To FeatherSunfire :Thank youu so much! Good Luck on your first fanfiction!

To Reader : I will put Dusty and Lightning in a few chapters, but not for now, sorry

Finding Clues (Finley and Stanley) : Chapter 8

"Argh! I can't find a single clue!" Stanley exclaimed while putting his hands up in the air, in a 'I give up' maner.

"Calm down Stanley. The clues won't appear in the air by itself" Finley said calmly.

"Oh yeah? Then what are you suggest us to do?!" Stanley said annoyed.

"Finding some clues. That's what we've been doing" Finley stated calmly.

"Yeah! We've been doing that for almost 2 hours!" Stanley exclaimed loudly.

"We only been in this world for 2 months. Of course we didn't find the clues immediately" Finley said patiently.

It is true, that he and Stanley already been in the Cars world since 2 months ago. But they still can't find a single clue about their fellow Uplanders in Cars world. And surely they can't find a single clue to prove that the royal secretary is the one behind the silent chaos. It was amazing for Finley, who is still 4 years old, to stay calm in this matter. While Stanley is more to an outburst person, so he will exclaim all the things that annoy him.

"But then you suggest,'Hey let's go to the library, maybe we can find some clues there'. That's what you said!" Stanley exclaimed.

"I said 'maybe'! Maybe! Do you think I know all the things around here?!" Finley said, losing his patience.

"Didn't you two know, that in the library you should be quiet?"

By that voice, both boys turned around and find their surrogate fathers, parked by the library door. While the earlier voice is Finn's stern voice. Both Finn and Siddeley look sternly at both boys. Finley and Stanley look down guiltyly.

"Sorry..." Stanley and Finley said simultaneously.

"Come on, let's go to my office. There, you can exclaim all the things you want" Siddeley said, almost sarcasticly. Clearly didn't like the way his surrogate son behave earlier.

"Sorry Dad.." Stanley said, and clearly get the meaning from Siddeley's tone of voice.

When they reached Siddeley's hanger office at the HQ, Finn said...

"Okay then, so what did you two do in the library that makes you seem so annoyed?" Finn said sternly.

Finley wasn't a fond of Finn's stern voice, so he didn't answer right away. Stanley try instead...

"Well, we,.." Stanley said, clearly trailing off.

"We just..arguing about some books, that's all" Finley said, lying.

"Some books?" Finn asked.

"Yeah...because.." Finley said, but clearly didn't have anymore lies in his sleeve.

"We didn't agree in some of our opinions about the books information" Stanley said, lying aswell.

Finn and Siddeley, who already live with their surrogate sons for 2 months, knew that they were lying. But they let it for awhile, because they need to go to solve a mission in about minutes later.

"Okay then. Well we need to go in a few minutes, so stay here and be good" Finn said to Finley and Stanley.

"Yes Dad" Finley said.

"If you get bored, you can play with the board games that I leave you there at the table. And if you get hungry, you can go to the cafetaria. You know the way there, do you?" Siddeley said.

"Yep. I remembered" Stanley said.

After that, Finn and Siddeley went away to complete the mission. While Stanley and Finley stay there standing and still amused with each other's quick lies.

"I can't believe you lie so good" Stanley said to Finley.

"I don't like it though.." Finley said.

"Yeah, me too. But, what choice do we have?" Stanley said.

Both of them already agree to each other, that they will hide this things about the clues from their surrogate fathers and soul partners, for awhile until they are sure that was the clues. They didn't want to make their fathers worried about this things that they still unsure about. So they will need to keep it hiden for the mean time.

"I still don't like it..." Finley said.

"We don't have to like what we do. Come on, why don't we go to the files room to find some clues there?" Stanley said, trying to cheer up Finley.

"Okay..." Finley said, still sad.

"Cheer up, Finley. I bet your real father didn't want you to be so sad" Stanley said.

"Yeah. And I bet he didn't want me to lie either.." Finley said, even more sad then before.

Stanley mentally blame himself to remind Finley about his real father. It just make him more sad.

"Wait. Do you even know where the files room are?" Finley asked Stanley.

"I don't go empty handed when I'm in one place for two months" Stanley said proudly.

"Really? Then where is it?" Finley said, curiously.

"Here" Stanley said shortly and then he went to the book shelf and pulled one of the books out.

Finley looked at Stanley oddly and confused. But after a second, the book shelf move aside by itself and behind it, there's a secret hallway.

"H..How did you..?" Finley said, trailing off.

"I told you, I didn't go empty handed" Stanley said and then went to the secret hallway, motioning Finley to follow.

