Temporary lights had been set up near the starting area where the crowd was gathered, their breath turning to frost in the deepening night, but the course ahead was unlit and -Bumblebee knew from experience- littered with surprises meant to make the race more 'interesting'. Sudden lights flashing during the day were startling, but a collection of flares lit suddenly in the dark would be like the beginnings of a bomb going off. Bumblebee didn't like the intermingling of racing and things reminiscent of warfare, especially since he knew most of the driving would be out of his control.

He tried to remember at what point and for what reason it had seemed like a good idea to race against a bunch of amateurs whose idea of 'interesting' was adding the potential for a startled driver to wind up getting himself and/or whoever happened to be close to him killed.

Fina, who had arrived ahead of them, came running over and Rick rolled down the window.

Leaning in, Fina said, "You didn't tell me Eddy was here!"

"I didn't know," Rick replied, "What's he driving?"

"What do you think?" Fina practically squealed, "He's driving Mark's Noble."

Bumblebee had noticed the Noble earlier. The sleek maroon car had been very aggressive, but had avoided physical contact as much as possible. During the earlier race, the vehicle had repeatedly swung towards other cars, alarming their drivers into turning away, sometimes resulting in a spin out, a couple of times hitting guardrails and more than once crashing into vehicles on the other side of them. Evidently, Rick was not the only one who was racing angry, assuming Eddy was as mad now as he'd been the night of the party.

"Mark's letting him drive the Noble?" Rick asked, raising his eyebrows in surprise.

"'Letting' is probably an inaccurate term," Fina told him, "People don't let Eddy do anything. He's pissed at Mark, and I think Mark would rather let him trash the Noble than be sent to the hospital again. Now get out, I'm driving," Fina grabbed the door handle and unlatched it.

"What? No you're not," Rick slammed the door, "I drove the first race, I'm driving this one."

"Ricky," Fina said, leaning through the window, "You're drunk. You want to win the race, and I want to wreck Eddy for what he did to Mark."

"Mark had it coming," Rick protested.

"Rick... move," Fina snarled through her teeth, eyes flashing.

To Bumblebee's surprise, Rick allowed her to open the door and he meekly stepped out.

Fina smiled brightly, said "Thanks," and slid behind the wheel.

Rick shut the door behind her, then leaned against it and spoke through the still-lowered window.

"Don't forget that Eddy's not the only one in this race. You've got three other drivers to worry about. Eddy took it easy on me today because I told him what went down between you and Mark. But he will not do that for you. He's going to try to wrap this car around the nearest post he can find."

"Ricky, relax," Fina said, adjusting the seat to suit her, "This isn't my first race."

"Maybe not, but this is a no holds barred, not one of your regulars."

"Want me to wait while you run and get me a helmet?" Fina said mockingly.

"I want you to try not to turn into a pavement smear out there."

"Yes, Dad," Fina rolled up the window and Rick stepped back.

Speaking of dads, Bumblebee wondered if Rick and Fina's dad knew that his kids participated in street racing. Routinely, from the sound of things. He was starting to wonder just what kind of damage Fina's convertible had really suffered. He was also starting to wonder exactly what kind of convertible it was.

Fina settled more firmly into the seat and placed both hands on the steering wheel.

"Alright, time to show me what your made of," she said quietly.

{This is a very bad idea,} Bumblebee told her, but it seemed too late to argue.

The cars were driven up to the line one by one at a signal from Tracy. She beckoned each forward, forward, then told it to stop, making sure they were all perfectly even with one another. Bumblebee knew this wasn't how car races usually started, but he knew also that nobody here cared a whit about what an actual, legal, organized race looked like. They were doing as they pleased, right down to the way they arranged the starting line.

If Bumblebee had been a mere Urbana 500, every vehicle in the line would have had him outclassed for speed. All four of the other vehicles were among the fastest street legal cars on the market, and he could hear in the engine noise of two of them that they had been customized somehow. Bee wasn't a mere Urbana, but one of his biggest advantages had been stripped from him, and that was that he was both the car and the driver. He knew exactly what was happening as a car and as a driver both at the same time all the time, and he knew precisely what his limits were at any given moment and how to compensate. But he wasn't the driver now, Fina was, and he somehow doubted she was as good as he was. She couldn't possibly be.

