I know most of these NASCAR guys don't retire until they're like 40 or 50 however I think in the Cars world they have to retire earlier because after all the car itself is their actual body and I think that racing puts a lot of strain on them. If you look at all the athletes in the world, they start 'breaking down' (no pun intended) at around age 30-35. Racing is a physical sport in their world so you would think that they would have the same wear and tear as a normal person who's an athlete.
Now for me Cars 3 takes place over the course of a year and a half and from the time he recovers to the time of the final race I'd say it's about 7 months but others say it's 2 weeks. So with that out of the way it leaves me to include more of my own concepts that will show up soon.
Little Feathered Flame: I hope so too!
PlatoOfAncientRoam34: Nope, I'm writing more about Storm than he was shown in the movie but I'm not going to make him Lightning's protégé because Cruz is his only student and it'll stay like that…..for now.
thunder angel13: Thank you.
Ninjachief437: Of course I'm going to write about his crash! What would Cars 3 be without it?
(Guest) Cars Geek24: Cal is very cute! And my upload schedule, I try to upload anywhere between 2-3 weeks and if it takes longer then I'll post an update on why.
Gummybear1178: I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks of Storm like that.
(Guest) Sam Fraser: I might do something like that but it's very unlikely. The crash is one of the things I've had planned in my head since I started this story so I could try to fit in something like that. And IKR! The crash was WAY to short, I was like well that didn't give any room to feel emotion. They didn't even really show what he looked like right after crashing. Also, I have something in store for Jackson after the crash ;)
(Guest 1): I don't know about that, it's also very unlikely to happen in my story. You and Sam Fraser are basically asking the same thing and like I said, I could try to include something like that.
ProcrastinationIsMyCrime: That's actually a really good idea! I'm gonna put some of that in this chapter even! And the 'Experiment' is just another way of saying that Jackson is the first of his group to go race.
AceAttorneyFantic: Actually I've grown out of Fnaf a long time ago, I got bored of it and honestly I don't even see how I could write a story about it, there's not enough characters and I don't think writing about the robots is very…..reasonable.
(Guest 2): I agree with you 100% the crash was way too short and believe me, you won't be disappointed with it!
(Guest) Mr Brown: I'll think about it. And btw, I've started drawing your request for the Jackson Storm picture.
The cool autumn breeze blew through the desert as Mack pulled into the quiet town of Radiator Springs just before dawn. Soon light trickles of snow would begin to fall coating the town in light powdery snow. There was only two more weeks until the final race of the Piston Cup and Lightning was just anxious for it to all end for this season had just been torture for him. As soon as the trailer came to a halt, Lightning opened the trailer and sped off to his house so he could call Strip. He wasn't able to call on his way home due to the fact that Strip was currently in Florida and it would have been a real jerk move to call him around 4:30 AM. Lightning was ever so thankful that his engine wasn't as loud as it was in his late teen years or else he might have woken up the whole town. The soft crunching of the dirt was Lightning's only companion in the early morning has he drove up onto his front porch. The burgundy door opened with a soft squeak revealing a living room with a ramp leading upstairs off to the left, and a kitchen down the hallway directly in front of Lightning. Since it was rather early in the morning he decided not to go upstairs and possibly disturb Sally in the process. He drove through the living room and into the rec room or office which contained the computers and desks. Lightning looked at the time, '6:11 AM' Ok that's good, so it should only be 9 o' clock for him. Lightning turned on the phone that was built into the wall and began swiping through his contacts list. Jeff Gorvette, Francesco Bernoulli, Lewis Hamilton, Mack, Bobby Swift, Cal Weathers, Strip Weathers. Lightning pressed on his name and waited for the phone to ring. He originally wouldn't of had Strip's number in his contacts, however one horrible day in 2014, Strip's wife, Lydia passed away. Lighting called every day after her death to comfort Strip who was traumatized at the event. She had died from cancer early in the morning and it shocked him as much as Strip but Lightning wasn't there to experience it in first person. Over the phone Lightning could hear the cracking and crying of Strip's voice. Lightning couldn't even imagine anything like that happening to Sally, it would shatter him to pieces. He was amazed that Strip was able to cope at all. It hurt him just thinking about it and he felt so bad for Strip. He sounded like he was crying for help whenever he called Lightning. It took almost eight months for him to finally get his life adjusted again. Since then, Lightning had promised to keep in contact with him and for the both of them to be there for each other in a time of need, and this was one of those times. The phone rang once, twice, three times, then at last someone picked up.
