Of Rain and Thunderstorms
by Firebird (FireSaturn)
DISCLAIMER: Cars do not belong to me, but are the property of Pixar Disney. Amber Weathers, Tony Blitz, and Sapphire Sky are my characters.
CHAPTER THREE
A very loud rumble woke Amber from her dream. She stared out of her window and was surprised to see the purple Mitsubishi Eclipse known as Boost pull into Flo's. He was a mess and missing one of his boost canisters. Something must have happened to him to cause him to come all the way here, but Amber didn't know what it was.
She was curious and rolled out of the Cozy Cone and approached the tuner carefully. Now up close, she could see the amount of damage Boost had sustained which included not only the missing canister, but torn sides, and a crack in his spoiler.
"What happened?" she asked.
The tuner rolled around to face her. Even his eyes looked pained, as if he was still hurting from whatever had caused him this damage.
"Amber?" he inquired in a tired voice.
"Yeah," the Trans Am acknowledged, "So what happened? You look like you've been through a grinder or something."
"It's a long story," Boost replied.
"What is he doing here?" snapped an angry voice.
Lightning McQueen, resident racecar of Radiator Spring, drove up and parked himself in a position to face Boost. He looked angry. After all, it was Boost and his gang of tuners that lulled Mack to sleep and caused McQueen to become separated and almost getting killed on the Interstate.
"Ease up, McQueen," said Amber sternly. Suddenly, she felt very protective of Boost with no idea why.
With difficulty and a bit of coxing and support from Amber, Boost began to tell his story. He had just arrived at his home to find a couple of dark colored cars parked in the driveway. One of them glared maliciously while the other had a sort of suave look about him.
They asked if he was Boost, and when the tuner acknowledged that he was, the silent car flanked him. Boost asked what they wanted with him and the answer was that they were looking for someone, particularly a pretty red Trans Am. It suddenly struck him that the Trans Am that these "thugs" were talking about was non other than the one that he himself had forced into a ditch.
Boost tried to say that he knows of no Trans Am anywhere nor has he ever met one meeting the description that he was given. The silent car rammed him so hard that it knocked loose one of his boost canisters.
The tuner began to back away, hoping that he had enough time to speed back to Route 66 to give the warning. He was rammed again, causing him pain.
He had driven for hours, still afraid that he might be followed by the thugs. Finally realizing that he was not relieved his fears. He took the next exit and eventually found his way to Radiator Springs on this morning.
All the time that Amber had been listening to this story, her eyes began to widen in disbelief and a returning fear that she thought that she had put behind her forever.
"No, it can't be," she said finally.
"What?" both McQueen and Boost asked at the same time.
She sighed, "An old ex-boyfriend I used to date in high school. His name was Tony Blitz and at the time, I had fallen in love with him. But, after we graduated from high school and college, he became more controlling almost to the point of abuse. So, one day, while Tony was off somewhere doing whatever he was doing for most of the day, I left, never looking back on that part of my life. He must have been mad that I had left and probably tried to track me. Tony is one of the reasons that I travel around alot. I try not to stay in one place for too long, but only for a few hours or so."
Both the racecar and the tuner looked at Amber in bewilderment and surprise.
"How can he find you so fast?" asked McQueen.
"I don't know," answered Amber sadly.
"I think he must have found out about our encounter on the highway the other night," said Boost, "and figured it was me who did most of the damage."
"So that's why you came here," Amber, despite the news, smiled at the tuner, "to warn me."
"Yeah," agreed Boost, "I did."
Just then as the others were coming up for breakfast at Flo's, Boost passed out from the pain. With a little persuasion from Amber and McQueen, Doc Hudson took the injured tuner to his clinic to get fixed up. Amber turned to the others and retold the story that Boost had told her and McQueen.
What would happen if Tony found Radiator Springs? she thought fearfully, What will he do to my newfound friends? I hope that doesn't happen anytime soon.
