The suspense is killing me! Wait, don't I write the chapters. Oh, and I'm still evil...

Chapter Seven: Caught Off Guard

"She saw what?" Doc paced back and forth in the now-spacious garage. "You heard me." Scarlet snapped. "Well, what are we going to do? Obviously, something's up." Lightning said, flipping through one of Doc's Racing Times magazines. Just then, a knock at the door startled the group out of their dilemma.

Lightning opened the door to see a 50's show car parked outside. "Oh, hey Flo! Come on in." Lightning led her inside to the group. "So, what are my lines again?" Flo asked, a victorious smirk on her face. Doc shot a death glare at Lightning. "What?" he asked sheepishly. "Just how many people did you tell?" Doc growled. "Uh… Well…I…"

"Scarlet?" Laura called. She had awoken to being the only one in their cone, and quickly became suspicious. "Scarlet?" she yelled again. She began to look around the cone for any odd sign of her best friend. Then, she noticed a note scrawled in code on the door.

Laura-

Gone to the V-8 café to order our breakfasts. Be back soon.

BRB,

Scarlet

Laura took out a cipher paper and translated the symbols.

Laura-

Gone to the V-8 café to order our breakfasts. Be back soon.

BRB,

Scarlet

Laura sighed in relief, heading to her bag. She Took out her rim covers from the night before, an idea forming in her hood. She put them on, and muttered the word "sync," as Scarlet had showed her earlier the night before. A computerized voice said, "determining time for EathSync; Estimated time: thirty seconds."

"Sync service requested! Estimated time until transport: twenty-nine seconds." Scarlet's rim-covers becan to hum and glow. "What. Is. THAT?" Flo yelped and jumped back. Lightning and Doc jumped and backed away. Scarlet began to panic. "S-She's going to transport me to the cone! I'm supposed to be at the café!" she squeaked. Suddenly, there was a slushie on her roof. "Have fun!" Lightning said. Then, Scarlet dematerialized.

"Come on, Scarlet." Laura mumbled. The timer began it's final countdown. "Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Commencing transport." As if out of thin air, Scarlet appeared on her parking mattress with a slushie cup on her roof. "Uh, hi?" Scarlet said nervously. Laura unsuccessfully stifled her laugh as the cup fell from it's perch. The cup hovered it's way over to a low table and then proceeded to set itself down. "I love auto-coasters." Scarlet mused, looking at the still immaculate floor. "So, guess what?" Scarlet said, a sense of giddiness in her voice. "Yeah?" Laura said, her full attention on her friend. "So, I was talking with one of the racing jocks at the café, and they said that there's an open race today at Willie's Butte." Laura returned to her thinking face. "So, what you're saying IS: You want me to race against some Piston Cup stars, and win?" she said. Scarlet smiled. "Piece of cake."

Cake? What about pie? Or taco? Ah, cake's good.