Chapter 10: Iron Dragon Street Racer
Their destination was a large, dusty old shop, caught in a deserted area. The area only looked bleak and empty thanks to the overcast coming in to top it off. It was large enough to store an entire garage of cars inside, but even then it could be used for many other things. The outside was built out of steel with a large, steel garage door that opened if necessary, found out in a deserted area past the city area. Driving directly out of the shop would take you straight into the city, which worked perfectly since that would be the direction that needed to be taken to get to the government base where experiments were being held.
Having arrived at their destination, both Gajeel and Victoria proceeded to exit the vehicle, Gajeel following Victoria as she led the way.
"This way Gajeel; you will be interested to see what we have in store for you here." She explained with a smirk. Gajeel pondered over what she meant; apparently, he was going to do something related to driving. He had a hard time putting some of the stuff he was told together; the most confusing thing being the possibility that Kyousuke could be from his own world. Ordinary humans did live in Earthland, but why would the government have any interest in them? The more Gajeel thought about it, the more he realized just how accurate it might be. Remembering the strange magic energy that would randomly exit Kyousuke from time to time was only proof; was that his magic power?
"Let me get this straight; this kid's supposed to be from my world, and somehow I got lost in this damn place with him in it. The kid's clearly got magic power; it came out and affected the both of us. I just don't get why he can't even recognize it." Gajeel thought to himself about it. It was confusing; if Kyousuke did have magic power, how come he couldn't even use it? He doesn't even know that he has it; is it even magic power then? It didn't make any sense at all; if it were magical power, Kyousuke surely would've been able to utilize it by now and at least be aware of it. Out of the most dangerous situations, it comes out and saves Kyousuke when it needs to but other than that it's virtually useless. "For now, I gotta worry about getting there in the first place. We can sort this crap out then." Gajeel thought to himself, putting it all aside as he followed Victoria into the shop.
Victoria, heading into the shop, brought Gajeel straight to the area where he would need to be. The entire shop only had a few lights in specific areas, so others weren't well lit enough to see. It was a large shop with a sort of upside-down T structure, and there wasn't much in it so one could assume it was just used for storage. Heading straightforward, there was a section with three high-performance cars just sitting there, uncovered and ready to drive at any moment.
"These are our high-performance vehicles; choose wisely. You'll be using one of these to get there." She explained. Gajeel was surprised by what he saw; three high-performance cars that he could choose between. The only thing he's had experience with is a magic mobile, but these are entirely different. As surprising as it was, Gajeel was utterly dumbfounded by the idea.
"How the hell am I supposed to drive one of these?! I don't know if you have been paying attention, but we don't have these where I come from!" Gajeel snapped, prompting Victoria to chuckle in amusement as she responded.
"Don't get so worked up Gajeel; you won't have much trouble getting used to these. You're an Iron Dragon Slayer, right? They're all machines; once you get behind the wheel you'll realize just how invigorating it is!" Victoria said, almost getting chills at the thought of it. Gajeel gave her a disgruntled look but soon shook his head in response as he started to choose.
"Alright fine; they better get me there faster."
"Oh, they will, trust me. You will not be disappointed." Victoria reassured. Observing the vehicles, Gajeel noticed three of them that were all different, but most likely around the same power range. There was a Porsche 959, a Shelby GT500, and a Lamborghini Gallardo. The only car that really seemed to stand out to him was the GT500, and with that, he approached it and took a look at it. It was black with red racing stripes, and it seemed to be the most aggressive looking car in the lot. As he went and approached it, Victoria followed and went on ahead to explain the details.
"I see you're interested in the Shelby GT500. Interesting choice."
"Huh?" Gajeel said in confusion, prompting her to explain.
