Chapter 5
Renegade Autos
"Kiiiit..."
Kit poked his head out over the staircase, dark hair tousled.
"'Meeeeela..."
"Phone. Pick up your extension."
"Awright."
He grabbed the phone Nita tossed to him from her position on the floor.
"H'llo?"
"Hey Kit. Tom here. Listen, you check your manual lately?"
"Uh...no. What happened?"
"Looks like three kids just went on their Ordeals simultaneously."
"Triplets?"
"Nah, they're not even related."
"Huh. Uhh, coincidence?"
"Ma...what the...holy *****. (Used to replace the swearword Tom used to great effect) Kit, their power ratings just went through the roof. And they're all the same. Look at it... Put Nita on."
"Awright."
He tossed the phone to Nita. "Tom."
As Nita resumed the conversation, Kit dug around on top of his dresser for his manual, flipped it open, and turned to the page that was rippling, though there was no breeze.
SMITHINTON, Ethan H. Novice rating
14868 Liberty Ave. (RL +27.8/ - 0.3)
Huntington Beach, CA 11575 On Ordeal: no calls
(516) 555-8406
THOMPSON, Kurt M. Novice rating
5486 Marquis Lane (RL +27.8/ -0.3)
Hempstead NY 11575 On Ordeal: no calls
(516) 555-4565
FRAIZER, Iola W. Novice rating
864 Caprice Drive (RL +27.8/ -0.3)
Long Beach, CA 11575 On Ordeal: no calls
(516) 555-5389
"No way," Kit breathed. Those ratings were three times that of Dairine when she'd gone on her Ordeal, and Tom had been amazed at a mere 9.8. But a 27.8....
Nita finished the conversation and hung up, her eyes wide.
"He's kidding..."
Kit tossed her the manual.
"See for yourself."
Nita read and reread the power ratings and shook her head in awe.
"Holy crap...how old are they?"
"I dunno. He didn't tell me."
"Jeez...that tops Dairine's power pretty well..."
"Yeah..."
"You don't think..." Nita started.
"Neets, don't start. I don't want to think about that now..."
"Why not?" Nita demanded angrily, leaping to her feet.
Dairine was suddenly in their midst, pushing them apart. "Whoa, you two. Kit, Nita's right. You're a wizard, dumbass. That's your job, to keep the Earth free of entropy. Nita, keep your temper down. You've been getting a bit...twitchy."
Nita sighed.
Dairine grinned evilly. "Now kiss and make up."
"Wha...Dairine!!!" Nita groaned.
Kit merely flushed and scuffed one shoe on the ground.
"C'mon," Dairine coaxed wickedly. "Just one ten second..."
Nita groaned and leaned toward Kit's cheek.
"Nita, you know what I mean."
The glare she shot Dairine would have thrown axes.
"I'm gonna crumple you into a little ball and use you as a softball..." she threatened. Dairine smiled sweetly and checked her watch. "C'mon, we don't have all day."
Nita reluctantly complied, and the kiss turned out to be much longer than ten seconds. When they finally broke apart, Dairine plopped onto the bed.
"Now, what's this about power ratings?"
Nita chucked the Manual at her, knocking her over backwards and producing some very creative swearwords.
"Sorry. See for yourself."
Muttering darkly, Dairine opened the manual and almost fell over again.
"Holy...and I thought mine were high..."
"Yeah. That's what I said," Kit grinned from his perch on the easy chair arm.
"And so did Tom, Carl, Peach, and like eight other people. Darryl, Ronan, and that mad koi," Nita added.
Dairine shrugged. "Looks like they're up for a challenge. Twenty-seven point eight..."
"Let's go," Kit suggested.
"Where?" Dairine asked. "We don't know where the heck this is..."
"Ponch!" Kit called.
There was a loud thumping, and the dog came bounding into Kit's room, bowling over Dairine and slurping her face.
"Down, Ponch, down!" she begged. "Okay, okay..."
Dairine wiped the dog spit off her face and grinned at Nita.
