"Yeah," AJ agreed. "We already warned to stop trying to get Crusher. Why won't you listen?"
"Because I want him!" Speedrick whined.
"Let's head for Stripes's place," AJ suggested, ignoring the truck-turned race car's whining. "I heard that Gia's coming with their daughter Debby after just visiting Gia's home,"
"Good call, AJ," Blaze agreed with a nod before zooming off.
They all soon made it to Stripes's treehouse. The tiger truck waved down at them before jumping down from the top.
"Hey, guys!" he greeted then he noticed Speedrick looking hurt. "Yeesh, what happened to Speedrick?"
"Starla once, Pickle three times," Blaze replied. "Oh, wait, no, not three times. Five times, as far as I can remember..."
"He tried to flirt with Watts AND Crusher?" Stripes stared at the truck-turned race car in disbelief. "Doesn't he know that doing that is a death sentence?!"
"BUT I WANT LIGHTNING BOY!" Speedrick growled.
"Okay, I'm REALLY not getting why Crusher has a lot of people pinning interest on him," Stripes shook his head with a sigh. "And with the amount of people Pickle had placed 'out of commission', I thought others would see it as a warning,"
"No matter how much we warn Speedrick, he just... doesn't listen," Blaze sighed. "That's why we brought him here for a change of setting,"
"How are you guys sure Crusher and Pickle won't be here?" Stripes asked.
"They went home to rest after SOMEONE tried to mind-control Crusher," AJ glared at Speedrick, who scoffed.
"He did WHAT?!" Stripes's jaw dropped.
"Don't worry, Stripes," Blaze assured him with a smile. "I'm sure he won't do anything to Gia or Debby,"
"You better hope he doesn't," Stripes grumbled under his breath.
He then turned to lead the group up into the treehouse. When they went inside, they found an orange cat truck with brown eyes and glasses fixing the hair of a dark-skinned human girl. The girl turned to the tiger truck and gasped.
"Dad!"
"Hey there, Debby," Stripes took the girl into his tires as soon as she ran to him, allowing the undone braid to loosen once more.
"Debby, I'm not done with your hair!" the cat truck sped after her.
"Come on, kiddo, your hair's all messy again," Stripes chuckled and set his daughter down. "Let your mom handle the frizz,"
"Okay, okay," Debby sighed and went back to her mom to get her hair done.
"You've got... a human for a kid?" Speedrick raised an eyebrow. "A black kid?"
"Is there a problem with the color, Speedrick?" AJ questioned.
"No, no, just... she's HUMAN," Speedrick pointed out.
"You've got a problem with humans too?"
"AJ, you're not getting me here," Speedrick rolled his eyes. "She's a HUMAN, BLACK kid to MONSTER MACHINES. Isn't that fucking wrong?"
"One more word about MY kid, Speedrick, and I'm slashing that tongue of yours." Stripes snarled, his claws threatening to appear in one of his tires.
"Hey, hey! I'm just stating a fact here, Stripes!"
"MY parents are monster machines," AJ pointed out. "And they're Blaze's parents,"
"Okay, okay, maybe it's not the best example—"
"There! Done!" the cat truck smiled and had Debby presented with a long braid down. "What do you think, Stripes?"
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"She's pretty, Gia," Stripes smiled and hugged his daughter. "She's as pretty as her mom!"
"Dad!" Debby laughed.
"Oh, you charmer," Gia rolled her eyes and pecked his cheek before turning to the newcomers. "Oh, hey there AJ!" Her gaze settled at Blaze and sighed. "Blaze,"
"Gia," Blaze spoke in the same tone.
"Hi, Uncle Blaze and Uncle AJ!" Debby greeted with a wave.
"Hey, there Debby!" AJ ruffled the girl's hair with a laugh.
"Ugh," Speedrick rolled his eyes. "Seriously, I don't even understand why anyone would adopt humans. BLACK humans, even worse,"
"SHUT up." Stripes snarled, glaring at him dangerously.
"What? It would've been better if, I don't know, you got a white kid to adopt? I mean, I get Blaze and his family, I guess, since their a bunch of goody Americans, probably being nice and all—"
"Oh," Speedrick snorted. "No wonder your family adopted AJ,"
"What does THAT suppose to mean?!" AJ huffed.
"You know, since you're black and Spanish people are usually brown... it's near, actually,"
"That makes no sense whatsoever, jerk face." Gia hissed.
"And what are you two, African?" Speedrick raised an eyebrow at the mother and daughter.
"I'm Filipino, you asshole!" Gia roared out.
"And I'm Haitian!" Debby growled.
"You mean those black and brown idiots who—"
"THAT DOES IT!" Stripes bellowed out before pouncing on the truck-turned race car with all claws out. "NO ONE SPEAKS TO MY GIRLFRIEND OR OUR CHILD THAT WAY, YOU SON OF A BITCH!"
"Stripes, language!" Gia covered Debby's ears but didn't bother to stop her boyfriend from beating the jerk up.
"Should we do something, Blaze?" AJ asked, turning to the red truck.
"5 minutes," Blaze replied.
"Really?" AJ stared at his usually-happy, usually-friendly best friend.
"Yep," Blaze nodded, ignoring Speedrick's pleads of mercy. "Serves him right for insulting you and Debby, so we'll wait for five minutes,"
