Chapter 1: Meet the Siblings

So yeah...sure people were wondering what happened to this great big Acceleracers fanfic and why it was down on this website. Well, that's a long story...but it's going to be put back up on here. You can find the original story on other websites like Wattpad right now.

You'll notice that at the moment this version is different from them slightly because guess what! I'm doing a partial rewrite. What that means is that I'm basically rewriting all the way up to the start of the Metro Realm and a few select parts after that to clean things up quality wise. The main plot won't change but a few unresolved subplots will get taken care of and the like.

Sorry for the confusion everyone, and hopefully this rewritten bit will make up for it.

Disclaimer for the *entire* fic since I'm not typing it 100+ times: I own nothing official

My name is Terra Kitano. No, not Taro, Terra. Do I look like a boy to you?

I honestly don't blame you for mistaking me for my famous half-brother. Yes, the rich billionaire that's skied down Mount Everest not once but twice. Honestly, I thought he was blessed with that famous Kitano logic that pretty much stops most Kitanos from doing anything remotely insane. How in the world did he get the crazy idea to ski down the tallest mountain above sea level in the first place, let alone doing it twice?

You wish to know how I could be related to Taro, when he was the only heir to the Kitano fortune? It's quite simple, really. Taro's father had an affair with my mother, and I was the result of that little escapade. I look just like my father, which kills me. Taro does too. It's easy to see that we are siblings, even if we are only half siblings - we have the same black hair, the same warm brown eyes, we even have the same bone structure if you can believe it. How the media hasn't figured out that I'm his kid is a mystery to me. Let's be honest, they can find anything under the sun to write a story about it, but they can't seem to figure out that this girl who got sent to jail who happens to look exactly like Taro's father, isn't his illegitimate child? It's not like they don't know about the affair. No, they practically had a field day with it.

Am I jealous? What sane fool wouldn't be? Taro is rich and famous. He grew up in a nice home with good money, never had to go to bed hungry, and was educated. He never had to grow up on the streets, go to bed hungry, and know what it's like to be frozen to the bone. He had time to be a child - well, as much as a child as one could be living in the Kitano's strict household - while I had to work and neglect my studies. Even now I sometimes have trouble when I read, write, or do math. It's a pain, but I didn't need an education to fix cars. That's all that I was good at, fixing cars. I just had some kind of gift with them, I guess. So yes, I'm jealous of Taro, but do not mistake that for being angry at him. The circumstances of my birth and my early life were not his fault.

Enough about that, however. My father, nor my brother, do not control all aspects of my life. You wish to know about my car, correct? I call itWelded, since that is probably the only reason why it hasn't fallen apart yet. It's crafted out of several scrap cars that I rescued from the melting pit in the scrap yard I work at. It's not easy on the eyes, but it gets the job done, and the paint job will help. I haven't been able to finish yet, but I hope to complete it soon.

My name is Verity Maddox, and I have the best older brother in the whole wide world! He's named Tork, and he's really nice. He was the one who taught me everything I knew about cars. And when I said everything, I mean everything. We're talking how to fix them, how to build them, how to race in them, the list goes on and on and on! But even though he taught me, once I was old enough to race we became competitors. I couldn't just go easy on him, now, could I?

Well, at least I raced him for a bit. He moved out to California a while ago, probably bordering on three years at this point. He wanted to find some people and form a street racing team, and of course, our sleepy little town just had to be too quiet for races. I mean, people come here to race in Headstone Alley, but they all are based out of town. So he moved, but not before giving me the best gift I could ask for: a real bona-fide car! It was just a plain car, but that makes it even better because that meant I got to paint it! I was so happy! Back Alley's my pride and joy, and I'm pretty good at winning races. Tork better be on his watch the next time I run into him, because I'm going to challenge him to a race, and I don't plan on losing.

