While Judy was struggling with her new case, Nick's afternoon couldn't have gone better. He didn't have to do anything during the day, so he just ordered food and laid back while watching something on TV.
His next race won't even be 'his'one. At least he won't be the one driving. He will see a 'serious' race from the 1st row, next to that vixen, who told him, he should see how things are going on higher stakes before deciding anything. Nick was waiting for her call since she had to fix a few things with Jack.
After finishing a movie, he finally got a phone call. It wasn't anything long or detailed, only the vixen telling him the place and time plus warning Nick to not be late. Without being able to answer anything, the call already ended.
Half an hour before the 'Discussed' time Nick had left his house again, but now he didn't head towards his garage, instead went straight to the discussed place. He won't need his car this time and he didn't want to park it in the open. As soon as he arrived, he received a not so warm welcome.
"What are you doing here?" Jack's strict voice was heard. "We literally have a few rules yet you managed to already break one of them. Congrats!"
"What do you mean?" Asked Nick innocently, while having an idea what the hare was talking about.
"I mean your little visit today morning. You didn't win and I thought I was straight enough. I don't want to see you until the evening in case you lose. So get… lost..."
"OH! About that! Yeah sorry, won't happen again." Nick patted Jack's shoulder and tried to avoid the rabbit. Unfortunately, he was just as annoying as Judy and stepped in his way again
"It's still not your race. Leave before I do something with your pretty face, that I probably won't regret."
"Look, Stripes. I don't intend to join, I'll be only an observer."
"Oh Really? Who will you 'observe'? Last warning before I…"
"He is with me." A third voice joined. Jack turned his head, to see the Rx8 with a rolled-down window, and the vixen looking out of there.
"Wh- are you two together?" Jack asked in disbelief.
"As business partners… Yes." She answered, and looked at Nick."Come on, get in. We need to set a few rules." She rolled the window back up.
Nick shrugged at the still mad rabbit and opened the passenger side door of the car. Before he could say anything the vixen started speaking.
"Rule number 1. No talking while I'm driving. If you kick me out of my rhythm I'll strangle you."
"Hmm, nice… One question, ma'am, how am I supposed to learn anything if I can't even ask?"
"You can ask after the race. I have a lot of money on the line right now, because I wasn't allowed to give it all in on a 100 race. Jack and his rules… He is all about 'fair play' and wanted me to race against others on 'my level'. He is just a born justice warrior, isn't he?" She was unhappy, that was obvious. Seemed like she took a big step out of her comfort zone just to give Nick a presentation of a professional race. "So just let me concentrate, alright? I'll try to show you how things are going on a REAL race. Rule number 2. I'm not your friend, not your buddy, not anyone. Keep personal questions to yourself, because you can be sure I won't answer them."
As Jack already got ready to start the race, the vixen had to quickly wrap up the rule telling.
"Rule number 3… My ride… my music. If you have any problem with that feel free to get out." She already pushed the play button, and the guitar started playing from the speakers.
"Ah! Rock, huh?" Nick asked. He had a lot of time to get used to this style of music next to Finnick.
"Something like that, yeah." She answered a bit absent-mindedly and was already focusing on Jack's countdown. For some reason, she was 'playing' with the engine, which made Nick a bit confused.
"Why are you…"
"Rule number 1." She gritted her teeth, and kept on doing this weird engine revving maneuver, meanwhile he heard the barely understandable first lines of the song.
The car almost jumped as the race started. It made Nick grab the roof handle, with bulging eyes. His start wasn't anything like this, it was much quicker. Maybe it was the reason they came out first. However, this lead didn't last long. She got left behind after the first corner. Giving a frustrated growl, the driver tried her best with the correct shifting and keeping up with the car ahead but she had a lot of things to watch out for, mainly others behind, who tried to take her place.
A car behind tried to take on the opportunity, but the vixen was quick. She closed the window on the other racer, making them lose speed, so she got a bit of a breathing room.
