Chapter Six: Family First
Mater stared sadly at the poster for the World Grand Prix, depicting Lightning McQueen and his team. Harley readjusted her backpack on one shoulder and patted the tow truck's side. But Mater refused to look at her as he drove off towards the terminals, the girl holding onto one of his mirrors to pull her along. She glanced sadly down to where the flame-shaped, 95 sticker used to rest on Mater's side, now gone and the stickers back at the hotel. Harley had stuffed her crew chief T-shirt into her backpack and adopted her usual yellow shirt with the 51 on the front. She zipped up her jacket, rubbing one of the racing stickers on the sleeves.
"You know, you don't have to leave, Mater." Harley said as they traveled through the airport.
"I ain't gonna screw 'im up again." Mater said determinedly, sadness still in his tone of voice. "I never shoulda come in the first place." He looked to Harley hopefully. "You believe me, right Harley? I mean, you were there."
Harley sighed. "Mater, I don't know what you were goin' through or what the heck you were talkin' about with a 'voice in your head,' but I know something strange went on last night and that wasn't your fault. Come on, let's go back. Lightning needs us."
"He don't need me." Mater assured. "He said so himself. But he needs you. Yer the chief."
"Hey, chief or not I did what I could to teach Lightning that family comes first." Harley said firmly. "It comes before my job, my safety, before everything. And there is no way I'm going to abandon my family." She smiled and nudged Mater playfully. "Especially not the bestest big brother in the whole wide world."
Mater smiled a bit now, yet he didn't pause in his driving. Harley smiled back. As much as she wanted to stay with Lightning and continue with the races, it bothered her greatly to think about leaving Mater all alone after what happened. Not only did she not want to leave him alone in his misery, she felt quite concerned for his safety since the incident last night in the alleyways.
It is not his fault. Harley determined. It was the fault of that Finn McMissile guy. She reached into her jacket pocket and wrapped her fingers around the bullet casing. Her thoughts traveled back to the conversation she had with Sarge about the bullet. He seemed to buy her story that she bought it in a souvenir shop in Tokyo, and then surprised her with what he told her about it.
"Oh yeah, that's some high-grade stuff, soldier." Sarge had said. "Often used on the military level. Even I didn't have a gun like that."
An Aston Martin who knows karate, owns a military-level gun, and apparently has a target on his hood. Not only that, he was more than willing to protect Mater and myself from those cars. Harley sighed softly, her eyebrows knitted together in thought. What in Chrysler's name is going on here?
As Mater and Harley approached the security gates, Harley jumped into the back of Mater's flatbed and unzipped her backpack. "Hang on a sec, Mater. I gotta find our tickets." She rummaged through her backpack, digging under her clothes. To her surprise, she found her wrench and handheld paintball gun in the bag. Ah, shoot. That's gonna set off the security system real bad. I knew I should've checked this thing before I grabbed it this morning.
A police car rolled up beside Mater. "Come with me, please, sir."
"But I'm 'onna miss my plane." Mater protested as he followed the police car.
"Oh great." Harley rolled her eyes, setting her backpack aside and jumping out to roll beside Mater. "Now what?" The police car led the two of them to a lounge-like area further into the airport.
"Ah doggone it." Mater groaned. "This is about my hook, ain't it?"
Harley could see they were heading towards a pretty secluded and quiet area. It seemed like a good place to be confronted and possibly threatened. She saw enough cop shows to get a feeling she was in one right now. A small thought in her head told her to run out of there as fast as possible, but a stronger feeling in her heart told her to stay. As they entered the lounge area, away from most of the patrons at a nearby bar, the police car's form flickered and changed to reveal a familiar Aston Martin.
"You again?!" Harley snapped.
"Hey!" Mater realized. "Yer that feller from the karate demonstration."
Harley reached into her bag and grabbed her wrench, quickly skating to stand between Mater and the Aston Martin. "You better back off, buddy. Because if you don't, you ain't gonna like where I stick this thing."
Finn chuckled. "Easy there, miss. I do apologize for our rather rough introduction last night. I was only looking out for your safety."
Harley narrowed her eyes. "How do I know I can trust you?"
"At ease, soldier." A blonde woman said with an amused smile, rising from the couch nearby to stand beside Finn. "We mean you no harm." Harley cast her a strange look, given her outfit gave the blonde woman a Laura Croft air about her.
