Bee

Burning Rubber Three (Bee and kingkonrad)

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.

Burning Rubber Three (Bee and kingkonrad)

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.

Burning Rubber Three (Bee and kingkonrad)

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."

Burning Rubber Three (Bee and kingkonrad)

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.

Burning Rubber Three (Bee and kingkonrad)

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."

Match Up in Malibu [Bee & Summer]

They'd done it! Jett and Anna had made it out of this competition as the winners. There wasn't a doubt in Anna's mind whatsoever that they would've won, especially since they'd actually done it and beaten everyone else. It always felt good to be a winner, and today was no exception to that case. There was a cheeky smile on Anna's face as she climbed out of the water, quick to grab a nearby towel to dry herself off. No longer did she have to have that slightly wet feeling, and there was no going back into that pool for the rest of the night. That much, Anna was grateful for. No more having to push-pull people either. It was great to be a winner, but it wasn't all on her. There was no way she could've won with anyone else, let alone herself. She and Jett formed a good team, despite their earlier awkward situations.

However, the host had practically jumped onto Jett and Anna as Anna was in the process of drying herself off. Given how busy Anna was getting all the water off of her, the host figured it was best for Jett to answer first, and that was the best choice. It also allowed Anna to hear what exactly Jett had to say about their experiences together, and it was nice to hear Jett say such nice things about her. As a matter of fact, she felt rather fuzzy inside. She liked hearing compliments, but compliments from Jett simply hit different. It meant a bit more to her, for some strange reason.

As Jett finished up his comments, the host then switched over to Anna, who had finally finished up and gotten herself dry. "And what about you, Anna? How do you feel about pairing up with Jett in the future?" The host asked, a brief smile on Anna's face as she formulated her answer. "Well, you saw what we did out there. We make a good team, and I can't really ask for a better partner than Jett. We crushed it out there." Anna laughed, before the host nodded. She said some obligatory reality show bullshit, as the camera panned away from Jett and Anna.

Anna lightly tapped Jett on the arm, a rather enthusiastic look on her face as she looked up to Jett. "Hey, we killed it out there!" Anna beamed, "Great job, Jett! We work well together, if I do say so myself."

Burning Rubber Three (Bee and kingkonrad)

Somewhere...

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.

---

Miami, Florida, USA

"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?"

---

Los Angeles, California, USA

"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."

---

Los Angeles, California, USA

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?"

Burning Rubber (Bee and kingkonrad)

The trip to the Faroese Islands was a trip that had bore more significance than either Kimberly or Ross would've ever thought. Kimberly was only a short time away from becoming thirty years old. As much fun as she was having with her cars, she knew that it wouldn't be something she could do for much longer. Cars, racing, and pure adrenaline made up a lot of who Kimberly was as a person. Her whole life wouldn't be what it was today if it wasn't for these very machines that she was driving. That didn't mean that the risk that came with keeping up her lifestyle went away. The hobbies she enjoyed were dangerous from top to bottom. However, it also meant that she wouldn't have had the privilege of being the mother of two, soon to be three children. There was a lot for her to consider. But when it came down to it, the choice she had to make was far from a difficult decision, and one she would never, ever regret. At the end of the day, Kimberly prioritized her family over anything else. She had no intention of leaving her kids behind and without their mother.

Returning to their home in Southern California, it didn't take long for Kimberly to reaffirm her decision and commit to it. Seeing her daughters and learning that they had another little one along the way had only confirmed that Kimberly was, in fact, making the correct decision for her family and herself. No longer would she hit the streets across the world and tear her way through them. Much like those streets, that was merely dust in her mirror as she looked forward to her future. There was more she was responsible for. Now removed from street racing, there was still many uses and places for a woman with Kimberly's talents. Kimberly still had the know-how and experience to keep herself relevant in the realm of cars, and even racing. It didn't take long for her to put her many years of expertise and knowledge to good use.

A couple of years later...
Los Angeles, California, USA.

"Well Crofty, you know what I've always said about the grid needing some fresh new faces. Sure, we've got our Mercedes and our Renaults and even our Racing Points, but nevertheless there's always room for new faces, especially now!"

"Right you are, Martin. Last time we saw a new team on the grid was 2016 - with Haas coming in. Now, we've some more American infusion. We're live from Los Angeles for the debut of the newest team on the grid: Valkyrie Racing, with a variety of fresh faces in Formula One! In just a matter of a few minutes, we will be joined by Team Principal Kimberly Rossi, and drivers Kasumi Brown and Hugo Olivera, both rookies fresh from Formula 2."

Kimberly stood idly by outside backstage in which their debut press conference was to be held. Her hands were on her hips, eyes behind glasses as she looked around her surroundings. She knew there were many faces in the crowd today, including people like Will Buxton and Ted Kravitz. It was an exhilarating prospect, but one that also had Kimberly at least a little bit nervous. It'd been a while since Kimberly was in a press conference. Looking at her drivers, however, they didn't seem fazed at all. That was typical, considering their career backgrounds and the fact they've been in the game for a while now. Surely, this must've been nothing for them at all.

