Worlds Collide: A Cars Fan Fiction

Strategy

They all agreed. 

---

"What do you mean I can't come? I need to help rescue Abbey!"

"I'm sorry, Hector," Nikki replied calmly, "but this could be dangerous. You could get hurt."

"So? I've hurt a hundred times before! Remember what Guillermo did to me last week?" He opened his mouth wide enough to show his missing incisor. Guillermo was his little brother, and the week before he'd accidentally knocked Hector's tooth out during a backyard soccer game.

Zane sighed. "This is different. It'll be best if you stay here and hold down the fort." The truth was, while they did believe that Hector would be safer if he didn't go on the mission, they also believed that he would only cause problems if he went. They all had to admit that the ten-year-old was a little...impulsive.

Nikki hated leaving him behind. After all, he and Abbey were pretty close. She knew that all he wanted to do was help. This is for the best, she repeated to herself.

"Fine." Hector sat on the curb outside the town hall, pouting. Zane, clearly not wanting to leave him like this, looked to Nikki. She looked around, and saw Mater ten feet away, clearly listening while pretending to inspect the town founder's statue.

"Mater!" she called. 

The tow truck, looking somewhat guilty at being caught, drove over. "What'cha need?"

"Is there anything in Radiator Springs that Hector hasn't seen yet?"

Hector continued to pout, but Mater had his attention.

"Oh, sure! There's Wheel Well, Willie's Butte, the drive-in movie theater, and my favorite place, the tractor fields."

"Tractor fields?" Hector stopped pouting. "What's so interesting about them?"

"Shoot, I jus' realized! You ain't ever gone tractor tippin', have ya?"

"What's tractor tipping?" 

"Oh buddy, we're gonna have fun! Follow me!" 

With that, the two trouble makers began to head to the tractor fields. Zane turned to Nikki again, looking like he wanted to say something. Instead, he held up his fist.

Nikki smiled and bumped it with her own. "Come on, Shing," she told her friend as she turned towards Flo's. "We have two hours until we need to go."

---

McQueen had a habit of sleeping late. Doc had tried, and somewhat succeeded, at getting him to break it. But every now and then, he'd forget to wake the young race car and leave Lightning to sleep in.

He finally woke up, and glanced at the clock. Ten-thirty. His first thought was that something weird was going on; Doc wouldn't let him sleep that late. Then he remembered. The humans. 

He was instantly wide awake, and left his home to go find everyone. He knew that the humans were harmless. The fact that they'd helped Mater the night before made that clear. But, still...

He found them all, as he'd expected to, at Flo's. Everyone was at their usual spots by the gas pumps, with the humans sitting in between them and drinking from large, transparent bottles of what looked like water. 

"Morning, Stickers!" Sally called. His eyes rested on his girlfriend. She was talking with Nikki and Zane. They both smiled at him. Zane raised his hand and shook it in the air (what Mater told him later was called a wave). McQueen hesitated a moment, then lifted his tire and imitated the gesture. The two kids cracked up. He smiled as he joined them; they were easier to get along with than he thought. 

"I overslept," he told the three when Sally asked where he'd been. "What's been going on?"

The events of the morning, as well as the plan for breaking into the compound, were explained to him. He was...surprised to say the least. Just the day before, the whole town had been focused on his homecoming party. Now they were about to break into a fortified lab?

Nikki was still talking. "...maybe while we're there, we'll find a way to get home."

"The sooner the better," Zane interrupted. "My dads must be worried sick..."

McQueen realized how selfish he was being. He was thinking about his party while six kids, each of them with worried parents, were trapped in another dimension. 

The two had stopped talking. Sally, who'd always had a weak spot for kids, gave them a sympathetic look. McQueen moved a little closer to the kids. He didn't know how he'd do it, but he knew that he would get the kids home. 

"This plan of yours," he said. "How can I help?"