Chapter 1: Return

Disclaimer: I don't own them.

The past months had not been kind to her. Her 2008 Mustang GT coupe had been totaled in its second race, it was her fault though; she hadn't taken the proper test runs to get used to the machine so she ended up down-shifting too early and blowing the engine, and it didn't help of course that she had only the stock brakes installed on the car, not enough to stop it from careening into the brick wall on the side of the road, it was still a wonder how she was able to walk away from that. She wasn't going to make the same mistake with her new car, the one she was driving right now: A brand new 2008 Dodge Charger SRT-8. The color of the car was jet black with a chrome finish, very shiny. On top of that, dark red window tints and the custom body kit made the car wider by almost two inches and longer by more than three inchs, what with the "extreme front end" as it was called, it was basically just a bigger front and rear bumper that was pushed out from the rest of the body, and when you think of it, that's about all the custom fenders did too. The added rims were five-spoke and treated with a silver chrome finish, adding more eye candy to the car. The custom suspension pushed the wheels out and compensated for the added width while adding stability to the car and lowering its center of gravity. Modifications under the hood included a high-performance intake shaft that had been laced with a special lubricant, making cleaning the thing an event that happened less often and added an extra thirteen horsepower to the engine. The engine itself was modified with aftermarket tubes, an electronic fuel injection system, eight custom pistons, a custom driveshaft, a treated block and a liquid cooling system. The transmission was a heavily modified six-gear stick shift with a high performance clutch and special fluid. The first-party muffler added power as well as sound, giving the car that old-school muscle car music. The nitrous injection system wasn't a bad touch either. The aftermarket spoiler added to the aerodynamic efficiency of the car and increased down force, it wasn't just there to look cool. All told, the cost of the car itself, the modifications and the insurance from the special agency came up to a very hefty two-hundred sixty-eight thousand dollars, but with a total horsepower of six-hundred seventy-five, along with five-hundred ninety foot pounds of torque, a top speed of one-hundred ninety and a zero to sixty acceleration speed of 3.3 seconds, it was well worth it.

But money wasn't a problem for her, ever since her father was killed when his private jet crashed, all his money went to her, and there was plenty of it. It was a good thing too, racing was her passion but she was always turned down to race in Le Mans as her car had illegal modifications, and she wasn't about to take them off.

People weren't going to recognize her in this new car, but they will recognize her, she hadn't changed much since that faithful day she was forced to skip town and find a new, temporary home. She remembered it like it was yesterday…

FLASHBACK

There were five other cars in the race that was due to begin in just a few minutes and two of them didn't look like they were going to pose much of a threat to her. One of them was a Mazda RX-8, it had scissor doors but that was probably the most high-end thing on it, it had a few engine tweaks and a slightly modified transmission with a body kit and custom rims but it was obvious the owner-a young girl named Jessica, didn't have the funds to support her hobby. The second one, a Nissan Sentra, had rear suicide doors with an unimpressive front bumper and a swapped out engine, instead of a one-hundred forty horsepower I4, the car was equipped with a two-hundred eighty-five horsepower V6, and other than a custom suspension, there was nothing else on the car that could put it in the category of "tuner." The next car wasn't meant to be a tuner at all though, it was an exotic, a Lotus Elise, yellow with green racing stripes but that was it, not an engine mod to speak of. Put this car on a winding narrow track and it was excellent, a track with a lot of straight-aways, not so much.

The other two cars would probably be a problem. One of them was a Lamborghini Gallardo with a custom transmission and turbo intake as well as high-performance belts and pistons, couple that with the beautiful BBS rims and teal paintjob with an iridescent finish and you have one mean road machine. The second car, the only muscle car in the race, was a seven-hundred thirty horsepower 1970 Dodge Challenger HEMI. The car was scary fast, it had been custom built to race, outfitted with the best tires and suspension and the spoiler made handling even better.

Rachael Roth, also known as Raven by her friends and rivals was driving a 1993 Mazda RX-7, it's age was irrelevant as the car had been well taken care of and upgraded to a six-speed transmission and every first party performance upgrade you could get, couple that with the body kit, rims, spoiler, vinyl pattern of black dragon and cherry red metallic paint job, and you had a flashy and also very powerful machine.

The racers lined up in two lines beside each other, Rachael was second in the left line with the Challenger behind her and the Sentra in front of her, the RX-8 was next to her and the Lamborghini was in front of Jessica, leaving the Lotus next to the Challenger. Rachael knew right off that the Lamborghini was at an advantage, he was at the front of the pack and his more powerful competitors were stuck behind a poor excuse for a street racer. The race initiator, a small blond, stepped between the Lamborghini and Nissan, she raised her hands, paused, then quickly motioned her entire upper body downward, telling the racers that the race had begun. Rachael's assumption of the Lamborghini's advantage was worse than she had predicted, not only did it plow off the line like a bullet, but the driver of the Sentra didn't know how to drive, stalling his car after only a few feet and nearly getting rear-ended by Rachael. "Fuck" She cursed, turning to the right and going around the Sentra as the Challenger went left, effectively leaving them at the back half of the pack. The Lotus turned out to have a very good driver behind its wheel, the car was quick and nimble, but get it on a straight-up race and it lost its advantage.

