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Quinn looked up at the sign above the building. Double Aught Services & Customs, it read, with a flat-animated display of a tousle-haired sprite in a racer's jumpsuit grinning and giving a thumbs-up. "I've known the family that runs the place for years," David explained. "They make a good living tuning up cars and modding them, pimping them up and whatnot. Though most of the money comes from Zilch's racing career."
Quinn cocked an eyebrow. "Zilch Aught, the jetbike racer?"
"Yup. His siblings run the shop here. They do all the maintenance on my car for me," David added, "usually at a discount, 'cuz I'm a friend of the family. Dropped off my ride before my trip Userside. The engine was starting to make this noise that just-- well, it was terrible." He paused outside the front office, waving to the clerk inside, who waved them by and unlocked the garage side door. "Spoke to them the other day. Said it'd be ready when I got back."
Quinn saw David's face fall as they walked into the garage. The man pulled his sunglasses off in shock as he beheld the state of his car, which as far as Quinn could tell, was in various bits strewn about one of the work-bays. "What the-- who the--" David's face was turning an interesting shade of red as he looked at it, turned to Quinn with an expression of complete bewilderment, and then stormed off toward the office above the garage. Quinn imagined steam trailing from his ears as he went.
Certainly how I'd react, Quinn reflected, if I came in to find my car in pieces like this. The hood had been completely removed, and the transmission hoisted out by a winch, with other parts of the engine and machinery laid out on cloths on the floor. Quinn recognized the make by its general shape, muttering to himself as he leaned over the engine compartment, his hands behind his back.
"Hey!" Quinn stood up and turned around to see a gray-skinned sprite in a dirty blue jumpsuit, his features smudged with grease, waving a spanner at him. "You touch anything in that engine, I'll shove a crankshaft up your ASCII."
Quinn raised his hands, backing away. "I was just looking. Hudson Motors T-series, right?"
The sprite seemed to relax slightly. "T70i, as a matter of fact. In the process of trying to get the magneto coils working again." He leaned his head to one side. "Got a good eye for cars, do ya?"
"Not really," the writer admitted. "My Dad had one when I was growing up. T65." He squinted at the ceiling for a moment as he turned a memory over in his mind's eye. "T65c, I think. One of the first models that started making use of hydrogen fuel cells, Dad said."
"Close," the mechanic said as he walked over. "It was the R-series, the R34 Alpha, which was the first Hudson hydro-fuel car." He nodded at the T70i. "This one belongs to a friend of mine."
Now it was Quinn's turn to put his head to one side. "His name wouldn't be David, would it?" Seeing the flicker of worry on the sprite's face, Quinn jerked a thumb toward the office. "'Cuz he went up there to yell at someone, presumably."
The sprite groaned. "Ah, kludging hell, I forgot he was coming back today, he's gonna kill m--"
"NAUGHT!" Here came David, bellowing with fury. "What the hell did you do to my car?!" the man demanded as he marched up to the mechanic. "You said it'd be fixed by the time I got back!"
Naught, the mechanic, brandished the spanner in a defensive stance. "You told me you'd be back on Sunday, I thought I'd have another day!"
Both Quinn and David told him, "It is Sunday."
Now the sprite looked uncertain. "No." He brightened up and looked smug. "No, it can't be Sunday, because if it was, it'd be race-day, and we'd be shut because of it."
"We're open today, Naught, because we've got that deadline to meet if we're going to get Ingram's bike done, and because you said you wanted to try jury-rigging the magneto coils to get the hover working." This came from another gray sprite, a woman with her hair cut into a short bob style, also wearing a jumpsuit, but decidedly less dirty. Quinn guessed from the resemblance that she was a relative. Her name-patch read 'Nada.'
"He's doing what?!" David looked from her to Naught, glaring. "You better not futz up my car's hover-genny, man, I paid good money for that car."
"Hey, man," Naught pointed his spanner at him, "I've been studying up on magneto coils and hover-generators. I figure I can up the efficiency of the genny and reduce the drain on the power cells. I know what I'm doing."
"Nobody knows what you're doing, Naught," Nada sighed.
"What the hell's the idiot done now?" Another voice joined in the conversation, another sprite as well. She was taller than the others, taller even than David, who was at least six-foot-two, and she came around from behind a hover-bike that was suspended off the shop floor. Her coal-black hair was swept back in a thick braid down her back, and had the kind of face that suggested she wasn't known for a sunny disposition. Her jumpsuit showed plenty of signs of use, like Naught's, and her name-patch read 'Niente.'