Finley just shook his head slightly and then followed Stanley. He will remember in the future that he didn't need to question Stanley, about how he did that and know that. Stanley just always find his own ways to know things.

They walked for about a minute in the secret hallway, until they found a room.

"It's locked" Finley stated.

"I found the key, of course" Stanley said, rather proudly to himself.

But what they found, shocked both of them. Because the key leads to a keypad to enter the password.

"Great. And you know the password?" Finley asked in a hopeful tone, but a little annoy because he can predict the upcoming answer.

"Don't know. I didn't get that far" Stanley stated calmly. While Finley seems to be a little annoyed, because his guessing it's right.

"Then, what now?" Finley asked.

"Now. We will play some riddle games" Stanley said. Then he opened the keypad with his screwdriver from his pants pocket. He change and cut some wires, that Finley didn't understand even a single bit.

"Done. Now, let's see.." Stanley said, finally done with his work with the wires. Finley was impressed though, because he only need 30 minutes to do that. When Stanley was entering some things and typed it with the keypads, Finley asked...

"I didn't know you can do that" Finley stated.

"I rarely do that. I only do it when it was an emergency" Stanley said.

"From who?" Finley asked. That makes Stanley quiet for a while, but then said...

"My mother. She's a mechanic" Stanley said shortly.

Finley just nodded and then let Stanley do his work. But then he asked again...

"So...you follow your mother footprints?" Finley asked based on pure curiousity.

"Maybe. I guess. That makes some people wonder though" Stanley said, while typing something on the keypads.

"Really?" Finley said.

"Yeah" Stanley said shortly.

"What they wonder about? Isn't that perfectly normal for an Uplanders?" Finley asked.

"You do know, that if the leader of the profession group, have a child, the child will automaticly followed his footprints?" Stanley asked Finley.

"Yeah, I just learn it before I come here. And...oh..." Finley said, trailing off, finally realizing Stanley's words.

It is true. In Uplanders cultures, if the leader of the group have a child, the child will automaticly followed their footprints, their line of work. Like example, Finley and his father. Finley clearly followed his father footprints more than his mother. He clearly will become the leader of the spy, just like his father, because it's almost like he's destined to be the leader of the spy. Because his father is the leader of the spy proffesion group, so his child has to follow his footprints, so he can inherit his position to his child.

While from what Stanley's stated, he's more to his mother footprints, instead of his father, who is the leader of the racers proffesion group. Stanley surely has to be a racer in the future, but from what he stated, he clearly not. And that was surely weird for an Uplanders.

"I think it's still cool enough" Finley said, confidently.

"Thanks, you are the third person who said that though" Stanley said, finally smiling.

"Really?" Finley asked.

"Yeah. The first one is my mother and the second one is my father" Stanley said.

"Oh.." Finley shortly said.

"Hey, I did it! Look!" Stanley exclaimed happily. Finkey then looked at the monitor, there, written...

'What is my favorite food?'

"Seriously? This is the second password?" Stanley asked incredulously.

"I didn't believe it either. But it worth to try" Finley said.

"But whose favorite food?" Stanley asked.

"Your soul partner, maybe?" Finley suggest.

"Might try it then" Stanley said.

"You know his favorite food?" Finley said.

"Yep. Macaroni and cheese" Stanley said, while typing the words on the keypads.

Soon after that, the door open by itself. Leading to the files room, which is full of...files.

"These are lots of files, how do we find it?" Finley said. While he could imagine the work that they need to do after this.

"We just have to go through and see it. Come on, we don't have much time. If I know Finn and Siddeley, both of them will complete their mission fast enough" Stanley said.

Both of them went through all the files with no luck. They want to searched about the royal secretary, but what they found is Queen Elizabeth's royal secretary in the Cars world.

When they try to search about the Uplanders, they found the history of the Uplanders. After hours of searching, they almost gave up, but then Finley said loudly...

"Hey Stanley! Look here!"

Stanley quickly went to the source of Finley's voice.

"What did you find?" Stanley asked.

"Computer. The source of all the files" Finley said excitedly. Can't blame him, he's still 4 years old.

"Neat. Let's try all the keywords that pop into our mind, then type it" Stanley said excited too.

They try and try, until they all out of ideas...

"No luck..." Finley said.

"One last code, then we'll go back to my soul partner office" Stanley said, tiredly.

Stanley type two words on the keypads. Finley look over the computer screen to see what Stanley has typed. He was a little surprised by what he sees though.

'Silent Chaos'

Not long after, the computer gave them all the list files from the files room, who have the keywords 'silent chaos'.

