#ft my bugs of our pathfinder group at the end

[yjhgvf]

So… I was planning to write the (gijinka) ‘Menadora Family Campout Fic’ (The AI!Pickle AU Pickle Family Campout Episode), but literally the first scene, the replacement for the scene where Pickle falls off a cliff and Blaze saves him and then they leave for the campout, which took like 2-3 minutes in the actual episode, ended up being, *checks google doc* 3.5k fucking words. So since I write too goddamn much, and my writing is kinda shit anyways, have the first scene of the fic that I may or may not continue writing.

~~~

It was a warm summer day on the outskirts of Axle City, more specifically in the forests near the city. The perfect day to play a game of basketball, or maybe do a bit of friendly racing, or, in the case of one individual and his computerized companion stopped on the side of the road in an area between the forest and a canyon, do some camping.

“Are you sure we have to check the supplies again?” A large, old-school computer monitor with a surprisingly crystal clear display was sat on a flat rock. The image on the computer was of a majorelle blue head with generally straight but at the same time curved bangs and hair as well as simple vivid cerulean eyes on a space colored dark blue background. The head had a face that displayed annoyance with a hint of anger.

“Pickle, I need to make sure we have everything we need for the campout. I don’t want to disappoint my family.” A foot or two away from the computer monitor was a dark cornflower blue haired, definitely white male with antenna headphones and a somewhat dirty lab coat. His hair was almost block-like, covering one almost black colored eye with almost straight ends, while the other eye was miraculously uncovered due to two laurel green barrettes pushing the hair aside. The male was rooting through a knapsack, taking out various items and placing them beside him.

“But Crusher, you’re taking forever!” Pickle’s face changed from annoyance to impatience. “By the time you’re done checking over our stuff for the 4th time since we’ve left, it’ll probably already be nighttime.” He earned himself a glare from Crusher, who had practically emptied the knapsack. He turned towards the monitor.

“This won’t take too long, just as long as you cooperate. Now could you please pull up the list.” Crusher half snapped. Pickle let out a huff and his head disappeared from the screen, being replaced by a list of various items.

“Alright. We have a flashlight, my sleeping bag, bug spray,” Pickle crossed off items on the list as Crusher put the items back in his knapsack, “sunscreen, multi-tool, axe, duct tape.”

“What is this, a kidnapping?”

“Shut up, Pickle. Matches, water bottle, books, poncho, generator, hand cranked radio.”

“This isn’t the apocalypse, Crusher.”

“Pickle. Compass, binoculars, phone charger, charcoal, trash bags, and roasting sticks. Am I forgetting anything?”

“The marshmallows!” Pickle exclaimed as the list was eradicated from the screen and his head once again came up.

“Right. We have those in the truck. Thank you.” Crusher lifted up the knapsack, slightly stumbling from the weight of it, and walked over to his truck, opening the back door and placing it in the back seat. He shut the back door and then immediately opened the passenger door before making his way to Pickle. He picked up the monitor, stumbling quite a bit from the weight of a literal fucking computer monitor, and slowly carryed it over to the truck.

“Careful you don’t drop me! I don’t really want to experience breakage again.”

“This monitor is surprisingly durable. It survived Libra throwing it down three flights of stairs.”

“Libra? As in the constellation? How did a group of stars manage to do that?”

“No, Pickle. Libra as in my cousin. You’ll meet her when we get to the campsite.” Crusher explained as he carefully placed the monitor in the passenger seat and put the seatbelt around it. He shut the door and got in on the driver’s side, starting up the truck and putting it in reverse.

“Alright, Pickle. Now that we’re sure that we have everything, we can have a smooth ride to the campground. It seems you did a good parking job too. I’ll just back up so we have more room to get out, then we’ll be on our way.” Crusher was about to lightly step on the gas. Pickle’s face lit up (metaphorically, not literally).

“I almost forgot to tell you! I parked the truck almost right next to the cliff so you’d already have room to get out fine! If you were to reverse, we’d fall straight off the cliff!” Pickle excitedly exclaimed.

“I’m sorry, you WHA-” Crusher had stepped on the gas. Luckily, before the truck rolled off the cliff, Crusher quickly slammed on the brakes and put the truck in park. The truck didn’t have much time to react, but luckily stopped just in time, not without jostling the passengers inside.

…

Nah, I’m just kidding. Crusher didn’t have enough time to react and the truck went straight off the cliff.