"'Te, we got this," Nada assured her. "Let me worry about our idiot brother, you worry about getting Ingram's chopper ready by tomorrow."
"It's done," the taller woman said, wiping off her hands on a cloth and tossing it over her shoulder. "The paint-job's setting and I've got the guys putting the curtains up to keep the grime out. Now, what's the idiot doing?"
"I was just talking to this guy," Naught protested, pointing at Quinn, who burbled protests of his own and held his hands up, "about cars when D here started yelling at me because he got home early and found his car wasn't ready because I thought I had one more day!" This last was yelled at David, who hadn't stopped glaring at the sprite.
"No, we're yelling at you now," David's voice had gone cold, "because you're trying to tweak my hover-gen's magneto coils, which very pointedly was not part of the contract when I dropped the car off! Believe me, I'm pissed off about that, but not as much as I am to find out you were slacking off on your comp-deck long enough that you're now trying to do all this work at the last minute!"
Naught drew himself up. "I'll have you know, I was not slacking off on my 'deck while you were away--"
"Much," Nada muttered.
"--I had to order parts in to get the transmission fixed. They're on back-order from Hudson now. You know they don't make parts for the T-series much anymore since the V's and Zeds came along." Naught looked to Nada, who rolled her eyes, shrugged, but then grudgingly nodded in confirmation. "I've been doing everything I can to work on your car in the meantime, but there are some things I just can't do without the parts."
David shut his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Then why, when I called you up the other day, did you say you'd have it done by today, when Hudson's couriers don't do deliveries on the weekend?"
Naught blinked. "I--" He scratched the back of his head. "Kludge. I guess I did pull a dumb there." He winced as Niente gave him a smack upside his head. "Ow. What was that for?"
"For pulling a dumb," she said. She smacked him again. "And that's for assuming you know how to tweak a hover-gen."
"I told you! I've been studying about it! I know what I'm doing!"
"Nobody knows what you're doing, Naught," Niente muttered. She looked to Nada. "I'll go clock the guys out and start locking up. We can still make it to the track on time."
Nada nodded to her. "Right. Naught, you put the tools and stuff away while I lock up the office."
"That'll take an hour!" he protested. "I'll miss the race!" A glare from Niente made him cringe and scurry off to the far wall, where he grabbed a broom.
David shook his head to Quinn. "Guess we're taking public transpo to the track."
"Don't even think about it," Nada said. "I'll give you a lift. We'll take my brother's car."
Naught's voice screamed across the garage. "You're not taking my car!"
---
Notes from Jay: So, explanations on who the characters are.
- Quinn Rentack - Writer from Chicago, moving to the Resonate System for a "geographical." His writing's been slow going, plus a somewhat messy break-up with a longtime girlfriend leaves him needing to move somewhere else for a little while to try to recharge.
- David Gabbiani - Freelance computer security consultant. Also the notorious hacker "DaVinci," one of the best hackers in the Metaverse, although he firmly identifies himself as a "white hat."
- Zilch Aught - Eldest brother and sibling, championship jetbike racer. Effectively the 'father figure' in the family, although not the best disciplinarian. (No real change to his character post-reimagine.)
- Niente Aught - Eldest sister, hoverbike enthusiast and main bike mechanic for Double Aught Services. The main disciplinarian in the family, gruff and somewhat humorless. (Changed from previous incarnation, who was another racer like Zilch.)
- Naught Aught - Hovercar enthusiast and main car mechanic for Double Aught Services, also the infamously trollish hacker, the 'Flip Side Felon' "Aztral." Not prone to thinking things through, has a much inflated opinion of his own talents. (Slight change from his previous incarnation, who wasn't a mechanic and was slightly less idiotic.)
- Nada Aught - Double Aught Services' administrative head, very level-headed and grounded in personality. Also a skilled hacker known as "Trilby Grey" (a bad 'gray hat' joke), associated with "Aztral" because "Trilby" tends to clean up his tracks. (Slight change from her previous incarnation, who was actually somewhat flat as a character, and whose nom-de-hack was "Surf," a bad "Nada Surf" reference.)
- Other members of the family include the Twins, Nil & Void (Nil is a hoverboarder, Void is an inveterate prankster), and the mischievous little ones, Vide & Sunya (French for 'blank' and Bengali for 'zero' respectively) who are still in grade school. (Vide & Sunya were named Blank & Zip in the original incarnation.)
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