=The Following Morning=

[=Rachel's Garage | 11:07am=]
When the time called for daybreak, Brian woke up early to the spectacle of Bayview's sunrise. It didn't disappoint. And it was no surprise that the city looked just as beautiful wrapped in the steel blues and drowsy purples of dawn. After the sleep was wiped from their eyes, everyone began making their way downstairs to Rachel's meeting room. Cold blue light seeped through the windows of the room, which was set up more like an executive suite more than anything, thanks to an extended table in the middle. Here, they found Rachel idling in the front, patiently waiting for her team to trickle in. Behind her was an assortment of tools such as a dry erase board and a large map of Bayview fixed onto the wall.

"Morning everyone. You all catch up on your sleep? We got a lotta ground to cover, so I hope you're all awake. If not, I got somethin' that should give you a little boost," she greeted, pointing to the breakfast and coffee on the table. As everyone took their seats, they treated themselves and gave Rachel their attention. Well… Everyone except Roman, who was too excited by a box of donuts smiling back at him.

"Ha haa! I see you came through for me!"

"'Course I did. Hope you didn't think I forgot. Now. Back on track," she started, "first thing's first, I'd like to properly introduce everyone. I'm sure you all might've had a chance to do so personally already, but as a team, I think it'd be good to make it official." Reaching out her hand towards Brian and his group, she started, "First off, we have Brian O'Conner, but most of you know him as 'Bullitt.' Roman Pearce to his left, and Suki Inoue to the right."

"'Sup," Suki flicked her head up and leaned back in her seat.

"These are top of the line drivers from Miami, Florida." Rachel dropped her arm and used her other hand to introduce the remaining drivers. "Next up from Palmont City, we've got Angelle Santana, Kenji Wada, and-"

"-Ahp! You don't have to say my full name. It isn't necessary," Wolf interrupted, arms crossed and leg propped over the other.

Rachel was a little off put, but proceeded without bothering to give it much thought. "Okay… that's a no go for Wolf's full name. Guess we'll have to deal with it."

"Why? What's the matter? *Chuckle* It's lame, ain't it'?" Suki teased.

"The name's 'Wolf.' Not anything else. Capiche?"

Everyone flinched a bit at Wolf's off-putting demeanor.

"Damn, dude, we're only playin'," Suki sassed back. "You're gonna have to learn to loosen up around us 'cause we all clown each other."

"Alright," Rachel interrupted with a single clap. "Now that we've all got ourselves acquainted… some of us more so than others," she said while giving Wolf a side eye, "I want to get straight to the point. My goal." She took a breath, prepping herself for a long speech as she stepped over to her map. Pointing a finger on her map, she looked over her shoulder and continued, "As you all know, Bayview is the capital of all things tuner culture in the States. Some people may say it's L.A., or Olympic City, etcetera etcetera, blah blah. Point is, nobody can hold down the street scene like Bayview. The number of races we got goin' down every night speaks for itself. Not to mention the sponsors bustin' down the door of every major crew to get noticed. This is the place to be. My humble little town *chuckle* not so much anymore. But, I am glad to have you all here so that I can share it with you."

Rachel paused to step over to her dry erase board and pick up a marker. "Now. What's my goal? I'll sum it up in one word… conquest." That same word wound up on the dry erase board just seconds later. Rachel turned around, pointed toward it, and repeated herself. "Conquest. I want Bayview to be ours. The street racing scene has hit the wall at full speed and it's just barely hangin' on. There's no honor among racers anymore. Folks like the Eastsiders are using street racing as an excuse for thugging, not a way of life like it should be. They're exploiting it. And I wanna take it back by using real street racing. No fists, and no guns. If you lose straight up, that's it. You lost. Too bad, too sad."

"That's a cute dream to have, Rachel," Angie interjected. "But let's be real here, some guys are bound to get pissed and wanna be handsy. Let me tell you, I really don't feel like going back to jail for punchin' out some sore ass loser."

"Holy shit," Suki giggled, "You've been to jail?"

"Shouldn't be so much of a surprise, just look at her."

Angie ignored Kenji's remark and replied, "Long story, hun, I'll fill you in some other time."

"Ooh, I'm so lookin' forward to that," came Suki's reply.

Brian took a plate for himself and spoke up. "Angie does have a point though, Rachel. If it's getting so outta control like you say, we might wanna be ready to get our hands dirty a little bit."

Rachel crossed her arms and nodded. "That's fair. But in the event something does happen out on the streets, you have my word I'll handle it. I have connections too, y'know, if we need to go that far. But no matter what we do, I want us to be hands off. No violence. I'm probably what you'd call a pacifist, and I stand by that. And since you all are representin' me, I expect you to as well."

Now that her motives were made clear, she turned back around and pointed to a picture on her wall with the name "Booke" above it.

