*checks time* Midnight. Eh, not bad.

Phew, this one was tough. Setback after setback, stoppage after stoppage, but I finally got this chapter done. It's a longer one, and I'd like to think it's the best one yet. Thanks to you guys for sticking out with me and being so patient. Life as a college student can be really hectic and a lot of time gets consumed. I promise I'm not giving up this story though, so I ask for patience whenever long gaps like these come around. Your love and feedback is greatly appreciated and is truly a great source of motivation to keep going. Without further ado, on with the story.

Disclaimer: Team DASH is my team, and Team JASR belongs to my friend Jade.

~Sage

Four cars took to the starting line, marked on the street by a freshly painted white stripe Fox had just sprayed on the ground. Upon finishing marking the ground for the cars to line up, he tapped the hood of the last car he passed, almost as if to signal kickoff. Everyone surrounded the tetrad of rivals. The tension in the air became palpable.

On the far left of the group, Jaune gripped his steering wheel of his Honda Civic and his blue eyes focused on the empty road ahead of him. On the far right, Russel Thrush revved his Honda S2000 engine in a small attempt to show off. Next to Jaune, Sapphire adjusted each one of her mirrors, and gave herself a good luck wink in her side-view. In between her and the S2000, Blake flipped up her sleepy-eyes style headlights of her modified Mazda RX-7 and readied herself mentally.

"No distractions. Watch your gages. Time your moves right. Stay focused," she said to herself. Her scroll, along with the scrolls of the other three competitors, all buzzed simultaneously with the same message. Off to the side, Solomon looked up from typing on his personal tablet, which he always had strapped to his arm. He nodded to Auburn, and she picked up her radio and come in to all four racers.

"Route's been sent. Good luck guys. And go get us a win, Sapph," Auburn said with a smug smirk on her face. At that moment, all of their scrolls lit up with GPS directions of their 5 mile street course. Sapphire curiously inspected her radio, as her fox-tailed teammate's voice came through like static, but she shrugged it off since she was able to interpret her anyway.

"This one's for Team DASH," Sapphire said back to Auburn with a smile. Jaune ignored the banter and took the opportunity to hook his scroll up to his dashboard for easy access. His gaze then turned up to Nora strolling up to the middle of the street, stopping in between the two middle cars. Nora's turquoise eyes were injected with excitement and her smile grew more eager as the seconds ticked by. She motioned for the drivers to display just how much they were raring to go, which Thrush took as a chance to roar his engine even louder, to the applause of his team leader.

Nora decided that she could not take the anticipation any longer, which was obvious to anyone who could see her brisker than usual demeanor. She pointed to her left to her flame-haired teammate Pyrrha, who nodded and responded in a balanced tone of voice.

"Ready."

Nora then looked to her right and pointed to Auburn, giving her the OK. She had her arms folded over busty chest as she spoke and her fox ears shook with a tinge of animation.

"Set."

The hyperactive Valkyrie took two steps forward. Both hands went up in the air. The moment seemed to hang in the air forever. With one last impulse, the moment was left off the leash.

"GO!"

The air became marked with the deafening yet harmonious sounds of tires screeching to get grip, thousands of horsepower being churned out to get the early advantage, and the cheers of everyone else in attendance. The four chariots raced right past Nora, as she whipped around to watch them go down toward the first turn. Sapphire edged her Focus past the others to pull ahead and gain the early lead. However, Jaune remained persistent on her inside and placed himself in second. Blake decided that it was best to tuck behind into third to potentially avoid any mayhem, and Russel brought up the rear due to not getting as good of a jump off the line as the others. The foursome sped into the first turn, a near 90-degree left, with the first two sliding into side by side and the other two close behind. They all avoided colliding by mere inches as they bolted down the next street, Orlaith Drive.

"Watching a successful run has gotta be the best part of the job," Coco said in self-applause while wrapping one arm around Fox's shoulders and the other around Velvet's. Meanwhile Ruby has strolled over to where Solomon is sitting in order to peek over his shoulder and watch who is winning from his tablet. He looked over to see the red-hooded Rose and jumped slightly, startled.

"People have gotta stop sneaking up on me," he said under his breath amidst a faintly frustrated sigh. Ruby smiled apologetically and Solomon signaled all was ok by holding up the device so Ruby could see the action easier. However, the sound of an approaching turbocharged 4A-GE engine caused everyone to look up in confusion. A purple Toyota AE86 zoomed down the street past the Vale racing crews and toward the direction of the race.

"Who's that?" Ren asked as Nora rejoined his side. Dash held his hands up in annoyance. Cardin also expressed similar exasperation.

