Ceres: Found

by t.j.guard

After being captured, three workers on a top-secret project escape with their two products and split up. Years later, one of the products is facing an extraction team from the enemy and beginning to discover herself. Set after the Parts trilogy.

1. Chapter 1

Ceres: Found

Disclaimer: I don't own Cars 2.

A/N: Set immediately and then some time after the Parts trilogy.
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Chapter One

"Salvage," Shorts said, studying the slightly singed, partially soot-covered parts he and Finn separated from the pile in the center of the room. "The car these belonged to got his bumpers blown apart."

"You can tell all that by looking at a carburetor?" Finn asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Lotta things cars get killed by leave distinctive marks on some of their parts. This one took a pretty bad hit."

"That was my fault," deCarteran said, earning strange looks from Shorts, Finn, and Zundapp. "I caused the riot. I thought, if I distracted Montgomery's cronies enough, I could get Electro out."

"Weren't you trying to kill us a few weeks ago?" Finn asked. That was the least of his problems with deCarteran's sudden statement.

"Look, I never liked the guy, but you've gotta do what you've gotta do, and it wasn't like I could get a job anywhere else. My problem is that that guy has eyes all over this town. That's how I got caught."

Finn and Shorts looked at each other, and Zundapp seemed as bored and slightly annoyed as ever. "Can these parts fit together in any meaningful fashion?" Finn asked, still looking at Shorts.

"Yeah. This Montgomery guy did his homework, and his extra credit. We can really make something with this stuff."

"How much time do we have?"

"He wants a concept in three months," deCarteran said.

"Then let's get to it."

CARS

Holley paced back and forth along the length of Radiator Springs. "What's wrong, Miss Holley?" Mater asked when she passed him for the fifteenth time and counting.

"Finn should've made contact by now," she replied on her sixteenth pass. "Something's seriously wrong."

"He miss his flight?"

"Yes, he missed his flight." She stopped pacing and took a deep breath. "Sorry. I'm just extremely wound up right now."

"'S okay. Not like he's dead or anything."

"He could be, and that's why I'm so worried. Finn is a trusted partner of mine, and now both of us are against our superior," she said in a low voice, drifting closer to Mater. "We're both targets now because of it. If Montgomery got to him..." She closed her eyes and shook her hood, drifting backward. "Sorry. I probably shouldn't be so worried, but considering Leland and Rod..."

"Really, 's okay. I get it." He touched her tire with his own, and she looked up at him with a small smile.

"Thank you," she whispered.