Co-written with B.C. Crossing. Sorry it took so long, Brit!

All of the Firsts I had written previously are about the Biker Mice adjusting to Earth, the customs, and culture. But what about Charley? How would she adjust to life on Mars? *grins* Lets have some fun!

The First Round-Trip Ticket

As Limburger Tower crumbled in the distance, Charley breathed a quiet sigh of relief from the city's shipyards. Warehouses and other structures currently on fire were just now being put out by the hard-working (and severely underpaid) firefighters of Chicago. Karbunkle had been stationed here with another of Limburger's schemes to drain Lake Michigan of water, and the Biker Mice had swiftly put a stop to it. Charley had rode with them to be sure that Karbunkle had stayed unconscious and out of their fur while they'd gone after his boss.

But this time, Charley had managed to do something that she had been attempting to do for nearly three years. With a joyful laugh, she lifted up a small motherboard from the interior of a small Transporter beam device. This little bit of metal and plastic held the last shreds of code and passwords to reach the main Transporter network. Now, all she needed to do was hack the Plutarkian mainframe and copy the coordinates for Mars. Her longest running project ever would now be a success!

She had scoured junkyards all over the city and about 30 miles out, searching for the debris from Limburger Tower, and more specifically, Karbunkle's lab. The quantum entanglement communicators and Plutarkian internet codes were her goal there, as well as the many parts she needed. The mechanic had painstakingly raked over concrete, wiring, and still sparking laser turrets to find every piece that she would need, and now, at long last, she had the final part she had needed to complete her biggest project.

She was reverse-engineering a Plutarkian Transporter Booth.

No blueprints, no designs, no other info than seeing the machine in action; no problem. The brilliant woman had managed to find enough parts and still somewhat-working bits to piece together the single most complex bit of technology she'd ever gotten her hands on. And now, finally, she could complete it, run tests, and give the Bros the biggest surprise ever!

&*(*(*&*(*(*(

The Mice pulled into the Garage, still laughing and celebrating their latest victory over Limburger and his goons. Modo dismounted his bike and gave her a fond pat, his tail pulling out a small towel from his saddlebags and wiping the bike of road dust. Vinnie jumped off his bike with a handstand and whoop. "Sweet ride, bros! Hey, I'm starving, Charley-girl! Where's the eats?"

"In the fridge, caveman," she called from the basement. "Get off your lazy tail and fix your own dinner!"

A large clang and a small bang was heard from downstairs. Throttle frowned a bit as he walked over to the basement stairs. "You alright, Charley?"

"I'm fine, just working on"-

A brilliant flash of light from the bottom of the stairs nearly blinded Throttle-

-"an old project of mine," she said from right beside him.

Throttle nearly jumped out of his fur. "Whoa! Charley-girl, how did you do that?"

"Wow!" Vinnie said in surprise at her sudden appearance. "You practicing you're David Copperfeild impression, sweetheart?"

She grinned, so excited that she hugged Throttle, jumping up and down. "I just finished building a Transporter!"

Modo was not alone in staring at her in jaw-dropping shock. "You did what now?"

Charley let go of a slightly dazed Throttle as she talked. "I've been trying to get my hands on Transporter parts for years, and now I've finally got enough of the pieces and put them together and it works! I just built a Transporter in my basement!"

"That's amazing!" "Way to go, Charley-girl!"

She blushed at their praise, but went on to tell them the best part. "And, I've managed to get one of those portable Transporter Beam-Tunnels to work too. Anywhere you guys want to go instantly, and you can get back here just as fast! I've made them a closed-circuit, so that nobody can hack them or try and scramble their signals." The human grinned. "You know what this means, right?"

Vincent blinked and frowned as he thought about it. "How far is its range?"

Charley smiled. "I have enough energy from the spare laser crystals that I've scavenged to get to Mars."

The three Martian Mice cheered out loud. She hurried to explain that as long as she had the coordinates to a place on Mars, she could send all of them there with no 3 day long trip on the Stalker ship. Throttle was especially excited. With a working Transporter Booth, and the corresponding smaller Transporter Beam-Tunnel, the boys could go home and come back to Earth whenever they wanted, visit their home whenever they wished, and ship desperately needed supplies and water to their home world!

Modo smiled as he hugged the human woman. "How can we ever thank you for this?"

She blushed again, smiling. "No worries, big guy."

The trio exchanged looks, then looked back at Charley. Throttle spoke up, "Hey, Charley-girl, you ever take any vacation time?"

The mechanic blinked in surprise. "Not lately. Not for the last five years, really. Why?"

Vincent Van Wham grinned. "Then pack your bags, sweetheart, we're taking you to Mars!"

Her scream of excited joy nearly burst their eardrums.

...

This is setting up the hows and whys of Charley being on Mars. The comedy/angst will start in the next chapters. Please let me know what you think!