A bad idea is to jump into a car hopped on nitrous oxide with a heavy foot. A bad idea is to go on enemy turf and challenge them to a race while your car has enough NOS in its system to blow itself up while you still have that heavy foot. Thankfully Charles knew what a bad idea was. It was a shame that the kids that he had to deal with did not.
The streets were buzzing with excitement as a Mark IV Supera rolled up. The yellow paint job left nothing to the imagination. To those who were familiar with the races, they knew who the car belonged to; and not long after, the rest of the group followed suit. The first to make their exit was none other than Charles Xavier. As soon as he made his exit, two women were by his side, latched to each arm. There was the usual chatter that came when the brunet made his entrance, the girls going on about how they missed him.
A blonde emerged from a suped-up 1994 Integra, her blue eyes ablaze as she sauntered up towards Charles and the two bimbos that had latched on to him. As she approached, it was evident that they weren't paying attention to her, and she knew that she needed to make herself known. "Rawr," She mewed, and sure enough, it turned all eyes on her. "What's this? I smell…" She gave two exaggerated sniffs. "Skanks." She said finally, with a cocky smile. "So why don't you two pack it up before I leave skid marks on your face."
With a final glare at Charles, those who were paying attention knew that she meant business. When everyone went back to their business, Charles could only stare at his sister in awe. "Look, I was only talking—"
"Yeah, whatever." We'll talk about this later.
Inhaling sharply, Charles turned to his two best men on the scene. "Scott, Logan," Two men approached, each giving a high-five to the brunet as they approached.
"So how're we gonna do this tonight?" The shorter of the two asked.
"One race. Two-G buy in. Winner takes all. Scott, you're gonna hold the cash." Charles said simply as he looked around at the perspective racers. Not many were willing to join, but there was a familiar face or two in the crowd, shuffling to find the money to hand over to Scott. None of his gang dared to enter, and for good reason too. They knew how it would go down.
"Wait, why does Scott hold the money?"
"Because he's too slow to get away with it,"
The crowed burst into laughter, and Charles couldn't help but to smile at the younger man's discomfort. It died down, however, when a brunette approached between them, holding a certificate title of their car. "I don't have any cash, but I do have a pink slip." The woman stated calmly. This caused Charles to raise an eyebrow.
Before he could say anything, however, Sean interjected. "I don't know who you are, but you can't just climb in the ring with Ali 'cause you think you can box."
Without missing a beat, the woman let the redhead's face meet her fist. "Now you know I can box." She replied. "Now here's my proposition. If I lose, the winner takes my car. Clean and clear; however, if I win, I take the cash, and I take the respect."
Charles smirked. "Respect…" He repeated mockingly.
"I suppose to some people, it's more important."
Thinking for a moment, the brunet had to agree that she had a valid point. Looking over to a particularly new car in the general vicinity that the woman had been in, Charles nodded towards it. "S'that your car?" He asked.
When he had a nod of confirmation, he waltzed over to the Mitsubishi Eclipse with Alex in tow. Giving him a quick nod, the younger man popped open the hood, inspecting the engine. "Oh, man! There's a cool-air intake, a NOS-fogger system, and a T-four turbo. I can also see an A.I.C. controller and a direct port nitrous injection…"
While Alex was prattling off the specifications of what was under the car's hood, Charles kept his baby blues on the woman. "Yeah, and a stand-alone fuel management system; that's not a bad way to spend ten grand,"
Scott moved in closer to inspect the car, shaking his head. "You see that? She's got enough NOS in there to blow herself up, period." At the words, Charles could only nod and smile. There wasn't much else to say.
"So what do you say? Am I worthy?" She asked in a cocky tone.
"I haven't the slightest clue… But you're in." Charles' smirk never left his face. "Let's go." He said, turning back to his car. It was going to be an interesting race, despite the fact of this newcomer. Before he got into his car, however, Charles pulled one of his men aside. "I want you to pull up what you can from her; a name, an address, her whole file." He said, patting the man on the back before getting into his car.
A parade of sports cars came out of the alley, making their way to the main roads. Once they reached their destination, they blocked off the roads accordingly, so there wouldn't be a disturbance during the races. The streets were once again filled with people, cheering on for the racers that had bought into that night's race.
The crowd grew its volume as people started to arrive at the starting. The engines were revved up as each racer made eye contact with the others, preparing themselves for the race.
From the other side of the starting line, Charles could see the woman muttering to herself.
'You're gonna win. I'm gonna win…'
It was cute how she was mentally preparing herself, but the telepath kept the information to himself; instead, he folded the passenger seat down, turning on and making use of the hidden nitrous system. Once again, he revved the engine and waited, keeping a close eye on his companion at the ready.
