Rating:I don't have any clue. E-mail mea and tell me what you think it should be; has some racing scenes that are rather bloody, some nasty sickness scenes, and possibly some character death, I haven't decided yet. (I won't kill off Speed though.)
Author's note: Aloha! I'm kind of new at this, so flame me! Heck, bring along a flamethrower. My name is Aeroshockwave (not really, but you'll never get my real name, so don't even try). You'll never understand me or figure me out, so don't even try. I'm a total Anime freak, and I have several fics in progress, but I usually wait until I have a few chaps done on it, but this is the exception. My comp is freaking out, so it's rejecting the file. -_-*
My favorite anime and anime characters (In no particular order) are:
Speed Racer : Speed (And on occasion Racer X depends on my mood. Currently, it's Speed.)
Ronin Warriors: Rowen Hashiba, or Rowen of the Strata.
Record of Lodoss War: Parn, or the Free Knight.
Dragonball Z: Piccolo! All the way! (I have a couple of fics about him as well. Oh and Gohan's a sweetie.)
Gundam Wing: Trowa Barton (#1), and Heero too. (I have a rant on why I hated Heero until he fixed his broken leg all by his lonesome. That was cool. Hehe. :o))
Digimon: Yamato Ishida (Matt)
Anyway, that was a short list of a select few animes. See ya! *Does a happy little dance cause you're reading her fic. *
Foreword: Speed has just returned from a race in Paris, France, where his hand was burned when a spark ignited a small patch of gasoline near the cockpit. Sparky and Trixie have been on approximately one date, Pops and Mrs. Racer have been keeping a close eye on both sons, and Spritle has been getting into mischief like usual. Enjoy!
Pops Racer sipped his coffee and looked up at the vast sky of stars, twinkling like diamonds, and shining even brighter. It was a fairly peaceful night, considering the day it followed. He took another sip and tilted his head back and breathed deeply. Anyhow, it really didn't matter. Speed was back from a race in France, a place halfway across the world. Even Pops had been reluctant to let Speed go that far, but in the end Speed had convinced his mother and father that, "Safety 7 will work just as well in France as it does here."
Mrs. Racer had nearly killed her son when he came home with a burn on his hand from a rather nasty engine flaw. Not a crash, but a small explosion near the steering wheel was enough for protective Mrs. Racer to go ballistic. In fact, if Speed hadn't begged his mother not to, she very likely would have set fire to the Mach 5 and burnt it to the ground. She had sent Speed straight into bed; he had quite obvious jet lag.
Pops glanced at the Grandfather clock as it started to toll the hour. Bong…bong…bong…bong…bong. He hadn't realized it had gotten so late. He hoped that clock didn't wake Speed, which was impractical because the clock had been going like this all night. Click. Pops jumped at the unexpected sound, disconcerting the tranquility of the night. He jumped into the kitchen and peeked out into the living room. Who knows? It might be a burglar or something, he thought.
It was Speed. Pops almost stepped out and scolded his son for being out of bed at this hour, but the thing that happened next stopped him in his tracks. Speed brought a pair of keys from his pocket. He was going driving. Not at this hour in this rainy weather you're not.
"Speed!"
His son froze. "Y…Yeah Pops?"
"What are you doing?"
His son turned back to look at him. "Just…going for a little cruise, Pops."
Just like that! If Mrs. Racer had seen this, Speed would have been so much shark food. "Son, it's raining and it's five o' clock in the morning! What gave you the impression you could just go for a drive?"
Speed hung his head; he knew he'd been beat. "I just haven't driven since… since the race in Paris." He looked up at his father and cocked his head. "Haven't you ever had that feeling where you need, and I mean really need, to feel the engine humming, push the limit? See how far you can go? Have you ever felt that?"
Pops looked at his son. Rex once asked me the same question, the day before the crash[1]. "No son. I haven't."
"Well I have. And I need to drive. So let me go, Pops." Speed's voice almost sounded threatening.
"No! You're not going anywhere in that monstrosity of a car! I'll tie you up myself if that's what it takes." Mrs. Racer, standing with hands on her hips, broke up the father to son talk. "That car is not the most important thing in the world! Now go to bed!"
"But Mom! You don't understand!" Speed pleaded hopelessly.
"What I don't understand is your and Rex's attachment to that car, after it's almost killed you and it killed Rex!" Mrs. Racer broke down into sobs. Pops started to, unbelievably, sob along with her, and Speed didn't know what to do. He was only here for the car.
"S…S…Speed, go…to b…bed." Mrs. Racer said between sobs. Speed looked at his car keys. He could beat them both to the Mach 5, and then no one could stop him. He took one look at his mother, though, and went straight upstairs to sleep.
Speed heard his mother come in early in the morning, and pretended to be in a sincere sleep. He heard he come over, felt her warm hand on his forehead, and for some reason, her hand felt cool against his skin. He heard her hurried footsteps out the door. He cracked his eyes open a bit and sat up. Go back to sleep, it seemed his body was telling him, close your eyes and sleep. He lay back down and closed his eyes. It was amazing how fast he fell back asleep.
It seemed he had just closed his eyes when Mrs. Racer came in, a bottle in hand. She put her hand on her son's shoulder and shook him soothingly. "Speed. Wake up. It's almost two o' clock!" Speed opened his eyes and tried to focus them.
"O…Okay, mom." He groaned.
She smiled. "You have a little fever today. I have some medicine for you." She said shaking the bottle.
