Another Universe

Chapter 3: Something Important

As it was getting into the evening the next day, Holley was running some checks on her computer screen, Finn was staring off into space in thought and Jenny was using her phone. She tested the signal by sending a text to her mother saying something simple like 'Hi', but a few seconds passed before the caption, 'failed to send' appeared underneath it. She was in an entirely different dimension, so of course the signal wouldn't be compatible with her phone. Holley and Finn had decided to let Jenny stick around with them to protect her and hopefully he'll her find a way home. 

But most notably of all, Jenny still couldn't believe she'd fallen into Cars 2! Her most favourite movie out of anything ever in the universe! If she ever got back home, she couldn't tell anyone else about this for fear of people thinking of her as insane or something, but this was definitely something that'd be stuck in her memory for ages. 

That evening, she noticed that it was the night of the first World Grand Prix race, and therefore she'd arrived last night on the night of the Tokyo Art Museum party. 

"Wait... oh god! Oh god!" Jenny exclaimed to herself upon realising what night it was at that moment in time, because the night of the first WGP race also involved something else right before the start of the race. 

"What's wrong, Jenny?" Asked Finn, noticing this. 

"I remembered something important! Something from the movie that happens tonight!" 

"The first race?" Said Holley. 

"No, something else! Holley, do you know the quickest way to the Tokyo docks?" 

"Hang on." And then Holley brought up a map of Tokyo on her computer screen and plotted the quickest way to the docks. The path was highlighted in red against the pale green background of the map. "Yes, I've plotted the quickest route." 

"Why? What happens tonight?" Said Finn. 

"Basically, if we don't get to the docks soon, a man is going to die. A good man. And I really don't wanna let that happen. I'd never forgive myself." 

Finn took a few seconds to decide what to do before saying, 

"Alright then. I'll let you go to the docks to prevent this death you're talking about. Holley will go with you. But please, just be careful." His bright turquoise eyes met with Jenny's own icy-blue eyes, and for a moment, everything seemed even more surreal for Jenny. "You're just a child, so just like how you'd never forgive yourself for letting this man die, I'd also never forgive myself if anything happened to you." 

"Thanks, Finn." They both exchanged a smile. "For letting me do this and for worrying about my safety." 

About half an hour later, Jenny and Holley were both at the docks, sneakily creeping past the battleships that guarded it when need be. Jenny found it even more exhilarating that they were creeping around in the dark, and what they were about to try and do added to this effect. 

"Look out." Holley whispered as a search light came sweeping in their direction, and Jenny managed to silently back away out of its reach just in time, holding her breath for a moment or 2. 

"So what's the plan again?" Jenny whispered back. 

"We sneak up to the place you mentioned, I remotely deactivate all power inside with a pulse from my computer, and while the lights are off, you rescue the man you told us about and I'll distract his captors, then we'll get out of there as soon as possible." 

"Sounds simple enough." 

Within moments, the duo had arrived at the building where it was all happening. Where Rod 'Torque' Redline was being held by the Lemons. 

"Wait, so how are we gonna do this? Do we count to 3 and then do it?" Asked Jenny. 

"Yes, that's what we'll do. On the count of 3, I'll disable all the power inside and then we dash in. It'll be dark so there's a good chance they won't see us, and once you've rescued the man, tell me by stomping loudly twice." Replied Holley. "On my mark..." She brought up the hacking screen on her remote computer, and Jenny readied herself to run in through a gap they'd found. "1,... 2,... 3!" 

And then there was a hum as the power inside was cut off, and Jenny ran inside as fast as possible before she could hesitate. 

"Huh? What's goin' on Professor? Why's the power out?!" One of the Lemons demanded. Probably Acer. 

"I don't know! You should have checked everything!" Came the yell with a German accent. 

"We did!" 

"What the-" Grem began to say before there was the sound of metal clashing as Holley distracted the Lemons by fighting them. Just as she'd predicted, it was dark, so they couldn't see who she was. 

Jenny groped around in the dark for a few seconds while Holley fought the Lemons, until she managed to feel metal. Hot and slightly damaged metal. 

"Huh-?!" Came a startled voice from next to her when Jenny felt the metal. Rod Redline's voice. The sound of gunfire where Holley fought off the Lemons was pretty loud, but Jenny managed to make a shushing noise to calm Rod down just for the time being. He stayed silent while Jenny felt her way through the dark to the other side of him, and she disconnected the Allinol fuel pump and, after a fair bit of fiddling, released the parking boots from Rod's tires. 

"This way. Can you make it to the other end of the room?" Jenny asked him quietly. 

"I think so." Rod muttered back, his voice still sounding as if he was in pain from what the camera did to him. Jenny stomped loudly twice as the signal to Holley, then quickly got out of there with Rod and waited for Holley, who appeared a few seconds later. The 3 of them hid in a quiet corner of the docks. 

"Thanks, you guys. I really apprecia-" Rod began to say, until he managed to see Jenny from what little light that was cast on them, and his mouth dropped open slightly and his eyes grew wide at the sight of her.

 Jenny had an equal crush on both him and Finn, and would NEVER be able to decide between them, and on top of that, she also had an equally giant crush on Rod's voice actor, Bruce Campbell, who she had seen in other things such as Burn Notice and Alien Apocalypse. 

"Who are you?" He asked them.

 "I'm Holley Shiftwell. This is Jenny, and she's a human from a dimension parallel to ours who ended up in our own universe by accident." 

"Nice to meet ya both. My name's Rod Redline, but my friends just call me Torque. Sorry about the reaction a second ago, Jenny. I was just a little surprised, that's all, and thanks for saving me. I mean it." He tried to smile through the remnants of the pain he was currently in. "But how did you know where to find me?" 

"Back in my own dimension, you're a character in a movie called Cars 2, and what would've happened a minute ago is a scene in that movie, save for me and Holley's appearances.

"Huh. Never realised I was a movie star!" He chuckled. "But what do we do now?" 

"First, you seem like those cars did many unspeakable things to you, Mr Redline," Answered Holley. "So we'll make our way back to a friend of ours back in Tokyo where we can repair you and then decide from there." 

"Can you make it there?" Said Jenny. 

"Yeah. I believe I can. We'd better get outta here quick before those guys start lookin' for me, though."