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Greaseball was alone. Well not physically, he was lying in Wrench’s medical room alongside two others and the component whenever she decided to come in and check on their vitals. But nevertheless, Greaseball was alone. Dinah had left him, oh Dinah. What wouldn’t the diesel do to have her here fussing over him. They fought all the time, he knew it was his fault, but he had never tried to change and didn’t see that happening anytime soon, he guessed they would repeat the cycle forever until at some point in the future, Dinah would leave him once and for all. But Electra might have been right, the future may have already come. Even in the medical room he was alone; Wrench shut down all his pathetic attempts at conversation, Electra hadn't woken up and CB, oh CB.
The Caboose was in the bed between Greaseball and Electra, like Wrench was mocking how they were mangled together when the components found them. Both engines were made of metal so had some internal damage and denting, nothing they couldn’t get over. But CB’s model was old and made of wood. One of his legs was burnt clean off, no, clean was no way to describe his state at all. One arm was snapped and the other was bent the wrong way into his chest. Splinters littered the bedding around him, the cracks and holes in his frame made it easy, even for Greaseball and his current lack of mobility, to see all of his internals. And it didn’t look good. He looked horrific, like he had been struck down by lightning thrice. Not even all of the starlight’s power could help him.
A crackle came from the other side of the room, “What was your deal with him?” The voice flipped up and down pitch as it lost control of its frequency, Electra; they probably broke whatever part of them controlled their voice during the crash.
“What?”
“You and Red, I know you two did business with each other, but there's more to it than that. Don’t lie to me.” They ended with a whisper, having lost the confidence to order the diesel around.
“Red? You two on nic-name basis?” he mocked, “What, you too special to call him CB like the rest of us? Well, I did call him Caboose, but that was only when I was angry at him.”
“No, but I wish I was.” the usual arrogance from his voice was gone, he sounded hollow without it, despondent and despairing. “Don’t dodge the question.”
“He crashed engines for me, I paid him. That’s all.” he stated twisted to fully face the electric, before realising how bad of an idea that was, wincing in pain.
“I thought I told you not to lie.”
“Fine. We kept each other company. It was all business until Dinah got attached. They were friends so I saw a lot more of the little shit than I ever intended to. Eventually I got a soft spot for him, gave him more benefits for being around me and doing what I wanted.”
“And you call my components a cult when you have a personal Caboose doing your bidding. And from what he told me he was on a tight leash too, so righteous of you GB. ” he said it with the intention to hurt, he had only heard his Red call Greaseball that and assumed it was some inside joke. He didn’t like it. He should be the one who's close to the infamous Red Caboose, not some dirty diesel exchampion.
“And what about you two hmm? If I get interrogated by you, you can at least answer the same question.”
There was no silence while Electra thought of how to answer, just a constant buzzing and whirring of their systems, “I’ve known him for a painfully short amount of time and when he recovers-”
“You mean if-”
“ When he recovers, I intend to know him for much longer. I’m leaving after I recover, can’t show my face after a steamer beat me; doubt you will either, at least for a while. And I want him to come with me, I’m rich, I can- will, I will cover everything, the expenses, he won’t have to pay anything. I have connections, I could get the police off his back, he would be free. Free with me forever . Would never have to crash another engine, would never have to play nice guy to gain trust from idiotic engines. I would make him so happy. I know I can. All he has to do is recover. And he will , I promise. Wrench can fix anyone, she can fix him, then we will be happy together, finally.” they were getting more desperate with every word, tapping the bedframe nervously.
Silently and gracefully, the components slid into the room and around Electra’s bed, checking his vitals and heart rate.
“Electra you have nearly recovered, you just need a few more monitored days rest, Greaseball, I will do a final check on you in three hours then if everything is in order you are free to go.” Thank the Starlight for that, he was getting restless and needed to apologise to Dinah; he needed her more than anything right now.
“What about my Red? When are they going to wake up?” Electra probed frantically.
“Electra, I need you to calm down.” Wrench didn’t dare look her boss in the eye, she was trained on giving bad news but when it came to delivering it to her boss it was always a bit harder.
“No! Tell me when they will wake up Wrench, or so help me Starlight, I will disassemble your parts while you are charging!” The room quickly became very hot, much too hot. The pure heat Electra was giving radiating was more than Greaseball had ever experienced.
“Electra, they aren’t going to wake up. I came in here to clear his body out. There was no chance he would pull through after the crash. He was as comfortable as I could make him.”
“No, no, no, no, liar!” The mumbling escalated to screams as sparks flew out of their eyes. “You have to do something Wrench, please, I am begging you! I will do anything! I wasn’t lying about disassembling you, I will, just fix him so I don’t have to!” Then the screams descended into cries. He writhed as the components held him down, trying to get to CB before Joule picked him up as delicately as she was capable of.
After another minute of screams and wails, they stiffened and fell still as though nothing had happened.
“What the fuck did you just do to them?” Greaseball had never seen anything like that before. Sure, everyone slept but that was instant, out of the engine’s control, terrifying.
“Powered him down.” Krupp stated matter of factly, as though nothing was out of order, “The boss can get emotional and lose control and as their armament and security truck I have been entrusted with their shutdown code to prevent them from injuring themself.”
“For example,” Volta continued, “With the way Electra was fighting against us they could have worsened their injuries. And they were crying, which is never good.” Was Electra not supposed to cry? Greaseball wasn’t supposed to cry but that was because crying is girly and he’s too masculine for that. Electra never seemed to have a problem with femininity.
“Electrics don’t cry.” Wrench declared, “They were sparking because of the tears. Water and electricity don’t mix. Electrics don’t cry.” Repeating it seemed to settle it into her mind, make it seem normal.
“You have three hours, then I will be back.”
Wrench took one last look at the cypher-filled screen in front of her before rolling out, the others following quickly behind her, switching off the harsh overhead light.
Left in the dark to reminisce on his late friend and crumbled relationship. Greaseball, maybe for the first time in his life, was truly alone.