Chapter 46: Something Happened to Kevin
"ZZZT—!"
The words had barely left McQueen's mouth before a bolt of red electricity crackled off his chassis and drilled straight into Rango's forehead like a targeted strike.
This was another function of the system — the host could absorb a core ability from a summoned creature and make it his own.
The current swallowed Rango whole. Every inch of his skin lit up with crackling crimson light, and the sensation was somewhere between being tasered and grabbing a live wire — he couldn't stop his jaw from clenching, couldn't stop his knees from hitting the floor, couldn't stop the full-body shaking that followed. He rode it out through gritted teeth.
It lasted about ten seconds.
When it was over, white steam curled off his skin in lazy wisps — the kind you'd expect to see rising off someone who'd just taken a super-soldier serum straight to the chest.
Rango checked the system feedback, then turned his eyes toward the estate's front gate — a few hundred meters out. He took a breath.
Then he walked.
Casually at first. One step. Two steps. Three—
And then the world became a smear.
From Carolyn's perspective, the man who had been standing in the middle of the living room simply vanished — and an instant later, materialized at the courtyard gate hundreds of meters away. Then he was back. A crack of displaced air hit her like a shockwave, and the red light trailing off his silhouette left afterimages burned into her vision.
"That's—" Her voice came out smaller than she intended. "That's teleportation. How does a living person do that?"
Rango just smiled and didn't answer.
He rolled his ankle, feeling it out. In the last few seconds — between the system readout and his own quick test run — he'd already mapped the new ability pretty thoroughly.
Compared to [Bear's Taunt] and [Steel Bones], the name of this one was, admittedly, a little on the nose.
[RACE CAR BRAIN]
[While active, the host accelerates from 0 to 60 mph in 1.3 seconds. Maximum speed exceeds 310 mph.]
His first concern had been whether his body could physically survive moving at those speeds — the wind resistance alone at over 300 mph should've been enough to peel skin. But when he'd hit top speed, the red electrical field that erupted off his body had answered that question. It surrounded him like a low-budget version of the Speed Force from The Flash — compressing the air, protecting his body, and slowing his perception of the world around him into something almost manageable.
One caveat: the ability required a short running start before he could hit full acceleration. A few steps minimum.
That was fine. That was more than fine. He'd take that trade every day of the week.
Still riding the high of it, Rango turned back to the living room. Carolyn was hovering near the wall with an expression that suggested she was reconsidering everything she thought she knew about the living. And McQueen — new partner, summoned Pixar car, still technically inexplicable — was watching him from across the room, those enormous animated eyes on his windshield blinking slowly with open curiosity.
"Hey! Buddy!"
Rango walked over, grinning, one hand already coming up—
And stopped.
Right. No hands.
WHAM.
The driver's side door flew open. Fast and proud.
Rango laughed and brought his palm down hard on the door panel in a solid slap. Same energy. Close enough.
"Master—"
"Hey." Rango cut him off. He leaned against the roof, bending down so they were at eye level. "Don't do that. Seriously. From here on out, we're partners. Friends. You want to go as far as family, I'm not going to stop you." He shook his head. "But not master. We're not doing that."
"Call me Rango. Got it?"
McQueen stared at him. Blinked once. Then his giant grin stretched even wider.
"Got it, Rango!"
"Ha." Rango patted the hood. "I already like you, kid."
He pulled on rubber gloves, wrapped himself up, and got to work clearing out the manor's hidden room.
Two large crates of antique oil paintings. Three heavy boxes of gold coins and jewelry — the kind of thing that would make an appraiser's hands shake. All of it carried out and lined up in the morning sun.
According to Carolyn, properly auctioned, the collection would've brought in a number that required scientific notation.
The problem: they'd been stored too close to that fist-sized chunk of Plutonium-239 for too long. The internal composition of every piece had been compromised — enough residual radiation to fail any legitimate auction house inspection on the planet.
He'd have to find private buyers. Old money. The kind of people who asked fewer questions and owned their own Geiger counters out of habit.
He was loading the first crate onto the bed of Teddy's pickup — a massive, lifted truck that looked like it ate smaller trucks for fuel — when he heard wheels rolling across the gravel behind him.
McQueen had followed him out.
"Why are you putting stuff on her?"
Rango looked up. "On the truck?"
"On the truck!" McQueen circled the pickup in a slow, reverent lap, his eyes going wide. "Rango. Look at her. That rear bumper. Those headlights — perfectly round, crystal clear. That exhaust setup—" He let out a low, awed sound. "She is enormous. She is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life."
Rango stared at him for a moment.
"...You know you're literally Lightning McQueen, right? Like. The Lightning McQueen?"
"I don't see how that's relevant when this is standing right in front of me."
Fair enough. Rango pinched the bridge of his nose. "Okay. When we get back to the city, you'll have the whole garage to yourself. But right now I need to load these boxes."
"Rango." McQueen's tone shifted — helpful now, businesslike. "You don't have to do it that way."
Then he opened his mouth.
Not like a car opening its hood. Like a creature opening its mouth — bumper dropping, a wide dark cavity yawning open behind it, deep and lightless.
Rango walked forward slowly. Crouched. Leaned his head in and looked.
Pitch black. No visible back wall.
"That's new," he said.
"Tell me about it." McQueen sounded genuinely philosophical about it. "I woke up with it when you summoned me. No idea where it came from, but it's mine. The space inside seems — big. Really big. I figured it could help."
"You feel anything when stuff goes in there?"
"Nothing. It's like it stops existing inside me. Like it went sideways into somewhere else."
Rango stood up and was quiet for a second.
Then he went back into the villa at a full sprint — crackling with red sparks, gone and back in under four seconds — and returned with the sealed wooden crate containing the Plutonium-239, double-wrapped and handled with both hands.
"Alright. If you feel anything — heat, pressure, nausea, I don't care what — you spit it out immediately. Yeah?"
"Yeah."
Rango tossed it in.
McQueen worked his jaw thoughtfully — the car equivalent of chewing — then settled. "Nothing. Genuinely nothing. Can't feel it at all."
Rango exhaled.
Then he started throwing everything else in. Crates, boxes, paintings, all of it — straight into McQueen's storage cavity until the courtyard was clean.
This kid's going to make every future job considerably easier.
He was dusting off his gloves and quietly appreciating how well the morning had gone when his phone buzzed in his pocket.
He glanced at the screen. Smiled.
"Hey, Megan."
"Rango!" Her voice came through tight and fast, the way it only did when things had already gone wrong. "Kevin's been grabbed — Dominic's crew has him. I need you here now."
[500 Power Stones → +1 Bonus Chapter]
[10 Reviews → +1 Bonus Chapter]
Enjoyed the chapter? A review helps a lot.
P1treon: Soulforger (20+advance chapters)