I do not own any of the trademarked material in this story, Need for Speed is not owned by me. The songs and lyrics mentioned in this chapter are all owned and copyrighted by their respected owners. The lyrics of the songs are in bold. This is note based on real events; everything in this story is fictional
Rockport Police Officer Daniel Travis sat in his patrol car with his partner, and brother, Thomas Travis. Tommy had just pulled out a box of donuts from a local shop. Daniel eased the car around the corner and stopped at the next red light. Ahead of him and past the stoplight was an onramp to the highway and to his left was the amphitheater. He grabbed a jelly filled donut and took a bite out of it. He sighed as he chewed on it. It was one of the longest stoplights in the entire area of Rockport. Tommy rolled down the window on the passenger side. His brother dropped a piece of trash out of the window and onto the ground. "You know that's a crime, Tom." He received a glare as his brother retorted, "Then just arrest me. It's not my fault that we wound up on the most boring shift for patrol." Daniel shook his head as his brother rolled the window back up. He let out another sigh and took another bite out of the donut.
He looked up in the rear view window and saw a blue Honda Civic pull up into the lane to their right. The driver side window rolled down and he could hear ACDC's Thunderstruck through the windows of his PC. A hand reached out of the window and opened the door up. A Caucasian guy stepped out and walked up to the window of the PC and rapped on it. His brother rolled down the window and asked in an annoyed voice, "Yeah, what do you want?" The man pulled a card out of his back pocket and handed it to Tommy. He noticed that the stranger's hands were gloved. The other guy walked back to his car and got back inside. Tommy rolled the window back up and held up the small notecard handed to him. It had only one word on the front of it: K1LL3R. He flipped the card over and read it aloud, "Dear Rockport PD, This is K1LL3R, I am the soon to be Most Wanted Racer. These streets will soon be ruled by me… and there's nothing you can do about it. So while you sit there and eat your donuts and patrol these streets now, keep in mind that it won't last for long. Sincerely, K1LL3R.
The car next them started to rev loudly. The driver looked over at them and nodded. "What's this guy doing?" asked Tommy. "… Broke all the rules. Played all the fools. Yeah, Yeah, They, They blew all our minds! (three guitar strums.) And I was shaking at the knees! (four guitar strums) Could I come again please? (four guitar strums) Yeah the ladies were too kind! (four guitar strums) You've been… Thunderstruck!
At that moment the light they were sitting at turned green and the Civic burned out, speeding forward. "Whoa! Hey!" Tommy yelled as the other driver peeled out. Thunderstruck! Daniel roared after him in the PC. Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Thunderstruck! The jelly donut fell and splattered on Daniel's lap as he sped after the guy.
Oooh! Thunderstruck! Chris grinned as he began his first purposeful police chase of his life. And I was shakin at the knees! Could I come again please? He sped around the looping highway entrance as the song hit the guitar solo. He hadn't purposefully picked the song, but it fit the occasion in an odd sort of way. Said yeah, it's all right! We're doing fine. Thunderstruck! He raced out of the loop at one hundred, loosely chased by the police car. As the song went on, his speed increased as the slower patrol car started to fall back. He gripped the wheel tighter with his gloved hands as he hit one fifty. It went against everything he had been taught during his racing career to purposefully engage in a police pursuit. He whipped past an SUV extremely closely. The bigger, top heavy vehicle tried to sharply turn away, but started to spin out. He saw it tip over in his mirror and grimaced at it, but he started to lose sight of the cop car as it disappeared in a mass of cars bumping and smashing into each other. You've been THUNDERSTRUUUUUUUUUUCK! As the song wound down, he couldn't see any glimpse of the cops.
He pulled off the highway when he reached Rosewood. He drove into the garage to be faced with Lizzie. She closed the door after him and waited as he opened the door of the Civic. As he stood up, he looked up to the loft, where he heard the midday news playing on a small TV there. She walked up the stairs to the loft, saying, "Well, your little escapade made it onto the news." She turned it up louder to where he could here it as he inspected his car for any damage. "… And now in breaking news, a police chase ended terribly and the perpetrator escaped, leaving a massive pile up on the Northbound Downtown Interchange. The suspect drove a blue 1999 Honda Civic Coupe that had several aftermarket modifications such as bumpers and sideskirts. The police involved were caught up in the pileup and their car was totaled, leaving room for the suspect to get away. Oddly enough, the suspect left a calling card with a note and a callsign. In the note, the suspect called himself K1LL3R and said that he would rule the streets of Rockport. Rockport PD has put out a $50,000 bounty if anyone has any information that could lead to the arrest of the suspected driver."
