Team Tiger Trouble
Kayden yawned as they left the gas station, the long hours of driving wearing on him just a little. In the back, Kaylie was no better, still completely plastered from the beer a while ago. Nova had assured her brothers that she was fine, but that their kind took longer to sober up than the humans did, and they served their drinks in larger glasses than was traditional back home.
Jaden looked to Kayden, then asked, “Anything on your mind?”
“Perhaps a little bit of friendly revenge. My battle brother’s team smeared something foul on our car, and I’d like to… Well, I don’t really know.” Kayden replied.
“You said Kiva’s a trickster and that he does practical jokes and pranks, right? Why not go the mercenary route and contract out this revenge?”
“I don’t suppose there’s anything wrong with that. I think Nova would have said something if involving others in a prank was against some sort of rules or social code.”
Nova spoke up with, “It depends on the prank, whether it is part of a prank war, and any rules of engagement that were set up before the first prank.”
Kayden replied, “I wasn’t informed about any rules of engagement.”
“Then contracting a prank is within the rules for your particular situation. Would you like me to contact Kivenaal and ask for his assistance?”
“No, I’ll do it. You alert Mal that we need to borrow Kiva a moment, so he needs a ship.”
“Message sent. Hunter and Forsaken Sky say ‘Hello’ for some strange reason.”
Jaden looked puzzled, before Kayden explained, “Hunter is Mal’s AI, like Nova is for me. Forsaken Sky is Mal’s ‘ship.’ That said, having his own battle station means that calling it a ship is like calling an airship a balloon.”
Just then, Kayden got a call. He tapped on Nova’s screen to answer, and Kiva immediately spoke, his voice a little bit deeper than the average person, with a slight musical hint to it.
“Kayden, Mal just told me to pack a bag and get on board the Polar Star to head to Earth, but he won’t tell me why.”
Kayden laughed, then said, “He won’t tell you why because he doesn’t know. I need your help.”
“Well, hopefully it’s not fighting help. I’m good, but right now, my tail is a bit… weak. I was sparring with Mal, and, well, you know how he recovers from everything stupid fast. So I tried to distract him by using the venom, but he didn’t seem to be affected by it.” Kiva replied.
“He was, he just had his pain tolerance adjusted after you stung him with those spines the first time.”
“Well, he told me that if I ever tried it again, he’d tie my tail in a knot, so I won’t be testing that theory. But if you need a fighter, I can get Mal.”
“No, we actually have need of your services.” Jaden explained.
“Oh, you need someone pranked. Or just a really good distraction? Are you planning a bank heist, because I can’t be involved in anything illegal, you know.”
Kayden laughed, then replied, “No, we’re in a road rally in junkyard cars. Perfectly on the legal side, other than a little speeding. One of the other teams smeared something horrible on our car. We would like to have our revenge.”
Kiva laughed, and he responded, “And you want me to go in blind? I mean, I can do something to every car in a parking lot, but it’d be a lot easier if I knew who is gonna get it.”
“I’m sending you a link to the Social Media chat room. The team in question is called ‘Greasy Lightning.’ I leave it up to you on what to do.” Kayden said, before ending the call. “Nova, send Kiva a link to the chat room.”
“Link sent.”
“And how is the car doing?” Jaden asked.
Nova hesitated, before replying, “No news is good news?”
Kayden slapped the armored chassis attached to his right arm, then said, “Nova, you’re a Level 7 AI, don’t play stupid. We know metal shavings in the oil are bad, and we know you were analyzing the oil and contamination to find out what is wrong.”
Nova replied with, “I hate saying this, but I couldn’t determine what the problem is. I checked the metal composition against the known Sinistra engine teardown and service manual, but this blend is not part of any known Sinistra bearing material. If I had to guess, this engine may have been rebuilt with aftermarket parts, and bearings installed that do not match the service manual.”
Despite being quite drunk still, Kaylie said, “So, what is the most common failure of this particular Sinistra engine?”
“That would be the crankshaft main bearings.”
Kaylie responded, “I liked you better when you were giving good news.”
In the Chat Room
UNREGISTERED_PARTICIPANT: When the shit hits the fan, the room gets messy. Someone is signed up to get a present.
