Hey guys! I'm back with a new chapter of Cars: Lightspeed.

I've got another chapter of this and another chapter of a different story coming before Christmas, then I might take a Christmas break.

I'll make sure to keep you all updated.

It was dark. Very dark.

The newest addition to Lightspeed, Chick Hicks felt a little uncertainty. He was finally going to be faster than McQueen could ever imagine. But he couldn't see anything, and the only feeling he had was a vague sensation of pain as parts of him were removed.

This kind of surgery was strictly illegal, which is why there had been so much tension throughout Lightspeed and it's members. Apparently, Chick had heard, Lightning McQueen had spotted one of them. And Lightspeed, he had been reminded, could not be discovered. Upon his acceptance, he was reminded that over and over, and that he would be punished for failure. The member who had been seen was quickly removed from the organization and, presumably, killed. Chick felt a slight pang of regret at having volunteered for Lightspeed, but he quickly cast it away, reminding himself that this was his destiny. But then the member who had been 'disposed of' returned to his memory.

Chick winced at the thought, realizing quickly that wincing was very strange when you couldn't see. Cars weren't killed very often. Sure, it had happened, but it wasn't frequent. You could always feel tension in the air wherever you went, if the cars there knew someone had died. Eventually he could see again, and he deduced that the temporary blindness must've had to do with the surgery.

They didn't replace his eyes of course, that simply couldn't be done. Unless Lightspeed knew how. But he'd felt the presence of his eyes through the whole operation, although he couldn't see through them. Now that he could once again see, he watched as he was placed on his wheels (which, he noticed, were new wheels) in the center of a circle of other cars by a machine of some kind.

The cars sped away, and Chick knew that he was intended to race them. So he did. He drove faster than he had ever thought possible, already surpassing multiple of the other cars. But then he became overwhelmed with horror.

He was driving straight into a wall.

Chick screamed. Soon he would be injured badly, or perhaps even dead himself. But to his surprise, neither of those things happened. He found himself vibrating through the wall, still maintaining his immense speed. Chick was shocked as he entered a whole new room, where important-looking cars stared at him in awe.

Chick too stared dumbfoundedly as he realized one of the cars was the leader of Lightspeed. The leader had a different form of identification. Instead of the 'LIGHTSPEED' insignia that was now on Chick's sides and hood, he simply had 'Leader' written on his hood, using capital and lowercase letters instead of the usual all-capital letters. The leader drove toward Chick and began to speak. "Welcome, Chick Hicks, to the board room. Here we make executive decisions regarding Lightspeed.

We were not expecting you to find this room, as we have never seen a car phase through walls, even here. Since you're already here, we might as well tell you that this room is normally accessible through a high-security door hidden somewhere within this base. If you should reach level 10 clearance with us here at Lightspeed, we will reveal the location to you. Please exit the room the way you entered. If you manage to do so, you will be automatically promoted to level 5 clearance." Chick decided to try to vibrate again. He began to shake himself from side to side, picking up speed with each shake, until finally he was vibrating again.

He drove through the wall, exiting the room, and was immediately greeted by a robotic arm which placed a durable sticker reading 'Level 5' on his hood.

Chick grinned. "Nice." he said aloud.

He began to race all around the unfamiliar area he was in, feeling a rush of power. The leader of Lightspeed had referred to this place as a 'base', and so Chick assumed that it was Lightspeed's main base of operations, if the leader was present. Obviously, things happened very fast around here. As soon as his 'surgery' was done, the leader was already in the board room officially adding Chick to the Lightspeed roster.

Chick began to wonder what Lightspeed would want him to commit to. Now that he had the upgrade, he wanted to show the whole world that no one was faster than him now and leave this creepy place far behind. But then he realized that Lightspeed surely held races. And he also realized Lightspeed would track him down if he tried to break away. This base was underground, he could tell. McQueen had spotted the unidentified Lightspeed member above ground, he remembered. Perhaps Lightspeed held races on the surface? Chick was heavily considering going back into the board room to ask, but that would be at the risk of his newly acquired level 5 clearance, given to him for his fantastic ability, Chick reminded himself.

He was curious of something, however. Whether he liked it or not, Lightning was famous, he did have quite a few victories, and- for a normal car- he was admittedly pretty fast. Chick wondered if Lightning would be approached by Lightspeed in the future. What if Lightning had the operation, and then developed his own set of abilities?

Chick would just have to prove to Lightspeed that McQueen wasn't necessary.

Sally had just told McQueen that she had seen Mater at Flo's V8 Cafe, and so that was where Lightning was headed. As he drove in, he found Mater and the rest of his friends huddled around a TV which was replaying a clip over and over. As Lightning drove closer, he realized whatever camera had captured the footage now on the screen had picked up the bolt-of-lightning cars he had seen. No one seemed to notice that Lightning was there.

"Hello?" Lightning said almost inquisitively.

No response.

"Hey, Mater! Thanks for the addition to the Radiator Springs Sign!" He said, trying to catch his friend's attention.
But yet again, there was no response.

Then Mater spoke. "Does anyone else hear Lightning?"
Sheriff moved slightly. "I thought so too, but we must just be hearing things. The camera car recording Lightning's re-entrance into Radiator Springs shut off the camera after the crash- it looked like an explosion, Mater."

Lightning tried talking again. "Guys, it's really me. It wasn't an explosion, it was just a small crash. The lightning- which was actually other cars, by the way, messed with the visual.

And that was when his friends finally turned around to welcome him back to Radiator Springs.

What does Chick have planned? What does Lightspeed have planned for him? And what do Lightning's friends think of the mysterious cars?

Find out in the next chapter of Cars: Lightspeed.