Lizzie raised one of her thin eyebrows as Chris looked up to her as he ascended the stairs to the loft. She said, "Two hundred fifty thousand bucks is a lot of money. I think you may have gotten the attention of Sonny. Here you go." She handed him a bottle of Coke. Chris thanked her for it and opened the cap with a hiss. He took a swig, which he almost choked on as Lizzie turned around and bent over to grab the remote for the television that was next to the actual flatscreen itself. He eyed her butt with teenage admiration which had still yet to mature. Even though she was more than likely close to his age, she was very mature in the areas that a single (or taken in some cases) guy looks for. She sat down in the chair next to his and watched a video of the accident and a video taken from the dashboard camera of the police car that chased him earlier. There was a ringing downstairs coming from the open door of the Civic. Chris ran downstairs and touched his SMS. It was a text message from Rog. It read "Yo, it's Rog. I heard of a race that Sonny set up in the middle of Rosewood. You need to win it. You're gonna need to win three of these races to get to Sonny himself. I think you're set on bounty with that short little chase you had there. I'm gonna contact both Johnny and Lizzie soon for them to be there. See ya."
Nearby Lizzie's Supra's SMS rang as she received a similar text. Chris opened the door to the garage and waved Lizzie out and followed her down the street. She led him to an intersection by a local gas station and bus station. There were six cars there at the intersection. Several of them Chris recognized, like Johnny's Eclipse and a red RX8 which Mia was standing by and one Toyota Celica that belonged to one of Sonny's proxies. The green car was stock on the outside except for the lime green metallic paint and Giannelle wheels. As Chris rolled up, with his windows down, he heard the proxy ask Johnny, "So is this your boy?" Johnny nodded and walked up to Chris's window and leaned in. "Yeah, Chris, please smoke this cocky bastard, he's really giving me a hard time over here." Chris nodded as he pulled into the parking lot of the gas station. As he filled his tank with the highest octane fuel he could find, Mia strutted up, leaned up to his right side, and whispered in his ear, "Come see me after this race. I've got a small present for you." Chris raised an eyebrow at this. He could see Johnny past her giving him the thumbs up. He smiled as the other racer proceeded to imitate the "Smack That". Mia walked off and stood next to her car. She bit her bottom lip and flashed an innocent smile his way. Chris studied her from a distance. She was a thin, loosely curly haired brunette who had full lips comparable to Angelina Jolee and a thin, angular jaw. She, in other words was hot.
While Chris was weighing his chances of getting with her (or on top of her), the pump clicked and shut off as his gas tank read full. He stepped back inside and keyed the ignition and parked next to Lizzie and another racer. Sonny's proxy guy walked up to them and explained the race. The large Asian had a rough accent that was all the more annoying as it was intimidating. "Okay, kids, this is gonna be a sprint race. You understand? No questions, Period. The reward is twelve hundred dollars. The buy in is three hundred for each racer. Now Sonny himself is judging this one, so at least try to go over a hundred. I don't want to win by a mile. Okay, so pay up and you'll get the track course sent to your SMS." Chris laughed to himself as he placed his three hundred in the pot. He drove around and out of the parking lot to the intersection. He stopped at the white line as the green Celica pulled up on his right. Behind him pulled up Lizzie and next to her was a short black man in a blue Chevy Cobalt SS. He nodded to Lizzie in his rear view mirror and received the same acknowledgement.
