Freedom And Despair (BATMM Angst)

Argument

For a long time, he had thought that Pickle was his best friend.

For a long time, he had thought that until the end, it would him and Pickle against the racers, against the world, against everything that could hurt either of them.

Apparently, he was wrong.

It had been a race day. Another one among plenty of race days. He had given his biggest cheat and had almost won.

Almost.

Blaze got past his cheat. Blaze and AJ both passed him and won the race.

Sounds simple, right?

Sounds like an ordinary race day?

Well, it wasn't.

The cheat had been too big. Too unpredictable and too out of control.

The robot had gotten out of the Monster Dome after the race. It had begun terrorizing the citizens of Axle City.

It was all an accident, of course.

He had tried to take back the cheat, grab the robot and disintegrate it before it could hurt anyone else. He had TRIED as hard as he could.

But it wasn't enough.

It was a misfortune that Grandpa Pickle and baby Gherkin had been there to see him and Pickle.

It was another misfortune when they both got caught in the robot's attack.

After Blaze disabled the robot, they took Grandpa Pickle and baby Gherkin to Gabby's to fix up.

Pickle never said a word on their way there. He was silent, too silent for comfort. He didn't laugh, he didn't smile, he didn't joke around, he was just... blank.

When they got home while Grandpa Pickle and baby Gherkin got fixed, however, was when all hell broke lose.

He should have seen it coming.

He SHOULD have.

But he didn't.

Pickle just did it all so sudden. He had grabbed the couch and threw it towards him before screaming and yelling.

Yelling about the danger of the cheat.

Screaming about how it almost KILLED those in his family.

Snarling about how he could make such a cheat like that.

The outburst was frightening, and he ended up frozen in fear and rooted to where he stood the whole time. Pickle simply ranted, yelled, threw everything and anything towards him.

It was when Pickle threw the vase towards him was when things went too far.

As soon as the vase shattered, both of them froze, in shock and horror.

That vase was special.

They had both made it when they were younger.

Both decorated it and painted their favorite flowers on it.

And it was the one thing HE loved the most.

Like the vase, his heart shattered. Either in guilt or in pain, he didn't bother to know.

All he knew was that the tears fell from his eyes faster than he had realized before he drove out of the house, slamming the door shut.

It had been weeks since that argument.

But he never came back.

He never planned to.