It had been quite a while since Joshua had left Palmont City, too long to be exact. He ran his fingers through his dark brown hair as he whizzed pass a sign letting him know that Palmont City was 10 miles out. Pressing the gas pedal down a little more, he approached the city, thinking back to that eventful night when everything went wrong.

He and Nikki had just finished tuning up the Toyota Supra. Darius' Toyota Supra, to be exact. "Start it up." Nikki said, smiling. The ignition clicked for no more than a second when the engine rumbled to life. The engine had a smooth yet powerful noise, full of life from the work that had been done to it. Revving the engine a couple of times before turning it off, Josh stepped out of the car with a massive grin on his face. "Oh man, Darius is gonna love what we've done to the Supra!" Josh exclaimed, looking at Nikki, who was closing the hood down as he spoke. "For sure." Nikki replied, her grin also wide. Darius walked into the garage soon after the exchange between the two. He had a scowl plastered on his face. "Yo Darius, what's up man?" Josh asked, concerned for his friend. "My driver can't make it to the race." He responded bluntly. "What, why?! After all the work we put into the Supra…" Nikki groaned. "I don't know, he didn't say. He just said he wasn't gonna be able to make it." Darius responded. Josh spoke up. "If you want, I can take his place as your driver, Darius." Darius looked up at him. "Alright." Josh looked at him, barely able to contain his excitement. Nikki ran over to hug Josh. As Josh put her down from swinging her around, he looked over at Darius, who had a neutral expression. "Don't disappoint." Darius simply said as he tossed Josh the keys to the Supra. "I won't, don't worry." Josh replied confidently."

Lined up at the start, there were three cars, each of a specific class. There was a Tuner, a Muscle, and an Exotic car. On the far left, you had Kenji, the leader of the Bushido, who ran the racing scene in Downtown Palmont City. In the between the other two cars, there was an old school Dodge Challenger, revving its throaty engine. Driving it, and leading the 21st Street Crew, was Angie, a girl who took no one's crap and loved to race dirty. On the far right, an Aston Martin DB9 sat, the engine softly rumbling. The driver behind the foreign car, and leader of the crew who were simply known as the TFK, was Wolf. As Nikki arrived at the starting line, a fourth car appeared, much to the surprise of the audience and the current contenders. All three drivers looked to see the car, a blue Toyota Supra with grey vinyls all around the car, and in the driver's seat, was none other than Joshua Carter. Wolf and Kenji scowled, almost at the same time, while Angie just scoffed. All drivers now had their eyes focused on the red bag Nikki was holding up in front of them, which held the prize money for winning the race. As she showed the bag to all four drivers, she looked directly at Josh, and gave a smile. He smiled back, knowing he had Nikki on his side. As she raised the flag high into the air, getting ready to drop it down, all the cars were revving their engines as loud as possible, except Josh. He revved the engine, but not to the point of nearly over-revving. As she brought the flag down, all four cars took off quickly. Nikki turned around, worried. She couldn't shake the feeling something was off tonight.

For as quickly as Josh had taken the lead, he lost it just as fast as he fell back to third, with Angie in second and Wolf leading the pack. "Well it could be worse," Josh thought to himself. "I could be Kenji right now. He brought his attention back to the race in time to see Angie nearly push Wolf head-on into an 18-wheeler. Wolf quickly swerved left to avoid contact with Angie, then swerved right to avoid hitting the big rig, but at the cost of losing his 1st position. He fell back into last, moving everyone else up one. Punching the gas, Kenji flew ahead of Josh. Going into the turn, Kenji overtook Angie, placing him in first. A few turns and straightaways later, Josh ended up leading the pack down the homestretch. With Kenji, Angie, and Wolf all right behind him, Josh shifted into sixth gear and hit the NOS. Without kick, the car flew ahead, putting distance between him and the other racers. As they rounded the final corner, Josh set to take the win and the prize money, a set of blue lines appeared, hitting and immobilizing all the cars… except Josh's. He stopped, seeing what had just happened. Spinning the Supra around, he watched as the events unfolded. What seemed like a battalion of cops showed up from nowhere, a helicopter flew in, and the crowd panicked and began to scatter. It wasn't long before the cops began arresting the other three racers, each putting up some resistance. Josh, finally coming out his trance and remembering Nikki, he punched the gas and pulled a three sixty, rolling his window down. He stopped when the passenger door was facing Nikki. "Get in!" Josh shouted over the commotion. Nikki threw the bag in and was about to open the door, only to have a cop pull her back. Josh looked with despair as Nikki was pulled back, she looked back at him, directly into his eyes, and shouted "GO!" It pained Josh to punch the pedal, but he obeyed Nikki's order. Turning around once more and heading into an alley that lead to the freeway, he floored it. Frantically searching the back for money, he only found nothing but papers. "NO!" was Josh's only word as he slammed his hands on the wheel. He got a call from Darius as he drove toward the canyons. "Look, between the heat and the crews, you need to walk away. Take my car, go, get out of here." "No! I need to go back and get Nikki!" Josh answered. "Nikki's already under arrest, if you head back, you'll be too. Look, I'll take care of her, don't worry." Josh sighed. "Fine." Hanging up the phone, tears began to well in his eyes. He hated himself for leaving Nikki like that, and he disliked the thought of leaving town even more. He drove on, eventually exiting Palmont City, and entered Rockport City…

Bringing himself back to reality, he looked on toward Palmont City, lit up in lights. "I wonder if Nikki and Darius are still around…" Josh wondered aloud to himself as he drove down Carbon Canyon. He drove in silence once more, looking around. "Nope, not a car in sight. Then again, it is two in the morning…" Josh was thinking to himself when he saw a pair of headlights approaching him rather quickly. He sped up as he rounded a corner, only to see the headlights again, this time closing the gap. Josh lurched forwards as he was hit from behind, having some difficulty keeping the car straight. He saw his attacker was doing the same. As he looked back, he saw the car after him and the driver inside, and nearly froze. "Hey, guess who's back."