They all revved their engines as they waited for the light. The light turned green and they jumped forward, leaving tire marks on the asphalt. He drove around the first turn, just behind the Celica. The Proxy wasn't a bad driver… but he wasn't good either. Lizzie passed him on the second straight away. He glanced to his left, as he juked right of a passing minivan and saw the black dude in his Cobalt. He pushed his car even harder. I'm not going to be second again. Sorry Lizzie. He blew past her as he started to chase down the Celica. The SMS track led him onto a section of highway that led to Campus Circle. He slid into place behind the Celica as the headed westward around the huge circle. The track veered away from the circle toward the road that led to the golf course. There was a large U shaped turn that went around a large hill that separated the road from the other side. There was a narrow pass between them, but the Celica went around the road. Chris, however, plowed straight through the dirt path and drifted onto the road, in front of the Celica. He downshifted and then upshifted as he gained speed from the slide. He flew down hill past it. He emerged at a large highway intersection, which he blew through alongside Lizzie, who had also just passed the Celica. As they passed, the North and South lanes turned green and cars came out, and collided with the Cobalt. Chris accelerated down the narrow straight away and hit his NOS. He was thrown back against his seat and the world started ripping past. His Speedometer read 170…180…190…
There was a huge sweeping turn ahead that he blew past and he could see that the Celica began to fall back. His SMS told him that there was .1 miles left until his destination. He saw another intersection ahead and prayed. He rushed through the intersection and over the finish line, more than a car length ahead of Lizzie and more than four car lengths ahead of the Proxy. He doubled back around the block and coasted into the parking lot where Sonny and his crew had judged the outcome. Behind him drove Proxy and Lizzie. He parked and walked up to Sonny who had the pot. "So… Sonny, where's the money?" Sonny sighed and gave him the money as he started to yell at his crew member in some oriental dialect for losing. As he walked up to his car to dial Mia to see what she wanted to give him, Lizzie walked up.
"Good race there, new guy."
"Thanks. Not bad yourself."
"Hey, you know how I have been holding that safehouse for the Most Wanted, or until someone worthy comes along?"
"Yeah, what about it."
"Well I figured that you need a place to stay and you were, after all, friends with him, so you can have it along with the cars in there. I think it's the best thing to do."
Chris was taken aback. "Uh… Um… Thank you… A whole lot. You want to get like dinner or something… Because I guess I owe you now." He hadn't realized the last sentence had slipped out until it had been too late.
She thought for a second. "Dinner would be great, how about tomorrow night?"
"Tomorrow night. Tomorrow… Sure."
"Okay?"
"Okay."
She got into her car and drove off as a shocked Chris sat in his car and called Mia on the SMS. "Hey Mia, it's Chris. You wanted to see me?" There was a pause and some dialing on the other end. "Chris, meet me at the GPS coordinates I just sent you. I have a gift to give you. By the way, how did the race go?" Chris's GPS dinged as he received a text message. He opened it and there were latitude and longitude coordinates. "Yeah, I just got them. I'm on the way." He put the Civic in reverse and backed out of the parking lot and entered the coordinates into the GPS.
He was guided to the rear of the Rosewood police station. He drove up hesitantly as Mia came walking up to his passenger door. He opened it and she stepped in. "Drive slowly." He obeyed and went the speed limit past the station and to the safehouse, which was less than a mile away. When they stepped out of the Civic, Chris asked Mia. "What were you doing at the Police Department?" Mia pushed some of her curly brown hair from her face and looked up at him. "I was talking with an old friend who got me a small present for you." She pulled out a small sliding phone like device. "This is how you can check up on your new Rap Sheet. Watch this." She slid the small keyboard out and tapped the screen. The black screen flashed a green police shield and a box that requested the user ID and password. Mia typed in "Cross" for the user and wrote "CROSSISDABOMB". The screen went black for a second and then a list of names under the subcategory "Suspected Racers", that was right under Blacklist Racers. She scrolled down and selected a name at the very bottom of the list.
She tapped the name "K1LL3R" and a database sheet popped up. There were six menus. As she brought up his summary, which was severely short, Chris wondered why a street racer would have a contact inside of the very police department that was attempting to dismantle the street racing organization altogether. It was odd, yes, but he thought this Rap Sheet reader could really help him. She finished showing him how the device worked and handed it to him. He was surprised by how light the thing was and stowed it away in his pocket. "Thanks, I'll make sure it goes to some good use. You're awesome." He gave her a sincere smile and started to move back to his car. His SMS rang and he answered it as he motioned for Mia to get back in. "Yeah, this is Chris." He could here the screeching of tires. "Hey, this is Johnny. Come to 48th street and Lamblock Boulevard, it's another one of Sonny's races. You're gonna need two more to formally challenge him for his title. Hey, fill your NOS tanks and get out here. It's a drag race by the way, so be ready." He motioned again for Mia to get in and they drove out of the warehouse.
