Silvercreek Lodges, Nehmenweld
Dawn broke on the team, huddled up in the Ilaris Itan ute’s bed and the cramped interior of the Frankencar. Not wanting to pay the considerable sum for a night in the lodges, they decided to just keep it simple and keep it cheap. At least the cars came with okay leather seats, with the three in the Imbe enjoying the comfort of front reclining seats, a feature that the cab in the Itan did not allow.
“Agh… My back hurts.” Jas, who did not have the comfort of a proper 3-person bench, had to sleep kind-of curled up, to fit between the wheel arches of the subcompact.
Alauran wipes his eyes and yawns. “Well, you get what you paid for.” He says, shortly after.
Lastly, TJ is awakened by the sound of the Ute’s door slamming closed, with the screech of the swapped inline-4 greeting him after, closing with a symphony of tire squealing.
“God, does he have somewhere to be?” TJ asks.
“I Imagine. We have to head for Hollenburg ourselves, don’t you know?” Al responds, jokingly.
“No, you’re the guy with the entire map imprinted in your brain. Now show me the way from memory if you know so well.” TJ quips.
“Exit here, take a right. Keep straight for a few kilometers until we reach the highway entrance, though I suppose that’s a bit difficult for you.” TJ shoots him a disappointed look. Al continues. “Then we drive on the highway until we reach the exit which says Hollenburg, so we end up somewhere in Hollenburg. The campground should have some kind of marked route, though we might not have to navigate to it using the map, since we can follow the other teams in the traffic, or the hearses.”
“The WHAT now?” Jas gives a shocked look.
“Oh right, they put a cemetery next to the fun-group-activity-joy campground.” Al answers.
“Great, traffic. We’ll catch up to Ianis when he demonstrates the safety features of the ute on some poor family of four.” TJ says, sarcasm laced throughout the sentence.
“Alright, let’s go then. Can’t let him leave us in the dust.” Al suggests.
“After breakfast.” Jas says.
Al looks at Jas and relents. “…After breakfast.”
Having chowed down on the stuff they brought with them, they set off after the ute, albeit at a much more pedestrian pace, contrary to the lightning-fast driving that Ianis is so fond of.
Of course, like the last leg, it has consequences. Soon after flying past a speed limit sign at well over twice the posted speed limit, police were more than on his tail. At a hundred miles per hour, the tires fought for traction in the rapidly changing conditions. Salted, grippy roadway often gave way to smooth sections of ice, and corners often came unexpectedly. He had this in mind, and commanded the vehicle with ferocity as the engine screamed with each straight, brakes smoking once it was time for a corner.
This…couldn’t last. Not with the stock brakes at least. After many cycles of approaching 120 miles per hour, and slowing back down to 40, the brakes began to fade. Eventually, a particularly nasty corner caused the inevitable. With a thousand swear words, the brakes became gas-powered, and the Ute added a hundred Syrkals to the maintenance of the guardrail, as he punched a hole through it, eventually coming to a rest in a glob of moderately-thick snow. Ianis forced the door open through the layer of white-and-brown goodness, and began shoveling and packing the snow to make an attempt at an escape. The landscape was devoid of any hiding places, and the snow only got thicker the further away from the highway you got.
The ute stubbornly refused to get unstuck and back on to the highway, as this model was never intended for extreme off-roading, being delivered with only rear-wheel-drive options, unlike the ‘prestigious’ V8 trim, which had 4x4 generously included. Eventually, Ianis’s ears perked up and heard the police sirens in the distance.
He ducked in to the car, and reached for the rifle. As soon as he did though, he froze.
Looking in the partially-folded side mirror, he observed a monster out of a fantasy novel. Eleven feet tall, giant, and under control of the police. Seeing this, he quickly pulled the rifle apart, and stuffed it in to the glovebox.
“Police! Exit the vehicle now!” A police officer shouted, the monster standing beside, ready to shoot off towards the ute and bash Ianis’s legs in. Further compelled by staring down the barrel of a shotgun, he stepped out of the vehicle.
“On the ground! Hands where I can see them!” The officer demanded, Ianis deciding that the fastest way would be to just cooperate now.
The cuffs went on, and soon enough, he was stuffed in the back of a manky-looking 30’s police car.
