Author's Note: Yep. I changed my pen name from Racer V to kira-kira katsu. It's Japenese for glittering/shining triumph. Anyway, this is an AU story. Speed Jr.'s POV. What would have happened if the Committee had figured out where Speed was before he came to the Academy? Lite Fingers Clepto, Jr. and his adopted son, Wilbur, are both mentioned, so if you think it should be in the crossover section then please review and say so.

Disclaimer: I don't own Speed Racer: The Next Generation.
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I got out of the black sedan that looked very government-like. Technically speaking, it was government property. It belonged to Jedediah Stroke. He was a social worker. He had been driving me back to the orphanage after one of the few potential foster parents that ever paid any attention to me had sent me away. This was not the first time I'd been rejected. The conversation Jed and I had in the car kept playing itself over and over in my head...

"That was my last chance, wasn't it?" I said. I stared blankly out of the window of the passenger seat.

"I don't know."

"Yes, you do. You've placed dozens of kids. You know when someone's last chance is." I retorted grimly.

"That probably was your last chance. But it's hard to tell. If it was, it's just because of your age. Everyone wants to adopt-"

"Babies." I finished. "Lucky them." I mumbled under my breath.

I walked up the stairs to the front door of the Clepto Orphanage, followed by Jed. He was the one who knocked on the door. I just stared blankly at the ground. Wilbur Clepto opened the door.

"Come on in." He said. He'd been through this enough times to know not to try and ask me the questions. He waited until I was upstairs and in my room to ask Jedediah. My roommate, Skippy (named after the peanut butter brand because he couldn't get enough of the stuff) was at school, and probably wouldn't be back for another ten minutes. This gave me time to take the worst of the grief.

I sighed, and flopped down on my bed. Two days. Two days, and they had already tired of me. Normally it would take a week. There was one couple who had kept me for a whole summer. I'd had ten foster parents, not counting the Hendersons, who had only kept me for a few hours, and I was sixteen. When Jed tells people he's trying to place someone who's sixteen, people think he's crazy.

Once you hit seven, the potential for getting adopted starts to slim. I've got about a 0% chance now. I buried myself under the covers , like I always did when I was upset. I heard the front door slam. Skippy and about twelve other kids were back from school. Skippy was the only one who had a room this high up, so at least I wouldn't have to answer too many questions. I'd probably go to a fast food place for dinner just to avoid conversation. I sat up and tried to look fine as I heard Skippy running up the hall.

"Speed? What are you.... oh." Even though he was only six, Skippy was pretty good at reading expressions, or at least mine.

"That was probably my last chance." I said, just to make my point. I envied Skippy. He'd only been at the orphanage for a year. But, at the save time I felt sorry for him. He had lost his parents at a very young age. His full name is Samuel Joseph Smith. Despite his short time at the orphanage, he knew what being rejected by foster parents was like.

"Want some peanut butter?" Skippy offered me a jar of peanut butter from his 'secret stash' that he kept underneath a loose floorboard. How he got that many peanut butter jars was beyond me.

"Sure." I said, even though I wasn't hungry. The last time I had turned down peanut butter in front of Skippy had not been pretty. Peanut butter to him was just as important as racing was to me. Just as I was about to stick a spoonful in my mouth when I heard Wilbur yell;

"Speed? Could you come down here, please?"

"Wonder what that's about." I said to Skippy. I stood up and walked downstairs. Wilbur was standing in his office with two bald men in black suits, black neckties, and black sunglasses. One was extremely pale, and the other had light brown skin.

"Speed, these men are social workers. They're going to take you to another children's home that's geared more towards teenagers."

"Okay." I didn't object. Anywhere but here sounded good to me. "I'll go get my bag." I walked upstairs, grabbed my still-packed backpack, told Skippy what was going on, and walked back downstairs.

"Good luck, Speed. Bye." Wilbur said.

"Bye." The two men walked me outside. I glanced around, trying to look for their car. All I could find was a black van with windows that were so tinted you couldn't see inside. They started to lead me towards it. Something felt wrong. Social workers usually drove more compact cars than a van, and when they did drive vans, they certainly weren't as old as this one. It was in the classic boxy shape and everything. They opened the back doors. I gasped, and my eyes widened. The inside of the van was void of any type of seating other that the driver's seat and the passenger seat, which had glass (probably soundproof) that was separating the front from the back, but that's not what had me wanting to kick butt. Inside was a kid who only looked about a year older than me. His hands were tied behind his back. He had green eyes, brown hair, and was wearing green pants and a grey shirt. I couldn't see his entire right arm, but it looked like it had a tatoo on it. He said nothing.

"Drop the backpack. Scream, and you both die right here." One of the men said. I dropped the backpack.. Somebody immeadiatly tied my hands behind my back.

"Get in." The other one said in a light New Jersey accent. I did. They tossed in my backpack. Probably just to make my kidnapping look less obvious. The door shut behind me, and the men got in the front. I was so stunned by what was going on that I forgot to sit down. I fell with a thud when the van started moving. That's when I saw the tatoo. It was in the shape of an X.

"You're X Racer, aren't you?" I asked, just to make sure.

"Yeah. And you are?" X Racer was asking me my name. Great. Just great.

"........Speed....." I said after a good minute of thinking about whether or not I should lie.

"Really? Why'd your parents name you that? Or is it just a nickname?" X asked.

"It's not a nickname...." Now or never.... I thought. "And... I don't know my parents. I grew up in an orphanage. All I know is that they left me with a key and a red bandana." I decided to try to get into an upright position. Luckily, I had tried to sit up with my hands tied back before (when I was six, I wanted to see if it could be done), so I did it without looking like an idiot.

"I'm sorry." X said.

"Don't be." Nobody else really seemed to care, except mabye Skippy and Wilbur, but I decided not to mention this. I wondered what was going to happen next. And what any of it had to do with me.

Author's Note: OH NO!!! Speed Jr doesn't KNOW he's the long-lost second-son of the legendary Speed Racer AND he's been kidnapped along with X!!!!! next chapter coming soon......