25 No Time

"Nervous?" Madison asked Speed on their way down to the track.

It was almost the start of the Unlimited Car Parts race and Madison could tell that Speed was a bit nervous…considering the fact that he hadn't really said much on their way down to the track.

"Kind of…only because it's the first race since your accident. That and the fact that Racer X and Inspector Detector are here to observe the race, who knows what they'll try to pull today. So yeah, I guess you can say I'm nervous." Speed explained.

"Don't worry…you'll be fine. Racer X and Inspector Detector are only here to protect us…not to watch you personally." Madison replied in an effort to get him to relax.

"Yeah…I guess your right. You should probably get together with Conner and Lucy. I think the race is about to start." Speed explained as they approached the Mach 6.

"Yeah, but I can't leave without wishing you good luck." Madison said with a smile that stretched from ear to ear.

Likewise, Speed had a smile that was just about as big as Madison's. But before he let her go, he brought her into his arms and guided her closer to him. They were so close that she could feel his heart beat against her own chest.

He was nervous, she could tell. But she also knew that Speed never liked to show his nervousness during a race. Just something that he always did.

But she could still feel his heart beat against her chest as she looked up at him. He had one hand rested around the small of her back while he held his helmet in the other. She felt his hand glide up her back as he slowly bent down to kiss her, but they were torn apart when X and Annalise greeted them.

"Good luck today bro." X encouraged his brother.

"You too X." Speed replied back as the Racer brothers touched knuckles.

X and Speed exchanged smiles as X walked back to his car when Speed suddenly realized that X was with Annalise.

"Please tell me you saw X with Annalise and that it's just not my imagination?" Speed couldn't help but to asked Madison.

"Yeah…I saw that too. But don't worry about it. Worry about kicking everybody's butt. I'm going to go by Conner and Lucy now. Good luck Speed." Madison replied as she slowly started to pull away from him.

But he couldn't let her go without kissing her. Without letting her go, he dragged her back and lightly brushed his lips against hers. But before she knew it, she found herself caressing the side of his neck as he proceeded to kiss her.

And while they kissed, she could feel the eyes of jealous fan girls all around her, which for some reason made her want to kiss him even more. But she knew she couldn't, she had to break away before they really got into each other.

"Good luck Speed." Madison repeated as she slowly pulled away.

Speed just smiled as he felt her hand slide down the front of his chest as she started to walk away. He stood there next to the Mach 6 and watched her make her way over to the pits to where he couldn't see her anymore.

Speed took a deep breath as he slid into his car. Once inside, he looked up to where Spritle stood on top of the academy's roof behind a podium. But as he continued to look in the direction of his uncle, he noticed Racer X standing with him. He couldn't help but to wonder why Racer X was up there with Spritle. But as if he were on cue, Spritle began to speak.

"I'm sure many of you are wondering why Racer X is standing next to me. And I'll be happy to explain. He used to race with my brother and he's now a very good friend of mine and I'm pleased to announce that he's this year's marcher for the annual Unlimited Car Parts race…. Please welcome, Racer X." Spritle explained as the crowd below him started to cheer.

"Thank you Spritle. I'm very pleased to be this year's marcher, so…shall we get this race started?" Racer X said into the microphone as the crowd below him still cheered.

"Then let's get this race started. Ladies and gentlemen…start your engines! -"

The crowd still cheered as the drivers started their cars. It was seconds before the light turned green and they took off down the front straight away. As they crossed over the device that stretched from one side of the track to the other, the virtual gate opened. And as they crossed over the same device on the other side of the track, another virtual gate opened and they were brought into Lightning Alley.

As they first entered the virtual world, Speed couldn't help but to take a deep breath.

'Out of all tracks, they had to pick this one?' Speed thought to himself as he began to slow down a bit.

Noticing this, X couldn't help but to connect to Speed's comp system.

"Speed…you okay?" X questioned, which sort of caught Speed off guard, as he wasn't expecting X to pop through on his comp system like that.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. Just brought back some memories is all…considering it's Lightning Alley…"

"Yeah, I noticed that too. But you might want to pick up the pace if you even want to be in this race." X mentioned.

"What do you mean?" Speed questioned unaware of his status.

"You're in last place dude. I don't mind you loosing to me, but not to everyone else. I know you can do better than that." X replied as he tried to give his brother a little encouragement.

"Thanks X…I'll see you in a minute…"

"You better." X said as he disappeared off of Speed's comp system.

Within a little while later, Speed made a huge comeback, as he was now right behind his brother. But as usual to the Racer brothers, the track seemed to be acting up as lightning just seemed be coming down from the sky like crazy.

Speed just dodged a lightning bolt as it struck the track, which caused him to slide off course. But of course he was back in the race with little next to no time to spare.

PS: Yeah, I know it's short…

But don't worry. I just thought of a whole bunch of stuff last night for this fanfic.

It should be interesting if I can pull everything off that I thought of.

Anyway, thanks for reading: The Challenge

Part two should be posted soon..

There's a lot more adventures to come!