Mad Max: Road to Salvation: Volume 2
Episode 14[45]: Combat Racing
[Guest 1: I was considering it.]
[Sam hill: I'm not.]
[Wombag1786: Felix will get his soon enough.]
[Dragonbluejay1: Thank you, this is where the death race comes in.]
[Review dude: Heh, yeah. It's cool dude, and thanks I am enjoying it.]
[Charles: Thank you, I did my best to get close enough.]
-1 WEEK LATER-
After the wedding and working out of some details about the future, Max had gone further into his investigation into the plot of Salem's minions. The new scrutiny had even led to Max uncovering new leads about a former White Fang member hiding in Vale. So far, his lead had brought him to observing a local bookstore, as that's where the suspect was said to be running a legitimate business. Ozpin had decided to force Max to back off to avoid obsessing with it and persuaded him at great difficulty to look into something else. The new objective in question was a gang that had been stirring up trouble in the dockyards and other industrial areas, namely stealing large amounts of freight, including military hardware. The road warrior reluctantly agreed to look into it after a toxic argument with the old wizard whose opinion was only bolstered by the disagreement.
Max had been grumpier than usual with his original investigation being temporarily being given to Krel and Slice. The two of them were reliable, that wasn't the problem. The issue for him was their possible discovery of his own contingencies that he had been setting up lately. If he hadn't hid them well enough the defensive measures he'd been putting place might be reported to Ozpin. He knew the headmaster was already curious about some of his recent projects that he and doctor Gray were working on. Max felt he could trust the good doctor to help build said projects, but if Ozpin discovered them so would the enemy if they successfully infiltrate the academy. All that aside, Max accepted it and drove to the industrial area of Vale to investigate.
-VALE DOCKYARDS/INDUSTRIAL SECTOR: NIGHT-
Max staked out a warehouse he suspected to be run by the crew who were stealing the guns and freight. When he reviewed the manifests of the ships that had dropped off said cargo with the permission of Vale Customs and the port authority, thanks to Ozpin, he discovered a few clues of what was in the containers that were covertly stolen. While it still theft, the nature of the thefts in question was very under the radar, unlike how conspicuous Torchwick and the White Fang were being. The road warrior got out of his car when he saw two suspicious men enter the building and approached the door himself. He swiftly kicked in the door and tossed in a grenade, rushing inside he knocked down two thugs with well-timed shotgun blasts from his standard sawed-off. as another thug rushed Max with rifle and bayonet, Max smacked the gun away and headbutted his attacker before snapping his neck and moving on to a whole group of thugs and ripping into them with his own rifle. After taking down the group with was fired on by a sniper, whom he barely managed to avoid. Rolling out cover Max stood behind a steel support and blindly fired his rifle to send the sniper into cover.
Finally getting an opening, Max rushed to the stairs leading up to the catwalk. He sprinted to the top and took the sharpshooter by surprise, beating him to a pulp and then blowing his head off with the classic double barrel. Seeing the warehouse clear of hostiles, Max found largest pile of explosives and set up a detonator to ignite them and take out the entire stockpile in the ensuing explosion. He swiftly grabbed a duffle bag full of bombs to save for later use, just in case of emergency. With the charges set up, the road warrior ran out of the building and back to the interceptor. He stomped on the gas just as the entire building erupted into a ball of red hot flames and black smoke. Whoever owned that place would definitely be angry for this destruction of all the illegally accumulated weapons and munitions.
-LATER THAT NIGHT-
In an unsuspecting automotive garage, a crime boss's right-hand lady by the name of Raquel Graves had just received word of the loss of his arms stock.
"WHAT!" Raquel screamed at a lowly subordinate who brought her the news. The lady herself wore a biker vest adorned with a tribal skull on the back, tank top with no bra underneath, blue jeans, combat boots, and her jet-black hair in a neat bun on her head and fair amount hanging over her right eye. Her eyes burned with fury at the news she'd been brought. Various tattoos covered her silk-smooth skin, one of the most prominent being a hissing black mamba on her right arm.
"Sorry boss but this guy took out everybody and-!" The survivor who witnessed the massacre shrunk back in fear.
