Cathy's Race

Cathy's Race is the sixteenth chapter in the Wombles Eight.

In LA Constantine had started to look for Mother, Father and Dr Fate. Cathy was left with Dom and his street racing crowd. “Just how fast are you Queenie?” asked Dom. “Let’s just say faster than you ever seen. And I always run fast.” Cathy replied. “OK Queenie. You wanna race then you’re gonna need a car. I don’t race metas” said Dom. “I don’t have a car!” snapped Cathy. “I’ll make you a deal. I got a car but it needs work. You fix it up and it’s yours” replied Dom rather more calmly. “OK I like fast cars let’s see it” Cathy said, warming to the street scene.

They went into Dom’s garage. Dom pulled the big power switch and it lit up brightly. There was every tool and trick an engineer could think of. Hundreds of parts and tools lined up along the walls. Dom pointed at the Bentley. “It’s yours but you gotta fix my ride to have it.” Dom said. “No problem” said Cathy who rapidly fixed Dom’s car. Just when Dom was going to comment on that she rebuilt the Bentley complete with spoiler, nitro boosters, roll cage and full racing suspension then resprayed it to orange with black flames along the sides.

The street racing crowd were amazed. One of them said “That Queenies fast!”. Another had taken a video. They made it run in slow motion then added the slower footage to the end of the full speed. It quickly became viral. People everywhere were saying “That Queenies fast!”.

“Nice ride” said Dom. “Let’s race” replied Cathy. They both roared out of the garage to the start line.

Meanwhile Steed had arrived at Steed Industries. His phone beeped. It was a Facebook post from Bungo. Steed opened it and saw Cathy in a garage fixing a big black muscle car then rebuilding Mother’s Bentley into a muscle car. “What is she doing?” he said to himself. “Mummy’s racing!” said a small voice behind him. He turned around. “Lucy!” he said scooping up his daughter and hugging her. “Daddy!” said Thomas appearing from behind Johnny. “Surprise bro!” said Johnny. Walter walked in. “Sorry to spoil the party but we have business to discuss.”

“Drinks International Everywhere” said Steed. “Precisely” replied Walter. “Bro we already have the factories ready to rock!” chimed in Johnny. “You went ahead before the boards decision?” asked Walter incredulously. “Sure boring dude” replied Johnny. “Do we need him?” asked Steed. “Nope” replied Johnny. They looked at each other knowingly then Steed knocked Walter out. Johnny wrote Walter’s letter of resignation stating that all his shares go to Thomas and Lucy.

Steed called security. “Hello Mr Steele has decided to leave the company and is now banned from any company property. Please collect him and dump him in the street.”  “Sure thing Mr Steed” replied the head of security. A squad arrived to take Walter. The head of security herself came to oversee Walter being dragged by his feet through the building. She threw him into the revolving door, spun it round then the unconscious Walter flew out into the road. He landed with a thump.

At the Batcave Batman was very close to killing Superman. Superman looked Bruce in the eyes. “You are not this person. Bruce I know the real you is in there! Please close the door. Do it for the team! We are the only thing most of England has to protect it from villains!” Clark pleaded. Bruce looked suddenly remorseful and slammed the panel shut. Superman breathed a sigh of relief and got to his feet.

Clark asked “Well now you’re back buddy I’ll need to rest. Can I stay while you look after London?”  “Of course Clark, I, I don’t know what came over me. You can stay but honestly I still need the cave. Some idiot with gold chains told everybody in Wiltshire where my new cave is and invited them in.” replied Bruce. Batman got into his Batmobile and sped out just as the Flash was running by.

The Flash accidentally ran the Batmobile to LA. Batman looked around. There were a lot of colourful cars and people showing off. “You here to race?” said one of the people. “Race?” repeated Batman confused. “What do you mean?”  “Oh, well look what we have here.” said a muscular bald man walking up to the Batmobile. “  A super hero who got lost in the streets of the city. Well, now it’s your choice if you’re going to race or not. But if you do, know one thing. You’re either with us or you’re not. Ride or die.”  “Nobody dies today! I’m taking you down!” Batman snapped. The bald man smirked, “But you’ve got no authority here. So if you’ve come to arrest us-“  “I haven’t! But I’ll take you down just the same!” replied Batman. “Well then, make your choice” replied the bald man. “Ride!” declared Batman. The rest of the crowd fell silent, then the bald man slammed shut his car door. “Let’s race!” he said, and got in. So did a familiar woman in a big orange custom Bentley.

“Are you ready!” shouted a blonde woman who was standing in front of their cars. The bald man revved his car to show off. It gave out a throaty roar. “Three, two, one, go!” shouted the blonde. The bald man roared away level with Batman. Cathy cut into the first bend ahead.

The trio screeched into a busy street against the traffic. They all dodged the oncoming cars and took another hairpin bend. Now the police were on their tails. Cathy was still holding on in front when a man crossed the road. She skidded to avoid him. When she looked over to see he was OK the man shouted at her. “Cathy? Why are you driving my car? Are you trying to kill me?” shouted Mother. Cathy concentrated on the race. Batman and Dom had already screeched away to the turn.

Cathy put her pedal to the metal and screamed after them releasing the nitro after turning for home. Batman was ahead. Dom was biding his time. Cathy stormed past Dom to draw level with Batman. “Too early” said Dom holding back. The finish line came into sight. Batman was sure of victory and pushed hard for the line. Too hard! His pistons blew with a resounding bang. Cathy was nearly at the line but Dom had kicked in the Nitro now! The two cars scorched to the line with Dom just a fraction ahead. “Now it’s my ride” Dom said walking up to the Bentley. “But you just gave it to me!” snapped Cathy. “To race and the winner takes the ride” replied Dom. “I only lost by an inch!” retorted Cathy. “It doesn’t matter whether you win by an inch or a mile, winning is winning” was Dom’s reply.