FicWad

The earth night in Chicago was dreary and rainy, but for Taylor O'Rielley, it was either keep moving or risk being caught by her psychotic step uncle and have the life beaten out of her. Not caring whether or not she was soaking wet, Taylor continued to push her bike, Skylark-a gift on her 16th birthday upon completion of the mandatory biker safety classes from Vinnie, Throttle, Modo and Stoker, to it's full capacity. As the miles flew by on the odometer, there was only one thing on Taylor's mind: A safe place where her step-uncle Torque couldn't find and beat her within another inch of her life. Struggling with the fact that she had already lost half a pint of blood from an open wound in her right side and forcing herself to try and focus on the road ahead of her, Taylor's body finally had had enough and she misjudged the curve of the road ahead and slumped over the controls out cold from the loss of blood. As her bike skidded to a stop, tossing Taylor over the windshield, she landed with a sickening thud right flat in the midst of a dark alley in a dirty mud puddle. So begins Taylor's darkest night..

Taylor manages to muster a bit of strength and says to Skylark: Let's 'ear it for 'elmets! It spared me skull from bein cracked open like an egg! Listen to me, I don't care---how far ya--- 'ave to go......just---find---VINCENT! Uhh (Passes out and drops back into the mud puddle out cold)

Skylark beeps in understanding and automatically tears off down the street in search of it's cherry red counter part and it's rider.

Meanwhile four streets down, the bro's were on their way back to The Last Chance Garage after a night of foiling Limburger's plans when Lil' Hoss detected a familiar bike coming up the street and alerted it's rider to the bike.

Modo stops and listens very carefully to the beeping and looks up to see a familiar bike in front of him and says: SKYLARK? The last I seen of you, was on Mars when we gave you to---NO! Where's Taylor?

Throttle gets off his bike and shines a light on Skylark's seat saying: Hello, what's this?

Vinnie pulls up beside a hysterical Skylark and says: Slow it down Skylark, slow down. What's what bro?

Throttle swipes his fingers in the gooey mess and says: This stuff?

Vinnie gets a good look at Throttle's hand and says: That's

Modo/Throttle/Vinne: BLOOD!

Vinnie: Where's your rider? Where's Jetstream? (Sees a map pop up on Skylark then says) You lead, we'll follow. (Looks up and says) Taylor's the only one other then us, Logan and Stoker who can get near Skylark!

Throttle: If Taylor's here then what're the odds her step uncle, Torque's, not far behind?

Modo: Too high for my liking! He nearly killed her once before the war started!

Vinnie: If Taylor's here then he's bent on finding and killing her, if he hasn't already!

Charley pulls up and sees a beautiful dirty sky-blue bike and says: What a beauty! Who lost their bike? (reaches out to touch Skylark causing Throttle to elicit a warning)

Throttle sees Charley about to touch Skylark and says: Whoa Charley-girl! Don't try to touch Skylark! He doesn't like strangers very much. Especially when he's like this!

Charley gently touches the sky-blue bike and says: It's alright, I won't hurt you or take you apart. Just let me turn on your Tracking device.....(Lays her hand gently on Skylark's Tracker panel and turns it on saying) There that wasn't so bad was it? I turned on the Tracking device, if this Taylor's wearing a Tracker we can home in on their location.

Vinnie in shock: Charley-girl! How did you get Skylark to let you touch him? He's a one owner bike!

Charley: Wasn't hard, Skylark's just afraid of having something done that can't be fixed. 'Sides he seems to know a mechanic's touch. Who fixed him up last?

Throttle mounts his bike saying: Stoker picked him out, Logan-Taylor's older brother paid for him and got him insured under Taylor's name, Vinnie had him customized, I picked the programs to be loaded on to him and Modo picked the paint colour and Harley, the best Mechanic on Mars ensured he was ready for Taylor's sixteenth birthday.

Vinnie hears Skylark continued persistent beeping and says: Alright! alright! We're comin! Go on! We'll follow!

Skylark pivots then tears off back up the street with the bro's and Charley in hot pursuit until he came to the alley where he'd left Taylor, stopped and brightened his headlights illuminating Taylor's crumpled, soaking wet, limp, bruised and bleeding body.

Throttle pulls up, gets off his bike tossing his helmet aside, darts over to the body where he kneels, picks it up and leans it up against his chest and removes the helmet to reveal dark brown hair with a dark blue stripe saying: TAYLOR? Taylor talk to me!

Vinnie pulls up, gets off his bike, drops to his knees beside Taylor and picks up her wrist to feel for the weak pulsing of her pulse and when he finds it he says: Taylor? Taylor? (Turns and says to a waiting Charley) We'll need someone back at the score board waiting to clean and patch Taylor up and Taylor'll be needing dry clothes. If you wanna go back ahead of us go ahead, we'll stay with Taylor.

Charley: Do you want me to take Skylark with me?