"I heard you, dumbass, it was a rhetorical what!" Raquel roared as she slammed a fist on the desk.
"Having trouble Raquel?" A suave voice sounded off as a man in an olive drab green suit sauntered into the room. His brown eyes and crew cut black hair presented him with a very professional look to accompany his suit. This is the wanted crime boss by the name of Orion Cross.
"Not now, Orion if you haven't noticed I'm busy!" The irritated woman put a hand to her face. Her black manicured fingernails glistened in the amber lamp light of the room, the silver skulls on them screaming pretty and deadly.
"Oh, cool your jets." Orion said as he lit a cigarette.
"We just lost an entire shipment of Atlas tech and guns, so fuck off! Our buyers were counting out that stockpile!" Raquel growled to her compatriot in crime.
"So, we'll just steal more, the VDF have ammo dumps scattered around, so that means plenty of shipments to offset the losses. That is, after we track down and kill whoever was stupid enough to hit us. It'll definitely be fun to go hunting and get that stress out eh?!" The man in the green suit said with a calm calculating tone before finishing with a manically bloodthirsty grin.
"You make a good argument handsome." Raquel leaned back in her seat with a devious grin, placing one leg on top of the other and putting a hand to her chin in a seductive manner.
"I try, after all, nothing makes either of us feel better than satisfying some good old-fashioned bloodlust. That said, you and I both know even Torchwick isn't dumb enough to fuck with us." Orion shrugged coolly.
"Yeah it obviously wasn't him, he was stealing from that SDC freighter and he would be smart enough to lay low. Or at least stay the fuck off of our turf." Raquel agreed.
"Exactly, so get your sister Octavia to handle the legit end of the business for a bit and I'll let Joe worry about sourcing the products from the VDF so we can hunt down that SOB who dug his own grave tonight. I'll call in the rest of the crew to help out." The smooth criminal replied.
"I knew there was a reason I decided to work with you besides your looks." Raquel stood up and put finger on his chest before leaving the room to gather her gear.
"It's good to be the king." Orion grinned to himself.
-BACK WITH MAX-
The Road warrior was now busy on a night patrol, waiting for the retaliation he'd predicted that would happen. It wasn't hard to for Max to understand that when you attack criminal enterprises, they'll always strike back, the only question was when. He got the answer when he was cruising down the freeway and a small pack of 3 armored trucks appeared behind him with turrets mounted on their roofs. Seeing the imminent danger in his rearview mirror, he braked hard and spun in a 180 and the swapped the gear to reverse. Thinking quickly, Max fired a flare round into the face of a gunner who started firing wildly at the other trucks while he desperately tried to put himself out. The other two gunners were killed in the crossfire and Max used that to his advantage, flipping the car around again and getting behind the pursuing enemy vehicles. He burned out the tires with a loud satisfying skid as he caught back up to the enemy trucks. Max punched throttle avoided the trucks as their drivers attempted to ram him.
"Waste that motherfucker!" A driver shouted as a side door on the truck opened and a hitman tried to fire his rifle at Max. The road warrior fired a lighting blast from his shotgun into the truck and shocked the whole crew causing the large vehicle to flip over and tumble over the side of the freeway into a parking lot. With one truck don and two more to go, Max continued his road battle against the hit squad. Another truck had a new gunner climb up to the machine and he began to rain lead at the nimble muscle car. The road warrior gritted his teeth furiously as he attempted to deal with the situation. As if by an act of god, a big rig appeared further ahead on the expressway and it was hauling a large concrete pipe. Seeing a chance to get the trucks off his back, Max pulled ahead to the front of the big rig and began firing at the trucks behind him. The rig driver was startled by the firefight and a stray round hit his front tire causing the oversized truck to jackknife and unleash the massive pipe. Within seconds the giant concrete cylinder snapped its chains and slammed onto the pavement. One of the two remaining trucks slammed head on into the rolling block of destruction while the over slammed its brakes and spun out wildly.
