The Destroyer

“Hey, squirt! I was wonderin’ when you’d notice!”

And that hug is returned, Quick grinning widely. He’d noogie the baby brother, but the helmet is kinda getting in the way of that. It ruined the effect.

“Y’know, one of these days I should really take ya on vacation with me. I was in Romania this time– Bet you’d love it!”

Crash hugged Quick as tight as he could without hurting him, pulling back a little to look up at him with a wide grin.

“You should! Don’t leave me here, Quick-- It gets boring without you around!” Granted he could always cause trouble, but it just wasn’t the same without his favorite older brother around.

Time raised an eyebrow at Crash’s example of all kinds of fun stuff. They just slid down the walls of the fortress? He wasn’t sure what that would accomplish, aside from a cheap thrill… which was probably the point. He wasn’t sure what could be done with that, but if that was considered fun amongst DWN’s…

Then again, illegal activities were also considered fun among DWN’s, and Time would not get involved in that sort of thing. He hoped Crash wouldn’t suggest anything criminal without thinking.

“I… I don’t…” Time sighed, trying to think of what he liked to do. There were certainly things he enjoyed doing, but he doubted Crash would find any of them interesting. Music boxes, clocks, time research, as well as hard mathematics and science was probably not something the DWN would consider for an afternoon. There might be one thing he could take an interest in…

… No. Time would not mention such a thing.

“I don’t think I do much of interest to you. As long as it’s not illegal, I wouldn’t mind tagging along with you and whoever else you feel like bringing along for… whatever it is you do, like sliding down the fortress, I suppose.”

Nothing could possibly go wrong.

Crash expected the skeptical look, yet he still kept a grin on his face. He didn’t mind if Time wasn’t sure how to react to his idea of having a good time.

The DLN was right that Crash wouldn’t find most of his enjoyable activities interesting. It was more likely than not that he would suggest something illegal to do without thinking about it too much. He’d tone it down for Time, sure, but chances were that something was bound to go wrong with what Crash spent his time doing.

“Okay! Cool. If you think of anythin’ let me know. We can always try out somethin’ that you like later.” When he brought up not doing anything illegal, Crash paused, looking off to the side as he thought...Taking an uncomfortably long time to think of something.

“Alright, here’s the deal. Y’know how Megaman had those hoverboard things way back when he fought me and the rest of my line? Well, back at the fortress we have some hoverboards kind of like that.” His grin widened.

Kalinka nodded when Crash told her she could ask him to speed up or slow down if needed. She tucked her legs up to her chest as he pushed, not wanting to kick him while she was spinning.

As the chair started moving Kalinka let out a squeal of laughter. This really was a lot of fun.

Knowing she didn’t get dizzy easily she soon urged Crash to make her go faster, laughing all the while as she did.

The DWN chuckled slightly when he heard Kalinka laughing, continuing to spin her. He picked up the speed when he was told to. A couple of minutes later he stopped to allow Kalinka to take a break, slowing down the chair carefully. Once it was moving slow enough he let go of it, slumping down beside the chair.

Kalinka nodded at Crash explaining how to make the chair go faster. It was the same as putting her arms over her head during a pirouette rather than holding them at her sides. More mass near the center makes you go faster.

After watching Crash do it once she smiled to show she understood. She then climbed onto the chair when it was offered to her. Her legs dangled over the edge but only the tips of her boots reached the ground. She flailed a bit but there was no movement.

“I think you’re going to have to push me.”

Crash watched as Kalinka got on the chair, a grin still on his face. He wanted to impress her along with have fun with her, and this was the best way he could do it.

When Kalinka said that he would have to push her, he nodded, snickering a little bit. “Too short, huh? Alright.” His comment was said with a light-hearted tone as he moved behind the chair, pressing one of his drills up against it and beginning to push it at a decent speed, making sure not to hit Kalinka with his drills.

Geez, even the kid DWNs were foul-mouthed? Well, Time wasn’t going to say much of it. It wasn’t worth his time to, particularly since Crash seemed intent on not displaying such behaviors around the DLN.

“If you say so,” Time conceded, though he had to wonder how two robots who had the social skills of bricks would be able to be anything more than awkward around each other. Even if it was for the sake of their siblings, he couldn’t help but be concerned about whether or not this would work.

“Er, right. I’m sure we know what our respective functions are, so… what is it exactly you do in your spare time? I don’t have much of it, usually, so I’m… a little unsure of what to do with it.”

Oh, good. Time didn’t seem to be offended by Crash’s near-cursing. He had a slightly relieved look on his face for just a moment.

Crash was only vaguely aware of how many problems could arise with them trying to get along. Even if he was aware he was far too determined to be friendly with Time to give up.

“Yeah, right. You work with time-related stuff. I blow things up.” That was simple enough. “When I don’t have to work or anything I usually hang out with Quick or my other siblings...We do all kinds of fun stuff.” He grinned. “Like, this one time when I was hangin’ out with Slash we slid down the side of the fortress for the fun of it. I do stuff like that all the time.”

