SR1 back to the point right before the Rollerz race! Throw on some bad techno (or good, your call), and pretend it's being blared a bit.

This was new. Then again, V didn't spend a lot of time over on this side of the bridge, so places like this were a bit out of the way.

With this kind of music running through her though, she might be willing to make a return trip. The strobe light went blue, then white, and she tried to pick Lin out of the crowd and smoke. It wasn't until someone's hand closed around her wrist that she realized she could've called, and Lin chuckled at the way she jumped.

"You are jumpy. Relax. Nothing to worry about here."

V felt her tug her arm, and the two drifted into the crowd, taking up their movements. It was heady, and she grabbed the moment for all it was worth.

Lin did not hesitate to dance close to her, but she was dancing with her just as much as she was dancing with the others. V also found herself getting tangled with the crowd as a whole, and found it difficult to mind when what mattered was the movement. The beat. It was almost too easy to lose herself.

The other woman took her hand again after a while, and V knew it was time to wake up. They sidled up to the bar and Lin made a gesture to the bartender before looking back at her. "Club girl?"

"Sort of. Depends on the company."

Lin smirked. "You haven't been to enough shitty clubs. Good company can only take you so far." The bartender dropped of her drinks and Lin immediately pounded hers back without a flinch. "I've been working on something that'll show the Rollerz not to fuck with us. Think you can handle it?"

"Oh, yeah," V replied too fast.

She had 'eager to please' written all over her, but Lin didn't seem put off by it, only amused. "Good. You can chase down cars, but here it's not about damaging them. It's about the driver. I want him mad. I want him to look over at you and see nothing but a pair of tits on the road, and I want you to make him regret it. Sound good?"

Amazing, actually. "I'll make it hurt, but how?"

"Samson's rigged their cars to blow, but there's a bit of a trick to it. They have to hit the NOS. Get them riled up enough to need it, and it'll set the charges off." She mimicked the boom, and V felt a shiver run down her back. "It'll be something else."

Lin handed her the other drink and she drank half without testing it first. Something high-proof hit her system, and she did her best not to cough. "Looking forward to it."

"Thought you might. You're dealing with a bunch of men that are thinking with their dicks, not their heads. They think they can drive, but they're nothing. Play them at their own game and get them distracted. Low, sheer, easy. Hit any of those points while avoiding purple and they'll be too busy looking at you to handle the wheel or the path they're taking. Nothing sweeter than payback to a bunch of assholes, is there?"

The rest of the drink disappeared and V knew this was going to be fun. "Fuck no. Just say the word and it's happening."

Lin's lips curved up a hair. "Tomorrow you'll get your car. Show up to the address here and make them pay. You'll have a tagalong, but he's there for insurance. You should be able to handle everything else."

A paper slid along the counter, and V snagged it before Lin merged back into the dancing crowd.

Night was creeping up on the city again when she found herself parked up in the suburbs. The classier setting put her on edge, but that was what happened when half the people living there dismissed her with a glance.

And now instead of her usual hat, hoodie, and jeans, she was wearing a red tube top and short denim skirt. Even had her hair down, with some fancy eyeliner for good measure. The whole ensemble got her almost double the disapproval, and she was even more determined to tell them all to go fuck themselves.

She was putting on some lip gloss with a mirror she'd borrowed from her friend, when she heard a car pull up. The paint was a dead giveaway, and when Troy stepped out she felt her heart drop right into her stomach.

Then he got a good look at her. He paused, blinked, and she felt his eyes move from top to bottom in a very careful path as he approached her. "You look..."

"Underdressed. I know," she said, hoping she'd beat him to the punch. He'd removed all purple in favor of a dark buttoned up shirt that had the sleeves rolled up, and a pair of jeans. Not far from his usual, but he looked nice. She felt ridiculous standing next to him. "You don't look happy."

Troy frowned. "Neither do you."

"Hey, surprised doesn't equal unhappy. I'm just amused that you're my backup."

"I don't strike you as the racing type?" The look she gave him only seemed to annoy him more. "Well, get over it, because I'm what you've got. You sure you can even drive in those?"

She glanced down at the heel on her red boots and felt offended. "Yeah. How do you think I got here?"

"Nothing short of a miracle," he said under his breath as he puffed away at his cigarette.

He'd never been this degree of pissy around her before, and it confused her when it wasn't bugging the crap out of her. "Are we good to go, because up until now I was actually glad to see you."

He opened his mouth to say something, but gave it a moment before sighing. "Fuck. I wasn't trying to jump down your throat. It's just...this. All the hoops we're jumping through. It's silly shit in the hopes that we're making progress." For a moment he seemed weary and drained, but he covered it in his usual calm. "But that's part of the risk, eh? You never know until you find out. Ready?"

She nodded and he held up a set of keys. His keys.

"You going to treat my lady with respect?"

"No, I promise to be her ruin," she joked, her lips curving up, "but I'll at least make it fun. Guaranteed."

"I think I've seen this movie before."