"Hello?" Strip's aging voice crackled over the phone.
"Hi Strip, how's your morning?" Lightning attempted to strike up a casual conversation.
"Oh hey Lightnin' I didn't expect you to call so early in the morning. And uh, my morning's going just fine, how's yours."
"It's going pretty well and I was wondering if I could talk to you about something if you're not too busy right now." Strip chuckled over the phone.
"Lightnin' I'm almost never busy now that I'm retired. Unless you count keeping Cal out of trouble. But yea, I'm free to talk. So what can I do for you?"
"Well I called to see if you would be able to give me some advice about the new racers."
"How so?" Strip asked.
"I want to know how you felt when a whole new batch of rookies were coming in. You've survived through two batches of rookies and that still didn't slow you down. I was wondering how you were able to do it and what you did because you never even moved to the back of the pack! You were always at the front of everyone." Strip paused for a moment and sighed.
"Listen kid, I can see what you're going through. To be honest, each time new guys came in, I was terrified for my career and life. But each race I had to remind myself that I was out here because this was my passion and that I belonged out on the track. Each day I would talk to…..I'd talk to Lydia and we used to come up with ways that I could get through it. She said that if I possibly knew the other racers then I would be more comfortable racing and knowing their limits along with my own. That's one of the reasons why you always saw me talking to the other cars. Now I know not everyone, especially the ones in their rookie years are social butterflies but you gotta take the chance. That's what I tried to do with you and Chick, well I don't think Chick ever caught on but you know what I mean."
"So what you're saying is that I should try and befriend Jackson?" Lightning doubtfully questioned.
"Yea, pretty much." Lightning sighed in frustration.
"Have you even seen Jackson?! He's like the biggest jerk I've ever met and he's so full of himself he won't even talk to anyone unless he's talking absolute shit about them." As he finished, he heard Strip laughing in the background. "What?" Lightning asked confused.
"Now I want you to tell me Lightnin' who does that sound like when they were in their rookie year? The overly cocky, rude, narcissistic, and totally full of himself racer?" Lightning paused for a second before processing what Strip had said.
"Oh….right. Heh, I kinda forgot about that."
"Exactly, so just give him a chance. I promise you that everything will turn out fine. During my last year before retirement, sure I didn't end my last season the way I would have wanted to but before that season, I was freaking out."
"How so?" Lightning curiously questioned.
"Well, it's simple, I wanted to keep racing. In my mind I still thought I was somewhat of a new guy and boy was I wrong but I still felt young at heart and that I could do so much more. That's when I realized that there's a bunch of other new guys who are waiting for their big break such as you were. But before you came along and when Chick was fresh bait, I experienced the same thing you're going through right now."
"Really?!" Lightning was surprised even though he was half expecting it.
"Oh yea, Chick's generation really threw me off course but I kept on pushing myself through all the tough times. Oh here's a good example, you know that Olympic champion Michael Phanbelts?"
"Well yea, who doesn't know who the most decorated Olympian is." Lightning responded.
"But do you know what happened to him back in 2013?" Strip became slightly more serious.
"Uh no. Wait something happened in 2013?" Lightning didn't exactly follow other sports besides road racing. He found the others to be uninteresting.
"Well back at the 2012 Olympics, this new guy came in and completely pushed him away from his fame. The media went crazy over his losing streak and that drove Michael insane. He snapped after months and months of depression and became an alcoholic but before long he got into a life threatening crash. No one expected this and everyone thought he would die. He managed to get his life back on track with the help of his coach, friends and a whole lot of other cars and look at him now, he's competed in this years Olympics. And that whole thing happened to him when he was only 28. So can you see Lightnin' as long as you have a good team to back you up, you'll be just fine."
"Wow, I didn't know all that happened. Now I know what you mean about this and I thank you for that. To be completely honest, I'm still a little nervous but you have helped a lot." Lightning truthfully spoke into the phone.
"No problem Lightnin'. Just remember that you will always have someone you can count on. Now I best be getting on with my day. You have a good one now."
"Oh wait! Just one more thing." Lightning spoke quickly.
"What is it?"
