NOTE: I made some changes to the first chapter because I'm bringing Chick Hicks in (he has a good role. I liked Chick) This chapter has been changed. Monarch is supposed to be fourteen when he gets caught returning from the track, not ten. Sorry. Ten is way too young for Doc to be hollering at him like that. Doc Hudson is a very mad and very terrified father, you parents out there know the situation. Scared because he didn't know where his son was. *ITALIC AND BOLD * INDICATE MONARCH (OR OTHERS) HAVING A FLASHBACK. Doc held Prince close to him. "It's okay Mom." Monarch pushed up against her other side. Doc looked at his daughter's urn, happier times returning.
Chapter 2
Infancy to Seventeen
*Doc's Flashback
Age 11 months.
At about month ten was when Monarch's once-fragile steel frame had fully hardened as was expected. He was lying on the floor, gaa-gaa'ing as babies did. Doc and Prince were watching TV together in the family room when they both noticed that he kept getting closer and closer to them. Every time they glanced he seemed to magically appear a few inches closer. Now they watched him, realizing he was dragging himself along the garage floor by his front rims while his back ones merely moved aimlessly about. They became excited because he was crawling! Around 11 was when babies began crawling on their naked rims which meant it was time for them to pay a visit to the body shop for their very first set of little tires and their vehicle frames. It was at this time when parents would learn for sure exactly what type of vehicle, model, make, year and all, that their baby would permanently become. Sometimes it was possible to suspect what the child might be as in Monarch's case because his frame shape strongly hinted at him being somewhat flattened like Prince. He had a partially aerodynamic build. But then he had Doc's eyes. There were no known cars that were sporty in nature with spilt windshields that could be categorized into a specific vehicle type. Ramone and Michael studied the infant carefully. Michael and the 2 other doctors outside Radiator Springs were right, as was the body artist craftsman. All four had confirmed to the couple that Monarch indeed was what he was—a hybrid cross between Doc and Prince. The Hornet and Lamborghini never doubted the expertise of Michael or Ramone. In fact, Michael recommended that Doc and Prince get the 2nd opinion of another doctor, just to confirm HIM because even he wasn't sure if he was looking at Monarch correctly. They didn't want to do it but took Michael's recommendation and took Monarch to not one, but two outside doctors who both confirmed what Michael believed. Monarch indeed was a hybrid mix. His tiny frame was turning into something none of them had seen before, as hybrids were quite rare results. Vehicles usually developed into one specific type of whatever "model" they were going to be for the rest of their lives. Uncommon it was for a vehicle to develop into what looked almost like a sci-fi character of some type of futuristic car. Ramone knew it the moment he was Monarch. He had been painting and making car frames long enough to know. And technology these days could even allow a body artist to scan a baby's frame body using photography, input the image into a computer which would then create an exact replica of what the child would look like before he even got his first fitting! Monarch was not going to be as tall as Doc was or as "flat" like Prince, but very low than most cars were and he looked a lot like Doc. There was no doubt who's kid he was. He bore a crevice down the center of his windshield like Doc, he even had a dull stare like Doc. His front was a lot like Doc's. His mouth was bar-like like Doc's but much thinner. Where his hood emblems were were similar to a Hornet's. But his sat much higher up to the sides of his eyes but didn't hamper his vision. They made him look as though he had on tiny little lenses. His back wheels, unlike Doc's totally were hidden by his uniframe. But he had deep indentations on either side of his mouth like a Lamborghini's. Or a Ferrari's. His little tail end was built like a sports car's also; very aerodynamic like his mother. He would be quite low to the ground And he took on another feature from Prince; Monarch's doors opened upwards into wings, just like hers. Between the two took after the father more than Mom but it was evident he had many "sporty" like qualities to him. One other curious addition was that he had another dark enclave just below his bottom lip, almost like a metallic goatee. A black one. Monarch was a hybrid of them.