"Nita, your boyfriend's a genius..."
Nita flushed and muttered something.
Kit grinned. "Well, let's go. Hi ho, hi ho, to face the Lone One we go...."
He ducked a barrage of pillows, the last three which found their mark.
"Stop quoting Disney," Nita laughed.
"Alright then. Let's go!"
Nita took Kit's hand, and Dairine grabbed hers. A chain of people standing behind him, Ponch thought a moment, created the gate, and they stepped through. The worldgate closed, and they were in.
"Ponch?"
What is it, boss?
"Are you sure this is right?"
They're here...somewhere. I can feel them.
"Alright..."
The four figures were standing on a brightly lit city corner, looking out at a two-lane asphalt road, and at a grassy incline leading up to a rusty chain-link fence behind it. Slightly to their left, across the road that turned the corner, was a blank concrete wall, and then further along that wall, a road that led up and out of sight, back behind the chain-link fence. Behind them were three lit, fully stocked shops, though they were completely empty at the time. To their right, there was a two-way intersection: right or left. The visible fork was the left: it took a sharp turn and continued toward what looked like a tunnel before disappearing from view. It was oddly quiet, no cars, no subway, no pedestrians, dead silent except for the buzzing of the streetlamps and the occasional far-off police siren. Nita shook her head, glancing up and behind her at the flashing neon arrow that proclaimed in bright letters: PUB. Dairine glanced around her and didn't speak. Kit got the impression she was too confused to say much.
A/N: For any of you Need for Speed fans out there, I based this setting on one of them. No suing. Suing bad. I don't claim to own it.
"Are you sure?" he asked Ponch again.
Yeah, boss. They're here. Or somewhere that leads out of here.
"Doesn't seem like the place for an Ordeal."
"But Kit," Nita reminded him. "what about our Ordeal? Took place in the city...or what I think was a city."
"Yeah, but it was all dark, and look at this..."
He was interrupted by a blindingly bright sphere of light drifting down from out of nowhere.
Pardon me, it said. Have we met?
Kit and Nita gaped. Dairine merely stared.
"F-f-Fred?"
I knew it! Christopher, Juanita, we meet again!
Despite his shock, Kit reflexively corrected "Kit and Nita."
Okay. Kit and Nita. It's me, everyone's favorite white hole.
Nita stammered, "B-but I th-thought you were dead!"
Well, you thought wrong. What're you doing here?
"Uh...oh, yeah. We're, uh, looking for an Iola Fraizer, a Kurt Thompson, and an Ethan Everett."
Rookies?
"Uh...yeah."
Thought so. I can sense them, but where they are, I've no clue.
Kit was about to question further when a roar of machinery cut him off. From the right fork of the street leapt a figure, slung low to the ground and a very dark brown. The vehicle smoked its tires and rolled in a businesslike manner up to Kit's side. Nita and Kits' jaws dropped simultaneously.
"It's the Lotus," Nita whispered.
Kit reached a tentative hand out and patted the brown fiberglass shell. The Lotus' V-8 purred contentedly, and its headlights popped up and glanced up toward Kit and Nita. It flicked its doors open and invited them into its compact interior. Kit glanced toward Dairine and Ponch, and the Lotus seemed to frown. It flipped its two front seats up and forward, revealing a tight rear bench. Kit grinned and let Fred, Dairine, and Ponch into the backseat. The seats flipped backward, and Nita slid into the passenger seat, letting Kit take the driver's seat. The doors slammed, and the Lotus burned rubber up and around the corner.
Kit glanced at the speedometer, which was currently reading about 40 miles an hour.
"Why're we going so slow?" he wondered aloud.
Nita shrugged. "Don't look at me."
He glanced around the outside of the car, and he was answered as the Lotus came up on a car, illuminated by a flickering streetlamp. Kit gaped.
"No way..."
The Lotus rolled to a stop and Kit hopped out of the car at its bidding, followed by Nita. She snickered.
