Somewhere...

Mark sighed, the plight of paperwork still with him even in spite of his role. In a non-descript office, even in spite of the Scotsman's distinct features he would go amiss and out of place. The paperwork was boring, but a necessity to write up the events of what had happened in Mexico, or rather, what hadn't. Most of the report immediately got black lines through it, a good 70% of it, in fact. Most would ask what the fuck happened, but hey, the black lines were indicative. You didn't ask questions of Mark Torridon's methods, they just worked with the last stamp at the end. Sitting up, Mark saw his phone buzz, as he swiped it to accept. The voice on the other end spoke slow but assured, the Scot listening and replying in turn.
"Yeah, we got her on board. She's good, trust me. Oh yeah, we're meeting soon. We have plenty to catch up on."

--

Somewhere in Geneva, Switzerland

Zoe giggled as she flipped her phone to her own perspective, starting a livestream to her account, aware it was time to put on a little bit of a show, the show that her growing following would tune into and want to see an insight into.
"So, we're here at my pad, and well...." Zoe began, turning her perspective, revealing a large pile of equipment behind her in duffel sacks and bags, giggling as she fell back onto her bed, the heavily French-accented Swiss girl almost glowing, looking like she'd explode from positivity, on camera at the least.
"We have this big pile of goodies to go load up! And you think it was easy being an extreme athlete, with all this gear to lug, honestly?" Zoe added, clearing her throat as the white-wooly sweater wearing blonde took a moment to prepare the rest of what was dawdling on her mind, turning the camera back to herself.
"So, me and this other crazy, like, totally crazy girl called Val Calderon are going out into the Aigulles du Mont Blanc, onto some seriously steep lines...She's the only other girl I trust to bring on board, and me and her are gonna collab, like, it's gonna just be the Zoe and Val show up there...aaaaand the Snowglobe Festival is on too in Courchavel, so you bet we're gonna make a....how would you call it, a "drop in" apperance there too!? We're gonna have to load all that stuff in the van when Val comes, and, it, is, gonna be super! Don't go anywhere, stay tuned, allez!" Zoe let go of her button, the live stream ending as she sighed, looking across.

"One fucking day, I'm gonna get a social media manager. Putain..."

--

Somewhere outside Funchal, Madeira, Portgal
0600

Hugo's body was in agony, screaming, yelling, hurling on the bicycle, the Portuguese racer in full lycra and donning a grey-coloured cycle helmet, hardly the epitome of looking good while wokring out. The pissing rain in the early morning sweltered past his cheeks, the winding and twisty tarmac road brutal and unforgiving to cycle up. The carbon fibred, dark grey Boardman racing bike and the pedals his shoe-covered feet wrapped into were light, but the agony of pushing hard on a mountain road without a more mechanical means of propulsion was killing him. Cardio training for F1 and motorsport in general was not something many people saw, and it was solitary on the road, with no support vehicle today to come after him, given Hugo was behind due to delays in the flights out to here. Madeira felt it was Portugal and so sort of like home, but the mountain he was on here felt remote, distant to him. Cursing loudly, Hugo knew this training would pay off to make sure his body would survive all the way through his rookie season. This was how you became better, stronger, more enduring, just like how his team-mate was training too to surive the pressures involved. And the Instagram post at the end when he got to the top of the pass was half a motiviation, perhaps.

--

Los Angeles, California
1900

The grey container opened with a firm pull, Max whistling as he saw the beauty herself back on display, the snow-white coloured Nissan Skyline GTR (R33) sitting there in all her glory, the Brit unlocking the car with a gentle tap as he stepped inside the narrow, tight cotnainer. Pulling some of the straps off that had ratcheted the vehicle down, he barely managed to get through the 1-foot space that was left around the car's sides, the car moving about a little even within that in its tied-down environment. With all straps pulled loose and left inside the cotainer, he barely managed to get the door open wide enough to get his hand on the gear and the handbrake, pulling them loose and slowly, and exceptionally carefully, pushing the car forwards. With enough momentum, the car finally rolled a little further out, enough for him to pull the door shut and then push the car all the way out.

Half-sticking out, Max barely slipped by, and clambered inside, breathing a long sigh of relief. Key in the ignition, he pulled it taught and turned the metal-encased plastic, the loud and uncivil roar of a six-cylinder turbocharged masterpiece echoing inside the container where the back end stuck out, as he chuckled in how shitty and reckless he was. This thing ran alright, and she was mighty fine. Phone in its hands-free magnetic mount, he keyed the directions to Magnus's, to Nordic California, out in the east side of the city. This was gonna be one hell of an evening of real, proper, mythological street racing. Nothing like back home. This was what he had come all this way, imported his car for, and turned up to with no friends. Real shit. Putting it into first, he put his foot down and with a four-wheel drift, was already leaving the Port of Los Angeles, very, very rapidly. The car's audio was hooked up to his phone via a makeshift AUX-bluetooth FM transmitter, and his phone already had his songs loaded, an important taste to him. And with the windows rolled down, he turned it up...



------

Burning Rubber Three

Going already 90 on the Freeway was a hell of a blast, windows down, the sunset behind in his rear view as Max took the turn off on the intersection, coming down the ramp and slowing up, the sound of Mura Masa a pitch-perfect soundtrack to this adventure. The R33's four-wheel drift was a symphony, as he straightened up, blasting again and keeping it lively, dodging the late afternoon traffic and keeping fast.

