Vehicle list
OwnerCar's name Car
Zero--------------Hellhound Roar---------1973 Dodge Challenger r/t
Crystal------------Blizzard Storm---------2002 Dodge Viper
Rachel-------------Steel Fury-------------2004 Nissan 350Z roadster
Chris--------------Crimson Streak--------2000 Honda Civic
--------------------Death Rage------------2002 Vauxhall Vectra
Rick---------------Light streak------------2005 Dodge Neon
Speed Radicals
Chapter 3
I put my racing outfit on and then I jumped into my car and started it up, I revved it once and everyone turned around, the sound coming out of my car was immense, it shocked me for a brief moment.
"Guys meet Hellhound Roar" I yelled. I looked into my mirror, Crystal was in her car ready to leave. I raced out of the garage closely followed by Crystal. I sped up following my GPS system. My laptop's screen flickered, a window opened and Crystals face appeared
"Are you gonna slow down or do I have to find this place by myself" She said scornfully.
"Sorry, I just wanted to test my car, I'll slow down" I replied. The window closed down and my screen returned to normal. I put my foot lightly on the brake, I looked in my mirror. Crystals car appeared and she drove up to the side of me and stopped. I nodded at her and then carried on driving, slower than before. After 20 minutes of driving and three race challenges, we arrived. There where huge gates blocking his mansion from the outside world. I stopped my car, Crystal once again stopped next to me. I got out and walked up to the intercom. I pushed the button,
"hello, is anyone there" I asked casually. I waited hearing nothing but static
"Listen if these gates don't open I'm ramming through them just to come in there and kick your ass" I said with more anger than before. The static stopped and a voice came through
"Hello, what do you want" the voice said, I looked over at Crystal she shrugged at me "
I want you to open the gate" I replied.
"Who are you" He asked, I was beginning to get extremely angry
"I'm Zero now let me in" I shouted at the Box.
"Master Vert has no one coming in called Zero" the voice stated.
I grabbed the wrench out of my car and jammed it into the gate and tried to prise it open. I then heard Crystal
"Hi I'm Crystal and the other person here is Mark" she said, 'shit, he'd have me down under my real name' I thought. The gate opened and I fell through onto the floor, I stood up quickly and got back in my car.
"well done Crystal" I said casually. We drove up to the house and stopped outside the front door. The moment we stopped, the huge doors of the house opened, I stepped out of my car and Vert ran towards me. His arms went around me, I put one arm around his back and then whispered
"you can only get away with that once" he let out a small laugh.
"shall we go inside" he said. I got out my car keys and pressed the button. My car automatically locked, Crystal had already done the same and was walking towards me. When she got to me I put my arm around her and we proceeded inside following Vert.
When we got inside he indicated a room on his left, opening the door for us.
"Go on in" he stated calmly, there where two voices coming from inside the room. We walked in slowly, I recognized the two people immediately. The first was tall and had black spiked up hair it was Markie Wylde I had been named after him. The second also had black hair and was shorter than his brother Kurt Wylde. They turned when we entered the room, Kurt walked straight towards us. He wrapped his arms around Crystal who seemed to be extremely shocked by this, as was I. Kurt looked at her and seemed to realise this, he let go of her and turned to Vert.
"Vert you didn't tell her did you" Kurt said sternly, he turned back to Crystal
"The truth of the matter is that I… I am your father and Mark here is your uncle" He said, Crystal after the initial shock, broke down into tears. I however turned to him
"How does you being Crystals father make me her uncle" I said the shock spreading through my voice. Kurt looked at me strangely
"I meant my brother" he said, Wylde walked over and regarded me trying to scare me I suppose but I stared straight back at him. "Who are you" he said in his obnoxious tones. I turned to Vert who nodded slowly.
"My name is Zero" I stated. Wylde and Kurt both looked at me strangely and then looked at Vert.
"Vert, who is he" Kurt asked.
"His name is Mark Torreto and if you remember correctly, that is the same second name as my sister" He answered "He is my nephew"
They both seemed shocked
"anyway I assume you want a good talk with your daughter and I need to talk to my nephew" Vert continued his words seeming forced. I turned to Crystal who was still kneeling on the floor her hands covering her face.
