I'm so sorry Fishyicon for taking so long with this chapter, I just couldn't figure out how to write it, and then there was the matter of having time... anyway, here it is finally. Enjoy and please review afterwards if you have time :) Yeah, it starts off a bit slow, but it gets going, quite a bit. Well I tried :) I don't think action-packed scenes are my forte.
I opened my eyes slightly, only to be blinded by the daylight streaming through the blinds into the room. I groaned and pulled a pillow over my face. I began to drift off, back into a sleepy daze... when I felt movement at the bottom of the bed. Automatically, I thought it would be Razor getting up, so I tossed the pillow off my face and looked at towards the bottom of the bed. But, to my amazement, there was nothing there... Razor wasn't even in the room... He must of got up earlier... I thought to myself, still staring at the bottom of the bed. I lay back down, thinking that it must have been me, hallucinating. But then, there it was again, only creeping it up towards me, from underneath the covers. I held my breath and shut my eyes. Just a few seconds felt like minuets...
"Meow..." I rolled my eyes and sighed... Looking towards where the covers stop on me, was a small ball of fluff. Razor had a cat. This made me laugh as it padded its way out of the covers and sat on the pillow next to my head, purring. I gave it a fuss and pulled myself out of the bed. I was scared of a bloody cat...Pfft...
Strangely, I wasn't too fussed being in somebody else's house, let alone one of the most respected racers out there. Usually, I hated staying at other houses or homes... The cat followed me off the bed and lay across my foot, I knelt down and took a few moments to familiarise myself with it. She... or he... had an immaculate fur coat, and the most green eyes possible. Siamese... I thought as I stood up and began to walk down the hidden staircase. Bloody mornings...
I walked into the kitchen and slouched onto the stool located at the breakfast bar. Razor passed me a mug of coffee and sat beside me, with his. I looked at him, something was missing... bandages. But there was no trace of the wound... Razor saw me looking and laughed.
"Green Eco does wonders." He said, as the cat from earlier jumped up onto his lap. "I see you've met Mikado..." he said, giving the cat a few pieces of ham.
"Quite a little sweetie." I said, admiring the well looked after cat.
"You ready for today?" He asked, tilting his head and lighting a cigarette.
"Just about, so... What's the plan?" I said, yawning and laying my head on my folded arms.
"1. Phone Call. 2. Race, and 3, depends on how the rest goes." He said, blowing out a trail of silvery smoke.
"Hm. I remember." I muttered, sitting up to see another mug of coffee placed in front of me.
"Tired?" Razor asked, smirking at me in his signature fashion. I shook my head and took a sip if the coffee.
"You going to make the call?" He asked, walking out of the kitchen. "The phone is by the window." With that, he walked into the bathroom, and I heard the shower turn on.
Phone... Window...Wait a minuet...Which one? There were masses of windows in the apartment. Ugh. I walked around each and every window, and the last window I came to, had the phone. The lounge window...or wall? I sat cross-legged on the sofa and dialled in Jak's garage number. I hated calling people on the phone, I was a nervous wreck. I sat twiddling with the bottom of Razor's shirt while waiting for someone to pick up.
"Hello?" A voice said.
"Hi, Alleisha its Blyade." I began, recognising the welcomed voice.
"Oh my god! Lauren, its Blyade" she shouted, there was a scuffle and Lauren was shouting down the phone as well. "Where the hell are you? We've been knocking on your door, and you definitely did not come back to the hotel last night!"
"Well it looks to me that you haven't made any effort to find where I am." I was still tired, but I know what I was saying, as harsh as it may be.
"Blyade... Why are you being like that? I couldn't exactly ring you, could I?" Alleisha was also being very defensive by this point.
"Look, either way, you never take any notice of me in the garage, you don't talk to me, you don't come round and see if I'm okay, so to be quite honest I'm amazed by the fact you noticed I was gone." And with that, I slammed the phone down. I don't know why I got so angry...
"That's Kras putting its mark on you." Razor said, standing in the corner with a pair of bright yellow slacks on.
"What do you mean by that, exactly?" I asked.
"You have acquired the temper most Kras civilians have, shown by the shouting and the slamming of the phone. You wear Kras clothing, exhibit A being you wearing my shirt and finally, doing what your about to do." By the end of his sentence, Razor had lowered one eyebrow and was...Smiling.
"Fair enough." I replied, before standing up.
"Shiv raided your hotel room, and brought your suitcase." I was stunned for a moment...
"What do you mean by... raided?" I asked... almost dreading the answer.
"I mean, climbed through the window." his answer was blunt.