"Get in the car, I'll explain the details." Victoria requested, prompting Gajeel to get in as she got in the passenger's seat. For someone like her, she seemed to know more about these than one would assume. Sitting inside the car, Gajeel observed everything in it as Victoria went on to explain it all. "Alright, this version of the GT500 is the Super Snake, so you'll have more power at your disposal. The right pedal is the gas, the middle one is the brake, and the one on the left is the clutch." She explained, Gajeel taking note of it as he observed the pedals. She then pointed to the shifter in the middle console, describing how it worked as she imitated an H-Pattern shifter without actually touching it. "This is your shifter; every time you see your tachometer," she explained, pointing to it, "hit the redline, or as we call it, the optimal shift point, you'll want to shift gears by letting off of the gas pedal and holding down the clutch with your left foot; do not hold it down with your right foot. Always brake with you're right foot when you let off the gas; we don't have time to go into the details of left-foot braking." She explained. As she went into detail on how to operate the vehicle, Gajeel took notes and imitated some of the actions so he could get used to how the car worked.
Eventually, after a good 10-15 minutes, she had finished explaining all the details on how to drive the car, or at least the basics. With Gajeel knowing how to at least operate the vehicle, she went into detail on how to get there. She activated the built-in touchscreen and brought up a map on the screen with an integrated GPS system.
"This is how you'll get there; built in is a Global Positioning System that will guide you to your destination. Just follow the map on screen by following the line to your goal; there's also an international illegal street race taking place, so that will help. We'd normally put a stop to those things, but we can use it to our advantage this time around. Anything else you will need will be on this touchscreen platform; I will stay in contact with you just in case you need any support." She explained as Gajeel understood. Before she could finalize it though; there was something that Gajeel couldn't figure out.
"I don't get why you're so eager to help me out lady; what's the deal?" Gajeel questioned, prompting Victoria to explain.
"Obviously, in ordinary circumstances, I wouldn't need you at all. However, with everything that's going on; you're the best person for the job. I can count on you to finish this successfully; you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar." Victoria clarified as Gajeel understood. With that, she finalized the whole thing and gave Gajeel the go to go on with it; about to get out and let him take off. Before she did though, she said one last thing. "I'll be having you meet up with one of my agents as you race uphill, so don't be surprised. I'll guide you along the way as things will get tricky very quickly." She explained, finalizing the explanation as she got out of the car. Understanding everything that she relieved to him, Gajeel sat in the car and watched as she left, her turning around quickly and winking before taking off. Gajeel, unsure of how to respond or take that, just ignored it and went on. With that, Gajeel understood precisely what he was to do, and he had a basic understanding of how to operate the vehicle. It would be a lot less complicated with an automatic transmission, but there weren't a lot of cars with an automatic transmission in that power range.
"Alright, well here goes," Gajeel said to himself, preparing to get moving. With that, he started the car and let it run for a few. Hearing the engine just idling, Gajeel quickly understood what she meant by a racing machine. The engine purred in its idle, and he hadn't even revved the engine enough to really hear it roar. With that, he slowly engaged into first gear and drove out of the area, moving straight in-front of the garage as he sat there and waited. Within a few seconds, Victoria had connected with her through the touch screen and went on to confirm her connection.
"Gajeel, can you hear me?"
"Yeah."
"Good. It's time to get going; are you ready?" She asked. Gajeel gripped the steering wheel and got ready to handle the machine, putting a grin on his face in response.
"Let's get the hell out of here." He said, ready to go. With that, Victoria confirmed the whole thing and let the garage door open, it slowly opening upward as it revealed the gravel trail that led them to the shop in the first place. With it finally opening, Gajeel slowly proceeded out of the garage, making his way out of the area onto the city streets. Victoria gave strict orders on how to handle this.
"I want you to take it slowly until you hit the city streets. Then, follow the map coordinates and support your way out of the streets. You will have to dodge traffic as you drive; eventually, you'll get caught up in the international race that's taking place, and you'll be able to drive without so many distractions." Victoria explained as Gajeel affirmed it. Just driving it out of the shop was easy, at least he could handle it that well. Driving it reminded him of the time he rode in Roxanne's car and watched how she handled it. It wasn't long before he managed to pull out onto the city streets, instantly taking a right on the streets and preparing to take off. With that, Gajeel hammered the gas and took off, immediately feeling the raw power of the engine as it instantly took off. It felt so unreal to him; it was so much power being put out, and he could get straight to 60 mph in less than four seconds. In a vehicle with 750 BHP, he could undoubtedly feel the monstrosity of the engine, and it was intense. It was almost like the kind of rush that he got while fighting people, just with the intensity of the driving experience; and that's what he craved.
