Parts
Disclaimer: I don't own the Cars franchise
Chapter One
Holley checked her disguise yet again in the next available reflective surface. She had to admit, though, that the dark pink and light purple flames and neon lights went well both together and with her original lavender paint job. She looked the look, sure, but could she talk the talk and drive the drive?
"Hey, check out the cutie," someone said, attracting her attention. Regardless, she glanced in the mirror and turned slowly to face the speaker, a green and purple tuner with a dissolving scheme to his paint job who had a smirk on his bumper and a harsh look in his eye. "How much for a ride?"
"More than you can afford," Holley replied.
"How do you know how much I can afford?"
"Your paint job is cheap, the paint itself is cheap, and if the best you have is 'How much for a ride', then your speech patterns indicate a rather blue collar upbringing. Need I say more?"
"Oh, you're in for it."
"Oh, am I?"
The car dropped the smirk, and the light in his eyes got fiercer. He rolled forward slowly, but still, Holley didn't flinch. He lurched forward, and she took the hit and the impact in her rear bumper from the brick wall she found herself shoved into.
She spotted an opening and pushed her way past her attacker. Once free, she sped forward for about twenty feet and then turned with a screech. "Is that the best you've got?" she asked. The car turned to face her and charged her again, and she sped out of his way, watching him spin out of control and strike a fire hydrant. With water spewing everywhere and whatever tuners were watching had run either for their lives or their paint jobs.
"Beautifully done," Finn's voice said over her communicator.
"Thank you," she replied.
"Now remember, if you can find Javier Armadez and turn him against the man who raised him, then all is not lost. We're not supposed to act outright unless the plan changes."
"Roger that." Holley drove off down the street, scanning the cars she encountered. "Finn, where do we start looking if he's not here?"
"Well, we start in some of the more logical places for fugitives. I already have contacts in Canada and Mexico on the case."
"Guess that guy shook you a lot more than you let on," another voice said. Holley jumped and turned around, clearly flustered.
"Whatever would make you say that?" she asked.
"Just sounded like you were talkin' to yourself, is all. If I'm interrupting a phone call, please say so."
Holley recovered herself. "No, you're fine," she said, running a scan on the tuner's VIN number. The tuner himself was purple and black in color and sported purple neon lights in a more basic pattern than some of the other tuners she'd encountered. "What are you doing here, if I may?"
"Well, I heard about the fight from some cars I know, just thought I'd check up on you. Crank's kind of crazy. He's just, well, Crank. He's like that."
"It's nice to know I'm not being targeted exclusively on my first night off the British circuit."
"Well no wonder nobody's seen you before. British circuit car. That don't happen every day."
"Doesn't."
"What?"
"It doesn't happen every day. Just a grammar correction."
"Oh, okay."
Holley watched the car carefully, but he didn't show any emotion. "Do you have a name?"
"Yeah. I'm Boost."
"Starr," she replied, giving him the tire bump he asked for.
"If you want, I can show you around."
"Oh, please do, otherwise I'd get lost."
Boost and Holley, whom he knew as Starr, slipped into an easy, slow, side-by-side ride as Holley did her best to relay information to Finn through her conversation with Boost and the data she sent him. She could only hope that Boost wouldn't be any the wiser, at least, not yet.
CARS
Finn studied the files Holley sent him and tried to interpret what he'd overheard. He had to hand it to the rookie. She was good, especially at thinking on the fly.
Then it came to him when he gave the VIN number data a second scan. Javier Armandez. He'd renamed himself, as evidenced by Holley's conversation with him, which seems to have served him well thus far. Had Finn not known any better, he never would've guessed that Boost and Javier were the same person.
"Next question," he muttered. "Why does an oriental car have a Spanish name and slight accent?" But that question didn't need an answer. He already knew what it would be.
He ran a check of the records on file on the computer, but they had nothing on the Armandez family. Of course, he thought. There's a United States drag circuit, and it had its own watchdogs, and they had their own records, records British Intelligence likely knew nothing about. The second Finn had this realization, he decided to find out what they knew, which meant only one thing.
"Siddeley?" he asked.
"Yes, sir?" the plane replied.
"I have someone I'd like to pay a visit to."