The Crew: A Street Racer's Journey

by Synergy2048

There's no category for "The Crew" So this is the closest one for now. A fan story following events between/after Ubisoft's The Crew follows a young driver, Jake Ryder with a crew of 5 going on a Journey around the United States of America while on a revenge mission to go after a driver from the 5-10 MC.

7. 2nd Stage, Midwest

Rewritten: 6/12/18

While flying and stopping in other airfields to the east, it took 1 1/2 days to reach the farmlands of Michigan. By the time they arrived it was almost the afternoon; Jake, Alicia and Dwayne wait for Alicia's contact to arrive, waiting for a few hours before sunset while having time to talk and getting to know each other. Eventually, the contact arrives in a modified gold yellow Ford Focus, coming out to meet with them as Alicia introduces him to Jake. His name was Douglas McClurg, but instead he preferred the name "Grease" due to his mind of building/upgrading cars. He didn't look much like a builder to Jake, including Alicia first meeting him back home in Miami Florida. Grease was a good friend of hers knowing him since high school, only to still have a crush on her yet was stuck only as a best friend. Without wasting time, Dwayne pushed them to get going and to get in Grease's car on their way to Detroit. It took a few more hours to get to the main city, and on the way over, Jake also gets to know a bit about Grease and what he could do. Dwayne had a plan for the three once they get there, but unfortunately, he had to leave them to support other drivers going up against the 5-10s all the way in Chicago. Eventually, they arrive as it already got dark; it would be the first time Jake has ever gone to a different city/state.

Arriving to the city didn't really impressed Jake after Dwayne mentions Detroit being a main hotspot for street racing for its time, even bearing the name "Motor city". Passing through the ruins of Highland Park gave an eerie feeling to the crew especially at night, but passing by an abandon car factory gave them the impression of what it once was in its golden days long ago. Dwayne also gives insight as the area was actually a hotspot for car meets and races, even where the 5-10s originated. They head for the outer parts of the city heading to midtown where Alicia wanted Grease to drive to. It was where the 5-10s store their cars in an abandon parking structure storing the cars inside. They drive in knowing there was no one inside as Alicia spots the car she was looking for. Keeping her key, she gets out and gets inside what was a red Nissan 370z Fairlady. Right away they have another car, but Jake needed to get a new one of his own. Dwayne hands him money to meet a car dealer back in Highland, having Grease to go take him. As for Alicia, he had her dropped him off at his old home where he got back his carbon black Dodge Challenger. However, he left on his own on the way to Chicago while Alicia drove to a car mod shop where she messages the two to go meet after finding a car. Things were setting up.

Meanwhile the two find the dealer at the location and meeting a dealer inside. The dealer was also in connections with Dwayne long ago who gave him his Challenger as he tried to offer more expensive rides for the two. They unfortunately had a budget when shown better vehicles and were looking for something fast but cheap. Immediately the dealer showed them some cars for sale; while showing them off, Jake wasn't too excited. They were all modern muscle cars aside from one tuner that was a 370z Fairlady. Despite his enthusiasm with JDMs and Alicia also driving one, it was not a favorite of his as he had trouble choosing, asking Grease for opinions. The dealer also offered test drives as long as they don't wreck any of the vehicles. The two take the offer and test them all around the block until finding one that suited Jake. out of the 4 cars (Dodge Challenger, Ford Mustang, Nissan 370z and Chevrolet Camaro) Jake Chooses the Camaro as a start and buys it right away. Before long, Jake was now driving off with a new car which was unfortunately a downgrade to him and a different car class. They eventually get a message from Alicia to meet at a mod shop not far from where they were. Trying it out again, Jake gets a feel for the Camaro following Grease to the location. Meeting at the destination where Alicia was waiting for them, they use the leftover money to buy some modifications to install in the Camaro. Alicia was impressed by his choice as they search for the needed parts and install them. It took them yet some more hours with some napping in between as the Camaro was now set including a different paintjob in black and white stripes. As morning came, Jake, Alicia, and Grease all drive out in their own individual rides as Alicia searches for a safehouse that Dwayne gave for them to hideout. Heading to a small warehouse in Delray, they spend the rest of the morning getting some sleep and wake up to go over what Dwayne sent to them in order to reach Logan.

