Fear Tech Stories: Kings of the Road

In the mansion's garage, Speedy had managed to salvage an old dragster chassis from the local junkyard, and was doing some fixes on it, this was one of the rare few moments where Speedy was actually doing something productive instead of being a lazy jerk.

A set of footsteps can be heard, and a shadow comes over the mechanic ghost, with him coming out from under; it was Dawn, a dust devil and one of the bandits and a surprisingly good friend of the fire ghost, "Ya called for me?" she asked him.

Speedy came out from underneath and got up, covered in oil, "Yeah I did Dawn, found this old junker and was fixing it up, ya mind helping?" he asked, Dawn nodded and, knowing what to do, passed him car parts while he worked on the engine, "What got ya into this anyway?" Dawn asked, Speedy unusually did a sigh, not sounding happy.

"Well Dawn, I'm gonna be deep with ya..." he started, "Back before the Fear Tech days, while I was still flesh n' blood, I was in the street racing game, and like any rookie going up the ranks, I came out on top, at the height of my game though, something bad happened..." Dawn knelt down to hear what he wanted to say here.

"On my last race, the one that claimed my life, I did a race with this up-and-comer racer named Vic, guy had a lot of blue on him and an ice motif to his car, but was rather confident he could beat me, even stated that I couldn't 'cross the line before he went to another country'." he said, the dust devil listening to this story like a little kid to their grandparent's story.

"He got to me though and it actually was the main reason I lost my life; during the race I slipped up and crashed my car, my body destroyed in the explosion, I think he must've been affected by the explosion too because he crashed into a truck," he then said, "but still, I wonder what happened to him...", "Sounds like he was a jerk anyway if he was like that." Dawn said, this did raise a good question to Speedy as he wondered what happened to his former racing rival...
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Meanwhile in the dark streets of Guicheng, at an obscure chop shop, two familiar people approached the building; these two were none other than King Crush and Julia, "Are you sure this is the right place, KC?" Julia asked the faux king, "I am more than certain, I cross-referenced his last-known location from the computer's database, this is it." he replied, as the two went inside.

Inside, the two found a guy working on a car, removing specific parts off of it and setting them into a tray, "Hey grease-monkey, what's this human tech?" Julia asked the mechanic, who came out from underneath; he had hair like he was from a videogame, but the main point was that his arm was solid ice, "I ain't just a grease-monkey, ya yuppie, I'm tha best mechanic this here side of the town, and this 'human tech' is a car." he said, sounding a bit snarky, Julia was tempted to punch him, but KC stopped her by grabbing her wrist.

"We're looking for a racer named Vic, the guy who raced Speedy in that one race?" KC said, triggering a nerve in the mechanic as he grabbed the android by the neck with the ice arm, "Ya'll never mention that hot-headed idiot's name in 'ere, ya hear?!" he firmly said, KC nodded, and the mechanic did so, "Anyway we found him, and, if you are willing to listen, then perhaps-" he started.

Before he could even finish it, "Deal! DEAL! Double Deal! Anything to get that punk fire ghost in his place!" he said, "Good, firstly if you didn't comply I would've 'given' you to that cyborg, Mayuree, as a present, and secondly, you never even said your name." KC replied, "Just call me Slick..."
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Back at the mansion, Kerri, Wilson, Fear and Fiona were getting annoyed with the noise Speedy and Dawn were making in the garage, "You better quit with the noise, Jeremy," Fear said, "It is being disruptive to the others and even the neighbors have complained to me about your actions.", "Quit calling me Jeremy, and I'm trying to get my hobby done ya know!" Speedy replied, offended to being called by his real name, the others were getting frustrated since this was actually the 10th time he had denied stopping, and headed back into the mansion itself to try and focus.

After a solid hour, an ice-coated cruiser comes up to the mansion, the driver tosses a snowball at Fear's office window, which unusually breaks it, and after he is heard yelling, he quickly rushes down to the garage, and, thinking Speedy was responsible for it, pulls him from under the car and slams him against the wall.

"WHAT DID I TELL YOU!?" Fear angrily said, Speedy got afraid, knowing all too well what would happen if Fear's demonic nature was to come out, "I didn't even do anything, what are you talking about?!" he yelled back, "You threw a chunk of ice through my window" he screamed back, "I don't even like the cold, you of all people should've known that!" Speedy then said, trying to get out of his grasp.

Fear then calmed down and let go, "Sorry, just so used to you being the troublemaker around here, but I thought too much when you said you don't like the cold..." he said, "But someone had come up and started throwing hail through the windows." he added on, with the two looking towards the icy car, "I recognize that trawler..." Speedy said, for once sounding worried.

At this moment, a guy came out of the car, "Yo Speedy, ya'll better come out here!" he said, "Do you know that guy?" Fear asked the fire ghost, "Of course I do, that guy's a complete nut!" he said, and in a fit of anger, quickly came up to him.

When they met face to face, they started causing a commotion that brought a lot of the local residents around them, among them including Trapper and Kerri, "What's going on here daddy?" Kerri asked him, "Speedy apparently knows that ice ghost." he replied.

"I thought ya went to tha scrapheap in tha sky, Jerry." the ice ghost said, "I never did, you stupid walking freezer, Slick!" Speedy replied in anger, "oh, so now I'm a walkin' freezer, 'least I wasn't the one dumb enough to drive into the wall!" he yelled back, resulting in the two fighting, and it took Kerri to split the two up, "You two better stop it!" she said between them, "I ain't stoppin' 'til he admits I'm tha fast one!" Slick said, "And I ain't stopping until he quits harrassing me over this!" Speedy said.