"What?" I think Razor was right about my temper...My face, apparently, looked quite amusing by this point, as Razor burst out into fits of hysterics. This annoyed me greatly, I stood more weight on one hip with my arms crossed, frowning.
"You would believe anything. He took your key." Razor said, laughing between words. I ignored the rest of the laughing and collected my suitcase from the door where it had been left, then took it silently upstairs to get changed.
After changing into something more suitable we left the apartment block and made our way towards the garage. The car journey was incredibly quiet, there was not another soul on the road.
"Why so quiet?" I asked Razor, turning to face him.
"Qualifiers today, get through and you can start the tournament. Whether it be by yourself, or as part of your makeshift team, some of the lucky one's will get job offers from the big name racing teams." Not too complex. I thought. The remainder of the journey was travelled in silence.
The Deathdrome was packed out, you could tell driving into the garage by all of the noise the crowd were making. Shiv, Edje and Cutter were already out on the track, which just meant Razor had to join them, and all would begin... My last day in Kras was about to go out with a bang! I thought, unbuckling my seatbelt. I was so caught up in my thoughts that when Razor placed his hand on my thigh I didn't take much notice, I did, however, realise when he pinned me up against my seat and kissed me. I sat there shocked by the sudden move;
"Be careful..." he said, walking off with a slight spring in his step. Yeah, I'll be bloody careful... Pressing a few buttons and..."And there goes the lights, the Racers are off and don't forget to stay tuned afterwards when we identify all the bodies" The voice was loud and confident, must be the cocky commentator, Blitz. I thought as I took my seat in from of the computer screen, keeping an eye on oil levels and damage.
"Shiv, I suggest you pull into the pit lane, your damage levels have reached 84%." I said into the microphone, watching his bright orange Road Blade skid around a corner.
"What do you mean pull in? I'll loose my position!" Shiv didn't sound to happy about my advice.
"Sod your position, Shiv. Their mostly Rookies anyway, and if you want to end up in a ball of flames, that's your problem, another hit, and that's what's going to bloody happen." I was only trying to save him some third degree burns and a few broken bones. A lap later, and Shiv did pull in, followed by Edje a few moments later. It was going well.
"Oi, Traitor!" I whirled around on my seat, to see Lauren and Alleisha walking into the garage. I span immediately back around, trying to keep my attention to what I was supposed to be doing. "You can't even look at us!" Alleisha shouted.
"I would look at you, but it just so happens that I'm keeping an eye on my team's progress and damage, so if you don't mind..." Due to Alleisha's temper, she walked briskly towards me and span my chair around so I was facing her.
"Look, sorry we didn't take much notice of you, but it was supposed to be our chance to find some sort of different work for a while, and anyway, they wont let us help with the pit stops..." I laughed at this;
"What do you mean they won't let you help with the pit stops?" I was still laughing, but span back around and warned Cutter about his fuel levels.
"You know what I bloody mean, it was a waste of time coming here, and I'll be glad to go home tonight!" with that, they both walked, in a rather stroppy fashion, out and back to Jak's garage.
"Bye!" I shouted mockingly at them as they turned the corner.
"Ooh! That's gotta hurt!" Blitz was off again... "That's ganna hurt in the morning!" The race was on its final lap, and the smell of used engine oil and burning rubber was stronger than ever. I left the computer and walked to the edge of the track, behind the barriers of course, since they would have to live through the last lap themselves. There was a loud screech from tires as a racer hit the tire wall on the last turn. The crowd were screaming as the first of the racers crossed the finish line.
"Wha-ha-ha at a race! 3 casualties and 2 Deaths, come back after the break when we identify the bodies" with a wink of his eye, the advertisements began to roll over every screen. There was a sudden uproar of cheering when the winners name was displayed upon the board, Razor. It was a relief to see he hadn't lost, and Jak didn't look to happy about the 3 second gap between them. He was slacking this year, as if he didn't want to be here... None of my business... I thought, walking over to congratulate Razor on his win, but instead of a nice greeting, I was shoved around and rushed out the back of the garage.
"What the hell is going on?" I asked, just under the volume of a shout...
"Shut up and take these." A keyring with a single key on it was thrust into my hand.
"And what am I supposed to do with this?" I hissed as I was guided towards the car-park, where many of the fans were now driving away with large grins painted across their faces.
"The green and black dragonfly, the numberplate is something like 'RP23 RCR", Go!" I scanned the car-park for the dragonfly, but before I could continue, Razor grabbed my arm and pulled me in a totally different direction in which I was looking, towards the well armoured car. " Get in, and meet me by the Cargo Port, at gate B."
"I don't even know how to get there, Razor!" I was shouting by this point, panicking and excited all at the same time was rather exhausting.