"Doesn't matter who it is," Yatsuhashi said, finally breaking his silence. "What matters is our friends might have some company."

Jaune's nerves were being tested. He had pulled up again to Sapphire and had slowly beginning to creep ahead of the garage's resident gossip. A glance in the rearview mirror also told Jaune that Blake and Russel both were right on his bumper, breathing down his neck. The next challenge was a quick right then left exchange to the street one block over, almost serving as a cityscape chicane. The blonde had the advantage though by starting off on the inside line.

"Alright just hit your mark on this right and you can crossover in front of the Focus," Jaune told himself. But getting caught up in his thoughts proved to be a costly misstep, and a quick look down at the gages showed he was carrying too much speed into the corner. He braked hard to get it decelerated, but the backend of the Civic kicked out too much, sending him into an unintentional drift. Sapphire's eyes went wide and swerved out wide in a fraction of a second's reaction time in order to miss colliding with the Civic.

Blake analyzed the incident unfolding in front of her. Her eyes scanned from the two racers to the surrounding area, including a bus stop in front of a building. At the last second, she pulled hard to the right toward the curb. Fear never seemed to take hold of Blake as she neared the sliding Arc and the embankment. Collected as ever, she managed to squeak her RX-7 right between Jaune's hood and the traffic sign marking the stop. That maneuver also lined up Jaune's car as a pick to pass Sapphire, putting Blake in front of the pack. Meanwhile, Russel had used the opportunity to move left and gain the inside heading out of the chicane, positioning him past Jaune and beside Sapphire. Jaune recovered from the slide, but not without penalty, as he now had passing to do to regain the lead.

As they soared down the next street, marked by a large grass area with trees lined in a row serving as a median, Russel fixed his attention next to the Ford on his right. He veered his way into Sapphire's lane, depriving her of racing room.

"Ugh! Move, dammit!" she groaned. She looked for any type of reprieve but the green Honda just kept bearing down on her, forcing her closer and closer to the curb. But, Sapphire couldn't make her way past Russel, and she was coerced into backing out of the impromptu game of chicken and hitting the brakes to tuck in behind him. That left the member of Team CRDL with the taillights of the RX-7 as his sole focal point.

Thrush wasted little time in shifting his car into another gear and ramming his car straight into the back of Blake's Mazda. Blake looked up in her rearview mirror and her usually mellow expression cracked with disdain. Russel bumped into Blake again, this time enough to pick up her rear wheels and send her swerving left. She weaved her way over the median, careening over it and in between the trees before straightening out in front of oncoming traffic.

"Dead girl driving," Russel remarked as he watched RWBY's resident ninja fight for the race and her life alike.

Back at the parking lot, the Vale crew was abuzz with the arrival of the new unknown challenger. Questions kept rising into the air like the heat off of the blacktop after the racers laid rubber down on it. Emotions ranged from concern to outrage, as everyone tried to decipher who this mystery person was and why said person was here. Being the head organizers of the event, Team CFVY scrambled to try and make heads or tails of the situation. Velvet and Yatsuhashi crouched over Solomon and his device, as they took to radioing to the challengers in order to alert them of what was happening.

"Alright, we've warned everyone about the situation, except Sapphire. We don't think her radio is working," Velvet reported to her team leader, Coco.

"Unbelievable," Dash said, exasperated. "So she has no idea what could be coming her way."

"Quit complaining," Coco said in an attempt to keep his worry from spiraling out any further. "She's a smart girl. She'll be fine." The heir to Wilder Industries fixed his glare on Coco, but before the clash could escalate any further, the sound of an unfamiliar female voice brought everyone's attention to the entrance of the garage building.

"So. This is Vale. I gotta say, for as much as you guys argue, you're a very tight-knit group. Can't say I'm used to that."

The girl hidden under the customized bike helmet had finally revealed her presence to the group. She spoke lightheartedly, her voice carrying a slight tomboyish pitch, but nowhere near enough to diminish its pleasantness. Taking off the helmet unveiled the girl to have a half shave haircut with brown hair, with the longer side tipped in blue. Her eyes mismatched, as her right one glimmered gold and the left shone as an icy, metallic blue. Like Auburn, she also had a pair of fox ears on her head, both of which sported piercings.

"Alright, what gives? Are you trying to be intimidating? Because I'm not scared," Cardin spoke, fed up with the brewing tension. The new faunus simply chuckled and shook her head in response, which caused Cardin's anger to rise even further. He exclaimed, "Who are you?!"

"Oh relax," she said. "Last time I saw a guy with a face red like that, he had a much better view than you have right now." She laughed louder, but no one else was swayed by her jokes. The rigidity and pressure of the circumstances could not be broken as everyone was still gripped on this newcomer. She noticed this and went on, "Oops. Where are my manners? Name's Sienna Umberon. Local punk and fastest fox in town." Auburn tilted her head at this and her fox ears twitched slightly.