As soon as the door closed, they started moving. The officer in the passenger seat looked over at Ianis, and having nothing else to do besides monitor the radio, he decided to start doing paperwork en-route.
“What compelled you to drive well over twice the speed limit?” The officer asked.
“I have a job to do.” Ianis replied, staring at the spot where the wooden guardrail was pierced.
The officer rolled his eyes, before continuing. “What job requires such idiotic driving?”
Ianis turned and stared at the officer for a couple of seconds, before answering. “An important job.”
The officer decides he’s not going to hear anything useful from him, and cuts it off, sighing. They head to the police office, where he is jailed, vehicle being towed to the impound, after recovery from the snowbank. Upon discovery of the weapon, they decide to start a ‘thorough inspection’.
“Ugh… can’t they make driving a bit more exciting than this?” Jas asked.
“You’ve never driven a meter in your life. But no. These roads and the speed limit don’t allow for any spirited driving.” TJ responds, frustrated.
“The less exciting, the more safe.” Al adds.
TJ snorts. “Of course you’re the one to say that.”
They drive on for a bit longer, TJ slowly becoming more inattentive as the road continues to be boring for miles and miles.
“I wonder if they have radio in Nehmenweld.” Jas says, and reaches for the head unit’s power button.
“Isn’t that in tape mo-” Al tries to say, before being cut off by Freddie Mercury blasting through the speakers in the car.
TJ is violently brought back to consciousness as he tugs the steering wheel to the right, careening them off the highway with great speed, striking the raised curb hard, the suspension vocating its disapproval through a loud clunk. The vehicle then stops as it dives in to the snow.
“Fuck.”
“Teej, how about I drive next time?” Alauran suggests.
“How about we stop Jas from ever touching that thing” - He points at the cassette player in the center console - “ever again? How about that, since that’s the only evil in this entire vehicle?”
“It wasn’t my fault that it-”
TJ cuts him off. “Yes it was, and since you can’t lift a feather, go sit here and give it a jab of the accelerator when we tell you to do so.”
No time is wasted as the two exit the car, and begin the push, with Jas remaining inside for…mental support. And indeed pushing the accelerator whenever they think they’ve got it out.
With hours upon hours of pushing, compacting snow and murdering the clutch, they eventually get it out of the snowbank, with great difficulty. They get back up to speed, with the throttle being feathered as it tries to knock with every request of power.
“This bitch’s pulling now. Can’t take my hands off the thing before it decides the right direction is a wall, curb or barrier.” TJ says, now very frustrated at the car’s inability to work correctly. The suspension, not having appreciated the sudden meet-up with a raised curb, started pulling to the right, only increasing the ‘fun’ that TJ was having, babying the damaged engine.
As they start entering the final stretch in to Hollenburg, disaster strikes. TJ’s inattentiveness eventually makes his hands leave the steering wheel, sending the car sideways, and sending another unfortunate car off the road as well, it hitting the barrier, cracking off a good part of the fiberglass fender. Both cars come to a stop as TJ is awakened by the claxon, and Alauran’s shouting of various swear words.
The driver of the other car walks up to the Frankencar, both intrigued at the alien design of the car and frustrated that they probably racked up a good sum’s worth of damage.
“Excuse me, but you have just caused great damage to my vehicle. I request for you to provide an appropriate sum for the damages.”
TJ starts to sweat. “I…we do not have any currency with us.”
The driver rolled his eyes. “Then how will I cover my expenses?”
Al snatched the cassette deck from the back seats. “May we interest you in advanced music-recording technology?” He took the tape out of the deck, shoved it in to the player in the car, and pressed play, to which loud music started blaring. The eyes of the driver lit up.
“What technology powers this? Impeccable quality! This will more than cover my expenses. I have no need for this when I have the power of perfect auditory stimulation!” The driver motioned for the cassette deck, to which Al quickly removed the head unit from the car, and shoved both the cassette deck, the tapes, and the head unit in to the hands of the driver, who, in return, threw a bag of golden coins in to the car, before stuffing it all in his car and driving off with some urgency.
“I…” TJ stuttered for a bit.
“You’re welcome.” Al responded. TJ then stomped back on the gas and they headed for Hollenburg campground.