Rachael tried to pass on the right but nearly ended up getting her front left fender busted up as the Lotus swerved to block the pass. This however left him open on the left, and the driver of the Challenger took it as an opportunity, he put the older car into fourth gear and sped past.

The Gallardo was hundreds of feet ahead of the second place driver-the Challenger, who was hundreds of feet ahead of the Lotus and Rachael, who were battling for 3rd place.

Rachael rear-ended the Lotus hard enough to knock the RX-7's custom bumper loose; the Lotus suffered only chipped paint because of its one-piece design. The driver of it however, panicked at the sudden jolt and lost control just long enough for Rachael to pass him. She saw in her rear-view that the Lotus was able to recover but she had bigger things to worry about, the lead car was nearly a fifth of a mile ahead and she had ground that needed covering, but was forced to slow down for the first turn, a right turn. It was about a seventy degree corner and she took it at over eighty miles per hour at the top of third gear. It was a close one, she didn't go off the road but the turn was wide, the good news was as soon as she was pointed in the right direction again, she dropped the clutch and shifted into fourth. Just as she did so, she saw the Lamborghini take the second turn, a left turn, and disappear, followed by the Challenger. She was just at the point of having to shift into fifth when she reached the second turn; she shifted down to second to take the sharp turn, going only about thirty-five MPH, but she managed to keep close to the left this time and make the corner tight. She quickly accelerated out of the corner and was able to close the distance between her and the Challenger, urging to pass. The driver of the muscle car wasn't about to loose his place without a fight though, and swerved to avoid being passed

The maneuvers the driver of the Challenger was pulling was making the distance between them and the Lamborghini bigger, giving the Italian car a commanding lead by the time Rachael was able to feint a pass on the left and get by on the right. The Lamborghini had just pulled out of the fifth turn (right) when Rachael was entering the fourth (right), followed a little too closely by the Challenger, apparently the driver didn't appreciate being passed as he rear-ended Rachael as he pulled out of the corner. The heavy muscle car slammed so hard into the small Mazda that the rear bumper was ripped clean off and dragged under the Dodge, flattening its front tires and taking him out of the race.

Rachael's damaged car was still going strong as she entered the fifth turn and pulled out perfectly. The Lamborghini had made some distance but had to abruptly slam on his brakes to avoid colliding with one of the few cars that was on the road at four in the morning. Rachael pushed the import well past one-hundred to close the distance. The Gallardo had recovered from its near miss and was back in the race before Rachael could get past it. Now the Lamborghini had a very determined Mazda crawling up its tailpipes, the driver of the exotic floored the accelerator but in panic of loosing his lead, mis-shifted into fifth instead of third, slowing the car's acceleration considerably and allowing Rachael to pass by on the left after nearly rear-ending the Lamborghini. The Gallardo's driver corrected his mistake and was soon on Rachael's rear. The two were coming to the final turn to the left and the entire race depended on who took the turn better. Rachael entered the turn well, swinging the rear of her car along the outside of the turn. The Lamborghini did the same but made the turn only a little bit wider than Rachael, before the driver could figure out what he did wrong; Rachael had crossed the finish line.

Rachael stopped her car but before she got out it was like a flash, she didn't even see where they came from, all she knew was that she and the driver of the Lamborghini were now surrounded by what seemed like hundreds of cops, helicopters and all. Both drivers started driving in any direction they could to get away. The Lamborghini ended up plowing right into a police Durango and Rachael wasn't much better off, everywhere she looked there were cops, there was a small alley within reach but there was a Lincoln Continental blocking it, she decided her only chance was to smash through the car and try to escape that way, she pointed her RX-7 at the Lincoln and gunned it, just when she thought her car was going to be totaled, the Lincoln moved aside and allowed her to pass.

Confused beyond belief, she looked in her rear view mirror and saw that the Lincoln was not allowing the police to follow, whoever was in that car deliberately let her get away at the expense of his or her own freedom but she couldn't dwell on it now, there was still the matter of the helicopter, or so she thought. She looked back but saw that the helicopter was not chasing her, it was holding its position overhead, surely it had seen her escape? She looked around for other helicopters, but there were none, it seemed like the cops had abandoned her completely, which wasn't a bad thing, but it was just too convenient. Rachael then got a text message on her cell "The safehouse has been raided, get out of town" is what it said, and she did exactly what it told her to do.

END FLASHBACK

Now she had been away for months and figured it was finally safe to return home, but now, she wanted to find out what happened, and to make good on her cowardice from that night.