(AN) Hi everyone I'm back but only briefly as I swamped with online summer school and this is the only story I have at the moment that has chapters already prewritten. Hopefully next week I'll have time to write and upload all of my stories. No promises. As always leave a review and tell me what you guys (or gals) think about the story so far and PM me with any questions you want answered as I check it almost regularly.

Chapter 12

'Good morning race fans. Today is day one of the Wings around the globe rally.'
As the announcer continued to announce where the race was leading us all of the planes including us were lining up in formation inside the tunnel that leads to the runway. We were waiting anxiously for the race to start when one of the officials ordered all of us to file out to the runway and get into position. As all of the racers exited the tunnel the announcer announced their name. When we came out there were murmurs and whispers in the crowd because there has never been a jet powered plane in the race before.
'Our champ from last year is taking his position in the back of the pack just like last year and oh what's this? Two jet planes are going to be racing today and due to their engine flares they are being placed in the back of the pack and are required to wait until the rest of the racers have taken off to reduce the chance of a wreck at launch. I hope they don't get jet lag.'
At the joke everyone in the crowd laughed as well as the other racers. When I looked over to Natalie she had a determined look on her face.
"you ready Nat?"
"I was made ready, you?"
"my turbines are burning to start."
We made our way to the blast pads that had been placed at the back of the runway and waited for the signal to start.
'all right race fans here we go. Racers start your engines.'
Every sound was drowned out as propellers started to whir and spin. Natalie and I just smirked at each other and I said, "let's show them how a real engine starts."
"agreed."
We both warmed up our engines and roared them as loud as we could. Once the start-up from our engines died away the crowd went wild.
'Well folks it looks like the jets have some strong engines to make such a ruckus. Anyways let the race begin.'
The light next to the announcer started counting down.
"red light"
"red light"
"fast red light"
"faster red light"
"fast yellow light"
"Faster yellow light"
"Green."
As soon as the light turned green the planes in front of us took off at break neck speed leaving behind a lot of swirls. A countdown clock then appeared on screen next to the announcer.
'Alright you two you can take off in.'
The crowd and the announcer started to countdown.
""Ten""
""Nine""
""Eight""
""Seven""
""Six""
""Five""
""Four""
""Three""
""Two""
""One""
""Zero""
As soon as the countdown clock reached zero Natalie and I floored our accelerators and rocketed down the runway and took off. We activated our afterburners to gain more speed as we slowly caught up with the other racers. Because of how our engines are naturally loud the other racers saw us approaching fast before we were even near them. The racer in last place of the propeller run planes started to radio out warnings to the other racers that we were approaching from behind fast. Many of the racers in front didn't take head of his warning while the planes near him could hear the fast approaching jets. We flew past about half of the racers before we had to slow down to preserve fuel for the rest of the race. We ended up flying beside El chukkacabra and Rochelle.
"Wow you two are fast. I commend you on your speed but I have to ask. Why slow down?"
"sí why slow down?"
"we can go fast but the faster we go the more fuel we use and it is dangerous to use up our fuel fast when there is no airfields or aircraft carriers nearby."
"oh that makes much more sense but why stop halfway through the group when you are at an advantage?"
"we can reach Mock 4 in a minute flat so as soon as land is in sight we will drop down and floor our engines."
"wow. well good luck you two."
"thanks and good luck to you two."
After a few hours of constant flight land came into view. We gave each other a nod and dropped down below the cloud layer and floored it. Since our engines generate heat it kept the cold off of us while we sped towards the airfield in the distance. We could already see the leaders Ripslinger and his gang and Dusty dropping through the cloud layer and lining up for landing. We had a choice of either speeding up and landing in front of them or pull back and come in fifth and sixth place. We then decided to speed up and land in between Ripslinger and the twins. We sped up and came up under the twins and since the blizzard masked our engine noise they were startled when we came into view beneath them. Them being startled gave us the opening to squeeze between them and Ripslinger and since our engines was sending out intense heat they backed off to avoid the heat. Once we landed in the airfield we looked at the scoreboard to see that Natalie came in Third and I came in Fourth with Dusty in First and Ripslinger in Second and surprisingly Ned and Zed fell back into Ninth and Tenth place. When we reached the indoor hanger to rest we could see Ned and Zed being chewed out by Ripslinger for falling so far behind.
"but boss it wasn't our fault."
"yeah it was those jets that caused us to fall behind."
"and how did they cause you to fall so far behind?"
"the heat from their engines was too hot to stay behind and when we backed up the racers behind us passed us."
"that is no excuse! Get ahead in the next leg of the race by any means necessary. Am I understood?"
"yes sir."
When we heard that plan we knew we had to get ahead of Ripslinger early in the race because the trick we pulled won't work twice.