"Besides, you did help me back in those alleyways." Finn noted. "Why do such a thing if you don't trust me?"
Because my dad taught me 'never pass on an opportunity to help others.' That's what she wanted to say, but Harley didn't exactly feel like explaining one of her father's life lessons at the moment; and she couldn't exactly argue with that fact. So she put her wrench away with a mildly suspicious expression. "Fine. But I'm watching you."
"Fine with us." The blonde woman shrugged, smirking.
"Allow me to introduce myself." Finn said. "Finn McMissile. British Intelligence."
"Tow Mater." Mater greeted. "Average intelligence."
"I'm Emily Largo. Special Unit." The blonde woman introduced.
"Harley Hudson." Harley gave a crisp nod and a smirk. "Like the bike, but much cuter."
Emily smirked. "Pleasure."
"Who are you two with?" Finn asked with a smirk. "FBI? CIA?"
Huh? Harley did her best to hide her surprise.
"Let's just say I'm triple-A affiliated." Mater replied.
Finn looked nothing short of amused, but a beeping on his mirror caught his attention. "You're being followed."
"What?" Harley looked back, searching for any cars she might've seen while in the airport. Mater didn't seem to hear, demonstrating a karate move he made up where he could reach into a car's hood, pull out his battery, and show it to him before he stalls; aka, what Mater accidentally did to Luigi once. Boy did Doc have a field day when he found out. Meanwhile, Harley watched in amazement as Finn launched some sort of device from one of his mirrors and stuck it to the nearby window. A sort of antennae shot out, beginning to carve a good-sized hole in the glass.
"McMissile, they're coming." Emily warned.
Harley looked down the hall to see two cars coming straight towards them, eyes set on Mater. They looked like a Gremlin and a Pace, just like the cars that attacked her and Finn last night. "Uh, Mater?"
"I probably ought to go. I'm about to miss my flight." Mater turned and started to drive off.
"Don't worry. I've taken care of that." Finn assured, throwing one of his back grappling hooks and latching it to Mater's tow hook. Emily grabbed Harley and pulled the girl into Mater's flatbed just as Finn suddenly jumped out the window. Harley gasped, hugging Mater's tow cable, and grunted a bit when they hit the ground. Finn sped off, dragging Mater behind him.
"What in the blue blazes?" Harley snapped, shocked.
"Yer karate partners is back here! It kinda look like they tryin' ta catch up!" Mater called to Finn.
"Drive forward!" Finn ordered. "Whatever you do, don't stop!" He suddenly braked, forcing him and Mater to do a 180 and cause Mater to drag him. Harley flinched as they drove straight under a jet taxiing into the airport. She looked to Finn and then to the rusted red Gremlin coming right behind them. To her shock, the Gremlin suddenly pulled a good-size missile launcher from his undercarriage. Finn let loose a small, skateboard-like object that rolled to skate just under Grem. A small scissor-lift mechanism activated, forcing Grem on two wheels. He struggled to regain his balance, only to tumble over to his roof right after launching the missile. Finn took aim and shot one of his own, smaller missiles, the two explosives colliding and erupting into fire and smoke.
"Is everything okay back there?" Mater asked as he kept driving.
"Just fine!" Harley called hurriedly. "Keep driving!" As amazing as all this was, she'd rather watch it all as a movie while bundled up at home. To actually experience a car chase like this turned out to be quite terrifying.
Mater nodded to Harley's request, but noticed Acer was driving right into his path and dragging a long line of carts behind him. "You 'member that whole thing about me not stoppin' no matter what?"
Harley stood up to look over Mater's roof and paled at the sight. Oh great. What next? She jumped at the sound of guns firing, and suddenly the carts exploded to give Mater and Finn a clear shot right through. "Holy Chrysler!" She gasped, staring in shock at the jet plane flying over quite close to them.
"Thanks, old boy!" Finn called to the jet. The jet landed in front of Mater, driving down the tarmac and lowering his ramp.
"Hey, doggonit!" Mater exclaimed happily as he caught sight of a purple Jaguar resting just inside the jet. "Look, it's my imaginary girlfriend!"
"Come on! Get in here!" Holley shouted.
"Boy, I tell you what, you really do want this first date, don't ya?" Mater asked, oblivious to Holley's dumbfounded reaction.