The R33 was a mean machine, despite being older, it handled like an absolute dream and the grip and pace was in equal measures wonderful, the fact he had it here probably a rarity for the US given their draconian rules on import vehicles. While it wouldn't have the raw power of the muscle cars, nor the absolute handling destruction a modern supercar would offer, it was a real driver's car, and felt absolutely joyous to drive, the Brit behind the wheel in total confidence to speed even in spite of being here for only his second time in his life. The community had told him shit was lax here in this part of town- and damn, so far, it seemed just like it so far.

Pulling up to the Nordic Tuning California warehouse, it was filled with plenty of stret racers, everything from tuned Civics to supercars such as Lamborginis and McLarens, and of course, plenty of Porsches. The parking lot outside the warehouse was enormous, and despite usually being a quarter full with business anyway, Nordic was the place to be for street racers to meet on an evening like this, a start point for shit that came straight from the movies themselves. The R33 in first, Max put it into an empty parking bay and cut the power, exhaling for a good moment, taking it in and just giving himself a moment to consider just where the fuck he was now. In sweltering evening heat, and this, this was all real. He took a pair of SunGod sunglasses and placed them on his forehead, as he clambered out of the R33, in search of the Magnus he'd met prior and the racers he'd been in contact with, who had an offer he just couldn't turn down.

Athena sat at a table, a bright light illuminating the entire room as she had her hands on the table. A quick look would reveal that the woman was in the midst of cleaning and putting together her Sig Sauer P226. The gun was assembled for the most part, the bottom frame being completely assembled. All that was needed at this point was for the slide to be installed, and that was that when it came to the gun being operational once again. Taking the black part, she picked it up, the other half to the gun in her other hand, and slid it back until it locked, the gun exposing its empty chamber as she glanced inside, to double check her work. As expected, it was as clean as a gun should be. Athena hit the slide release on the gun, letting the slide rack forward and snap into place as she set the gun down, now ready for use.

---

"Ay caramba." Valentina sighed, leaning back in her chair. The waves of the Atlantic Ocean were crashing onto the beach as she enjoyed the sunlight that Florida typically offered. She turned over to her friend, who was also soaking in the sun with her. "This Zoe lady is gonna drive me nuts." Valentina rolled her eyes, "But, she's the only person who's just as crazy as I am when it comes to this stuff." Valentina flopped back around, putting her sunglasses on her face. "Don't involve me in your crazy shit. That's your alley and I want no part of it." Her friend replied. Valentina scoffed, shaking her head. "There's crazy, and there's crazy for crazy alley." Valentina's friend laughed.

"What's the worst that can happen?"

---

"And now introducing: CASTROL Valkyrie Racing!"

Kasumi, along with the rest of her team walked out and waved to the crowd, who were all standing and clapping for the newest team on the grid. It was an exhilarating feeling to finally be a part of Formula 1, the pinnacle of motorsport. Everyone sat down at their seats, with Kasumi being on Kimberly's right hand side and Hugo being on her left. The crowd settled very quickly, as the emcee carried out formalities and introduced everyone. It didn't take long for questions to start being asked. The emcee picked a random reporter to ask a question, who promptly stood up and cleared his throat. "David Chester from F1Weekly, this one is to the rookie driver, Kasumi." He said, before the camera and attention shifted onto her. "What are your expectations for this season for yourself and for the team, given the fact that both you and the team are new to Formula 1." Kasumi nodded, and looked at the journalist.

"My goals for my debut season is to show that I deserve my seat in Formula One, and as for my team, we both agree that the expectations are to put me in the best position for success. I trust that Kimberly and Valkyrie Racing will do a very good job at that."

---

A quick turn of a wrench did it. Pulling the socket off of the bolt, Kaitlyn had managed to adjust the aerodynamics of her spoiler to the point where she determined would provide the best amount of downforce for her driving style. She liked her cars to be very grippy, and have a stable rear end. She didn't trust rear ends that kicked out. Putting the ratchet wrench and accompanying socket away, she shut her toolbox, before looking over her Mitsubishi Evolution IX, ready to be thrown about and thrashed at tonight's festivities. Her buddy, Magnus, had sent her an invite to tonight's events, and Kaitlyn was more than grateful for it. It was yet another opportunity to show off her tuning prowess and just what exactly she could do with a car, for both driving and tuning it. Her Evo was a car she'd been developing for quite a while, always tinkering with it just a tiny bit to achieve perfection. Hopefully, if her calculations were right, she'd be able to really tear up the streets tonight.

Climbing into the car, Kaitlyn locked up whatever she needed to before she set out for the somewhat long drive to the other side of town. Not like she minded, it gave her a chance to get the new adjustments she made to the car down. Turning the key to the ignition, the four cylinder engine inside of her car roared to life, crackling and popping as Kaitlyn gave it a few revs. The gray car was eventually shifted into gear, slowly rolling out of the driveway it was in and onto the street, before Kaitlyn floored it, the 4G63 popping and roaring, the tires squealing as it fought for traction and made its way toward the venue.

A bit of a drive later, and Kaitlyn had arrived to what was unmistakably the event. There were so many cars around, ones that weren't exactly cars you saw every day on the streets. McLarens, Lamborghinis, Ferraris, you name it and it was there. Magnus sure knew his way through the car scene in this place, because he had managed to organize a massive congregate of sweet cars in this very spot. Kaitlyn might've looked cool on the outside as she found a parking spot, but inside, she was practically geeking. So many people she could talk to and so many cars she could check out. She was itching to get out and see what she was in the company of.

