AN: Thanks for the chapter 1 reviews! For those who were confused because they got notice of a 2nd chapter, that was a posting error, this is the first release of chapter 2. Again thank you to Kira-Kira Katsu for the beta job! You cleaned this one up well.

Dis: I own nothing. All references to pop-culture and known characters are respective properties of their copy right holders. This is purely for enjoyment.

It didn't take long for word of Speed and X's bet to spread around school. Of course as word spread people took sides, placed bets of their own and money exchanged hands. If the teachers knew they turned a blind eye to it.

The one not letting it slide was Connor who felt wearing his cloths should be an honor. Three days later and he was still raising a fuss.

"These are authentic Cosplay Shoppe replica Speed Racer uniforms. All seven sets are in sequential order and must be worn with their matching pieces." Connor was informing X for about the third time, in the normal Connor hysterics with Chim-Chim side effects. "Oh! What if you stain them?"

X was regretting stopping by to speak with Speed. Using his cell phone would have been the better option.

"Dude! You're a mechanic. How do you not get them dirty and stained?" X asked.

Lucy who had been pretending to do her homework quickly shook her head, giving X all the warning he got before-

Glump

"Chim-Chim!" X growled, shaking a pearly colored rose scented foam off as best as he could. "You monkey shaped bucket of bolts!"

"It's my patent-pending stain remover. I call it 'What Is a Stain by Any Other Name?' - Cool huh?" Conor explained proudly.

X rocked back on his heals. Oh yeah, his brother may have the Academy's best mechanic, but he sure put up with a lot of weird stuff for it.

"No, not cool. This stuff isn't going to eat through my cloths or have any weird lasting side effects on my skin is it?" X asked while lunging for the robotic monkey who promptly took refuge behind Lucy.

As usual Speed's timing was perfect; the scene he walked in on was comical at the least.

X lunged for Chim-Chim again, who was darting towards Connor, when he slipped on the pearly stain remover on the floor. This caused X to grab Connor for balance; Connor was caught off balance sending the two spinning in a semicircle before crashing to the floor right at Speed's feet.

"I'm sure I don't want to know." Speed said as way of greeting, tossing his back pack onto the bed.

"Hey Speed." Connor waved up as X did his best to extract himself from the awkward situation.

"Hey, Connor, Lucy." Speed acknowledged. "Umm X? New cologne?" Speed looked his brother over, obviously trying not to laugh.

X glared at Speed not finding much humor in the situation.

"Spritle called, he'll be back on Monday." Speed said. X shrugged, then grimaced as his shirt pulled soaked up stain remover across his skin.

"And now, I think I will go change before we hit the track for some more of Lucy's torture sessions." He chuckled as Lucy stuck her tongue out at him.

"I'll walk you back." Speed said leading the way out the door that he had just come in.

Lucy was muttering something about thanking her the next time they avoided attack cars, but most of it got drowned out by Conner going on about his clothes again.

"You have got the strangest friends." X commented pulling at his shirt which was starting to stick to him with Connor's crusting stain foam.

"Well yeah, but they're your friends too." There was an awkward silence "Aren't they?"

X hesitated a moment. Sure he spent the majority of his time with Connor, Lucy and Speed, but when he thought about them he thought of them as Speed's friends.

"I'd never really thought about it." X said while rubbing the back of his neck. He saw a ting of disappointment in his brother's eyes. "It's not that I don't like them; I've just always thought of them as your friends." The conversation was starting to make X feel a little uncomfortable, or maybe that was just his rose scented clothes. Either way X wanted to end this conversation and take a shower.

"So you do like them?" Speed asked, a sly smile playing at his lips.

"Yeah, I guess." X shrugged, then added, "You guys are pretty alright for a bunch of dorks."

Speed's expression was priceless.

"Race ya!" X said taking off at full sprint towards his room. Speed, exasperated and amused in a way only a sibling could be chased after him trailing a couple steps behind the whole way.

"Move that slow tomorrow and I'm sure you'll look just like dad did in high school." X said.

"Tomorrow isn't a foot race."

X looked up from unlocking his door to Speed's face. He had expected to see the over eager ever confident glare in his brothers eyes that both impressed and annoyed him. This time it wasn't there. Speed's mind had changed gears.

"Stop the presses! Something else is on Speed Racer's mind other than racing!" X said in a stage voice even though no one was around.

"Very funny, I just walked you back because I was afraid you'd get lost making something other than left turns." Speed said.

X just shook his head, he knew his father would have made some comment about X not being the only one to get their mother's sarcastic streak.

"Seriously, normally you look all determined and confident. I expected to see that just now, but you look," X paused searching for a better word and not finding one, "distracted. The last time you looked this way I had to stand up my girlfriend and come rescue you."

It was Speed's turn to shake his head and laugh. X stepped into his room leaving the door open for his brother to follow.

"No, no letters or secret meeting this time. I've just been thinking."

"Oh no." groaned X receiving a glare from Speed who kept going

"Doesn't it seem that trouble and tragedy follow our family around?"

