Chapter 11: Deactivate
Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC.
Holley, Christina, McQueen, and Mater are now stopped. "Mater, we've got to get that bomb off you," Holley said a split second later. She's already scanning the bomb, working away.
"Bomb?" McQueen asked, in the dark about the entire situation.
"Yeah, they strapped it to me to kill you as a backup plan." Mater explained.
"Backup plan? Mater, who put a bomb on you?" McQueen asks in alarm.
Suddenly, there's Professor Zundapp screaming. "Ahhhhh!" Professor Zundapp suddenly rolls to a stop next to a now totally freaked McQueen, entangled in grappling hooks care of Finn, who has him leashed. "You. Why didn't my death ray kill you?"
If McQueen wasn't freaked now he certainly was. "Death ray?"
"Turn off the bomb, Zundapp!" Finn yelled at him.
Zundapp just rolled his eyes. "Are you all so dense? It's voice-activated. Everything is voice-activated these days."
"Deactivate! Deactivate!" Mater was frantic.
"Voice denied." The bomb suddenly transforms into a time bomb, now complete with a countdown mechanism from 4:59. . . 4:58. . . Mater gasps.
"Oops. Did I forget to mention that it can only be disarmed by the one who activated it?" Zundapp asks innocently, immensely enjoying himself.
Holley immediately shoves a gun in Zundapp's grill and demands of him "Say it!"
"Deactivate." he calmly complies.
"Voice denied." The bomb's timer falters, then it loses a full minute, going from 4:48 to 3:48 to 3:47. . . Mater gasps again.
Zundapp is grinning now. "I am not the one who activated it. Would anyone else like to try?" He is suddenly shocked by a taser jolt.
Christina shocks him unconscious. Finn turned to Christina and told her with a wry smile, "You read my mind."
"He was getting on my nerves," Christina replied sweetly.
"What do we do now?" Mater asks, his eyes crossing as he attempts to get a better look at the bomb.
"It's very simple," Victor Hugo blocks the entrance to a side street. He's surrounded by Hugo relatives. "You blow up." The four streets surrounding them are now blocked by each of the Lemonheads and their families.
"I'm gonna go out on a limb here. These are the guys that want me dead, correct?" McQueen asks, pressed up against Mater.
"It's nothing personal." one of the Hugos says in a semi-sympathetic voice.
Mater drives forward an inch and speaks to the lemons. "Fellers, listen. I know what you're going through. Everybody's been laughing at me my whole life too." McQueen turns to Mater. He wasn't expecting that. The Lemons all eye each other, considering Mater's words. "But becoming powerful and rich beyond your wildest dreams ain't gonna make you feel better."
There's silence until Gremlin says "Yeah, but it's worth a shot." Suddenly, he's broadsided by a blast of water. It's Red! He's sitting outside an underground entrance, followed by Sally and the rest of the Radiator Springs gang.
All out war ensues between the Lemons and the Radiator Springs gang, along with Christina, Finn, and Holley. Finn attaches his four-way cable hooks to the thugs and springs high in the air, crushing the four of them together. Holley springs her wings and knocks out two cars on her side. A group of Lemons had swarmed around Christina, but she knocked them all off their wheels and sent them landing on their backs, putting them in feeble positions. Guido pulls some Lemons tires off with his air gun. In seconds he has a stack of lugnuts next to him. The two Pacers' tires all fall off. Flo hits Vladimir Trunkov with her high-beams, blinding him. Sheriff boots him. Guido pushes away his tireless thug, yelling at him in Italian. Mater karate chops lemons, three and four at a time. Ramone spray paints a lemon's windshield.
"Retreat!"
A few Lemons turn back the way they came. Blocking their path is a line of British military vehicles clad in digital camo, led by Sarge. "Thanks for the help, Corporal."
"Anything for one of pop's mates." the corporal says gruffly.
And in the middle of all of this craziness is Mater. Wrench bits are strewn all around him as Guido tries wrench after wrench to take the bolts off. No dice. Guido gestures wildly in Italian a mile a minute. "What's he saying? What's wrong?" McQueen inquires worriedly.
"None of his wrenches fit the bolts!" Guido cries in dismay.
This is a light bulb moment for Mater. He eyes the bolts. "I get it. I get it! I know what needs to be done."
"Then do it!" McQueen encourages fervently.
Mater is taken aback. "What? No, I can't do it. Look, nobody takes me seriously. I know that now. This ain't Radiator Springs."