"Mom, not helping." Speed's voice sounded gravelly, and throaty. He looked up at his mother. Mrs. Racer gasped. Her son's eyes, usually crystal sapphire, were foggy and bloodshot, streaked with scarlet. She felt her son's forehead again. She pulled it away rather quickly, wondering if she'd actually been burned.
"Baby, you're burning up! I'm going to call Sparky and tell him not to come over. Trixie too." She made a move for the door, knowing if Speed weren't terribly ill, he would try to stop her. He made no move to.
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"Oh. Well tell him to get well soon! Uh-huh. Bye." Sparky hung up his cell phone and turned the Hibiki Motors bus around. Trixie came out of the back of the bus.
"Spritle sick? Poor thing. What'd you turn the bus around for? Speed's house is that way."
It's not Spritle. It's Speed. Mrs. R says he came down with a fever, and the doctor's coming to look at him, so we can't go visit him today." Sparky shrugged. "I've never known Speed to be sick for long, so he should be fine in a couple of days."
Trixie smiled with relief. "Good. I was worried."
"Trixie has a boyfriend, Trixie has a boyfriend…"
"Quiet you!"
******************************************************************
Mrs. Racer whispered relaxingly to her son, as he mumbled and turned over in his sleep. This was bad. In twelve years, the worst thing Speed had ever contracted was a slight case of the flu. She had no idea what this could be. Rex had had one virus that was critical, but with proper medication and rest, that was cleared up in the space of a few months. Maybe this was just the same kind of thing.
A faint click announced that the doctor was here and had entered the Speed's bedroom.
"Ah! Where's Spritle?" The doctor, a short older fellow, said, looking around the room. His eyes roved to Speed. "Oh my goodness!" He exclaimed, opening his black and green duffle bag and pulling out a thermometer. "How long has he been like this?"
Mrs. Racer wrung her hands worriedly. "Just since this morning. This is so sudden; his fever this morning was nothing compared to what it is now." The doctor grunted and pulled the crazily beeping thermometer out of Speed's mouth. He whistled and shook his head. "106.4. That's quite a fever. I wonder… Speed open your mouth. Can you talk? No? Hmm…" He put his tools away and asked to use the phone. Mrs. Racer gave him permission and he took his leave; Mrs. Racer was once again alone with her son.
"Speed?" When he looked up, she knew he wasn't seeing her, or anything for that matter. "You… You're… You're going to be okay, understand? I promise."
"Yep. My suspicions are confirmed." The doctor stood in the doorway, arms folded across his chest. "You see, last week, I received twelve calls from the racetrack. A nasty virus had been injected into the racer's lounge, where the racers wait until it's their time to race. Anyhow, the symptoms are the same, and I'm afraid…" He paused for a moment. "He'll need to go to the hospital for a few weeks. Now don't panic," He said, noticing Mrs. Racer's ferocious expression, "He'll be fine if we get him there, and besides, with the other racers he knows, he'll be contented."
Mrs. Racer nodded her approval. "Very well. You're sure…"
"Yes, he'll be fine. Better than here anyway." Mrs. Racer nodded.
"Let's go."
Jenison coughed and lay back against the pillow of his hospital bed. Well, actually, it was more of a cardboard surface than a bed, but he was consoled by the fact that every other racecar driver in the league was going through the exact same thing. In fact, Speed Racer had been admitted yesterday, and was in the room just next to him, groaning in pain, and Jenison felt bad for the kid. Sure, the other drivers were going through the same phenomenon, but Speed was just a teenager, who should probably be dating and kissing, instead of driving professional racecars, especially the Mach 5.
The Mach 5 was a powerful machine, and Jenison thought it should belong to an older, more experienced driver. Speed was a good driver for his age, rarely it was he lost a race. Jenison turned his television up as Speed screamed loudly. "Baka of a kid…" He listened instead to the news reports.
The reporter flounced her hair. "Investigators are scouring the area for the bio-terrorist that put nearly fifty drivers in the hospital, among them, Jenison, Spike, Toushikoro, and Speed Racer. All the drivers are suspected to make a full recovery, though they're exact conditions are not to be disclosed." Jenison grunted as the reporter continued. "The police believe that it was this man that injected the virus into the drivers food, rooms, and possibly even cars." A picture of a man flashed across the screen, and a number for information. The reporter continued with another story, but Jenison wasn't listening.
I've seen that guy hanging around the racetracks. He's almost always there, and he always gambles like crazy on the drivers. Should I say something? He fought the strong urge to bang on the wall when Speed screamed in pain, and several doctors ran past his room. Bakas…
Hee hee! Well, I finished with the first chapter! Aren't you proud of me? I'd be a lot more proud of myself if someone actually reviewed. **hopeful grin**
Anyhow, Much love to Jen and Oriana just for writing their stories and being willing to share them with us, and extra loves to Jen for helping me with the whole uploading thing. **hugs and grins** Yes, I know that the ending kind of sucked, but I had other stuff to do and I had to end it there. And if it sucked, sorry! I am kind of young for writing fanfiction, so I still screw up on grammar, spelling, etc. If you think this did suck, FLAME ME! **grin** I learned a long time ago that if a writer wants to get better, she/he has to be told the truth. I'm bulletproof, so don't be afraid to speak your mind!
Wheeeeeeeeee!!!!!!
Aeroshockwave
[1] Speed's older Brother, Rex Racer was an incredible racecar driver. When Speed was young, Rex crashed the Mach 5 and was killed. Speed still tries to be what his brother was.