Rolling through the parking lot, the Evo sputtered and popped as she eventually found a parking spot. As was customary in the car community, Kaitlyn pulled a bit forward in front of the parking spot, before slowly backing her way into the spot. Cutting the ignition to the car, the car settled down, as Kaitlyn climbed out and put her own pair of sunglasses on. California still managed to be bright as fuck, even in the evening hours. Walking around the front of her car, she could immediately spot Godzilla. Not the giant lizard that attacked Japan every now and then, but the Nissan that terrorized Bathurst and many touring car series many years ago. Kaitlyn had seen a couple over here from time to time, but they were so rare that it was definitely worth checking out. And just to Kaitlyn's luck, someone who she could assume was the owner was nearby.

"Hey, nice car." Kaitlyn smiled, before looking the car over, studying the car rather intensely, "How'd you get one of these over here?"

Max nodded, turning around to see the sight of the girl adoring his Skyline, stopping him right in his tracks as he looked back, tilting his sunglasses up and chuckling.

"You know how it is, same way they do overnight parts shipping from Yokohama. Straight off the boat. She's still a work in progress but....I just had to get it out here. This is all a bit insane!" Max said, his soft northern English accent blending with the Manx, a hearty and wholesome accent that wasn't like Ross's, a hearty Scots one- but a more English, clear and concise accent that didn't hide the cheekie-chappie that Max was. On another note though, he had to just take the girl in, her demeanour inquisitive, clearly someone who wasn't just here to oggle at cars but drove one. Nerding out, but understanding the machinery. Something just said that to him, it just came naturally, as he smiled, patting the bonnet, as he sighed.

"Glad to hear someone appreciates Japanese tuners too. Nothing like a well oiled machine made by people who know their engineering. Don't get me started on the last BMW I had....what about you?" Max added, chuckling as he looked across to another pair of Porsches coming in, sighing.
"Damn, this really is Magnus's haunt alright....sorry, I haven't introduced myself at all. I'm Max Parker, and yeah, "he's from England"..." He said, in a sarcastic American tone right at the end, a little self-aware of the fact that he was a Brit in the streets of LA, and he was always gonna stick out like as sore thumb. She seemed cute, whoever she was, very pretty, and had a charm, a mechanical interest that wasn't of some dumb random girl who saw a Skyline once- but actually took notice. Whoever she was, Max was piqued, but hey, plenty of women were getting into cars these days- so probably another one of those, he reminded himself before jumping to conclusion.

So this car was fresh off the boat. Kaitlyn wasn't sure what she was expecting. There was no other way this man could've come in possession of such a legendary car. Standing up from closely examining the finer details of this car, Kaitlyn only nodded as she readjusted her sunglasses, making sure it was shielding her from the sunlight. Now begged the question of the hoops he went through to get this car here. Every gearhead and their mother in this country knew just how difficult it was to get a car like that over here. Especially with the canning of Motorex, getting a Skyline over here was a process that had many hoops that had to be jumped through.

This man seemed like a huge car geek, and was definitely very enthusiastic about his car. Kaitlyn was the same way when it came to her car. Any question about her car and she would've been able to speak a practical dissertation on it, or be able to pull off a filibuster just talking about her car's suspension setup. Not many people assumed that Kaitlyn knew her way around a car, but rest assured that she very much did. She did nearly all of the work on her car by herself, save for a few tweaks with electronics and wiring because that was always a pain in the ass no matter who you were.

Moving from BMW to Nissan was an interesting move, a wise one, but still nevertheless interesting. After the man finished talking and introducing him, Kaitlyn reached a hand out to shake Max's. "I'm Kaitlyn, Kaitlyn Holliday." She smiled, before turning back to look at her gray Mitsubishi. She took her other hand and pointed it over to where she was looking, before looking at Max. "That's my car. Built it up myself."

Max chuckled, shaking Kaitlyn's hand, looking across at the grey Evo, a smile forming on his face as he looked at the intricacy of the build. Yeah, his insticts were right, he mused internally to himself.
"Pleasure to meet you, love. Damn, Kaitlyn, that Evo is something. Nothing beats four-wheel drive, right? That and the amount of aero on that thing, shit it probably stays glued t' tar through corners!" He added, chuckling as he looked across, giving a sweet whistle.
"So I guess you're a built, not bought sort of girl. I'm sorta the same, but well....I ran out of ideas and money for now."

Looking across, more cars were coming in as a Supra's turbo whine interrupted the two, more people joining in, and while Max wanted to talk cars all night long, he knew they had other things to be getting on with right now.
"Shit, tell you what. Magnus himself actually invited me down, I sort of know him through a friend of a friend thing deal....wanna come wtih and see if we can find him?"

The music was blaring from the soundsystem of one of the converted VW Camper vans that had turned up, the empty shell of the warehouse containing the bit of Nordic Customs that had come with the lease, yet Magnus hadn't actually needed for any workshop at all. Instead, it was empty, and filled with people grabbing light beer at a long bar, this basically being a giant cafe of sorts for street racers. A weird atmosphere, but given the crowds that came here, it only made sense, as Max could only smirk at the sight of it all, knowing somewhere inside would be the mad Faroese tuner that'd made his fortune out here.