Crusher’s life flashed before his eyes as he screamed and held on for dear life. The truck roughly rolled down the canyon, never granting mercy towards the human driving it or the AI in the passenger seat. Not that Pickle was really bothered. Pickle was more or less having the time of his life as he felt as if he was on a roller coaster, if the roller coaster was one of those roller coasters GrayStillPlays builds in RollerCoaster Tycoon 3.

The truck roughly, but finally, came to a stop at the bottom of the cliff. By now, the airbags had deployed, keeping Crusher safe from any major injuries. The knapsack was open and it’s contents had spilled on the backseat floor, but Crusher didn’t care at the moment. All he was focusing on was regaining his composure and keeping himself from panicking. The truck was filled with silence.

“I told you we’d fall off the cliff.” Pickle said after a minute or two had passed.

“YEAH, THAT WAS WHEN I WAS ABOUT TO DRIVE!” Crusher screamed at him.

“No. I told you before you pressed on the gas. You had time to react.”

“NO I FUCKING DIDN’T!”

“But… I would have had time to react…”

“I’M NOT AN AI PROGRAM, I CAN’T JUST…” Crusher paused and let out a sigh. It was no use trying to argue with Pickle, as the AI would most likely need a thorough explanation in order to understand. “You know what, forget it. We have more important things to worry about. Like if the tru-”

“LIKE IF THE MARSHMALLOWS ARE OK!” Pickle shouted in horror.

“No! Like if the truck’s ok!” Crusher countered as he fumbled to unbuckle his seatbelt and get out of the truck. He backed up from the truck in order to take a look at it. The truck had dents all over it, with the biggest one directly on the front of the truck, where the engine was.

“Fucking great.” Crusher mumbled. He ran some thoughts in his head as he went to the passenger side to take Pickle out of the truck.

He didn’t want to get back in and drive the truck, as it was too dangerous and most likely a bomb at this point. It was also too dangerous to use his magnokinesis, as he didn’t have any ideas on a machine to get them out of the canyon, and even if he did, he still didn’t want to take the risk of driving the truck-bomb to the machine just for a simpler way of getting it out. He could find a way out of the canyon on foot and then come back to drive the truck there, or perhaps he could have his map app on his phone find a way out.

It was now that he wished Pickle had all the features he normally had in the lab. The old-school computer monitor, as durable as it was (that’s why it was ideal for travel), didn’t allow for all the fancy features Pickle had in the lab on the main computer, such as a pathfinding program and DuckDuckGo. Crusher could barely fit the main computer parts in the monitor and had to compact all the parts majorly so that they all fit and still kept room open in case he had to put an extra part in there for emergencies. He sadly had to sacrifice DuckDuckGo for Bing in order to accomplish that, and he promised DuckDuckGo that when he was able to compact Pickle’s parts to allow more room in the monitor, he’d add it first.

By now, Crusher had placed Pickle on the canyon floor. As expected, the monitor had little to no damage. It’d take a lot more than a truck falling off a maybe 250 ft cliff in order to put a dent in the monitor. Crusher really got his money’s worth out of the monitor, because who knew $20 would get you such a sturdy piece of technology. He walked back over to the truck and opened the back door to take a look at how much had fallen out of the knapsack. A large portion of the items had fallen out, but a majority of them were undamaged from the looks of it. The only damage he could observe at the moment was the glass on the compass being shattered, the axe severing the duct tape, and the marshmallows being squished.

“Are the marshmallows ok?!” Pickle shouted from where he was, not being able to see the inside of the truck.

“Depends. Do you like squished marshmallows?” Crusher replied sarcastically as he began to pick up the fallen contents and place them back into the knapsack.

“What?! Damn it! I was looking forward to eating those!” Pickle’s face snapped from fading neutrality to anger. Crusher rolled his eyes.

“You can’t even eat, Pickle. Besides, we need to focus on getting out of here. I might have to call a tow truck as soon as I get the knapsack all packed up again.” Crusher grumbled as he continued to carefully pack the items, examining each one he picked up for damage. He unfortunately found that the can of bug spray had gotten a crack and was slowly, but annoyingly leaking. He would have used the duct tape to fix it, but the duct tape was busy making out with the axe inside it, so he couldn’t. Frustrated, he threw the can at the offending canyon he’d rolled down not even 15 minutes ago at this point.

“Oh oh oh! I can call a tow truck for you!” Pickle exclaimed, a little too excited to help, as his face quickly changed from anger to happiness. Crusher briefly turned towards him and gave an approving nod before going back to repacking. Pickle paused for some time, turning up his volume as loud as it could go. And then…

“TOW TRUCK!!! WE NEED A TOW TRUCK!!!” Crusher practically had a heart attack from Pickle’s screaming, and proceeded to whip his head around with murder written in his expression.

