The other vehicles were starting to bunch up. Quarto unleashed a flurry of fire and homing Missiles, ending the barrage with a napalm canister that engulfed them all in fire. Campbell took off like a fighter jet in a high speed zigzag through the arena's maze of shifting walls. The payloader was in bad shape even before Quatro got involved and now seemed desperate to get away from Cage. That was Quatro: a hunter of hunters.

Here we go again, the droid thought as the payloader took them back up to the eastern outer rim. A short, almost tunnel-like structure that was up there divided the region in half. This was where the payloader seemed to be retreating to. Cage was following close behind them, but Quatro had predicted their route and had instead gone ahead and around to cut them off from the front.

When he got there, Quatro lined up a shot and fired another Freeze Missile at the payloader, which was midway through the tunnel by this point, and immobilized it. That was when the structure proved to be nothing more than another one of Calypso's traps and slowly started to sink into the ground with the payloader trapped inside. Crazily enough, Cage accelerated and managed to get in before it closed.

Not good.

Quatro didn't like what was happening. Where had they gone? He needed to recover the body so he could bring it in and collect the bounty, and perhaps finally purchase those upgrades he'd been considering over the past year or so. Before he could mull on it any further, he heard Campbell racing through the arena and decided that now was a good time to continue the chase from earlier.

Campbell's famed Crimson Fury was indeed one of the fastest cars around, but it was no match for Quatro's Xeon Hoverbike, which could reach a top speed of three hundred miles an hour. And now that he knew most of the terrain, and there weren't any contestants around to try and slow him down, there was no doubt in Quatro's artificial cerebral cortex that he'd quickly catch his prey. His estimated kill/capture time was approximately four minutes. He planned to get the job done in half the time.

He hopped on Campbell's trail, chasing and keeping up with him through trap after trap, through sharp turns and erratic, winding paths. He followed him up a spiral ramp that wrapped around the structure in the center of the arena and onto one of the suspended racetracks. It was a mistake on Campbell's part. The racetrack was mostly a straightaway, and Quatro caught up quickly.

He was originally going for a pit maneuver, but he had a better idea. Quatro pulled forward until he was driving side by side with Campbell and slammed into him. He continued to turn left into his opponent while Campbell turned right, fighting back. They drove like that for a while, grinding and gnashing, trying to force one another up either curved side of the track. Quatro began to overpower him.

He soon had Campbell driving all the way along the left side and was pushing him closer to the open edge. They were racing above one of the most hazardous parts of Black Rock Stadium: the lava pit. Down below was a gigantic pool of molten lava being fed into the arena by the active volcano the place was apparently built on. Quatro hadn't believed it at first, but his heat sensors confirmed the lava to be authentic. Quatro activated a microwave shockwave and launched Campbell's sports car off the side of the track like a Hot Wheels toy. He didn't have to worry about Campbell climbing his way back up.

The announcer, moments later: "Crimson Fury destroyed. Three contestants left."

Invitation to Twisted Metal (2023)

Drag Queen