When the other raised his arms up, they were ready to go. Within seconds, his arms were down and Charles was off, taking an early lead. He knew he could ditch the other three easily, which was what he intended to do.
The brunet held his hand on the gear shift, shaking his head as he saw the rookie catching up to him. He looked to his auto metre. 140… He could work with that. When he looked back up, however, Charles noticed that the rookie had sparks flying from her car.
"Too soon," He smirked, flipping his dash and he hovered his finger over a little red button. His tires screeched, and he could smell the rubber burning. He let the other burn out first before pressed it, pulling far ahead of his other competitors.
Once he reached the finish line, the crowd returned, and there was only a cocky grin on his lips. Two and three came in, but the brunet was more interested in how long it'd take the rookie to return to the finish. Once he noticed the little black car turning his way, Charles looked towards Alex and nodded for him to come over.
"Was that fun?" Alex asked as the woman came out of her car, popping the hood open to inspect what the group had won. As soon as the hood was popped, smoke flew in every which way. "Shit! You're lucky that you didn't swerve off the streets and into another car! Now me and the mad scientist gotta call in and have a rush order from across the ocean to fix whatever you've tampered with under the hood of that car."
The cocky demeanour didn't leave Charles' face until he heard Hank's voice.
"We've got cops, cops, cops! Disperse!"
It was man for himself, driving off to avoid being caught. The sirens were wailing and there was a mess of cars going in every which way. Cruisers followed in every direction, one hot on Charles' tail. Thankfully, there was a parking garage that Charles knew of, so he made a quick turn to hide his vehicle; but there was always something that would go wrong, especially with his luck. In this case, it was when he was walking down the streets. A cruiser had taken notice that he put his jacket on from coming out of the garage, and for some reason the cop knew that it was him. How, Charles didn't want to stick around to find out. Perhaps it was the fact that he was well known within the racing community, and every cop in the city knew who he was.
"Xavier! Stop right there!"
Yep, that was definitely the answer. Charles didn't want to stick around to find out what the officer wanted, and instead he made a run for it, heading into a small alley way.
"XAVIER!"
The sirens wailed as the cruiser made a U-turn to follow him. Just as the car was catching up to him, however, a familiar Eclipse came up beside him. "Get in!" The woman said in a panicked voice. Not taking a moment to hesitate, Charles leaped in, and they were off.
The cruiser was still hot on their tail as the green car drifted into the streets. It was then that two other police cars met them, trying to block them off. In a surprise to Charles, the woman wove between the cars with precision, making sure that they didn't get caught in the given situation.
Once they were far enough from the scene, Charles let out a sigh of relief.
"You're the last person in the world I expected to show up," The brunet admitted.
This time, it was the woman's turn to smile. "I thought if I got in your good graces, you'd let me keep my car." She said, turning over to look at him for a moment before turning her eyes back on the road.
"You're in my good graces, but you're not getting your car." Charles said, inspecting her closely. "You drive like you've done this before…" He noted. "You a wheel man?"
"No."
"What about stealing cars?"
"Never."
"Have you ever been to jail?"
"Just a few hours, once or twice. Give or take."
"Really? I thought your friends would be able to get around that situation. Don't tell me the pigs are bad enough that they don't save one of their own." Charles smirked, getting straight to the point. The look on her face as she turned to him was priceless. "I had Hank run a profile on you, Moira Ann McTaggert. He can find anything on the web; anything about anybody. So why are you lying to me?"
Charles watched the woman as she lost her words. She opened her mouth and closed it, as if she were a fish. It took quite some time before she found her words again.
"If you know so much about me, then you'd also know that I'm here to offer you an ultimatum." She started, clearing her throat. "There've been multiple car thefts, and from our investigation, we believe that it's your X-Men that are behind it,"
Cutting his eyes at her, Charles raised an eyebrow. Okay, so she had caught his attention for a few short moments. "But?" He asked, knowing that there was more to the story.
"But we also suspect another group is involved…"
"And you want us to help you take down the Brotherhood, don't you?" Charles asked. Within a moment, the car halted to a stop, much to Moira's surprise. "I'm sorry, but I cannot help you there. My X-Men are not involved in this, and I will not narc out anyone in the community," He smiled politely at her. "Now, would you mind stepping out of the car, thank you," He asked.
In that moment, Moira felt compelled to exit the car, and once she did Charles took over the driver's seat.
"And if I can help in any other way, feel free to drop by the garage. I'm sure you know where it is by now."
With that, Charles took off into the night with his ten minute car.
After that little meeting, Moira was more fired up, wanting to coerce the man to help her department even more.