Waking up in the afternoon they go over what was on the blackboard. From the looks of it, it will take more than a month or two to deal with one region. What Dwayne had sent to them and speaking on phone, he goes over the details as the 3 paid close attention. Jake's mission in order to reach Logan was to race and defeat the crews of the 5-10s starting with the Midwest Faction, "The Wolves." The crew discovers more about the factions and how within the motorclub they tend to battle one another for territories. For Dwayne and the help of Jake's crew was to dominate all the regions, helping a movement to dominate each state and crumble down the size of the 5-10s, until they only controlled one region with the independent movement of crews making a final squeeze to overthrow the Motorclub. Surprisingly, the V8, Shiv, was suddenly not in control of the 5-10s anymore after the Face-Off in the West days before. With both the V8 and V6 out of power of the whole nation, the regions' factions were now the ones fighting for power in the US with the V4s as the faction leaders try to take territory. The only way to grab a region was to beat the V4 and 3 out of a number of V2 drivers, all of which control a major city. The crew must beat the records or challenge races scattered around the region in order to grab attention, posing a threat. With a few crews against the 5-10s also taking challenges their own, Jake's crew must be the ones to beat the V4. Dwayne will inform other drivers to make sure Jake's crew will be the ones to rise to the top and take most of the challenges.

However, despite trying to get the attention of the Region/Faction leaders, Jake's crew was driving for Dwayne's Outcast movement as their goal is to cripple the 5-10s. Dwayne will call them to help out other contacts involving sabotage of traffic routes, interrogating 5-10 drivers and derailing with their crime networks in general. Along the way, Jake's crew might receive extra upgrades for their cars and possibly new cars to help their journey. Most of the jobs they would do would also require a change of spec with contacts offering cars for them temporarily to complete those jobs, not having their owned cars involved which would make them targets for the 5-10s, exposing themselves.

Their first faction leader and V4 was a female driver, driving a serious built classic muscle car and is involved with the crime networks for the 5-10 Wolves in the region. Her best V2 drivers holding major cities in the Midwest: Detroit, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Chicago. (They can only choose 3). Scattered in and out of each city are a number of challenges they need to complete which would give them permission to race the V2s and their crews. If they beat most of the challenges and the V2s in each city, they will go up against the faction leader herself with the 3 V2 drivers making up her crew. But the faction leader's final challenge for the Midwest will not be a quick race. She will challenge Jake's crew in what the 5-10 factions call the cross region race "The Rush", with the two crews racing to the 3 cities the V2s were defeated in which could take days to complete. However, the crews could have time to rest (eat/sleep) if they wanted to, but were still currently racing. The cities were considered checkpoints while it's up to the crews to try and make the quickest routes. The first crew to get to the last city first will take/keep the whole region. While this was meant for rival 5-10 factions, Jake's crew was racing for their own, and having Dwayne's movement to take over instead. For The Rush, Dwayne will join back Jake's crew to participate and permanently drive with them to the different regions.

The crew discusses over the plan with Grease almost doubting it will work. Alicia was confident with it however, leaving Jake to decide to go with it. Dwayne gives one last detail before the crew heads off, giving info that the 5-10s crews were meeting up at Highland Park, giving a perfect opportunity to get the faction leader's attention by putting themselves in tonight's race and winning it. The crew now leaves the safe house for a test drive around the city of Detroit, taking advantage of open streets to speed through or drift across intersections. Jake was still getting use to his new Camaro and modern muscle in general. The new upgrades tweaked by Grease gave Jake an impression and was satisfied on how the car drove. After driving for less than an hour, Jake decides to have his crew drive back and make possible small tweaks on Jake's Camaro before tonight's race. Unfortunately, while turning an intersection, a police cruiser was sitting there as the 3 zoom right pass with the cruiser on pursuit. The crew for the first time was given chase by police as more cruisers began to show up and chase after them. The crew tries going trough alleyways and congested streets to pull away, but cops still kept up with them. It was only when Jake decides to take a freeway circling around the city where they began to outrun the cops. Taking an exit and cooling down at another alleyway, police began to give up the pursuit with the crew carefully driving back to the safe house. It won't be the only time they would get chased in the city or outside.

