Chapter Text
The sounds of arguing and stomping could be heard all throughout the Battletram. Despite the Battletram's tendency to be bigger on the inside like a certain British police box; sound carried through the vehicle like there wasn't any walls at all. In Jimmy's lab, chemical mixtures in beakers boiled over with the same intensity as the Commander's and Jimmy's anger.
"Jimmy, what I'm saying is that I don't need your fancy-smancy robot brain crunching the numbers over when I have an idea." The Commander tapped his temple furiously as he spoke. "I'm the MC BAT Commander, for Pete's sake, robot. I'll just use my noggin's first idea and we'll be fine. We haven't screwed up yet!" The mustachioed man put his hands on his hips and made a heroic pose with a big, bright smile.
Jimmy took a deep inhale and sighed while literal years worth of memories of their failures as superheroes quickly played like a nicely edited film reel before his eyes. The robot could not even begin to explain to the commander's smug smiley face how many hours to days it'd take to fully watch all of the footage without speeding it up. Knowing the Commander's attention span however, even the sped up version of the footage would bore the man to no end.
"Commander, we've failed many times trying to help others who needed our help. The people depend on us to heed their calls for help successfully." Jimmy put a palm forward with a projected hologram of some cartoonishly looking drawings of their fellow bats and people with Xs for eyes. "When I offer you options or other ideas, it isn't because I don't want to listen to your plans. It is because I've least given my ideas a twice over check to make sure they aren't going to lead us and the others we're helping to an untimely doom!" Jimmy slammed down a metal fist onto his workspace, but not too hard as to cause anything to fall over and break. The last thing they needed was highly corrosive acid falling and burning a hole through the Battletram's floor.
The Commander's confident smile quickly disappeared as he realized what Jimmy was saying was true. The man quickly shook his head to shake off the realization and went to the first rebuttal he could think of. "Wingin' it like I do is a sign of a great leader! Your metal greystuffs can't just predict what to do on the fly perfectly 100 percent of the time either. Just the fact that we're still here means my plans are working! Do I gotta sing the song again to prove my point, robot?"
As the man took a deep breath and began to belt out a "How does the-", Jimmy took a hand and clasped the Commander's mouth closed. "No, Commander. I don't need to have the song repeated. I can freely listen to it over and over as much as I want. My 'metal graystuff' allows me to rewatch my every moment with you guys over and over again." Jimmy put his other hand onto a piece of metal and a screen neatly descended to replay the memory of the song. The Commander's eyes sparkled in childlike wonder at the replayed footage before his eyes.
Jimmy felt his robotic heart almost skip a beat at the other man's brief display of childlike wonder. It wasn't like his beloved leader's manchildishly ways was completely flawed and unlikable. It just seemed like a man who so childishly ran headfirst at any extremely dangerous situations shouldn't have been chosen to be the leader of a band of superheroes. Then again, considering the state of most members of the Aquabats, Jimmy was amazed they all have not seemingly perished by any of their never-ending impulsive bad choices.
The commander slapped off Jimmy's robot hand from his mouth and started once more. "Well, if you don't think my way of leading is what we need despite us all still being here, then maybe we should have just left you with that junk collector after all! Maybe you'd finally be useful to someone as scrap like the overgrown toaster you are!" The man turned away from Jimmy in anger over his challenged authority towards a wall.
The robot's eyes widened and his expression turned into a frown at the thought the commander's words brought about. Jimmy recalled that time in the junk collector's vehicle as he really thought that was his last moments before he'd meet his end. Jimmy had just accepted that his life would have ended like it had began. In pieces. He had decided to do a small recollection of all of the good memories in his life before he'd return to zero. That would make sure that the end of his life would be a happy one.
The junk collector had came by before starting the vehicle and struggled to find Jimmy's power button. In those fleeting minutes, Jimmy had thought about the Commander and the rest of the bats. He daydreamed of them sweeping in to save him. They'd make some sort of grandiose opening and be like "Jimmy, we're here to save you, come on robot buddy!" However, as the junk collector found out where Jimmy's power button was and pressed it down until his system started to shut down the robot had given up all hope. The shut down UI appeared in Jimmy's vision and in a few minutes, Jimmy had gone into standby.
The commander knew what came next, he'd made Jimmy's daydream come true and came to his rescue. Jimmy was powered on once more and off to save Eaglebones they went hand in hand. To think of a situation were Jimmy hadn't ever turned back on, the robot felt like his metal body had grown impossibly heavy and the world felt like gravity had become five times stronger. He didn't want to entertain the idea of being scrap metal anymore.
The commander turned around from the wall he had been faced towards and waved a hand in front of Jimmy's face. "Jimmy? I know you're a robot so you probably got literal gears turning in that head of yours, but it shouldn't be this obvious." Jimmy shook out the feeling of dread and came back to the current moment.
"Commander, maybe you were right. Perhaps I'd be better off as scrap, if I couldn't have even worked efficiently at an arcade that housed my fellow machines that provided joy, then what use to do I provide to you guys? I shouldn't be here. I... should just leave for a while." Jimmy's eyes were watery as he felt tears threatening to well up. If the commander regretted saving him from becoming scrap, Jimmy thought it might be just better to up and leave. He wasn't being useful, he was just a hindrance. The rest of the bats and the commander didn't need that. The robot began to gather up the bare essentials he needed to be gone for a while. He packed a bag with in a charger for his batteries and a few other items that were essential.
The commander only became more exasperated at the sight of the robot packing up. "Fine! Just go then. You'll see that my awesome plans will get the rest of us somewhere cool. We don't need any of that science and math stuff your brain can do. Go. Go!" The man pointed towards the door and watched as Jimmy made his way out into the Battletram's hallway and eventually out into the nighttime.
The MC Bat Commander stormed off to the shared bunks in the Battletram. The Commander didn't need anyone to question his authority with logic and reason constantly, he just needed someone who'd go about his plans. He had hoped to sleep off the anger he felt with Jimmy, so that he could go on his life tomorrow a robotless day. Finally, the robot's nagging would come to an end.
Meanwhile, Jimmy journeyed down a road towards the nearest city. Maybe he could knock off something from his bucket list and become a hot tub salesman. He could be useful there. It would take his mind off of the Commander's words and he could even earn some money for a place to charge. So, off to the nearest city he went.