By the time that they arrive, a good three-quarters of everyone has already arrived. Lighting is set up, generators running, people setting up their camping equipment for the night. What is absent is Ianis and the Ute, however.
“Don’t see the Ute anywhere…” TJ comments, looking around the campground, and glancing over at the graveyard.
“Didn’t someone get arrested last time? With his speeding, we might as well head up to the police station to check up.” Al responds.
“We should ask…who was it who paid the bail? Jayde? Ah, screw it, someone at Shift Happens has to know.”
The two leave Jas to connect the power and set up the heater, while they go and pad over to the sizable HD-GVs.
Kasiya and Jayde looked over to see Alauran and TJ approaching them. “Hello there!” Kasiya said. “We’re just getting prepared for a trip into town.”
Jayde pulled his enchanted bag’s strap over his shoulder, then grabbed his oak cane. “A bunch of people managed to get themselves locked up for running from the police earlier. I’ll pay their fines, get them free, but I’m going to want repayment at some point.”
TJ looked at the two of them and began speaking. “Hey. We noticed that Ianis with the Ute is…absent. Got any news on him? Like, did he get murdered by those Dyre things? Or something like that?”
“We’re willing to pay his fine and bail, we scored some of those syr-things from some local who experienced his driving first-hand.” Alauran interjected, simultaneously pulling out a sizable sum of golden coins, and presenting it to the two. “Turns out, a tape deck is valuable? At least, it’s worth more to them than a ginormous fender being split in half.”
“Yeah, we had a bit of an issue with the tape player in the car and decided we didn’t need it anymore. So we gave it away when I had a severe minor accident.” TJ’s face turned sour, but that soon gave way to an exhausted expression.
Jayde pulled a sheet of parchment out of his bag, then made a quick motion over it with his left hand. Instantly, words appeared on the page, and Jayde checked over it. “Ianis managed to get thrown in jail for running,” he said.
Kasiya gave a quiet, low growl before shaking his head. “I’m going to have a word with him about that speeding problem of his,” he said, deciding to go with Jayde on this trip.
Al wastes no time. “I figured. Well, besides him shortening someone’s car by a few feet, but we would have seen him on the road if that happened.”
TJ looks over at the freshly painted Frankencar, now wearing a three-tone livery of partially melted brown snow, red front-end and white everything else, but most importantly the right wheel’s addition of some camber and angle. “So, about that accident. I kind of broke the steering during that. So could we-”
Alauran looks at TJ, before continuing. “It is of no issue, I will be driving from now on, at least until he stops whining about the car. We’ll be heading over to the police station with you, if that is fine.”
“Kaylie! While we’re dealing with retrieving the speeders,” Jayde called out, “mind checking over their car? TJ says he broke the steering.”
“Yeah, get me get my tools out of the truck,” Kaylie replied.
Jayde then looked to Alauran and TJ. “Kaylie will try her best to fix the steering. Once we get back, I’ll help in my own way.”
Kasiya took a long drink from his “canteen”, which happened to be a 10 liter jerry can with a seatbelt tied to the handle, complete with the Bricksley winged lion on the buckle’s release button, before slinging the seatbelt strap over his shoulder and letting the heavy metal can hang at his hip, banging lightly against his powered armor.
TJ sighs. “Thanks!” He shouted in the general direction of Kaylie.
Al waits a second before asking, “So…do we just hop in the vehicle with you, or do we limp the frankencar over to the police station?” He looks over at where Kaylie is, before returning his gaze to Kasiya, who had finished the swing of the giant canteen by then.
Jayde looked over at the pair, then said, “It’s less than a mile between here and the police station. I was going to walk it.”
Kasiya then added, “No offense, but I’m probably damn close to the weight of the frankencar right now with this armor on. Plus, as Jayde mentioned, it’s a relatively short walk. It’s not like one of my father’s 15 mile morning runs.”
“Fair, I guess.” Al responded, slightly embarrassed by the statements. He then prodded at TJ. “Come on, you can handle a bit of a walk, was only a bit of a wrestle with the wheel.” TJ groans, but turns in the direction of the entrance of the campground.
Kasiya chuckled, following Jayde to the police station.