Wow, you think that we don't look alike? It's not because I'm a girl or anything, is it? I mean, everyone I meet says that we look alike. We have the same coffee brown skin, the same spiky black hair, the same emerald green eyes, we even both have a lot of natural muscle. One time, one of his old teammates saw me in public and the first thing to come out of his mouth was "Tork, when did you get so short?"

Oh, you're talking about the clothing, not the appearance? Ok, that makes sense. But honestly, what were you expecting? My fashion sense is so much better than his. I mean, why wear some olive green - which is such a hideous color, by the way - pants and a red shirt, when you could wear gray jean shorts and lace up combat boots? It goes well with my muted red tank top I like wearing. My best friend Talia doesn't know how I can stand to wear a tank top all the time, but I don't know what's so strange about it.

Talia's this Latina girl Tork and I pulled out of a blizzard a while back. She likes racing and painting cars almost as much as I do. It's not uncommon for us to fix up old cars and then sell them for some cold hard cash, or for us to have races with each other. We do have a pretty healthy rivalry, since both of us are fierce competitors, but if anyone asks you I am the superior driver.

Who're you? I'm Aurora, Aurora Wheeler. Yep, that's my name, don't go wearing it out on me! I'm your traditional California girl - sandy blonde hair, blue eyes, a nice tan, kind of ditzy - with a touch of Florida craziness. Not that that's a bad thing by any means, oh no, it's the best thing in the world. I suppose I should make the distinction here and now that when I say crazy, I am not referring to the medical term. No, I'm completely sane, thank you very much. My cousin doesn't believe it, but I am, and there's nothing he can do about it.

So, how am I crazy, you might ask. I've got one word, buddy: pranks. Pranks are the love of my life. Well, pranks, jokes, and annoying my cousin. He's named Vert, but I personally like to call him Greenie. He hates it, but I know that means that he must really enjoy the fact that he has his own special nickname. And besides, his reaction to being called that is always hysterical. Why on earth would I stop enriching both of our lives with such joy?

I guess people could call me annoying, or ditzy, or maybe even naive, but hey, I don't care. Life's a party and I just wanna have fun. And since life should be fun, I make it fun! My constant chatter, infectious laughter, and tendency to tease my cousin are always on full blast; even when I race. That's one thing I like doing more than I like joking around - racing. I pride myself on racing anytime, anywhere, and with anything! Jet boats, Jet Skis, ATVs, cars, bikes, dirt bikes, motorcycles, roller blades, skates, on foot, the list goes on and on and on. Maybe you could say that I'm addicted to racing. I prefer to say that I have found my calling.

Hm? What's that?You want to know what's my favorite thing to race with?Well that's easy, it's got to be my car. I call it RoadRage, since whenever I seem to race with it my opponents always seem to get it. It is, for lack of a better word, epic. Greenie doesn't know about Road Rage yet, but I can't wait to track him down and show it to him. I'm not so sure how happy he'll be to see me, though, but that's just a minor detail.

Talia Pasero's the name. Disregard anything Verity tells you. I am a much better racer than she could ever dream of being.

...What? Nolo and Tone Pasero? Feh, I could care less about them. Oh, don't give me that look. Yes I know they are my two older brothers. So what? I'm glad Tone's dead, and for all I care Nolo can go crawl under a rock and die. I'd be much happier if he did. I mean, they abandoned both me and my mother right after our father died - made up some lame excuse about moving out so that way they wouldn't be a burden. Tone just wanted to escape because he didn't give a...what? Fine, ugh, if you ask me, curses are the only thing Tone and Nolo are worth anymore.

As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, neither of the boys who were supposed to be my brothers cared - is that better? I am at least allowed to say that they didn't care, right, or does that offend you in some way shape or form? - enough to stick around with mom and I. And their leaving caused my already grief-stricken mother to just fall pretty deep into depression. Next thing I knew, she kicked me out, and then I was homeless. It's all their fault, Nolo and Tone's both! Their actions almost caused me to die! If they hadn't left, mom wouldn't have kicked me out, and if I hadn't been kicked out I wouldn't have gotten beaten up, and then I wouldn't have broken my leg which meant that I would have made it to shelter before that infernal blizzard whipped up and almost succeeded in turning me into a human popsicle.