"Mater, get on the jet!" Harley shouted, gasping a bit when bullets pierced the ground dangerously close to Mater. The gunfire missed Mater, Finn, Harley, and Emily, but several of the bullets pierced the jet's wheels and forced him to make a turn into the grass and onto another section of tarmac.
"Hold on, Sid!" Finn called.
"Mater, follow that jet!" Emily urged.
Harley jumped a bit as more gunfire rang out, and she stared worriedly at the green Pacer still close behind them. The car continued to shoot at them, and Harley ducked down as a couple bullets whizzed past her head. She glanced down to her backpack and got an idea. Rummaging through it quickly, she took a hold of her paintball gun and shook it to make sure it was still loaded. Harley moved to the edge of Mater's flatbed, taking aim at Acer and biting her tongue in concentration. She fired a few times, paintballs exploding across Acer's windshield and blinding him. Finn unloaded his own gun and shot several rounds, popping Acer's front tire and forcing him to careen off to one side, screaming all the way.
"Nice shot, Harley!" Emily complimented.
Finn took a sharp turn, jerking Mater behind him and dragging his allies aboard the jet. Mater ended up hanging off the edge of the ramp as Siddeley lifted up and took off into the sky. Finn was quick to reel the tow truck in, Siddeley closing the ramp and disappearing into the clouds. The Aston Martin sighed in relief, pulling in his grappling hook.
Emily gave a little whoop as she jumped out of Mater. "Well what do you know? That was actually fun! I'm certainly never getting on an airplane the same way again."
Mater turned to the two cars and human. "Yeah, that was cool! Hey, where's Harley?"
At the sound of someone whimpering a bit, Mater turned around again to reveal Harley still in his flatbed. She was shaking like a rattlesnake's tail, her eyes wide and twitching a bit as she gripped Mater's tow for dear life.
"Whoa. You okay?" Emily asked worriedly.
"Miss Hudson?" Finn asked, casting a concerned glance.
Harley finally locked eyes with Finn, and she glared hard. "You…..you…." She scrambled out of Mater, skating up very close into Finn's personal space and practically fuming with anger. "You little punk! Che cosa erachetutto questo?Èmaledettamentemacchinarioavvolto attorno ad uncervello pienodi aria!Quando hofinito con teunsfasciacarrozzesarà simile auna vacanza!" Harley panted a bit, still glaring wildly.
Finn blinked a few times, but chuckled. "Le mie scuse, signorina. Troveròun modo perripagarla." Mater and Holley tried and failed to suppress their laughter. Even Emily cracked a smile at Finn's reaction to Harley's outburst.
Harley sighed heavily. This is gonna be a long day.
"'By the time you read this, I will be safely on an airplane flying home. I'm so sorry for what I did. I don't want to be the cause of you losing any more races. I want you to go prove to the world what I already know: that you are the greatest racecar in the whole wide world. Your best friend, Mater.'" Lightning finished the letter. Sarge and Fillmore stared at the letter sadly, unable to fully believe Mater would go after seeming to enjoy himself so much. Poor Luigi and Guido were sobbing. Pure-hearted as Mater was, he probably would've continued to beat himself up about the mistake for the rest of the trip if he didn't go home.
Lightning sighed. "Man. Well, wait a minute, where's Harley? There's no way she would've just let him go."
Sarge and Fillmore exchanged worried glances before Fillmore pushed another piece of paper forward. "She left this, man. We haven't seen her all morning."
Lightning took a look. It was clearly from Harley, based on the "HH" she left at the bottom of the note, which only read three words: "Family comes first." Those three simple words hit harder than any racecar crash. Lightning frowned sadly. "Well, at least I know if Mater's at home, he'll be safe. And the second we get home, I'll apologize. To Mater, and especially to Harley."
A/N: Italian translations (again, got this all off Google Translate, so don't hate me for not getting it all right):
Che cosa erachetutto questo?Èmaledettamentemacchinarioavvolto attorno ad uncervello pienodi aria!Quando hofinito con teunsfasciacarrozzesarà simile auna vacanza! – What was that all about? You damned piece of machinery wrapped around a brain full of air! When I'm through with you a chop shop will look like a vacation!
Le mie scuse, signorina. Troveròun modo perripagarla. – My apologies, Miss. I will find some way to repay you.