"You said to Cal that you would know when to retire when the rookies tag you right?"
"Yea, what about it." Strip asked wondering where this was going.
"I want to know, how did you figure out that the rookies were getting to you? Even I had a hard time racing with you during my rookie year." There was a long pause on the phone once again. Which was replaced by a light chuckle.
"Lightnin' I though you were smarter than this. The year I decided to retire was 2005, that was the year I saw you race for the first time and I saw the talent in you. I saw that you needed a chance to make your big break and get you going in the right direction. I saw that I just wasn't up to pare with the rest of the racers so that year I decided I would retire next season." Lightning almost felt guilty at what Strip was saying. Did I really cause this?
"You're not saying that I caused your retirement….are you?"
"In a way, yes but you're making it sound like that's a bad thing. Plus I was getting really old anyway and I don't think I would have recovered after that crash. But don't get your hopes down because of that, you're still young in my book. Hell, Jeff Gorvette isn't he like what, five years older than you? And he just barely retired so you have no excuses to retire now. Just keep your hood up and look for the good side of things."
"I will, and thank you again it really helped. Goodbye."
"Bye." Strip hung up leaving Lightning once again alone in the house. It was still relatively early in the morning and nobody except for Sarge would be up and soon to be joined by Filmore to start their daily 7 AM bickering. Lightning was still exhausted from the trip but none the less he decided he should probably make some coffee for him and Sally since she would be up soon. He drove into the kitchen and began searching through the cabinets for the coffee maker. Before long the coffee began dripping down into the container filling the air with a strong but sweet scent. Lightning poured coffee into two mugs, he drank the first one and put the second one in a miniature hydro flask to keep it warm. Lightning sat in silence at the table sipping his coffee seemingly staring at nothing. He was deep in thought about what Strip had said and surprisingly, the more Lightning thought about it, the better he felt about this whole situation. The pit in his stomach was lifting with each passing minute as he thought about it more, or it was just the coffee that made him feel this way but he didn't care. All he cared about right now was that he was in a good mood, even though he felt like a cooked noodle with how exhausted he was. When he finished, Lightning drove as quietly as he could upstairs into his bedroom. Sunlight trickled into the room through the curtains while Sally laid bundled up in blankets peacefully sleeping. Lightning smiled warmly to himself before pushing some of the covers away and climbing in himself. He snuggled in closer and threw the covers over himself making sure they didn't fall off of Sally. Not much time passed before Lightning found himself knocked out and away from the world. Usually he found it hard to sleep while the sun was out but on the days that he had trips and races, it might as well be dark for the whole day. It felt like mere seconds had passed before Lightning felt the stirring of a blanket. Lightning opened one of his eyes to see Sally stretching and yawning. She settled back down with a soft moan before throwing the blankets off of herself. Lightning coughed from the sudden lack of air from the blankets causing Sally to jump in surprise.
"Oh! Hi Stickers, I didn't see or feel you there. When did you get home?" Sally recovered while pulling the blankets off of Lightning's now buried body. Lightning smiled before answering her question.
"I got home about an hour ago, and I took your advice and talked to Strip."
"Oh that's good. So what did he say?"
"Well he said that I should learn more about the other racers and try to befriend more of them. He also said I should think of ways to push myself through this whole situation." Lightning responded.
"Well that's good to hear, did he say anything else?" Sally questioned.
"No not really, those were the main things he said."
"Oh ok, so it was more of just comfort for you. Welp, I've got to go sort some stuff at the cone." Sally said while putting a stack of papers on her hood.
"Oh and I made you a cup of coffee, I set it on the counter top." Lightning said as he yawned and stretched which caused Sally to giggle.
"Thanks Light, I really needed a good cup of Joe. And judging by how tired you look, I'm guessing you want to sleep more. So I'll leave you be." Lightning just nodded before he drifted off to sleep as Sally left the room.
Lightning slept for several more hours before he decided that he should at least get one thing productive done today. He left his house and headed straight to his headquarters. As he opened the doors, he hesitated. The thoughts of last night came back to him and Lightning really started questioning things more than he thought he would be. Sure everyone expected the Next Gens to be faster than everyone else, but how in hell were they this fast? Something doesn't feel right, there's gotta be a reason behind this. There's no way they can be breaking records left and right already. There's gotta be a reason behind all this fishiness. Lightning abandoned the headquarters and began heading down main street.