"Wanna try that last part again?" she asked Sienna, which only prompted a smile and a shrug. She went on with her introduction.

"Me and my team just came in from Vacuo. We tore up the scene there, but it got real boring real fast. We heard a lot about Vale, and how it was becoming a hotspot for street racing. So we decided to see for ourselves if the rumors were true." Ruby was the one to pop the next question.

"So wait. The purple Toyota. That's one of you guys?" the young Rose asked.

"Yup. That was the proud leader of Team JASR," Sienna said while nodding.

"Whoa hold up!" Dash said, interjecting himself before Ruby could ask more. "You say you've experienced with how street racing works, yet you think you can just barge into a race unexpectedly? This shit isn't free to play! I thought someone from Vacuo of all places would understand that." Sienna stared down the team leader with a grin plastered on her face. Without breaking eye contact, she pulled out a stack of lien from her pocket and held it up for him to see. Coco approached them and swiped it from her before quickly tabulating it in her head.

"She's got no quarrel from me. I've got everything I need to give our rookie a happy 'Welcome to Vale,'" Coco said while casually sliding the lien into her purse.

"Don't use that word 'rookie'. Just remember where that money came from," Sienna said back with only a slightly brazen way. "And don't insult Vacuo again, boy. It may not be the best home, but it's our home." Dash's leer didn't fade until he turned away from her in order to update himself on the race.

It wasn't that Blake never recognized trouble; she just remained calm while faced with it. That being said, her stress levels were rising the more the headlights coming at her shined through her windshield. Her senses heightened as she moved her way in and out of traffic, crisscrossing around the cars to look for an opening to rejoin the race as their occupants panicked upon nearing the speeding Blake. The cat faunus knew she had to work fast, before the others turned to the next street.

Then, she saw her opportunity: a break in the line of cars that she could get through. But just as fast as she found the godsend did it disappear as a SUV blocked her path. Blake quickly redirected her Mazda to miss the car and continue straight, forcing her to watch as the other trio of racers hung the next right onto Aero Drive. Blake groaned and gripped the wheel tighter as the GPS read out "Recalculating," almost as if to mock her.

"Shut up!" she yelled to the machine. However, her whole mood changed when she quickly sighted an alleyway between the buildings headed by a chain link gate. A hard left took her through the gate and down the alley, hanging onto the new route as her only hope of staying in the race.

Meanwhile, Russel had used his underhanded tactics to gain a somewhat comfortable lead over the other two. Neither could seem to make ground on him either. They were too busy combatting each other for position, with Jaune holding the advantage over Sapphire at the moment. However, both looked in their mirrors to see another car rapidly approaching them through their slipstream.

"I guess that's the company they told me about," Jaune said to himself. However, Sapphire was taken by surprise since she wasn't warned. But, she was far from discouraged by the competition.

"Well, well. Looks like we have a newbie looking for a challenge. Welcome to the party," Sapphire said while smirking in the mirror. A sweeping left-hander curve past the Vale Museum of Art put the racers on Sarcoline Boulevard. Russel glanced at his rearview and smirked, pleased with his increasing gap, while the other three raced each other hard, refusing to give an inch. A short trip down this road took them onto the freeway. Once they exit, it would be a drag race back to the garage.

Blake kept a close eye on her GPS as it continuously calculated a new route for her each second she blazed her own path. She was calling her shots in fractions of seconds, weaving her way through the debris marring the maze of narrow alleys. A left turn sped her through the heart of a couple of abandoned warehouses. The GPS struggled to keep up with Blake. She was in full control.

Then, she saw the time to make her move. She hung a hard right into a compound area littered with cargo boxes and scaffolding parts. Into the distance, she could see the lights illuminating the busy highway. Her eyes focused straight ahead, and everything around her became a blur. She moved past every obstacle and tore through another chain link fence, this one separating the compound from the service road. Looking down the hill from the elevated service road to the highway showed Blake the green S2000 navigating through the traffic. Once Russel exited the freeway, a hard left put him on the overpass back on Battle Street. Blake drifted her way back onto track, side by side with Russel.

"What?! I thought I dealt with you!" said upon seeing Blake's resurgence back into the fray. The mohawk warrior panicked and reached for a red button on his dashboard. After a couple moments' hesitation, he pressed it and activated a nitrous boost, propelling his car ahead. Blake smirked, almost as if she was toying with him.