She did a good job in keeping up with the car ahead. On long straights, she was slowly falling behind, but after each corner, she managed to get closer. Her cornering technique was completely different from Nick's. She always leaned to the outer lane before a corner, and only went inside during the turn, using the whole road, like a real racer would on a track.
"Arh great!" She muttered as a siren rang up behind her. Seems like this race wasn't Jack's 'No cop' special, only a regularone. The 1 chasing car turned into 2, and soon quite a few units were on the chase. That meant one thing. They spotted one of the most wanted racers. Otherwise, it wouldn't have been this big of a deal. They will definitely get a few rhino units too in their faces.
The idea of the rhino units was simple. You are not stopping? We'll make you stop by ramming you frontally with SUV's. It was a quite dangerous move, but keeping up with the racers was more important. Bogo had to make a lot of promises to use the ramming units wisely and only in crucial situations. Eventually, he got permission.
As they were going on the oncoming lane, and uphill, Nick couldn't help but give voice to his concern.
"You are going on the oncoming, without seeing if anything is there, you should slow down a bit..."
"Shut up." The quick answer came from the chauffeur, while she kept on focusing on the road
Anxiety just grew inside Nick, as a car could appear out of nowhere, wiping them off the road "Come on, you will collide with someone."
The vixen sighed, and allowed herself to give an angry glance at the fox next to her before giving her full attention to the road again. "What part of the shut up did you not understand?"
"And what part of the danger did you not understand?"
She growled and shifted up. "That's why I never race with passengers. Did you know that a study showed that foxes are in the top 10 for reaction times amongst mammals? And I know you are a chicken, but I hope you see that I'm a fox." To emphasize this statement she shifted up again, slowly reaching the top speed. "And you broke rule number 1 again. Do it one more time and I'll raise my cut to 65%"
Finally, they reached the top of the hill and saw a crossroad. The car in first barely passed the yellow light, but that meant one thing: they will definitely run into the red.
"Well, guess what. You are about to see that reaction time." The vixen informed Nick, while, showing no intention of stopping. Meanwhile, Nick grabbed his seats even more, like that could save him from an upcoming collision. That's it. I'm dead. His brain kept on telling him. I'm dead and It's only my fault. Well, next time don't sit next to a lunatic or agree to a stupidly dangerous job. Next time, only desk duty. The safe and lovely desk duty…
However, the vixen maneuvered through the traffic, like it was a walk in the park. At first, she kept her car in the middle of the road. As soon as she got closer and saw a bit of space, she chose the lane that was the best for crossing the road. He went through the first part with no problem. After this, she had to push the brakes for a bit, but not for stopping, no-no. She did it only to get the car to slide a bit, pushed the gas again, and avoiding the collision with a civilian, she already got out of the situation with no problem whatsoever.
With his eyes still stuck open, all Nick was able to say was. "Wow." He looked behind themselves to see how the other racers would deal with this situation but to his disappointment they got lucky. For them, the siren of the police officers helped a lot, as everyone stopped to let through the cops and as a result, everyone had a clear road ahead. It's a bit unfair, but what can you do? Life is unfair sometimes.
So despite her attempt, she was still losing and the others managed to close up too. Not the best situation to be in.
"Okay, the road is clear." The vixen said to herself after taking a better look ahead, than turned to Nick "Hold tight, you'll feel a bit of a push."
"What push..." Nick wanted to ask but couldn't finish his question, the feeling immediately answered it. The already fast car got some power from somewhere and switched to 'light speed'. At least that's what Nick felt for 10 seconds. After that, it 'slowed' down again to 170. "Wh… What the heck was that?"
"Little bit of boost to the engine… Nitrous oxide."
Nitrous oxide. Something sounded familiar about it. A picture of a blown up car creeped its way into Nick's mind "Ah, so the thing that blows up cars." On a few occasions they caught a racer simply because the hood blew up and started burning. Poorly installed Nitrous oxide was a dangerous thing to be around
"No, It's the thing that will help us win this race. And it only blows up the engine if installed incorrectly, which I made sure to avoid."
