Chapter Six:
Speed
Disclaimer:I do not own the cartoonStorm Hawks. It and all its respectable characters are © to Asaph "Ace" Fipke and Nerd Corps. Lupin and all plot contents within are © to me. All shows/ books/ video games/ songs that are mentioned in this chapter are all © to their respective owners, I don't own them.
Note: *peeps head into room and waves* Hello, all. Sorry for the wait. The...very...long wait. Life was hectic and my inspiration and creativity drifted away from this story for a while, considering I was in the process of moving from one duty station to another. I'll try to get into the groove of things for this story, however. Now, on with the show!
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"Ask any racer. Any real racer. It don't matter if you win by an inch or a mile. Winning's winning."
-Dominic Toretto, "Fast and the Furious"
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"Rain's really coming down now, huh?"
As if to emphasize that comment, the pattering of rainwater seemed to grow louder and heavier. Junko sighed, massive shoulders sagging ever so slightly, ears lowering.
"Kind of depressing. Wish we could go above the clouds right about now."
There were soft murmurs of agreement to his comment as they shuffled closer around the conference table.
"At least the heater's working now. It's chilly outside." Piper said with a sigh, pausing before glancing at Aerrow. "By the way…where's Lupin? Her car was gone this morning."
Eyes turned to look at either Aerrow or Piper. The Sky Knight frowned, arms crossing over his chest as he creased his brow.
"I don't know. I didn't even notice she'd left until mid-morning, to be honest." He didn't bother to hide the worry seeping into his voice. Even though he had no doubt in his mind that Lupin could take care of herself, the likely possibility of the Dark Ace or Master Cyclonis intercepting her at any given point was worrisome. They'd already burned her home down. What else would they do? What else could they do in this world? Their resources were even more limited than the Storm Hawks' were at the moment. They hadn't had a ship when they crossed over, but what if they had found and set up a base of operations?
He didn't even know where to start with looking for it. The city of Los Angeles was huge and sprawling, and not just restricted to the inner city's territory. With extended suburbs that were extensions of the city and so many nooks and crannies for them to hide out in, it was becoming more apparent that Lupin's words from days before were correct: even someone native to Los Angeles would have difficulties finding every hiding hole a potential threat could be hiding out in.
"Ah, she'll be fine. She seems tough enough," Finn finally broke through his thoughts and he caught the dismissive wave he added with his words. "Right now, shouldn't we be more focused on getting home and finding out where that snake and her guard dog are hiding?"
"My thoughts exactly. Maybe we can work out a grid system on our map of the city and comb through it, one section at a time and—"
Aerrow shook his head at the sudden enthusiasm Piper was putting into her words and she stopped short.
"No. It'd take too long. The city's too big. Plus, if they caught sight of our movements, they could easily move operations and keep us running around in circles. We need an element of surprise." He paused, frowning. "But we do need to find them."
"Because of the crystal," Junko added. Aerrow gave a curt nod.
"Exactly. If we can steal it from them, we can get back home after a quick recharge with Piper's Solaris Crystal."
"And what about the Dark Ace and Master Cyclonis? Do we just abandon them here? I mean, it wouldn't be a bad thing, we can't exactly drag them back with us. They were going to do the same to us." Stork interjected, eyes narrowing as he regarded the young man. "Someone's world is going to suffer, and preferably, I'd rather it not be the one we're trying to get to. That witch has been a pain in our sides for years. These people seem like they can handle her well enough."
Aerrow winced at the Merb's calloused opinion, but taking away personal opinion, he knew he was also right. Someone was going to have to suffer the presence of Master Cyclonis and the Dark Ace. Whether it was this world or Atmos, either way, someone was going to be stuck with the two of them.
"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. For now, let's focus on finding them first."
"I think I can help with that."
A few jumped at the voice, surprised at its sudden intrusion cutting into the conversation. Bodies and heads turned to face the direction it'd came from. Lupin stood at the exit of the bridge, casual and nonchalant as she regarded them with mismatched eyes. The pale scar on her face stood out starkly against her tanned skin and in the drab lighting, it almost seemed to glow in comparison. Lupin tugged the sleeves of a worn leather jacket further down her wrists before reaching to pet her dog on the head by her side. He panted happily away with a doggy grin on his face, warm brown eyes looking over the place.