As thing stood right now, it seemed like Kaitlyn and Max had a mutual friend. Magnus, the car extraordinaire, had managed to bring them together at this event. Not that Kaitlyn had any objections to it. Magnus was a man of much power and allure, of course he would manage to attract so many different people from all over. Based on how many people were here already, Kaitlyn could assume that Magnus played at least a significant part in gathering all of these people. It didn't seem like Magnus had a type of subculture he was particularly attracted to either.

"Yeah, sure, why not?" Kaitlyn shrugged, before starting to walk down the parking lot. The woman was careful to make sure she was walking along the sides of the parking lot, close to the parked cars as she knew very well that cars were still rolling in. It also gave her a good opportunity to gawk at cars that caught her fancy. Such as the Mercedes AMG GT-R that passed by, or the Pagani Zonda Cinque that also slowly rolled its way into the venue. There was probably enough value in these cars to fund a small country.

"Where could Magnus be? This is his thing, isn't it?" Kaitlyn asked curiously, hoping she was heard over the sound of a Dodge Charger Hellcat being revved. It couldn't be too hard to spot Magnus, the man had a bit of an aura to him that was impossible to miss. Either he wasn't at the event, or he was somewhere that Kaitlyn hadn't thought to look in. Along the way, Kaitlyn quickly glanced at a Mazda RX-7. Man, there were all sorts of cars around.

Max walked on through, wading through the crowd, the sight of exotica to tuner a sight to behold. While Nordic was a predominantly McLaren and Porsche specialist, the fact all sorts came here said volumes, perhaps even lengths about what sort of a car culture was bred here in this carpark. Somehow the Brit wondered how the fuck this was still going, given that there were so many people, but then again, that wasn't his thought to comprehend. There was something brewing here, more than just a car meet. And Max really wanted to get stuck in.

"Yeah, but there are a fucking lot of people here....and a tall Nordic bloke is gonna be fairly average for LA. It's weird here, right? Glad we have a mutual friend though." Max said, a laddish but wholesome comment as he chuckled, the sight of the cafe inside filled with fewer cars, yet more people.

Going inside, the tall Faroese man could be seen across the bar, heartily chuckling as he stood by his McLaren 720S, the blue and gold coloured car an archetypal example of what Nordic could produce. Whilst it looked not too dissimilar, it had a bodykit that made the already glued together supercar look even more gorgeous, with a power map and customisation inside making the interior even more...homely, warm, and tight fit as a supercar like this could be. It was an incredibly difficult modification to pull off on an ultimately desgined machine, yet Magnus was showing it could be done with taste, class and exotic design. The zero-alcohol can of beer in his hand probably told him he was socialising, staying sober for the fact that he may have been involved in something logistical.

"There he is." Max said, walking across and past a few groups of other owners, waving over to the Norseman. Magnus waved back, Max chuckling as he felt he'd finally come across a more familiar face now, someone a little more known.
"Hey, Magnus! Pleasure to meet you mate, Max Parker, one of Simon's mates....holy shit, this is a party..." Max said, Magnus laughing, the Faroese viking sipping the rest of his can, as he crushed it in his hand, yeeting it towards a bin in the distance.

"Yeah, well, what did you expect, welcome to Nordic! Uhh, you're Kaitlyn, right? I didn't think you two were a pair, unless I'm wrong...?" Magnus asked, the Brit looking perplexed for just a second, happy to meet him but a bit awkward. Ah yeah, they had mutual friends, but not in that way! Max blushed, chuckling, looking to Kaitlyn with a gentle look, almost to say "Oh Shit", as if it was a little awkward.

"Uhh...nah, we just met outside. You know, tuners and all haha!" Max sheepishly replied, Magnus chuckling, shaking his head.

"Alright, if you say so, Mister Parker. You're both probably wondering what's going on- I mean, this is the quarterly meet, but someone in the crowd, pst, not me, has something going. No pink slips- people here are way too attached to their cars to even dare gamble them, but $1000 gets you a buy in. Man over there, in the black hoody is doing something. Trying to get numbers together, but again, half the fucking people here won't dare put a scratch into their cars now they souped them up....crazy, right?

"Now as a reputable business owner, I have absolutely nothing to do with street racing. Nooothing at all. Just a guy running a party that keeps most of these people from racing, but hey, if they decide to it's up to them. Up to you guys though if you're all in. Feel free to grab a Monster before you go though!" Magnus said, Max chuckling in response to Magnus's antics, knowing full well he was playing it quite cleverly, somewhat balancing the buisness in here with the straight up illegality someone else organising a street race would have.

"If you say so too, Magnus...thanks man. Kaitlyn, what do you think? Up for some shenanigans?"

Kaitlyn only nodded as the Brit beside her raised a fair point. There were always a variety of personalities and people that you'd find in a place like Los Angeles. But, that just made the task that they had of locating Magnus all the bit harder, considering just how many people were before them. As they continued to walk and look around for Magnus, the crowd that had gathered at this party had only grown larger and larger. At this point, it was hard to track the sheer amount of cars coming in and joining the festivities. Even Kaitlyn, as much of a car nerd as she was, she wasn't able to really comprehend just how many cars were here at this point. The only thing she could be really be sure about, however, was that there was a little bit of everything. It was reasonable for Kaitlyn to extrapolate that cars from pretty much all aspects of car culture were here. Tracked out cars, exotic cars, stanced out cars -- they were all at this very event.