The car which worried Bee the most was actually the one in first position. The black car had undoubtedly started life as an Urbana Viper, but had since been modified. Bumblebee had felt its power when it slammed him into a concrete guardrail during the first race; it was still an Earth vehicle but it was much sturdier than it would have been off the assembly line. It didn't move like a Viper either. More importantly, its driver was ruthless in the first race, and drove the competition into concrete barriers, poles, patches of ice and even one of the lit flare pits along the sides of the road. He didn't care who got hurt, so long as he finished the race. He'd have finished Bee for sure had the Scout not been armor plated.

Second position belonged to Eddy with his maroon Noble, which was missing its right side mirror, as well as a lot of paint along both sides. Bumblebee was positioned third, and so he had to put up with Fina and Eddy glaring at each other through the windows while the fourth car (a slightly modified red McLaren) and a fifth car (whose color and make were lost forever under the dents and scrapes) got into position.

{Careful, Fina,} Bumblebee advised, knowing it would do no good, {Eddy is not the problem here.}

"Hush," Fina told him, "I know what I'm doing, just follow my lead."

{Like I've got a choice.}

Astoundingly, this field of cars had survived the first race, despite being built for speed and not overall sturdiness. With a full field that morning, there had been no opportunity to unleash the true speed of the vehicles, but plenty for drivers to lose by taking advantage of being allowed to bash into each other like a bunch of idiots. It had all really been about acceleration and control, which told Bumblebee more than a little about Eddy's skill behind the wheel, because he knew the Noble was mostly in the hands of the driver.

But with only five cars, and a different course charted, the sheer speed of the vehicles would be a bigger factor. In that, Bumblebee knew he was outmatched. He also knew that the lightest touch from another vehicle at higher speeds would lead to disaster. There wouldn't be any smashing into sides or pushing against bumpers this time. Every driver, if they wanted to live to the end, would be seeking to avoid hitting the other vehicles, or indeed getting anywhere near them.

It irked him that this was a race he could not win, not unless these four drivers who had somehow been good enough to survive the morning's race suddenly lost their skill or nerve for no reason. Even if Fina was a great driver (Who knew, maybe she was great in a race and just terrible as a regular driver on the street? Bumblebee had his doubts), even though Bumblebee was himself superior to the car he had modeled himself after, there was simply no way for him to compete with these cars. To some degree, no matter what he was made out of, Bumblebee was bound by the limits of the design of the vehicle he had chosen as his disguise. And too, Rick pushing the button earlier had left him rattled, and he knew he was weaker than before. It was his own strength that gave him speed, his spark and not his engine that moved him. And his spark felt weakened, his systems drained of power.

But he knew also that, regardless of the odds, he would put his all into the race. It was in him to go fast, to challenge other cars, to chase the wind itself in pursuit of greater speed. Had there been no war, had he never become a soldier, Bumblebee knew it was in his spark to race. It was something he'd almost forgotten under the weight of training, experience and the grief of a lost world. But when Jack had recently asked to 'borrow' Bumblebee for a race, Bee had realized that the long dormant need for speed still lay within him, that he still wanted to be the fastest car on the road.

It was stupid to race here and now, like this, but he was going to do it anyway.

And, now he was here, nobody would have to make him.

There were cameras strategically placed along the course, and Raf could see that there were traps lying in wait for the drivers at many of those points, meant to startle them and make the race 'more interesting'. They were different from the ones that had been there during the day, and they seemed to be running a different stretch of road this time, though from the same starting point or one just like it.

He noted the car that had given Bee such trouble earlier was there.

"Bumblebee is very much outclassed," Ratchet said.