He paused, just then registering what Time had said about not knowing what to do with his free time.

“You can try some of the stuff I do! But...I think most of it is illegal. Huh.” He looked around for a minute. “And you’re a DLN, so...”

Time tended to forget that his word bank was rather advanced for his A.I. age. It came to him naturally, and usually no one said a word of it. Was it really that strange? It didn’t matter, he supposed. As long as he didn’t have to dumb down his language, he’d be fine. Now all he had to do was stop his voice from cracking whenever he resisted forcibly deepening it.

“… You’re new to this,” Time observed, noting that Crash was quite similar to himself when he began to lose his bitterness and distance from everyone. “It’s worth the effort, I believe.”

Time was still left in an awkward position, as it never crossed his mind that someone might approach him with just as little clue of what to do as he did. Staring in silence was a waste of time, but it was the only option he had until his processor came up with something. As such, he was relieved when Crash seemed to have some ideas.

“Well, what are they? I’m curious.”

“Yeah, no sh–” Crash started, lowering his drills from his face, but then stopped himself. He was used to cursing and using seemingly rude language around his siblings, but they knew that he wasn’t actually being aggressive, and it was, in fact, a casual thing to him. However, Time didn’t know that, and Crash didn’t want to get off on the wrong foot with him so early. “Uh…Sorry. I mean…You’re right. I am new to this. But I’ll make it work.”

He hoped that explanation would do, and that Time wouldn’t take his near-cursing the wrong way. His attention was drawn away from that near blunder when Time asked what he had in mind.

Okay, Crash quite possibly had less tact than Time did back in the day. It would be amusing if it weren’t for the awkwardness it caused, which he was adamantly trying to ignore. He could get past this and get along with the DWN, especially since it was within their best interests to do so.

“I don’t what?” Time asked, unsure of what Crash meant. “Is it my voice?” He was still in the habit of forcing depth into his voice when meeting someone unfamiliar or when caught in an uncomfortable situation. “I apologize, does this sound better?”

Time gradually lessened the depth to his voice, trying to sound like an actual twelve year old. He didn’t know if it would help anything, or if that was what Crash meant, but it was still something. If nothing else, it would help him unlearn such a habit and speak normally all the time.

“Well, if that’s your definition of thinking things through, then… I suppose this is as far as you got, isn’t it?”

Crash looked back at Time, a curious look on his face. He looked mildly surprised when he heard Time’s actually voice, but waved one of his drills around in the air. “No, no, it wasn’t that, I mean the words you use make you sound like an adult. Uh...I didn’t mean that you should change it or whatever. It’s fine.” He sounded rather awkward. He wasn’t used to the situation he was in, so he was rather lost.

“...I guess so.” Crash replied. “Well...We should try to do something to bond or whatever....Right? I mean, if Quick and Oil got along, then I’m sure that we can. Somehow.” Despite his being awkward, Crash genuinely did want to try to be friends with Time; Quick got along with Oil, and Time was Oil’s little brother the same way that Crash was Quick’s little brother, so...It made sense to at least try to get along.

Crash started to try to think of what they could do to try to get along. He placed the tips of his drills up to his mouth as he thought, going silent for a minute before speaking again.

Time figured it was highly improbable for him to encounter someone with worse social skills than he did. Years of being somewhat hostile to most of one’s family tends to make friendly communication difficult. Yet here Crash was, speaking to him rather bluntly about what his intent was. He didn’t even have to ask!

Well, that made things a lot less awkward for Time.

“Good plan. I’m sure that’s an arrangement you and I can manage, should we dedicate ourselves to it. Is that all you came for?” No, wait, there had to be small talk, or some attempt at a conversation. What were they supposed to do now?

“… I’m assuming you didn’t think this through very well, did you?”

Thankfully for Time, Crash had a habit of being extremely blunt and honest. He wouldn’t exactly mind Time’s lack of social skills since he wasn’t very good at being friendly with DLNs or people he didn’t really know in general. That was more Star’s thing.

“Yeah, that’s pretty much it.” Crash replied, looking down at the ground and kicking his foot a little before he looked back up. “You don’t talk like I’d expect you to. You’re, what, twelve?”

It was less of a jab and more of a genuine question. The DWN didn’t think that it would cause any negative reaction. Then again he wasn’t exactly tactful either.

Still, he found himself bored and at least vaguely interested in seeing if there was anything fun he could do with her. He knew he had orders to not hurt her, and he had no intention of doing so. He just wanted to see if things would take an interesting turn.

After all, it wouldn’t hurt to try and play with her, right? It wasn’t like she had anything else to do considering she was being held hostage.

Crash wandered around the fortress until he came across the area where Kalinka was being kept. He fumbled when it came to opening the door, letting out a few curses under his breath before he managed to get into the room. He poked his head inside, staring at Kalinka curiously.