"Are you Ok" I asked, once more putting my arm around her. For a moment she didn't answer but then she finally said
"I'll stay here there are things I need to know" I stood up and then lifted her up. Vert then put his hand on my shoulder, I nodded and we left the room.
We stood in the hall of his house talking "Listen, I'm sorry about not reaching you for those three years" he said with a slight shakiness to his voice.
"You don't have to apologize" I said calmly. He shook his head
"I do, I tried to reach you but when I didn't get a reply I started to get worried, I didn't hear from you and I couldn't reach you at home" he said.
"I bought my own house closer to my teams garage and was a racer from then on" I replied. Vert had his head in his hands
"I wish I could have talked to you. I saw you race once though, I was going to walk over but cops turned up" I looked at him with a smile on my face
"you saw me race" I asked, he nodded "well I thank you for that" I said while putting my arm around his back.
"I couldn't ask for more" I continued. He smiled at me, we both stood up and then I heard a voice from upstairs
"Vert is that him" a woman's voice yelled. Vert turned and nodded, a woman with long brown hair ran down the curving stairs. She grabbed hold of me and pulled me into a hug.
"please Stop Choking can't breathe need air" I said in one breath. She let go,
"I'm sorry" she said calmly "but I've wanted to see you, for a long time" I stared at her still wondering who she was. Vert turned to me "this is my wife Lani" he said. I nodded slowly,
"are they on there way" Vert asked his wife casually.
"Yeah most of them should be turning up soon, the only people who said they are going to be late are Shirako, Diezel and Mitch" she said. She finally ran into the room where Crystal was. Vert turned to me
"I have one thing for you" he said. We walked back out into the grounds and around to the first of four ten car garages. He opened it to reveal five cars: The first was Reverb; the second an old wave ripper car presumably Vert or Lani's; the third was an upgraded battle spec; the fourth was a black car with red graphics which I assumed belonged to Wylde and the final car was a 1950 Ford Mustang completely customized in night black with Red and blue graphics.
"Whoa" was the word that escaped my mouth. Vert looked down at me
"that car is yours" He said indicating the Ford Mustang.
"What, how" I spluttered.
"Your father and I built it, we where going to give it you when you where sixteen but for obvious reasons that didn't happen" He said with a hint of sadness in his voice.
"So the stangs mine" I said with a huge amount of awe in my voice. Vert nodded while handing me the keys,
"you can test drive it later more guests are arriving" He closed the garage.
We returned to the front of the house.
"Listen I want you to stay here for a while" he said extremely casually, 'that wasn't a casual question' I thought.
"But my team" I started, Vert cut me off
"they can stay to its just I've got a lot of racers coming" I nodded slowly
"I'll have to ask them, Crystal will want to assuming Kurt is staying" I answered. When we arrived at the front, there where two other cars parked, One of the people was messing with the supercharger on my dodge. I ran at him, Vert tried to hold me back but failed. The person at my car was a lot bigger than me but in martial arts size doesn't matter. I grabbed him around the throat and pulled him backwards, The guy from the other car tried to pull me off but I was holding fast swinging my legs around. The big guy managed to get me off and dropped me to the floor, he lifted his fist. I covered my face and then heard Vert shout
"Guys stop" I looked up to see the big guy looking towards Vert. Vert walked over
"Mark this is Tork Maddox" he said indicating the big guy I had tried to strangle "and Nolo Passaro" he said indicating the other guy, "and this is Mark Torreto" he finished indicating me.
"your nephew" the person known as Nolo said. I stood up
"My name is Zero" I said, Tork began to laugh.
"You're just like Wylde" he said with a slight twinge of anger in his voice.
"What did you do to my car" I said scornfully. He looked over me and then looked at my dodge challenger.
"Nothing, but who's the viper for a little girlfriend" he said sarcastically. Before I knew what had happened, I had hit him "Never talk about Crystal like that" I said through gritted teeth. Tork seemed ready to punch me back but then stopped
"Crystal, so you like Kurt's kid" Nolo said. Tork grabbed my hand and forced me to lower my arm.
"I'm sorry" I said "people have been insulting and annoying Crystal and I always stand up for her, I don't care who it's against" I continued. Tork nodded
"that's a worthy cause, so anyway this car is yours" he said.
