Chapter 15: My turn to drive again
Note: Readers please listen to Need For Speed Most Wanted The Prodigy You'll be Under my Wheels while reading this.
We've both had a wonderful breakfast. For me I had a fry up consisting of bacon, fried egg, sausages as well as fried potatoes, along with baked beans and mushrooms. While Noire had circular bacon and pancakes with maple syrup and scrambled eggs.
The food was very nice although I do remember something distinctive about the food both mine and Noire's, I don't know maybe it's what I used to have quite regularly before coming here.
Anyway it's right now that we're back in our cars again. This time I'm in the driving seat, with Noire riding shotgun. While I remember always wanting to drive a Bugatti and now I'll get to drive Noire's which is very impressive indeed, and I feel as though I'm fulfilling my dreams, I am a bit nervous in driving it being as how I've only driven in a car park since being here, and I don't really want to embarrass myself. I'm sure that's the case with my CPU.
"Thanks a lot for letting me drive this car you've been extremely kind; do you think I'll be OK though?" I ask Noire.
"You're welcome, you deserve it. You'll be fine, you're as excellent as me, this car is the best car not only in Lastation, but in all of Gameindustri as well." Noire says with pride and a smile on her face, placing her gentle caring hand on mine stroking it out of reassurance and love.
We're with the racers who escorted us to the Mishima Estate. Again we're racing, revving our engines; I like the sound of the engines growling eager to start off.
With my goddesses reassurance I'm now very comfortable in the driving seat, in both senses of the word. It feels as if I'm in a gaming chair, and I learn to feel confident in my abilities. Adding the fact I've got my ideal lady riding shotgun, I'm unsure if I can be in a better position than I'm in right now.
On the radio I can hear a song being played by the Prodigy called, You'll be Under my Wheels which I find most appropriate.
In my HUD I see the nitrous bar again. This time though I also see a 3 at the centre which turns into a 2, which then turns into a 1 only for it to then say GO! We drive off, performing a burnout as we accelerate away. The speed of the car increases dramatically, amazingly I can handle the car very well despite the speed of this thing, and the need for fast reaction times. What I will say is that the driving wheel being a PS3 controller helps tremendously, as I just have to press buttons. I remember driving plenty of racing games in the past, so these transferable skills really help me as well.
We drive back the way we came and we drift around the same corners, my HUD suggests I'm in a race and I'm in 1st place. I'm surprised how I was able to remember the route as well, even if it was the opposite direction and it was at night, but in my HUD I have a map of the route as well as an arrow at the top centre, indicating where I need to go. Although I put a lot of my focus on the road, I do manage to get to appreciate the lake and the coast that consist of benches, hedges and plenty of trees, in fact there is even a forest. The view is very picturesque and it is a nice place for a race.
Yeah I definitely am enjoying the driving experience, but out of the blue there is something that concerns me as I hear a distinctive beeping.
"Be advised, we have had a 911 call about some street racers racing nearby, suspects are in black sports cars." The voice says which comes from a radio installed in our car.
I'll call this the cop radio from this point, and I believe the person to be the chief. I do recognise the voice, as I remember hearing it whilst evading the police in Need For Speed. I find it odd that I'd be able to hear the cops on the radio but….
"That's odd, while we do have police, they wouldn't want to bust us because we never crash and we never endanger civilians. They know what we do. In fact because there's no crime the police just train in case crime ever happens, and they also help people out on the road. There's never even been a 911 call as a matter of fact we have 999. What's going on? It's good a thing we can hear them on the radio." Noire says surprised.
I can sense she's panicking, but I can tell she's trying to calm herself down.
"You think it could be fake police? Or an invasion?" I ask her.
"No one from Lastation would do this. As a matter of fact there's never ever been any terrorist attacks from Lastation people living here all their lives..." Noire calmly replies.
She stops in mid-sentence because she then sees a few Leanbox sports cars with sirens on as do I. My first response is to put the sirens on Noire's Bugatti as I take a closer look at them.
I notice that they're all heavily customised with similar items to us, but there are differences though they're mainly with the colour scheme of green and grey. And they also consist of artwork on the side, though they consist of ones with different Xbox characters, as well as the Leanbox logo which is actually the same as the Xbox one.
