(Backstory: DJ's sound system was destroyed by a random car who crashed into him. His voice was wiped out by a combination of a cold and some screaming as a result of said crash)

Many cars get nightmares about driving on the ice roads in Alaska. Or about running out of gas fifty miles from the nearest station. Or going to church without their tires. Not many have nightmares about losing both their voices and their sound systems at the same time.

DJ thought that this was probably because most cars honestly don't take that much pleasure from the many different emotions and memories vibrations in the air can produce. He pitied those poor cars deeply.

...On the other tire, those cars were kind of lucky, he thought as he angled his rearview mirror to inspect his ruined sound system and attempted to say something-Anything!-for the hundredth time.

"Stop dwelling on your bad luck, D," Wingo said with an almost sympathetic smile, "I'm sure your voice will come back quickly enough."

DJ scowled. 'Quickly enough' would have been yesterday.

The four tuners drove into one of their favorite towns, a medium sized one called New Airport. As the name implied, there were a fair number of smallish planes who lived there. Not implied by the name, however, was the fact that this place was a paradise for tuner cars. There were loads of shops full of fancy tires, aerodynamic spoilers, lightweight rearview mirrors, and practically any other item one might want to improve oneself with.

Wingo lead DJ to a little store with a sign that said 'Quality Sound Systems' above the door. They went in, and were greeted by a copper Suzuki Swift whose entire rear end was completely redesigned to support the hugest sound system either of them had ever seen.

"Hello," said the car, "how may I help you today?"

Wingo waved his tire in DJ's direction. "My friend needs his sound system repaired. Do you think you can do it?"

The Swift drove around DJ, eyeing the horribly battered sound system with a mixture of delight and horror. He liked seeing another car who obviously appreciated quality music, but the damage that woofer had sustained... Simply dreadful to behold! "I can fix it. I don't have all the parts I need to fully repair it though, and the soonest I could get them would probably be in about three days. Should I place the order anyway?"

Wingo looked over at DJ, who nodded. "Yes, please," said Wingo.

The two cars left the shop as soon as the Swift had ordered everything he needed to repair DJ's sound system. Wingo had been invaluable as a translator; thanks to him, DJ had managed to convince the Swift to not order a secondary sound display for his spoiler. It had been close, though.

"Want to go chat with some other tuners?" Wingo asked casually.

DJ rolled his eyes. He didn't really want to go anywhere near anyone who wasn't part of the DRH at the moment, and Wingo knew it.

"Okay then, come on!" Said Wingo, intentionally misinterpreting DJ's facial expression.

DJ stuck out his tongue, but followed his friend.

The two found a group of insanely showy tuners near a nice looking hotel. The tuners grinned when they saw DJ and Wingo, and yelled for them to come join them. The ever fearless and enthusiastic Wingo immediately went over to chat with them.

DJ hung back a bit, not sure about visiting anyone when he couldn't even speak, and did his best to be invisible.

Wingo happily talked with the other tuners for a few minutes. Then the conversation started going bad.

"My spoiler is not a sign of my gullibility. It's decorative, duh!" Wingo said, eyes narrowing with rage.

"Spoken like a car who knows he made a mistake and doesn't want to admit it," laughed a pearly white Toyota Tundra.

Wingo lunged forward to punch the big pickup truck with his tire, and suddenly everyone was fighting.

No way could Wingo hold his own against these crazy cars! He wasn't very big or fast, and DJ could already see that he was going to take a serius beating if he wasn't pulled away from the fight fast. DJ dove into the fight, found Wingo, and shoved him out. Wingo tried to go back to the fight, but DJ knocked a rain barrel over which soaked Wingo and made him calm down a bit.

They hurried away from the fight, DJ occasionally shoving his friend forward when he thought they weren't going fast enough. Finally they stopped in a dark alley.

Wingo noticed that DJ was glaring at him. "What?" He asked.

With a mixture of tire waving and scowling, DJ managed to get his message across.

"Yeah, maybe I shouldn't have gotten so mad at them. But they were saying that my spoiler was inefficient, and I must be extremely gullible to have bought it. You would be angry if someone talked about your sound system that way."

DJ waved his tire, dismissing Wingo's accusation as being irrelevant, then rolled his eyes.

"You're probably right," muttered Wingo, "but it made me so annoyed!"

DJ snorted, then felt pleased that he could still do that.

"You think I'm making excuses!" Wingo spluttered.

DJ smiled. Wingo was so good at understanding him.

Wingo pretended to ignore DJ.

They went off in search of their friends, and finally they located Boost. He was hiding behind a dumpster; Apparently Wingo wasn't the only Road Hazard who had gotten into trouble that day.

"Some restaurant owner got mad at me for bringing my nitrous tanks into her restaurant," said Boost sourly, "'no outside food or drink' or something."

"That stinks," said Wingo with a laugh, not sounding especially sympathetic. DJ jabbed on of Wingo's dents, making Wingo yell. "OUCH! What was that for?"

DJ smiled angelically, knowing that Wingo would figure it out as soon as he stopped telling himself excuses about that silly fight.

"Hurry up, Wing!" DJ whispered. His voice had finally started working again, but now it was embarrassingly weak and scratchy.

"Coming," Wingo whispered back, knowing that it would annoy his friend greatly.

DJ's sideview mirrors twitched with frustration. Very funny, Wingo. Not.

They drove into Quality Sound Systems and the odd looking Swift immediately began repairing DJ's sound system while humming the Car Wars theme.

Wingo looked as if he was barely containing his annoyance (he wasn't much of a Car Wars fan), but DJ kind of enjoyed the humming. At least it wasn't too out of tune.

"There!" Said the Swift after a lot of soldering and replacing of glass, "Try turning on your sound system and see how it sounds."

DJ squeezed his eyes shut in concentration, then smiled triumphantly as his built in computer made its booting up sound. Then, after thinking for a moment, he started playing his most triumphant recording of Scotland the Brave.

Wingo smiled. It was good to see DJ feeling like himself again.

Notes:

I've noticed that a lot of DRH fanfics have various Road Hazards having romantic relationships with each other. Since this story especially focuses on DJ and Wingo, I thought I should clarify what kind of a relationship these two have and will have for the foreseeable future.

Wingo is DJ's older brother in everything but oil. He teaches DJ new police evasion techniques, teases DJ mercilessly, and if DJ ever had a girl (or boy) friend, he'd threaten them terribly and worry about DJ every time DJ went on a date.

DJ is, as you may have guessed, basically Wingo's younger brother. He thinks that Wingo is a bit crazy and annoying, but likes him anyway. When his voice is working, he repays Wingo for all of the teasing Wingo does. From the goodness of his engine, of course.