"Yep, I did most of it, except the paint job that was crystals doing. I call it Hellhound Roar" Tork nodded. Nolo was looking around.
"So these are yours I assume" I stated while looking over the cars. Vert turned
"I think it's time we all went inside" We all walked inside, Vert was talking to Tork and I shook hands with Nolo.
We returned to the room we had been in before, when we entered Crystal ran over to me.
"We've been invited to stay here for a while, can we" she said while throwing her arms around me. I put my arm around her
"I know Vert told me, I'm going to there's things I need to know" I stated. We walked further into the room and sat down on a huge couch.
"So Mark" Kurt started, me and Wylde both turned to him. "my name is Zero" I said at the same moment as Wylde said
"My name is Wylde" Nolo turned to Vert
"I wasn't wrong was I" he stated, Wylde turned to him,
"Weren't wrong about what" Wylde sneered.
"he said that we are alike because neither of us uses our real name and our real names are almost the same" I answered. Wylde stared at me for a moment and then sat down next to Tork, Kurt turned to me once more
"I actually wanted to talk to you, I've heard that you have been protecting my daughter and I want to thank you for that" he said calmly. I looked at Crystal
"I have to protect my gir" I stopped suddenly "my friends" I stated. I looked at Crystal noticing that she had gone Red.
"It's Ok you don't need to hide it from me" Kurt said.
"We're not though, I've never asked" I said, a small hint of sadness crawled into my voice. I checked the clock at the end of the room 11.40. The guys would be showing up in 20 minutes. Kurt was continually looking at me, after two minutes I looked at him and waited for him to turn, the moment he did I said
"don't worry I'll take care of her" He turned back smiling, Crystal looked up at me. Wylde came over and sat on my other side,
"is that your dodge outside" he asked,
"which one blue or black" I stated
"The black Challenger"
"yeah that's mine"
"Did you do the job yourself" he asked
"No, Crystal did the paint" I answered, he leant closer to me
"You better take good care of her or else" He said staring at me evilly.
"I would anyway, before yesterday I didn't have anyone else to care about, now I have Vert and Lani" I replied. Wylde seemed taken aback. He then got up and walked across the room.
"Vert can I park my car in the garage" I said. Vert nodded,
"Tork, Nolo are you going to park your cars as well" Vert asked. They both nodded.
"you coming Crystal" I questioned. We both stood up and the four of us walked out to our cars. We all got into our cars, but no one started up as we saw a huge truck coming up the road. The truck stopped in front of us and three people got out, One was a scrawny man. The second was a guy wearing a white outfit with blue-black hair that was gelled up. The third got out he was huge and had a bone around his neck and two knuckle dusters on that had engraved in them PORK and CHOP. They walked over to us, All four of us stepped out of our cars. Nolo walked over to The guy in white "hi Shirako, how've you been man"
The guy called Shirako answered with one word "Yo"
Tork walked over to Porkchop and Monkey, "hi Guys" Porkchop looked at him
"are they all in there" Tork shook his head
"they haven't all turned up yet" he replied. Monkey was staring directly at me. I was leaning against my car with Crystal stood next to me. Monkey walked towards us, he walked past me and was looking at the external supercharger on my car.
"nice" he said casually.
"Aren't we parking our cars" I shouted. Everyone got back in there vehicles and we all drove around to the garages, we opened the second one me and crystal parked in there whereas the others parked in the first. We then returned to the front, I was talking to shirako.
"It controls the whole sound system on my car" he said indicating the device on his wrist
"it used to work on my old car Bassline but I gave that to my daughter and reprogrammed this to work with my new car Treblebass" he said.
"D'you think you could look over the system in my car some time" I asked he nodded but then put his headphones on and couldn't hear me anymore. I turned to Crystal who seemed to be in a strange mood.
"What's wrong" I asked quietly. She shook her head,
"It's nothing, I'm fine" she replied. I stopped her, the others continued walking.