"This is crazy; I can feel the car's power running through my veins!" Gajeel thought to himself in shock, unexpecting such an experience. As he quickly approached the city, he took a hard left into the city streets, turning a little hard in the process as the car easily oversteered. Surprisingly enough, with as little experience as he had, he was able to instantly feel the car's tires losing grip and was able to correct it, keeping his car in line as he stayed on the right side of the road. It was easier to dodge traffic when it wasn't coming at him so quickly, and he took advantage of that. Even in that moment of hitting that turn, the g-force from the steering at such high speeds felt so exciting; he was experiencing the rush of racing cars. "I've never felt anything like it; I only thought you could get this kind of rush by kicking someone's ass, but it looks like I was wrong." Gajeel further thought to himself. The engine's power coursed through his body as he hit the gas pedal; it was so exhilarating. As he was driving, Victoria chimed in really quick to give him some driving updates.
"You're doing great so far; make sure to keep the car under control and drive as fast as you can!" She reminded him, Gajeel easily keeping it under control as he drove throughout the city, dodging traffic and watching out for pedestrians. Luckily, traffic wasn't too dense around this time of day, so Gajeel had the advantage.
"You didn't tell me that it was gonna be this intense lady; you should've told me sooner!" Gajeel expressed ecstatically, something he felt in this kind of situation. Victoria chuckled at the thought.
"Oh, but that would've spoiled the fun; you see I like to make things interesting." She responded with Gajeel keeping focused on the road. He took a few more turns throughout the city, a left, a couple right turns, and another left before getting far enough ahead to make a sharp right turn onto the main interstate: I-26. As he got onto I-26, Victoria was notified of such and gave him further instructions. "Good, you made it onto I-26, all you have to do right now is keep dodging traffic and drive as fast as you can. Once you get up to the mountain passes, your driving skills are going to be tested, so be ready!" She further explained.
"Got it," Gajeel told her. Driving started feeling more natural to him; he was getting used to shifting and racing on the highway would allow him to tweak it a bit without having to worry about approaching corners. It was a shock how fast he was adapting to this sort of thing. However, things took a different turn not too long since then. Suddenly he started hearing sirens go off, turning around and realizing that a few police cars were chasing him, along with some other racers racing lower-powered cars like the Mazda RX-7 FD3S and the Subaru Impreza WRX STI. Things supposedly just got a lot more difficult. "Hey lady, it looks like the cops decided to join in on the fun!"
"Good lord; I should've known they would be here," Victoria said with disgust. "What do you expect when you decide to let an international race go on? Alright, listen here; you've got a secret electronic weapons system stored in your vehicle. You can use these to help get them off your tail if things get too close for comfort, BUT only use them when necessary! You don't have an infinite ammo supply." Victoria explained, engaging the touchscreen in the GT500 and bringing up a weapon's menu, catching his attention as he was driving. There were four different weapons; Spike Strips, EMPs, Jammers, and Pulse Bombs. As Gajeel was driving and dodging traffic, pulling out of the city and onto the main stretch of the highway, going at about 150 MPH, observed the weapons shown on screen. He already was pulling away from the other racers and police cars.
"Alright lady, you wanna explain what the hell these are?"
"The Spike Strip is what it is, a strip of spikes that's deployed from the rear end of your car. It'll burst any tires of any vehicle that runs over it, but you've got to time it just right so that they don't dodge it. EMPs are Electro-Magnetic Pulses; you can aim them at driving cars ahead, and it'll fire an EMP blast that will damage the vehicle ahead. Jammers are used to disable electronic devices of vehicles around you, and that's it." Victoria explained as Gajeel understood. Racing down I-26 as fast as he was, the cop cars currently on the road weren't able to catch up to him; they were just Ford Crown Victoria's after all. This wasn't a problem in the least.
"Looks like they won't be catching up anytime soon," Gajeel informed as he kept driving.
