A few years earlier.

"Wow, Dusty, I can't believe it. An artic Wings Around the Globe Rally?"

"I know, Dottie. It sounds...."

"Cool, amazing, treacherous, awesome?" Chug chimed in.

"...Terrifying. I mean, the Himalayas were bad enough last time." Dusty shuddered at the thought of the bright train headlights speeding towards him.

"Well, I mean, you've always got the Iron Compass." Dottie shot Chug a nasty look.

"Chug..." Skipper started.

"But right now, Dusty doesn't have time to worry about that. Right now, he needs to get his propellor over to New York before registration is closed." Dusty paused, eyes widening. He glanced up at the clock.

"Oh, shoot, I gotta go." Panicking slightly, he taxied backwards frantically, accidentally tipping over a tower of oil in the process. "Bye Dottie, Chug, Skipper." Skipper watched with amusement as Dusty took off in a hurry. The little plane had plenty of time, Dottie had just sent him off to distract him from that dreaded leg. Chug sped past him and onto the runway, yelling his goodbyes after the plane.

~~~

"W-wait, what do you mean "I'm early?"

"Well, Mr. Scandenavian, racers don't need to be here until 5:00 today. Your tent just ain't ready."

"Well, what am I supposed to do until then?"

"Well, how am I supposed to know? I ain't your activities guide, explore the airport, don't ask me." The race official, pointed one of his lifter arms towards the where the tents were being constructed. Skeptical, Dusty slowly made his way into the area, trying his absolute hardest to dodge the debris and tools that littered the area but running over the occasional wrench or sheet and metal, flinching slightly at the worker's yell. The blur of colors that coordinated with the different racer's paint jobs sped through his vision, to him, it reminded him of almost a city of racers. All the vibrant colors messed with his eyes, overwhelming them. He sped up, keeping his vision focused on the exit from the tent area, where the training course was. It was a new feature, to let the racers have a little practice time before the race.

He recognized it the second he saw it. If front of him lay a large lush green field, and in it's hold, it held large pylon cones, very much like the ones in the qualifying round, which he hadn't had to pass, since this was a race of only racing veterans from the previous race. A runway cut clean through the middle. Small bleachers lined the sides of the lawn, for racers waiting their turn to watch.

Which apparently, he would have to do, since it was already occupied. As he examined the short grass, a shadow suddenly darkened the field, passing over briefly. Her eyes flew to the sky, where the underbelly of a female plane passed overhead. She continued over until the edge of the field, where she did a sharp 180 turn, knifing the lawn, and passing cleanly through the cones. Dusty's mouth fell, any sort of plane would not have been able to make that turn. Immediately afterwards, she spun, twirling in sharp turns. Stopping her twists suddenly, she turned her nose up, and performed a loop as if it had been performed thousands of times before.

"Woah...." Unknowingly, Dusty had unconsciously made himself onto the runway, still keeping his eyes on the plane. They watched as she flipped once more, as she took a hard radial-g pass, as her landing gear came down, as she lined herself up to land...

"WATCH OUT!" Her voice snapped him out of his trance, and he screamed as he realized he was right in her landing path, and he wheeled himself as quickly as he could off the runway. She missed him by a millisecond, he could feel the wind coming from her on his propellor. Her brakes squealed as she drifted to the side, yelling in distress. Stopping a little to suddenly, she tipped slowly, coming to a rest on the tip of her smooth wing.

"Oh, my gosh, I am so sorry." Rapidly, he taxid towards her, mumbling his apology.

"Oh.....my head gasket...." She mumbled, nearly incoherently. Dusty rushed over, leaning his wing under hers and propping it up until she tipped upright. Her squinted eyes slowly fluttered opened revealing deep purple eyes that slowly turned to a deep blue, like a cold winters night, but with a sense of warmth in them. They were unlike any eyes Dusty had ever seen, and they seemed to captivate his gaze. Supernatural...

Now, of course, if you were any reasonable plane, if you woke up to see two blue eyes staring intently into yours, of course, you'd be freaked out.

So, it came to no surprise to Dusty when she jumped back suddenly, groaning as pain seared through her head.

"Hey, I'm so sorry, are you ok?" He rolled forward, worried for the plane's wellbeing. It was here that he got a good look at her

She was unlike anything he had ever seen. She was white with blue and purple swirls adorning her paint job. She was about the same size as Dusty, maybe smaller. What fascinated him were her wings. They began like any other wings, shooting straight out, but halfway out, they angled sharply backwards. They didn't jet straight out, like normal planes did. At the edges, they were curved upwards, and as much as he searched, he saw no flaps. She had a blue and purple propellor in the back, with golden tips. The propellor was interesting as well, as it, too, was unlike any other propellor he had seen. The individual sticks didn't shoot straight out, like he did. Instead, they curved to the left, nearly touching the next one, but curving back outwards at the end. He saw no pipes where the smoke from her engine would escape, nor did he see a control panel.

"What....?" He grew so fascinated with her that he didn't notice her sneaking away slowly, not until she was out of sight and he found himself staring at the lush green grass instead.

"Erm....Dusty, what are you looking at?" Dusty jumped at the familiar Spanish-accented voice.

"Is that the best compadre I hear behind me?" He spun rapidly, only to meet up with his best friend on the race track. "El CHU!"

"Hola Dusty!"

~~~

From the shadows of the bleachers, the plane watched as Dusty and the Spanish rolled away from the training field, chatting away. She smiled, unintentionally. Well, at least the orange one had forgotten about her.

He was so weird.

Slowly she turned and began to taxi deeper into the shadows of the bleachers.

But not before Dusty glanced back, and caught a glimpse of her stabilizers, which matched the design on her wing.