Thank you for the reviews, I really appreciate them!

This story is going to be dark, so if you got this far, that must mean you enjoy stories with a dark tone and upsetting scenes. This is the first dark story I have written/am writing, and the first one I've posted here. I hope anyone who reads it will enjoy! It will contain some humor, just to even out the darkness.

One

"Acer!" the orange Gremlin yelled for the third time. "Where is that bumbling idiot?" he sleepily mumbled to himself. The ancient building echoed Grem's voice, bouncing it off the metal walls back to him. He squeezed his eyes shut as his own voice rang in his ears very loudly, and he felt like it was going only to him, as Acer was nowhere to be seen or heard. He yawned again, the fourth time in two minutes, and stumbled forward a little while blinking his eyes rapidly. This search was getting nowhere, and both cars had the dark lower eyelids to prove it. The Gremlin and Pacer had been sent to an old warehouse by Professor Zündapp to search for something. They had been searching for 72 hours, day and night for this mysterious little thing with no luck. And all Acer did most of the time was complain about how they couldn't find it and that they were in the middle of nowhere. Not that he was wrong; they certainly weren't finding the thing and this warehouse-facility was in the middle of the sea, but his partner was never going to admit that. After they had arrived, Grem had begun to wonder why he was reluctant to work with Acer when they were first paired up for this job. But after the 128th 'we're never gonna find it' the first day, he remembered why.

"Acer!" he yelled again. "Where are you!?" Finally, he got an answer.

"I'm up here!" Acer's tired voice came from somewhere far above. "Keep your voice down a little! This building's so old, it's gonna come down from the force of your loudness!" Grem rolled his green eyes.

"Like you're not yelling, too…" he thought. "You've been up there forever! Hurry up so we can go! We'll tell the professor we couldn't find it anywhere and hope he won't be too mad."

"I'm too tired to care if he'll be mad or not." Acer grumbled. "When we get back, I think gonna sleep for a week."

"Well, I'm gonna write down how I didn't go crazy spending three sleepless days and nights with you." Grem's tires splayed out at the word 'sleepless', and he sighed heavily as his own weight was taken off his wheels. "I mean seriously. How did I not lose my mind with you sounding like a broken record about not finding it?" He jolted awake, but not fully, at the sudden coldness of the concrete when his warm undercarriage touched it.

"I heard that!" Acer called from above, though his tired voice sounded like he didn't really care. Like Grem, Acer had also laid down and closed his eyes for a second. Sleep sounded like heaven, and the yellow-green Pacer almost slipped into darkness. But he forcefully pulled himself from the temptation. He opened his brown eyes and looked around at boxes in the darkness. Acer looked at about five different things sticking out of them before he saw it.

Down below, Grem was on the brink of sleep. His vision had gone blurry, his engine was shut off, he was low on gas, and he was so tired. He and Acer were only supposed to be at this abandoned warehouse facility for two days, which is why they stayed a third. They didn't want to go back with empty tires without staying an extra day to make it look like they were really looking. Not that they weren't, they just didn't want Professor Z to think they were goofing off. "Staying three days without sleeping was a bad idea…" Grem thought. Just as his eyes closed, an extremely loud CLASH KA-CLANG CRASH! sounded above and he nearly leaked oil between his back tires. "What the-!?" he started as he shot up, now more awake than he had been when they first arrived. "Dodge Rammit, Acer! What on Chrysler's green Earth did you do!?" At first, there was silence. Then Acer's smug laugh of pure confidence softly drifted down to Grem, making the orange Lemon wonder. "What did you find?"

"Oh, nothing important. Only exactly what we were looking for, but you know." Acer came down the ramp that led to where he was, and finally reached Grem "No big deal." he said as he revealed what was tucked in his wheel well. Grem's eyes widened, and both of them grinned. "How about we go casually surprise the professor?" Acer offered. Grem smirked evilly, his missing tooth just adding to the effect.

"Why, I think that's a wonderful idea, my friend."

They arrived in Germany before the day ended. Professor Zündapp was waiting for them in his underground facility.

"We got what you asked for, Professor." Grem said when they saw their second leader.

"Is that why it took you three days?" said Zündapp in a breathless tone. "I was beginning to wonder if you two were fooling around." The German car turned slowly, training his grey eyes on the two Lemons. "It should have taken only two."

"But it took three to find this." Acer held out his tire, proudly showing what he held. He dropped it in front of Zündapp and backed up a little. The professor rolled forward a couple of inches and gazed at the object in front of him. His eyes widened slightly - he had no idea Grem and Acer would actually find it! This was incredible! Maybe finally, FINALLY after so long, cars who are considered "Lemons" will rise! Zündapp was so elated, that the other two noticed.

"Uh, are you okay, Professor Z?" queried Grem.

"You're a little shaky…" Acer pointed out. The two jumped slightly when Zündapp snapped his attention up to them, a wild look in his already crazy eyes.

"You two actually found it?! I didn't think either of you would. I expected you to come back empty-tired, but this… THIS is WUNDERBAR!" he said, very happily. The Gremlin and Pacer exchanged a glance, not used to seeing their second boss like this. "Do you know what this means? We now have an absolute chance at rising above others! Cars won't look down upon Lemons anymore! Ah ha ha ha ha!"

"That kinda failed last time, remember? And Grem and I got, well, outnumbered at a bar and beat up because of that!" Acer recalled, not wanting to admit pure defeat after the melee in London. "Besides, it took us way too long to bust outta jail and get you out too."

"I don't mean to doubt, but what if his plan fails like Axlerod's? I mean, I know we agreed to never speak of that plan again, but it failed horribly." Grem reminded. "We almost pulled it off, too."

"Bite your tongue, Grem, and don't doubt." the professor warned. "And true, we didn't pull that first plan off. Only because Lightning McQueen didn't actually use Allinol for that last race. If we had known, we could have tried killing him differently. But that was four years ago and in the past." Zündapp inched closer. "That plan was then. This plan is now." He slid a book he was hiding under him forward. Grem and Acer looked at it with interest. The cover was old and tattered, with stains dotted here and there. Several pages looked like they had been ripped out, and the gold lettering on the front was faded and barely readable:

Control

The two Lemons gasped and looked at their boss. So THAT'S what was stolen three years ago…

There was no way Mystery's plan could fail.

Wonder what that book could be...

Sorry for short chapter; every chapter after this is at least 4,000+ words!