"Hey, beautiful! How about joining the winner for the ride? Maybe another one after?" It came from inside the car next to Nick. The fox traced back the glare of the wolf, that was fixed on a really annoyed vixen. She passed by Jack, who was busy listening to the police radio, opened the door of Nick's mustang and sat inside.

"I forgot how much I hated medium priced races," Mia said, seemingly avoiding the wolf's grin, no matter how hard he tried to draw her attention. "They aren't professionals by any means, but already have an unreasonably high ego because they won against some amateurs. Please kick his ass in the race before I kick him somewhere else."

It's already been six days since Nick started taking lessons from Mia. He seemed to be a good student too as he picked up the pace fairly quickly. No matter how She changed their learning track, Nick adapted to it within a few minutes. At first, he had a wider road, but the vixen made it increasingly smaller with time, and finally, Nick was able to drive through both narrow roads and tight corners.

"Why not both?" Nick grinned and received a smaller smile from the vixen, which was a rarity. "Is it always like that?"

"Not always." She shook her head "Occasionally you can find a few normal mammals that don't care who you are and only look for a racing rival. But as I said, medium priced races are never like that. These are full of egocentric idiots, who are racing with their daddy's car, or with their own car, bought by daddy's credit card. No knowledge to be seen, only their car is dragging them up to this point, and spotting someone in the other gender makes them lose control. The look on their faces after I beat them in the race is priceless though."

"Change of plans." Jack hopped between the cars, while still grabbing the radio "Cops will most likely be present at this race. If that concerns you, feel free to quit." He waited a few seconds but as nobody decided to leave, he continued. "We are going to start a bit sooner, so we can't wait for the fourth guy, or the start will be disrupted. To be honest, I feel like he was the one reporting this race... Get ready everyone."

"Seems like the cops are starting to take this seriously," Mia muttered. "More and more races are affected. I heard smaller crews already got arrested. Things are getting harder day by day."

"Yeah…" Nick said with a bit of guilt. While he was having fun, his colleagues were doing the dirty work. Not only that, but he didn't get any closer to any crew, which was his original job. However, it wasn't the only thing he felt guilty about.

He wished he never talked to his boss about the methods of setting up a race. It did help a lot to the police, as they knew the route of the races and caught most of Jack's helpers. But at the same time, he crossed his own plans too, because dodging roadblocks wasn't as easy on races. It was such a weird feeling. As much as he wanted to help the police, he also wanted exciting races. Am I getting addicted? He thought but quickly shook it out of his head.

"Okay, do as you did yesterday," Mia said, still ignoring the wolf next to them, who didn't seem to give up. Now he was revving the engine, letting it roar while grinning at his target. "Fast corners, keep the apex and you'll have it in the bag. No room for error here."

"Hey, Big mouth, a little bit of a status update." Jack knocked on the window, so Nick lowered it. "The third and the seventh corner sign is pointing in the other direction. It's just a bit of confusion making, so it will be harder for the cops to keep track. Your pickup location is next to the abandoned amusement park. I had to come up with different places for all 4 racers since a specific fox ignored our first rule."

"Is everything alright?" Mia looked a bit worried at the seemingly tired rabbit. No matter how much Jack tried hiding how exhausted he was, he couldn't fool everyone.

"Two of my helpers had been caught and another three had quit. I'll shortly have to find another way to organize these things. " He rubbed his eyes. "The cops are getting smarter day by day and…" He suddenly raised his head. His ears perked up, sniffed in the air, just like Judy when sensing danger. "Fuck… COPS. Alright, get ready!" He ran and stood between the 3 cars.

"3, 2, 1, GO!" He shouted and gave the starting signal. He waited for the cars to get passed by him and started running as fast as he could in the other direction. Before bolting out of the area as the other two did, Nick shouted after Jack first.

"Need a lift?"

"No. I'll manage. Focus on the race, idiot." He said and already disappeared behind a fence, with a remarkable jump.

"We're already behind by 5 seconds," Mia informed Nick who gave a smaller grin.