The crew continues to rest and make last tweaks for their cars before the race meet. While also laying low after their chase with the Detroit police, it didn't take long till the hour came for them to drive out and meet at the race meet along with 5-10 crews. This kind of made Alicia anxious as she still bared the 5-10 tattoo on her right upper chest and would be betraying the 5-10s by driving with an independent crew, plus she didn't know if she was compromised by Logan to all 5-10 drivers in the country. Either way, she wore a sweater to hide her tattoos as the crew slowly makes their way to Highland and finding the race meet near the abandon car factory. Driving in and finding a spot to park, they get out looking for the faction leader, making a speech in front of all 5-10 drivers of the Outcast's threats, talking about Dwayne's movement. The faction leader also called for another faction war with the other regions, setting up this race for rival crews to challenge the home faction and possibly take the region. Tonight's race meet was almost a proving ground for which faction or indie crew could take on the faction leader and her V2s in the region, thus Jake's crew participated in the number of races around Highland Park. Racing would take the whole night.

Jake's crew went against different 5-10 crews from each region; while they thought it would be difficult, Jake had the most experienced, and lucky for them the competition was driving the same spec of cars by rivaled crews. Out of 3 to 5 races, Jake's crew crosses the line first which gives the impression to the faction leader. She calls in his crew and asks which region they're driving for until Jake gives the answer "I aint driving for 5-10s, we drive on our own." The faction leader thought he was joking until realizing no 5-10 tattoo was visible on his neck. However, she thought he got lucky as Jake continues saying that he's ready for anything around the region and willing to race her. The faction leader of course underestimates him, seeing no threat from him and thinks he's stupid to have a crew race alone and not with the 5-10s. She gives him a chance to take on the challenges around the city and outside, but thinks his crew won't reach her level to race on "The Rush" to the 3 cities they choose and beat.

Jake however quotes: "You'll be surprised to hear from us again. When we beat Detroit, for sure you'll be nervous. If you must know, I'm driving for the Outcast."

The crowd goes quiet as Alicia next to him questions about him saying that.

Jake continues: "Go ahead and run us down, but to be honest, I don't care about siding with them. We're willing to race for this region ourselves, but we're giving credit to the Outcast 5-10s that settle things the right way. We're all drivers are we? We settle things by racing. Isn't that what this motorclub was all about before?"

The faction leader kind of compliments him but still thinks he's stupid or cocky. She still has him win or beat records around the city in order to race the city's V2. While the outcast were considered enemies threatening their trafficking networks, it's most likely they'll race for their cause. The corruption had gone down since the overthrowing of the V8, and the factions had changed back to their street racing priors as their way of settling scores without violence. Jake agrees to the challenge as they were immediately thrown out of the race meet and taking the challenges around Detroit. Their progression in the Midwest has started.

Progression: Midwest

Starting out in the Midwest with what the crew had to race didn't seem too difficult in races. The race scene in the Midwest was majority of street spec tuned cars ranging from JDMs to Muscle. For Jake's crew it was familiar to them considering they started out driving cheap but highly modable cars in the past. The 5-10 Wolves mostly favored this spec and only allowed these kinds of cars for races/challenges competing for territorial faction wars. However, the crew needed better parts in order to exceed the records and wins in Detroit. The only way they could earn parts was doing jobs for Dwayne and his contacts requiring them to drive specific cars or transporting. One of the jobs require raid spec cars to chase down transports or corrupt 5-10 drivers for interrogation / info of trade routes. Transport jobs required Jake's crew to transport outcast drivers sometimes away from other 5-10s or police to safe locations. Lastly, Jake's crew were offered to transport actual cars, mostly sports or supercars without any damage done to them, this was Jake's job to drive them having experience. Overall, the crew's main goal was race the V2 of Detroit, winning enough races/challenges to go against him and his crew of drivers. Jake's crew, now running on some new upgrades from the jobs, gives them the advantage to win Detroit, having drivers from Dwayne 's group to finish up. This would pose a threat to the Midwest faction leader.

Taking Detroit took days but the crew manages to beat 1 out of 3 V2 in the region. With plenty of cities to go in the region, Dwayne calls them before deciding. The 5-10 Outcasts were seeking help in St. Louis and was probably a better city to go trying to shorten The Rush's race distance against the Faction Leader, also meeting back with Dwayne in Chicago. Jake's crew take a long drive down a number of states crossing Indiana and Illinois to get to Missouri. With a few days of driving and taking a few stops for rest/food, they finally reach the Missouri State and reach St. Louis. There were challenges they had to complete on the way over beating 5-10 records and even getting into a highway race with one of the 5-10 crews, also earning betting money. Dwayne on phone also had stories to tell about the city they were in, also discovering this was where he had met Logan years ago when he was a V2. Jake's crew get stopped by the city's V2 as they entered, hearing word of them and the Outcast taking over Detroit. The St Louis V2 wasn't gonna make it easy for them requiring more races/challenges to complete in order to race him and crew. At the same time, Jake's crew also got involved with jobs. More upgrades/cash was rewarded to them, but got a lot of attention from police around the city and outside. Once again they evade and continue on with the races.