Throttle looks up and says: Skylark go with Charley, she'll ensure you get cleaned up and anything broken will be repaired! (Watches as Charley and Skylark took off in the direction of the scoreboard and says to Vinnie who was checking for a pulse) Did you find her pulse?

Vinnie: Yeah it's weak but it's there. Here feel

Throttle picks up Taylor's wrist and feels the weak thumping and says: Her body temp's gone down from the rain, laying in this puddle and from where ever this blood is comin from!

Modo pulls up beside Vinnie, gets off his bike, gently lifts Taylor's jacket and shirt and says: Torque had her cornered and she didn't stand a chance, he's sliced her right side open.

Vinnie: There's no way to treat it here, it's too wet and dirty. How'll we get her back to the score board?

Throttle scoops up Taylor's limp cold body. stands and says: I'll carry her on my bike. It's doubtful she'll wake up anytime soon, she's got one weak pulse.

Modo notices something sticking out of Taylor's inside jacket pocket and says: Hmm, what's this? (Unfolds the paper and nearly drops it saying) Radio frequencies to Mars!

Vinnie reads the note and says: No way! That one's for Carbine and that one's for STOKER! (Glances at the next check in time and compares it with his bike's on board dash clock and says) Man she was due to check in with him three hours ago! She's missed her check in time!

Throttle carefully balances an unconscious Taylor's body stands, walks over to his bike, picks his helmet up, puts it on then replaces Taylor's helmet back on her head,mounts his bike,wraps his tail tightly around Taylor's limp body to keep her from slipping and says: As soon as we get Taylor here out of the rain and out of these clothes, we'll give him a shout. Nine times out of ten he's worried about the lack of radio contact or how ever he's been in touch with her. Now let's get Taylor out of the rain and these clothes!

Carefully balancing an unconscious Taylor, Throttle revved his bike to life and all three bikers tore off at top speed towards the Score board where Charley was waiting with a spick and span Skylark when the bro's returned allowing Throttle to enter first with a still unconscious Taylor in his arms.

Charley: Here I had Lilly's friend Kelly dropped this stuff off for Taylor's privacy when she wakes, if she ever does. Carbine's called---TWICE looking for Taylor and..... (Trails off)

Throttle heads over to the new king sized bed that was set up in a corner for Taylor and lays her down on top of the plastic sheet saying: And what?

Charley: She and Stoker are on their way here. It seems Skylark sent an emergency distress call on behalf of Taylor when Torque showed up at the place that was set up for Taylor's safe keepings. She said they'd be here by at least early tomorrow morning, if not sooner.

Throttle looks down at a badly beaten Taylor and says: Skylark's attached to it's rider and would only send out a distress call if Taylor was in danger. Turns out Torque found Taylor before help could arrive.

Charley: With the way you three talk about Taylor, you never why his father is after him.

Throttle chuckles and says: Sorry Charley-girl, but Taylor's a SHE not a HE. Her given name is Taylor Amanda Jetstream. Her biological father's name was Damien and he was supposedly killed in a work place accident three weeks after Taylor's twelfth birthday and six months later her mother remarried Track. And it's not her step father we're worried about, it's the low life of a half brother named Torque we worry about,he's a louse and a pervert who refused to leave Damien's house and beat the kids senseless day in and day out.

Charley: What right does that give him to beat a twelve year old? It's not her fault she looks like her dad.

Modo: After his brother Track's marriage ,Torque lost his job and bounced around like a jumping bean. Guaranteed you‘d find him at the local bar from 9 A.M. until last call when he‘d be so drunk the bouncers would carry him home and dump him on the couch where he‘d sleep until he woke up. Taylor spent many a fear filled night bouncing from each of our homes trying to stay safe. By the way, any luck in finding some dry clothes for Taylor?

Charley: While cleaning Skylark, I found her back pack with extra clothes and some photo albums and a state of the art, top of the line MP3 Player stashed in the back compartment,obviously that badge on her bag acts as a Torqueing devise that is supposed to send one way signals to Mars so they can track her, but it looks like it‘s been tampered with or replaced.

Vinnie takes a look at Taylor‘s medallion and says: It’s been tampered with alright and we know WHO tampered with it. We'll let you get Taylor out of these wet clothes, call us if you need a hand. (Heads away from the bed setting up the privacy screen allowing Charley to remove Taylor's sopping wet clothes and shoes.)

Charley looks down at Taylor and says: Well I may as well get started with your jacket!

Starting with Taylor's biker jacket, Charley sat Taylor up against her and carefully removed one arm from the sleeve until the jacket was off, then tossed it up over the top of the screen from which Throttle removed it and hung it up to drip dry on some towels, followed soon after by Taylor's shirt.

As time went on, Charley had carefully removed all of Taylor's damp clothes and had Taylor dressed in a loose fitting t-shirt and a pair of blue jogging pants and dry socks, while the bro's patiently waited for the privacy partition to be moved, the each took the liberty of wringing out Taylor's sopping wet clothes to see what was salvageable and what had to be discarded.