"Well, speak of the Vulcabat. We were just talking about you," Stork muttered, lips creasing into a grimace while the one visible eye was narrowing as he regarded the werewolf. The other was hidden by a curtain of dark hair.
Lupin narrowed hers back, jaw giving a minute clench before she relaxed it and flitted her gaze towards Piper.
"Sorry about the scare. I overheard your dilemma about the city's, ah, size." She paused, flitting her gaze away momentarily to roam over everything on the bridge before continuing, "And I do stand by my previous statement. The city's big. There are plenty of places I don't go to or haven't been to. But, as an addition to my statement, there are also likely hot spots they might be hiding out in. Plenty of possibilities."
She stooped over and picked up a messenger bag sitting beside her, venturing closer toward the table with twitching ears. Up close, they could tell she'd been out in the rain now. Her clothes, hair and fur were slightly damp and clung to her body. Kosmo followed with the jingle of his dog tags. Junko grinned, reaching out to the canine and got a few licks on his hand in return.
Lupin yanked out a few sheets of paper, and another map, unfolding it and placing it over the one the Storm Hawks had been using previously. This one had handmade markings, mostly dotted lines, circles, X's and the like.
"You did this?" Piper asked, looking at the shorter woman. "For us?"
"No," came the swift reply. Piper nearly wilted before she froze at Lupin's next words. "I'm doing this for all of us. They're a pain in your ass. They burned down my garage. Now they're a pain in my ass. I'm going to help you hunt them down."
A strange chill settled over the Storm Hawks at her choice of words.
Lupin's ears swiveled about before going ramrod straight and facing the map as she leaned forward, poking at a few clusters of circles near the large expanse of blue that covered portions of the map to the left. "Warehouses are a good place to hit, especially up in the bay area. You might have the ocean to the west, but at times, if you plan right, it can be an escape plan rather than a hindrance."
"That would require boats, if they wanted to escape to the water."
"Do you know how easy it is these days to steal a boat? You don't just get the oars and start paddling and hope that you're a faster rower than the other guys chasing you. No, they start up with a bloody key and some gas in the tank. Or, if you want, you can hotwire the boat. Tricky, but doable if you know how to do it." Lupin's hand skidded across the map, moving to another cluster of circled establishments. "Some neighborhoods have those abandoned houses, the physical black sheep of the street, good hideouts to consider. I won't even go into the hidey-holes that some houses already have. Southern California's not exactly basement central, not with all the earthquakes because of the fault line we're so close to, but you never know."
She shrugged, lifting her gaze long enough to see the others peering over other sections of the map, pointing out other locations she hadn't gotten to yet. She hesitated before moving along the snake-like length of the highway, following it along until she found another particular circle she'd made. She poked at the map meaningfully.
"Y'all are here. And just throwing this out there, but…have you ever considered searching the warehouses around here? There're at least a dozen of them and while most are occupied with stored goods, that doesn't mean they can't be modified to accommodate the people you're tracking down."
That gave them pause. Looks were exchanged, slowly and carefully, but for nearly a full minute, no answers came forth. Worry and fear was suddenly permeating the air, like a sickly sweet perfume. Lupin resisted the strong urge to wrinkle her nose.
"You don't think…they couldn't possibly know where we are."
"They figured out where I lived after one visit. Chances are, you're probably under surveillance."
There was a long silence that followed Lupin's words. It was only one of several possibilities, but the chances of that one possibility alone being true were high. The shorter woman sighed, long and heavy, lips pressed into a thin line while her brow wrinkled slightly.
"I'm not saying I'm absolutely right. Chances of me being right on the money, every time, for everything, is impossible. I ain't some genius who can play chess in just seven moves or plan something close to an intelligent heist without so much as a hitch. All right? I just know that this is just one scenario that may or may not be true because of…personal experience."
"And what personal experience is that, hm? Tracking down a field mouse?" Stork muttered with a slight scowl. Lupin leveled him with a glare.
"Combat. Actual combat. With people getting shot at and actually dying in front of you, without having a chance to save them." She held Stork's gaze with a steely look of her own, lips pursed tightly into a thin, almost angry line. She was feeling her temper rise at the implications he was insinuating. Did he think she was incompetent? Did he think she had no idea what she was talking about? It was insulting for him to assume that. It could have been that or it could've been something else. Either way, she didn't need her nose to tell her the amount of distrust that wafting off of him.