Taking a few weeks to complete and even struggled at moments, they of course succeed as the V2 was ready to race them. This time the race took place outside the city and on to routes leading to Springfield in Illinois. It was a long race, even cops got involved chasing them, but Jake's crew reach the center of town with Alicia barely making it against one driver. It was a lucky finish, leaving the V2 upset with the loss. Jake was allowing the Outcast drivers to take over, but now they must head to Chicago as their final city. Along the way they drove with other crews outside of the 5-10s, it would appear that Jake and his gang were receiving reputation from the Outcasts as they led them a path to the state. The 5-10 wolves in the Midwest were slowly losing ground with the faction war aiding the Outcasts' side. However, Jake was expected to race against the faction leader to finish the takeover, making the promise back in Detroit, otherwise it would still take the Outcast possibly another month to rid of the 5-10s in the Midwest if not longer. The more reputation Jake's crew earns representing the movement, the more drivers they'll recruit to shutdown the Midwest of the 5-10 Wolves, most of which leaving the faction to join. This was a rising revolution for street racers in the region.

Chicago was the last city for Jake's crew to race the faction leader. Surprisingly, they run into her herself already feeling threaten and trying to deter the crew from finishing. Seeing how her faction was losing members to join the Outcasts and losing cities, she wasn't going to play by the rules anymore, willing to have her members doing whatever it takes to defend their remaining cities including Chicago. She still promises a final race for the region with Jake, but now steps up the game having drivers with maxed out street spec cars to challenge them. The Chicago territory was harder to take, but that didn't faze Jake and crew to continue as the faction leader now leaves them with drivers following. Right away, Jake's crew was searching for Dwayne and find him at a ghetto part of the city. Once again more jobs were given to cripple the last of the 5-10s' traffic networks, planning to disconnect from the other regions. Shipments were coming in from outside of the city as the crew hops in more raid vehicles to shut down transports and destroy dropped cargo in the fields. Eventually they get chased by 5-10 drivers trying to protect the shipments, but fail as the majority of drug/money shipments were destroyed unless packed with upgrades for the taking. Dwayne doesn't go with Jake's crew just yet as they head back to get their cars and finish off what they needed. Chicago was huge, taking the crew some time to find the challenge spots or race meets. As said by the faction leader, races were tougher and cars were faster yet on street spec class. Jake's crew actually lost a couple of the first races/challenges as they find the Outcast hiding spots to make complete upgrades to their cars. Taking time to also rest up, they took time to develop relations with each other while tweaking their cars.

Races got a bit easier now with maxed out performance the crew has. Engines were roaring louder and turbos fluttering, even now they were packing nitrous oxide for the extra boost packing more than 500HP. Races were fiercer and aggressive as crews battle out in streets or highways outside the city. Records in challenges were also tighter; the best 5-10 drivers in the Midwest had hard to beat times, but Jake's crew manages to get a couple showing their speed on timed routes. With the 5-10 Outcast taking the rest of Chicago by storm, the Wolves were slowly losing territory, but The Rush was the determining factor for a complete takeover of the Midwest. As Jake, Alicia and Grease make their last races to win, the V2 of Chicago calls for a race, crew vs crew. Having a route going through districts in the city boundaries, it was a challenge to steer through going up against traffic and a run from Chicago police. It was a struggle, but after an hour of racing, Jake's crew all barely make it to the line first, or so they thought. Surprisingly, one of the V2's drivers did not finish the race, whether stopped by police or wrecked somewhere down the line. The crew beats the V2 of Chicago and are now ready to race for the whole Midwest, but not without one more driver.

