Dr. Cod looks up from his work as he sucks the air out of the last test tube. “There, I have created double the amount of last race. That should hold us.” He puts a jar into the fridge, but if it doesn’t I’ll be able to make some more.”

The doctor step out of the bus right into Toby, “Doc! You’re done already? Perfect!”

“Perfect?” The doctor looks suspicious.

“Yes, I’m going to need help installing my latest invention.”

“Invention? Tracey and I are the ones with the inventions around here,” Doctor Cod’s feathers are ruffled.

Toby laughs, “What? You thought Tracey had all the brains of the family?” He pulls out a sheet of glass, “I may be a mechanic, but when I need to relax I make stuff. Like this!”

“That’s glass.”

“No, it GlasSteel.”

“Glass Steel. Well, it’s got a good name, but what’s it do?”

The mechanic smiles, “Nothing.” Dr. Cod looks surprised, so he continues, “It doesn’t break, doesn’t scratch, and it’s easy to clean.”

“Very well, Let’s get it installed right away. How do we cut it down to size?”

Toby scratches his head in embarrassment, “I haven’t gotten that far yet.” They head into the van with a sheet.

Tracey moves down the line until she gets stopped by two robots. At least she thinks they are robots. One is blue and black and the other is black and red. They seem to be arguing. “Um, hello? Is something the matter?”

The black and red one wearing armor shouts to the blue and black one, “I AM NOT A ROBOT! I’m a villain.”

The blue and black one mocks back, “Yeah right. You could have fooled me.” Then in a digitized falsetto voice he adds, “Oh look at me, I’m a scary villain and I ride a dragon.”

Tracey tries to interrupt to get their attention, “Ummm, guys?”

The black and red ‘not robot’ villain turns and storms off in the direction of his dragon. She turns to the black and blue robot. With a nervous smile she sticks out her hand, “Hi. I’m Tracey. One of the other drivers.”

“Hi, I’m tgdriod123. Touch me and your name will be Tina.”

Tracey quickly yanks back her hand. Well, so much for a friendly handshake. More nervous now, “So, uhhh, this is your vehicle?” Being careful not to get anywhere near him, she gestures towards the buggy with the gun on top.

“Yes, this is the Doom Buggy. My co-pilot is doing some upgrades,” he says pointing to a small drode. It’s a small and round ball floating around the ship. Frequently sparks fly as it touches the various parts of the machine.

Carefully bringing her pointing arm back to her side, she smiles at him, “Well, it was nice meeting you. I should go meet some of the rest of the racers.”

He clears his throat and that stops her. His yellow optical receptors flare, “You best be warned. Dark Master is no joker. In the war he was known as the traitor. Be careful.”

“Ok, I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks!” She waves her hand as she heads in the direction the other went. War? What war?

Up ahead she sees the other racer. His eyes are hidden behind the red and black mask. This is a little disconcerting for Tracey. And then she notices he has no vehicle. Wasn’t there a dragon over here? The air is knocked out of her as something grabs her from behind.

When she gets her breath back, she realizes whatever it is that has her is still wrapped around her. She looks down. “Awww, crud. I’m in the air.” She looks down further and sees a large claw holding her. After a moment of panic she spots the red and black masked man standing below. “Ummm, could you get me down from here,” she calls out to the ‘not robot’ man.

“Put her down, boy. Humans are not healthy for your digestive system,” Dark Master calls to the dragon.

“Digestion,” she squeaks as the living transportation sets her back on her feet. “He was going to eat me?”

“Not sure. He’s one of my newest pets.”

Tracey steps around the masked man to put him between her and the beast. “I think we got off on the wrong foot.” She extends her hand, “Hi, I’m Tracey, and I’m one of the other drivers.”

The masked man looks at the hand for a minute then takes his hand out from under his cape and shakes the hand.”Hello. My name is Dark Master, and that misbehaving beast is Mask.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” She looks around for a car or truck, “What are you racing in?”

Tracey finds herself lifted into the air again. This time warm air surrounds her. She twists and turns to verify that indeed she is in the dragon’s mouth. In the process, her shirt rips slightly.”Not again,” she cries.

She watches as Dark Master looks at Mask. “Put her down. I need to get you ready for the race.” Suddenly Tracey is lowered to the ground just as quick as she was picked up. A larger rip appears as a dragon’s tooth works its way free. Tracey looks at her ruined shirt in horror. She looks to Dark Master who says, “Sorry. He must like you.”

“My. My favorite shirt! It’s ruined …” She turns and starts to head back the way she came, “I’m going to have to go get a new one …”

“See you in the race and I am sorry for Mask,” he calls after her.

She waves her hand over her shoulder, “Yeah, see you in the race.” She fingers what’s left of her shirt. After she finishes changing into her wrench logo shirt she heads back. “I know there’s a few more out there to meet.”

The skeevo bird on the cloud floats by announcing, “Attention all drivers! The new starting line will be at Cape Verde. Please move your vehicles there. Attention all drivers! …”

“That’s a group of islands off the coast of Africa.” She flips out her phone and speed dials a number. “Tiny?”

“Speaking.”

“This is Tracey. I need a ride.”

“Are you asking the Navy to transport a civilian?”

“Nope. I’m asking my brother. Please?”

Shuffling footsteps are heard over the phone and then a quiet voice speaks again, “I’ll do what I can, Sis. Where are you?”

“In Hollywood.”

“Ok, I’ll call you back when I got something.” They hang up.

A sudden thought comes to her, “Oh! That’s what Igor was talking about! They are about to go to the islands, too!” While waiting for the call back from her brother, she heads to the next vehicle. It’s a large question mark with a steering wheel on top. Who would drive that? The Riddler, maybe?

