A Knight Without Armor

Motorcity has become the newest in the many, many shows that I obsess over. It was only a matter of time before I wrote something for it. Here is my second of many, many stories to come.

Fluffy Muck friendship… can I even call it that? Whatever…enjoy!


A Knight Without Armor

"Has anyone seen Chuck?" Mike asked, causally walking into the Burners Garage.

"Not since the fight with those new Kane 'bots last night." Julie replied dutifully, leaning against the booth table.

"Nope, sorry man," Dutch said, not looking up from his video game against R.O.T.H.

"Texas!" Texas shouted and Karate chopped the air as he bounced across the room, completely oblivious to the rest of the Burners.

Mike saw the sunglasses over Texas's eyes and figured the short driver was watching an old Kung-Fu movie.

"Texas," Mike groaned and grabbed Texas's shoulder. His hand barely touched the other teen when Mike found himself in a head lock.

"Whoa, be careful man or else Texas will snap your neck like a chicken." Texas warned, lifting the cinema glasses up to his forehead.

"Duly noted," Mike choked out.

With a nod Texas released Mike. "Did you need something from Daddy Texas?"

Mike rubbed the back of his neck. "Um, have you seen Chuck?"

"Nah, maybe he's off playing grand wizard or something with his little geek friends."

Mike shook his head. "No, it's only Thursday. He doesn't LARP until Saturday."

"Well, I don't know what to tell ya." Texas shrugged and with a flick of his fingers his movie shades fell back over his eyes as he resumed his movie.

Mike shook his head at his Second in Command but couldn't keep the worried frown off of his face.

"I'm sure he's fine." Julie said reading the concern in Mike's face.

"Um, if it helps get me home faster, I think I saw him go back there a few hours ago." Claire said pointing towards the hallway on the right.

"Oh, thanks Claire." Mike said, giving her his brightest smile. The hallway she was pointing to led to the Burners Sleeping Quarters.

"Welcome," the Deluxian girl said, unimpressed with the brunet's charm. "Can I go home now? Please?" Claire begged, clinging onto to Julie's arm.

"Yeah, it is about time that I got back, too."

"Yay!" Claire cheered and pressed Julie to her body in a tight hug.

"So, yeah, I guess I will see you guys later." Julie choked out as she was half hugged half carried to 9Lives by Claire.

Mike chuckled. "See ya later, Jules."

Dutch raised a hand in farewell as the girls passed him, and then groaned when R.O.T.H used the distraction to appear behind Dutch's character, and scissor kick him into the wall, winning the tie-breaker. "Awe, man."

R.O.T.H raised its arms into the air and chirped in triumph.

"Way to go R.O.T.H," Mike congratulated, and high fived the robot.

"Don't encourage him, Mike. You're only going to make it worse."

"And just for that," Mike started. "Give me five," he said and high fived R.O.T.H again.

"Haha, very funny," Dutch replied and sighed dramatically. "Shouldn't you be hunting down Chuck?"

"Yeah, yeah," Mike said and turned away from his friends to look for his best friend.

"And just where do you think you are going?" Dutch asked R.O.T.H who had taken to following Mike with one of its hands raised in the hopes of receiving another high five. "Get back here!"

R.O.T.H looked from Mike to Dutch and then chirped sadly as it lowered its arm and floated back to Dutch's side.

Mike smirked and continued down the hallway. He looked at the walls riddled with Dutch's amazing graffiti and smiled as the memory of helping Dutch paint them came to him. He went passed to the first door which was actually a secondary exit to the garage for those times when the Burners needed to get to their cars while they were asleep. Mike chuckled. The addition of that door had been one of Chuck's first brilliant ideas.

He moved passed the next few doors, each of them had their owners name done in their own unique style. Julie…Big Daddy T…Dutch…Mike and finally Chuck's name appeared on the metal door.

Mike lightly rapped a knuckle on the spot just below the name plate. "Chuck, buddy, are you in there?" he cringed as he heard the obvious concern in his voice.

There was a muffled yelp from the other side of the door, followed by a loud thud. Mike didn't even bother to hide his smile. He knocked again. "Chuck?"

The door opened and a disheveled red cheeked Chuck appeared. "Hey there, Mikey," the computer programmer greeted; his voice wavered into a nervous chuckle.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Chuck asked giving the brunet a lopsided grin.

Mike noticed Chuck's anxious grin. The leader of the Burners eyed the hacker suspiciously.

"Whaddya doing, Chuck?"

"Sleeping," Chuck replied instantly. "Well, I was sleeping, until you woke me up." He amended and drummed his fingers on the side of the door.

"Dude, it's three in the afternoon." Mike said with a laugh. When Chuck didn't laugh back Mike grew concerned. "Are you feeling okay? You haven't been eating Jacob's muffins again have you? Is that why you're so tired?"

