Love of Mars

Chapter 15

Three bikes roared through the empty streets, engines echoing off warehouse walls and shipping containers. The shipment they'd intercepted had been easy work for once - a few Limburger goons, some stolen tech, nothing they couldn't handle.

The bros parked the bikes on the roof of an old warehouse overlooking the city, a place they sometimes stopped just to breathe for a minute before heading home. Throttle leaned against his bike, arms folded, looking out over the city lights. Vinnie dropped down onto a crate dramatically. Modo sat on the edge of the roof, feet hanging over.

"Nice, easy job," Modo said. "I like easy jobs. We should only do easy jobs from now on."

"Nah, man! I love the danger, the excitement, the explosions! I live for the Thrill!" Vinnie hollared, still with clearly way too much energy after the 'easy job'.

Modo snorted. "Yeah, I'll put that request in with Limburger. 'Hey Stinkfish, make it more life threatening' " 

They sat in comfortable silence for a minute, the kind that only came from years of fighting and surviving together. Then Vinnie and Modo both glanced over at Throttle.

"So. You gonna tell us, or what?" Throttle didn't look at him. 

"Tell you what, cheese-for-brains?" Modo chuckled quietly. 

"C'mon, bro. We ain't blind."

Throttle sighed. "I don't know what you're talkin' about."

"Stella," Vinnie and Modo said at the same time. Throttle took off his glasses and rubbed at his sensitive eyes with a heavy sigh. Vinnie leaned forward, elbows on his knees. 

"Com'on bro! You got it bad, man. We all can see it! And we only got three good eyes between us.."

Throttle shook his head slightly. "It ain't like that." Modo raised an eyebrow. 

"Really? Because from where we're sittin', it's exactly like that." 

"Well then maybe you should move seats." Throttle snapped. He was quiet for a beat, then finally said, "I just feel like I'm betrayin' Carbine."

The other two exchanged a knowing look.

Carbine. She was a monumental part of Throttles story, no doubt. Everyone thought they would be endgame, that if any couple could survive this war, those two could. But things did end and  never really ended cleanly. War didn't give people time for clean endings.

"You ain't betrayin' her, bro." Modo spoke first, voice calm. Throttle finally looked at him. 

"Sure feels like it." Vinnie shook his head. 

"Look man, Carbine's a soldier. She knows better than anyone that life doesn't wait. You think she'd want you sittin' around miserable and alone on another planet?"

Throttle didn't answer.

Modo continued, "You loved her. Maybe part of you always will. No one is taking that away from you but that don't mean you don't get to move forward and love someone else." Throttle looked back out over the city lights.

"I don't even know if Stella feels the same way." Vinnie cackled and nearly fell off his bike. 

"Oh my god, you are clueless!"

Throttle frowned. "What?"

"She only ever rides with you on your bike." Throttle shrugged slightly. 

"So she likes my bike, so what? She's a great bike!" He gave his ride a loving pat for emphasis, the machine beeping happily in return.

Vinnie grinned. "She's always cuddling up to you and falling asleep on your shoulder during movies." Throttle opened his mouth, then closed it again. Modo perched his head on his hands mockingly batting his eyelashes. 

"She looks at you like you hung the sun in the sky." Throttle went very quiet at that.

After a long pause, he quietly admitted to himself and his brothers, "I'm scared."

The other two mice definitely weren't expecting that. Throttle was never scared. Or if he was, he never showed it.

"What are you scared of, bro?" Modo asked.

Throttle rubbed the back of his neck. "The war took everything from us once already. Home. People we loved. What if... what if it happens again here? What if I let myself have this and it gets taken too? She gets taken.."

"Yeah. That might happen." Vinnie sighed, his voice softer now, understanding even. Throttle looked at him, surprised at the honesty coming from the young hot headed racer. "But that's life, bro," Vinnie continued. "We could lose each other tomorrow. I could lose Charley. You could lose Stella. That's why you don't wait."

Modo nodded slowly. "Yeah, we're soldiers. We don't get guarantees. We just get chances and it's up to us to take those chances of a better life when they're given to us." Throttle looked between his two brothers. Modo gave him a small smile. "You got a chance to be happy, bro. Don't waste it because you're scared."

Vinnie pointed at him. "Yeah. And if you don't make a move soon, I swear Stoker will, the smooth old timer." Throttle groaned. "I'm just sayin', they spend an awful lot of time in that lab together so you better make a move fast!..." He was teasing of course, but that didn't stop the jealous pang strike clean through Throttle at the thought of Stella with another man - or rather mouse.

"Alright," he said. "When we get home... I'm gonna tell her."

Vinnie grinned. "Finally! What are we waitin' for? Let's bounce!"

Modo smiled and moved to give his brother a solid thump on his back nearly knocking him clean off his bike. "About time." Throttle took a deep breath and looked out over the city again, feeling  nervous as hell but also lighter than he had in a long time.

"Yeah," he said more to himself than the others. "About time."

Behind them, they didn't hear the metal door to the roof slowly open. They didn't see the shadows moving. They didn't notice the figures until a nasally, mechanical voice echoed across the rooftop.

"Well, well, well... such a touching moment." The three mice spun around to see Karbunkle standing near the door, metal eye glowing, a group of armed goons behind him. Next to him, smirking as always, stood Lawrence Limburger.

"I do so enjoy catching rodents in a trap," Limburger said smugly. Before any of them could move, Karbunkle pressed a button on a small device. Electric nets launched across the rooftop, knocking the bikes on their sides and slamming into all three mice, sending thousands of volts through their bodies. They hit the ground hard, muscles locking, unable to move. Karbunkle walked toward them slowly, metal eye glowing brighter.

"Do not worry," he said coldly. "I have many more experiments planned for you, mice." 

Limburger clasped his hands together. "And I finally have... leverage."

Throttle struggled against the net, glaring up at them. His last thought before everything went dark;

I didn't get to tell her.