On the way to the location Chris stopped at a street racing store and bought a twenty pound can of Nitrous Oxide. At the destination, he popped his hood and reconnected the NO2 lines running to the engine to their ports. As Mia got out of the car, he lifted her seat cover and screwed in the large tank. He pumped the gas into the lines and lowered the cover back down. There was a soft hiss as the gas ran down the lines. He stood up and looked over at the group of cars lined up in the parking lot. There was a map layed over the hood of a lime green Celica that belonged to the other proxy of Sonny. Johnny was standing next to him studying the route for the race. As he walked up Johnny smiled and nodded upwards in greeting. Chris walked over with Mia at his side and looked over the map. Johnny explained it simply, "All that we have to do is get to the intersection and head east. There will be a grocery store a third of a mile down the road and that's where we will determine the victor and hand out the winnings." Chris smiled and said, "Easy enough. Let's get started."
Five minutes later he found himself at the stoplight of the intersection, waiting for the light to turn green. He pushed on the pedal and released, listening to the high powered whine of the engine. He looked to his right and saw Mia in the passenger seat. He revved the engine again. The light hit green and he floored the pedal. Soon enough he was in third gear, still accelerating and dodging in and out of traffic with a grin. He was in first and Johnny was just behind him. He went blasting past a minivan that honked at him as he went past. He shifted up to fourth and changed lanes to go around a dump truck. The asian chick in the car behind him was not a very good driver; she could not drive her 2004 Mustang GT worth a damn. He shifted into fifth. He tapped the button on the steering wheel and felt the acceleration from the NOS flowing into his engine. He saw the meter of the NOS on his dashboard start to go down. He flew over the finish line and cruised into the parking lot of the Publix a little ways ahead. There he was handed a thousand dollars and he left.
About a mile down the road Mia said, "Hey, can you drop me off at my place?" Chris being the polite guy he had been raise to be said, "Sure, where do you live?" He dropped her off and thanked her again for the Rap Sheet reader. As she walked up the stairs to her door, he couldn't help but make a double take. He shook his head and drove off. On the way back to the safehouse, he ran into another race. He stumbled on it by driving around a corner and into the parking lot of an Advanced Autoparts store. There were several tricked out cars congregating there. It was being held by a Hispanic guy with long hair. "Hey, man! What the hell do you think you're doing? You think you can just race with us?" Chris pulled three grand out of his wallet and flourished it. The guy's expression changed with the sight of the money. "Okay, if you want to give up those pretty greens, then be my guest. They lined up in a two by two formation outside of the parking lot and it was explained over the SMS "Okay, this is a knockout race. Three laps; on each lap the person who finishes last gets booted. Simple enough. Download the route and get ready." Chris's SMS dinged as it downloaded the route and displayed it. He revved his engine yet again. The SMS counted down: 3… 2… 1… GO! He accelerated past the three other racers and cornered the turn, knowing fully that he would be racing against Sonny the next day...
Later that night he sat in the bed located in the loft and thought to himself, Oh, crap! I don't have anything to wear to dinner with Lizzie tomorrow. Guess I'm gonna have to go shopping tomorrow after beating Sonny. Best not worry about it tonight.
Mia walked through the hallways of the main downtown Rockport Police Department building. She was there to pick her car up from impound and to talk to Lance Corporal Calhoun who was second in command when it came to the street racing control. The only one above her was Sergeant Cross himself who was off on a "vacation" as he was off doing his part-time bounty hunter thing in search of the "King" as Chris called him. She strode through the halls as normal patrol officers did complete turn arounds as she passed. She was still in her civilian clothes, which meant miniskirt and skintight spaghetti straps. There was a slight smirk as she noted the attention she was receiving.