Though their cars look quite impressive, I find myself more in favour with the ones we have in Lastation as they appear to be faster and of higher tech.
Note: Readers please listen to Need For Speed 2005 Most Wanted Pursuit Soundtrack 1. (on YouTube)
"How the hell can they be here without me knowing? How can they be invisible to my radar?" Noire says in shock after seeing those cars.
I remember how a goddess knows everything about their landmass, I guess it means they know where everyone is, yet for some reason they have slipped through Noire's radar. I can sense Noire feeling shocked and perhaps alarmed, to find them being here undetected. I can really understand the seriousness of the situation. Hopefully if we remain calm we can deal with this situation, and put further precautions in place in the future.
"Attention all units, attention all units, we are now in pursuit of some street racers, suspects are driving Black Sports cars, be advised this is condition 3, repeat this is condition 3." The chief says on the cop radio.
Hearing her say that does take me back. Because of my experience of this from the games, I feel confident I can defeat those cars.
"We can use the radio to help us, I bet they'll even let us know if and where their roadblocks and spike strips are." I suggest to Noire.
"Good idea, unfortunately there are no pursuit breakers near here, but I believe you are able to use speed breakers." Noire says to me.
I now remember how Pursuit breakers are where you drive through an object being supported on stilts, the point being when you drive through, the object falls landing on any pursuers.
Speed breakers are where you slow time down, helping you to get around corners or avoiding incoming cops. It's what I remember from Need for Speed, and it interests me to know that she knows the games too it seems. She probably had the chance to play them and it wouldn't surprise me if she's a pro at it.
I notice my HUD now displays a bar with a fire symbol, with a number 3 by the side, the bar is increasing a bit.
I expected to be able to see another bar which said evade on one side, and busted on another along with cop numbers, cops I hit and cops I took out, but I didn't get that for some reason. Probably just as well being as how we need to take them out, not get away from them.
Lastation's CPU then gets on her radio.
"Be advised I want you to engage the enemy vehicles. But I want you to take out all of the enemy passengers, I have no means of making them defect. I cannot allow them to run amok in Lastation, so take the crew out by any means necessary." She orders on the radio.
"Good idea, I was thinking of the same thing." I reply to Noire.
Although that will mean I would only be using my G Con 45s, as the weapons in the car would damage their vehicles. This is not ideal if we're to kill all the crew members, as well as finding potential information on the whereabouts of their base. Though this is assuming they have a base of course.
By now the numbers are getting pretty even, and we have reached the Jungle area. We already have our G Con 45s drawn. We are attempting to shoot at the passengers, but it's quite tricky as their cars are driving precariously all over the place.
"Uh, we gonna need more back up, these guys are causing us real problems. Yeah I think a road block will be the only way to stop these guys." One of the Leanbox troops speaks with concern on the cop radio.
"Approved. Back up is on its way, attention all units, attention all units we have ascended to condition 4, that is condition 4. " The chief replies on the radio.
I notice the bar with the fire symbol has filled up, now it's empty and the number is now 4. This concerns me quite a bit as now they'll probably have the advantage in superior numbers and firepower.
"I'm surprised they don't just bring in Sgt Cross and his Corvettes, I'm guessing they'll send in their SUVs, not to mention Spike Strips." I gasp.
They may bring in an X Box exclusive character into the fight as well.
"I wonder if Nisa is amongst them?" Noire wonders, I can sense in her tone that's she's disgusted with her.
I remember Nisa from the series and to be honest I found her to be very annoying. She was an over the top super heroine to say the least.
"So what do you know about her?" I ask Noire.
"She used to be in charge of this police force. She then decided to transfer to Neutralland to keep law and order there, apparently she became corrupt and instead helped out the criminals there. She has been known to arrest innocent people for crimes that are outright stupid. She's very un-PC. If she is here she has got a lot of nerve showing her face in Lastation..." Noire speaks with much hatred towards her.
Yeah I remember how she was supposed to be about justice but didn't really do anything. It reminds me of some organisation that didn't really care about their customers, how horrific.
"…I've got a list of Lastation's Most Wanted starting with Neptune, then Nepgear, then Plutia…." Noire continues.
