Chapter 13
Let it Begin

Sparky's help was speeding up their progress. Even so, their time was running out.

Speed, X, Alpha and Chim-Chim had less than half an hour left before disaster struck less than half a building away and they had a feeling that they weren't going to be ready to leave before then. Thankfully, they did have an idea of how they were going to get home. Sparky had suggested using something made to hold a charge. This idea later escalated into using the hourglass part to charge a battery. Speed then made the suggestion of improving their earlier idea of using Chim-Chim by having him filter some of the excess power into the battery.

This, of course, led Speed to showing Sparky the robot chimp. From the experience, Speed deduced that Sparky and Connor would be best friends if they ever met face to face without a disguise in the way. Sparky had nearly squealed like a fan girl when he saw the robot. Speed couldn't help but feel bad that X hadn't been there to watch at the time. He would've gotten a kick out of it. After Chim-Chim had been dubbed "the god of engineering" and "the most genius creation mankind would ever have the privilege of knowing", Sparky's ideas had become more possible.

At the moment, Sparky was making a trip to the garage he and Pops worked in to get a car battery. He had said that they had an extra car battery that still held a charge but didn't work properly when put in a car, so they were planning on using it.

Speed was pacing anxiously next to Alpha's bed, X watching him irritably from the chair in the corner of the room, his green eyes lazily following his brother back and forth. He had been sitting there for a little while, becoming gradually more uneasy with every passing minute. Even so, he could detect that Speed was probably doing much worst beneath his determinated façade. "Dude, chill. He'll be back any second," X said. Speed glanced at him, then continued his pacing.

As if summoned, Sparky walked in the doorway, holding a black car battery. "Sorry that took so long. Traffic," he said, handing off the battery to Speed who eagerly accepted. "That's okay, thanks," he said. Sparky smiled at him. "Anytime. Now all we need to do is get this thing wired up and you'll be home in no time."

Speed smiled up at him. He was indescribably grateful for Sparky's help and when he and his friends got home, he knew he was going to miss Sparky the most.

He turned towards Alpha's bed. "Chim-Chim?" The chimp in question peeked out from under the bed. He beeped when he saw the battery in Speed's hands, walking over to it when Speed set it on the ground for him. Chim-Chim already knew what he needed to do, having listened to the plan as it was made.

As the robot went to work inspecting the plugs on the battery, Speed spoke to Sparky. "We honestly can't thank you enough for all your help," he said. Sparky chuckled. It must've been the fiftieth time Speed had said that. "It's really no trouble. I'm just glad I could help," he said, shaking hands with the teen.

Speed suddenly remembered a thought he had had earlier. "Oh, and Sparky?"

"Yeah Speed?"

"Have you heard of a company called Rocket Air?"

X looked up at the mention of his new sponsor, looking alarmed. Sparky was a bit confused. "Yeah, they're pretty big. Why?"

"Do they have a headquarters just southeast of here?" Speed asked. X hoped to every deity he knew that Speed wasn't planning on taking down Rocket Air. Not only was it impossible in their current state, but it was just stupid. Sparky still looked confused, but answered none the less. "No, I don't think so."

Speed beamed. "I knew it!"

That only confused X even more. "Knew what? You're not going to, you know…"

Speed looked at him like he was crazy for even suggesting such a thing. "What? No! That'd be dumb and would probably screw up a lot of the future," he said. "What I mean is, we didn't end up in the middle of nowhere when we teleported here. We were at the future site of Rocket Air, but it hasn't been built yet. Don't you see? We traveled in time, but not in space!"

X blinked. "So, that means wherever we are, we end up in the same spot, but at a different time?" he asked for clarification. Speed nodded. "Yeah! That means we need to be at Racer Academy when we teleport so we end up there and not in the next city over. Sparky, do you think you could give us a ride?"

Alpha piped up before Sparky could reply. "But what about me? If you sign me out, you guys will have to pay the hospital bills and if you don't sign me out, we can't leave."

Speed cursed under his breath. He hadn't thought about that; he had been playing it by ear so far. "Shoot! How are we going to sneak you out?" he pondered out loud, thinking hard and beginning to pace again. X stopped him by standing and putting a hand on his shoulder. Speed glanced at him, mumbling an apology. Sparky opened his mouth to speak, but Speed cut him off before he could. "No. That's way too much to ask."

"You don't know what I'm going to say," the mechanic defended.

"You're going to say you'll pay the bills for us and that it's no big deal," Speed said.

"Lucky guess," Sparky snorted.

Speed thought hard. "We could go out through a different ward, but…" he trailed off. X eyed him. "But what?"

Speed bit his lip and looked at Alpha. "You'd have to walk like you're fine." Alpha gulped. "I'm not sure I could manage that… I mean, I could try, but no promises," he said. "Sorry, but that looks like our only option right now," Speed responded. Alpha nodded, looking uneasy but determined.

"But what about the monitors keeping track of his vitals? They'll probably alarm the doctors when we remove them," Sparky pointed out.

"Chim-Chim can disable the alarms," Speed said. Chim-Chim looked up at them, nodding and bleeping in approval. Sparky smiled. "Cool. Let's get them off then."

Chim-Chim jumped over to the machines, hacking into them as Sparky and X began removing the monitors and the IV. Speed went out into the hallway, checking for activity and the best route to take. After a look around, he returned to Alpha's room.

When he got there, Alpha was leaning heavily on X for support, but standing nonetheless. "This hallway continues on for a bit until you get to an elevator. It'll take us down to the first floor and to the front door a little ways away from the one directly downstairs," Speed reported.

"Good. I'll go out and bring my car around so you don't have to walk very far outside. You and X get Alpha down there to meet me there," Sparky said. The other three agreed.

And with that, their plan began.

Muse X: What's this? An upate? Within a week?! *faints*
Yeah, Winter break! Happy dance! Happy dance! Happy dance happy dance!
Muse X: ...
...Anyway, happy doomsday everybody. No zombies, explosions, plane crashes or earthquakes yet. Yay.
Muse X: Ugh, my head... I had this crazy dream where you updated on time for once.
True story X, and if we're not dead tomorrow, I'll post the next chapter then.
Muse X: Dude. That is so...
Cool? Awesome? Amazing? Supercalifragilisticexpialid ocious?
Muse X: I was thinking more along the lines of 'unusual' or 'unexpected'.
Everybody's a critic...