"It's called giving a head start." He pushed the pedal with 2 officers on his tail. During the past days, he had quite a lot of problems with his colleagues, so when Jack said that this will be a cop-free race, Nick got quite relieved. But it seems like his hopes were crossed by his boss.

Watching Nick dealing with something else on his phone, Mia asked in disbelief. "What are you doing?"

The fox just held up one of his fingers as an answer. He looked up for 1 second but only to take a turn and looked back at his phone. He finally tapped on something, and placed it back, as a song started playing.

"Really?" Mia facepalmed "You wasted about 10 seconds just to start a song..."

"You were right." The tod shrugged, with a smug grin. "It does help you concentrate. And relax! I'll win this thing. The 'Daddy's' boy will cry in the corner after his embarrassing loss."

"Don't underestimate his car. As I said. It can pretty easily drag him up to a certain point without any proper knowledge. Torrabi huracan. 4 wheel drive, 610 Horsepower, V-10 engine… Under the paws of a professional, you would have 0% chance with your 435 horsepower, puny mustang."

"Not with that attitude! And who cares about numbers? It could be 1200 foxpower, 2300 bunnypower, or 6900 micepower. These are just numbers."

"Yeah, important numbers to determine your chances of winning, and if you keep killing your engine in fourth gear, those chances will be even smaller…"

"Nah, you are wrong. I have more horsepower than he does."

"No! I know for a fact that this type of torrabi has those parameters. For instance, if it was a…

"He has a bull in front, I have a horse. That's more horsepower isn't it?" Nick asked with a grin and looked at the disappointed vixen

Deciding to just go along, she asked back "And which one is stronger exactly? The Horse, or the bull?"

"C'mon now, don't be speciest! This is Zootopia, where anyone can be anything. So in this case, our horse will beat a bull."

"Unbelievable." Mia laid back, accepting that arguing with an idiot won't help anyone.

"Dispatch! This is 1-31 accompanied by 1-33 We are at the discussed place, racing parties just started, We're code 3."

"Understood. Supervisor requesting vehicle description of suspects."

"We have a Silver Herd Mustang, Yellow Torrabi huracan, and a Blue Eibisu WRX"

"Bets on the Torrabi!" Someone almost shouted that made a few other officers chuckle

"If Bogo heard you right now, he'd be really upset…" Another voice said, but after a bit of waiting the same one added. "10 dollars on the Mustang."

"Your money… but if you want to be stupid with it, who am I to talk you off that? The bet is ON!

"Ahh, so you haven't chased them yet. I see…"

"Everyone with more than two brain cells knows there is no way the huracan would lose against a Mustang."

"Have you seen that fox drive? That's insane! If Wilde wasn't suspended, I bet he would bet on the mustang owner too."

"Wilde misses all the fun by being suspended."

"What on earth is going on here?" Bogo's voice was heard. Everyone became more professional suddenly.

"Ah nothing sir, just discussed the unfortunate events of Wilde's suspension."

"There is NOTHING to discuss about it! If I catch any of my officers talking about any other matter than pursuit calls, through the radio, I'll have a nice little chat in my office with them and a few months of desk duty will wait for them. Understood?"

"Yessir! Won't happen again! Dispatch! This is 1-33, requesting backup on the ongoing chase. If ramming units are authorized, is any available?"

"1-33, Backup is already on the way, special units are available and spike traps are authorized. Air support is unavailable at the moment."

"SUV-2 connecting to call, any details of current direction of travel? Over!"

"Travelling North-East on Bell road."

"Will be there shortly."

After a few seconds of silence, someone said "So… Is the bet still on?"

"Oh, you can be sure it is!"

Meanwhile, the owner of the Mustang did a fairly good job in keeping up with the supposedly stronger car, but first, he had to take over the Eibisu, thanks to his generous head start giving.

For a while, he stayed behind. It was a bit of a tactic, his instructor gave. To overtake someone, first, you need to see their driving style. Are they defensive, or more of an aggressive type? At corners are they going for more speed, to keep their momentum, or do they rather focus on not being overtaken? There were quite a lot of these questions, you had to ask yourself, and within the shortest time possible. You can't procrastinate the overtake to the end, after all.

