Hit the Road

~Cars © Pixar~

~ Across from Radiator Valve Resort, 1130 Hours~

"Alright, what happened?" Finn instantly demanded upon entering the room. The two cars before him paused, before Holley launched into her detailed account.

"Well, we aren't exactly sure, but I was able to tap into the frequencies of Dinoco's men, and received the news at the same time they did. There were no traces left behind in the building in which they had last been seen, and—what is he doing here?"

All eyes turned towards the police cruiser in the doorway. Finn appeared annoyed at having been followed, Holley slightly stunned, and Mater confused. Lightning's brow furrowed. "What do you mean, 'what am I doing here'?" he questioned incredulously. "If two of the most influential and wealthiest fuel philanthropists have been kidnapped, I believe I have a right to know!"

"Yes, and that is all," Finn interrupted forcefully. His mouth was set in a thin line. "You may think that you know what you're dealing with here, but you are sorely mistaken, Lieutenant. This kidnapping is more than it seems, and the peril presented will outweigh anything else you've ever faced."

Lightning's engine began to thrum powerfully, becoming hot under the hood. "I'm not a kid, and you can't tell me what I can and can't do. What separates you from me—what makes you so different that I fail to meet the requirements?"

Finn paused, as if deciding whether or not to speak, and rolled back lightly. "Because we are alone, Lieutenant."

The cruiser blinked, faltering at the elder car's piercing glare. "What do you mean—"

"We each have our secrets, the backgrounds we'd rather not share," Finn interrupted, his gaze flitting to the Jaguar, who held herself high, and the tow truck, whose gaze never left the carpet and shuffled his tires uncomfortably. The Aston Martin continued. "I do not mean for this to be taken cruelly, Lieutenant; but I will not have any civilians on this mission with the danger it provides."

Lightning sputtered for a moment before abruptly turning to his friend for support. "C'mon, Mater, don't listen to these guys! You know that I can handle myself—Doc himself said that it was impossible to kill me off! I could be a real asset, you know that!"

The two spies turned towards the private eye and he appeared even more uncomfortable at the unwanted attention. His eyes shifted from side to side, uncertain, as his new and old companions waited for him to speak. Lightning tried again. "Mater, please, you don't have to—"

"No."

The cruiser trailed off. "W-what?"

Mater shook his front end, eyes clenched shut. "N-no. I…I don't need your help. And I…I don't… want your help." The police car jolted back, as if physically hurt by his comrade's words. The tow truck refused to look his friend in the eye before driving around him and out of the room, disappearing around the corner. There was a beat of silence before Finn began to follow, bowing his hood in a sympathetic gesture. In shock, Lightning remained rooted to the ground, as if his tires had been nailed to the carpet.

Holley faltered by his side on her way out, idling unsurely for a moment, her eyes never leaving the doorway where her partner and the private eye had driven through, before her brow set in a determined line. "Alright," she began, whispering conspiringly, and the cruiser rolled back in surprise. "We know where Dinoco and Axlerod have been taken—I placed a tracker on to the trailer that was meant to transport them, and their kidnaper took the same vehicle. They've already been on their way for about an hour, and will be arriving at wherever it is they're going in even less time. I, however, have the predetermined coordinates." She moved towards a nearby table, where a notepad lay over the edge haphazardly, and yanked it off. On the first piece of paper, Lightning caught several random doodles, some of them of tractors and strange floating lights, before Holley roughly tore in off in her hurry and rapidly scrawled a variation of numbers and letters. "Here," she said abruptly, handing it to him none-to-gently. She quickly sped for the exit when the cruiser stopped her.

"Um...thanks," he began, squinting at the messily written coordinates. "But...why are you helping me? Your boss pretty much prohibited my presence on this case."

Holley smirked. "He's not my boss—although he bloody acts like it. And sometimes, Finn is too stubborn for his own good." The Jaguar winked, driving through the doorway. "And anyway, it's your choice, Lieutenant." The spy car was gone in the next instant.

There was silence again, in which Lightning's eyes flickered from the doorway to the paper in his tread, before sighing. "Guess I'm goin' to have to get a second opinion on this…."

~Residential streets of Chicago, Apartment A11 3rd floor, 1235 Hours~

"So you're telling me that Mater went off on some secret mission, this one being more dangerous than all of his other shenanigans put together?" Sally inquired skeptically, setting the cast iron kettle from the slightly senile old Model T down the hall onto the stove. She paused before continuing. "I don't believe it."

Her fiancé groaned. "C'mon, Sally. I already told you, the old British car said that this was insanely dangerous—he wouldn't even let me come along."