"Looks almost like a bug," she grinned
Kit ignored her and stared.
The car was unmistakably a Lotus as well, but looked nothing like the Esprit's wedge-shaped, streamlined body. Instead, it was tiny, and had more flowing curves than sharp, angular creases. And indeed, the front of the car looked very similar to some behemoth insect, large, almond-shaped headlights, placed at an angle so one end was pointing off the side of the car, flanking two smaller but nearly identical turn signals.
"It's an Elise..."
The Esprit beeped three times, and the Elise seemed to wake up. Its headlights flicked on, and it shook itself slightly. It rolled toward Kit and Nita and seemed to look them over. Its grille curved into a vehicular grin, and it popped the doors open. Kit offered Nita the driver's seat, but she refused pointedly.
"Kit, I may be older than you, but you know more about cars than me."
Kit shrugged and slid into the car. Nita hopped inside, and the Lotuses burned rubber uphill. Kit watched in awe as the speedometer climbed to sixty in less than 5 seconds, passed it, and hit 100 in about 12 seconds.
"Dang...this thing can move..." he murmured. Nita chuckled nervously, leaning over to look at the speedometer. "And I thought Dad drove fast..." She slipped and knocked Kit over, knocking his head on the right window. He massaged his head and grinned at Nita, who was blushing as she sat back up, rubbing her shoulder, which had hit the stick shift. Kit almost burst out laughing at the look on Nita's face, and, barely remembering to shield his thoughts from his partner, thought quietly, She looks really cute like this...
The Elise's tires squealed as it suddenly veered to the right. Kit's head smacked the window again, and Nita avoided the shifter this time as it clicked into fourth, then straight into sixth, flooring the hammer. A Volkswagen Golf skidded out in front of them, its headlights creased in an a permanent leer as they picked out the two Lotuses, then the Golf charged. The Elise purposely T-boned it, and the VW lost its grip and flipped onto its roof, sending up a shower of sparks. The Elise accelerated, shoving the Golf in front of it, and let it slide into a Lincoln Town Car lurking in an alley. There were suddenly cars and trucks everywhere, lights leering out at them from alleys as they pulled out and floored their accelerators. A Chevy Corvette pulled up alongside the Elise, intent on slamming into the side of it. Instead, the Lotus braked suddenly and veered towards the Vette, clipping its rear bumper hard. The rear wheels lost traction and spun helplessly as the Corvette went into a spin. It collided with a wall and sat there, motionless, the fiberglass body literally ripped apart. A Crown Victoria was unlucky enough to be rear-ended by the Elise, puncturing the gas tank. As the car skidded, it sent up a shower of sparks from the dragging metal. The Elise frantically floored the gas, and it leapt forward as the Crown Vic exploded in a ball of fire, charring a Chevy Caprice and popping the tires of a New Beetle, which showered more sparks and collided with a Town Car Limousine, which also spun. Behind the two Lotuses, pandemonium broke loose as cars collided and exploded, SUVs flipped and rolled, and a Firebird took awkward flight before coming crashing down in a raging fireball. The Lotuses, as one, swung around a corner and hit a jump. Nita gritted her teeth and braced herself, as Kit noticed with awe they were leaping over a barricade of Mustangs, most of which broke free and stopped running as the Lotuses came crashing down on them, followed by a few pickups, and, to the Mustangs' horror, a pair of huge Mack trucks and trailers. The trucks plowed through the Mustangs and, smashing them flat, flipped because of the one Mustang that resisted crushing, flipping one truck onto the other. The pickups, regardless of the wrecks behind them, kept coming. The Lotuses slowed, and as the trucks veered to sandwich them, darted out of the way. The trucks collided, and one, a Ford Ranger, flipped, landed on its wheels, and somehow managed to keep coming. The Lotuses cruelly taunted it, accelerating just out of its reach, until, murder gleaming in its shattered headlights, the truck accelerated to reach 102 miles an hour, playing straight into the Lotuses' hands. They turned into sharp left corner late, and the Ranger, with its steering damaged, had no time to correct.