"His corners are on point, I'll give him that," Nick said, and watched as the Eibisu in front kept going on the apex, after dodging a civil car. "But he regains speed waaaay too slow."

"Which means…"

"Best time to attack is after a corner, preferably a sharper one."

"Then go for it!" Mia advised.

Nick was patient. He wasn't going mad on the straight road. Unfortunately the owner of the car in front wasn't mindlessly copying Nick's movements either. He closed the opportunity on the fox to get passed easily on the right and had enough space to corrigulate in case Nick tried something else on the left. Despite that, the fox did his best to annoy the mammal ahead of him, by steering the wheel from left to right.

Finally, it was time. A nice little upcoming 90 degrees turn gave him the thing he wanted. A little bit of speed change. He acted like he wanted to cut in the inner lane, which was interrupted by the Eibisu in front. That however gave Nick a nice empty space on the outer lane, which he gladly took. It was a bit awkward way to take the corner, and in other scenarios simply getting next to the opponent's car on the outer lane would result in getting sped down and failing the overtake. Now it was different. Even though Nick got out of the corner with a bit less speed he managed to get out as first with better gear shifts, and simply better acceleration.

"Don't get too carried away. We still have the main problem there…" Mia pointed at the distant silhouette of the torrabi that gained more road Nick was comfortable with. "But... good job with your timing. Great to see you actually listened to me."

"A compliment? That's a long way since the 'You are a lost cause'."

"Turns out you are not a lost cause after all," The vixen shrugged. "But focus on the road! You really need to show your knowledge to beat the other guy."

"Ooh, trust me I'll show you my knowledge, alright! I just need to get closer to him. After that the win is in the bag."

"I'm starting to understand why Jack calls you 'Big Mouth', Big Mouth!"

"So we are calling each other names huh, Sweetheart?"

"Yeah, don't do that…"

"Why not? Everyone will think we are a couple either way."

"That's exactly why you shouldn't do it. You might be a nice guy… Deep down… But I'm not interested, alright?"

"Okay." Nick shrugged.

"Wait… really?"

"I promise I won't call you sweetheart anymore, Babe!"

Mia sighed "Why do I even bother talking to you?"

Nick almost forgot that some police cars were in the race too. Only distant siren sounds reminded him that his colleagues were here for his blood. But now, the backup units made sure he won't forget about their loud shadow.

"Pull over NOW!" He heard the demanding voice through the speakers of the police vehicle.

"When does that ever work on anyone?" Nick muttered.

"Pull over, or we will be forced to use other methods. For your own, and other mammal's safety, Pull the car, Over, NOW."

"We'll have some party over here," Nick said. 'Other methods' always meant 'Stop or we will be legally allowed to put you in danger.' By not stopping, you risk a trip to the hospital, or in worst cases the graveyard, while the officers that put you in that situation won't be held responsible. You got warned, why didn't you stop?

Now I kinda wish they knew I was undercover. Nick thought to himself and felt an uneasy feeling crawling its way from his stomach. He was a target just like the others. But again, letting everyone know what he is up to, would risk his cover. Time to shine with those fox reflexes…

He was constantly scanning the roads for any sign of spikes, or weak silhouettes or SUVs speeding towards them, yet nothing was seen, and it made him more nervous. They are planning something.

He shook his head. Focus on the race…

He got less talkative to the thought that any moment a coworker could send him unwillingly to the hospital. Either way, both of the officers did a good job in keeping up with him. For now, it was calm. But that 'Special unit' addition couldn't get off his mind. A quick glimpse of a yellow sports car, however, got him back on track. He was there to win, to race. He got some additional will to focus. He knows what to do once he gets behind the car, but how will he get closer? Nick would have given anything for a well-placed roadblock right now.

The problem was the same as always. Getting closer at corners, and getting way behind on longer straight lines. Those horses were indeed important things in a race. Come on, I know you aren't a great driver! One slip! That's all I need, buddy. The car was pushed to its limits there. It was the time when Nick actually regretted his choice of car. It was good… but not quite. Well, lesson to be learned, don't pick based on the outlook. Whatever is inside is more important. Max speed and the opponent ahead still seemed to get further and further away.

