THE MOMENT
The garage was brightly lit and loudly active. It was a maintenance day for the team, and each member was tending to their vehicle, trying to wring out optimal performance. The Sharp Rider garage was a warehouse-sized space, and each of the six vehicles took up football field-size bays. Despite the enormity, each vehicle also only needed one technician, thanks in part to A.I.
The team had a support A.I. named Helios who could help them with repairs and upgrades to their vehicles. The Captain, Turbo, was blessed with technical ingenuity as well and at the moment, Keys was asking him about some advice Helios gave.
“It's always hard to tell when he's joking or not,” Keys shook his head. “I just asked if there was a way to smooth out the ride a bit more. It's been kind of bumpy since I got it. Thought it was something I was doing wrong, but it hasn't gotten any better,” he explained as Turbo studied the oversized motorcycle. It was white with neon red, and in the proper shape of a motorcycle, but it was also larger than a semi-trailer. The narrow wheel in front was four feet wide and the broader one in the back almost twice that. Each of the teenage boys could’ve stood upright inside the center of the wheel. Turbo circled the machine staring at it through a crystalline red visor.
“What’d he say?” Turbo asked with a nod.
“Verbatim…,” Keys sighed, then met Turbo’s eyes to repeat the exact phrase.
"I mean, optimistically, if we shift the whimsical paradigm forward on the x-axis, it'll smooth out turbulence in the flow of karma." He stopped there, and Turbo waited a moment before nodding again.
“Uhuh,” he said. “Where’s the joke part?”
“That’s it…,” Keys said. “He wasn’t joking?”
“Have you been treating it like a normal motorcycle this whole time?” Turbo asked.
“I know how to change oil and stuff…,” Keys shrugged. “And piloting it hasn’t been much of an issue.”
“Except for the uneven ride,” Turbo smirked. “We’re piloting mechas. They’re part magical, half-running on belief. You need to embrace whimsy, man,” he said. “And maybe go over the manual more in-depth,” he added as he tilted his head at the imposing machine. “I’ll bet you can’t even point out where the Whimsical Paradigm is.”