The black sheep of the ship. So nice to meet you, Lupin mentally groused. Every group had one. She wisely chose to hold her tongue to keep from blurting anything further, settling with the mild glare she'd dosed him with instead before turning back to the map.
"There's too many places for the six—and a half—," she glanced pointedly at a scowling Radarr, "to cover in a short amount of time. Or even a long period of time. So, I want to run an idea by you before I skip ahead and do it."
She once more had curious gazes locked on her and once she was satisfied she had enough attention, she cleared her throat and continued, "I have a lot of friends. Most of them would do me a solid if I asked them to." She motioned to several areas. "They can cover a lot of ground in a very short amount of time, and most aren't afraid to get their hands dirty. They're a bit of a…special…group of friends I've made over the years."
"What kind of friends?"
A crooked smile lifted her lips as she glanced up at the now-guarded faces staring back at her.
"What better friends to have than car enthusiasts?"
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Perhaps 'car enthusiasts' wasn't the best way to describe her old crew.
'Punk street racers' was a probably a more accurate description. 'Punk street racers who don't get caught by the cops' was an even more precise and apt way of accounting for them. Very little has changed since the last she appeared in the ring of racing, however. That much she was grateful. There were many familiar faces as she cruised slowly through the crowd, the sea of bodies parting and making way for the oncoming cars. It wasn't too far from the scenes of Fast and the Furious, but neither was it completely in the same league either.
The difference she noticed were the turning of heads in her and her car's direction, some mouthing words of surprise or shock, eyes widening, fingers pointing. They kept moving aside, permitting her deeper into the scene before her eyes swept over a group of familiar faces surrounding some vehicles—both recognizable and not.
A young man with swept back dark hair was leaning on the hood of a Nissan Skyline, a tasteful combination of gunmetal gray and light blue accenting the vehicle. Somebody nudged him and motioned toward her as she parked her vehicle in the empty space beside the Skyline and he craned his neck to look before freezing completely. The desired effect had her smirk a little, although the moment was there and gone again before she heard the stirring of bodies beside and behind her.
"Where are we?" Aerrow asked, a little awestruck as he viewed the various makes and models of vehicles around them.
Lupin allowed a thin smile to pull at her lips again. "Welcome to one of my many worlds."
She got out and flipped the seat forward to allow Finn and Piper out. They were gaping all the same as Aerrow was, who was already up and out of the passenger seat, a bit of a wide grin painting his face. Lupin was about to open her mouth to tell them to stay close when she heard someone call out loudly above the din of the crowd and booming music to catch her attention.
"Well, well! Do my eyes deceive me, or is that the infamous Bumblebee and his diminutive driver, our little queen bee?"
Oh, Mal. Some things really didn't change. Nonetheless, just hearing his voice had her turning with a grin on her face and there he was, the dark-haired young man, wearing an even wider smile on his face. He spread his arms out and laughed.
"Never thought I'd see you hitting the night scene again. Jeez, we thought you were dead or something."
"Ha. Well, as Mark Twain once said, the reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated. And since when did you start rockin' the imports? Where's your Charger?"
"What, you still hatin' on imports? Londy, Londy, Londy! Get with the times! Change is coming, and multiple facets of skills are required. Racing included, imports and muscles alike."
Lupin smiled wanly and they shared a laugh, even as more figures came to form a kind of half-circle behind the figure Lupin was conversing with. He motioned for her to come hug him and she obliged, squeezing back as tightly as she could allow without hurting him.
"Oh, little Londy, it has been too long."
"Don't call me Londy. You know I hate that nickname," she chastised with a frown as she pulled away. The taller man chuckled good-naturedly and held her at arm's length, looking her up and down. Slowly, the smile on his face began to crumble, his brows drawing up tight in concern and then at last, that faint glint in his eye came streaking past. Jovial one moment, and crushed the next. A hand raised to cup her chin and a thumb brushed against the scar on her face. She had to fight the instant reflex that begged to have her flinching away from the contact.
"Oh, baby girl, that just won't do. Who in their right mind would carve up your little face? It really has been too long," he breathed quietly. If she didn't have the phenomenal hearing that she did, she would have most likely missed his words, and frankly, she wished she had. It made her throat pinch tightly together and the torn conflict of wanting to yell at him and grip him back into another hug—comfort, safety, warmth, familiar—had a go at it. She settled for the middle ground and carefully disentangled his hand from her face.