"I'm fine, mom," the blond replied sarcastically.

"Good, 'cause you know how much mummy worries about you," Mike said in a feminine voice and wagged a finger at Chuck. The brunet rebel's grin widened as his blond did manage to laugh. "Seriously, Chucky, what's up with you?"

"Oh, you know the usual," Chuck answered vaguely.

Now Mike knew something was up. Chuck never answered vaguely unless he was embarrassed and Mike wanted to know by what.

"So, is that's all 'cause I really wanna get back to you know…"

"Sleeping? Mike supplied.

Another lopsided grin. "Yeah."

Mike grinned in disbelief. He'd give Chuck one more chance to come clean. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, of course," Chuck insisted but then blew any credibility he had by shaking his bangs over his eyes so Mike couldn't see his face.

Mike resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Chuck was obviously doing something that he didn't want him to know about, but it only made Mike want to know even more. "Alright, fine. Have it your way," he said, a plan forming in his mind.

Chuck's shoulder slumped and he sighed in relief. "Thanks Mikey."

Mike's expression turned mischievous. "So, I guess I'll just leave you to sleep your life away." He said, giving the blond two thumbs up.

"Yep." Chuck chuckled and weakly returned the hand gesture.

That was when Mike made his move. He reached out and grabbed Chuck's shoulders. "All right, that's it," he grunted and manhandled Chuck back into his room. "I wanna know what's going on."

He hadn't counting on Chuck being able to resist him, but that's what the hacker did. Chuck's arms shot out to the sides and gripped the sides of the doorframe, blocking Mike from entering his room. "It's nothing!" the blond insisted, his voice going high in his panic.

Predictably, Mike didn't believe him.

"But you do admit there's an 'it'?" Mike said in triumph. "Let me in, Chuckles," he added when the blond didn't say anything. He was confident that Chuck would hear the warning.

"Nuh-uh, no can do, bro," Chuck shook his head savagely.

Even with Chuck being so stubborn Mike wasn't going to give up that easily. With a small sigh Mike bowed his head. "All right, if that's what you truly want." Mike said and squeezed Chuck's shoulder once before letting him go.

"Mikey," the blond said slowly.

"Yes, Chuck?" Mike answered. He could see Chuck's defiance wavering a bit.

"I'll show you if you promise not to laugh." Chuck insisted, pointing a finger at the driver's chest.

Mike held up three fingers in response. "I promise I won't laugh."

"Not even on the inside?"

"Not even on the inside," he agreed with a nod of his head. His curiosity was growing by the second.

Chuck eyed him for a moment before coming to a decision and stepped aside to let Mike into his room.

Chuck's room was the as messy as it always was. Clothes and books lay haphazardly in every corner of the room. There was nothing that looked out of the ordinary. Mike turned around in confusion. Chuck gave him a sheepish look.

"Care to explain?"

Chuck's shoulders sagged again and looked away. "Not really," he admitted and closed the door. Mike leveled an eye at the blond and followed Chuck as he made his way to his bed. He stood behind Chuck as he placed a hand of the mattress for balance and crouched down to pick something up from the floor.

Mike leaned over Chuck's shoulder to see what it was when Chuck sprang up from his position and nearly hit the top of his head with Mike's chin. The Leader of the Burners managed to step back before they collided.

"Whoa!"

Chuck spun around to face Mike. "Sorry, Mikey."

"It's okay," Mike said dismissing Chuck's concern in favor for what was in the blond's hand. "What do you have there?"

Chuck held a long grass green tunic up to his chest. In the center was a stylized golden dragon.

"Chuck, what is this?" Mike asked coming closer to look at cloth.

Chuck laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "It's your sigil. You know, in case you ever decided to LARP again. You can't go into battle without the proper attire." Chuck explained. "I know it doesn't look like much now but-"

Mike broke out into a wide grin. "I love it." he said, leaned forward to trace the outline of the dragon with a finger. He looked up when Chuck stepped away from him and realized that Chuck must have felt his touch.

"You do?" Chuck asked incredulously.

Mike tilted his head to look up at Chuck and smirked. He then took a step back and got down onto one knee.

"I, Smiling Dragon, am humbled by this honor that you have bestowed upon me," Mike said feeling slightly silly and completely touched that Chuck would go this far in making Mike apart of his LARP group, but he figured the best way to ger Chuck to understand how he felt would be to play along.

He heard Chuck make a strangled sort of sound. "Dude, you don't have to do that now. It can wait until I formally give it to you." He said and placed a hand on the short teen's shoulder, the touch made Mike look up.

"Oh," he answered cleverly and straightened up. "Well, then I have something to look forward to when it's done."

The lower half of Chuck's face and most of his neck went red as he lowered the cloth. "It will be worth it."

Mike reached out and placed a hand on Chuck's shoulder. "I know it will, little buddy."