"Are you kidding? That was too many files!" Finley exclaimed. Shocked by the almost 100 files, that have the keywords 'silent chaos'.

"And we're running out of time. Quick, erase all the history in the computer that we made. Shut it down. We have to get out of here, now!" Stanley said.

Finley quickly do what Stanley said, while Stanley clean the mess up files on the floor, and put them back to the shelfs, neatly. After they were done, they quickly went out from the room. But Stanley, stay behind for a while to make the password system, work as normal again. Finley stay at Siddeley's office to make sure that no ones come back yet.

After Stanley was done, he quickly went out from the secret hallway, put back the book to the shelf, and it automaticly close the secret hallway. Both boys sighed in relief. And right on cue, Siddeley and Finley rolled in...

"Hey there, you two. Having fun?" Siddeley asked.

"...yeah..sure we did" Stanley muttered a lie.

"You boys already eat yet?" Finn asked.

"ehmm...no, not yet. We're just about to go to the Cafetaria, to grab some lunch" Finley said, uttering a lie. But unbeknownst by him, he was busted...

"Lunch? Finley, it's already 6.30 p.m" Finn said.

Both boys look at the clock at the wall and saw that Finn was right. It's already 6.30 p.m. They miss their lunch. No wonder they were so hungry.

"Ehmmm...yeah, I mean.., dinner" Finley said, feeling guilty that he was busted.

"So you boys miss your lunch?" Siddeley asked.

Stanley and Siddeley nodded guiltyly. One thing they know about Siddeley and Finn when they started living here, is that both vehicles, are a very healthy type of vehicles. So both boys have to eat healthy and in the right orders or time.

"You boys know that you can't miss your lunch. It's not good for growing boys like you two" Finn said, scolding a little.

"Sorry..." Both boys said simultaneously.

"Why don't you two eat an apple first, before you eat your dinner. It will make you good enough" Siddeley suggested.

"How did an apple will make us good enough?" Stanley asked, clearly confused.

"'An apple a day, keeps the doctor away', ever heard of that?" Finn said with a grin.

"That was a very old English proverb, Dad" Finley said.

"It is indeed. But it is the truth too" Finn said.

"Yeah, I guess" Stanley said.

"I bet the doctor won't suggest that, like you did, Dad" Finley said.

"Why?" Finn, Stanley, and Siddeley asked in unison.

"Because the doctor will go bankrupt in the future, if everyone eat an apple a day" Finley said, jokingly. Siddeley, Stanley, and Finn laughed at that.

Then the four of them, eat some dinner at the cafetaria, then went back to their homes. Siddeley want to talk with Stanley about his behaviour at the library before, but the boy is already sound asleep on his own black mattress, that Siddeley's purchase after he adopted the boy. Seeing the boy is sleeping, he cancel his plan and joined his boy to go to sleep aswell.

While Finley isn't having so much luck. When he and Finn reached their home, Finn asked him...

"Why did you lie to me, Finley?"

"I..I didn't lie.." Finley said nervously. Finn can see it through clearly, that he is lying.

"Really? Then why did you was so nervous about it?" Finn said calmly, but sternly.

"I.. It's just..." Finley said, trailing off.

"Yes?" Finn asked firmly and sternly.

"We just looking for some clues..." Finley said, finalky giving up, under Finn's stern expression.

"Clues? Of what?" Finn asked.

"About the royal secretary and about our fellow Uplanders in the Cars world" Finley admitted.

Finn knows about what the royal secretary have done with Finley's parents and Stanley's parents. And hearing the name itself already make his oil boiled.

"Have any luck?" Finn asked as calmly as possible. Even though, he was very mad with the royal secretary.

"No.." Finley said. Still hiding the fact, that he and Stanley snuck into the files room at Siddeley's office.

"Why did you hide it from me, Finley?" Finn asked.

"We...don't want to make you guys worried about this things... You already have your own problems to deal with. We don't want to burden you with our own problems too..." Finley said. Finn can see that his surrogate son said that from his heart. Finn was touched with that and said...

"Finley...we won't be burden with your problems..you can talk to me about your problems anytime" Finn said, nuzzling Finley.

"Really?" Finley asked innocently.

"Yes. Promise me you won't hide your problems again from me, Finley" Finn said.

"Yes, Dad. I promise" Finley said, then hugged his surrogate father as best as he could.

Now in time like this, Finley will always feel safe around the Cars world, even after the silent chaos...

A.N : Stanley and Finley! I combine those two in one chapter, what do you think? Thank you for reading and reviewing! See you in next chapter!