The couple had chosen to have him painted white. The older he got, they would let him decide what color he wanted for himself but for now, white was nice. He was absolutely adorable. So this was how his son was going to look for the rest of his life. Doc was stillstupefied. Prince was adoring the baby's look. Monarch was sitting there, still perturbed by the strange new white metal covering that had been put on him. He discovered the strange round black things on his rims that were covering up his appendages. Miniature white walls like Daddy. He didn't know what to make of this new invasion of his body. He tried hobbling his first tentative rolls on his tires. Around 10 or 11 months when infants started trying to crawl on their bare rims was the time they were brought in for their first fittings. Gaining confidence he babbled in his baby talk as he wobbled shakily towards Prince. She held up a tire to catch him and he let out a squeal, then laughed excitedly. "Yep. He's definitely yours Doc. Looks almost just like you." Ramone told him. Doc was beside himself with looking Monarch over. Prince proudly kissed the soon-to-be toddler. Yes, her baby was beautiful. "We made one good-looking kid Prince. I don't mean to brag but, we made one hell of a good- looking kid." Doc told his wife. "Of course we did. There are no 'ugly' cars in this world." Prince told him.
x
*Monarch's Flashback:
Age Seventeen:
Monarch stormed around Willy's Butte with some friends from his school. His pals included the Delinquents' kids; Roger, Stacey, Stephan, and Pete, Joey, and two other boys named Jake and Jeremy, twin sons of a business owner in Radiator Springs. Roger was Wingo's and Gwen's son and he was a 1975 peugeot 504. Pete was a 2014 corvette zr1 and he was Gemstone's and Boost's kid. Joey, a 2012 toyota ft-86 was Lightning McQueen's and Sally's boy. The twin 2014 Nissan 370z nismos were Jake and Jeremy. Stephen turned into what DJ was; a 2004 Scion XB. The youngest kid of Tia and DJ. He was a spitting image DJ all over in the face, not just make-wise. Like Stacey he too had inherited DJ's bluish-gray eyes. The only thing that separated him from Dad was his color. Stephen was a toy yellow. All of his windows were jet black. And he had a jet black windshield visor. Tricked out like his parents and big sis and like the rest of his family unit was all the way into the tuner culture. He was fifteen years old now, but for some reason felt the need to be the big brother to big sis Stacey. One day he would get bigger than her; that was obvious. But he and Stacey were inseparably close like most siblings as they matured. Now all these guys were Monarch's friends. And there was a girl amongst them who was just as cool that they accepted as one of them. STACEY. She, like Prince, was a LAMBORGHINI. A gorgeous soft pink paint scheme with pink matte side detail, lovely matte black spoiler, and grey eyes like her wild father. Well-defined lips that would one day be a very deep burgundy. Her roof was black matte. A 2014 Lamborghini Veneno Roadster she was. Like all Lambos, her top speed was nearly 290 mph. The girl was born, not "built", for speed. She had a natural aerodynamic design and very low height to the ground for a reason, either nature or the Almighty intended for Stacey to get the hell up and execute speed. Yes, she loved to boast of being the fastest but it was largely in jest. The truth was like most of her kind she was meek. All those on the outside seriously drooled over her which they found disconcerting. Stacey knew she belonged to a privileged class but it never went to her head.
She was just glad that Lamborghinis had finally gotten the hard-fought respect they deserved, being recognized for what they brought to the table and dispelling all myths of their supposed stuck-up-ness. She remembered at age 6 how Prince dispelled the myth once and for all that girl Lamborghinis couldn't drag race when she took on dragster great Bradley Brakeshaw. They raced twice and first both of them came out in a dead heat. Second time Prince gunned it at 263 miles per hour across the finish line! She beat Bradley Brakeshaw. Of course Stacey was a huge fan of Brad. As big on the tuner culture as she was, she loved all things tuner like her parents. So she had to give that very adorably arrogant Ferrari Brad Brakeshaw mad respect. She idollized Brad.