Soon enough, Max lead Kaitlyn into a cafe of sorts, which wasn't something that Kaitlyn had expected to find at a place like this. There was a significantly higher amount of people at this cafe, but Katilyn supposed that people had to somewhere to gather that wasn't just around a bunch of noisy cars. Stepping inside, Magnus was spotted faster than a blink of an eye. That man, despite the crowd in the cafe had a penchant for sticking out and making his presence known. Seemed like Max saw him as well, because she spotted him moving toward Magnus. It took her not much longer to follow after him and catch up.

There he was -- the boisterous Magnus, the man who commanded attention no matter where he went. Though, the implication of her and Max being a pair was a bit humorous. "Nah. We're not a pair." Kaitlyn shook her head, "We'd barely even met... a half hour ago? Yeah. A half hour ago." Kaitlyn laughed, before listening to what it was that Magnus had to say. Man was definitely speaking in some sort of code, but it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what exactly he was getting at. There were some less than legal occurrences taking place later tonight, which Kaitlyn was hoping what would happen at an event like this. Though, it was understandable that there were no pink slips involved. After Magnus finished his spiel, Kaitlyn chuckled and shook her head, before looking up at Max, who had asked her if she was going to be involved. "Yeah, why not?" Kaitlyn smiled, "Be ready to kiss your thousand dollars goodbye, though." Kaitlyn teased, before setting off again. "Let's go find this black hoodie man."

Max chuckled, laughing and already wanting to prove Kaitlyn wrong.
"Winner takes all? That's a big pot. Bring it on." Max only replied, nodding to Magnus who in turn could only chuckle to their replies.
"Looks like you've made that decision. You two do look like you're made to be a couple though. But hey, that's just my thoughts...have fun!" Magnus added, almost comedic at the end as Max looked at Kaitlyn awkwardly, almost as if to say "seriously, this is weird"- but still rolling with it all.

Walking through the crowd, Max eventually reached the man with the black hoodie, the only one in the cafe, but defintely the dude. A dark-skinned black guy wearing a backward baseball cap and a messenger bag, the man to talk to for street racing quite clearly from the fact he didn't look like he fit with the other owners here. Clearly he was a front for something a bit wider, an unwritten racer's code here that pretty much everyone, including Magnus, were in on. With Kaitlyn nearby, he made his opportunity to get in.
"Yo, you taking racers? Heard you're the man to talk to?" Max asked him, aware that as British as he sounded, he had to play the part. When in LA and all....maybe most wouldn't see it, but Kaitlyn most certainly would.
"Yeah, and you willing to part with bank?"

"Here. Stack." Max said, pulling the roll out from a buttoned pocket on his jeans, the black hoodied man whistling, flicking through.
"Y'all good to go. Get your ride over two blocks over to the east, there's a dude wtih a black El Camino waiting there. Give him your number and he'll WhatsApp you the route. From there, rest is yours. You win, we tell you where to get your winnings. You lose, well, only credit you got is to make sure the police don't bust yo' ass. Pretty girl, same go for you too, huh?" He asked, Max sighing as he knew this guy was clearly just cocky, but sure, whatever, so be it the Brit thought to himself.

There was a lot of running around and finding people right now, which had bothered Kaitlyn just a bit slightly. The last thing she wanted to do was hunt people down just so she could get in on tonight's action. That wasn't something that she was particularly interested in doing. She missed the days of old, where you could just talk to someone and they could set you up right there and then. No having to jump through hoops and talk to a bunch of middlemen for the sake of maintaining an image. Sometimes she could just show up, slip a guy a band, and then the next thing you know you were leading a pack of cars, barreling down as fast as you could. Kaitlyn liked how things used to be done -- the only people she wanted to chase down were the people ahead of her. Though, she supposed that things were different in 2020 - much to her dismay.

Eventually, she and Max found the guy that they were supposed to talk to. Though, Kaitlyn wasn't in the mood to initiate these talks -- she wasn't entirely sure how she would go about this. Luckily, Max was with her and did a lot of the talking for her. She stood by quietly, observing the two before Max pulled out his roll of cash. There must've been a lot of cars in this, because a thousand dollar buy in didn't seem much for an event of this caliber. It was either there was something bigger in store, or that there were a lot of cars buying in. Regardless, Kaitlyn reached in her pocket, pulling out her own roll. It definitely wasn't just $1000 in there, but she figured the man would give what wasn't needed back to her. As the man unrolled the money, he only counted the first ten $100 bills, before re-rolling and handing the rest back to her. "You're good to go, ma'am."

Soon enough, they were told where to go, and Kaitlyn nodded, before looking at Max. "Come on. Let's go." Kaitlyn urged, before motioning back to their cars. There were a couple of things that Kaitlyn wanted to take care of before she set off to the epicenter of racing. Weaving through clusters of people and through parked cars, Kaitlyn eventually found her way back to her own car, and through that, Max's car as well. Before she could even think of setting out, there was a precaution she had to take. Pulling her keys out of her pocket, she walked around behind her car, popping the trunk open and pulling out a screwdriver. The license plates had to go. There was no way she was gonna let a cop write her plate down when she was out there tearing it up. At least without the plate, she still maintained plausible deniability. At least, she hoped. Eventually, she managed to pull the plates off and stuffed them inside her trunk, shutting the trunk and glancing over at Max. "I'll see you over there?" Kaitlyn gave Max a little salute, before walking over to her driver side door to make the two block journey to the black El Camino.

