Safety protocol in F-Zero is not as advanced as you might expect in the 26th century. Most crashes are at least survivable, but the real innovations in this time come in the fields of medicine. These days doctors can fix damn near any injury, so 700 mile per hour crashes are treated like a common fender bender. One problem though comes from the lack of caution periods to clear the track of crashed or injured racers. The racers basically need to either get out of the car within seconds and flee to the edge of the track before the leaders came back around on the next lap or just sit inside the wreckage until the three-lap race ends, and if you got tossed around a bit more from a car hitting you, you can just tank that for a bit. It all just depends on how damaged your craft is.

Red Gazelle's vehicle had major front end and side damage, so he was able to hop out from his craft and get over barricades before everyone came back on Lap 3. Protocol says for him to wait over there until race officials can go rescue him after the race. However, after several minutes of waiting, no one's come to pick him up. He's already heard the explosions of the fireworks party for the newly crowned champion, so they should've got to him by now.

Eventually, someone does arrive, but it's not who he's expecting. James McCloud's full-sized ship comes up to him, and his cockpit opens up. "Get in, Gazelle. Something bad happened" is all he says with a cool voice, barely even looking over at the cyborg. He looks around and sees no reason not to, as McCloud has a good reputation with the other pilots. He climbs in and sits down in the seat opposite McCloud. It's an impressive little ship, one that can carry a three person crew reasonably comfortably. Once Gazelle is inside the ship, the craft lifts up and continues flying over the track.

"So, what's going on? Why isn't the track crew coming to get me?", Gazelle asks in his modulated voice.

"Black Shadow finally went off the deep end. Won the race and the championship, took the money, and kidnapped most of the other racers. Only ones left are me and whoever else didn't finish the race, so we need to round them up and get outta here."

Gazelle sits frozen in his seat, processing what he just said. How was Black Shadow able to do that? What technology was he working with? Could he actually be stopped or were they just going to be on the run forever? Before he can get any of those questions answered, they come up on another racer. It's Jody Summer, examining the wreckage of her White Cat. However, she's experienced enough to know a rescue mission when she sees one. She hops into McCloud's ship and sits down at the navigator's chair. McCloud explains the situation to her as well, and she's oddly excited about this.

"Finally, we have what we need to take down Black Shadow and his crew. What about my partner, John Tanaka? Did Shadow get him too?"

McCloud has to think for a moment about who he saw at the finish line, and he didn't see Tanaka's Wonder Wasp, but he wasn't particularly looking for him. "Ummmm, I don't… think so?"

"Mmmmm, we'll have to keep an eye out for him. I see someone up ahead. I think it's a red craft, so it's not John, but we need to check them out anyway.

The racers fly over the track altogether, avoiding the peril of the guardrail-less section to get to another downed racer, Mrs. Arrow. She looks just as confused as Gazelle was as to why they're picking up pilots around the track and not the race crew, but before she can ask the big questions, she looks behind her and sees someone else coming down the track. It's the rest of the racers, led by Blood Falcon, and they're coming down the track, looking for any racers who haven't been captured yet. They aren't moving as fast as the racers would be, since most of these people are learning to drive these machines on the fly, but they're still closing in on the group. "Monique, hurry!", Jody calls out to her as they see the horde of goons coming. Monique jumps up into McCloud's ship, and they take off up the track again.

"What's going on, guys? I heard a big explosion up ahead and it didn't sound like fireworks, is my husband ok?", she asks in a worried tone.

James grimaces a bit, being the only one there who actually saw what happened to him. "Black Shadow got him and a lot of the other racers. I really don't know where he's taking them or what his plans are for them, I just know that…"

"He's right behind us!", Gazelle shouts to the rest of the racers.

"Yes, we know but they're moving slow, they aren't going to catch us", James replies, a bit annoyed that he was interrupted while trying to comfort someone.

"No, not Blood Falcon, Shadow's back!", the cyborg replies as he sees the Bull Loader 1 splitting the clouds and coming back to Mute City.

"What? Dammit, Blood Falcon must've tipped him off. Double time everyone." McCloud hits the boost on his aircraft, and speeds up as the Black Bull drops out of the Bull Loader and lands on the track with an earth-shattering thud. Shadow is going full-steam up the track, and all of the other pilots get out of the way for him, except for the poor soul piloting Antonio Guster's Green Panther, which Black Shadow barges through and sends flying way off the track.

They make their way up the track, just up to where the track blew up, and one car remains, dangerously close to the edge, Dr. Clash's Crazy Bear. His vehicle though is sealed shut from the impacts of the crash and he's stuck in his cockpit. He had been listening to BOB talking directly into his brain about how he got the setup wrong, and wondering if yanking this connection out would cause any lasting damage to his giant brain, when the entire road leading to the finish line exploded in front of him. The three rescued pilots hop out of McCloud's aircraft and go over to his vehicle. Jody and Monique go over to both sides of his cockpit and try to pry it open but it still won't budge. Clash is super confused now, as this reminds him of a dream he once had about these two. Suddenly, Mighty Gazelle appears on the front end of his car (who was also in that dream).

"Cover your eyes, Doctor", he says as he punches the tempered glass of his windshield. It takes a few punches, which gives Clash a chance to turn away until Gazelle finally breaks into his cockpit. He then gets enough of the glass out of the way to pull Clash's big frame out of the vehicle.

Clash is scared out of his wits, especially when he sees twenty other racers still on the track, coming toward them. He points to them while stuttering in panic, while still under Gazelle's arm. The cyborg has to carry Clash back to the ship and they all get in just before Shadow reaches them. "Hold on tight, everyone", McCloud says as the ship lurches forward over the edge of the destroyed track, and slips down to the streets of Mute City below. Shadow arrives at the edge of the track, slamming into the remains of the Crazy Bear, and launching it off the edge, sending it careening down to the streets below.

Shadow gets out and looks over the edge at the enormous expanse of Mute City. The town was built on the remains of the old New York City, and is the biggest metropolis in the solar system. Buildings and streets and tube tunnels stretch out as far as the eye can see. Several of the goons stop just short of the edge, although one of them still not used to the braking system yet, barely misses colliding with his boss and falls off the edge, getting ejected from Leon's Space Angler and parachuting to the ground. One of them steps out and looks over alongside the imposing figure. "Woo, I'd hate to be him right now. So what're we gonna do about those racers?"

"So glad you asked", Shadow replies while grabbing him by the horns and chucking him off the edge. Luckily, he's still wearing his wingsuit and he falls harmlessly to the streets of Mute City below.

He then sends a call to Blood Falcon on his mask's headset. "Falcon, come in. First of all, good job bringing me back before I jumped to hyperspace, that was extremely helpful. Second off, take a few of the henchmen and head down to Mute City to find those racers. It won't be too hard to find them, they're probably looking for whoever else fell off the track, so go to where their crafts landed; you find those pilots, and you'll find the others."

"Aye-aye boss, thank you!", he says enthusiastically as he climbs out of his Blood Hawk, takes a few henchmen, and swan-dives off the edge, heading to the little smoke clouds on the ground, ready to find these missing pilots.