A day after the race, Dwayne now meets them at an Outcast safehouse outside of the city. The Faction leader was waiting for them in the middle of the city, expecting the crew to meet for a race of less than 800 miles of road, starting from Chicago to St. Louis and ending in Detroit. This race didn't seem long to Jake as his team agrees. As the faction leader gets her crew of defeated V2s of the checkpoint cities together, it was now Jake's side to meet up. They needed 4 drivers which was why Dwayne joined up with them, driving his Mustang Cobra. The faction leader sees Dwayne for the first time, the person who founded the 5-10 Outcasts who was about to race against her and her crew of V2s. The 2 crews go on each side of the road that leads out to a long straight and out of the city. Engines rev and exhausts flare up waiting for the intersection light to turn green. They launch off the light down the straight almost drag racing out the city until reaching the edge and driving out on the highway into the fields. They drove for 8 hours with one of the crews taking a different way to St. Louis. When it got dark until midnight, these crews find their own motels to stay and rest/sleep for a number or hours until quickly getting up during the morning and fueling up at a nearby gas station to continue crossing St. Louis not far from where they were. The crews kept an eye on their GPS' to check which crew was leading as the last place crew find a way to catch up by finding a different road to take as long as it leads to a checkpoint city. Finally, the crews reach and pass through St. Louis; Jake's crew was falling behind a bit as they were a couple miles behind from the other crew. They step it up, not taking any stops and continued another 8 hours heading to Detroit. The Rush was halfway done.

Jake's crew drove endlessly across farms/fields or small towns including through Indianapolis. They drove through empty highways that barely had any traffic or police on their path, mostly staying on the I-70, 69 and 75 freeway. They kept driving until sunset and eventually the night, reaching the outskirts of Detroit until they caught up with the other crew by drafting their way throughout the whole journey. On the 75 they meet head to head again as they were now a few miles away from the center of Detroit. All 4 in a crew must cross first to win as both fight for the 1st to 4th passing Grosse Ile Island just more than 15 miles away. When reaching the inner city they finally exit off and down the Michigan Avenue road leading dead center of Campus Martius Park. Just meters from the intersection cross walk as the finish line, the crews start to draft while avoiding traffic. Jake's crew had the advantage as all 4 cross first in a chain beating the faction leader and V2s, circling around the park in victory. Racing over 800 miles of road, it was finally over as they finally rest their cars on the side of the streets from hours of nonstop full throttle driving. They meet at the center as the faction leader now gives up the crown for the Midwest, making the 5-10 Outcasts the region holders. Jake's crew celebrates at a restaurant/bar, sitting all together for the first time and toasting their victory. They rest at another motel as they now plan for a road trip now taking them to the east coast the next day. The Outcasts were heading that direction, and with Dwayne now riding along, their crew gets stronger.

Crew Relationship Progress

While they were on a mission and driving to the next city to city, they enjoy themselves, even stopping at areas or landmarks to walk around for a bit. Jake gets to know little more about Alicia and Grease on the journey. With Grease he knows more about his tuning genius, even learning things that Jake never knew about. The times when tuning their cars in shops or safe houses, Jake hangs out with Grease while modding their individual cars, sharing parts or giving each other tips. When it came to driving and testing their cars, Grease came across as being not as experienced as Jake, learning driving techniques with Jake on co-driver seat, sometimes letting him drive his car. Seeing that they were both witty personalities, they relate to their traits while Jake was alittle more lean back on his, sometimes making Alicia laugh nearby or on the road with radios. Grease becomes a friend to Jake, not since Maxwell has Jake ever hang out with someone more than anyone. Their growing friendship continues journeying east to the coast.

Alicia was more someone for Jake to talk to about his problems. However, Jake at times comes across almost flirting with her, though Grease would purposefully get in the way of their conversations despite Alicia throwing the friendzone card at him. Alicia never showed interest to Jake, still thinking about Logan despite knowing his intentions and past. At the moment she didn't want a relationship though kept talking to Jake as another guy friend. Jake would talk about his past to Alicia as well as Grease when working together in the garage or on the road. While not telling everything like his street war with another rival motorclub or the death of his girlfriend in LA just yet, he stuck with things like their first cars or first street races. With Alicia, she talks about how she met Grease in highschool as well as having a business with her uncle back in Miami. Certain topics come to mind with the 3, sometimes when taking a break at a gas stop or sightseeing down the way to cities. Despite their growing relations as a crew, they were on a mission, taking less time to stand around and try to get to the cities they need to go and progress to take the whole Midwest. Teamwork was a main focus as friendships become partnerships in races/jobs. Half the time, hanging out was a rare moment down the line.