Maybe Sally could help me. Lawyers have to research things a lot….right? He just hoped that Sally wasn't too busy today. To be completely honest with himself, he didn't know the first thing about researching topics, he didn't even know where to start. Lightning was surprised with himself that he was able to pass high school with a 3.5 GPA average with his lack of knowledge on researching different subjects and reports. He looked to his right to see Filmore tending to some guests while Sarge was mowing his lawn. Sometimes Lightning really thought that even if the world ended those two wouldn't have a day where they didn't argue over something. He strolled into the office of the of the Cozy Cone for whatever reason feeling rather shy about asking for a favor. Lightning hated asking other cars for help, it made him feel kind of helpless or weak when he needed help. It was just a habit to him that formed in his childhood years and it stuck with him. Lightning took a deep breath before ringing the bell on the desk. A few seconds passed before Sally showed up still with a bundle of papers on her hood. She looked slightly confused on why he was here.
"I thought you were taking the day off?" Lightning stayed silent and smiled sheepishly.
"Yea, I think I've rested enough. Hey listen, do you think I could ask you a huge favor?" Lightning rubbed his tire back and fourth on the 'welcome' mat. Sally smiled as she watched him rub his tire.
She found it adorable when he acted shy around her and other cars he was close to.
"Depends on how big the favor is and when you need it." Sally responded.
"Uh, well I needed some help digging into the Next Gens, more specifically Storm and let's just say I'm not very good at looking into those kinds of things." Sally arched her eyelid and gave a playful smirk.
"Oh I get it. So you're a stalker now are you?" Lightning frowned at the remark but it was impossible to keep a straight face.
"Ha ha, very funny. But do you think you could help me? Pleeeeeaaaase?" Sally ignored his pouty face that usually got him almost anything.
"I don't understand though, why exactly do you all of a sudden want to do research? It doesn't make any sense especially coming from you."
"Doesn't Storm seem a little off to you? Considering where he's come from, rich parents, his dad modifies cars for crying out loud! And I know he's the 'experiment' and all, I just don't know if that adds up. Even with the other Next Gens nothing seems to add up" Lightning explained as best as he could.
"Well I think the officials would check to see if he has any modifications on him before he entered the Piston Cup as well as check him before every race. But I'll look into it. Just give another hour or so to finish up."
"Thanks Sal, you're the best" Lightning gave Sally a quick peak on the lips before he left the Cozy Cone. He didn't know why but he just felt so pleased today. Nothing that special had happened, he was in the best mood he had been in months. Lightning strolled down the street with a wide grin.
A couple hours later the couple sat in front of their computers with several notepads on their desks next to them. While Sally assigned herself do the deep digging and general research on the Next Gens, she assigned Lightning to research on Jackson. After about five minutes, Lightning dropped his front bumper onto his desk and sighed. He didn't even know where to start. Lightning tried Googling his name but that wasn't helping much. He groaned in frustration and turned behind him.
"Uh, hey Sal?" Lightning saw that she had already come up with at least a page full of results. "Can you help me? I don't know what to look up." Sally smiled at Lightning's struggles.
"Try searching his age first, then move onto his statistics. All you have to do is find out some stuff about his life that isn't too personal. Find out where he used to live and that kind of stuff. Now I know you might think that's personal, but trust me it's not as bad as some other things."
"This sounds either like a school project or it feels like we're stalking him..." Lightning said in concern. Sally rolled her eyes at him remark.
"Well, this is what you wanted. So suck it up butter cup and get lookin'" Sally turned back around while Lightning playfully stuck out his tongue and scrunched his face. He opened Google and began searching. I should probably knock out the easiest questions and info first. The first thing he looked up was his age. 'Jackson Storm age' when Lightning pressed enter he was amazed at the results. He knew Storm was born in 1997 but he had lost track of how long ago that was. He had just turned nineteen mere months ago! Jackson was probably the youngest racer he had ever seen, and he's going to be the youngest racer to take home the Piston Cup! Lightning shook out of his shock and continued his search after writing his age down on a piece of paper. 'Jackson Storm statistics' Lightning looked it up anyway even though he practically knew everything about Storm's statistics whether he wanted to or not thanks to Natalie Certain. He scrolled through the article to refresh his memory about his racing technique and style. Next he tried typing in 'Jackson Storm family' and not to much surprise, about a million results showed up. Lightning started scrolling through when a news article from early 2015 caught his attention. 'Multi Millionaire Family Kicks Out Only Child' What? This doesn't seem right. Lightning clicked on the news article and read through it.
