Chapter 176: I Really Didn't Smash This Car
JT shifted his weight from foot to foot, the gears in his head finally clicking into place. Listening to his partner's half-baked scheming, a cold bead of sweat slid down his neck. Maybe poking this particular bear wasn't a stroke of genius after all.
Cash completely tuned out JT's nervous fidgeting. His eyes were glued to the greasy diner window across the street. Inside, Klein, Ben, and the rest of their annoying little crew were crammed into a booth, eating and laughing over a mountain of fries. Well, Cash was mostly glaring daggers at Ben.
"Is there any way to get revenge without angering Klein?" Cash stroked his chin, his brows knitting together as he began to ponder.
After a long while of heavy silence, Cash mumbled, "How about we just hide Kevin's car? We stash it somewhere, let them sweat a little, and then return it when they're totally desperate?"
JT blinked. Is that it? What kind of revenge is that?
The usually idiotic JT actually felt this wasn't exciting enough. If they were going to pull a prank, he wanted something with a bit more thrill to it!
"Is this even revenge? Cash, how about something a little more... exciting?" JT suggested cautiously, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Is being beaten to death by Klein exciting enough for you?" Cash shot JT a deadpan, speechless glare. Stealing a car belonging to that crew was already dancing on the edge of a cliff; if JT wanted to die, he could go jump off it himself.
"No, no, no… Let's just forget I said anything. Forget it." Though foolish, JT certainly didn't want to meet an early grave.
Subsequently, the two hit it off on the original plan. They crept up to the curb and pressed their hands against the sleek metal of Kevin's prized sports car, intending to quietly roll it away.
"Heave-ho! Push! Put your back into it!"
Under the combined, straining effort of Cash and JT, Kevin's heavy sports car inched slowly forward. Their sneakers squeaked and slipped against the asphalt.
But because they had their heads down, pushing with every ounce of strength they possessed, neither of them could see what lay directly ahead of the front bumper.
After pushing blindly for a distance, the pavement abruptly ended. The road ahead was an unfinished construction section—a steep dirt slope not yet paved with asphalt.
Cash and JT were grunting with effort when they suddenly found the resistance vanishing. It got easier. Then increasingly easier. Until, to their horror, Kevin's car started entirely on its own.
Cash snapped his head up just in time to see the sports car crest the edge and slide down the steep dirt slope.
"No, no, no!"
Kevin's car careened all the way down the embankment, plowing straight into the small woods at the bottom. With a sickening, metallic CRUNCH, the front bumper smashed violently into a thick tree stump. The impact was so hard that the trunk popped wide open, bouncing on its hinges.
Cash and JT froze. Their jaws dropped, eyes bulging out of their sockets, hands slapping the sides of their faces in an expression of pure, unadulterated horror that perfectly mirrored the painting The Scream.
"Quick! Follow me down and see if we can push the car back up!" Cash yelled, his voice cracking. He scrambled down the loose dirt slope, sliding on his heels toward the wrecked sports car.
"Quick! Push! Push the car up!"
Cash and JT threw their weight against the front grill, their boots digging into the soft earth as they continuously tried to shove the heavy vehicle back up the incline to its original position.
But physics was a cruel mistress. Because the car was dead-weight at the very bottom of a steep slope, the already difficult-to-push machine was now entirely impossible to move.
"Oh, man! We're doomed!" JT groaned, his arms turning to jelly as he began to give up.
"No! We can't just give up like this!" Cash gritted his teeth, veins popping on his forehead as he shoved a few more times with desperate effort. Unfortunately, the tires merely spun in the dirt. He couldn't move it a single inch.
"Never mind. I give up."
Cash slumped backward onto the dirt, staring blankly at the sky. He let out a long, hollow sigh. "JT, thank you for your companionship all these years. I plan to buy a plane ticket and fly straight to England. From now on, I'll be British."
"Cash, what about me?"
"JT, you know my pocket money is only enough for one ticket."
JT knelt on the ground dejectedly. He really shouldn't have had any expectations.
"Eh? What's that?"
Cash suddenly blinked, noticing a strange, bulky object lying in the dirt near the popped trunk. It was a heavy, high-tech mechanical gauntlet.
This was precisely the right arm of the Special Ops mechanical gauntlet Kevin had stashed away.
"Hey! Where's my car?!"
Just then, Kevin's furious voice suddenly rang out from the top of the slope, cutting through the night air like a knife.
"This is bad! Run!"
Without a second of hesitation, Cash snatched the mechanical gauntlet from the dirt, grabbed JT by the collar, and sprinted into the woods as fast as his legs could carry him.
Inside an abandoned doll factory on the edge of town.
Moonlight filtered through the broken skylights, illuminating the creepy, glass-eyed faces of discarded toys. Cash and JT were huddled in the center of the room, studying the stolen mechanical gauntlet.
"What's this thing even for?" Cash pondered aloud. Shrugging, he slid his right hand directly into the heavy metal casing. It locked around his forearm with a mechanical hiss.