Kerri, getting annoyed, came up with a quick idea, "How about you two just do a quick race around the dust devil caves?" she said, the two surprisingly agreed to this, but Slick ruined it, "I'm in, but ya better offer more than yer car!" Slick said, "Fine, if I win, you admit you're not fast, if you win, you get the Fear Tech mansion!" Speedy said in the heat of the moment, shocking a lot of the crowd, but getting the ire of Fear again...

"Deal!" Slick quickly said, and got into his car, "You and me, the entrance, in 6 hours!" Slick said before he drove off, everyone gave the fire ghost a dirty look for what he blurted out, but if everyone paid attention, King Crush would've been seen in the crowd, smiling gleefully.
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As a result of this bet, Speedy had spent the next three hours tinkering with his 'new' car's body, reattaching new parts and fixing up the old parts, as Kerri came in.

"This is perhaps the dumbest thing you have ever done Speedy..." she said, "Hey, don't blame me if he got under my skin like that, you'd have done the same thing!" Speedy retorted from underneath, "At least I'm not letting a psychopath with an ice-coated arm." he added on, staying focused.

Kerri however felt that something was off about this race; she had read about Speedy's death being a car crash, as well as Slick's, but after all this time, why would the ice ghost appear now and challenge him to a race for the mansion?

"You better let me help you." she said to the fire ghost, "You joking right?" he replied, "Nope, I'm serious." she said, "Guessing you've seen what that slimeball's gonna do to this place." he then said, as with Kerri's help, the progress of the car went smoothly for the next three hours, just as the race was about to start...
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At the starting line, Slick was waiting there in his ice-coated cruiser, with half the town watching, as well as the police officers waiting to arrest the winner, "Guess tha fire ghost's more of a roast chicken!" Slick said, before Speedy in his car turned up; a red-hot dragster-style vehicle, "And guess who's here to heat up the race!" he yelled from the driver's seat, "You in position Speedy?" Kerri said to him via a hidden earpiece in his helmet, with the fire ghost giving a resounding "Yes." to her.

Slick however spoke to someone via a radio, "Is everything set, Slick?" someone said, "Yup boss, I race tha fire ghost, and ya take out Speedy while they're distracted, right?" he said into it, "correct, and this is crucial; you MUST win this race!" the voice added on, "I know..." Slick replied before shutting the radio off.

Steamworx held the starting flag, "3...2..." she started, as both Speedy and Slick rev their cars, "Dang, this thing purrs just like Bubblegum's spaceship..." Speedy said quietly to himself, "1...go!" Steamworx yelled, with both racers driving into the cavern's maw.

If anyone would've noticed, they would've seen King Crush watching this race as well, holding a radio communicator.
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Already halfway into the race, both of the ghosts were at equals, and neither were willing to give up easy, Slick however did a dirty trick and rammed into Speedy's car, intending to total it.

"You maniac, you're gonna get us killed again!" Speedy yelled, "I don't care, and what did ya think took you out all them years ago?!" Slick yelled, this struck a note with Speedy; he had never crashed out during the race that claimed his life, Slick had actually bumped his car enough to cause it to crash, at the cost of his own life!

"You cowardly trickster, you really killed me!" Speedy yelled, Slick just disturbingly gave a gleeful smile, "Well worth it!" he screamed back, "Well you're not winning this time!" Speedy yelled back as he started speeding up, leaving Slick in the dust, he however turned the radio back on, "Your call KC, he's sped up too fast." he said into it.

As Speedy neared the edge of the cave and to the finish line, the roof suddenly exploded and started to cave in, making the fire ghost bob and weave through the falling rubble, and noticing a purple blur moving across the roof, and knew what that meant as well, speeding up even more faster and passing the blur, and flying out the cave maw.
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At the finish line, Speedy stopped and the officers were about to arrest him, as Slick's car came through as well, though visibly Slick was furious and got out his car, with the fire ghost getting out as well, "You lost Slick, I'll always be faster than you." Speedy said to him, Slick however was beyond furious now.

"You think I'll admit you're the faster one?!" Slick yelled, "No way I'm admitting that, and I even got that King Crush guy to even make my car the fastest thing in the city!" he then blurted out, getting everyone's attention, Slick then realised what he just said and tried to back away from the crowd, but someone grabbed him.

"You know Slick, you should've never said I was the mind behind this idea..." King Crush had said, and Julia was behind him, before the trio managed to escape.

"I bet King Crush put him upto this in the first place to try and get his hands on the mansion's technology." Kerri said, "Yeah but it felt good to race again..." Speedy said, before Blume slapped some cuffs on his wrists, "Win or lose Speedy, you're under arrest for street racing." she said, before hauling him off to jail.
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Back in KC's factory, at the throne room, King Crush was adressing his lieutenants.

"That plan didn't work," Slick said, "You don't say?" King Crush said before approaching him and hitting him across the head, "Clearly I didn't help you enough, but it doesn't end..." he added on, with both of them looking towards him slightly confused.

"I have somehow found a swamp in the middle of the desert, no idea how it's there, but I found something interesting from one of my earlier schemes, and I figure it's about time we investigate what is there..." he said, the trio, now with Slick on board, prepared to make their trek.

What do they have planned this time?...and what is it that was hidden at the swamp...?