'After John and Joanna Storm declared their only child Jackson Storm (17) to be a failure to the family had forced him out of their mansion in Los Angeles, California. According to John and Joanna,
"He was a failure from the start when he first picked up professional gaming." Jackson had been a world wide champion in a popular online racing game known as SC3 and was up against 18 million contestants. John and Joanna had banned any use of video games for they deemed it 'unworthy as a career and a waste of time'. They had set up Jackson to be a doctor like his father or at the very least a lawyer. Jackson had an excellent report card and was in the top of his class in athletics but he wasn't social enough to get him into any big college. John and Joanna sent him off to a smaller college and were furious to find out that Jackson had been in fact skipping collage to go to the arcade. Apparently Jackson had dropped out of college to focus on his 'silly games' as his parents call it. Three days after Jackson had won the championship, John and Joanna found out and had his things packed within the same day. Later in that day, they received several sponsors asking to have Jackson on their gaming team to which they declined all of them for him. Two days after the incident a crew chief known as Ray Reverham payed a visit practically begging for Jackson to join professional racing. He wouldn't leave until the Storms considered it a possibility. Finally after a week, John and Joanna forced Jackson out of their mansion and left him with a couple thousand dollars to live off of. The act sparked a social media outrage saying, 'He's just a child.' and 'Everyone makes mistakes.' The Storms however, ignored these comments saying that "We feel like we've made the right decision for our son. He chose the path that he wanted, and it lead to where he is know." Joanna Storm insisted. Mysteriously Ray Reverham had also disappeared around the same time Jackson had. As of now, no one has any clue where Jackson Storm is.'
Lightning stared at the screen in awe as he wrote down his notes. Man, now I feel kinda bad for him. That must really suck. Lightning scrolled further after exiting the article until he stumbled upon another interesting news website written not too long after the first one. 'Jackson Storm Appears Out of No Where After Being Kicked Out of Home' Lightning clicked on the link and was presented with another article.
'Five months after son of multi millionaires John and Joanna Storm had kicked Jackson out of their house. He was found to have taken the world by 'storm'. The video game champion was discovered after he had beaten a world record on popular online racing game SC3. Future Piston Cup crew chief Ray Reverham had found Jackson Storm and asked him to be a professional racer. After John and Joanna had kicked Jackson out, he ran away with Ray to the Jr. Piston Champions and quickly excelled in the sport. Although he is excelling extremely quickly on the simulator, as of now, he's only been on a real track an estimate of five times. We were able to get a hold of Jackson Storm after one of his Jr. Piston Championship races.
Mr. Storm, now that you've been banned from your own home, where are you living now?
"Rochester, New York. I was able to find a decent apartment with the help of Gale, my driver."
What were your first thoughts on getting kicked out of your own house?
"Honestly, I wasn't surprised. It was bound to happen someday. Living with them was just like a ticking time bomb waiting to explode when something went wrong. So I was more like 'crap, how am I gonna live on the streets' but then who I like to call Gus, took me in."
Did you ever plan on racing for the Piston Cup?
"Actually no, I had no intentions on even doing anything athletic due to the fact that I was terrified that my engine transplant I had as a kid would cause problems again. I really wanted to be a professional gamer instead but we all know how that ended."
Why did you have an engine transplant at such a young age?
"Well when I was five, there was something about my engine not being able to keep up with my body so I had to have a custom built engine from the pops in order to keep me alive. He said it was perfectly legal but some cars say that I was born/built in a scientists laboratory or I was an alien that had come down from space." [Jackson laughs]
Do you look up to any of the Piston Cup racers?
"Nope, I vaguely know of the racers. I've seen Lightning McQueen here and there when I was a kid but other than that, I don't know anyone."
What made you want to pick up on professional gaming?
"I don't know, I was like seven when I played my first video game and since then I've been hooked."
What made you decide on becoming a Piston Cup racer?
"Actually after I won the championship I had tons of cars practically begging me to join their team. So when I got kicked out I was like 'what the hell, why not' and look where I am now ma'. You happy I'm finally a success now?"