Plutia is a character I remember from Neptunia V, useless and dumb like Neptune but she's got a sadistic streak to match. I found it disgusting that I don't remember any of them standing up to her. I also remember how ugly and what a whore she was. Yeah I hated her very much for what she did, and if I was ever to meet her. I'll make sure she pays dearly for what she did.
"….then Nisa, then IF, then Compa and finally Gust, I'll go through it in more detail with you some time." Noire says to me.
Ah Gust, another person from the series I didn't like. I remember her being a con artist, scamming my CPU over medicine, and stealing objects belonging to the candidates.
After hearing about Noire's wanted list I find that nothing new has happened, with regards our engagement with the enemy vehicles. It's very chaotic as I'm having to deal with driving the car fast and steady, as well as dealing with what I think are Leanbox soldiers shooting at me. It's no good as me and Noire aren't able to get a clear shot. We've only managed to shoot a couple, but worse still more Leanbox sports cars have joined in the fight. It'll only be a matter of time before we get overwhelmed.
In response Noire gets on her radio.
"Uni? We are ambushed and are in a chase with some Leanbox cars….I know…..can you come and provide sniper support for us?...And bring in Parasoul?...You will?….. OK…" Noire speaks on the radio as calmly as she can despite the stress of the situation.
She then turns to face me.
"I think it's best to just send in Uni and Parasoul, we'll manage. Besides this could be a diversion, best not send in everyone just yet." She explains calmly.
"I agree to that Noire." I reply to her.
Suddenly out of the blue we see a Leanbox soldier attempt to jump to our car, but we both shoot him while he's in mid-air. I must admit what he tried to do gives me an idea.
"Noire do you know if any of us are able to jump from one car to another, while both vehicles are moving?" I ask my attractive passenger.
It is now I remember being able to do this from Pursuit Force, which I find to be a good game.
"Only me and you can do it out of this lot. I'll let you do the jumping, it'll mean we can finally end this stalemate." Noire nods, her voice suggests she's determined.
"Excellent, OK take the wheel." I reply calmly.
I then get out of the car and jump to a Leanbox car successfully. I thought I'd be quite scared but I wasn't due to my gaming ability. In fact it was quite thrilling to jump through the air from one car to another, it filled me up with adrenaline and made me feel like quite a dare devil. I'm not worried about being shot as I know I have a lot of health.
I do make sure I'm balancing on the boot of the car first, although it is quite tricky as the car is constantly swerving left and right. I had to use both of my arms to help me balance. I then see one of the passengers lean out of the car in an attempt to shoot me off, I quickly put a bullet in his head though.
Despite the car going fast, I manage to open the door. Before getting in I find there are 2 in the front seat and a third in the back seat. I shoot the one in the back with one shot, but the front passenger shoots at me with their rifle. Although each of his bullets hit me, it does little damage. I return fire killing the front passenger. The driver then looks at me, she then tries to shoot me with her pistol but I headshot her. Though I managed to defeat the threesome in the vehicle, I do wish my gun could fire quicker, maybe I need to kill 100 enemies or do 50 head shots, or even do a multi kill with one shot to upgrade my gun. It is then I pull the passenger in the front seat out, before I climb inside as best I could. As I get into the driving seat, kicking out the dead driver, I notice the steering wheel to be an X Box controller. I also find the driving seat to be on the left. Despite not being familiar with the controls, I manage to drive the vehicle. I then hear the radio again.
"Uh, we are losing men in this fire fight. We can't hold out until you bring in backup and a roadblock." One of the people on the cop radio say. I can tell that there is much panic in the person's voice.
"Roadblock is set up a couple of miles away, we've sent in a few Rhinos as well." The chief replies sounding confident.
Rhinos eh? That will make it interesting, too bad my HUD doesn't say how many Leanbox cars there are out there. But I realise I can ask, being as I have the cop radio in the car, and I'm in a Leanbox vehicle. Let's see how this goes.
"Uh these racers are giving me a lot of problems, do you know how many we have in reserve? We're gonna need every available vehicle we can get." I ask as I attempt to sound like one of them.
I don't know if I've convinced them as I wait for a response.
"We have 16 Humvees, 8 are advancing towards your location as we speak." The chief replies.