Sally smiled in good humor. "Who was it that said Mater would get involved with spies? The Jeep next door?"

Lightning shook his hood. "Now, he said it would be Communists. It was the hippie on the other side of him that bet it would be spies…" he gradually trailed off when he realized what his fiancée was trying to do. "Hey!"

The Porsche laughed. "Sorry, sorry." She raised an eyelid then, serious again. "So how did you get those coordinates?" the small car jerked her hood in the direction of the kitchen table, where the slightly crumpled piece of paper still sat.

"Mater's spy girlfriend wrote it down for me," Lightning remarked with a snort. Sally's eyes widened as she turned to him.

"Girlfriend?" she echoed.

Lightning shrugged openly with a tire. "Well he certainly seems to like her. He's blind to the reciprocated feeling though."

Sally hummed softly, turning back towards the stove, the kettle having begun to whistle. "I never thought he'd let himself fall in love again," she murmured contemplatively, pouring hot water into two mugs on the counter, tea bags already inside them.

The cruiser nodded in agreement as his fiancée rummaged through the refrigerator in search of the cream. "I know. Especially after what happened to Doreen...but I think he's actually starting to like this 'Miss Shiftwell'."

"Well good for him," Sally affirmed, setting a mug of steaming tea in front of the police car. Lightning instantly made a face, always preferring coffee, but the Porsche's withering look made him grudgingly take the mug. "So," she began after a moment, the cruiser nursing his chamomile tea with a sour look. "Are you going to follow them?"

The police car shrugged. "I really don't know. What if I get in the way?"

Sally mimicked his shrug. "Well, it's your choice. You and I both know that Mater's awful at expressing what he feels, even if his expressions are usually a dead giveaway. He probably wants you along, even if he doesn't say so." She moved to nuzzle again her fiancée's side, and Lightning sighed in contentment at the proximity. "Just do what you think is right, Stickers," she continued, reverting to his old nickname, nudging his fender. The cruiser sighed gain, and the Porsche gave him a comforting peck on the cheek before rolling back and driving out of the room. "But…be careful," she reminded, before making her way further into their home.

Lightning released a long exhale once again when she had gone, rubbing a tire into the linoleum. If he was going to follow the spies, he was going to need some help.

~Chicago Police Department, Downtown 1330 Hours~

By the time Mack had pulled into the Chicagoan police station, it was already past noon, his predestined arrival time. No one really seemed to notice his late appearance though. The entirety of the station was in utter chaos, police cars driving every which way with frenzied shouts and exasperated mannerisms. There were no criminals waiting by the interrogation room doors, as all of the officers seemed to be focused solely on panicking at the moment.

As the semi quietly braked in the doorway, the top of which barely passed over the trucker's cap, two lower ranking cops crashed hood-first into another, papers flying, and that was hardly a moment of reprieve in the cacophony. He would have stayed there blinking for a couple more minutes had the door to Sheriff's office not been thrown open, the aging Mercury coupe following the younger cruiser out, having been apparently berating him. "—it's insane, McQueen. We've got a national emergency, and you're worried about some missing detective! You and I both know that he always disappears, for days at a time, sometimes, and this is no different!"

Lightning appeared to be holding back a groan and exasperated yell at the same time. "This is different, Sheriff!" he stressed, braking by the large front desk in the center of the room. "Mater's in real danger, not like his other cases!"

"Oh, so those various near-death experiences were 'nothing'?" the coupe inquired sarcastically. The lieutenant shook his front end in earnest.

"No, Sheriff. But this is a serious matter; Mater and his friends could be—"the younger car was cut off.

"I'm sorry, McQueen," Sheriff interrupted gruffly, a tone of finality in his voice. "But we can't take the risk of this being some wild goose chase. We need our efforts concentrated on finding Axlerod and Dinoco. Is that understood?"

"But sir—"

"Is that understood?"

Mack winced at the sharpness of the remark. Lightning's eyes fell downcast. "Yes, sir."

"Good," Sheriff nodded, when a crash on the other side of the room drew his attention. The Mercury coupe cursed under his breath. "Guido, get away from that! For the love of Chrysler, Luigi! Control your henchman and don't let him get near anyone's tires!" The older car drove off, leaving Lightning alone.

The semi rolled up behind him, doing his best to avoid the worst of the station's chaos. "Well," he began cheerily. "That went well."

Lightning snorted, turning to face his old friend. "That's an understatement. Were you listening the entire time?"

Mack shrugged a massive tire. "I heard enough." The cruiser grimaced.

"So what are you doing here?" the lieutenant queried, an eyelid raised. "I thought you were on vacation."