Perfect cornering wasn't enough here to get back on track.

"Wanna see some special moves?" Nick asked, but didn't listen to the answer. He will risk it, no matter how hard it was on the training track.

"Be my guest." Mia pointed at the nice corner ahead of them, already knowing what the tod had in his mind. She seemed unreasonably calm, even though whenever Nick tried his next upcoming move, a nice little spinning out was the result. In the past days, he did get better in 'Emergency cornering' but wasn't as good as it should be.

He took a deep breath and pushed the pedal even more. The corner was a bit sharper than a 90 degrees turn, but still nothing near to an acute angle. Drifting wasn't necessary. Well, it wasn't ever necessary only if you wanted to cut a few seconds of your time and now it was REALLY important to find every second he could.

He reached the corner, pulled the brakes, and gassed up again in the middle of the corner. The engine roared, and the back wheels started to slide. He tried not to focus on the other occasions, when he spun out, and look only at the times he did do it. He corrugated the steering wheel, as much as he could, and in the end, he got out of the turn unharmed.

Meanwhile, the torrabi made a bit of a mistake, by a void in a traffic car a bit too late. Good news for Nick. Pushed the pedal to the metal again and the car picked up the speed as much as it could. After a few seconds of inching closer to the torrabi, it made the gap bigger again. Nick growled in frustration, as a smile appeared in the corner of the vixen's mouth.

"What is it? Shouldn't have been that generous after all?"

"Nonono… It's just… Tactical staying behind. I'll strike at the best possible moment when that wolf will think he is safe."

"Of course…" She seemingly enjoyed watching Nick being a bit on edge.

As another corner was coming, Nick gathered all his will. Watched the torrabi taking it, in a safer way, and there was him, reaching for the pawbrake. One of those was a beautiful race-like cornering. The other almost made the red-furred driver hit the wall.

"Ahhh..." Nick shook his head. He was back on the 'anger train' as Mia always referred to it when she saw him getting more and more reckless on the training track. That always ended with sliding into the imaginary wall

"Alright, I hope you don't want to kill us both," Mia said. "Calm down, We still have a lot of road ahead, and.. to be honest, you are making quite the progress towards the bull. Loosen up your grip a bit, don't be a stone statue with the steering. Add a bit of swing to it. Once you are in motion, you have to feel how to turn the wheel. Small nudges, no hard corrugating. got it?"

"Yep, I got it. I'm just not sure if I could do as such."

"Go on, 2 more corners and you're on its grey tail."

Another turn came up, which the torrabi took nice and steadily. The Mustang in ist's shadow sliding through the street.

"Alright, one more." The vixen seemed to be just as in the race as the tod. She continuously imitated the pedal movements with her legs, probably wanted the steering too, but that would have been too obvious. "Come on, you've got this!"

They were head to head with the torrabi for a brief second, but those horses worked way harder. The mustang got left behind with 10 feet immediately and growing. It was time to pull off that 'Special tactic', Nick had in mind.

He shadowed the torrabi as much as he could, and wouldn't get out of the slipstream for any reason. Not even at the corner. The tortabi pushed the brakes… He didn't… 30 feet 20 feet 10, and suddenly at the last possible moment, the torrabi moved out of the way, forcing it into a less good position.

From now on it was just a bit of play with the pedals. Quick pawbrake, guide the slide in the direction he wanted it, and enjoy the view. Nick was finally ahead.

"And you said I was insane…" Mia said with a mixture of shock and admiration in her voice.

"Nope, it's completely different when you know how the other will react."

"Oh really? And how did you get to the assumption that you will get past if you go straight to collide with him?"

"First of all, I didn't want to collide with him. Second… How old do you think he is?"

"I don't know… can't be more than 22."

"Aaaand he is driving a million dollar supercar... Now… as you said he is most likely daddy's favorite boy. So it's either his dad's car, so he wouldn't like any scratch on it, or it's his car, and he wants to protect it at all cost. So when he sees another car speeding straight at his rear bumper, he will 100% avoid that collision. Simple mind games."

"Well done detective… One question: what if he didn't watch where you were?"