Jayde had a map of Hollenburg open, a dot showing his current position. The ink-spot casually moved across the map as the four of them walked, showing that, yet again, this was one of Jayde’s many magical items.
As the quartet closed in on the police station, Jayde gave a light grimace. “I know that smell. They have trained Dyre here,” he said.
“That would certainly be one way to stop people, as I’ve heard it said, “doing a runner” after their car is stopped,” Kasiya mentioned. “From what I’ve heard, I’m just a bit shorter than one, a bit heavier than one, but I know I’m stronger than one.”
“Smells like dried meat to me.” TJ commented.
“Wonder if we’ll find Ianis in a few casts.” Al joked.
“They need a lot of meat to keep them well fed,” Jayde said. “A hungry Dyre listens to his or her instincts, not their handler’s commands. Your nose might not be sensitive enough to pick up the scent of wolves, or you’re naturally tuning it out.”
When Al joked that Ianis might have a few casts, Jayde said, “That’s certainly possible. They’ll have been trained to not bite and to not kill, but when in doubt, a Dyre is going to try to stop you from running. They have a certain amount of intelligence behind them. As they would put it, “Two-legs not run with one leg broken.” I’ve trained a few in my time, and got the scars to prove it.”
“Yeah, and from my experiences with sparring with him,” Kasiya said, “I feel bad for the Dyre.”
“I told you I’d fight with you as if you were one because you’re big enough and tough enough to handle it,” Jayde quipped.
TJ shudders. “Even if I were the size of you two I wouldn’t want to fight either of you, let alone something that doesn’t exactly have the intelligence to judge whether the body part they’re disabling is important or not.”
Al looks ahead, and with some squinting, made out something along the lines of ‘POLICE’ on a building close by. “I figure that’s where we’re supposed to be?”
“Oh, they have the intelligence to know that,” Jayde said. “That is what makes them scary. An animal might grab at your legs because instinct says if you take out a leg or two, the animal you’re hunting becomes easy prey. A Dyre might decide to go for your legs with a branch used as a club in the wild. Trained Dyre might not use weapons, but you’re still dealing with 600 pounds of wolf.”
“A bit over 270 kilograms,” Kasiya added.
When Al spotted the police station, Jayde nodded. “Yeah, that’s where we’re going.”
After dealing with the stairs outside, with Kasiya providing a strong reminder of his current weight as some of the bricks cracked, the four walked inside the police station.
Jayde went up to the receptionist and mentioned he was here to collect the people on his list, then slid the parchment through the slot in the thick glass window.
“It’ll take about 15 minutes to round up everyone,” The receptionist warned.
“The rest can find a way into our camp. My partner here,” he said, motioning to Kasiya, “however, might have a thing or two to say to Ianis.”
Ianis eventually walked over, still slightly damp from being forced to plant his face and the rest of him in to the snow. He gazed at the four, shooting a sour look at TJ and Al, following with a blank expression at both Jayde and Kasiya. He had a notebook and pen in one of his pockets, which he grabbed and gave to Jayde. “Fines and bail paid. No need for those to be paid again” It read, on the marked page, with someone’s signature in the bottom right. He added:
“Waiting for them to release the Ute. The cops scoured the entire thing for explosives after they found my rifle. They will not listen to me.”
“You ran,” Jayde said. “They’re trying to figure out what you were up to, what you were carrying, that caused you to decide not to stop for the police.”
Kasiya crossed his arms and glared down at Ianis.
Jayde looked over the notebook and gave a light nod. “You might want to back off on the speeding. Or at least stop when they spot you.”
Kasiya, on the other hand, spoke quietly. “Next time, I’ll bring my scythe and wear my black cloak.”
“Kasiya has a point. Malavera mentioned that neither of your cars were exactly safe, merely safe enough. You were made aware of the risks if you had an accident out here. These heavy 30’s cars, they’ll tear through your aluminum cars like a knife through tissue paper,” Jayde added.
Staring at Jayde, and especially Kasiya, Ianis took a few steps back. “I will do as you say. The person who paid for my incident has drilled this in to my head already. This will not happen again.” He looked over to TJ and Al. “And I expect a sizable amount of mockery from them.” TJ snorts.