"Woah, that's cool."
Cash held up his right hand, admiring the sleek, dangerous design of the gauntlet. He wiggled his fingers a few times. Suddenly, the metal hummed. A blinding red laser shot out from the palm emitter with a deafening crack.
The heavy concrete ceiling was instantly pierced by the searing red beam, raining dust and debris down on them.
"…Cool! With this! I can beat Ben Tennyson black and blue! Maybe I can even defeat Klein! He and his Mummy subordinates won't be a match for me!"
Cash's face twisted into a manic grin. He became visibly excited, letting out a strange, high-pitched "hehehe" laugh that echoed off the factory walls.
Looking at Cash laughing maniacally, JT couldn't help but take a slow step back. A pit formed in his stomach. "Cash, are you alright?"
Cash turned to him, smiling sinisterly. The glow of the gauntlet reflected in his eyes. "I'm fine. Now, no one will dare to provoke me. Next time, I'll make them pay!"
"Woah, that's going to be hilarious." JT gave a stiff, forced laugh, his eyes darting to the smoking hole in the ceiling. He cautiously asked, "Are you serious?"
Cash didn't reply. His eyes just turned cold and cruel, fixated on the power thrumming in his hand.
Deep night.
Inside the abandoned doll factory, the silence was heavy and oppressive.
Cash was slumped in a broken office chair, fast asleep.
JT tiptoed across the concrete floor, holding his breath as he quietly approached his partner. He wanted to take off the mechanical gauntlet. Ever since Cash put it on, he had been acting like a completely different person—aggressive, unhinged, and dangerous.
Watching the metallic fingers getting closer and closer, JT felt his heart rate gradually speed up, hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird. He reached out, his fingertips just inches from the metal casing.
Just then, Cash suddenly snapped his eyes open.
JT was so scared he yelped and fell backward onto the dusty floor.
"This is mine."
Cash stared intently at JT. His eyes were completely bloodshot, carrying a predatory, mechanical coldness that didn't belong to a human.
JT was so frightened that he quickly scrambled to his feet, slipping on the debris before fleeing clumsily into the dark.
Daytime.
Inside Kevin's garage.
The rhythmic CLANG CLANG CLANG of a heavy wrench hitting metal echoed through the space. Kevin was covered in grease, violently fixing the massive dents in his car and continuously muttering curses. "How dare they mess with my car... pushing it down a hill... I'll tear them apart..."
Just then, JT ran into the garage, leaning heavily against the brick wall, panting for air.
"Where's Ben? I need to warn him, Cash isn't right! Ever since he put on that glove, he's completely changed! He…"
JT blurted out everything in a frantic rush between gasps for air.
But he was abruptly interrupted by Kevin, who had stopped hammering. The older boy slowly lowered his wrench. "Wait. What glove?"
Kevin's eyes narrowed as his brain caught up. He suddenly remembered that he had lost a highly dangerous mechanical gauntlet from his trunk during the crash.
Oh no, he found out.
JT felt his heart sink all the way to his shoes.
"You guys smashed my car?!"
Kevin dropped the wrench. It clattered loudly against the concrete. He walked angrily towards JT, his knuckles cracking ominously.
"No! No, I didn't smash this car! It was Cash's idea!" JT was terrified by the sheer murderous intent radiating off Kevin. He quickly waved his hands defensively, backing up against the wall.
"Oh~ So you're admitting it." Kevin advanced on JT, rubbing his fists together, a dark shadow falling over his face.
"No! I'm not! Don't come any closer!"
Thirty minutes later.
Kevin dragged a heavily bruised, swollen, and thoroughly beaten-up JT into the room and dropped him in front of Klein.
"So, you mean to tell me, that idiot put on an idiotic glove and thinks he can beat me? And he wants revenge on Ben?"
Klein leaned back in his chair, looking at JT with mild curiosity. He felt these two local bullies were quite interesting, if only because they were just too foolish for their own good.
"That's about right! We definitely need to warn Ben!" JT looked incredibly nervous, nursing a black eye. After all, he only wanted to embarrass Ben; he didn't want Ben to actually lose his life. The laser from Cash's glove could really kill people.
It's just that JT didn't know Ben possessed the Omnitrix, otherwise he definitely wouldn't be wasting his energy worrying about the kid.
"Relax. He's just a small-time thug. It's the exact same outcome even if he got his hands on something that doesn't belong to him."
Klein stood up languidly from his chair, stretching his neck. He looked down at the trembling boy. "Tell me, where is he? Take me to him."
"He… he's in the abandoned factory in the city. We sometimes go there… Okay, we go there often."
JT had no choice but to sell out Cash. Although that gauntlet looked awesome and terrifying, for some inexplicable reason, looking at Klein's utterly calm, indifferent expression, JT always felt that Cash was going to lose.
And he was going to lose very, very badly.
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