Max followed the same protocol, the plates being taken off the R33, pulled from front and back- a classic street racer move, especially when speed cameras, ANPR and all sorts could track. Same as back home, so long as you were fast enough, you weren't traceable, Max mused to himself as he took both plates and stowed them in the glovebox, reaching through the passenger door before clambering back into the driver's door, on the wrong side. This was an original Japanese import, and while it had sat in someone's garage for a long time, it had seen a lot of work from Max since he had got it. Not enough, but it was a work in progress, the Brit reminded himself. Good enough to roar, as he turned the key, the six-cylinder barking into life, and putting an instant grin on his face.

Pulling out, the Skyline's turbos whined as he planted his foot, stutering on gearshift, the classic STUTU of the Skyline's straight six and turbo in harmony. Max was in heaven, but he knew he had to focus, aware of the race to come. The Evo in his rearview, he knew this was a race, but it was gonna get pretty real quick, and keeping up the pace was gonna be order of the day. A $1000 was on the line here, and seeing the rest of the cars near the El Camino, he had to admit, that number now made a bit more sense.

Pulling up to the lights, the other cars around were dense in the pack, way more than Max was anticipating. Four on the highway, stationary in the night, with another six behind. Shit, this was pandemonium. Stopping at the lights, Max wondered how the hell it was so quiet here, noticing actually that there were some roadworks signs behind now placed, penning in this road. This was 2 Fast 2 Furious now. No way this was real. Max shrugged, as he looked across, seeing a souped up old-school Eclipse, a 350Z, Kaitlyn's Evo, a BMW E92 M3, a customised Foxbody Mustang, and a Porsche 911 Carrera to boot among the group, an impressive set of relatively evenly matched cars. Not perfect, but close enough to keep things interesting, Max thought to himself, as he got a knock on his window.
"Phone?" Max heard, as he saw the girl bring up a number, a link on whatsapp with a QR code. Scanning it, Max's phone bleeped, going straight back to a mapping application, as he hung it in his dash. Classic street race setup. Given nobody was 100% a local here, a point to point didn't work. Instead, the map planned itself out, sprawling across LA to a destination in the south, a long-distance yet high speed route on the freeway, then back into the streets of Long Beach- finishing right on the coast. A nice route, Max thought to himself, as he nodded, giving a thumbs up, the girl moving onto the next. Exhaling, Max looked across to Kaitlyn, with only a look that it was good to be racing her...but he was walking away with that dough tonight.

It wasn't long until Kaitlyn was on her way to the venue. The Evo was purring gently as she rolled behind Max's Skyline. Despite the car having a mere four cylinder engine the size of a bottle of soda, the engine was more than capable of producing some serious power. Kaitlyn had nearly six hundred horsepower underneath the carbon fiber hood of her car. Combined with the weight saving measures she took (while maintaining the interior of her car, because she still wanted to enjoy amenities such as air conditioning or the radio -- because sometimes the droning of an engine drove her nuts, especially in her everyday day-to-day commute down freeways. Hearing your car drone on for so long really got to you, and sometimes music was the best solution.

A bit later, they'd finally arrived at the destination, seeing some cars she wasn't expecting to see around her. Kaitlyn was expecting to see some exotic cars, like a few Lamborghinis or Ferraris with drivers who thought they were hot shit just because they bought a fast car. Kaitlyn had more to be concerned about with what she saw. If they were brave enough to enter with cars like the ones she'd been seeing, then they were either really stupid and were likely to endanger everyone around them on the road, or they were worth their weight in gold and were formidable opponents. Either way, Kaitlyn was no stranger to the challenge, and was down to deal with whatever was thrown at her.

Kaitlyn parked behind Max, shutting off her car to let it rest before she would be pushing it to its limits not too much later. She sat in her BRIDE bucket seat, ready for the lady to present the route to her and get onto racing. She rested her head against her hand, which was propped up against the doorsill as she eyed the lady walk on over to Kaitlyn, prompting her to get ready and take her phone out. Taking the device out, Kaitlyn only rolled down the window, before scanning the QR code, which prompted her map application to open up. Kaitlyn gave a quick thanks to the lady, before rolling the window up. Based on her first glance, the race looked like it was suited for all sorts of cars. There were high speed sections for those cars that were good at it to excel, and technical sections for cars like hers to excel. Kaitlyn studied the route, wondering where exactly she could get the most out of her car and show just what she was capable of.

Max's buyoant mood was nothing unexpected, as he flexed his hands around the wheel and the shifter, waiting, and waiting out. The screen lit up, prompting on the next intersection light change, it was go time. Sitting tight in the OMP harness, he clutched the Momo wheel tight and got ready to send it, the car sitting in first and the engine revving gently. Soon, he'd give it the absolute beans, as it went to red, staying and staying, his heart rate multiplying, his mind in total focus. And then go.

The lights turned green, and Max had his foot hard on the gas, the four-wheel drive Skyline barking into action, the clutch dumped as the other cars followed suit, almost neck and neck as they all pulled away, Max unable to leverage an advantage just yet. The road was straight on, as they came into very light traffic, Max going onto the other side of the road and coming back, the whole pack stacked together. The first turn was coming up, and just like any race, was where shit got real.

Tapping on the brakes, the car gave a course little four-wheel drift, coming out of the intersection and onto the highway ramp in a smooth action, a handful of cars already dropping back from their lack of cornering, but not Max and Kaitlyn, as they came up and onto the road. A single cop car became a blur as the speedo climbed, the sight of the other sports cars and tuners all around making the place one hell of a speedzone.

The only concern he had, was that the one cop car they had driven past had turned into four in pursuit.