Troy laughed. "Yeah, I get what you're talking about. Probably got the idea to do this after some reruns at midnight, but doing doughnuts in your neighbor's lawn doesn't count."

V pulled into the area where the cars were scattered and was a bit amazed at all the blue. The party in the street was one of the more active ones she'd stumbled on, but racing wasn't her gig. If this was how a bunch of kids in the burbs hung out, she wondered just how crazy it got in Chinatown.

"Tell me I'm not seeing glowsticks over there," V said, noticing something pink in the distance.

"You're not."

"Liar."

She shut the car off and took in the music pounding just outside the window. It was just her kind of music, thumping bass, with just enough rhythm to get you on the dance floor. Shame she'd be doing more driving than dancing, but there was nothing wrong with letting it add some sway to her step now.

"Showtime."

She unbuckled her seatbelt and opened her door, making him glance her way. "What are you doing?"

"Can't really play my role well in here, eh? It's better if I have a stage."

Her grin went suggestive as she closed it behind her and trailed a finger along the side of the Zircon. It shone bright up close like this, and she found herself wondering how it'd handle the road in her hands. It was steady in Troy's, but she wanted to see it fly. Wanted to see what she could draw out of it.

She sat on the corner of the hood and crossed her legs. The short skirt rode high, and she did her best to appear disinterested when a few began to look her way. When she heard Troy's door open behind her she let a grin show through, however, and gestured him over with a finger.

If she thought she had nonchalance down, he had it mastered. He took a long drag of his dwindling cigarette before he took his spot beside her, and when he did she leaned into his space just enough to catch a hint of the cologne he was wearing.

"Want to light me one?"

He didn't turn his head, but she could feel his eyes on her as he put his old cigarette out on the ground and got his pack out.

The whole process of getting it lit was a careful act on both parts, but as he did she couldn't help but admire the way he guided the flame. Then she stole the lighter to help him, but he took her wrist and guided it too. It seemed to take longer for his cigarette to catch as his fingers pressed into her skin, but when it did he gave her arm a light squeeze before letting it go.

That left her scattered, and she had no choice but to retreat back into the disinterested bubble she'd crafted for herself. "Watch it, there."

He didn't say anything in response, but his eyes told her enough.

Lucky for her the whistling started then, and the tell-tale sign of a group of assholes helped to pull her attention away from the warm feeling settling over her.

"That your boy's car?" One guy leered at her from the window of his, and he couldn't have been older than her by a couple of years. Judging from behavior, however? He was short by at least five.

She smiled, but kept it cold. "No."

"Nah, you're messing with me, girl."

The leer got even more blatant, and she knew that Troy was tense beside her. He took his cigarette between his fingers, and somehow managed to keep a blank face. His tone, however, was something else. "Your parents know what you're doing with theirs, kid?"

That turned the other racer's expression ugly, and V couldn't help the smirk. "Probably not. If he plays nice, they might let him keep it on weekends."

"You shut your fucking mouth. At least I got mine without seeing its backseat."

She laughed, full-on laughed. "Hey, this is my baby. Doesn't matter what I did to earn it, because I can own it. Just because you had to suck some dick on the side to get yours boosted doesn't mean that you have to feel ashamed about it, man."

That got the other driver out of the car, and someone stepped in on his side to keep him in place. She snickered until Troy put a hand on her lower back and leaned in by her ear. "I think we're supposed to wait for them to hit the pavement. Want to cool it?"

She nodded stiffly and didn't dare to breathe until he'd moved away, otherwise she'd pick up on his cologne again. It fit him well, and the fact that she liked it didn't help any. Not when he was helping her shoot at the church, and certainly not now.

A few men started waving people towards their cars, and they took this as their cue to finally get ready. She slipped into the driver's seat and ran her fingers over the steering wheel, noting all the differences between this car and her own. It felt strange to be the one in control here, to be trusted with not just someone else's car, but Troy's.

She honestly wondered what the hell Lin was thinking, but another question popped up. It was out of her mouth before she could stop it. "Did you put your car up for this?"

The seatbelt almost slipped out of Troy's hand. "What?"

"Did you tell Lin that she could use your car for the race, or were you the first person she had in mind to drive?"

The surprise disappeared fast. "Who's in the driver's seat?"

"Me...?"

"You were always her first pick, kid. I just thought it might help if I got you a reliable ride."

She tried not to bristle at the kid remark, but grimaced. "Reliable? God, you really are acting as my babysitter here, aren't you?"

That made him frown back. "Hey, no one's babysitting anyone. You're here to piss them off, I'm here to piss them off. Between the two of us it shouldn't be too hard, right?"

Oh, that stung. She fixed her eyes on the road and knew the temperature in the car had dropped a good ten degrees. "No. You got me going in record time."

She revved the car to drown him out, and pushed her hair out of her face. Then she flicked her cigarette out of the window. She didn't need that burning her on a bad turn. Troy kept his, though she knew it was going to be nothing but cinders by the time things were done.

He hadn't had her behind the wheel like this before, and she was determined to make it memorable.