Though he had no interest in racing that he'd displayed, Ratchet had made it a point to learn the specs of every vehicle mode the Autobots had chosen, or might have chosen. It only took him one look at the field to know that the other vehicles were all faster than Bumblebee. His only chance was to out-drive them, and it had been clear earlier that Bumblebee wasn't in charge of the driving.

"I'm more worried that black car's driver won't know when to quit," Arcee said seriously, "If he pulls the kind of stunts he did earlier, he's going to get someone killed. Maybe himself."

Raf couldn't believe the Autobots were discussing this. For one thing, he was only interested in finding out where Bumblebee was so they could get him back home where he belonged. For another, he had complete faith in Bumblebee's ability to do anything he set his mind to, including beating every car in that lineup, regardless of what the odds against him were. It seemed like they didn't have as much faith in Bumblebee as they ought to if they were worried about the black Viper's driver.

Then, quite suddenly, the race was underway. At the start, the Viper and unidentified car in the fifth spot took the lead, with the McLaren working not to be left behind. The Noble didn't get off as fast, but it still shot ahead of Bumblebee at once, and the distance increased rapidly.

The cars left black marks on the freshly laid pavement, and kicked back smoke from their tires as they launched. All except Bumblebee, whose takeoff was much smoother. At the start, he came out straight, where the others swerved slightly. But it wasn't enough to make up the distance they instantly put between him and them.

The Viper and fifth car closed on each other, coming dangerously near to touching as they swept into the first turn. The McLaren's driver wanted nothing to do with them in the turn and hung back, but the Noble was beginning to hit its stride, pulling even with the McLaren as they took the turn.

As they completed the turn, the fifth car wobbled. As had been feared, the black Viper had touched it, just barely brushing the fender. The Viper continued on as it hadn't even felt the touch at all.

"That's no Viper," Ratchet observed, "It looks like one, but under the hood..." he shook his head.

The fifth car managed to recover from its wobble, but the McLaren overtook it. Then the Noble hit its stride, and left both of them behind. It came up behind the Viper in a sickening rush of speed, but the Viper was having none of it. The black car slid in front of the maroon one, blocking it from advancing. Then it slid to the other side when the Noble's driver tried to get around the other way.

"It may not be a Viper," Raf said, "But it still doesn't have the speed of a Noble."

"And its driver knows it," Bulkhead put in.

The combat with the Noble slowed the progress of both vehicles, and the McLaren and fifth car caught up with them, though it was evident the fifth car was really working hard now. On a straight patch, the McLaren moved to challenge the Noble for second, but the fifth car labored past both of them to again fight the Viper for first. When the Viper swept into the path of the fifth car, the Noble took the opportunity to rocket into first place.

Then the track tilted uphill, and also curved. The Noble was forced to slow down, and the Viper ate up the gap between them, launching right past the Noble like it was standing still. The fifth car's driver evidently thought he could make it and fight the Viper for first at the same time. He couldn't.

The Viper was on the outside of the turn, with the fifth car trapped on the inside. It couldn't turn tight enough and brushed the Viper, which rocked but didn't move, instead catching the front of the fifth car. The rear wheel drive propelled it forward and it spun, landing sideways on the hill turn.

The Noble was in the clear, but the McLaren had to be cautious trying to thread the needle between the edge of the road and the stopped car. Bumblebee, coming in last, but not as far behind as one might have expected from the awkward start, should have been able to easily slide around the fifth car, but its driver chose that moment to try and turn around. At the high speed, on the dangerous uphill turn, that other car backed up into Bumblebee's path. This was no minor brush, Bumblebee's front right fender slammed into the back of the other vehicle. The combination of turn, hill and collision ripped him right off the road and he flipped, hit top down on the side of the hill and slid. The other car was pulled down with him and smashed into his rear bumper.

At the bottom of the hill, Bee slid across another patch of asphalt and then into a guardrail. The other car slammed into him, driving him forward, and the guardrail shattered his windshield. The force of impact tipped him over the guardrail and he landed upright on the other side, while the other car smashed into the guardrail, tearing the wearied metal outward. It cut into the front of Bumblebee.

And then the fifth car caught fire.