I look around as I see another Leanbox car driving nearby. I swerve towards that car crashing into it at the rear, before I do another jump and like before I land without a botch. As I get into the car, I notice just the driver alive and all the passengers in the back dead. I shoot her once and then get into the driver's seat, kicking her dead body out of the car.
As I get in the driving seat, I notice a Leanbox car to my left and a Leanbox car to my right. It doesn't look good and my confidence turns to concern, as all of the passengers lean out of their windows as they start shooting at my newly acquired car. They must have seen me jump from one car to another, and want me taken out as soon as possible.
Being as I'm in this world, I'm worried that sooner or later the constant shooting of my car will cause it to blow, and perhaps the explosion would kill me. I want to shoot back at them but I only manage a couple of shots, as the problem is I am having to duck below the window, due to their relentless shooting. I know I have plenty of health but I am not immortal, and it's only a matter of time before my commandeered car gets destroyed.
Fortunately out of the blue, I see from the back Noire's car coming to the right of the Leanbox car, that is on my right. She then manages to take out all of the passengers of the car, from what I can make out with her G Con 45. This brings me warmth to know that my CPU has saved me from quite a sticky situation.
With that I then sit up, only to see a Leanbox car ram into the bonnet. My car stops abruptly but I'm fine due to having lots of health, not to mention I was wearing a seatbelt and there was an airbag. Yep no pain at all, but it's annoying that I'm no longer moving, and I'm concerned that I won't be able to catch up. I see the other cars race past, ramming and shooting each other relentlessly. The Leanbox car to my left tries to shoot at me along with the Leanbox car at my front.
I end up ducking again due to the constant shooting, as I hide below the bullets that hit my car. I try desperately to return fire but I'm having to take cover due to the constant enemy fire.
Thankfully I hear gunshots that don't hit my car. The implication being is that Noire is looking out for me again. After some time the shooting stops, and all the other cars are some distance away from me by now. I believe Noire has successfully killed the others in those 2 cars, how very beautiful she saved me twice.
I sit up seeing Noire standing by my car door like a model, posing with her G Con 45 held in her right hand pointing it down, smiling in a flirting manner.
"You OK Black?" She talks to me as if she fancies me, I know she does.
I quickly get out of the car smiling.
"I'm fine, thank you so much for the assist." I reply with genuine gratitude.
"Anytime, I know you'd help me anytime I'm in a jam." She says in an attractive tone while flirting with me.
Of course I would Noire. I then see her car parked really close in front, and we rush there rather quickly.
"We need to catch up to them, come on we'll take your car, I'm driving." I speak calmly.
This idea makes Noire smile. Happy in the knowledge that her car will be used again.
"OK. We should be able to catch up, they're only going around 150km/h." Noire speaks with pride as she's running with me.
It's not long at all before we get back into Noire's car, I then speed off using the nitrous to help us catch up with them.
As I speed along the road in the jungle, I see a couple of Leanbox cars stationery. I manage to see that all of the passengers in them are dead. It does cheer me up to know that I haven't seen anyone dead from Lastation, I hope at least. I definitely think our racers can be proud of themselves for doing so well in this fight.
Soon I see more various cars moving around some are ours, while others are theirs. With this knowledge we devise a strategy to deal with them.
"I'm gonna attempt to board them, the Leanbox cars shouldn't be so strong now." Noire says to me calmly.
"OK." I reply to her. I then get on the radio.
"If any of you guys are in trouble let me know and I'll assist OK?" I say.
They all reply they're OK, and they thank me in appreciation.
I was thinking about what Leanbox car to take out first, but then I see 3 Leanbox cars parked like patrol vehicles, ready to pounce on us in the pursuit. I notice they're actually Chevrolet Corvettes, and while they have the Leanbox colours they say LCPD which stands for Leanbox County Police Department. I remember seeing cop cars parked on the road ready to ambush, and I remember the Corvettes from the games as well. They're what I call the elite cop cars, It's going to be tougher now, but they should be no match for us.
"I'm gonna board one of those 3 cars at the side of the road." Noire explains while pointing at them.
"OK I'll cover you." I reply to her.
I decide to slow down a bit. I'm still behind the main party of cars, ambush the ambushers. Black.