Kaitlyn was waiting at the stoplight, her foot stomping firmly on the clutch as she waited for the light to turn green. After an internal countdown, she stepped on the gas pedal, hearing the anti-lag system kick in and start popping and spitting flame as the turbos spooled. The sounds that came from Kaitlyn's car were akin to that of a warzone. Rapid-fire explosions and popping were all that could be heard from Kaitlyn's car, as she held the gear lever in the first gear, waiting for the light to finally turn green. The car couldn't keep up the anti-lag for long -- but then the light turned green, and Kaitlyn let go of the clutch as the car sank back, a layer of rubber being laid down as she darted off.

Kaitlyn was having a few issues getting traction down, as was typical for a launch like that, resulting in some wheelspin that let her fall just slightly behind Max as she tucked halfway into his slipstream. She figured her best chance of getting ahead was using the slipstream behind Max to her advantage as she slowly caught up with him. There was bound to be a turn soon, so she was figuring she could use that opportunity to at least try a move. However, as Kaitlyn glanced at the map, the next turn was not a good opportunity to attempt a move as risky as that, especially if there was a long straight afterwards. She figured she should stay behind and wait until the more technical sections.

Going into the next turn, Kaitlyn stayed right on Max's tail, waiting for the opportunity to fully utilize her slipstream and get in front of Max. It wasn't hard to keep with Max through that corner, considering how much aero she had on that car. The car had nearly as much downforce as a GT3 car. Going down onto the freeway ramp, Kaitlyn saw a few blue and red lights flash in her rear view mirror. Already? Kaitlyn shook her head the two got onto the freeway, open air in front of them. It was now more dangerous to stay behind Max because she needed to get away from the cops as well. As soon as they merged onto the freeway and it straightened out, Kaitlyn gently pulled out, careful not to scrub much speed off as she let the car do its work in trying to pass Max and his Skyline.

Max watched on as Kaitlyn pulled by, a bit of traffic slowing the entire group down, the modified 350Z finding a neat route through as Max followed through, taking a slightly different line to Kaitlyn as he shifted back up again, back on the throttle, turbo at full pelt. Pulling out from the traffic, he planted the Skyline's throttle, the old-school R33 neither as aero-focussed. Kaitlyn's machine was clearly just more powerful, and far quicker in the corners, a fact that was now true even on the relatively straight freeway, but Max did have the slipstream here and could at least use that to put himself away from the rest of the pack. It was a hell of a feeling, the speedo climbing as the Skyline's engine clambered to speed, a cruising speed that oddly felt very comfortable in a car like this. Even for its age, it didn't feel like it was coming apart, like it was made to do these sorts of runs, Max sticking close to Kaitlyn, who was getting closer to the lead car. All he could hope for was he could push past when they got into Long Beach.

The highway's empty scene made it easy to put foot to floor, but the cops weren't falling all too far back. This wasn't right. Normally, cops just disappeared. Going 120, 130 and they were gone- but here, it felt like one set of lights had dropped back, and another come into sight. Shit. They definitely didn't know the route...they certainly were cracking the whip tonight, and that wasn't something Max wanted to particuarly feel the wrath of. Coming to a junction, Max kept it tight behind Kaitlyn, the miles clocking down.

Kaitlyn continued to blast down the freeway, glancing at the GPS from time to time to see when this long stretch would end. Kaitlyn's car was the more powerful one, as it turned out, but her car's top speed was only so high. Luckily, the car held itself down very well with the sheer amount of aero that was on the car, but that came at the cost of stunting its high speed. Glancing in her mirror, she could still see the distant flashing of lights. No doubt, the cops were going to deploy their helicopter soon and they couldn't have that. A helicopter was often very hard to evade. Kaitlyn didn't know how she was able to get away from her encounters with the helicopters.

Glancing at the GPS, an exit was soon to come, followed by a relatively technical section that Kaitlyn figured her car would excel in. She slowly drifted into the rightmost lane, preparing to exit and making as sharp of a turn as she could to shake the cops off. Going up the exit, Kaitlyn went as right as she could, barely avoiding the gravel that was just off of the exit, and she just sent it, mashing on the brakes brakes before gently letting off as she got to the apex, flooring it on her way out of the ninety degree left hander, her car's tires squealing and screeching with all of their might.

The next section consisted of a ton of turns and twists through downtown, meaning there was a lot of dodging involved. It wasn't even two blocks before Kaitlyn had to make another right hander. She knew that there were cars going down the other side, so she needed to keep her line tight so she wouldn't drift into oncoming traffic. Braking just momentarily, she whipped her car as hard as she could as she made the next turn, the rear end kicking out slightly as she powered out. Right after this, was another hard left into another side street, where Kaitlyn quickly took her position on the right of the street and dove left, cutting right into the intersection as she continued to gain some distance from the rest of the pack, excluding Max.

Max followed her down, his lack of aero compensated for by the sheer aggression he was applying to his Skyline through the corners, the Michelin shoes that the Japanese car sat on screaming for reprieve through the corners, even in spite of the overwhelming grip the car wanted to try and keep. The G-Forces felt like he was pushing the car on the very limit of what it could do, the Brit in total focus to keep in control. But man, was this fun. Right where he wanted to be.