"Mrs. Rossi, Ms. Brown, and Mr. Olivera, we've got a minute until you guys are up." A stagehand said, before leading the team representatives up to the ramp that lead to the stage. "I'll count you off and lead you guys out." The stagehand said, holding out a hand to stop them just before. Looking back and looking at various cues, the stagehand nodded, before continuing to hold her hand out. "Alright... ten... nine... eight..." She trailed on. Kimberly took a deep breath, trying to get the last minute jitters out of her. The stagehand switched to a silent count, putting her last five fingers down one-by-one, before putting her hand down and guiding Kimberly, Kasumi, and Hugo outside.

"And now introducing: CASTROL Valkyrie Racing!"

---

Ellie Dorian had sat in her living room, sighing and exhaling as deep as she could as she tried to relax. After years and years of pumping out content that never failed to satisfy and satiate people's adrenaline fixes, Ellie had announced that she was to take a hiatus from producing her usual content for a while some time ago. Even the best of content producers suffered from burnout, and boy, did Ellie have it bad. She couldn't find the appeal behind doing what she loved for a bit. It felt more like a chore than it did an activity she did to free herself from the chains of the world, the weight of all that was of this Earth.

Ellie had spent the majority of her hiatus in her Vancouver home, only leaving from time to time to get groceries, eat out, see friends, or just take in the outdoors to prevent her from going stir-crazy. However, that didn't mean Ellie's internet presence was completely gone. She knew she still had fans to tend to, and if she wanted to hit the ground running after her hiatus, that meant she had to keep something of a presence. That was when she discovered Twitch streaming, and she would stream herself playing various video games on there from time to time, even if she wasn't exactly the best at it.

Currently was an off-day altogether. It was just a day for her to hang out and lounge around and be lazy. Shuffling around her house in her pajamas, she had a cup of coffee in her hands, still steaming as she set her breakfast down and sat down, turning on the TV to see what was going on for the day. It was the same old Vancouver fluff, stuff that wouldn't matter in a few days. The same old. Ellie was stabbing at her waffles, before she heard her phone ring. Well, that was interesting. Who could be calling at this early in the morning? Ellie looked down to see who was calling, only to see a rather familiar name. She instantly picked up the call, putting the phone to her ear and letting the the person on the other side of the line say what they had to say.

"An opportunity, you say? Tell me more."

---

Another season, another car to drive. Gina, at this point in time, had enough seasons in GT3 racing to no longer be considered a rookie, but a veteran, instead. In her time as a driver, she had quickly established herself as a hot commodity and had quickly gotten herself into the mix fighting for wins on a constant basis. She was a force to be reckoned with, known for her top notch racecraft and her fearless overtakes that not many other people would even dare to try to manage.

Currently, Gina was in the paddock for her team, ready to head out to practice and kick off yet another season with the GT3 cars. There was a new car in the paddock for this season. This season, the team had finally switched from their Acura NSX into a Porsche 911 GT3 R, thinking it would be more suitable for the team as a whole compared to the heavier Acura in comparison. Gina certainly had no complaints about it.

Soon enough, it was time to get into the car, in which Gina was glad to do so. Climbing inside the Porsche, she quickly strapped herself in, securing all the belts, bells, and whistles before the engineers came in and did the extra security checks to make sure she was safe. She could soon hear her engineer come in on the radio. "Comms check." The engineer said, tweaking some things with his equipment as he waited for Gina to respond.

"Check. I read you." Gina said, as the car roared to life.

THE END

Persona ~ The Beholder

_{@Smike @AdmrlStalfos19 @Not Fungus}

---

The girl lying down in front of them had posed a question that came across as rather peculiar to Rei. What was she even talking about? There were monsters here? No way, there weren't monsters. Monsters simply didn't exist. Despite all the media surrounding them, monsters weren't an actual thing in their reality. Upon closing into the girl and grouping up, Rei played it off as some sort of trick with the shadows. But, if she knew monsters weren't a real thing, then why wasn't she able to look up and double check?

It was as if Rei was frozen in place, as if she couldn't move out of fear that whatever this girl was saying was true. Monsters aren't real. Rei had known that for a while. But yet, she could feel an unprecedented pressure. A force was weighing down upon her and freezing her into place, as if a weight was being lowered onto her entire being. Through the force of her sheer will, however, she turned her head, and there it was. A shadow like being that seemed to be hostile toward their group.

Rei was shocked to see. Had her reality been a lie this whole time? She was almost certain monsters didn't exist, but there was no other way to explain what was happening in front of her. There was no other way to identify this creature. This definitely wasn't some elaborate prank put on by the university. No way. This felt way too real to be a projection or a mere costume. There was no amount of costume technology in the world that could replicate something like this.

Hearing the rather muscular man next to her express what she could assume to be the same sentiment as her, Rei could only stare at the being in front of her in response. "W-What is that?!" Rei looked on in shock, "How can we deal with it if we don't know what it is? Can we even fight it off?" There was no way an entity like this would be susceptible to any attack they could conjure, but it didn't seem like they could run either.

Friendships

ya i have made a couple of buddies i guess