Jade moaned and pulled her head up from her pillow, slowly rising as a cold feeling ran down her spine. She shook her head briefly as though she was literally shaking the sleepy feeling from her mind. Groggily dragging herself out of bed and slipping back into her clothes, she suddenly whiffed the smell of smoke. Throwing open the shutters, she began to grow aware of the angle the Trans-Cruiser was pointing up in the air. The vehicle had dipped into the scorched asphalt as though it were a ship plunging into the icy depths of the ocean. "Oh, for crying out loud- if Poppa-Gramps was tinkering with the defense systems again..." She grumbled. This hadn't been the first time this happened, after all.

Stumbling towards her door on her toes, she gripped the wall with one hand and kicked open the door with her foot- it wasn't too steep a dip, but she would still fall flat on her face and ooze down the side of the floor until she hit rock bottom if she let go of support.

The sound of her family was somewhat hard to decipher- where they in trouble or where they just having yet another arguement at the table about who forgot what particularly key dish for dinner. Heck, it was so muffled she couldn't even tell where they were! Continuing to mutter curses under her breath, she clambered down the hallway until she emerged into the kitchen. Again, she could hear her family making a racket, but they weren't in sight. If it was not for the fact that the feeling in her spine started to scream "DANGERRR~", she might have humored herself with whatever chaotic scenario her folks had gotten into. But like most movies she had devoured with keen eyes, that was what they wanted you to think.

Climbing down through the tangle of chairs bolted to the floor as though they were some sort of playground equipment, she made for the gap in between the counter towards the lower living room.

"GYAAH!"

She didn't know who shrieked first, her or the assailant, but if she hadn't thrown herself to the side the steak knife that now throbbed in the side of the counter would have been in her skull. Her heart had quickly broke out into a raging beat, but it halted in it's tracks as the snowy white head poked itself out from the table below in the living chamber. Jade's eyeballs jumped from the knife beside her head to the old man crawling out from the table.

"Poppa-Gramps?! What the ###### was that?!" She screeched.

The little old man with a blind eye and one huge, beady implant camera blinked nervously, not moving now. His arms were jittering like wispy branches and the look on his face was of shock. He pulled his implant camera out and then let it snap back into place. "O-oh, Jade, it's you! Oh gosh, I am sorry... But Oh lawdy lawdy lord, I thought you were one of the pirates." The veinthrob in Jade's head vanished at the words, replaced once again by the flight-or-fight instinct ringing in her brain.

"...Pirates?"

The old man winced at her and drew a finger across his neck. "Pipe it down, lassy! They'll hear you and I sure as heck won't be your knight in shining armor if they catch you!" He looked around with his buggy optic eye and then gestured her over. Jade took one last look at the knife next to her and slid down the slanted rug. The old man looked like a cross between a toddler and Ghandi, plus the whole weird robotic eye he built himself when he went blind due to an unfortunate ferret incident during his college days.

"Pirates, Jade! And I'm ain't talking about those old Johnny Depp pirates, neither. They blew up the road! I don't know how, but they did- that's why we're as crooked as a dog's hind leg right now. I tried to get to the controls to hit the breaks in time, but the whole thing just slid into the hole. They rounded the whole family up outside- I hid here, as you can see." With the danger confirmed, the sensations in Jade's back seemed to calm slightly. "What do they want, gramps?"

"I dunno. I got a glimpse of the group as they herded the vehicle into the hole... They were all on motorcycles- as much as I always wanted to see one, I have a bad feeling those cycles are indeed Blade-Rollers ..."

Jade winced at that. Poppa-Gramps was a motor-industry geek, and he had been obsessed with these Blade-Roller things for who knew how long. "Transforming motorcycles... Aw, cr­ap." She hissed quietly. The old man nodded and put an ancient finger to her lips. "They don't know either of us are here, so stay quiet and follow me- I have a plan..."

-------

The whole Terasuku family huddled together for warmth out in front of the vehicle, the snow stinging at their faces and slowly starting to accumulate on the cold asphalt at their feet. They dared not move except for shivering, because the armored figure in front of them gazed at them through black visor. The figure grunted and pulled off his helmet, revealing a handsome face with leering yellow eyes. His grey hair was fixed in the most odd of fashions with two large braided bangs hanging in the front of his face that turned into a buzzcut at the top of his scalp and eventually gave way to a wild, spiked back. He eyed the group with his falcon eyes and then turned to beckon the others.

"Is this all of them?" He scoffed, running a finger down the scar below his eye. Another one of the pirates, this time in acidic green colored armor came forth. Unlike the man with the white hair in the red and white armor, this one was less muscular and thus made his suit clumsily bulky on him. He nodded beneath his helmet and spoke out in a metallic but snake-like voice. " That's all I found in the Cruiser, Gunther. Immediately the other one appearently known as Gunther launched an armored fist at him, but the man giggled nervously and jumped out of the way. "Okay, okay! That's all I found in the cruiser, boss." A few other pirates in similiar sleek, black armor nodded in confirmation.

Gunther huffed silently. "Alright then. From the looks of it, this the entire family like a lot of the other Cruisers we've hit recently. Holidays. Tip 'em over the side of the bridge and strip the Cruiser! I reckon we have around 30 minutes before the Highway SWAT forces show up. Move!"

Mr. Terasuku broke out into a stutter and stumbled forward. "You don't have to do that, mister! We'll give you anything you want-besides my duck collection- you don't need to kill-uu-g-guh..." The man shut up as soon as the Pirate Captain put his gauntlet to Mr. Terasuku's head, a tiny click as a rifle muzzle peeking out of it. "It's either take a swim and hope for the possibility of living or me blowing your brains out right here and right now." He muttered uncaringly.

Suddenly a sharp, metallic voice blurted out. "Do it, Gunther! You haven't shot anything in weeks now! Screw this intimidation junk, I need action- it's what I was built for!" The Pirate Captain rolled his eyes in annoyance. "No, clamp it, Jackal. I don't want to make a mess on my armor." Gunther's suit growled . "My body, you mean. SHOOT HIM!" Gunther grunted. "Don't flip my bipolar switch, Jackal. None of us would like that." He lowered his weapon and shoved Mr.Terasuku back into the rest of the family, drawing an "aawwww" of dissapointment from his suit.

"As I said," He grumbled, annoyed at having to repeat himself, "Throw them over the edge."