"The Sat-Nav will take you there, now get in and bloody drive woman!" His voice was getting more and more anxious. I was sensing this in his voice now, and grabbed his shoulders, pulling myself close.
"I can't drive. My licence is non existent!" I tightened my grip on his shoulders, before he pulled me away and held me at arms length.
"Blyade, just set the car into its top gear, im sure you know where the accelerator is and the brake, the rest is all fairly self explanatory" His voice had softened, as did his features on his face. I sighed and nodded, before being helped into the car. There was a sudden loud explosion from behind us, three High-Class vehicles shot from behind the flames and erupted towards me.
"GO!" Razor shouted before running towards the garage, ducking from bullets. I had no choice.
I planted my foot onto the accelerator and a nano-second later the car lurched forward and sped up the road, throwing me back firmly into the seat. It was an awkward moment, when I looked into the wing-mirror to see the three cars violently hurtling towards me, with their blue-eco turbo's blazing behind them, and at the same time realising I didn't have my seatbelt on. Shit... I thought as I pulled a late turn to the left, after I failed to hear the Sat-Nav, throwing myself into the hardness of the metal supports holding the armour into place. My arm now throbbing became the least of my worries when bullets began to ricochet off the exhaust pipe and onto the road. They're trying to kill me! I took in a deep breath and shoved harder down onto the accelerator, hoping for more speed, and boy did I get it. There was another unforgiving surge of speed as the car once again quickened its pace aided by the small amount of blue-eco rushing out of the turbo tank. That was it, my turbo was out and I had nothing but brute force form the weakening car left to ferry me to the Cargo Port.
"Proximity Breeched" The car's computer spoke a sickening warning. My stomach turned over as yet more bullets were shot at me. Desperate, I began to press a few buttons on the dashboard, and without warning, a small explosive was launched out of the back, onto the road, where one of the three cars was then terminated. The flames hissed and smoke rose to the sky from the wreckage, heat was lapping at the back of my neck. I just killed someone... I was immediately flooded with guilt, which soon passed when I was confronted with a tight right turn down a slim alleyway. Holding my breath, I made the turn, barely. Sparks and paint were flying off one of the side-panels as it was thrown into the alley wall by my bad driving.
"Destination Nearing" The Sat-Nav spoke, breaking my concentration, making me skid violently around the next stomach felt as if it was screaming at me, and acid was bubbling in the back of my throat... Don't throw up, Don't throw up... I swallowed and carried on my unnerving encounter. A small beep startled me, warning me of the usage of weapons. There was a squealing as 2 missiles were released from one of the 2 remaining drivers... My heart was in my mouth... I took a sudden turn into another alleyway, using a Lamborghini as a decoid for the weapons... The flames took another of the racers off track and turned the vehicle into a fiery inferno. One more... I reassured myself, driving out of the alleyway and back onto the road.
"Destination Reached" The Sat-Nav shut itself off, in the not-too-near distance I could see the cargo port, and one of its 4 gates. Which one is it... I was thinking franticly about what to do... I took the bend with ease and drove away from the first gate that was in my sight. Gate D... Gate C... Driving past, knowing the next one would be my stopping point, but there, by Gate B, was another car, a Javelin-X to be exact. Shit... There was another high pitched squeal as the stationary car launched grenades towards me, but remained still. To my sheer amazement the grenades flew over my head and smashed into the windscreen on the final racer behind me, more flames lit up the sky as I slammed my foot onto the brake and violently stopped dead.
"Who the FUCK was THAT! I shouted as I jumped out of the car and into the middle of the road.
"Mozè's men." A voice came, from the shadows of the combat racer.
"Augh! Bloody Mozè'! First he shoots someone close to me and now he tries to kill me! Again!" My temper had erupted but soon cooled with the strangers reply.
"Nice to know I mean so much to you." The voice came, followed by the shadowy figure and a bright pair of yellow slacks.
"Razor!" I must of sounded annoyed and shocked at the same time, made my head hurt.
"Remind me never to question your skills of observation." He laughed, walking over to me. I felt like slapping him, but to be painfully honest, he had just saved my arse. "Your journey seemed to take slightly longer than I thought. Have any trouble on the way?" The sarcasm rolled off his tongue in a bitter manner.
"Oh no, I just stopped off and did a bit of sight-seeing. I completely remembered you were going to meet me here." I said, leaning onto the battered Dragonfly. Razor smirked and gestured me to sit in the Javelin.
"What about the Dragonfly?" I asked, as Razor got in too.
"I'll get one of the boys to pick it up later... as for now... we have to put our differences aside..." With a nod of my head, we were speeding off down a dark back-alley and towards a distant part of Kras.
I don't think I'll be going home as planned...