Hold on for a second… Nick thought to himself, connecting the dots. "Wait… YOU installed it?" His ears ducked to the back of his head. They were in a speeding potential bomb.
"Would that calm you down if I said I didn't?"
"Well, not anymore obviously..."
Nick looked behind them. As much as it was dangerous, the nitro still did its job. They were ahead again by a quarter-mile from the third place, but still not in the lead. It was still on their 'to do' list. However, they were finally in the position to attack. It wasn't as easy a job as it looked like. The car in front was definitely faster, so passing on a long straight was out of the question, only the corners were possible passing points, and she couldn't stay behind for too long. As soon as a turn was coming that could open a window for them, they were already too far behind to overtake, but not too far to get back behind the leader.
"Alright, one more dangerous move." The vixen informed Nick, which made him nervous again. What else was gonna come? Will she open a wing on the side of the car and fly over or maybe shoot down the car ahead with a built-in machine gun? To his surprise none of those things happened, they just simply passed the car ahead with no problem, as it slowed down for some reason. Nick was a bit confused about why but realizing the reason, his death thoughts returned. There was a hairpin left turn ahead of them, and their speed was definitely too high to stop now.
Before he could say anything, the vixen was already on the move again. She leaned to the right side, quick left, right again, and reached for the pawbreak. The back of the car started sliding. Tires were screeching, the engine was roaring, and the car was turning. She definitely didn't slow down too much to stop, but it was perfect to make the turn.
The side of the car barely missed the walls of a building, but she did it. She was finally in the lead again, with the other, quite a few feet behind. As long as she didn't make any fatal mistake this race was already in the bag.
With the adrenalin still pumping in his vein, Nick took a deep breath. "You're insane." He said and received a laugh from his instructor.
"Sure I am! What's your point?" She chuckled but her smile quickly faded after she heard a loud popping sound after a gear shift, followed by ratling. "No! Not now!" She panicked and tried her best, salvaging the situation, but it was stuck in third gear. Engine was struggling, with the torture of high RPM, but the vixen pushed it to the limit to win this race.
After the first car passed her, she had to admit it was all lost. She couldn't get into higher gear, and the car was constantly complaining about everything. Nick didn't need to be a mechanic to know, there was no way she could win like this. "Transmission problem… Can't finish the race. Like this… it will be enough if we reach the garage" She sighed and turned off from their racetrack, hoping nobody will follow them. Fortunately, every cop car kept on chasing the racing ones and left them alone. Pulling up to a garage, she rolled in and stopped the engine. After a bit of silence she muttered "I'll have a lot of work tomorrow." and hit her head against the steering wheel, with her eyes closed. "5000 dollars flushed down the toilet, and god knows how much it will cost to find parts to repair the car. The world just hates me… Nothing new..."
Nick, not knowing how to react, just sat there dumbly. After gathering his thoughts he finally opened his mouth "Well, I guess I'm not needed here anymore so I'm just… gonna… leave." He pointed outside and nodded. "Yeah… Goodnight."
As he opened the door, the vixen finally turned towards him. "Did you decide to quit? Was it a bit too extreme?"
"No… I just thought you… you know… your car isn't in the shape for you to keep 'Teaching' so..."
"You'll use your own car, we don't need mine, for me to lend a few tips. Just lead me to your garage, I know a place where we can practice without anyone bothering you." Noticing Nick's hesitation she added. "Or… You don't have to show me your hideout. I can also wait here..." She leaned against the wall. "Just come back for me."
"No, sorry I didn't… No! I just… Nothing. Sorry, follow me."
An: To be honest this race was my favorite to write so far. I don't know why, it's just flowed perfectly while getting it out of my mind and there was the rare occasion, when I was statisfied with the outcome. But what about you, guys? What's your opinion?