Chapter 30 - POV Rylee
She had never seen this many cameras at a NASCAR race.
Sure, she hadn't been to many. Definitely not a championship. But she'd seen photos, and usually it was a fifth of the crowd currently here. She was under the impression that NASCAR racing was a dying sport. It seems not today.
She was extremely relieved when the time ran out for press questions and photo shoots, and she quickly climbed back into the car to escape the view of the cameras. Although it was dark out, the bright LED overhead lights and the flashes of hundreds of cameras made it look even brighter than day. She was all too eager to get out of there, but before she could successfully escape to the track, there was a knock on the window. It was another competitor, donning a bright green Mountain Dew attire. Ugh. That meant she couldn't ignore it.
"Hey, that's the guy Miko and I raced," Knockout hummed. "The way I remember, he was a bit of a… how do I word it… ass ."
"Knockout! Where did you learn human curse words?"
"What? Do you think I landed on Earth yesterday?"
As the man expectantly waited, Rylee realized she couldn't procrastinate any longer. She pulled down the window. "Yes?" she asked him. Luckily they were out of earshot from the video cameras, but a few photographers still tried to take photos from afar.
"Hi. Rylee, is it? My name is Burt Carson, and I just wanted to say thank you , and that it's an honor to race against you."
Rylee slightly frowned. "Wait, thank me? For what?"
"I don't know if you know this, but the press has never been this big. Have you been keeping up with the media?" Rylee shook her head. "You're not just a star in NASCAR, you've become an icon in the greater media as well! The whole 'amateur teenage female driver' paired with the 'charismatic talking car' facade has really caused a lot of popularity."
Rylee tilted her head. "Why? I mean… I didn't even mean to? I haven't been winning the races either?" Being popular was the opposite of what both she and Knockout needed. They needed to draw attention away from themselves, not towards. Now all eyes were on the suspicious alien robot car. Great.
Burt shrugged. "The people like what the people like. And I'm saying thanks because your popularity has made NASCAR as a whole popular again. Usually I'd be jealous. But damn, I've been racing for ten years and I've never been able to get a crowd like this. So really, good for you." He then winked and did a thumbs up. "And hey, while I may not personally be popular, the influx of people following and coming to these races has given me more profits and recognition as well, so… thanks!" Rylee looked up at the cameras taking photos. While she knew what he was saying was genuine, she sensed there were ulterior motives at play as well.
Rylee smiled. "Well, thank you for the kind words, and I'm glad it's helping. I really have to get going now though, and I think you do too." Burt grinned and nodded and held out a hand, and she shook it in return.
Burt bowed his head in recognition and then jogged away from the car. "Well, see you at the finish line! Let the best racer win!"
Rylee finally closed shut the window. "He says that as if I'm not already guaranteed to win," Knockout commented amusedly.
"Come one, come all to meet Rylee and her amazing alien car! Line up for photos, and see your popularity spike just by being seen with her!" Rylee mumbled mockingly. "I really hope twenty people don't come knocking on my door after that. That was nice and all but really, we need the opposite of attention."
She was now lined up with the cars being cleared to enter the track. At least she wasn't late.
"Well, I think I would like a little attention, don't you think?" Knockout said lowly.
"Of course you would. But we can't really afford that now, with you being not a car ," Rylee sighed. "Besides, now that Ratchet and all those people have their eyes on us, they'd kill us if we slipped up in any way."
"I guess ," Knockout pouted. Don't worry, you'll have your fame soon enough, Knockout. If not from winning first place, then at least infamy back home for being an escapee that was finally caught.
"Hey. You guys ready?" Jack asked over the intercoms. "People are already lining up."
"Yes. We were held up by a fan ," Knockout mused.
"You have fans ?" Miko screeched over the intercom, breaking everyone's ears.
"Miko!" Jack complained, but his voice was faded as if he was talking to her in person rather than over the com. "How many times have I told you not to screech over the mic? In person it's okay, but over the mic it's amplified and -"
"Hey, Miko," Knockout said, almost mischievously. "Turns out we actually have a lot of fans. We're a hit sensation, and we're single-handedly making NASCAR popular again."
Miko screeched once more, causing everyone to groan, but Knockout just laughed. He set that up on purpose, and unlike us, he could block his audio receptors for the inevitable screech that he knew was coming.
"But the one fan I was talking about: remember the mountain dew man, Miko?"
"Yes. I do," she said with pure animosity. "Don't tell me…"
"Yep!" Knockout laughed.
"Of all the fans we could have -" Miko yelled, before Jack shut off the mic and both went silent. Knockout and Rylee sat there in silence as they were herded through different gates.
"I'm going to call Smokescreen," Knockout finally said.
"You don't need to call me, dude, we're all on the same line," Smokescreen said over the intercom.
" Right . I forgot about that. How is your search going?" Knockout asked.
"It's going terribly. I don't even know what I'm looking for. Where could have Thundercracker even gone ? Back to his base I guess, but you'd think they'd want to keep eyes on us now more than ever…"
"That… is true," Knockout grimaced. "So what do you think? We got an agent on the inside, ratting us out? Is it you, Smokescreen?"
"If it was me I would've called the Elite Guard ages ago and you would've already been locked up," Smokescreen laughed. "So - no."
"What if it was you, Knockout?" Rylee joked, raising an eyebrow. Knockout tried to protest her absurd accusation, but she continued. "No, wait, hear me out. What if you had a split personality, and at night -" she couldn't even continue, and ended up breaking down in laughter. She couldn't put together a ridiculous explanation for that, even if she tried.