She walked up to the office labeled CALHOUN and rapped on the glass window with her knuckles. There was a curt "Come in!" she turned the knob and walked into the medium sized office. There was an attractive black-haired woman flipping through files seated at a wooden desk at the other end of the office. She looked up and removed here reading glasses as Mia seated herself in one of the uncomfortable chairs in front of the desk. The door automatically closed as the woman put away her files and brought out several new ones and laid them ceremonially on the desk top. She looked up into Mia's eyes and asked, "Officer Townshend, why are you here?"
Mia was taken aback by the question. It took her a second to hesitantly reply. "You requested me. That's why I'm here." The other woman flashed a sarcastic smile and replied, "No, not why are you here in my office. Why are you a police officer?" Mia responded, "Well, I joined the force to do some good for the community."
The woman dropped her smile and said more aggressively, "Is that what you call your little accident a week ago when you 'lost' the most wanted racer in all of Rockport? If you ask me, I think that you had a little fling with the criminal and you developed a soft spot for him. I think that's why you didn't have the guts to bring him down. If it were up to me, I would see that you would never be on the force again and that no government agency would ever hire you. I would see to it that you would be arresting for aiding and abetting a criminal. Be thankful that Sergeant Cross was good enough to forgive you and let you keep your position as an undercover officer."
"Now," she continued, "I called you in here to ask what you have managed to scrape up from your last little vacation in the underworld of Rockport racing." Mia regained her composure and lifted her head as she said, "I believe that I have first of all found your K1LL3R and that I believe that he could be a valuable asset to the department. He is a good racer who seems to have ties to the past most wanted racer."
This sparked a curiosity in Officer Calhoun's attitude. She leaned forward, "Tell me more…"
Chris stood in a department store looking for clothes suitable for taking a girl to diner. He was looking at a casual pair of jeans paired with a white long-sleeved shirt with an eagle stenciled onto the left breast. He wasn't quite sure what to wear so he bought several pairs of jeans and even some black dress slacks. For a shirt he bought several polo's and several long-sleeved semi-dressy shirts. He paid for the hundred fifty dollars worth of clothes and walked out to his car. He drove until he found a dry cleaner shop close to the safehouse and he paid for them to have the shirts ironed along with the slacks by the end of the night. As he walked out to his car, the SMS which he had stored in his pocket rang. He couldn't pull it out fast enough so he received a voice message. He sat in his car and tapped the screen for it to play it. "Listen, punk, if you want to mess with me, then let's take it to the streets. Meet me at the entrance to the university. That is if you want to be humiliated… Oh, and by the way, bring the pink slip to your ride, 'cause I'll be needing it for my new ride."
He sat down in his car and drove to where Sonny told him. As he neared the location, two green Celicas drove up alongside him very closely and led him to the red paved brick courtyard in front of the main entrance to the university. There stood Sonny, leaning against the stock '99 Eclipse that belonged to him. Sonny was eating a burger as he waited for Chris to drive up. Chris put his car into park and walked to the middle of the courtyard and looked at Sonny. As he stood there, he was purposefully bumped into by both the proxies who walked over to Sonny.
Sonny stood up, balled up the wrapper of his burger and threw it onto the ground as he walked to meet Chris. Chris was unmoving as Sonny strode up and got in his face. "So the new guy thinks he can play with the big shots now? I saw that little stunt you pulled on the highway yesterday; it was nice… but not as good as me." Chris leaned over the shorter Asian and got in his face, "I can't wait to wipe that egotistically smug grin off your face. You have no idea." On that note he walked to his car and started it up. He smiled to himself as Sonny was left standing awkwardly in the middle and then stormed off to his ride. Sonny drove to the intersection exiting the courtyard and Chris pulled up around to his right side. A proxy walked between the cars and collected the pink slips for the cars and wager, which Sonny set to eight thousand. This is literally all the money I have. Looks like I'm going to be forced to win this one. He dug out the money and handed it to the guy. The route was explained to them by one of the proxies and it concerned Chris, because it involved going directly past the Rosewood Police Station. He put it out of his mind and focused on the race ahead of him. The first race was to be a drag race and then a block down the road the second race would start and a sprint race would commence that would cross in front of the police station. For the most part the drag was a straight shot to the end, so it would be fairly easy.