That was all we were able to get out of Jackson due to the fact that he was taken away for a meeting. Jackson Storm is quickly becoming a known name throughout the country and soon to be the world, so next Piston Cup season, expect to see Jackson's name and face appearing everywhere.'
Lightning blinked quickly. Holy crap, the kid had an engine transplant?! That must've been tough, poor kid. Engine transplants were one of the most difficult parts of a car to replace and even more difficult at a young age. If the engine was too fast for a car, doctors simply cut off part of its power and put a speed limiter on until the car has matured enough to handle it. However if the engine was too slow, that was an entirely different story. If the engine isn't able to keep up with the car then it would eventually die out. Cars can survive with a dead engine for approximately one month. This was more common in older cars and was rarely found in younger. Lightning witnessed its effects in first person when Doc had an engine failure during one of their practices at Willy's Butte. Lightning had never really experienced loss for someone he cared dearly for. He scrolled down again on the page. Nothing seemed to be interesting so he tried typing in a different Google suggestion.
'Jackson Storm engine transplant' this time only about a thousand results showed up. Lightning once again began searching for any interesting articles. 'Jackson Storm's Engine and Performance Raise Concern Among Fans' This article was only from two months ago which surprised Lightning who wondered why he hadn't found this sooner.
'After months of nonstop wins for rookie sensation Jackson Storm, he has raised more than one concern for Piston Cup racers and fans. One fan states, "I don't get how he's so Dodge Ramming fast. He's got to be on some steroids or have some modifications." At the start of his racing career, Jackson has even shocked Piston Cup officials with how young he is and his speed. We were able to get Piston Cup official, Tyler Brakeson to comment on Storm. "Ya know, Storm has a lot of talent. We were extremely surprised with his speed. We actually had him sent to several doctors, mechanics, and had almost all the officials take a look at him. The Piston Cup was worried that he would be using any illegal injections, steroids, or modifications done to him and his engine. We've inspected his body frame and it's almost exactly the same as it was when he was born with the exception of the raised spoiler and a outer skirt. As for his engine, we spoke with John Storm about it and scanned it several times. No out of the ordinary results showed up other than his engine wasn't the one he was born with. I know many racing fans will be or already are upset with the outcomes of Storm not having any illegal modifications. But his engine is as normal as any other engine except it is much more powerful than the average car's. His engine is a V-8 maximum performance, 850 hp, one hundred percent legal engine."
With how powerful Jackson Storm is, it's putting fear into the other Piston Cup racers. Many have already been replaced by either retiring or being fired. Now with only five stock car racers left including Lightning McQueen, Bobby Swift, Brick Yardly and a few others, it's only a matter of time before they retire or get fired. Out of the group known as 'The Next Gens' Jackson Storm is no pun intended, taking them by storm. While the other Next Gens are much faster and stronger than the previous generation, Jackson Storm is clearly the leader out of the group. He's the fastest, strongest, and uses his wits to his advantage. It is pretty clear now that Jackson Storm is going to be winning the Piston Cup considering that the car in second place is Lightning McQueen. The other Next Gens' points don't count for this season due to them joining in mid-season. It's only a matter of time before the Next Gens take over the sport.'
Well crap. So he is legal to race. I was kinda hoping there was something going on here. Lightning scrolled through more pages but found nothing interesting to him. He turned around to see that Sally already had a full fledged essay that was about four pages long. He stared in awe as the papers filled the desk. He drove over so that he was just behind her left rear bumper. Sally must have felt his presence for she looked over her fender at the thirty year old car who looked like a five year old in a candy store.
"What?" Sally turned around a little more to get a better look at Lightning who still had a look of disbelief plastered across his face.
"How….Just what? How do you do it woman?! We're like at the at the computers for what feels like ten minutes and you've written a novel while I barely have a seventh grade essay written!" Lightning astonishingly remarked causing Sally to smile warmly.
"Well I don't know if you've noticed yet but my job required lots of researching and writing essays. So I'm sure that I would have gotten used to writing and typing so quickly." Lightning's face of amazement turned to a frown mixed with a pout knowing that she was right. "So? What did you find out about Storm?" Sally asked curiously. Lightning's mood changed quickly as he grabbed his notepad.
