Hey I'm new to fan fiction!! This is my first story!!! Read and review please!!!
Disclaimer: I don't own Cars or any of it's components…I believe that honor belongs to Disney-Pixar. I'm uploading all the chapters at once, so this disclaimer goes on all the chapters!!
Chapter 1
The eighteen wheeler's ramp lowered and Lightning McQueen rolled down. He was blinded by the flashed of the paparazzi around him. Lightning did now let the flashes seem to faze him. He revved his engine, and sank down on his left front tire, sending a ray of light bouncing from his lucky chrome sticker.
"Ka chow!" Lightning exclaimed, causing the crowd around him to erupt. Lightning grinned; he had many loyal fans he was thankful for.
"Lightning!" called Kori Turbowitz, a star reporter Lightning was familiar with. "What do you think your chances are of winning today?"
Only a year ago, Lightning would have made an egocentric comment saying there was no reason for him to lose his race, but instead, he answered, "Who knows. There are a lot of risks in racing. I may win, or I may not even finish. There's no way to know."
"Thank you," said Kori. She turned to the video camera filming her. "Those were words directly from the Piston Cup point leader, Lightning McQueen," she stated.
"Lightning!" called another reporter. "What's this we hear about you dating a Porsche?"
Lightning smiled. Sally. Sally was everything to him, more than racing. Lightning had not officially asked Sally out yet, but the chemistry between the cars was amazing to him. "It may be true," he said. "But then again, it may not be. I have no comment on the subject. No more questions please."
Lightning drove down the rest of the ramp. He rolled into the restricted section and drove over to his crew chief, Doc Hudson. Doc was a racing legend whose career was cut short by a tragic racing accident. Before Doc's accident, he had won four Piston Cups, but he did not value them very much.
"Hey, Doc," Lightning said, parking next to the older car.
"Hey, Rookie," Doc said in his usual gruff manner. "How was your trip up here?"
Lightning was racing in his third race of the season, the Dakota 500.
"Nothing to complain about," Lightning said, staring across the huge asphalt parking lot to the Dinoco area. Dinoco was the largest sponsor in the racing industry. Last year, Lightning surrendered the Piston Cup in order to help The King, a former racecar, finish the race. Lightning had been offered a sponsorship from Tex, the owner of Dinoco, but he turned the offer down in order to keep his original sponsor, Rusteze medicated bumper oil.
"You're not complaining about something?" Doc asked. "That's a first."
"It is not!" Lightning retorted. "You don't think I've changed since I got to Radiator Springs?"
Lightning had been a rookie last year in his first year of racing. He was tied in first place in points with The King and Chick Hicks, Lightning's current rival. The three cars had come in a three-way tie at the final race in the Piston Cup series, the Dinoco 400. Lightning, The King, and Chick had to go to a tie-breaker race in California. On the way to California, Lightning was accidentally ejected out of his trailer and ended up in Radiator Springs. There, he met the residents: Mater, the extremely uneducated tow truck that happened to be Lightning's best friend; Luigi and Guido, the Italian cars who sold tires and were obsessed with Ferraris; Ramon, the Hispanic car that did body art; Flo, Ramon's wife who ran the small town's diner; Red, the sensitive fire truck; Lizzy, the obnoxious elderly car who was out of her mind and ran the town's merchandise store; Sheriff, who originally arrested Lightning for speeding; Serge, who was a strict military hummer who sold surplus; Fillmore, the hippy who sold his own natural fuel; and of course Doc and Sally. Doc was the town doctor and judge, and Sally was the town attorney and ran the Cozy Cone Hotel.
"Cars please make your way to the track!" blared the loudspeaker. The sound echoed throughout the stadium.
Lightning's gas tank lurched. He looked at Doc. "I'll see you in five hundred laps," he said grinning.
"Good luck, Rookie," Doc said as Lightning rolled out onto the track and lined up in his given position.
"You ready?" came Doc's voice through Lightning's intercom system.
"Yeah," Lightning said, watching the racing official raise the yellow flag. Lightning started his engine and revved it loudly, along with the forty-two other cars racing.
"Remember, float like a Cadillac…" Doc said.
"…And sting like a beamer," Lightning said, watching the green flag being raised. The official held the flag above his hood and then dropped it quickly. Lightning shot onto the track along with all his competitors. Chick Hicks automatically shoved into Lightning.
"Ouch!" Lightning exclaimed. He glanced down and saw he had a dent in his side, and the paint had been scratched off.
"You okay, Kiddo?" Doc asked.
"Yeah," Lightning replied. "It's just a dent and a scrape." "Be careful out there, Kid," Doc said. "Just get back up to the leaders."
Lightning was settled in sixth place. He easily passed four cars and ended up behind Chick. Chick was incredibly hard to pass. He always blocked the cars that attempted to pass him and he would occasionally bump the car.
Four hundred and ninety-eight laps later, Lightning and Chick were headed into the last lap. Lightning's dent was throbbing painfully but he still fought for the lead. Going into the final turn, Lightning saw an opening on the inside of Chick and he floored his engine. Lightning passed Chick on the inside and saw the finish line approaching faster and faster. He was across the finish line when Chick rammed into Lightning's back left tire. Although he had already finished in first place, Lightning slammed into the wall, causing a fair amount of pain. Lightning grinned despite the pain as he posed in victory lane, accepted his trophy, and answered a few questions from the press. After he was done answering the media's questions, Lightning drove back to his pit area to help his team clean up.
"You okay, Kid?" Doc asked. He had an expression saying he did not care, but Lightning knew he really did. "You took a beating today."
Lightning shrugged and winced slightly. His crash into the wall had increased the amount of denting and scraping. "I'm okay," he replied. "But I'm glad I get to go home for two weeks and rest up."
There were two weeks after the first three races in the Piston Cup series every other year for the officials to have meetings.
Doc nodded. "Let me see it," he said.
Lightning turned gingerly. He glanced down and saw the dent was considerably larger and most of the paint around the injury was scraped off.
Doc looked at the injury and winced slightly. "I'll have to work on that when we get back to Radiator Springs," he said. "And Ramon is going to have an engine attack when he sees the paint."
"He did just redo it," Lightning agreed. "Chick is getting rougher and rougher every race."
"If he does something like this again, I'm going to the officials," Doc growled angrily.
"Don't worry about it, Doc," Lightning said. "It's no big deal."
"Yeah it is," Doc said. "Now let's go home."