X who had been busy rummaging through his sock drawer, which was in the middle despite Lucy's constant nagging, gave an "uh-huh" as reply.

"Do you think Randy's family will blame Spritle for his death?"

X's head shot up at this and he whipped around to face his brother.

"Whoa, wait a minute. Where is this coming from?" X pinned Speed with his gaze.

"It's just, people blame other people when bad things happen. It doesn't matter if that person is responsible or not. What if he went all the way out there to help just to have them blame him?"

"Why are you so worried about this all of a sudden?" X still couldn't get why Speed was suddenly worried about their uncle. He knew his brother hadn't followed him to his room just for what-ifs.

"Because, you and Connor have been kidnapped. Both of our cars have been tampered with, nearly resulting in our deaths. Lucy and I were nearly kicked out of school. All of this because somebody is after our family and our cars." Speed threw his hands up in the air as he plopped down on X's bed.

"Look, Rex knew what he was getting into, even tried to keep the family out of it. Dad knew what he was doing when he chose to follow." X thought about commenting that their uncle Spritle must have been the only sane one in that generation of the family, but knew how Speed felt about the work their dad was doing.

"I'm sure Randy knew what he was doing, and I bet that his family knew all about his work too. Just like Damian had a choice, as well." X watched Speed for a moment. He had the feeling that Randy's family blaming their uncle wasn't all that was on his mind. When Speed just sat there zoning out for the next few minutes X decided to go take his shower.

"Lock the door before you leave." he said entering the bath room. Speed didn't respond.

If his brother wasn't ready to talk, he wasn't going to push.

"Hey X?" Speed's voice crackled over the com speakers.

X reflected that his brother had to be the chattiest racer he had ever met. The race hadn't started yet so he didn't mind too much.

"What is it little Bro? Wanna back out of our bet already?" He knew better but he couldn't pass up the chance.

"No, I talked to dad last night. He said to tell you to wear boxer briefs with the pants: they don't show outlines as bad." Speed said, X couldn't see his face but he knew his brother was grinning from ear to ear under his helmet.

X's response was cut of by Lucy.

"Eww, gross guys, could you keep that to a secure channel?"

"Lucy?" Both Racers responded slightly embarrassed.

"Boxer-brief why hadn't I thought about that?" Connor said.

"Connor shut up." Lucy chastised.

X refrained from rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, anyhow this track has changed from the last time you two raced it." She began.

"You've already told us." X cut in, "They added avalanches and Indiana Jones worthy snow balls."

"RACERS START YOUR ENGINES," the announcer exclaimed.

"That isn't all. You guys are going to lose communication going in there. I'll walk you through it where I can. Just be careful." Lucy warned.

3

2

"Hey Guys?" X made sure the channel was only to her and Connor.

"Yeah?" Both answered back.

"Why-"

1

"-are you doing this?" X asked over the screaming of tires and car engines.

"Doing what?" Lucy asked back, the hologram projection displaying her shrugging and looking to Connor.

"Helping me as well. You're Speed's friends; don't you want him to win this bet?"

"Honestly I couldn't care less about your silly bet. X you're our friend too." Lucy's expression said she thought he was being silly. X didn't want her to know how shocked her answer left him. He had more than expected to run this race on his own since he was competing against Speed in their silly bet. He knew Connor and Lucy wouldn't sabotage his car, but he was use to it being every man for his self when bets were on the table.

"Speak for yourself." Connor was talking to Lucy. "My money is on Speed." He said with a confident grin.

"Connor!" Lucy was chiding him.

"It's fine Lucy. What did you bet?" X asked as he approached the gate. He didn't catch Connor's answer as communications dropped out immediately upon entering the virtual track.

Speed was next to him, nose of the Mach 6 even with his passenger mirror. The visibility was dropping rapidly as they approached the first climb. His onboard navigator mapped the track for him; he could see the cave that Lucy had mentioned. It started slightly before the half way point on the track and ended at about the quarter mile to the finish marker.

X swore as a large fast moving object appeared on his display. The snow balls, more like boulders, that Lucy had warned them about were heading down the icy slope strait at him. The path dropped off to his left and Speed was still matching him on his right. He couldn't wipe his brother out to save himself, so he did the only thing he could think of. Turning on his hot air blowers full blast to keep visuals clear, he would need perfect timing for this to work, X pegged the Shooting Star. With speed maxed out he launched his jacks spinning in onto the cliff wall on Speed's right, deploying his spikes in mid air.

His blowers were powerful enough that as he sped by the bolder of snow it melted and blew it slightly off course leaving a path for Speed.

"You see that?" Connors voice pierced X's ear drums. "He super charged the blowers by maxing his engine out! That was awesome!" Connor whooped.

"That was close." X responded "Coms are back on." He added to the open channel.

"Thanks for the save, Bro." Speed added.

"No problem. If I'm going to beat you, I'm going to do it with style, not because some frozen runaway Indiana Jones prop took you out." As usual his brother just laughed in response.