"Actually, I found out a lot of things. And I'm quite surprised at my results. So apparently Jackson got kicked out of his house by his parents when he was seventeen because he wanted to be a professional gamer."
"Oh that's awful! Why didn't his parents what him to be a gamer?" Sally chimed in.
"Well his parents I guess set him up to be a doctor or some good job like that but he dropped out of college with perfect grades to pursue a career in gaming. He even won a championship against 18 million cars. Oh and I found out that he got an engine transplant at the age of five. His engine was to slow for his body so he had to get it replaced. And did you know he's only nineteen?!"
"Really? He's so young. He looks like nothing amuses him anymore and he's lived for thousands of years longer than us." Sally showed genuine interest.
"So what'd you find out?" Lightning shifted the spotlight from him to Sally.
"Oh, I kinda got carried away and researched on each of the different racers." Sally smiled sheepishly at Lightning.
"Of course you did."
"Well for one, did you know all the Next Gens were all born within the same year with the exception of Ryan Laney who is twenty two. Almost all of them grew up near the west coast while Daniel Swervez, who is going to join the Piston Cup sometime this year or next is from Mexico and and Tim Treadless grew up in the middle of Missouri."
"Wow, you did do your research on all of them." Lightning spoke.
"And if you're wondering how and why they all look so similar, they all have the same car brand and type somewhere in their family tree which I personally think is really neat. They're kinda like cool hybrid cars. Also speaking of hybrid, did you know Jackson could technically be considered a hybrid?"
"He's a hybrid?! Does that have something to do with his engine?" Lightning wondered why he didn't find that part about Jackson.
"Yup," Sally responded with pride in herself, "It isn't that widely known to the public but in order to keep him going without any additions that would make him physically handicapped, he had to have a partial electric engine to monitor his body and all that good stuff. And also him and Chase Racellot were good childhood friends until Chase moved cross country. To be honest I don't think Chase and Jackson have recognized each other yet due to the fact that Chase had to get a different paint job in order to match his sponsor in the Piston Cup." Lightning stared rather wide eyed at Sally as she finished. Ok I'm convinced, she has secret superpowers Lightning thought to himself.
"And you called me the stalker out of our duo." Lighting playfully smiled at Sally.
"Well I do my best to stalk them." She replied sarcastically. "Did that help you at all? And if you want to read through it more, there's still more papers you can read that are on my desk. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to the kitchen to get a drink of water or something." Sally said before heading out of the office. As she was leaving Lightning noticed that her spoiler was flipped up revealing her tattoo. He smirked to himself before he decided to 're-enact' a rather embarrassing moment to her.
"Hey, is that a little pin-stripping tattoo I spot back there?" Lightning called out. He could tell that Sally rolled her eyes by the way her body moved and how she closed her spoiler after he spoke.
"Oh shush up, it's not like you haven't seen it more than once before." Lightning looked at the time on his desktop '9:43 PM' it read in a bold font. Huh, this day flew by today. Can't believe it's already been three hours since we started. He looked back at Sally who was now beginning to rinse out her cup in the sink.
"But what if I want to see it again?" Lightning teased as he met her in the kitchen. She turned around and glared at him.
"Not funny Lightning." Sally said with a straight face but after a few seconds it was impossible to keep her glare. She smiled and let out a small laugh before she was suddenly pulled by her wheels into a tight kiss. Sally gasped in surprise but gave in. Lightning deepened the kiss by pressing further into his beloved wife causing her lips to spread slightly. She didn't protest at the fast pace however she did pull away after a couple more seconds of pure bliss. Sally backed away leaving a very disappointed Lightning staring directly at her.
"I didn't say I was done. Come on Stickers." Sally stated before leaving the kitchen. Lightning nodded and followed her while locking all the doors and turning off all the downstairs lights for the night.
GAHHH! I hate romance but I can't stop myself! Anyway I hope this chapter made up for the missed one last week. And now that I have a schedule, expect another chapter in about two weeks. Now we start getting closer and closer to the crash and trust me, it's gonna be a doozy! And betcha didn't know that about Michael Phelps did you? Also NOOOOOOOOO! I start school tomorrow...I'm not ready for high school ;-; And as a reminder, Instead of working on chapter 10, I'm going to be re-doing chapters 1 and 2 and possibly 3.