But she'd be lying if she said she wasn't secretly hoping that Prince would win because one: Prince was a female, and two..especially because she was a Lamborghini like her. It didn't matter, Prince didn't "lose" either, and Brad honorably bowed to her. The then-6-yr- Stacey was happy with the outcome. Oh and yeah-there was a Lamborghini Piston Cup racer now. Yes, professional stock car racer. The much-loved Rex Maxter, a cat from Birmingham, Alabama who currently represented Dinoco with two other racers. Had ten back-to-back Piston championships under his carriage. He was badass, extremely noble in person, and very courteous with his sharp deep southern slang. He was a 1988 Lamborghini Countach. Stacey worshipped the tar of the asphalt under him, and so did a few billion others. Now back to Miss Stacey: hellifyingly gorgeous oh yeah. At 17 she was a striking-looking teenager. And she was so down-to-earth. AND, she had no problem hitting the dirt trail of Willy's Butte with the liked to get down and dirty like the fellas. Snot Rod and Mia became her official god parents since they never had children. Neither Snotty nor Mia cared for kids; they certainly didn't hate them. They loved children but chose to remain child-free. They loved their freedoms too much to be bogged down with kids and, realizing the enormous burden of parenting, both decided that it was not for them. No one criticized their decision, they seemed very happy without children and besides, they had the others' kids to look after. Snotty and Mia were godparents to everyone else's kids and that was rewarding enough.
This included DJ's and Tia's two. But Stacey often made Snot Rod nervous because she was so daring. Plus she had speed on her side too. Of course the boys loved her. She certainly had no problem attracting boys. Every boy in Radiator Springs was on her or tried to be. DJ, the proud papa had his tires full checking potential teenage suitors. It was rather amusing. Stacey often whined to her mother, Tia, to "do something about Daddy" screwing with her dates, but she loved her father. He was just being a concerned daddy. DJ was still in his thuggery mode, especially now that his little girl was maturing at that stage of attracting boys. Knowing he fathered one of the rarest known vehicles on earth who, like every other before drew massive attention, put him in ultra-protective overdrive. He meant business when Stacey brought potential suitors to meet him, putting "the eye" on them and all. He even went so far as to take one stammering kid out to the Radiator Springs firing range with him while he practiced shooting his gun, deliberately aiming at a paper target of a car's back end. All this while he casually engaged the boy in conversation concerning his daughter and their future date. He ended the bizarre introduction by informing the youth that "he might wanna' father kids someday, so he needed to remember the target he was aiming at that moment'. The 17-year-old stuttered to treat Stacey with respect and the whole nine. In truth DJ was picking on him because he got off on it. He thrived on it. But he was also a realist. He knew Stacey was at 'that stage' where she might become active. Maybe she wouldn't but he even told his daughter bluntly that if she was gonna 'start freaking boys' he was gonna take her to Doc or Michael so she could be put on some kind of birth control! Or either have Tia take her there to make sure she got put on something. Since Tia was the mother it was her job anyhow to handle "those female thangs".
IF his daughter was going to engage at seventeen she needed to take measures to not get 'planted'. DJ was blunt; he wasn't ready to be a grandpa thanks to a 17-year-old daughter. If it happened it happened, he'd accept it, but he made it clear that she needed to exercise good judgement if she was gonna 'go there' with a male. Stacey detested these kinds of talks with Dad but she knew he was just looking out for her.
This was why she adored her father; he was so straightforward with everything. Thankfully, she wasn't active, at least not like that. She had a good head on her. She was smart and knew most boys came at her mainly because she was a Lamborghini. But she had a lot of respect and love from them. She kissed boys, maybe petted with them but that was about all she did so far. She was still a "pure one" and intended to stay one, at least until she reached adulthood. Like most it was unlikely she would wait; it was unrealistic, but at 17 she wasn't ready for all the heavy stuff either. She wasn't trying to be a mother at 17 either! She had plans to go to college, get a degree and become a police officer!. First before any wedding bells and definitely before any babies. Yes Stacey had plans of becoming a cop, preferably in a big city like Los Angeles or New York and one day it would become a reality. A Lamborghini cop car black-and-white, no suspect would be able to out run her foxy tail. One look at her and most probably wouldn't even try to flee the police but rather, resort to trying to hit on her. Boys readily admitted they would deliberately committ crimes just to get pursued and arrested by her, older guys admitted they would love to get pulled over by her. But police officer thing was a ways off still. For now she enjoyed just being a teenager. And she was a tomboy, she loved hanging out with the guys. She had many female pals, but the boys were always more fun.