"That's good, but keep a watch for anything; you never know what may happen," Victoria informed. With that, Gajeel just kept driving down I-26 as fast as he could, following the highway out and heading straight down as he went for the Mountain Pass. It was going to be a while before Gajeel would eventually get there, but at least he could get used to driving the vehicle at high speeds while dodging traffic. If it meant getting to Kyousuke faster, he would do it.
Meanwhile, the agent that captured Kyousuke managed to arrive at the base, parking inside one of the garages in the laboratory. It was a massive security base covered in snow, the whole building was black, and there was nothing particularly odd looking about it. It was just stranded up in the mountains and probably for a "good reason." Approaching the laboratory, he opened one of the smaller garage doors to the right side of the base and headed inside, parking the van in it around many other vehicles already parked inside. The room inside was really dark, and there was only lighting from the ceiling to at least make their way through the place. The entire room was covered with steel walls and a concrete floor, and there were just other vehicles parked inside, nothing special or out of the ordinary. Having parked the van, for the time being, the agent proceeded to grab the still unconscious Kyousuke out of the back and take him to where he was supposed to go. Going straight up to a sealed security door, he entered a passkey on the side of the door and unlocked it, the door opening instantly (splitting up and down like some kind of laboratory) and closing behind him as he went in.
Inside the door was a giant elevator that he stood in as he held Kyousuke. The entire elevator was lit up with green neon tubing, along with some digital technology that the agent proceeded to utilize to operate the elevator. Upon doing so, the elevator descended with the two inside, not taking any longer than ten seconds to get to their destination. It was quite a quick transport. Once the elevator landed down on the floor the agent wished to get to, he grabbed Kyousuke and exited the elevator. He entered into a large room with a dome formation, the center having the main floor step up in a circular configuration on the outside. Not much was seen except for some experimental equipment of sorts, just a steel building with a dome structure. As the agent walked in, he took Kyousuke and tossed him into the center of the room, not caring whether or not he was hurt.
"I have completed the mission sir; I have brought Kyousuke Watanabe to you as requested," XG231 stated calmly.
"Excellent." Someone with a dark and sinister voice responded. "The hard part is finally out of the way. You may be dismissed."
"Thank you, sir," XG231 said, taking off into the elevator and heading elsewhere. With XG231 gone, Kyousuke was now in the hands of the base, and that wasn't a good thing. Someone covered in a white long-coat of sorts came up and approached Kyousuke lying on the floor still unconscious, proceeding to analyze Kyousuke as him just being there was amusing. He chuckled at the sight of seeing him right before his eyes.
"You know, you really are a trip Kyousuke; managing to break out of my grasp multiple times and surviving every attempt. The only reason you're still alive is because that pathetic Redfox was able to save you!" He shouted almost angrily, yelling before quickly calming down. He took a deep breath before going on. "But...here we are. Your little game has come to an end, and you aren't going anywhere. You thought you could get out of this alive but sadly; as you should've known, there was no escape for you." He further explained. At that moment; Kyousuke started waking up, moving around slightly as he tried getting up where he was. "Ah...it looks like the serum is finally wearing off," the man commented, watching as Kyousuke slowly got up and stretched from his unconscious state. Pushing himself up and off the ground, he slowly woke up and came back to reality, looking around and realizing where he was.
"What...where am I?" Kyousuke said to himself in wonder aloud. The man standing there proceeded to explain.
"You're back, where you should be. Welcome home." The man said, prompting Kyousuke to look at him and realize that he wasn't around anyone. Gajeel wasn't there, the forest was gone, and he was stuck in a dome base with some random guy that seemed considerably dishonest. Seeing the guy, Kyousuke suddenly was struck with a mix of shock and anger, sending the guy a frustrated expression.
"What the hell; who the hell are you?" Kyousuke questioned in shock, the guy standing there chuckling in amusement. Kyousuke didn't have a clue what was going on; he couldn't even remember what just happened to him for a moment.