" Hey I think if anyone is going to be an inside agent it'd be you, Rylee, Ms. 'Daughter of two government agents'." Knockout snapped back, but still laughing.
"Look at you two, back together!" Smokescreen joked cheekily. "You're practically halfway to conjunx endurae!" Knockout's laughter faltered, and it was now Smokescreen's turn to break out laughing.
"Smokescreen!" Knockout said flusteredly, and if she didn't know any better she'd assume he was embarrassed - but she couldn't see his face, so she couldn't tell. They pulled through the front gates and were now visible to the entire audience. She had never seen the stadium this full - people were practically overflowing out of the seats. In fact, she was a bit intimidated, but she kept her confidence.
"What's a conjunx endurae?" Rylee finally asked.
"It's uhh…" Knockout trailed off. "Someone you… er… care about very much."
Both Miko and Smokescreen snickered over the intercom - it seems they turned Miko's mic back on just in time. They were obviously both antagonizing Knockout, and Knockout was also obviously avoiding the truth. Rylee smiled. She didn't know what a conjunx was, but decided it would be fun to play dumb and antagonize him as well.
"If that's so, why aren't we conjunx endurae already?" Rylee fake pouted, and both Smokescreen and Miko broke out laughing. Rylee could feel Knockout's embarrassment radiating off him, and she slightly giggled as well.
"It's not like that… it's… I'll - I'll tell you more later," Knockout managed to put out. "Right now, we sort of have a race to win."
Rylee grinned. "Whatever you say, Knockout."
Soon enough the flag was dropped, and Knockout took off like a bullet.
Jack's POV
"I know Knockout's Knockout , but it wasn't very nice to antagonize him like that."
"Hey! It was mostly Smokescreen! And admit it, J, you laughed too."
"Miko, I may have laughed , but that doesn't mean -"
"Jack?" a voice called from behind.
Jack turned to see Raf, looking at a tablet of some kind. "What is it, Raf?"
"It's bad news, that's what," Raf held the tablet up towards him, but he wasn't sure what he was looking at. "I don't think we should tell the two racing, it's best not to stress them out. But we need to deal with it."
Jack took the tablet and looked closer. "Okay, and what's the problem exactly?"
"You know those sensors I installed this afternoon? So that situations like Thundercracker taking off with Rylee doesn't happen again? Well they've been tripped. There's somebody in our hangar right now."
"This is the first day testing it though, right? It could be the wind or - or… a rat or something, right?" Jack asked, but Raf just kept looking up at him with his big brown eyes. Jack sighed. "Alright, say there's someone in our hangar. There's nothing incriminatingly Cybertronian there, is there?"
" No ," Raf said. "Just our personal items that we undoubtedly don't want stolen." He took back his tablet. "Besides, what if Thundercracker came back? We need someone to greet him."
Jack sighed again. "Fine, I'll go check it out. Miko, Raf, stay on pit stop duty. If Knockout somehow needs a tire change, just, erm… google it."
"I think Cybertronian tires are probably different from the ones we have here," Miko was lounging back in a chair with shades on. Although they were all wearing pit crew uniforms and were in the pit stop location, they didn't look very professional at all. For one, there were only three of them rather than the standard five. Another, more off-putting thing about their pit crew was that none of them were adults . He was certain that was another mystery about the enigma that was their crew. No wonder they became so popular - they were so unrelentingly different from the standard, without providing a reason as to why. If they could explain that their car was an alien robot, maybe that would explain more. But all the intrigued public could do was speculate.
Almost as if on cue, Rylee and Knockout pulled into the pit stop. The lap where all racers had to go in for a mandatory pit stop had begun, and Rylee and Knockout always had nothing better to do than sit around.
Rylee pulled down the window and waved, smiling, "Hey!"
"'Sup?" Jack said, raising his hand. He picked up his backpack and made his way towards the stairs.
"Where are you going?" Rylee called.
"To check the hangar," Jack said. "Raf thinks there's some rat invaders or something." Raf looked up at Jack with indignation.
"Well then, bye Jack," Rylee said, and Jack turned. In the background he could hear Rylee ask, "Hey, can someone pass me my lemonade?" Jack smiled. Another mystery of the team. Every pit stop instead of Knockout refueling or changing tires, it was always Rylee relaxing and having a drink and a snack. The other pit crews seemed to be both envious and perplexed by their whole situation.
Soon enough, Jack was back at the hangar, and he swung the door open and stepped in, eyes squinted. "Alright, where's this mysterious invade-"
The hangar door was slammed shut behind him, and he jumped. He looked back to find it was Thundercracker who shut the door, but Thundercracker said nothing. He turned back towards the entire hangar, and Jack cautiously stepped forward to find a large group behind the crates. There were two women he didn't recognize, and Agent Fowler as well. But what really surprised him was his mother and Ratchet. She was standing on Ratchet's shoulder, and both had identical frowns and identical crossed arms. And everyone in the room was staring right at him.
Jack tentatively pressed the intercom on his ear. "Hey guys?" he said waveringly. "I think we have a problem."
Author's Note
Hey all, hope you're doing fine, I just wanted to give you guys something to read during the quarantine! I wrote this a week ago and only planned to publish it after I wrote the next chapter, but unfortunately my schedule is still full so it may be a while (or since I'm already half-way through, maybe only a few days!). As always thanks for reading and commenting, and stay safe!
