Alan Tracy was ecstatic him and his team mate, Speed Racer, had just won another race (Ok so technically AJ Shepherd and Speed Racer had won but he was AJ Shepherd). But sadly his victory was short lived because as soon as he turned on his phone it beeped angrily at him showing him he had 19 missed calls, 19 voicemails and 16 text messages all of them from a different members of his 'family'. He sighed this was so waiting to morning , maybe by that time he would have an excuse. He walked out mumbling goodbyes to the rest of the still celebrating team. By the time he had walked back to Whartons it was already one in the morning and by the time he was asleep in bed nearly two.

A loud and annoying beeping woke Alan up and for a minute he forgot what it was as it couldn't be his alarm clock because he didn't have one (who wants to be woken up by a stupid noise anyway) then he realised it was the video phone. Oh, great he thought time to come up with a stupid excuse, get told off by dad, get laughed at by my brothers and then get a similar speech to the one dad just gave me from Fermat. Just great. Sighing he sat down at the computer and answered the call. Immediately the faces of his very angrily looking dad and brothers came on to the screen. His dad wasted no time in dressing him down. "WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU LAST NIGHT?!" Alan flinched at the loudness of his father's voice but none of his family seemed to care or even notice.

"I was… out with…err… friends"

"What friends?" Scott questioned as far as he knew his brother's only friend was Fermat. "Fermat was at school last night."

"I know that!" Alan replied hotly.

"So who were you with?" Virgil asked in a calm tone, trying to calm Alan, if anything Virgil's tone just made Alan angrier.

"None of your business!" He retorted stormily glaring at each of his family in turn.

"Do not take that tone with us young man," his dad said sternly. This made Alan really mad as he wasn't about to be babied by his father and brothers. "Where were you?"

"Out with friends, some of us have a life!"

"Yeah, well we live on an island we can't exactly go out with friends" Gordon pointed out glaring at Alan the whole time. For his part Alan bit back the insult he was going to direct at his brother and settled for an even angrier glare. Which didn't please his dad.

"Where were you?" He persisted and gave his son the look which meant no lies.

Alan just replied "I have already told you it's your fault you don't believe me."

"I never had this problem with your brothers," his dad sighed.

"Yeah, well I am not my stupid brothers. I am not an air head like Scott. I am not a butt kisser like John. I am not an overachiever like Virgil. And I am not a self-centred jerk like Gordon!"

"No your just a stupid little cry baby, why do we even want you around?"

"You're the air head, stupid."

"I wish mum and dad had just stopped at four kids like they planned!"

"I wish you'd died in that avalanche!" All the insults merged into one but Alan heard them all and his dad just stood there and let his brothers have a go at him. Well he'd had enough he hit the end call button on the screen and stomped over to his bed, pulled out a backpack and began to pack all the stuff he would need. A small groan from the other bed told him Fermat had been woken by all the loud noises. Here it comes he thought.

"Alan where were you yester- last night?"

"Out with friends." Alan said careful to keep his tone empty.

Fermat noticed the bag and said, "That's not your school ruck- bag what are you doing with tha-I, it?"

"I'm going to visit Speed."

That statement seemed to make something click in Fermat's mind, "yo-ou we,er,re at a race last ni-i-i-ght wer-eren't you?"

Alan nodded.

"Did you w, come first?" Fermat questioned, this time Alan hesitated before nodding again. "That's br-il-ia- great you can tell your da…family."

"No I can't, they'll just say it's too dangerous and demand I stop, I can't do that to Speed he needs me, we're a team." Fermat opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by the video phone beeping again and as he moved to answer it Alan ran out of the room.

-Line-break-

Tracy Island just as the call ended

Everyone sat in silence after Alan broke the connection and all the brothers had the same thoughts running through their heads, does Alan really think that about me? Did I really just say that? Finally John broke the silence, "Is that what Allie really thinks of us?!" He asked not really expecting an answer.

"I really hope not," Virgil said slowly. They all sat there for a minute just thinking, unsure of what to do next.

"Dad we should call him back or he might run off or think we hate him!" All the brothers nodded at Scott's words but for his part their dad just sat there in silence.

They all looked at each other before yelling, "DAD!" But he still ignored them so John reached over and pressed the call again button.

-Line-break-

"Hello je…Mr Tracy," Fermat said as he answered the call.

"Fermat where is Alan?" Scott asked quickly Fermat looked around the room as he hadn't realised Alan had left to see Speed already.

"Um…I don't know."

"Fermat I know you're lying, where is he?" Inwardly Fermat cursed of course John would know but what could he do Alan had sworn him to secrecy. He noticed the weird looks he was getting from Alan's brothers so he tried to think of an excuse.

"I don't know maybe out with mat…friends?"

"But it's a school day!" Fermat did a double take at Gordon's words, why would Alan visit Speed during a school day? Unless he's upset about something! He thought. Should I tell them about Speed, the races and everything else?

"Did you arg…have a fight?" All of the brothers nodded and Fermat gulped and looked away boy was Alan going to hate him. "Alan has thi…been going ou…to these gam…races under the alli…name AJ Shepherd."

Silence, nothing but silence greeted Fermat's ears after his statement, slowly ever so slowly he turned his head towards the screen and was greeted with shocked looks from Alan's family.

"Fermat I think you had better tell us everything." Scott said slowly and Fermat could tell by his face he was nervous so Fermat opened his and told them everything. He told them about the chance meeting and the growing friendship (almost brotherhood) of the two and how Speed had turned down a chance to race with Racer X to race with Alan.

"We have to find him!" was all that was said after that and it wasn't said from one mouth it was said from all.

-Line-break-

To say Alan was upset would be a massive understatement because he was mad, he was angry, he was livid, he was furious, he was fuming and he was…just…plain hurt. After leaving the room he had started walking back to the race track and by now he was almost there but he had had a lot of time to think about what his brothers had said and now he was sure he wasn't going back ever.

He took out his key, stuck it into the key hole, pulled the door open and walked inside. The first thing that came to his mind was dark and the second was footsteps. Carefully he walked towards the source of the noise and was startled by what he saw. He saw a boy with black hair sitting on the bonnet of the Mach 6,

"Speed." He said and the boy turned towards him.