I suppose the one good thing that came out of that whole ordeal was that I met Verity and Tork. They were the ones that pulled me out of the blizzard before I could freeze to death, and Verity and I hit it off pretty much instantly. I owe them my life - the two of them somehow even managed to convince their parents to let me live with them until my mother managed to snap out of her funk, get the help that she needed, and invited me back into my own home. The two of them are more of a family than my own. Nolo and Tone never came back to visit or apologize, not even when I was run over by a drunk guy driving an eighteen wheeler a few years back. I suppose that could just be the amnesia talking, but given how cruel my brothers were in abandoning us, I doubt it.

You want to know why my car looks like Tone'sthen, if I hate him so much? I found the plans in his room when I was throwing away a bunch of his old school papers he conveniently left he was going to build it for me when I turned twenty, something like that. Normally I would have just chucked them right then and there, but car plans are car plans, and I made enough changes so that my design is superior to his. Besides, as good as I am with making drawings, car plans aren't really my forte. I'd have been a fool to throw them out.

Yo, what's up? I'm Gale Takamoto, a Japanese American girl of sixteen years, and I love electronic music. Techno's okay, glitch hop isn't too bad, but I'm telling you man, trance and progressive house is the way to go. I mean, I love most music in general. Not all music - hard rock and rap, I'm looking at you - but I really love electronic music. Did I mention that I love music?

Aw dude, you can't seriously want me to turn my tunes down, right? I had to have misheard you or something. What? How can I listen to music this loud. Man, I think the better question here is how can you not? Oh, don't give me all that nonsense about permanent hearing damage, I'll be fine. I have this older brother named Shirako, who, like me, is a music junkie. He's been listening to music since before I was born, and despite the volume he can hear things just fine. It's scary, really, he'll have his music up full blast, but if you so much dare to think about swiping some of his Halloween candy he'll hear you. I guess superhuman eardrums run in the family.

I wonder how Shirako's doing. Our parents went through a bitter divorce, and when the dust settled mom got me and dad got my brother. Dad instantly packed everything up and moved Shirako out west, just to spite my mom. It hurt me a lot, since I was really little when it happened - I was only six - so when I got older I had some snippets of memories of times spent with my father and brother, but I couldn't remember what had happened to them. Mom told me that they had died shortly after the custody case was finalized, but she lied to me.

Nothing is more heartbreaking than reading letters your older brother and your father wrote you - letters that your mother's been hiding from you - almost ten years ago, telling you how much they love you and how much they miss you. It was just so agonizing. I haven't seen them since, though they were very relieved, and angry when I finally got to answer them back and explain what had happened.

I've changed from the wide-eyed six year old they knew. I'm taller now, my hair has grown out, and I've stopped wearing it in pigtails. I have the same hair color as Shirako, but unlike him I have dad's storm-grey eyes. Shirako has mom's amber eyes, not dad's thundercloud ones. And I'm wearing a lot of clothing now, since I get cold easily. Before I'd flounce around in skirts and tank tops, now it's pants, a long-sleeved t-shirt, and a vest at a minimum.

I race a lot, No one in New York City can match me in a race; I'm that I don't like to brag about it too much, I wouldn't want any more enemies than the ones I already have. My car of choice is a modified Chevy Avalanche that I've outfitted with the loudest sound system I could cobble together. It can drown out a rock concert, and I know that because I've literally done it for kicks. Don't believe me? I've got the newspaper articles, hate mail, and noise ordinance violation tickets for proof.

Reviews, follows, and favorites are appreciated! Once again I'm really sorry about the whole nonsense with the fanfic being taken down.