Chapter Text
“Are you sure this is the right place, Vi?” Lewis was skeptical as they pulled up to the garage. A large wrench adorned the storefront and a mess of an old wrecking yard consisted of its backyard.
“Sure am!” Vivi was already out before Lewis had time to even slow to a stop. She bounded up to the store and politely waved inside before gesturing for Lewis and Mystery to hurry up.
Sighing fondly, Lewis parked the car in the small lot and he and Mystery followed Vivi inside the small mechanic shop.
The store owner walked around the counter and shook both their hands as Vivi talked animatedly about the owner’s job posting.
“...and you say that the haunting started a few weeks ago?” Lewis questioned.
“That’s what I reckon, at least,” the store owner, Lance, nodded, “The wrecking yard just doesn’t sit right anymore. You can hear things that just makes your hair stand on in.”
“Oooh, like what?” Vivi was ecstatic at the notion of a case that didn’t end up in just another masked weirdo or some other type of fake. Mystery wagged his tail excitedly at the prospect. But, Lewis wasn’t so sure.
“Are you sure it isn’t just the wind or some sort of radio on the fritz from one of the cars? Maybe an engine got jumpstarted somehow?”
Lance laughed goodnaturedly, “Oh, I don’t think so. I’ve been a mechanic here for three decades and I’ve never heard anything like this coming from the yard before.”
Vivi was practically vibrating with glee as she and Mystery giggled at each other. Lewis smiled, sighing softly.
“Alright, we’ll take a look and let you know what we find.”
The three started to exit back out the front door before Lance called back to them.
“Oh, I can’t just let you go out just by yourselves!” Lance frowned, crossing his arms, “You should at least take something from the shop with ya to protect yourselves.”
The three exchanged looks.
“Thanks, but I think we’ll be okay-”
“Oh, I have the perfect idea!” Lance, snapped his fingers before walking over to an employee’s only door and hollering back, “Artie come out for a second!”
Lance let the door slam back shut and grinned at the three, “Artie’s my nephew- he works in the yard… well… he worked in the yard at least before the haunting started. He should be able to show you folks around just as well as I could.”
Well, a tour guide couldn’t hurt, right? Especially with a job that sounded so tame.
Soon enough a voice resounded from the back of the store, “You don’t have to yell, Uncle Lance, I can hear you just fine.”
Vivi gasped as Lewis and Mystery’s jaws dropped.
“Yes, well, sometimes I think you pretend not to hear me on purpose, Artie. Gotta make sure you can’t ignore me when I need ya.”
“Yeah, yeah,” the tinny voice pouted, glowing eyes rolling before finally seeing the three gaping in the storefront.
“Uh… hi,” ‘Artie’ greeted, waving a mechanical hand, “I’m guessing you’re having trouble with your uh car?”
Lance shook his head and patted Artie’s arm, “No, no these here folks are here to see about the haunted yard.”
“Oh. Right.” He stammered a bit thinking about it, but grinned at them, “Well good luck with that.”
He turned to leave but Lance grabbed his shoulder to turn him around, “No, no, Arthur you’re going with them.”
“What!?”
“You know the yard better than them; it’d only make sense.”
“Then why don’t you go? You know it better than me!”
“I gotta watch the storefront, Arthur.”
The bickering continued for a few more moments before Mystery barked, finally composed.
“Oh! Yeah - you don’t have to go with us, um, Arthur was it?” Vivi tried, voice soothing, “I’m sure we can manage just fine.”
“We’ve got this covered, Mr. Lance. Really,” Lewis smiled.
“Hmmm…” Lance closed his eyes, considering, his grip still tight on Arthur.
Finally, he gave a nod and pushed Arthur in their direction.
“Arthur could use some good influences to be brave like you lot. I’m sure if he wasn’t such a scaredy cat, then he could have solved it himself when this first happened.”
“Hey!” Arthur’s faceplate burned with indignation and embarrassment.
“Don’t you argue with me, Artie,” Lance warned, “It’s true and you know it.”
Arthur pouted before sighing in resignation, “Fine. Let’s just get this over with quickly. I was working on a project you know,” he continued to grumble as he exited the store with Lewis, Vivi and Mystery on his heels.
“So…” Lewis began awkwardly. They had begun their trip through the wrecking yard with relative peace, aside from the few grumbles from Arthur early on. Vivi and Mystery, despite Arthur protesting, had taken the lead, leaving Arthur and Lewis to trail behind.
Arthur glanced at Lewis, who was wringing his hands awkwardly. Taking pity on him he sighed, the sound tinny and filtered.
“So, I’m a robot who works at a mechanic shop. A mechanic shop that his uncle runs. That sound about right?”
“Uh… yeah,” Lewis chuckled awkwardly, “How did… that happen?” He mentally cursed himself for being so tongue-tied, but it wasn’t every day that you met a walking and talking robot - especially one who was as emotionally sophisticated as Arthur was. Enough to be cowardly and all.
“My father, or creator I guess if you prefer, decided that he was lonely and made me. The end.”
“That… sounds like a very abridged version?” More mental cursing.
“Well, it’s not like there’s much more to it than that,” Arthur shrugged, “I don’t even get to see him much anyway nowadays.”
“Oh… I’m sorry. That must be difficult,” Lewis frowned. It did seem odd that the only two people in the shop were Arthur and his uncle. No one was even working in the adjoined garage either. It just seemed oddly… desolate.
“Hm. I guess,” Arthur trailed off as another bout of silence hung in the air.
