The Art of Stealing Cars by Kara Tezla

Disclaimer: I do NOT own any of the Acceleracers Characters. although I wish I did And I do not own Trinity Wheeler and Co., those belong to Wings of Speed.

Summary: The Teku and the Metal Maniacs go to LA to race, but what happens when their cars start disappearing?

Author's Note: I lost my floppy disk today! It had this whole story on it and I was going NUTS! But, then I remembered: The last time I worked on the story was on the laptop, not the normal computer. So I took out the floppy and let it go... it went flying and hit the wall, all accidentally, mind you. I would have ripped my hair out if it had broke! But it didn't, so I won't, and all's peaceful once again.

Chapter Seven: Problems

Vert ran in the room to see Kara gasping for air. Her body shook under the pressure of an unknown force. He shouted to the others and ran to her side.

Seconds later, the convulsions stopped, and Kara's body looked peaceful lying on the bed. Vert was confused, what just happened? Kurt and Nolo ran into the room and rushed to Vert's side.

"What?" Kurt said, staring down at Kara's body.

"She... she was shaking, and then it stopped." Vert murmured. "I don't know."

Kurt bent down and felt Kara's pulse. "Her pulse is slow; I think she put herself into a coma. Unintentionally, of course, but the pain must have been too much. I've never broken five ribs before, but I could imagine that it isn't a walk in the park."

Nolo and Vert nodded. "Are you sure that we shouldn't take her to a hospital?" Asked Nolo.

"No, I'm not. But Tork is right, and if the hospital would call the police, we might find ourselves in deeper than we are now."

VVVVVVVVVV

A couple days later, Alex got out of bed with no pain shooting through his body.

"What do you think you're doing?" Asked Karma.

"Going to see my sister, what does it look like?"

"Get back in bed, Alex. Now. You broke two ribs and you need to rest!" She insisted, putting her hands on his shoulders and pushing him back to the bed.

"No! I want to see Kara!" He answered, pushing back.

Mark sat on his bed, his arm in a sling resting on his chest. He grinned. "Karma, let him go. He'll be back as soon as he's satisfied that Kara's fine."

Karma finally let Alex through to the door. She sat in the spot that Alex had just vacated on his bed.

"Why didn't you just let him go in the first place, Karma?" Asked Mark. His green eyes questioning her brown ones.

She avoided his gaze. "Because Kara isn't okay,"

"What?"

"Kara's in a coma, Kurt thinks it was unintentionally self-induced."

"Huh?"

"Kurt thinks that her brain couldn't take all the pain from her torso, so it put itself into a coma. Kara probably has no idea what's going on at the moment, if she's thinking at all."

Mark stared at the wall. What was he supposed to do now? His boss and one of his best friends was in a coma, and his siblings were probably going nuts looking for him. All parts of his brain were devoted to nothing; he couldn't think straight.

"Do Kara and Alex have any other relatives?"

Mark was snapped out of his daze. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Do Kara and Alex have any other relatives?" Karma said slowly.

"Don't talk like that, it's scary. It makes me feel like an old person."

"Mark!"

"Fine! Yes! They do,"

"Who?"

"Well, there's Josh, but he's in the Army at the moment. I think trying to forget that he was ever included in his sibling's crazy idea to steal cars."

"Anybody else?"

"I think they have a rich uncle somewhere, but they hate him..."

Karma's brain sparked. "How rich is he?"

"Really rich. I think he works for a Shrimp Corporation or something, I don't know much. Just enough to know that he paid a good 25 million to a bunch of drivers, and I have no idea why. That's a waste of a whole lot of money to me."

"Shrimp? Don't you mean the Scrim Corporation?" Karma asked.

"Yeah! That's it, Scrim."

"Thanks,"

"For what?"

"Ah, never mind," She said, getting up and walking towards the door. She opened it and looked back at Mark.

Mark stared back. "So you're just gonna leave me here?"

"Not if you don't wanna stay. You only have a broken arm."

Mark grinned and jumped off the bed. "O-kay!" He ran out of the room, followed by Karma.

"Where are we going again?" He asked, once they were out in the hallway.

"Kara's room," She answered. Pointing to the door right next to Mark's.

"Oh," He said, feeling stupid. "Right."

VVVVVVVVVV

"What happened?" Asked Kurt. Alex sat by his sister's bed; completely blown away by the fact that Kara was in a coma.

"A lot of things," He replied, staring off into space. "It was all my fault."

"How did she break her ribs?"

Alex picked up Kara's hand and held it in both of his. "A giant guy with a crowbar. It was like he was swinging a baseball bat or something. More like a trying-to-hit-the-ball-out-of-the-park swing." Alex answered blankly. "That's all I remember. Watching her crumple to the ground, then nothing."

Kurt nodded. That wasn't good; the internal damage could be greater than they had first thought. He left the room silently, leaving Alex to be alone with his sister.

In the silent darkness of the room, Alex cried for the first time in years. He knew what it meant, and Kara had never been so close to dying before. He squeezed her hand gently, almost as if to wish her awake, and to his surprise, she squeezed back. He yelped in pain when he tried to pull his hand away from his sister's death-grip.

"Kara!" He hissed loudly, his voice cracking. A small smile slowly crept across the conscious girl's face. She let go of his hand, which now throbbed with the reminder of his emotions.

"Don't ever cry over me unless I'm dead," She snapped.

Am I dreaming? Alex thought, totally blown away for a second time.

"You aren't dreaming, Alex," She said, reading his mind. The edge had disappeared from her voice. "I'm awake, no matter how much I don't want to be. And as much as I am going to regret saying this later, you need to call Uncle Peter, Alex. Call him. I need to stay there until Aaron Sheckler is convinced that I'm dead."

Alex nodded warily; they needed to pull a Houdini. Making it appear as if the subject had died, you can go in and plan your attack without anyone suspecting anything. Then, BAM! You come back and hit them where it hurts, and surprise everyone.

"What are you waiting for, my idiot of a brother! GO!" She shouted, making Alex jump. "GO!"

Jumping to his feet, Alex sprinted across the room and out the door, slamming it behind him. Unfortunately, Mark and Karma were about to enter the exact same door. All three collided and landed in a mass of arms and legs on the floor. Kurt and Nolo rounded the corner to see what all the commotion was about. They tripped over somebody and landed on their faces. Vert, coming from the other direction, saw the whole thing and doubled over laughing.

There were small moans and groans as the pile untangled from each other to reveal Mark face down at the bottom. This only made Vert laugh harder. Stifled chuckles and snorts started to flood throughout the group, causing a distressed Mark to look up.

"I knew I shouldn't have gotten out of bed today." He managed to get out before his head fell back down; unconscious. Everyone agreed, rolling on the carpet; breathless with laughter.

CHAPTER SEVEN COMPLETE! Well, it was a little long, but I never meant it to be. Now to my loyal reviewers:

Wings: That wasn't a good image! AUGH! What's wrong with the world today? BUT I AM SANE! Well, sorta. grins

KawaiiYamato: Thanks. I'm glad your eyes are O.O wide. Btw, I enjoy your 'stupid' reviews… they make me laugh. And, yeah, it is Kara Tezla from the Truth Behind the Lies. I don't like typing the whole title, it takes too long. She was originally my character, but I had trouble getting an account with so I could tell everyone about her until I did.