The strawberry blonde races toward the double doors of the former supermarket. Open envelope in hand, she dashes with her t-shirt with wrench logo pressed against her frame and legs straining forward in her black cargo pants. The motion detectors see her coming and open quickly. “Doc! Doc,” she burst in, “It’s here!”

Without looking up he responds, “What’s here?”

She opens the envelope, pulls the letter out, and holds them in the direction of his back, “Our invitation.”

Continuing to work, “And to what, pray tell, are we invited? Or more to the point, what are you trying to enter ‘us.’”

“The dA TG Race,” she squeals.

“Tracey, it won’t work.”

“What? Why not?”

“For one, I will not start another project until this one is complete.” Tracey heads over to his side. She runs her hand through his graying hair while looking over his shoulder, “Ok. The next?”

The doctor relaxes under her touch, “Second, we have no vehicle.”

Tracey smiles, “You act like I take the bus and you walk to work every day.” A diesel horn honks outside. “That would be our ride. My uncle had a spare he said we could use.”

“Third, we know nothing about this race.”

“Sure we do! Everything we need to know is in this letter I-Rugburn sent us.” She turns it back to herself, “The race will take place over three weeks and three courses. Players may attempt to attack other drivers or defend themselves from attacks from other drivers. Points will be awarded for …”

“Fourth, we have no weapons or defense.”

She raises an eyebrow on this one, “You just made that one up. We have a full store of weapons and defense.” She gestures to all the devices sitting all over the empty place. “Why, in the meat department alone, …”

He starts to break down. “But, But, these are my life’s work.”

“And it’s about time they got a real workout.”

He sighs and finally turns toward her, “When is it?”

“Monday.”

“Monday?” He looks frantically around, “There’s no time!”

“Of course there is.” She squints at the project circuit board once more, “Add a capacitor there, memory chip there, battery there, and an interface card there. Add a little programming and it’s done.”

The doctor silently retraces her movements and walks the device with his fingers checking everything and nods, “You’re right. That will cover the prototype.”

“Great! Ready to see our battle car?”

They head for the door, “Sure. Let’s see what we have to work with.” They step outside and nearly step back in to avoid the visual atrocity that assaults them. He recovers first, “An old Volkswagen Bus?”

She joins him, “With 60’s designs with 80’s colors?”

“Who, in their right minds, would drive this monstrosity?”

“That would be us,” she smiles.

He rolls up his sleeves of his previously white lab coat, “Well, let’s get started then.” The doctor heads inside.

“I guess that means, I’ve got the bus. Good thing I had brothers. Hopefully some of that rubbed off on me.” She heads to the brightly colored battle bus.

Later that night, Tracey drags herself into the lab, “Doc, the last bus is coming soon. Come check it out.”

“Yeah, just a sec … ok. Here I come.”

They head outside and step over all the parts scattered about. “Ok, here’s what I’ve done so far. I ripped out all the seats except the driver seat, and built that room back there. I figure if we are going to get attacked by transformational stuff, it would be best if one of us wasn’t affected.”

“So we can keep driving. Good idea.”

“Thanks Doc. ‘Night.”

“Pleasant Dreams.” She heads to the bus stop while he walks inside.

The next morning, Tracey in much the same outfit as before enters the lab to find Doctor Cod asleep on the project he was working on. She gently wakes him up and when he has some semblance of being a wake she asks quietly, “Doc, were you here all night?”

“Yes, we must be ready for the onslaught …”

“Doc,” she says while laughingly shaking her head, “go get showered and wake up. I’ll keep working. He trudges off towards the back.

A couple of days later they stand back and admire their handiwork, “Well, it could use a paint job, but it’s ready.”

“I’m starting to like the colors now. Let’s get it to the course.”

They link arms with a smile and head toward the bus knowing that no matter what, this was going to be an interesting race.