"You don't remember me, what a shame. I thought you would; I was the one who ruined your life and used you for experiments, don't you remember?" The man said carelessly. He didn't even care that he was using Kyousuke like some sort of tool; the whole thing seemed like a game to him, and he had plans. With the kind of things this man sought; Kyousuke didn't mean a thing to him. Upon hearing that, Kyousuke's memory started coming back to him, and he remembered exactly what was going on, something that happened a very long time ago that had been buried deep down in his brain. It sparked this whole thing and was one of the reasons why Kyousuke was stuck here in the first place. He was paralyzed by the whole thing, and he then realized just how bad of a situation he was in. Things just took a massive turn for the worst.
As that was happening, Gajeel was still driving along I-26. He managed to pull out of the central, ongoing section of I-26 and started approaching the mountain pass. It wasn't snowy yet, but there were mountains all along the entire area, indicating that he was getting close. It started to get more winding and narrow as Gajeel drove further down I-26, and he didn't seem to have any trouble with anyone else, at least not yet. However, as he approached the upcoming winds and bends in the mountain pass, he caught a glimpse of something in his rear-view.
"What the hell is that?" Gajeel questioned curiously. It was steadily approaching and must've gotten onto I-26 through another route. It was a black Lamborghini Gallardo that somehow managed to catch up with Gajeel, slowly approaching him as Gajeel raced up the pass.
"What is it?" Victoria asked, prompting Gajeel to explain.
"There's a black car coming up on me fast," Gajeel explained, Victoria realizing who it was.
"This doesn't sound good; it sounds like one of the government agents came after you and was able to track you," Victoria explained, annoying Gajeel as he didn't need that right now.
"Damn; how the hell did they track me?"
"It's not you; it's the car. They've been after my organization for years, so they think you're one of my agents. It'll work out better for you if you can keep that cover for as long as you can." Victoria explained, prompting Gajeel to take action. As the Gallardo approached Gajeel and got close enough to keep up with him in close quarters, the two approached some of the mountain pass turns. Gajeel had to sacrifice some of his speed to keep the car in control and make sure he didn't fly off. It turned into a massive, winding left turn that Gajeel didn't quite anticipate quick enough, sliding to the outside edge and almost coming into contact with the guardrail.
"Dammit; I gotta slow down!" Gajeel thought to himself, trying to control the car from understeering. He was able to compensate by slowing down and pulling out of the turn with a sharper entrance, turning harder and using the slowdown to his advantage. As he pulled out onto a straightaway, he was able to keep the car under control, but the Gallardo was even closer now. "That was a close on," he noted, before realizing that the Gallardo was on his tail. Suddenly as Gajeel was driving, the touchscreen started flashing red sounding a beeping noise with a notification on it. Victoria was instantly notified of it and immediately informed him of the situation.
"Gajeel, the agent's going to try taking you out with an EMP Blast, you have to do something!" Victoria shouted, prompting Gajeel to take action. Keeping his eyes on the road, he tried to navigate the screen and bring up the weapon's menu, showing the available weapons he had. He had to move fast before the agent blasted him and took him out.
"He's not gonna like this," Gajeel said with a grin, deploying a spike strip instantly. From behind the GT500 deployed an instant spike-strip that spread itself out to cover the road the Gallardo was racing on. Within seconds the Gallardo hit the spike strip and blew its tires, spinning out and crashing right into the guardrail on the road, flying off the cliffside and falling. With that one attack, Gajeel instantly took care of him and was able to focus on driving again, hitting a few S-Curves throughout the pass.
"Nice work!"
"Thanks," Gajeel assured, taking off and driving forward. As he made throughout the mountain pass, he suddenly saw a car ahead of him that was racing around the same speed as Gajeel was, maybe a little slower. He was slowly approaching the vehicle, seeing that it was a silver Audi R8. As he slowly got closer to the Audi, he was notified by Victoria about it.
"Alright Gajeel, do you see the Audi in front of you?"
"Yeah, what about it?"
"She's the other agent I was talking about; you'll be surprised to know who she is. Go ahead and flash your brights," Victoria informed him, startling him somewhat.
"Huh?" Gajeel said in wonder, going ahead and flashing his brights to it. As he drove, the Audi in front of him started to slow down, Gajeel pulling to the side momentarily thanks to no traffic being there. As much as he wondered, he's met her before and knows who she is. Time for them to tackle this as a tag team.