"Recklessness aside, the cave is coming up. As I was trying to tell you earlier, the cave is almost solid ice, your spikes will do you little good in there. There are open points where the side is a shear drop, and watch out for the ice-sickles. If you bump the walls too hard you will dislodge them!" Lucy hurriedly supplied.

"Yeah guys, these aren't your normal above the door ice-sickles, these are as big as stalactite. Or is that mite? I can never remember which is which." Connor chimed in.

"Stalactite hangs tight to the ceiling, the other mite get in your way." Speed supplied. X laughed.

"Dweb, I know." Speed said with a laugh.

"No. Well yes, I'd just never thought of it that way." X admitted. It was strange how his brother could make him forget about the tough image that he needed to keep up.

"Guys!" Lucy tried to reign in their focus. "You'll lose communication in the caves again. Ten meters before the exit there is a short cut. It looks like a jump, but you need to…"

The communications had gone out again. X banged the steering wheel. He knew already in order to beat his brother he would have to take the short cut, because Speed would. He couldn't afford to wait for Speed to take it in front of him to see what happened. All he could do was hope that some how Lucy and Connor would regain communications while in the cave, which he doubted.

As promised the cave was nearly solid ice, so navigating was more a very fast controlled skid. Experience had shown that using the spikes on ice would be more hazard than help. They would catch on little divots, rocks and bumps in the ice making the car shimmy and lose control.

Another car was fast approaching from behind just as the cave started to bottle neck into a curve. X knew it was Annalise. He had talked with her about accepting Connor and Lucy's help in races, but she still refused to have anything to do with them when it came to individual races.

It didn't take long to realize she barely had control of her car; her spikes were deployed and with her current speed if something didn't send her spinning out of control she would wedge strait into the space between himself and Speed.

X hit the steering wheel again wishing he could tell her what her problem was.

Speed had seen too, and was making a motion that X couldn't translate, but left him understanding that he was going to try and stop Annalise before she hurt somebody else.

It didn't surprise him anymore that Speed would try to play the hero.

His thoughts of his brother's need to save people and his ex-girlfriends inexperienced driving where quickly replaced with worry as a loud cracking sound echoed through the cave, slightly vibrating the car. After all of Lucy and Connor's warnings he had little doubt as to what had happened. He gently pressed the gas harder, so as not to lose control, he wanted to out run the cascade of ice that was sure to follow such a ruckus. What he hadn't expected was the large crack that formed in the ice dividing the cave floor into two slightly uneven parts. Annalise got caught by the crack, one of her spikes catching the edge, sending her sideways.

As X saw this happening he hesitated and let off of the gas, allowing for Speed to take the lead.

Her tail bumped the wall, sending more huge ice-sickles down, one narrowly missing the roof of her car. The car still slid into it sideways and dematerialized from the virtual track.

X shook his head and refocused, now determined to catch Speed before reaching the short cut. He was closing in on the Mach 6 as the floor changed from ice to packed snow. X didn't hesitate to deploy his spikes for the extra tread it would afford him. As the turn approached X was surprised to find out the path of the short cut was wide, where most where narrow. He took Speed on the outside, now fighting side by side for the lead. The jump that Lucy had referred to was just a head. Estimating the pitch X figured he would need to start building speed soon. It was wide enough for two cars to ramp at once, assuming the peak didn't tapper to a point.

"Jump is just a head." Speed's voice came in.

"I can see that!" X replied.

"Lucy, we lost you earlier." Speed continued.

"Guys, stay to the edges… the middle drops out!"

X veered to his right, keeping his passenger tires as close to the edge as he dared. He floored it pulling a head of Speed. He let out a whoop, knowing that he had it in the bag once he cleared the jump.

Just as he did so he felt his back tire catch and the back end slide towards the center of the jump.

It seemed that two cars taking the incline at the same time was too much with the center falling out, his edge was crumbling too.

The spikes kept him going but he had lost some speed as well as his lead. His tires hit pavement and he gunned it for the finish. It was a close run the rest of the way, the short cut had given the brothers enough of a lead that no one else was close enough to interfere. X made many attempts to pull a head and swerve in front of Speed, but the lead he had from the jump gave Speed the win in the end.

"We won! Go Team Speed!" Connor was dancing around. Chim-Chim approached X. Opening his mouth wide he produced one of Connor's 'Speed Racer' uniforms.

"Boxer-Briefs." was all he said.

Later that night, X lay in bed part of him dreading the thought of leaving his room in the morning. Two thoughts kept at his mind though, the first was how both his brother and Lucy made it seem like it was just a natural thing that since he spent time with them their friendship was guaranteed and support unconditional. That worked in cartoons and kid stories, not in the real world, right? Still his uncle went on about the friends his father had made.

Had Randy Dupree been one such friend? That brought X back to the other thing on his mind. Speed's concern with how the Dupree family would treat Spritle. There was something more to his questions. Speed had gone on about all of the bad things that had happened to them, Lucy and Connor. With sudden realization X finally got what his brother had been too tied up inside to say. Speed was afraid what happened to Randy would happen to one of them.

Quote of inspiration: "I can't wait to see X in Conor's pants. ... That came out wrong." ~ kira-kira katsu