The light turned green for them and Chris floored it. As he burned out from the start he had an immediate advantage over Sonny: He was actually good at drag racing. Sonny had a late start that set him back a lot. The blacklist member didn't think to draft off of Chris to gain first, but stayed in his lane and tried to outrun a car already in a higher gear. Chris zipped through traffic, leaving his rival in the dust. As he sped across the line at one hundred eighty five a team of Sonny's filmed the ending of the drag for future review. He slowed down to a stop by the next stoplight and waited for twenty seconds as Sonny tried to catch up. When Sonny reached the light, he didn't look over at Chris; he just waited for the signal.
Once again as the light turned green, Chris launched off first, but his lead was nulled by a shortcut that Sonny made by cutting across a parking lot and in front of him. "OH HELL NO!" he yelled at his rival. He shifted up and sped along side Sonny and whipped onto the interstate which would take him to the next section of the race with Sonny biting at his heels. They roared off the interstate onto the road that ran directly past both the safehouse and police station. Looks like he actually can take care of an engine, just not the outside of his cars, because he is still with me. Just barely. He zoomed past the police station and he saw in his mirror as five police cruisers pulled out after him and Sonny. He hit his brakes as a garbage truck pulled in front of him and he crossed the median into head on traffic to get around it. Sonny tried to do the same but he drifted wide and clipped several parking meters on the sidewalk edge with his bumper. One of the meters flew into a tire on the garbage truck and the truck turned sharply right and flipped onto its side, blocking off the road.
He tapped his brakes as he rounded a corner and accelerated out of the curve at well over one hundred. He tapped the SMS for voice commands and said, "Conference call: Contacts: Rog, and Johnny." Both people picked up the call as he drifted around another corner, still well ahead of Sonny. "Hey guys, I'm gonna need someone to pick up my next car." Rog replied over the line, "Sure thing, are you done racing Sonny?" Chris shifted up and turned left around a curve. "Give me two minutes and I'll get back to you on that." Rog chuckled and finished his part, "Good luck man, see ya in five minutes." There was a click as he hung up.
"So, what's this I hear about you taking Lizzie out on a date?" This caught Chris off guard and he swerved to avoid colliding with a sedan. He looked down for a second at the SMS and swerved again to avoid a pickup truck. "Can we talk about this later? Now is not a good time." Johnny laughed, "Ok, good enough, but you're fessing up at the finish line." Chris bared his teeth as he flew through a red light and the intersection following it. "Fine. Fine." The SMS reported there was only a half mile left in the race. Sonny was a good five hundred feet behind him as they ripped toward the line. They hit the final quarter mile straight away stretch and both hit their NOS. This did nothing but give Chris a larger lead because he had a much bigger and efficient Nitrous system attached to his engine. Sonny's dry shot Nitrous system went out in five seconds while Chris's was still keeping him pinned against his seat. Chris flew past the few spectators and proxies of Sonny who were lining the road's sidewalks at the end. Sonny finished a full four seconds behind him at a much slower speed as he coasted to the ending point where he would be forced to pay up with both money and his ride.
Chris did a full lap around the block and drove into the lot for his reward. As he parked and exited his vehicle, the entire crowd turned to face him. He walked up to one of the proxies and was given his money and pinkslips. He turned to face Sonny and said, "Now for the keys…" Sonny held up his hands and said, "Fine, but next time I'll be taking your keys for a change." At that moment Johnny and Rog drove into the lot with a tow truck behind them that was driven by one of the other racers Chris had seen in Camden. Sonny pulled the keys out of his pocket and dropped them into Chris's open hand. He slinked off to one of his proxies's cars. Chris grinned as he opened up his new car. He drove it up to the tow truck and handed off the keys to the other racer.
As he walked off to his civic a thin, busty Asian woman walked up to him and handed him a slip of paper that had three different phone numbers scrawled onto it. She leaned up and whispered, "If you get bored, you can give me and the girls a call." She motioned over her shoulder to two other women who looked as attractive as her. Chris thanked her, blushing the entire time and walked off to his car. The woman strutted off to join her friends as he exited the parking lot with Rog, Johnny, and the truck in tow.