Ianis continued: “Besides, I am well aware of my safety, or lack thereof. As for the activities of the police, they have no reason to scour the inside of the timing cover.” He scoffed, before asking: “I would like the booklet back.”
Jayde nodded and handed the booklet back to Ianis. “Actually, I’m not surprised they’re checking around the inside of the engine,” he said. “When motor-cars first started showing up around here, a few enterprising smugglers found out that sticking their “product” up in the valve covers, or in the timing cover if there was room, was a good way to hide things from the police. So half the time, they’re going to take the car apart.”
Kasiya, on the other hand, looked to the receptionist. “Could you relay to the officers currently disassembling Ianis’ car that the only thing he was smuggling was pure stupidity?” he asked. When she smirked and grabbed the radio, Kasiya looked back toward Ianis.
“I-” Ianis tried to voice an objection, but elected to just shut up instead. TJ and Al let out a chuckle. Ianis sighed. “That helps. Thanks.”
He shot a look at Kasiya, before regretting it immediately and turning around to face a wall.
“So we’re done here? Is he free to go?” TJ asked, trying to get the attention of both the receptionist and Kasiya.
“He is,” the receptionist said.
Kasiya nodded. “You can retrieve the ute with the frankencar once we get back.”
Jayde paid the receptionist for the others on his list to be released, then said, “We can head back at any time now.”
“How’s the leg, Jayde?” Kasiya asked.
“It hurts, but it always hurts,” Jayde replied. “I wouldn’t have walked this trip unless I knew I could handle it.”
TJ paused to look at Jayde’s leg, but quickly turned to the door. “I suppose we head back to camp then, if there is no business to handle from here?”
“If you’re ready to go, then let us get on the move,” Jayde said. When he saw TJ glance toward his leg, he smirked and moved his robe just enough to show a gleaming hint of black steel, brass, and wood. “Lost it in the beginning of the Four Corners War.”
Kasiya opened the door and carefully ducked through it, then motioned for the others to follow.
TJ recoiled slightly, but quickly returned to a normal pose, before giving an attempt at a smile and following the other two in walking back to the campground.
Jayde chuckled. “There’s four of us in our crew who are members of the missing-parts club. Myself, Kaylie, Takaraya, and Rukari. You get used to it after a while. My leg is heavily enchanted, so other than a slight limp, you’d never know I’m missing a limb from mid-thigh down,” Jayde admitted.
As the five made it to camp, it was clear that Kaylie was working quite quickly on mending the frankencar’s damaged steering and suspension. “Did Ilaris make the suspension on this car out of used shop towels or something!?” she grumbled. “It’s almost impossible to bend things back straight.”
TJ and Al walked over to the fragile origami of aluminum. “They kind of over- and under-engineered it.” TJ commented, with Al adding: “The focus of the chassis and thus the car was minimal weight. The intention was for the vehicle to be as easy to drive as possible in the conditions in the Alagnomar States, which is the country from where Ilaris operates, on our home planet of Lionyamar. The conditions are snow and mountains, if you are wondering. This results in poor serviceability and the gross lack of tolerances, as everything is optimized for weight savings.”
“Oh, and really bad safety ratings from the factory, barring even my…modifications.” TJ commented.
“Yes, I remember it making a headline for the worst performing car against an SUV, but that is no miracle for weighing some 2000 pounds, smashing against something weighing double that. The point is, it’s light, and every person who’s had to perform a bodywork repair hates it.”
“Wait, wait, wait one moment. 2000 pounds? That’s all? You do realize Kasiya in his armor is 1600 kilograms. That’s 3500 pounds. Out of his armor, Kasiya’s 500 kilograms, about 1100 pounds,” Kaylie said. “You’re saying if you crash into him, he stands a good chance of spending a few months healing up a broken leg, while you guys wear wooden suits after he crashes onto your roof,” she added, “and that’s out of his armor. In his armor, you don’t even leave a scratch as your car crunches into him.”
Al grinned. “When I said they were focusing on weight, I meant it. That’s kind of an Ilaris thing, sacrificing safety and some amount of reliability for weight savings. It results in an almost paradoxical deaths-per-vehicle-mile-traveled statistic while having stupidly low safety figures, as it is kind of hard to f-it-up to get yourself in a fatal crash.” He wiped the grin off his face afterward. “It does result in a very high rate of grave and debilitating injuries, as the people have the ability to mitigate the accident partially, but get their legs diced and slashed instead of meeting the gods that day.”