"It's nothing, Mal. Don't worry about it." Momentarily, she glanced over her shoulder, and felt instant relief flood her when she saw the three figures she had brought with her standing beside her car, although from their craning heads and tense body language, they were itching to explore. Turning back to face the handsome young man, she sighed, bracing herself. "Mal, I need a favour."
"Anything," another young man said, whipcord thin with curly brown hair and a manic grin on his face. Lupin nodded to him, recognizing Leo, another of hers and Mal's old crew. A few other faces she recognized, a majority of them actually, except for maybe one or two new ones.
"I need help. Information. Reconnaissance."
"Reconnaissance? For what?"
"Somebody burned my home down and I want to get back at the fuckers."
A chill settled over the group in a split second. Eyes averted themselves, breathes stilted in chests, and the worry factor increased. Mal's eyebrows drew up even closer, wrinkling his forehead and she could see the words coming in clusters on his face, but they weren't lining up correctly. The silent stretched on, with a few feet shuffled awkwardly and mumbles of condolences flung her way.
"Who in the hell—how…what kind of trouble did you get yourself into this time?" Mal finally managed to get out and Lupin scowled.
"Of course it's my fault, innit?"
"That's not what I meant. Just…" he sighed, shoulders sagging. "What happened?"
She motioned to the three younger members before her, and Mal's gaze flicked over her shoulder briefly, then landed back on her.
"Them?"
"It's a long story. But the short version of it is that they've got the wrong people after them and because I had contact with them, well…they were sending a message. The people who burned my garage down."
"Jesus. Why are you still hanging around them? Come back to the warehouse, we got extra rooms—,"
Lupin shook her head, cutting him off, "The people after these kids burned my place down to send a message to them. What do you think they'd do to your place if I went with you? They'd bring the roof down over your heads while you were sleeping."
"Jesus fucking Christ, London, what in the hell did you get yourself into?" Mal breathed again, gaze now flicking back to gaze longer at the three Storm Hawks with more scrutiny. His lips pursed into a thin, angry line. She held her hands up, motioning for him to calm down.
"Look, they're giving me a place to stay for the time being. I can't tell you where, I don't want to put you or anyone else at risk. The most I need you to do is look for someone. That's why I came here instead of at the warehouse. Big crowds, lots of faces. I need help covering ground in the city. I marked most likely places on some papers here, but if you can think of other places they might be, then that could work too."
She reached into her back pocket and pulled out a few sheets of folded sketch paper. She flipped them open and showed them to Mal. The others came closer, peering over his shoulder and pointing at the papers, whispering. Leo caught her gaze, giving her a quizzical look.
"Sketches? You don't have photos of these people?"
Lupin shook her head, her eyes sharpening and a tight clench settling in her jaw. The sketches were rough, but recognizable enough, thanks to the descriptions the Storm Hawks gave for the Dark Ace and this…Master Cyclonis. She had faces to the names and it now simply fueled her passion to find them even more. Leo flinched, avoiding her eyes. Mal was watching her warily now, his gaze alternating between looking at the rendered profile sketches and her face. "What do you want to do?"
The gaze she pinned him with was one made for a predator, dark and unnatural, the gaze of someone who had been altered, changed, molded into something else unwillingly. And those eyes, those mismatched, stormy blue-gray and molten gold eyes, they suited her.
"Find 'em. Track 'em. Kill 'em."
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"If you want more help, you're gonna have to pay."
"Great, and me without much money."
"Funny," Mal replied dryly, glancing idly at the other three.
"We can pay for information," Piper inputted. Mal shook his head and waved a hand at her.
"Money's good and all, but we're going to need more than just us. Los Angeles is pretty big. We could comb it over, yeah, but we'd need more help. There's a different price, a kind of…respect one has to earn in order to be heard. Money talks, but respect around here…it has its own kind of leverage. Respect and money, that tends to balance things out even more. Doesn't hurt much having both."
The night life around them had continued on without a hitch, while Lupin's old crew and the Storm Hawks spoke around the assembled vehicles. Mal's gaze slid over to Lupin and he nodded toward her, gathering their attention on her as well. "She knows what that is."
"Let me take a wild guess: racing?" Aerrow smirked, a flash of excitement lighting up his eyes.
"Bingo," Mal nodded, returning the manic smile. Lupin gave a curt nod of her own, although she didn't share the same enthusiasm. "People seem to have it in their heads that our little queen here is gone for good. But I think your little showboat approach has them questioning whether that's true or not," he continued, motioning with a hand toward her vehicle. There were still people who'd give it the occasional glance and hushed, maybe even excited, whisper.