x
Today was Saturday and Monarch's favorite hobby was going up onto the cliff side— literally— just as his sire used to do. He knew his dad was a famous racer but that wasn't what attracted him to the sport. He was a natural born racer, he loved it. Since he was a toddler he showed signs of trying to race. He already decided at a young age that he wanted to be a professional stock car racer like "Pops", his nick name for Doc Hudson, even though his father and Lightning both told him that if he wanted to make it on his own, it would be a rough road. Either one of them could pull strings to get Monarch into the racing world, but Monarch was determined to make it ON HIS OWN, as a racer without the help of either of them. He did not want Lightning or his father "hooking him up" because of their connections. He wanted to do this on his own, to show he could do it. He wanted to compete fair and square like everyone else. That would still be years off. The youngest age anyone could race in a professional circuit was seventeen and that was ONLY with the consent of BOTH parents. Doc would be for it but Monarch knew his mother would have a major issue with it. Racing was a dangerous sport, it scared her to death to see her son roaring around the track like he did. It drove Monarch crazy at times; she was too overprotective he felt. Many a time Monarch came home banged up and scratched because of his careless driving on the dirt track or the Strip track, superficial scrapes really but to Prince it was a big deal. The boy couldn't under stand that she was just being a MOTHER.
Mothers worried like this. And on more than one occasion, Monarch had a very serious mishap that was bad enough to send him to a hospital, races gone amuck that even had his old man on edge. Typical horse playing gone wrong. He was racing around the butte and judged wrong , went off the edge and flipped several times. It landed him in the hospital for a week. His mother babying him every few minutes drove him insane. When he was fourteen he snuck out of the house in the middle of the night to go race at the Strip on a school night. Monarch was itching to practice a new move Snot Rod had shown him. Unbeknownst to Prince and Doc, he started secretly racing at ten years old. Some of the kids secretly formed a racing venue of their own by sneaking out at night to the tracks. The Strip was open seven days and nights a week for use at all hours. The youngsters had their own secret clubs even the adults didn't know of. On Friday and Saturday night, it was common to see children at the Strip with their parents or guardians watching the games. They weren't forbidden to go as long as an adult was with them. The cutoff age for unsupervised children at the Strip was sixteen. So many unaccompanied teenagers were there. But Monarch was no teen. Still he could roll with the best of them. Even the adolescent dragsters had to respect his stubbornness. At ten they let him start going to The Strip, under the supervision of one of the Delinquents or all of them. The Delinquents were awesome guardians, watched out for him and taught him some stunts. A family pal and famed drag racer Bradley Brakeshaw also occasionally supervised Monarch on the Strip when he visited Radiator Springs.
As long as someone was watching him his parents could trust, he was allowed to go. They warned him about the Strip being off limits by himself until he got older but he didn't listen. The rule was when he hit sixteen he could start going with his friends alone. Sometimes his parents went with him. Even his Mom had become a drag racing junkie. But to Monarch this sucked, because they were his parents. He couldn't really act like himself and showoff around his parents! Having parents in tow made any kid bummed out. Even Doc didn't like his father, whom he considered overprotective, coming along with him on his racing excursions as a teenager. It was a teen thing; Doc and Prince understood. Monarch had to be on his best behavior around Mom and Dad. Hanging out with the Delinquents was always fun. Mom and Pop...it bummed him out. He had teen girls he wanted to impress at the Strip and couldn't, instead was forced to endure their giggling because he had to have his Mommy and Daddy there to watch out for him and wipe his bumper off. Some of the older boys there would pick on him about it but Monarch was a dirty scrapper like Pops. He stood up to the harassment and wouldn't hesitate to fight somebody insulting his "manhood" because he was a Mommy's boy. He earned the big kids' respect; even the bullies left him alone.
Monarch may have hated it when "Mommy and Daddy" tagged along with him at the Strip but they were still his parents and he loved them. He remembered once when his mother came with him at fourteen and a group of other teens started making lewd comments about Prince's figure. Talking about how they wanted to rev her sexy frame up. Monarch knew he had a hot-looking mom. And he was proud of it. Monarch relived that moment. Hell, he knew his old man was addicted to Mom; he caught his parents twice in the Act. He was only six the first time; he wanted something to drink in the middle of the night. He drove from his room in his parents' largely expanded garage to their room. He heard noises, peeked through the door and to his horror saw his mother crying and his father on top of her, apparently causing pain. The little boy didn't know what to make of it. He just left in shock.