Foot down, Max followed Kaitlyn through the corner and past the 350Z, which had taken a crap route. It felt strange, the girl he'd talked to and led to Magnus was now kicking his ass. Damn, now this was an irony. But hey, he was way too in the moment, and having too much of a ball to even care. The cops could still be very vaguely heard, but Max's only priority right now was to get back in front. Coming back onto the right through the junction, Max tailed closer, coming up and around after getting a nicer exit, barely getting in front before braking hard for a heavy left-hander, coming right up onto the beachfront. It was a long sprint out of here, as he drited through, cursing as he realised he'd gone way too deep, leaving Kaitlyn far, far too much room. It was inevitable what would happen next, getting back behind her and keeping foot to floor.

That moment of fuck-up had taken up his mind, but not enough to realise that in the darkened skies over Long Beach, there were an absolute shit-ton of cops now amassing, and from every street, it seemed like they were pouring out. Something big was going down. And...yeah, that was a helicopter. Well, fuck. Max wanted to say now he had only one priority, but he didn't, knowing he was going to lose, and was gonna have to try and not get arrested. There was the option of pulling over and hoping he got it lenient. But that was gonna be the end of this project car, and any future opportunities to come back. To option two it was, and that was no matter what, keep foot to floor. He knew he wasn't gonna win. But he wasn't gonna get arrested, not today. He only hoped Kaitlyn might have a similar idea...

Kaitlyn glanced around her and saw that the amount of flashing lights were increasing with every second that passed. Something didn't feel right with Kaitlyn, and she took a moment to weigh her options as she figured out what it was she could do against the increasing amount of cops. At some point, there were going to be too many cops to reasonably carry on the race. Sure, there was a race, but there were very few prizes that were worth losing your car and spending some time in the slammer. As Kaitlyn continued down a block, she was eyeing even more cops pouring out of seemingly nowhere. It was time to call it.

Seeing some more police cars pull out of a nearby street, Kaitlyn whipped it right into where they came from, forcing them to have to make a u-turn as Kaitlyn floored it, letting herself pull away from the nearest cops as she figured out a plan. There didn't seem to be a helicopter anywhere nearby, which meant that Kaitlyn's prospects of an escape were higher. Eyeing her rearview mirror, the signature R33 GT-R of Max was right on her tail. Hopefully he would follow her in her plan to escape.

There was a construction site nearby with a wide open gate, conveniently enough. If Kaitlyn's memory of this area of Los Angeles was right, it was close enough to a good hiding spot for them. There didn't seem to be many flashing lights behind them, if at all. Kaitlyn whipped her car to the left once again, entering the construction site's gravel trail. As far as Kaitlyn could see, it was open road and they could figure out a place to hide in this construction site. Turning left, Kaitlyn turned onto a street full of buildings under construction. Now, to pick one that was big enough to conceal her car and hide out in until the cops gave up.

Max did follow Kaitlyn, following her out and knowing full well he'd forfeited his race. Well, nobody was gonna get that fucking paper if they carried on that way, they weren't gonna make bank. The sheer amount of cops coming by meant they'd be totally exposed at the finish line- not by design, but by happenstance after what had happened.

Pulling into the construction site, Max followed through into the warehousing block under construction, seeing Kaitlyn's gravel trail kick up as he kept close to her. Going past, Max quickly darted through, picking a line almost to say "this way", as he found a badly-rutted road that went into an underground park of some sort. Driving in, Max pulled the car up, the darkness only illuminated by the headlights of his car, as he pulled in, tail lights on to show to Kaitlyn where he had come up to.

The sound of a helicopter could be heard, as well as other police cars, but they were a long way away, and out of sight. Clambering out of the car, Max exhaled, shaking his head.
"Fuck!" He called out, cursing more to oblivion than anything else, looking across to Kaitlyn as he leaned on the roof, getting used to the lack of light in here.
"That was insane, Kaitlyn. Fun race, till the cops showed up. Jesus Christ, first time in America, nearly first time in the fucking clink. They must be out for some serious blood today." He added, shutting the door, the sirens still present, but not getting closer, thankfully at least.
"So, now what? Fate's thrown us into the basement of a warehouse in LA. I mean aside from the cops....it was fun racing with ya, Kaitlyn. Mind if I get your number, while I'm out here if I hear anything more?"

Kaitlyn was looking around, before seeing that Max had darted past her. There was only one thing that could've resulted from a man with that much conviction in his movement. He had a plan and had a location in mind to get away. Kaitlyn had no choice but to follow the man in the Skyline, because he sure as shit had more of an idea as to what to do than Kaitlyn. Shifting into second gear, Kaitlyn applied more throttle to stick behind Max, sticking onto him like a fly on sugar as she followed him into what seemed to be an underground facility. She didn't even realize that was a viable option until Max shot in here.

Driving inside, the only things Kaitlyn could see were the things illuminated by her car's headlights, as well as Max's car as they drove through the dimly lit facility. The sounds of their engine echoed throughout as they looked for a nice spot to tuck in and park while they waited for the cops to disperse. But, the cops were probably much too far away to hear their cars, let alone see the lights illuminate the facility they were in.

Parking her car next to Max's, she turned it partially off, leaving the key turned just to the point where she could still maintain control of her electronics. Kaitlyn opted to have her low beams on to provide some light as they waited out the cops. She closed the door behind her, sighing and rubbing her temples as she heard Max's reactions to what had just happened. The adrenaline was still coursing through Kaitlyn's veins. She had to take a few more breaths as she heard Max curse up a storm in the background. As she stood up, she turned to see him ask for her number. She laughed, before gesturing for his phone. "Sure." She smiled. No harm in giving him her number, right?