As we thought the 3 Leanbox cars then put their sirens on and join in the chase.
"Be advised we have dispatched a few interceptors, they have joined the pursuit. We have elevated the chase to condition 5 that is condition 5." The chief says on the cop radio confirming what I suspected.
The bar now says 5, now we're at the maximum heat level. I decide to go for the one in the centre as they accelerate away. Noire then quickly jumps out of her car and onto the boot of that very car with ease. I then steer around so I am to the left of that car. I can see Noire trying to balance herself, as I open the right hand window while the Leanbox car has their windows opened.
The Leanbox passengers poke their heads out, only for them to be shot by me one by one including the driver. My CPU then manages to get in the driving seat of the car. She gives me an OK symbol with her fingers, and a smile with a lot of flirting as I close the windows by electronic means. The Leanbox car to my left then attempts to shoot me, but I'm not worried because the glass in this car is bullet proof, it doesn't even leave any scratches from the bullets.
"Let's take out the interceptor to the right!" I suggest to Noire, yelling on the radio above the noise of the bullets and the engine.
"Good idea!" Noire replies, yelling as well on the radio.
Noire's newly acquired vehicle is a bit behind the rest of us, but she manages to drive around so she's at the right of our target car.
We then align our cars with the target cars. The target car is constantly shooting at me and Noire, but it knows it's trapped.
Suddenly a couple of Leanbox troops land on top of my car with a thud. They came from the interceptor on my left. They attempt to shoot the glass so they can get in, but it's no good because it's bullet proof. This means all I have to do is steer in an attempt to knock them off, but they pose no threat to me for now and Noire can just shoot them off.
I then open the right hand window killing the passengers at the back of the car, I see Noire has done the same.
Out of nowhere though, one of the Leanbox troops that boarded my car attempt to shoot me through the open window, but I manage to shoot him first, his dead body then falls on to the road and that's where he's left. The other one on board lies on the front of the car, in an attempt to obscure my view. But this tactic doesn't work very well, as I drive a bit so that I am able to shoot the passengers in the front of our target car, within a few seconds they are dead.
The target car is no longer moving at all, due to no one driving the vehicle. I see Noire driving the commandeered vehicle again, with her G Con 45 in her hand. I turn to see the Leanbox soldier lying on the front screen of Noire's car, she stands up to shoot Noire but she gets shot in the stomach. The female soldier clutches her stomach as she falls backwards off of Noire's Bugatti.
I close the windows again as I turn to the left: the final interceptor. I open the left window and shoot the windows of their interceptors, but after a few shots I stop immediately and close my window. This is due to the fact that their car is bullet proof like my CPU's is. Noire then drives close to her own car, and jumps back to her own pride and joy again.
She balances herself carefully on top, the Leanbox interceptor then open its windows down, as the passengers attempt to shoot Noire off her car. But due to the fact that Noire is a goddess they don't succeed. Instead Noire manages to shoot them all one by one effortlessly.
I leave the window open for Noire to get in her car again. After getting in a sexy manner we smile at each other, due to our success of working together.
"Those interceptors were no match for us, they're falling apart now." Noire grins with pride.
Though our clever strategy is paying off and we are eliminating their numbers, I know they've got more and I can't help but thinking that there is a boss we have to deal with.
"They keep mentioning about Rhinos though." I say with much concern.
We then catch up to the other cars, as we drive past some stationery Leanbox cars, that are full of dead Leanbox soldiers. I only hope it's the last of them.
But it's not to be as we can see the Lastation cars fighting the Leanbox cars. They're doing various driving manoeuvres around each other. At least now we outnumber them but I can sense that the Rhinos are coming.
"Be advised we're running low on cars and troops, we can't hold out for much longer, where is our Rhino back up?" One of the Leanbox soldiers speak with frustration on the cop radio.
"They're here right now." The chief says on the cop radio.
What we saw confirmed this, as about half a dozen Leanbox Humvees managed to ram into some of the Lastation cars. They're a lot larger than our cars and appear to have more armour, though they still have the similar artwork and paintwork as their cars. They even have mounted weapons as their gunners then attempt to shoot our allies. This concerns me greatly as we need to find a way of dealing with them. But I will not give in, we will triumph over their ambush.