Doc thought he saw a little shadow by the cracked door but wasn't sure. He was too caught up in the moment to notice and wanted to finish Prince off first. She was too close for him to halt everything so he could investigate. He had a good feeling that his son had just discovered them. He decided to tend to his wife and deal with his son in the morning. Doc found the boy the next morning, quietly trying to avoid looking at his father. He seemed shifty, disappointed that Dad would hurt Mom like that. But then he saw Mom pass by and she looked...okay. Even happy. Monarch was confused. Doc told his son to come with him, that they needed to talk. Generally the appropriate age to have The Talk was around eleven. Six was way too young, but after what transpired last night Doc's hand with having the Talk with his kid had been forced early. He explained to the six-year-old what he saw, what he was doing, why Mom liked it, that she was not hurting and crying. He explained to Monarch that what he saw last night was how he was born. He was a result of the actions he witnessed between his parents.
Doc hid nothing from Monarch, he went into great detail about the birds and the bees, using anatomical pictures and all. Now that it made more sense to little Monarch, he was happy Dad made Mom cry like that at night. But he swore he'd never do it to a girl because it looked dirty what they were doing. Doc had to laugh at his son. The second time Monarch caught his parents he was an adult, and a reknown racer by that point. He, his parents and Icky all went on vacation to Tahiti and everyone stayed in a hotel. There was a mix-up; Monarch had been drinking and was too plastered to notice the female yells coming from what he thought was Icky's room.
He and Icky had a habit of just entering each other's rooms without knocking. In his intoxicated state Monarch barged into the room by mistake. He forgot Icky switched rooms. Instead he drove in on Pops and Mom getting it on! Dad was on top of her from behind and His mother's twisted face of ecstasy left Monarch standing there in speechless shock. She was LOUD. "Oh shit!" was all he could blurt out before making haste to leave. They suddenly saw him and made haste to disconnect themselves. "Goddammet, Monarch…!" Doc ground out as he crawled off of his scurrying wife. Dad was cursing, had completely lost his near-climax. and Prince, always the shy one, panicked. Monarch sobered up quick as he made his way down the hall and outside by the patio. He just caught his parents in the act of engaging. The drunkeness was wearing off. Doc found him outside and vented on him, demanding if it was his policy now to enter folks' rooms without knocking. Monarch kept apologizing. Pops was especially pissed because his mother was still throbbing from pent-up release and was now too embarrassd to continue. She didn't come out of the room for the rest of the day. Even when her son tried to talk to her through the door. She just kept saying she was okay. She ended up having to satisfy herself. It was a riot to Monarch but to Pops it was anything but funny. He was in the middle of a good session with his woman and his son greatly fucked it all up for him. The good news was his parents had another go at it later that night- with the door locked - and everything went well. Monarch and Doc eventually laughed the whole thing off.
His parents had lives too, he knew. Mom was still hot so he could see why Dad fell for her. So as Monarch reminisced back at age fourteen at the strip about the other teens talking about his mother, he saw why so many cars thought she was hot. Still, the idea of them talking sexually about his mother that way, it angered him. The boys could have been trying to get under his plating, or they could have been serious about how "banging" Prince was and how they wouldn't mind "hitting it". Asking Monarch if Prince was the cheating type who might like to try a teenage lover. It set Monarch off; he jumped the kid and beat him to a pulp. He may not have liked the idea of Mom coming to the Strip with him but she was still his MOTHER. No one but Dad talked about HIS mother in that fashion! The seventeen-year-old souped-up dragster never spoke ill of the hybrid's mother again after that. Monarch earned the respect of all of the kids there after that day, but understandably they felt sorry for him when his parents tagged along. Parents were cool as children. Teenagers didn't consider themselves "children". They were young adults who needed privacy! He couldn't wait till sixteen. So when he thought Dad was asleep he slipped out quietly and headed for the Strip. Drag race at that. Starting at ten years old he was secretly drag racing. Now at fourteen, he woefully thought because his father wouldn't really be up at that time of night and his mother supposedly was having a ladies sleepover with Tia. She wasn't even home. His mother had forgotten something and, like mothers did went to check on her sleeping prince to discover he wasn't
in his room.