“Well, I think that-” Lewis was cut off as a sharp high pitched warble sounded through the wrecking yard.
All four of them covered their ears (or auditory sensors) and looked around frantically.
When the warbling finally stopped, Arthur let out of tense sigh.
“Well. I’m sure you guys can take it from here-” Another loud warble, sounding closer somehow, and Arthur was clinging to Lewis’ side.
“Nevermind, I’m just gonna… follow you guys. Just in case. Yeah,” Arthur laughed nervously.
The group continued onward, Vivi pulling out a small sensor, Mystery sniffing the ground, Lewis fiddling with another slim gadget, and Arthur sticking as close to the group as possible.
As they turned a corner, two cars jump started to life, their engines revving underneath the piles of cars, turning their wheels this way and that as if trying to free themselves.
Vivi was the first to act as her sensor went crazy, beeping so intensely that Lewis could hardly believe it hadn’t shorted out yet. She pulled out a small device and threw it at one of the cars, it whined loudly before shorting out both of the two vehicles.
And Arthur.
Arthur fell to the ground with a large crash of metal, his eyes going dark with the effect of the EMP.
“Oh, shoot!” Vivi cried out as Lewis scooped Arthur up swiftly.
Another horrible warble rang out in dismay, louder and shriller than before. The cars around them jolted to life, their alarms honking in a cacophony. Arthur also startled briefly, his eyes shining briefly before blacking out again, his limbs convulsing in Lewis’ grasp.
“We’ve got to head back now!” Lewis shouted over the resounding warble, the cars continuing to turn off and on, their engines revving menacingly.
As they raced back to where the shop was it became increasingly clear that no matter which way they turned, they were lost in the middle of the yard. Disoriented by the honking and rattling of engines, the trio tried to find a place to hide, only to come across more and more angry sounding cars.
There was so much blood rushing in Lewis’ ears that he almost didn’t catch the small beeping and whirring noises coming from Arthur.
Looking down he saw Arthur open his eyes, almost sleepily, before grimacing.
“Five more minutes, ughh,” he grumbled before Lewis jostled him accidentally his arms, almost tripping over a spare exhaust pipe.
“Woah okay I’m up! I’m up!”
“Arthur you’re okay!” Vivi grinned as they all continued running in what seemed like an endless maze.
“Yeah, I’m- I’m fine,” Arthur looked around, confused as to where he was and who these people were.
Then his memory finished rebooting. And he was terrified.
“Right okay, take a left here, quick!” Arthur began yelling out directions as cars finally came toppling down around them, engines warmed up enough to begin chasing after the four.
They barely made it out of the yard as a large pileup crashed behind them and they skidded across the parking lot of the garage.
The pileup blocked the entrance to the yard and the cars behind honked frustratedly before turning off resigned. The gang all signed in relief as the cars finally shut off, getting up shakily to their feet, slowly hissing in pain at their scrapes and bruises from the rough landing.
They stumbled back toward the shop as Lance rushed out to meet them.
He had heard the crash and had come running from his workstation to make sure that they were all okay.
As he helped patch their injuries, he apologized profusely for the trouble and thanked them for their help.
The three mystery solvers sunk in their seats as they heard these apologies and praises. They especially felt low when they saw Lance do a tune-up to Arthur to make sure he didn’t accidentally damage anything important.
After recounting their tale to Lance, he addressed Arthur, “You rebooted? After an EMP?”
“I’m not sure how…” Arthur shook his head, “but with the cars all suddenly starting around us, even ones that have been out for good, it’s easy to assume that whatever is haunting the yard has control over electronics.”
“And I thought of sending you out by yourself…” Lance’s expression clouded and he hugged Arthur tightly.
Lewis, Vivi, and Mystery all exchanged looks before approaching the two.
“Well… if it hadn’t been for Arthur, we wouldn’t have made it out of their alive,” Vivi admitted, wringing her hands.
“Yeah, he was really brave back there,” Lewis piped up, Mystery barking in agreement.
Arthur smiled in thanks as Lance pulled back to pat his shoulder affectionately.
“That’s my boy,” he smiled softly before his expression became grimmer.
“Still, until we get this mess solved, I can say that maybe the old yard isn’t the best place for me and Arthur to stay in,” he nodded solemnly.
“What!?” Arthur squawked.
“It’s dangerous for you to be here if it’s true that the phantom or whatever is haunting this place can control electronics,” Vivi agreed.
Lance nodded, “We’ll have to make some plans, but we should be able to at least live up the road at the motel for a while until we get this solved.”
“We don’t have the money for that, Lance!” Arthur bristled, “We’re already behind on the shop without having to shut it down for some undetermined amount of time!” His voice box was cracking as he gestured wildly around him.
“We’ll make do, Artie,” Lance said with an air of finality. He turned to the mystery trio to thank them again for their time.
“He can stay with us,” Lewis blurted out.
All four of them turned to him with confusion and alarm as he flushed and raised his hands up placatingly.
“I’m just thinking that… I’m not very good with cars... and we go on odd jobs here and there… and if you don’t have a place to stay…” Lewis stumbled over his words, but Arthur piped up with revelation in his voice.
“Then I could go and Lance could still run the shop while I’m away…”
Lance had a few choice words about that and there was a long and arduous debate that followed, but it was decided that Arthur was allowed to go with the trio as long as his safety was assured.
And so, after a long and teary set of farewells and a new mechanic in tow, the now mystery quartet headed off on their next adventure.