"what is it, I don't like seeing you like this" I said, a tear slid down my face. "it's just he's my father and I never knew, I didn't even know my real name" she stated, I wiped the tears out of my eyes, "Crystal Wylde sounds cool" I said, she gave a small laugh and we carried on walking, we arrived at the front door and I saw two more cars, one in blue and one a strange shade of brown. They didn't stop at the front they both went around the side apparently to park their cars.
We returned to the room we had all been in, we sat down this time I was sat between Crystal and Vert. Two people came into the room, Vert stood up
"Hi Taro, Hi Karma" he said casually. Karma looked around the room and waved to everyone her eyes stopped on me and Crystal, Vert brought them both over. Karma sat down next to me, I was looking at her
"your Karma Eiss aren't you" I asked, she nodded
"but that still leaves the question, who are you?" she asked.
"I'm Mark Torreto, but preferably Zero Wheeler" She looked at me strangely.
"Johnny's son" she said quietly, Vert who was sat next to her
"yep" he replied. Karma looked around me,
"and who is this" she asked, Kurt turned to Karma
"This is my daughter Crystal" he stated. She looked over Crystal, but I wasn't paying attention. I was looking out of the window at several cars coming up the drive. Vert got up and so did I, we all walked outside there where about twenty cars coming up the drive. I recognized three of them. All the cars stopped, I ran forwards Crystal at my side,
"Zero, Crystal when did you get here" Rick said.
"We've been here for about half an hour" I stated realising what I had done.
"You lied to us" Chris said, He looked at me scornfully. Vert ran over to us
"It's my fault, I asked my nephew to come early and Crystals Father wanted her to come as well" Everyone from our team looked around strangely.
"Vert happens to be my Uncle" I stated. Vert looked around at the amount of cars.
"Everyone go and park your cars in the garages, "two teams are in each garage, the team names are on either side of the garage" Vert yelled over the noise. Everyone went and parked there cars. I looked around at everyone stood behind me, Karma was still staring at Crystal with a tear in her eye. I walked over to her leaving Crystal on her own.
"Karma can I talk to you for a second" She nodded wiping her eyes on her sleeve.
We walked around to the side of the house away from everyone. "Karma are you" I stopped for a moment "are you Crystal's mum" I asked. She looked over me
"that easy to tell," she muttered somewhat relieved.
"well why don't you tell her, I know what it's like to have no parents, and knowing that I have Vert and Lani there helped me" Karma seemed to be thinking it over
"but what if she doesn't accept me, because we left her" she said
"well that's none of my business, but I think she needs her mother right now" Karma nodded and we both walked back around. Everyone was still outside the door most of the racers had returned, Karma took Crystal away from the group. A smile came over my face. Kurt came over to me
"is she telling her" he asked. I nodded quickly,
"she was asking me who her mother was but I couldn't tell her I promised I wouldn't" I nodded once again, Kurt walked away as the rest of my team walked towards me.
"Well Zero, why didn't you tell us you where related to Vert" Rick asked,
"Because I didn't want people to know because they'd say my racing ability comes from him, but now I don't care who knows so I'm Zero Wheeler" I stated they all looked shocked but Rick reverted to his normal self almost immediately.
"Sorry for giving you a hard time but you said something about Crystal's dad so who is it" I shook my head.
"That's not for me to tell you, that's for her to tell when she gets back" I said. Vert then appeared next to us,
"where all heading inside are you coming along" Everyone nodded and headed in. I entered the main room at the back of the group and sat down on the nearest couch. Vert noticed me and began to talk,
"I have invited you here because there is about to be a great racing tournament unlike anything you've ever faced before. The winner will be bestowed with great honour and wealth. Before this tournament starts we will be staying here for a few days assuming that you wish to take part" he finished everyone began to talk. Crystal stood up and walked over to Kurt and Karma, I walked over to Vert and Lani. Lani hugged me once more and then Vert looked at me strangely.
"Vert I want to ask you a question" he nodded. "Was my father a racer"
"Yes and so was your mother, they actually met because of racing. They where two of the best racers I ever knew" he stated
"Who killed them" I asked the happiness left my heart and was replaced by pain.
"I don't know" I looked him dead in the eye
"Don't lie to me I'm not a kid, I want to know who killed my parents" I said louder this time. Some of the conversations around me stopped,
Vert looked around "I told you I don't know"