x
2:20 A.M. IN THE MORNING
Monarch came creeping back through his window thinking he was home free. He switched on the light guess who he saw. His parents were sitting in the corner of his room, their eyes already adjusted to the darkness. The light flooded the room and their pupils rapidly constricted from the sudden influx of light yet neither flinched from it. Doc were far too angry to cringe from the light and Prince was too relieved to notice it. She flew to him, hugging him as though he had been abducted before screaming at him about scaring her like he did. Monarch on the other hand was scared shitless. He had been busted big time. Dad was especially angry. "I told you don't go to The Strip alone. What THE HELL are you doing sneaking out this late at night at two-thirty? Boy you scared us half to death!" It was the first time Prince had ever heard her husband curse in anger. Ever. It shocked even her. "D-d—DAD?" Monarch was wide- eyed. The Hornet was righteously infuriated; Monarch had never seen his father this angry. Up for hours wondering what happened to his son after he and half the town drove in a panic hunting for him. Prince was a hysterical wreck thinking her child had been kidnapped; a fear any mother had. She was so worried she had become physically ill. By the time the town's posse scoured The Strip Monarch was long gone, having relocated to another secret racing spot of his miles from Radiator Springs.
Prince grounded him for a month because of it. Doc took his discipline a step further; he made his son wear a boot for an entire month—in public. As judge he
could do it, and he did. Doc put a boot on Monarch and the fourteen-year-old kid had to wear it every where, even to school. He even slept with it on. Some
thought it was bit much but not Doc because he believed in old-style justice. Doc was a judge who was notorious for locking noisy boom cars in the impound who flaunted their bass at annoying levels in town for days. And forced them to listen to Enya and country all day and night. Doc was a judge who made vehicles who were caught shoplifting cruise in front of the stores they lifted from wearing "I stole from this store" placards as a form of public embarrassment. He imposed male chain gangs to sweep Radiator Springs's street in their black/white striped paint jobs and pink hubcaps and pink bows on their heads. Doc had gained a reputation as a no-nonsense judge far beyond the little town he oversaw. He played no favorites, not even with his own son. He sought to make Monarch's life such hell that the kid would never repeat the same mistake. Sure enough, Monarch never disobeyed his dad again. He kept his little tail out of the Strip after that unless the Delinquents went with him.
The teenager finished his lap, his once pure white color almost covered in mud and dirt. He was old enough to go to the Strip now at 16 his parents didn't mind. He decided to head there and practice some drag racing stunts. His father had a long talk with his mother. Reluctantly, Prince accepted that Monarch wanted to race as a career and she understood. She had to let go of him; he was growing up and he had too much of his father in him. If racing made him happy she accepted it. And support it. With their written blessing, Monarch began making the transition into a race car. He would have to begin at the amateur level, of course. Any time a car chose stock car racing as a career, he had to get his actual headlights removed and replaced with false decals. Any wreck or collision could cause the glass in one's headlights to enter the interior and make for un-healing injuries for false headlights were the norm. Monarch's real headlights were taken out and replaces with illusion headlight stickers where his real ones would have been. The only other modification allowed in racing was
removal of the horn. Race cars weren't allowed to have horns because they could use them to distract competitors on the track. These were the ONLY two
modifications allowed in race car driving, amateur or professional. Everything else on that car had to be natural. No alterations to one's engine or over all frame.
PERIOD. A racer couldn't have his engine revamped to become more powerful; it was prohibited. They had to be naturally fast and high endurance. One thing
Monarch was, was fast. And he had endurance.
Present:
Now a racer, Monarch grinned at the episode. Looking back on it it was funny now, that time when he was caught coming from the Strip. "What are you smiling
at." Doc asked. "Oh, just the time you and Mom caught me coming back from the Strip. At fourteen years old." Doc grinned. "You were a piece of work at that
age." He told him. "Actually….I really started drag racing at ten." Monarch admitted. "Just like I did." Doc added. Monarch briefly grinned then stared sadly at
Prince. She smiled weakly at him, wiping a tear. "Mom, she's in a better place now, they all are." "I know, I know. It's just…bittersweet." Prince spoke softly barely above a whisper.
