=Thirty Minutes Later, Dom's Place=

There wasn't much Sean could ask for to make his night more perfect. Neela had her head in his lap, and he combed her hair with his fingers. Both of them lounged on the sofa, letting the fast paced images from the TV illuminate their faces in the darkness.

Too bad the serenity couldn't last.

First came the sound of Letty's car screeching to a halt outside, followed by Dom barging in the house and flipping the lights on. Sean tossed his head over the sofa. Dom paced back and forth; adrenaline and a mess of emotions still coursed through his veins.

Neela blinked the drowsiness from her eyes and joined Sean in giving Dom a worried look, "Oh my goodness. You've got blood on your shirt…"

"The hell happened to you?!" Added Sean.

Letty came in right behind, eyeballing Dom, then to the couple that waited for answers.

Not wasting a second more, Sean shot up from the couch and let the worst come to mind. "Is it Eddie again?!"

"No." Letty shook her head. "Dom. We better just tell them."

Dom let out a groan through his nose and crossed his arms. "Alright."

"Tell us what?"

"What I mentioned to you before. About my life being turned upside down. It was one man responsible. And he's right here in this town."/

=Two Nights Later, Coal Harbor=

It was a casual night with not much racing going on. The Urban Maulers settled for putting on a small show for their fans in a Best Buy parking lot. Some of the members even did donuts in the street and showed off their audio setups in their trunks. Kenji and Brian pulled up to the scene and parked their cars across from the Urban Maulers. The crowd split when some of the people recognized their cars, and drifted over to their side of the parking lot to show their support and admire the rides.

"How 'bout it, Kenji? Should we go re-introduce ourselves to these guys?"

Kenji smirked confidently and nodded his head. "Absolutely."

As Brian and Kenji walked deeper into the event, a Ford Mustang suddenly appeared, heading straight for the two. It sported the Urban Maulers livery, which was a candy yellow paint job with a demon graphic on the side and a yellow neon.

Brian stopped in place, putting his arm out across Kenji's chest to warn him. "Dude, hold on."

The Mustang got closer and closer, forcing the two men to take large steps back, the car's front bumper threatening to scuff their shoes and take a toe or two. Behind them a second car belonging to the gang, a GMC, boxed them in by driving around them in a circle. The driver in the Mustang finally stopped and peaked his head out of the widow.

"Kick rocks! This is Urban Maulers turf! No squares welcome!"

"Get real, here." Kenji shouted back. "It'll be us calling the shots soon enough!"

The GMC stopped as well, this time with the driver getting out. He was a buff man and definitely not someone to mess with. "Unless you're here on business, I'm gonna have to ask you two to get lost."

"We are here on business, thanks for asking," Brian deadpanned.

Kenji took it from there, "We're here to put out the challenge to T.K.. We wanted to do it face-to-face, but I guess your captain is too much of chump to show up at his own event."

The burly guy ignored Kenji's insult and simply laughed with his arms crossed. He fished his phone out of his pocket and dialed a number. "Yeah, Boss? Those chickenshits from the Nightburners we were laughin' about earlier? Got two of 'em right here ready to speak to ya."

The man held out the phone and Brian took it. "Hello?"

"T.K. here."

"So, I'm sure you already know who this is and what this call is about. Let's cut to the chase. You up for a race against us? Winner takes all, and that means territory of Coal Harbor too."

T.K. sighed. "As much as I'd like to, man, someone already beat you to the punch."

Brian threw on a confused look as he thought to himself. The Nightburners had already built up a big reputation in Coal Harbor. There were no other racers that could touch them or the Urban Maulers, so who could the other racer be?

Then… he snapped into his mind.

Dom.

And Brian didn't need to think twice about it to know it was true. "If you don't mind me asking, who is it? Maybe we can work something out."

"Don't think so. You heard of this dude they call 'Dom' right? Him and his crew have been raising as much hell as you guys. I heard they came all the way out from Tokyo undefeated. Those fools are on a whole 'nother level."

Brian thought for a moment and came up with a game plan. "Alright, look, I've got an idea. Let's make this a three man race. You, me, and Dom. We'll raise the pot to, let's say... twenty thousand for the trouble."

"I ain't got a problem with that."

"Okay, cool, just do me a favor."

"Yeah?"

"Do not tell Dom about this until the last minute. He doesn't like surprises."

T.K. chuckled over the phone. "Whatever, man. I ain't losing to any of you anyway, so the extra shit doesn't matter. See you on the streets tomorrow."

T.K. hung up and so did Brian. He closed the phone and tossed it back to the burly man, who wasn't ready for the catch. It slipped through his hands and shattered on the ground. He stared down at it and looked back up at Brian. "Asshole! That was a new phone!"

Brian laughed as he and Kenji walked back to their cars, "Believe me. You'll have a lot more to cry about tomorrow."

=The Following Afternoon, Dom's Place=

"We gotta talk."

Dom peeked one eye out at Letty and kept his nose shooting for the ceiling. He was so close to dozing off for a nap, and didn't want to be bothered.

"About what?"

"Take a guess."

Letty chucked a wad of paper onto Dom's chest. It was an advertisement for what was shaping up to be the biggest race in Coal Harbor in ages. And when Dom saw the reason why, he shot upwards like a bullet.

Letty let out a sigh as she watched Dom study the pamphlet, "Brian hijacked the race."

"What?"

"The Urban Maulers are advertising a three-man-drag. Did some digging and found out that Brian showed up at their meet last night to call him out. He bumped up the stakes to twenty grand."

"...Shit…"

Dom got up and sighed, rubbing a frustrated hand across his head. Letty looked him up and down with her concerned gaze and shook her head.

"Nah. You're not racing him. It's too personal."

"Don't start, Letty."

"You know it's true."

"It was always gonna be personal. I have to race him because it's personal. We knew it'd come to this anyway with him being here in Bayview too. Don't act like we didn't see this coming."

"It's supposed to be just us and T.K.! We put our foot down and tell Brian and his boys to fuck off. We aren't…-," she paused and corrected herself, seeing Dom with his back turned on her, "-you aren't ready for a race with Brian tonight! Even with another driver in the mix, it's still gonna be too hell of a personal race for you. I don't think you should do it."

Dom ignored her, picked up a tool, and got ready to make final adjustments on the Chevelle.

"No. We're ending this before it starts."