Bam. The building shook with the impact, and Kit looked out the back window. The Ranger's hood and grille had accordioned back into the firewall, which had not held. The truck, therefore, looked like two wrecking balls had just smacked it simultaneously. Kit winced, then sucked his breath in. At least fourteen Crown Victoria and Caprice Police Interceptors had just skidded around the corner, sirens on, lights flashing. Nita groaned. "And I thought cops were your friend..."
Bumping and jostling, the pack gained on the Lotuses, which somehow seemed to be slowing down. Kit moaned. "No, no, no..."
A Crown Victoria pulled away from the pack and went to the outside of the Elise as they rounded a turn. The Elise seemed to grin as it swerved toward the cop car, which panicked and veered away from the Lotus, wrapping itself around a streetlamp. A Caprice, infuriated by this, rearended the Elise, which fought for control, and nearly lost it. Four seconds later, the Caprice found itself leaking oil onto the blacktop, as the Esprit smacked it into a pole like a toy. Sirens wailing, engines roaring, and lights flashing, the pursuers and the pursued swept past the 150 mph barrier. Kit was panicking.
"Holy crap...I never realized Crown Vics could go this fast! We're doing 158, and they're staying with us..."
Nita was a bit less worried.
"Kit, you said this thing has among the best handling on the planet. It shouldn't be too hard to outrun these guys..."
Wham.
"I take that back."
The Elise, its trunk now dented in, screamed outrage it the injury it had sustained. The turbocharged Toyota inline-four roared as revs hit maximum and the Lotus sprang ahead, tires managing to spin even at close to 160 mph. The speedometer climbed past 170...180...190...
"Two hundred..." Nita moaned.
It passed two hundred and strained. The engine was maxed out, revs were way over the red, and the speedometer needle was vibrating between 203 and 204. But even past 200, the Lotus was nimble and quick. It dodged an attacking Caprice, and by some miracle of technology, dodged behind a lightpost. The three Crown Vics and a Caprice following never had a chance. Brakelights came on, tires squealed, and the lightpost shuddered under the onslaught of six tons of steel and fiberglass that crashed into it at close to 210 miles an hour. The Elise dived back onto the road, Kit white, Nita clutching her necklace and breathing hard.
"Damn," was all she could choke out. "Damn"
Kit just shook his head.
The sole Crown Vic remaining was outraged. Its fellow compaions had been killed, and it only had one choice left. The CB radio mike lifted and broadcast: This is unit 228, requesting backup. I'm near Mike's Pub, in pursuit of two cars, a brown Lotus Esprit plate 220BE3 and a Lotus Elise plate 453HGK2. Both are doing well over one hundred, have broken two hundred. Code four.
Here was a silence, then, Roger, 228. Sending backup.
Thanks. Ten-four.
The Crown Vic's grille curved upward in a chromy grin, and it continued the chase.
The Epsrit dodged the Crown Vic's relentless onslaught, swerving and veering as the Interceptor wove to and fro, trying to catch the Lotus off guard. The Crown Vic couldn't keep it up, and settled back behind the racer, nudging its rear bumper, trying to spin it. The Esprit skidded, regained control, and somehow clipped the nose of the Crown Vic. With a squeal of both tires and terror, the Crown Vic lost traction on its smooth slicks and, wheels spinning and smoking helplessly, skidded into the corner of a building.
Everyone instantly relaxed. Nita and Kit looked at each other in relief, and Dairine's face regained its color. Nita slapped Kit's hand and glanced out the window in the rearview mirror. What she saw did not comfort her.
"Kit..."
Kit turned, and his jaw dropped as he caught a glimpse of what Nita had seen. He let out a stream of swearwords that would have put Dairine's earlier outburst to shame as he saw the squad of FAVs and army vehicles bearing down on them.
A/N: For all those who aren't as obsessed with cars as me, yes, the Lotus Elise is a real car. Do a Google search on it.