“Barring the tangent that Al went on-” TJ continued, “- We scored an Ilaris roadside assistance manual, and because of its light weight and easy but fun handling, it happens to include a section on how to straighten out bent steering and correct wheel misalignment, due to many inexperienced drivers finding out that you can’t change your direction of travel as easily as you can stop it from sliding about by stomping the throttle, with a meeting of a curb as a result.” He pops open the door and glovebox, grabbing the hefty manual and placing it on the hood, opened on the section containing the page.
“Of course, it’s only meant for emergency repair, but…what can you do out here. We don’t have access to OEM parts here.” He added.
Kaylie sighed. “Would have been nice to have that earlier. I ended up taking the lower control arm off and handing it over to Takaraya. If you haven’t met him, he’s Kasiya’s father, stands about shoulder-height to his son. Has metal limbs, all four of them, and they’re exceptionally powerful.”
Takaraya walked over, still carefully pinching the control arm back into shape a little at a time. “It’s as straight as I can get it. If we knew the materials, I’d give it a little structural improvement, but for now, this will have to do,” he said, handing the part to Kaylie, who very quickly installed it on the Ilaris Imbe. Shortly after, she performed a crude alignment, then got Takaraya to help with it.
Jayde explained, “He might not see any colors at all, but he has the best vision of all of us. This guy read the printers’ information off of the bottom of an eye exam chart. His son can read the bottom line.”
TJ glanced around in the interior of the Imbe. “Well, can’t blame you for not scavenging the car for hidden service manuals. Oh well, straight-enough is better than constant tire screech as the two tires on the front work against eachother. As for seeing, he-” He gives Al a slap on the shoulder - “Has a lot of experience with that.”
“Do not. Say it.” Al responds.
“He looks like a doofus with the reading glasses.”
“For god’s sake…”
“At least you can absorb the knowledge of an uncountable amount of books with those. That has to make up for it, right?”
Al briefly considers a mild amount of violence to solve the problem, but decides against it, at least in front of the hosts.
Jayde cleared his throat and crossed his arms. “As someone who wears glasses on a daily basis, there is nothing wrong with it. And I dare you to say that Malavera,” he said, pausing long enough to motion to the two-headed white wolf who was casually reading a romance novel, one pair of reading glasses on his left head, “looks like a “doofus” with reading glasses on to his face.”
Kivenaal, from on top of the Home Unit’s roof rack, then quipped, “Just think, TJ, age is the great equalizer. You’ll need glasses eventually.”
“Okay, that may be true, but y’know…” He lowers his voice to a mere whisper- “he really does.”
At this point Al just gives him a shove, sending him sideways in to the interior of the Imbe, and coming to rest with his head hovering over the gearstick as he grabbed on to the seatbelt to cancel his momentum.
“Uh…I will handle him from here. Thank you for your help.” Al said, before helping TJ back up from his precarious position.
Kaylie nodded. “This manual has a decent weight to it,” she said. “If you need a few pointers on how to bludgeon someone with a book, I am very skilled in that art,” she added, before handing Al the service manual. “We’ll let you guys figure out how to fix this and then you can go retrieve the ute.”
“Alright. We’ll do that soon enough.” He commented, then hopping in the car and moving it back to where the power box was.
Wooo, a part, after a month. Hoping to get more stuff out more frequently next time, but for now, I need sleep.
TEAM FRIENDSHIP! :D 
Oh, we’re from out of town.”
from 
another planet! 
whole continent! 
Bus! 
” cheered Riley, who seemed to notice nothing weird about this at all. “And actually, we were planning to decorate 
it as we went along, with something from each town we stopped at!”
or art traditions in Silvercreek, that we could use as a decoration?”
Oooh, Silver!” perked Freddie. “I can work with that! 
”
”
, officer! What’s wrong.”
Two 
” The car responded, complete with matching ‘body language.’
”
, sir!” said the car. “You’re welcome to use the ramp on the other side.”
” The yellow one offered.
” The driving one concluded.
”