The Clocks Ticking - Part 02

Downtown - Zone 10
The Tick Tock Diner
17-11-2255. 0420L

Twix didn't like the feeling of being the third wheel at the table or the the uninvited guest at the party and was about to leave.

Dukes decided to cut the tension. “So you’re good with bikes, right?” he started but didn’t wait for her to respond, half because it was a stupid question he knew she was, and the other was he hated breaking the stride of his conversation. “So, I got an issue right, my spring compression isn’t timing the same with my liquid cooled brakes.” he started. Takes a to long for the front to dip, after the brakes engage.”

" Your likely using the same coils for both front and back brake pads. Depending on how much of a delay you want you should use a softer strength coil set in front and a harder set for the back." Twix answered almost off the top of her head.

“Nah already tired that. Didn’t work.” he started. “Frame’s to long for that and the back wheel sits too high.” Dukes explained. “Nearly threw me off when the damn thing fishtailed.”

Twix thought about what he said. " Is your braking system manual or wired ?"

“Manual.” he said, “Things too old for the newer wiring systems, and I had a hard enough time getting what systems it does have working again.”

" A problem maybe the disc pads themselves. Your build is heavy so you likely kept the same pads types recommended for the frame in the manuel." She suggested.

“They don’t even make them anymore.” he started. “Can’t really do that, I’m not gonna custom order some museum piece to slap on a bike that the first time I breaked they would burst into flames.” Dukes pauses. “You don’t even know what my bike is do you?” he cocked an eyebrow out from under his glasses.

" If its the beast parked out front then I'd say you put a Spector R3 or R4 engine on a D'Lyons frame … I'd say a Type 6 but its hard to tell at a glance." Twix offered." It looks like you were going for an endurance bike with a smooth ride on rough terrain. Your lucky the thing doesn't pull your arms out of your sockets every time you try to turn that thing."

The grin of a devil crossed Dukes lips… “Oh contraire mon cheri.” he started. “Not only is the ride as smooth as skating on butter, it’s fast. I wouldn’t need liquid cooled brakes otherwise.” Dukes smiled. “That bike is like no bike you have ever seen.” he said. “100% custom body fittings, retool frame, top of the line, and vintage.”

Twix was about to call his bluff when Ming suddenly appeared behind Twix dropping her hands down hard on Twix's shoulders rolled her eyes as she shook her head in mock annoyance. " I knew it, fucking talking shop in the middle of my date night … Honestly how could you? "

Ming offered a quick smile] at Newo nodding her approval. " I see the shots are kicking in, still in the reds or has the doc moved you to the blues ? "

Newo looked up a bit surprised at first. “Oh…” she chewed her bottom lip a moment, hearing Twix and Dukes almost muted in the background. “I...I uh..signed up for that new experimental treatment.” Said Newo. “It...working...but I am super hungry all the time, and none of my clothes fit right anymore.” she tugged at the oversized hooded sweatshirt she had on. One of Dukes. “I really need to get better stuff, but I’m afraid I’ll just grow out of it in a month.”

Ming nodded knowingly. " They always say its an experimental treatment so they can jack the prices up. If it seems like it just suddenly started working than they've moved you to the blue treatment."

She slipped around the divider and settled on the seat next to Newo. " As for cloths I have loads of outfits from my transition days piled up in my closet. You can have whatever you like."

Newo blinked. “I don’t know.” she mumbled. “I don’t know if our styles are the same.” Newo said softly trying to to offend. “But I’ll come look, I can’t keep wearing his hoodies and pants that are almost to tight.” she went on. “Yoga pants only stretch so much before they start to show things you don’t want them to.”

Ming laughed. " You don't have to worry, I didn't always dress like this. I'm certain we can find you something more in line with your tastes.

Twix smirked. " Ming's parents used to buy all her clothes back when they were certain that it was all just a phase that they could beat out of her and force her to become a normal upstanding Citizen. As you can see she blossomed and now … Ming the creature of fashion you know and love today."

Ming laughed wrapping her arms around Twix's shoulders and kissing her cheek.

" That ain't nothing my girl is the hottest thing on two wheels is gonna blow their minds tonight at the U.C.C.R.L.'s Trials… You just wait and see."

Twix turned a deeper shade of red. " It's just the trials. It's not like I really have a snowball's chance in hell of doing more than winning a couple of bucks."

Newo suddenly pointed a Dukes, “He’s always going on and on about those races.” she said. “That’s why he’s obsessed with that bike, he pulled that thing out of ‘The Heaps’ you know that huge dumping grounds just outside the city.”

Dukes shrugged. “People just throw away the classics. It’s a damn shame.”

Ming laughed nodding her agreement. " You should have seen Twix's cycle when she first got it. It was totaled out in an accident and was just sitting in the OSEC impound yard scheduled to be destroyed but my Uncle helped her cut a deal to buy the whole cargo load of junk just so she could get that stupid heap of …"

Twix was almost glaring at Ming.

" That very nice wreckage that would one day become her very own beloved Diva." Ming struggled to say without breaking out in tears from laughter.

Dukes twisted his wrist and a projected image, of a dimly lit junk yard, only lit by stadium lights cast a fuzzy light. But sitting in the center of the image was a mass of pipes welded into a frame. “That was my bike before I got my hands on it.” he said. “Took for every to dig it out. Guy at the gates side I was daft and couldn’t make anything out of trash like that sold it to me for basically nothing. Few searches later found out this thing’s from way back.”

Ming elbowed Twix in the ribs. " Show him the photos."

" No… " Twix grumbled.

"Show him the picture." She pressed.

Twix groaned and placed her hand flat on the table between them the ring on her finger projecting a laser from a heart shaped stone tracing a holographic image in the air showing a much younger Twix and a slightly taller boy both standing proudly in front of a pile of wreckage that might have once been a cycle before something likely weighing 5 tons was dropped on it.

" That was me back before I started my treatments. " Ming stated proudly." God I was such a boy."

Dukes leaned back again, letting out a sigh and Newo snickered. She knew that sound. “Well I know when I’ve been beat.”

Newo looked at Ming’s before picture. “I don’t have any.” she said. “I never liked pictures being taken so...I only have this one where I’m at the hospital with Dukes after he tired to do a backflip into a pool and mangled his arms.” she said, “My mom took it when I was giving him a drink of water.” Newo said.

“Yeah I didn’t push away far enough and saw the concrete coming so I covered my face and my arms connected then I wound up in the water. Almost died, rad story though.”

Ming nodded her understanding. " My Mom has books of them and hauls them out when she really wants to torment me." Ming sighed softly. " Funny thing … parents."