There in front of it, apparently adjusting one of the pointy wheels, Tracey finds a casually dressed young man with black hair. She extends her hand and greets, “Hi!”

The man gets up and accidently hits his head on the spikes bottom. “Ow! Hi as well. I’m Ed.” They then shake hands.

“Nice to meet you, Ed. I’m Tracey, one of the other drivers.” She eyes his ride for a minute, “So, why do you drive a question mark? I wouldn’t think that would be very aerodynamic.”

“It’s because it tells me what it’s not doing. After all, it’s meant to blend in. Watch.” He takes out a remote and presses a button. Two more cars appear next to it and the original vanishes. “That, aside from the fact that I ran out of ideas, is your answer. But what about you? I heard you call to someone earlier.”

“Oh, that? I just heard the start of the next race is half way around the world, so I called one of my younger brothers for a lift. I’m waiting for him to get back to me.” She eyes the two exact duplicates of the question mark car. Her scientific curiosity gets the better of her. She reaches out a hand and looks to him, “May I?”

“Sure.”

She puts her hand on one of the wheels and, to her surprise, it feels solid. “Wow.” Then Ed presses another button and her hand suddenly goes through the wheel, causing her to stumble. She quickly regains her balance and remarks, “Amazing!”

“I should explain,” says Ed, as he pulls her out of the hologram of his car, “I can switch a hologram between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ light. Hard light can interact with stuff; soft light can’t.” He then takes a small orb out of his pocket and holds it out towards her. “It’s a holo-projector. Take it as my apology - if you want to of course. Sorry.”

Her eyes widen with surprise, “No apologies are necessary. Thank you!” She takes the orb, “I would love to see how this thing works.” After a moment of fiddling with it, she realizes that she’s not done. She looks back up, “I’ve got one more question. What do you call your vehicle? I’d hate to say, ‘Oh look! There goes that Question Mark car.’”

“It’s called the Incognito. As for the projector, it’s voice activated. Just say what you what it to show and what mode it should be.” Just then, there is a sudden BANG! The hologram cars disappear and the real one reappears with smoke coming out the top. “What a fright! I guess I’d better get back to fixing the car. Nice meeting you.” He holds out his hand.

Tracey shakes his hand, “It was a pleasure to meet you. I look forward to racing you on this leg. See you there!”

As she walks away, her cell phone goes off. “Hello?”

“Sis, head down to the Navy base in San Diego. Your ship is there. Just use my name at the gate and they’ll take you right there.”

“Thanks brother,” she gushes, “You’re the best!” She hangs up and hurries back to the car.

On her way back, she starts to pass the purple Syntax car, and she remembers sweet May. I wonder how they are going to get there. She stops and argues with herself, I’m sure they already have a way there. Then she fights back, But what if they don’t? There’s no harm in asking. The worst they can say is ‘no’. “Fine, I do it,” she whispers to herself.

She calls to the purple vehicle, “Anybody there? May?”

Josh sticks his head out of the driver’s seat compartment he had jury-rigged. “Oh, hey. May’ll be right back. Whatcha need,” he asks.

Suddenly nervous that it’s Josh and not May she asks, “Ummm, do you have transportation to the starting point?”

“We were just gonna drive Syntax over and sell off our spare parts for any spare cash or anything we may need,” Josh answers.

“Oh,” she says a little discouraged. Ask anyway. She sighs at herself and continues, “Well, I was just going to get on our ship to the islands and was wondering if you wanted to join us.”

“Really? Thanks! We’ll surely take that up. Any cash we can save the better. That and I’m not certain how Syntax will handle that long a distance.”

Tracey perks up a bit that her friend May is coming, “Great! I’m going to get Doc and then we are headed out. Come on!”

“Thanks again! I’ll let May know. We’ll be right down,” Josh says.

With a spring in her step, Tracey heads back to the multicolored atrocity she’s going to be racing in. “Doc! Doc!” She stops as she notices something different about the van.

Toby comes around the side, “Hey Sis! What do you think?”

“I think something’s different.”

“That’s my GlasSteel. Completely indestructible and impenetrable.”

She looks impressed, “Sweet!”

He smiles, “I also have another thing for you. Doctor Cod?”

A stiff doctor lurches around the other side with something furry in his hands. “Hamlet!” She takes the hamster out of his hands and he relaxes.

Her brother continues, “I figured you could use a piece of home during the race. His cage is in the van.”

She rushes to her brother and tries to hug him, but realizes she still has the animal. She hands it off to her co-driver who stiffens again. Then she gives her brother a giant bear hug. “Thanks!” She releases them and reclaims her pet, “I’ve got news for the two of you! Tiny arranged for us to sail to the starting point. We just have to get down to San Diego.”

“That’s not far from here,” her brother comments.

“We figured that would be the case when you arrived,” says the doctor, “we’ve loaded up everything including the last two rockets.”

“And I included detailed instructions and materials if you want to hook it up yourself,” her brother adds.

She hugs her brother again, “Thanks again!”

“Feel free to call me if you have any repair questions. Obviously I can’t go with you as I have work here.”

“Will do, Bro!” She turns to the doctor, “Let’s go! We have a ship to catch!”

The engine rumbles to life; a different sound than before. Doctor Cod puts it in gear while Tracey reads the map while sitting on the crate of rockets. Before long the purple floating vehicle falls in behind them.

With Tracey’s careful navigating, they make it to the ship with no problems. As soon as they are on and both vehicles are secured, the boat launches and heads on its long journey.