Max checked his rearview, satisfied with the results of the battle that had been waged tonight. He slowed the vehicle to a stop and turned around to get back to the criminals who'd tried to take him down. He rolled down the road to see one truck crushed while the other was laying on its side. He then stepped out of the interceptor to check for survivors. Just as he was about to pry open the driver's side door of the overturned assault truck, Max heard a loud rumble in the distance. What he saw next made him dash for the interceptor and re-fire the engine, burning out as an even larger pack of assault vehicles of various types raced towards him.
The wolf pack of assault cars were lead by a vehicle that resembled a newer version of the shovelface body Max used to build 'The Jack' with chum. The mean machine had red stripes, armor, and a pair of miniguns mounted to its armored hood that spun up and started firing at the interceptor. Max really wished he'd brought along Bruz for this so that he'd have some back up to deal with the unexpected horde of war machines. A brutal looking pickup truck with afront mounted plow, rooftop RPGS, and side mounted Gatling guns caught up to him and fired a burst from its weapons. Max hit the nitro and started to pull away for some breathing room, but he was the only one with something extra under the hood as some of the other cars began to speed up.
The sports car caught up to Max and started to go head to head with him in a slamming match. The interceptor's body groaned form the repeated bashing as its driver battled a heavily armored beast. Max braked as he faked slam and hit the enemy vehicle's rear right corner, causing it to spin out. The other cars in the pack fired up their guns and unloaded on the interceptor, pounding it with repeated gunfire. Max knew his car wouldn't stand up to all the heavy fire for much longer, and he desperately tried to find an exit. Seeing a slim turn off that lead to another freeway lane, Max turned on to it, hoping to bottleneck most of the other cars. His call turned out for the best as some of the larger cars wrecked into the walls. Max flipped them the middle finger as he pulled away with a huge burst of blue flames erupting from the interceptor's exhausts.
"Don't let him get away! I want his head on a slab got it?!" Orion lost his cool as he hammered down on the gas pedal of red striped sports car.
"I wouldn't worry too much about that, he's already taken beating as it is!" One driver in nimble drifting car replied.
"Shut up you idiot! He's still faster than the rest of us, I want him dead! If he gets back to Beacon-!" Orion roared furiously.
"Relax, he won't Orion, I'll be the one to strangle him myself! In fact, I've got a big surprise to play with!" Raquel practically screamed in fury over the radio.
"Have fun your dreadnought gorgeous!" Orion grinned menacingly.
"Oh, I will! HAAHAAHA!" Raquel cackled dementedly.
Max saw only a few cars still on his tail as he pulled off of the freeway and into the city in order to lose them. He swerved around a corner and cleaned up the turn with a burst of nitro. Two cars that couldn't handle the sharp turn collided with the walls of several buildings. Ahead of them was a jump that would take the road battle back to the docks. Another freighter had just sailed into the port to offload its cargo and the section of the terminal was bustling with workers on the night shift and heavy industrial vehicles.
The interceptor screamed into the terminal with the last of the enemy assault cars still tailing him. An alert sounded on the interceptor's dash as a hull integrity sensor went off on the fuel tanks. Max knew that if the tanks gave out he'd go up in flames or have to bail. Suddenly out of nowhere what Max could swear was a War Rig rumbled out of a warehouse and onto the road. The massive tool of destruction bared down on the interceptor trying to crush the high-speed pursuit special. Max had to find a way to take down this heavy metal monster or risk being ripped apart like a tin can. He barely managed to avoid a burst of flames from a mounted weapon on the rig's trailer. The campaign of vehicular carnage didn't end there as the War Rig attempted to slam Max into a stack of shipping containers. Max pressed the for all it was worth and slipped out of the tight squeeze and spotted his escape by the way of a dockyard shunting train. The train blared its klaxon as it approached the battling vehicles. Max Passed right in front of the train as the War Rig slammed into it while trying to swerve out of the way. The interceptor then disappeared in the chaos and escaped into the city.
Raquel, beaten and bloodied from the wreck, climbed her way out of the wrecked dreadnought and dropped to the floor. Orion pulled up in the sports car and picked her up from the pavement, cursing under his breath that this was only the beginning.
-END CHAPTER-