"Yes, it is." Mater looks at McQueen. "You're yourself in Radiator Springs. Be yourself here. And if people aren't taking you seriously, then they need to change. Not you. I know that because I was wrong before. Now you can do this. You're the bomb."
"Thanks, buddy," Mater remarks appreciatively.
Shaking his hood, McQueen says, "No no no, you're the actual bomb. Now let's go!"
"Oh, right! Hang on!" Mater hooks McQueen and they're off. They shoot past Finn, who's in the middle of battling lemons.
"Where's he going?" Finn muses as he absent-mindedly knocks aside a Lemon.
"I'm not sure but we should probably follow him," Christina says as she and Holley join him.
Tailing the duo, the trio of agents find themselves in front of the Queen, her attendants, and assorted dignitaries. At the sight of Mater and McQueen, the guards swarm them, protecting their monarch.
"No, no, it's okay! Tell them, Mater. Explain." McQueen says, encouraging Mater.
"Okay! Somebody's been sabotaging the racers and hurting the cars and I know who. Oh, wait. . . Your Majesty." Mater bows to the Queen. In doing so, the ticking time bomb angles into view. The clock's at T-minus 1:53.
"Bomb! It's a bomb! Everybody down! Look out!" the Queen's guards are ecstatic.
Finn appears then. "Hold your fire! He can't disarm it!" Finn dives onto the platform and rolls between the Queen and Mater.
Christina appears behind Finn and says, "Mater, I don't know what you're doing but stand down now!"
"This ain't nothing at all like Radiator Springs," Mater says in an appalled voice.
"Mater just cut to the chase!" McQueen whispered to Mater muttered. "Okay." He turns to Miles Axlerod and said "It's him. I figured it out when I realized you all attached this ticking time bomb with Whitworth bolts. The same bolts that hold together that old British engine from the photograph. Holley! Show that picture."
"Okay. . ." Holley projects the much-discussed photo of the engine.
"And then I remembered what they say about old British engines; "If there ain't no oil under `em, there ain't no oil in `em." It was you leaking oil at the party in Japan. You just blamed it on me."
With an eye-roll, Axelrod states, "Electric cars don't use oil, you twit."
"Then you're faking it. You didn't convert to no electric. We pop that hood we gonna see that engine from that picture right there." Mater moves toward Miles Axlerod to pop his hood.
"This lorry's crazy. He's going to kill us all!" Miles Axlerod backs up to the edge of the stage, saying "Stay away!"
Holley speaks to Mater, then. "But Sir Axlerod created the race, Mater. Why would he want to hurt anyone?"
"To make Allinol look bad so everybody'd go back to using oil. I mean, he said it himself with that disguised voice." Mater pointed out as though it were obvious.
""Dee-guised voice?" What are you talking about? You're nuts, you are!" Axelrod shouts, trying to go around Mater.
"Mater, he created Allinol." Finn logically stated in contradiction to this point.
"Yeah, but what if he found that huge oil field just as the world was trying to find something else?" Mater sticks his ticking bomb-nose into Miles Axelrod's grill. "What if he came up with
Allinol just to make alternative fuel look bad?"
""What if?" You're basing this on a "What if"?!" The Queen's guards spirit the Queen and Prince Wheeliam out of there fast. "Wait! Somebody save me! The lorry's crazy!" Now it's just
Miles Axlerod, Mater, McQueen, Finn, Christina, and Holley. Miles Axlerod's back tires slip on the edge of the podium as he is cornered by Mater. "Keep away, you idiot!" 00:00:04. . . 00:03. . . 00:02. . . "Someone do something!" Everyone flinches, ducks, or dives for cover, except McQueen, Mater, and Axlerod. "You're insane, you are! Deactivate!" The bomb freezes at 00:01.
"Bomb deactivated. Have a nice day, Sir Axlerod." General shock all around. Miles Axlerod realizes what he's done, looks terrified. Police surround him. Mater flings Miles Axlerod's hood open with his hook, revealing an internal combustion engine, oil dripping from all sides. It matches the photo.
"The engine from the photo." Finn sighs with a smile.
Holley cries, "It's a perfect match!"
Christina was just as astounded, surprised, and yet, impressed. "Who would have guessed it?"
"How did the tow truck figure it out?" Axelrod inquired as he was arrested and taken into custody while everyone else celebrated at having not been blown up.