"Oh trust me, I knew he kept an eye on us. His races were most likely as smooth as silk. So when we appeared in his rearview mirror to disturb him a bit, and got closer and closer…"

"...He started panicking, and kept on watching the mirror… wow… But how?"

"Just as I said… A bunch of small observations pieced together. Mind games."

More than half the race was over, and he was quite confident that nothing could ever take this victory from his paws.

"Careful though, he is coming back!" Mia warned Nick while looking backward.

"You think he knows how to take over? Come on, all he did was speeding in the first place, I doubt he has anything in his pockets. As long as I don't let him pass on straights, we got thi.."

"WATCH OUT!" Nick's passenger shouted, as 2 massive police cars suddenly appeared at the front… Or more like the side. One missed them, and the other one barely hit the back of the car but it was enough to send it into an uncontrollable spin. All Nick could feel was the centrifugal force pushing him into the seat while he tried salvaging the situation. However, no matter how hard he tried, the wall was way too close, and the next second… BAM. The impact sent the car's spin in the other direction. It did a 180 turn and finally stopped. They both needed a few seconds to regain their senses, but meanwhile, they had a good view of what happened with the other racer. While they only got a small nudge, the torrabi was rammed frontally. Its hood was unrecognizably wrecked, while the Police SUV barely got a scratch. Nick wasn't surprised. The Rhino units were designed to be 4 wheeled tanks on the front and they can take quite the beating.

Nick saw as an officer got out of the police cruiser, tranquilizer in paw, and pointed at the wolf, who floundered out of his car with a terrified expression.

Finally snapping out of the first shock, Nick started up the engine again and put it in reverse. Looking back, he reached a certain speed, and with a quick move of the steering wheel turned the car back into its original direction of travel.

"Are you alright?" He asked with a quick glance

"Yes… Yes, I'm Okay. And the car seems to be functioning too. Good… that's good."

As much as Nick tried finding anything that could ease the sudden tense atmosphere, he failed that. He didn't know if it was for the fact that they almost got wiped out, or the sight of the torrabi that did get the most beating. Either way, things were getting more serious, as more dangerous methods get accepted by the mayor and the chief.

After crossing the finish line, the usual happiness didn't come. Nick didn't feel like he won. He could have made the rest of the race while going backward and it would have been still a win. To his luck nobody followed them, after the collision, they got out of sight fairly quickly and with fewer cop cars chasing them it was easy to disappear.

They pulled up to Mia's garage, and both of them just sat there for a few minutes. Finally, the vixen broke the silence.

"Well… You can leave the car here if you want to. I can take a look at it tomorrow, and buff out the visual damage, maybe fix some other things too, in case it's more serious."

"Yeah, thanks. I really appreciate your help."

"Don't mention it." She was about to get out of the car when she suddenly stopped and sighed. "What do you think, how does this thing look on the other side of the chase? Like… there are a bunch of speedy cars on the street, so they can use anything to stop them, even if it's… lethal in some cases? Like come on, even the worst serial killers get better treatment. Are we that much worse?"

"Erm… No, I don't think so… it's just… well… Even the serial killers get shot if they try to resist…"

"With tranquilizer darts… that basically just puts them into a good night's sleep. Not as horrible as… Ramming them with 100s of miles per hour."

"Well, it's just… a new thing to take care of… Of course, the officers will seek alternative ways to stop a speeding car."

"Heh… Funny. It sounds almost like you want to protect them even after they have nearly sent you to another dimension by that hit."

"They are just doing their job," Nick shrugged. "How much will the repair cost?"

"I'll do it for free. It would be an asshole move from me to ask for more money on top of my 60%."

"Thanks. Ookay so… I guess we will meet at the payout tomorrow?"

"Old theme park. I'll be there for my cut, don't worry."

"You do know I won't run off with the money right? To quote a wise mammal: 'It would be an asshole move from me to not fulfill my part of the deal'."

"I'll be there."

AN: Hey there! hope you enjoyed, leave a comment if you did ect. To be honest, I need some help with betareading. If you're up for the task feel free to pm me. (You get to see the next chapter earlyer than everyone else! wouldn't that be neat?)