“Why would you DO that?!” Crusher angrily questioned. Pickle gave a neutral expression.

“I was calling a tow truck. Just like I said I would.”

“Do you really think anyone will hear your screaming?!”

“You clearly did, so someone might!”

“Pickle, that’s because I’m right ne-” Crusher was cut off by the loud sound of a horn. A familiar horn at that. Where had he heard that horn before? Oh wait. No. No fucking way did he of all people hear Pickle’s obnoxious and idiotic screaming for help. Crusher couldn’t believe it, but as he looked up, he saw a large, gray and red shadow pass over them from one side of the canyon, emitting a sharp flash of bright red midair before landing gracefully on the other side.

“It’s Blaze!” Pickle happily shouted, representing both canyon dwellers’ thoughts. Crusher dropped the knapsack on the ground in shock. He quickly picked up the binoculars, conveniently the final item he needed to put back in, from off the floor of the back seat and ran beside Pickle, putting them to his eyes and focusing on the higher up truck. The truck wasn’t Blaze’s normal monster truck, but was instead a tow truck. Crusher lowered the binoculars in disbelief.

“Did he just turn his truck into a tow truck?” Crusher was familiar with Blaze’s transforming vehicle. He had seen Blaze use it multiple times in order to combat his cheats. And as annoying as it was, Crusher was bewildered by the fact that Blaze would use his transformation superpowers to save him of all people. Actually, it wasn’t bewildering. Crusher was saved by Blaze multiple times, and those transforming capabilities were used on all of those occasions. Crusher really wanted to know how Blaze was able to freely alter the shape of his vehicle to fit the needs of any situation, but wasn’t the time to wonder that. He saw Blaze get out of his truck and run to the edge of the cliff. He assumed Blaze was looking at him and Pickle, so he waved up to him. Blaze waved back from where he was and went towards his truck, grabbing the tow hook and returning to the edge of the cliff.

“What’s he doing?” Pickle asked as they both watched in intrigue.

“Perhaps finding a way to get down to us.” Crusher responded, once again raising the binoculars to his eyes in order to check out Blaze. Blaze had attached the tow hook to a harness he had and was quickly, but carefully, moving down the cliff.

“Crusher, we should bring the truck closer to Blaze for when he gets down! The cable is most likely not long enough!” Pickle pointed out.

“I can’t drive it closer. The engine might be leaking and the car could explode.” Crusher told him, shaking his head as he pulled the binoculars down. Meanwhile, Blaze got to the bottom of the cliff. He removed the tow hook from his harness and moved towards the duo, but suddenly stopped a quarter of the way there when the cable ran out of length, as Pickle predicted. Crusher winced as he looked towards the truck, then back at Blaze, unsure of what to do as he thought.

“What if you put the truck in neutral, and then pushed it?” Pickle asked. Crusher thought about it for a bit, and then his eyes widened in realization.

“That...might actually work!” Crusher exclaimed, running back to the truck, flinging open the driver’s side door, turning on the engine, and shifting the gear into neutral. Immediately, he felt the car roll forward, and quickly shut the door and went to the totalled front, finding two good places to put his hands and pushing. He was meant with resistance at first, but he was able to start slowly moving it towards Blaze. Pickle watched in excitement.

“Go, Crusher! You can do it!” He cheered. Whether it was encouragement from Pickle’s cheers or leftover adrenaline from being in a car crash, Crusher began to push harder on the truck, causing the truck to move faster as it reached Blaze.

“You’re good, Crusher!” Blaze shouted as the truck was finally close enough for him to hook the tow hook on. Crusher stopped pushing and caught his breath as he walked over to the side of the truck, leaning against it. Blaze also walked over to the side where Crusher was, giving him a friendly smile before taking a look at the truck.

“Wow. Your truck’s really banged up. What happened?” Blaze questioned as he took in all the damage Crusher’s truck had sustained.

“Long story short, I’m never trusting Pickle to park anything again. You know, you never realize how big cliffs are until you fall down one.” Crusher explained. Blaze slightly winced at the explanation.

“Well, AJ and I are here to get your truck out! We now just need to find a way to get you and Pickle out.”

“Leave that to me. It’s safer to build something now that I don’t have the truck to worry about.” Crusher responded. Blaze gave a nod and turned to AJ on top of the cliff, giving him a signal to wind up the cable. Crusher turned around and walked back over to where Pickle and the knapsack were, putting the knapsack on as he lifted up Pickle.