The three Storm Hawks exchanged looks, eyebrows shooting upwards. Finn was the first to break out of the daze, waggling his brows at Lupin.
"Well, well, well! Didn't know we were in the presence of royalty," he grinned and winked at her. She rolled her eyes in return.
"Shut up," she said with a sigh, giving him a dismissive wave of the hand. His expression went from smug to crestfallen in a split second. "Moving on now. Mal, when's the next race?"
Mal grinned at her in approval. "That's the spirit, there's our little queen bee, ready to fuck up some unknown little bugs that cross her path."
The others surrounding them gave a few crows of encouragement. Lupin even managed a very wane, thin smile, pushing herself to her feet, already on the move toward her car. "Rally them up, then. Get me somebody to race. Spot me the money and I'll pay it back in full."
Mal gave a nod to Leo behind him, who mock saluted and trotted away while the others moved, as if on cue, to their own designated spots, ready to work. Mal motioned to the Storm Hawks to follow them, and reluctantly, after a nod of approval from Lupin, they trailed after the group. Mal moved closer to Lupin, leaning on the door she had left open after slipping into the bucket seat.
"So, how's that raggedy little muscle car doing these days, by the way? You sure you got what it takes to win like old times?"
He gave her a very winsome smile and she snorted, starting her vehicle up without glancing at him. "Mal, I'm going to make you love muscles all over again and make you regret gettin' rid of your Charger."
In return, he shrugged. "Hey, I never got rid of that beast. The Charger's just been on the backburner is all. Like I said earlier, a wide variety of skills in different vehicles will get you far in the world."
"Well, I'm not in this world anymore."
"Mmm, once you're in, you're never really out," he said. Mal paused, his smile growing somber. "Are you sure you're up for this? I mean…I think that you're making a very rash decision here. You should come back to us, Lupin. You know we'd give you a place to stay. Get away from those kids while you still can. Whatever it is they're involved in, it's not worth it."
"Not…worth it?" Lupin repeated slowly. She eyed him beadily, eyes turning slightly steely as she regarded Mal. Unlike Charlie, she noted, he stood his ground without flinching. "They burned my home down, Mal. I would think it's worth it."
"But killing someone? London—," he started to say, but stopped short at the mismatched gaze pinning him down once more, cold like ice and yet burning like an inferno at the same time. His brows drew up in a worried crease at last.
"Malik…if anything ever happened to you…to anyone I cared for, I…I'd never forgive myself. I can't risk that. Sticking close with those kids, until this all blows over, is the only way to get it done." She exhaled slowly, as though trying to keep her calm. Then she reached and closed the door to her car with a hard slam. Mal took a step back, lips still pursed in a frown. "I can't risk losing you guys to some asshole who thinks that roping innocent people into their revenge vendetta is a fun game. When this is over…I'll come back, just until I get on my feet. Okay?"
He didn't look convinced, but he nodded all the same to her, reached toward her and gave her shoulder a quick, reassuring squeeze through the open window. "Promise me."
"Can't promise that. You know I hate promises."
He sighed. "London…"
"Don't call me that. I hate that name."
"You seem to hate a lot more things than the last time I saw you. What in the hell happened to you? Please, you know you can tell me."
Lupin avoided his gaze purposefully, focusing instead on her hands gripping the steering wheel tightly, her knuckles turning bone white. Her eyes drifted to the scars on both wrists peeking through the sleeve of her leather jacket, burn marks from where silver handcuffs and seared into her flesh like acid, eating away at them while she was tied to a chair, her body screaming in agony as poison flowed through her veins. The memory of hateful yellow eyes and red fur and a half-burned face with a cruel grin filled with fangs sprung forth. She tore her gaze with a quiet gasp, her heart pounding like drums and she shook her head, as though she could dislodge that image burned in her mind.
"Trust me," she said, trying to hide that she wanted to gasp for breath and her brow was breaking out in a cold sweat, as she yanked herself away from the memory. "You don't want to know."
She started her car up and jerked it into gear, foot pressing on the gas as a warning before she took off. Mal jumped away and he watched his old friend streak down the street toward the starting line. He stared after her for a moment longer, troubled and worried.