"Too soon," she said teasingly before going for a switch of her own, hers on the steering wheel. She patiently waited, bided her time, then flipped it, igniting her own shot of nitrous. She reeled in Thrush quickly, making him feel helpless as the Mazda filled in more of his car's mirrors. Then it filled the Honda's windows, making a beeline for the finish line.

"No! I'm tired of looking like a loser!" Russel said with rising anger in his voice. He suddenly pulled the car hard left into Blake's rear quarter panel. The RX-7 spun, and its driver groaned as she grabbed the e-brake lever and tried to lock the car down. She eventually came to rest in the middle of the street.

"Spin to win, baby! Hell yeah!" Russel said as he pumped his fist and crossed the finish line. The others, who could see the action by that point, just collectively groaned as dread took a hold of atmosphere.

"Great," Auburn groaned under her breath. Ruby ran up to her and snatched the radio from off one of her belt loops.

"Blake, are you ok?" she said. Her teammate just sighed at first reply, but then finally came back to her.

"Yeah, Ruby, I'm fine…," she said with obvious disgust and dejection in her voice. Blake felt like she should be in disbelief, but none of this shocked her. However, what did shock her was the sudden shine of headlights coming her way. She gasped as the other three cars came barreling toward her and began sliding to avoid her. The AE86 slipped right to avoid Blake, but ended up colliding with Sapphire's Focus hard, sending her into her own slide. The Toyota and Jaune crossed the line, and Blake and Sapphire eventually followed, officially regrouping everyone. Cardin and Russel seemed to be the only two showing joy about the situation, as they were sharing high fives and words of praise.

"Now that's a race! Way to make a name for yourself," Cardin congratulated his partner, uncaring about the circumstances of how it was achieved. Sienna took no time in speaking up and calling out the two bullies.

"You call that a win? Even in Vacuo there are standards. And making a name like that wouldn't earn you anything except an ass kicking," she said. Russel tilted his head and looked up to Cardin as to answers for who she was. Cardin simply shrugged her off and decided to fire back himself.

"Wanna try that, animal?" he said while motioning for Sienna to come out him. She cracked her knuckles and readied up, but before she could step forward, Dash cut in between them in order to grab her attention.

"Really? Standards? You wanna bring those up? You just invaded a race you had absolutely no business being in. And now look what happened," he said as he pointed to Sapphire, who was out of the car inspecting the damage. Meanwhile, the leader of Team JASR stepped out of the car. She had on a purple hoodie and raggedy sweatpants with holes on both knees. Her green eyes shimmered in the light of the lamppost and her black and purple-tipped hair flowed past her shoulders. She adjusted her beanie and joined Sienna's side.

"I'm sorry about that. I was just trying to avoid the other car and make less of a mess. It was just a… racing situation," she said, speaking softer than her fox faunus friend.

"Eh, I've had worse. Nothing I can't get fixed," Sapphire said while walking into the conversation. "You're a good racer. What's your name?"

"Jade. Jade Meadows," she said.

"Sapphire Hyacinth," she said back in her own introduction. Dash's frustration, however, didn't fade as he brought the blue-haired girl back before the two talked any further. Jade turned around to meet two more approaching figures: Coco and Fox.

"Not bad out there. Not sure I agree with the fashion sense though," Coco said as she eyed Jade up and down. "And don't let Numero Uno or Dumb and Dumber over there give you the wrong idea. You're welcome in Vale. Next time though, I'll text you when we get together."

"If we can avoid this from happening again, we would," Fox added on. Jade apologized a couple times more but Coco signaled for her to stop.

"Oh and by the way, team JNPR would be more than happy to give you a tour of Vale if you want something to do for a day. Just ask Nora, the chick in pink. She'll be more than happy to help out." Jade nodded as a form of thank you before the two members of CFVY walked away. Sapphire also waved to them both as she returned to her car. Sienna wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled into a makeshift headlock, causing them both to smile. Ruby and Blake joined one another, with the latter still bitter about the ending of the race.

"There will be other races, Blake. More fair races," Ruby said in comfort.

"The world isn't fair. So if I can't win when it's unfair…" Blake said back with her head hung.

But, at the top level of the parking garage sat a lone car: a green Pontiac Solstice GXP. Its dark-skinned driver leaned on the hood while looking down at the crowd, surveying and taking mental note of everything that was happening. Her two long bangs of her otherwise short mint green hair flew in the breeze and her crimson eyes glinted in the moonlight. She was clad in white pants, a strapless green baudeau top, and a light brown jacket with a black gem emblem on the back. She had bands around her right wrist and tape around her left.

"Cracks," she thought to herself while tapping her heel on the ground. "Makes this even easier." Her face flashed a smirk, then she got into her car and drove off.