"Well I was, but I got called in to deliver some last minute supplies," the semi shrugged again. "You know same old stuff: magazines, guns, bullets, some first aid gear. With all these gangs riling up, the department apparently wants to be ready for whatever's thrown at them."

Lightning exhaled annoyingly. "Yeah, those with enough know-how and years of experience under their fan belt."

"Whadaya mean?" Mack questioned curiously.

"I mean that most of the cops have been bought out by the gangs," the cruiser muttered, giving the panicked mass a quick onceover. He shifted his gaze towards the semi again. "Please tell me you came for a reason besides deliveries."

Mack snorted similarly to the smaller car. "Well of course. That's the main point of my occupation..."

"So what did you hear?"

"More saw that heard," the larger vehicle mulled. At the lieutenant's rightfully confused look, he elaborated. "I was lucky enough to have been making a delivery near the airstrip, and saw the semi that was meant to carry Axlerod leaving one of the warehouse-like buildings. And only the semi. There was no entourage, no bodyguards, only that one guy, and a small plane heading for the docks."

Lightning fell silent, eyes shifting from left to right as he shuffled a tire, thinking. "Are you saying…that Axlerod is behind this?" he finally asked. Mack shrugged.

"Don't know, kid. It could be a frame job, but…with something like this, it could be either way."

The lieutenant swore lightly under his breath, brow furrowed. The pair was silent before the semi cautiously spoke again. "So...I heard that your buddy Mater was in trouble..."

"More than 'trouble'," Lightning sniffed. "He's gotten caught up in some pretty treacherous stuff…the cars he's with wouldn't let me come along, but one was kind enough to scribble down their coordinates."

"What were they?"

Lightning blinked. "The coordinates?"

"Yep."

"Alright. Um…let's see…" the cruiser pulled out the piece of paper, and read aloud. "Latitude: 40º 6.80' North – Longitude: 172º 23.84' West." He glanced back up at the semi, only to see him looking heavenward, lips moving soundlessly as he went over the coordinates in his mind.

"That's…" he paused, eye widening. "That's in the middle of the Pacific Ocean!"

Lightning raised a skeptical eyelid. "And you would know this…how?"

Mack grinned. "When you travel as much as I do, it becomes second nature." His smile fell. "So how are you gonna get there?"

"I don't know," the lieutenant frowned. A familiar voice startled them, and made Lightning wince internally.

"Perhaps I can-a be of assistance?"

~Meigs Field, Northerly Island, 1430 Hours~

The wind pummeled the three cars as they made their way across the air field, the private eye doing his best to keep his hat on his roof as they rode over cracked tarmac, less than a decade after its construction. "Not ta' question yer sense a' judgment or nutin'," Mater began, grimacing as a particularly strong gust whirled against them. He could hear the sound of crashing waves from Burn-rubber Harbor, and continued speaking in order to attempt to rid the memories of the events that had transpired mere hours ago. "But how are we getting' to Tex 'n Axlerod?"

Finn chuckled as they reached a large warehouse, the doors strangely unlocked. The interior of the building was startlingly empty, and the Aston Martin's laugh echoed through the interior. "Let's just say…" the elder spy started, spinning his tires. "I have friends in high places."

The tow truck raised a curious eye ridge, glancing towards Holley by his side. She offered a small, comforting smile, though Mater never realized that it had been a bit forced.

As the cars drove further into the hanger, sterile, plaster walls began to give way to tin and metal, Mater began to grow more on edge. They finally reached what the private eye deemed as a dead-end, the space they occupied being enormous, and what resembled metal garage doors lining either side. The two spy car cruised over to the first one, where Mater barely noticed the tire-recognition scanner near the floor. Finn pressed his own rubber appendage to the device, and after a second of it whirring, pulled back. There was an audible click, before the entrance lifted on its own, and settled into place with an echoing thud.

Inside the equally spacious room, a Martin B-26 Marauder rested. Mater gaped as the aircraft stretched, blinking sleepily before looking down at the trio and smiled. Holley chuckled at the tow trucks obvious astonishment, and the World War II era plane spoke, his accent nearly identical to that of Mater's companions, yawning as he did so. "Well, hello, mate."

Finn rolled forward, smirking rather jovially. "Long time no see, Sid."

A/N: Yes, I managed to slip Siddeley in there! And yep, I did turn him into a plane from that time period. Kudos to all who spotted the cameo appearances of some of Radiator Springs' residents, and thank you for all of the awesome reviews! A couple more would be lovely :T

Oh, yeah, and I squeezed Mack in too-Can't leave him out :D