. "Well, ain't you just the sweetest young thang," she mused, stepping forward and holding out her hand. Neil handed her one of the Wumpa Whips he'd purchased and the two drank in silence... save for their unified slurping. They stared out the workshop's entrance, watching the hover cars go by against a background filled with towering skyscrapers, just enjoying the moment.
A brief moment of respite in life, which was otherwise insane… or perhaps N. Sane.
'Yep. Here I go again, making friends the only way I know how,' Neil mused privately. 'With any luck, third time's the charm and I won't mess it up like I did with Barista… or Megumi.'
…Yeah, the latter half of this chapter was really just an excuse to have a Pasadena cameo. Still, that's an interesting tidbit - knowing that Neil was friends with Megumi, Barista Garnet's roommate, at one point.
The 25th anniversary is only a couple weeks away at the time of writing. Here's hoping we'll at least see the announcement of a new Crash game.
Also, the song referenced was 'Brony Pride', an original song by Forest Rain Media on YouTube. I just tweaked some of the lyrics to make it more about cars than, well, cartoon ponies.