Finally after two long torturous hours, Charley moved the partition aside to reveal Taylor laying under the bed covers with left side up over her side revealing a nasty gash made from a hunting knife.

Vinnie hears the partition being moved aside and hangs up Taylor's pants saying: How’s Taylor doin?

Charley: Considering the size of the gash on her side, she's lucky Skylark found you when he did, other wise she'd have bled out in that dirty alley. Right now she's resting, but as you can see, her step-uncle used a hunting knife to slice her side open and it needs to be flushed out and sewn back up by a doctor before it becomes infected and to add to matters, she's developed a high fever from laying in the rain for so long unprotected.

Throttle walks over to Taylor‘s bedside, takes one good look at the wound saying: At least he didn’t slice through any muscles or tendons, it looks like a deep surface wound. I’ll need some distilled water, a pan, lots of cloths, a first aid kit and plenty of bandages.

Charley opens up a first aid kit she carried around, takes it over to Throttle and says: Will peroxide do? Distilled water is expensive and doesn’t thoroughly clean anything.

Throttle takes one good look at the first aide kit and says: This’ll do perfectly for now. (Reaches in and removes a large pad of gauze, then the peroxide, then unscrews the cap from the peroxide and fills the bowl then immerses the gauze pad in it and begins cleaning out Taylor’s wound until all the blood, dirt and pavement bits were gone leaving the wound fully exposed and clean then says) This is deeper then I thought it was, but no muscles or tendons were sliced. It looks like the bleeding stopped and her blood started clotting before she lost more then what she already has. (Hears Carbine’s voice come over the radio saying they were waiting for someone to open the doors and says) Vinnie open the doors and let ‘em land! I’ve got my handsful with Taylor.

Vinnie picks up the remote and presses the red button opening the accordion doors to allow Carbine’s ship to flawlessly land inside the score board.

Once the ship had landed, the door opened, the gangplank came down and out came Stoker followed by Carbine both with very worried looks on their faces.

Stoker looks around and says: Where’s Taylor? Last I heard from her she had to bolt ‘cause Torque found her hiding spot. (Looks up to see Modo coming around the partition and says) Taylor over there?

Modo nods and says while wiping his hands: Yeah she’s around behind the partition resting quietly.

Carbine notices Taylor’s clothes drying on a line and says: I take it none of you changed her?

Charley: No I did, out of respect to Taylor.

Carbine heaves a relieved sigh and says: Good, how bad of shape is Taylor in?

Throttle comes out from around the partition from cleaning then bandaging Taylor's left side with the bowl of dirty water and dirty towels saying: She’s lucky Torque was chased off by Skylark or she’d be dead. Lots of anger and rage built up towards Taylor for him going to prison. How’d he get released anyways? He’s too violent to be out!

Stoker sits in a nearby chair and says: No one knows HOW he got out or how his name even got on the parole list, especially given his violent nature and sadistic tendencies. I was given a heads up by Track who told me Torque had gotten loose and was hell bent on killing Taylor. We tried to get the idiots here to move her to safety and NOT publish her address and other info but they did the opposite! They published EVERYTHING on Taylor including driving directions to the condo where we had her secretly stashed! Is Taylor decent?

Vinnie: Yeah she’s decent, she's behind that screen in a comfy bed Lilly’s friend Kelly brought for her to rest in.

Stoker takes a deep breath and looks at Carbine saying: We’d best go see what he’s done this time. By the way, we found Logan’s unit

Vinnie: After all these years? Where is he?

Stoker turns and calls out: LOGAN COME ON OUT! I'm gonna go check on Taylor. (Heads over to the partition and slips around only to be knocked backwards into the chair by Taylor's bed muttering) What has he done? The sick and twisted bastard's gonna get what he has comin to him and he isn't gonna like it! Poor kid, you didn't deserve this. (Thinks about how another young Martian female felt and mutters) So this is what I've been doing to Lilly all this time.....I never stopped to think about how much she puts up with from me until I seen you Taylor. Your bruises have made me see what can't be seen with Lilly. She goes with me to my appointments, even though she stays in the waiting room, she stops up her tears, she's constantly apologizing for screwing up things that were screwed up before she was blamed......I really have to stop taking her for granted.... at any time she could be called back to the future and that'll be the last I ever see of her. So many times, I've lost it with her, slung accusations of inappropriate conduct towards me all without stopping to think how she felt and how it was ruining her relationships with other people. So I guess I’ve allot of people to apologize to........I guess then I’ll start with the bro’s since I’ve already apologized to Carbine for what happened. How many times have I told the kid to shut up? How many times have I lost my grip on my cool and just let loose with biker language without ever stopping to clean up what I’m spouting. Lilly’s heard so much foul language out of me in one day, it's no wonder she picked it up. Here I’ve been wondering where she got it from, I should do what I’m always spouting off at her to do........watch my language.........If I knew where she was I’d actually start and apologize to Lilly for beating her up on the inside without knowing it.