When he rejoined the three Storm Hawks, they stared after him for a long while, the sudden air of unsettlement surrounding them as they sensed his unease. They passed looks between themselves, unnerved, but before they could ask what the matter was, a chorus of roaring engines keening above the crowd's din broke through the noise barrier. Head craned and eyes roved, hands flew in the air and cries of exultation rose from hundreds of throats, cheering and raving for the row of vehicles lining the street at a makeshift starting line.
The crowd pushed forward to either side, rushing to get a better look at the drivers, and more importantly, the cars. Bright and flashy, their paintjobs were slick and shiny, polished like precious stones.
Engines tempered against one another with guttural roars, some sustaining the same note and then pitching down, snorting beasts getting ready to throw down. A gangly looking man stepped forward into the center of the four vehicles currently occupying the street space. His hands rose like a cleric calming his raging masses and instantly, the crowd came to a quiet hush and even the engines died down to quiet purrs.
"All right, all right, all right! We know how this works, we know how this goes, so I'm gonna keep it short! First rule: there are no rules. Just don't get nobody killed and most importantly…don't get caught. 'Cuz, we ain't gonna be the ones to bail ya ass outta jail! We ain't your mamas! Also, try not to get yourselves killed because we ain't gonna be the ones scrape your ass off the pavement if you do!"
There was scattered laughter and tight smiles all around at this.
"So! Without further ado…we got our drivers, and we have our lovely, lovely vehicles they are participating in and—do my eyes deceive me or is that the legendary queen bee in her Beeast? Well, now! I didn't know royalty was showing up tonight! This is a treat!"
Finn guffawed beside Piper and nudged her. "I told you!"
She ignored him, too surprised to really shove him away or shush him. The crowd all around them was renewed with vigor at this and all around, flashes were going off from camera phones, voices crowing to be heard. Some spoke naysay, others were in quiet admonishment, and quite a few were in awe. Whispers rose to shouts, carrying across the crowd, a wind in the reeds, a ripple in the water that grew until it vibrated through every body. A single cry grew to a crescendo, until a chant rumbled from hundreds of throats, egging on the race to see if the old muscle car and its driver, who had been a ghost story amongst the racing circuit for a few years until tonight, were up to the task.
The three Storm Hawks couldn't help but notice the few hisses and boos from several patrons, demanding the woman to let the men do the racing and to get off the starting line. Piper scowled and muttered darkly under her breath. Finn craned his neck to try and spot the naysayers, lips pinched in a furious frown, while Aerrow kept his gaze locked on the woman's face at the end of the line closest them. She didn't return his gaze, her mismatched eyes locked on the road ahead.
With her car in neutral and an otherwise quiet rumble from her engine, Lupin slammed a foot down on gas and kept the other on the clutch pedal. She gave it a good long roar from under the hood, blasting them all with a resounding mechanical war cry, a challenge to the other three. They responded in kind, until the pitch of four engines was competing above one another.
The race host motioned for the crowd and drivers alike to settle and the engines whine down to their collective rumbling purrs. The crowd steadied themselves as well, but excitement continued to thrum through the air, an electric current too contagious to resist. Everyone pressed closer as the host moved between the second and third vehicles, a perfect space for him to stand without getting clipped when the cars took off. He explained the route, and that the rules remained that there were no rules. The first to return and cross the finish line was the winner, and the pot of money collected for the race of the night would be theirs. Damages were their own expense to cover, but it wasn't necessary to say. They all knew.
He grinned wide, teeth flashing and eyes sparking with barely contained mirth as he allowed a pregnant silence to ensue, helping heap on the tension that lay coiled beneath. The crowd hushed suddenly, waiting on the edges of their seats and toes, and if the vehicles had been silent, a pin could drop and everyone would have heard. All four racers built up their momentum, pressing on the gas, but not releasing that built up energy, waiting for that moment. Time dragged on, a second lasting for an eternity.
Then the host suddenly sliced both arms in an exaggerated down motion, a starting flag dropping. All four drivers reacted in unison, throwing their shifters forward, the burnout from their back tires squealing to ear-piercing pitches, dragging along the asphalt and burning their marks into the road. The scent of burnt rubber filled the air and smoke wafted hurriedly into the air as the four behemoths flung forward, propelled by a slingshot of gravity and power. Many eyes, however, remained glued to the yellow-and-black-striped Camaro, already taking the lead.
A legend on the streets had come home and to take back her title and she was going to deliver them a show.
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