##Team Twin-Snail
With the air intake system patched up, Luke knew it was time for a proper shakedown run. And it couldn’t really hurt to be a bit more aggressive for a bit of time, either. Luke looked at the car full of sleepy people, then decided out of nowhere to floor it.
Despite the Minerva being rather old and tired herself, the 3.6 liter V6 responded almost instantly to the sharp stab of the throttle, sending a bellowed roar down the single exhaust pipe and out through the split rear exhausts, snarling as it gathered speed. The transmission, despite being set up as a lazy luxury box, responded with slightly sharper, responsive shifts between gears, the speed climbing until Luke looked at the speedometer and realized, yeah, we’re kinda doing 110, so it was time to pull on the brakes and slow things up a bit.
Linda, Scott, and Amy were not quite as amused by Luke’s sudden aggressive burst of driving, and less amused by the squirmy brakes.
“Yeah, when we set off tomorrow, we’re looking for a shop that has fuckin’ brake pads if you’re going to keep doing that shit. A hundred-and-fucking-ten on the highway. In a car with squirmy brakes.” Amy snapped.
“I drove the Sinistra down the side of a cliff damn near with no brakes, and you’re worried about a highway blast in a car with just bad brakes?”
“This car doesn’t have gears you can drop it down into. Your choices are Drive and Low.” Amy retorted, glaring at Luke.
“Yes, but it has brakes, even if they’re not great. And besides, if I could find that damnable cable, I’d be able to tell the transmission what gear I wanted it in.” Luke said.
“Whatever. Let’s put in the cassette adapter and let Scott pick some fitting music to arrive by.” Linda said, tired of the light little fight in the car.
Luke prodded the adapter into the tape player, then handed the cable back to Scott.
“Rock or Metal?” Scott asked.
“I could go for some Godsmack right now. Voodoo if you’ve got it, or just pick something if you don’t.” Luke said.
Within seconds, the car was alive with music, though an annoying sound was bothering Luke.
Squeak clicky tick. Squeak clicky tick. Squeak clicky tick.
“Damn and blast it!” Luke yelled suddenly.
“What?” Amy and Linda yelled at the same time, having been startled by Luke’s outburst.
“There’s a squeaking bearing in the fucking tape player.”
Thankfully, before it could annoy Luke to his breaking point, they arrived at Fort Stevens State Park, where a hasty unpacking of the trunk happened, and tents were set up.
Amy set up the little grill, added some charcoal to it, and had Luke start a fire so they had something to cook by, and immediately, the little cooler that was full of once-was-ice-but-now-is-slush was opened and the burgers were removed from their icy bed, to be thrown on the hot grill and cooked to delicious perfection.
Scott wandered around, fulfilling his plan of giving ‘gifts’ to the teams he recognized that had trouble the last time. He wandered over to Team Mountain Pass and gifted them their spare fire extinguisher, with a note that read “From Twin-Snail, just in case it all goes up in smoke” taped to it, then found his way over to Team Southend or Bust, leaving them a small DC fan, much like you’d find in an old 70’s bus, with a note and a case of beer. “From Twin-Snail, in the event the lovely weather turns into hell.”
Linda saw Scott walking back with his stupid “I’ve done something and you don’t know about it” grin. “What’d you do? Please tell me you’re not stupid enough to be stealing shit from the other teams.”
“Wasn’t thieving, was giving gifts.” Scott said.
“Really? I thought you were joking when you said that in the driver’s meeting.” Luke grumbled out. “At least tell me that you gave them the small fire extinguisher and not the nice 20-pounder I had hidden between the back seat and the cargo net in the trunk.”
“Was the five-pounder you had tucked behind the box of spare gaskets.”
“At least it’s not a waste, then. Let’s just hope they see the humor in it and don’t go after us because you were being a jerk.” Luke said, before digging around in the bottom of the cooler full of slush.
“Packed this for you, Amy, so that instead of just making hamburgers, you could make cheeseburgers. Figured it’d be a bit of a morale booster.” Luke said, handing Amy the pack of sliced cheese, along with the burger buns.
“Thanks. So, where are you going to sleep?” Amy asked.
“You know me well enough to know I don’t sleep. But I’ll night-rest out here. Besides, my guess is at least one, or more, of the teams will want to talk with me.” Luke said, sitting near their charcoal grill and the small campfire they’d made, still wearing his combat boots and camo pants, showing his metallic blue paint off, as well as the silver accents. “But don’t worry, if anyone wants to talk, I’ll keep the conversations quiet so you three can sleep.”
Aftermath:
Car: Needs brake work, but the hesitation seems to have gone for now. Even better, the Maintenance Required - Engine light has gone out.
Team: Getting some much needed rest after driving quite a long time.
MRL +8 overall (+1)
FTG +9 overall (+4)
Status: Resting
And if anyone wants to talk with Luke, feel free. His ‘night-rest’ is putting most of his internal systems into standby, mostly to keep them from breaking down quite as fast, so he’s still very much alert. Just don’t expect him to be up and walking, his hydraulic pumps are switched off to avoid wear and tear for just sitting there.
), Kai and Strop sat in stunned silence. Well, silence, because their ears were ringing and they couldn’t hear shit. What was actually playing was this:
this way for the previous post