“Wow! That was amazing! You were really strong!” Pickle exclaimed as Crusher walked back over to Blaze and AJ pulling the truck out of the canyon.

“Yep. Now we just need to get out. And luckily it’s safe enough to make an easy way out. Any suggestions?”

“Hmmm.” Pickle closed his eyes in thought. “How about…”

“We don’t have all day, Pickle. We need to get to the campgrounds.”

“Be patient, I’m thinking! Oh oh! An elevator! Like a really simple elevator!”

“Alright. I think I can do that.” Crusher switched to holding Pickle in only one hand. He closed his eyes and focused, stretching out a hand towards the edge of the canyon. The antennas on his headphones gave off sparks of lightning and pieces of scrap metal flew out from underneath his lab coat. Pickle watched in amazement as the pieces assembled a medium sized platform elevator (with handrails of course) stretching to the top of the canyon. Crusher opened his eyes and lowered his hand as the sparks stopped coming out from the antennas.

“Wow! That’s cool, Crusher!” Blaze shouted as he came over to where they were. AJ seemed to be having no trouble bringing the truck up, so Crusher assumed that Blaze just needed a ride up. Crusher stepped on the left side of the elevator platform, motioning for Blaze to get on the right side. Blaze gracefully got onto the right side and looked expectantly at Crusher.

“Hang on tight, because we’re going up!” Crusher exclaimed as he pointed upwards. As if on command, the elevator began to rise towards the top of the canyon. Blaze and Pickle gasped in amazement as they saw the view.

“Woah! This looks beautiful!” Blaze exclaimed.

“The canyon does look much better when slowly rising than quickly falling. Pickle analyzed, earning him another glare from Crusher. Soon enough, the three reached the top. Blaze and Crusher stepped off the elevator, the latter raising his free hand and snapping his fingers twice, causing the elevator to split apart back into scrap metal that returned itself back to it’s compartment under Crusher’s lab coat. The truck was already on solid not canyon ground, and AJ got out of the tow truck that retrieved it, running over to Blaze and exchanging a high five.

“Thanks for the help, I guess.” Crusher said. Pickled nodded in agreement.

“No problem you guys.” AJ replied, giving a thumbs up. “Your car’s looking rough though. We’ll have to take it to Gabby’s Garage as soon as possible.” He said, concerned.

“Where were you two even heading anyways?” Blaze questioned, focusing his eyes on Crusher’s knapsack and binoculars.

“We’re going camping with Crusher’s family!” Pickle told them, happiness spread across his face.

“Or at least we were.” Crusher introjected, focused on the totalled truck they were planning on driving. “Now that we don’t have any way to get there… I’m not sure what to do.” Blaze and AJ looked at each other for a few moments and nodded.

“We can drive you guys there! Maybe we can even stay for a bit before taking your car to Gabby’s.” Blaze offered.

“Really?! You’d do that?!” Pickled asked, his face lighting up even more with happiness. Crusher meanwhile quirked an eyebrow.

“Of course! We’re happy to take you guys there!” AJ replied. Pickle looked up at Crusher, non verbally asking for his opinion. This prompted Blaze and AJ to also look at Crusher expectantly. Crusher was silent for a few seconds.

“Fine. I can give you guys the directions and you can take us to the campsite.” Crusher hesitantly responded. A ‘yay’ came from Pickle as excited thumbs ups came from Blaze and AJ.

The four of them went to the tow truck, with Blaze getting in the driver’s seat, AJ getting in the passenger’s seat, and Crusher and Pickle getting in the back. Crusher buckled in Pickle’s monitor, then handed AJ the directions to tell Blaze, and finally relaxed. He’d actually be able to see part of his family after so long, especially his siblings. He was excited, but also nervous to see them face to face after a year. He didn’t really engage much with his family due to being busy. The only member he regularly interacted with was his grammy, and even then, he didn’t see her too often. Would they accept him as if he’s always been there? Would they even remember him? Would they think he’s just some weirdo with a computer for a best friend?

Crusher felt those questions along with many more plague his brain, but as Blaze started to drive towards the campsite, Crusher decided not to let the questions bother him. After all, his siblings hating him for being gone wouldn’t be the worst thing to ever happen to him. No, that spot now belonged to Pickle’s driving. He’s going to have to install a driving program into that monitor now. Which means more time for DuckDuckGo to wait.

~~~