"Now. Who's the reason for all this drama from the get go? Here. Meet Booke. I know I gave the basic rundown of this clown to all of you before, but I want to hit home just how much influence he has over this city."

A minute or two of pause was taken so that Rachel could write down the names of the following crews: "Eastsiders," "Kamata Clan," "The Wraiths," and lastly, "Urban Maulers."

A loud *pop* came from Rachel securing the cap back on her marker, followed by a satisfied sigh. She pointed out toward the board and continued, "These are the crews directly under Booke's supervision, or his 'Kingdom', he likes to call it."

"'Kingdom', huh? 'Sounds like this man's got some serious ego issues," commented Roman. "How the hell do that many dudes race for just one brother? That's some wild shit."

"How does he do it? He uses every dirty trick in the book. Everything I just told you about? That's what he does. Only thing is, he sits from the sidelines. He let's his posse do the heavy lifting. You see, Booke used to be a decent racer back in the day. I say 'decent' because he was never really good to begin with. But, he made up for his lack of skill by getting access to cars and rides people never even heard of."

"That sounds about right," Wolf interjected. "I heard he has access to concept cars that haven't even been shown to the public yet. His collection is… impressive."

"What, you jealous?" Brian shot a tease.

Wolf shook his head and massaged the crease in his slacks. "Maybe I would be if he knew how to dress himself. His fashion sense is abysmal."

Rachel continued, "We take on Booke by taking on his crews. Now, it's important to note here that outside of his crews, Booke also has loads of solo racers in his pocket as well. It's so many that I'm not even sure of the number. I just know it's ridiculous."

"So what's the idea here," questioned Brian. "We thin them out? Take out each crew at a time, one race at a time?"

"Bingo. Like I mentioned before, all of you are still fresh meat down here in Bayview. Doesn't matter if you all are the fastest anywhere else, you need to prove it here. Which means we gotta start from the bottom rung. As much as I'd love to have you hit the streets ASAP in the City Center," Rachel said, pointing to the respective district on the map, "We'll need to start in Coal Harbor, the southernmost district of Bayview. Things aren't as hot as the City Center down there, but it'll be a fine place to get our foot in the door."

"For real," Suki groaned, "Especially since those Eastsiders assholes already warned us not to get caught racing in the City Center anymore. They said they'd trash us if they did."

"Pfft, let 'em try," Angie said, "Nobody's scared of Eddie and his trailer trash booty call."

Rachel let out a brief chuckle and ran her thumb across her forehead. It was nice to see the team forming their own interesting sort of dynamic, and she was interested to see how it may evolve. "Nice to see you're all confident. But save it for the races, okay? If we're gonna do this, we need to do this right and play by the unwritten rules of the street. If we wanna eventually knock off the Eastsiders, then we'll need to work our way up to it."

"Fiiine," Angie huffed as she reached over and claimed the last croissant sandwich for herself.

"So, Coal Harbor it is then, huh?" Roman said, sitting up in his seat to eyeball that area on the Bayview map.

"Bingo. It's the oldest part of Bayview, and the racing there is known to be a little rougher 'round the edges then the other parts of the city. This is also the part of town run by Booke's water boy, T.K."

Rachel pointed to a picture of an intimidating man that looked like he belonged in an Anarchist's Digest magazine and certainly not behind the wheel. This guy had a tattoo of a spider just centimeters away from his eye.

"Damn, that's one ugly mofo…," murmured Rome.

"I heard that," Suki piped up, peeking over from behind Brian's chair, "you're one to talk, Rome."

"Man, shutup!"

"So, listen here, T.K.'s the leader of the Urban Maulers, which is the crew runnin' the show in Coal Harbor. They're known to be aggressive, so you better stay sharp when racing against them, alright?"

Brian took a second to study, first, T.K.'s picture. Second, he studied the logo of the "Urban Maulers", which was a screaming demon that was most likely used to profess their destructive driving techniques. A part of this meeting somehow reminded Brian of his days as an undercover cop where he would sit, listen to lectures, and study his persons of interests to predict how they might be in person.

Brian sat back in his chair and voiced out one of his concerns, "Sounds good. Only thing I'm worried about is whether or not people are gonna take us seriously. I mean, Eddie already mentioned that he thought what we're doing was 'desperate.'"

"That's why we'll need to dominate so much that people fear our name, and they'll have no choice but to take us seriously," replied Rachel. "So. Speaking of names, we need one! I have a few ideas here and there, but I would like for you all to choose."

A few potential names proceeded to be tossed out by one member after the other.

Suki sat up in her chair, letting her elbows stab the table as she thought out loud. "Hmm, dunno why, but I'm feelin' the name 'Night.' Know what I mean? Liiike… Night-Riders? Nah, that's a bit weak." Suki tossed out a name just to snatch it back, and continued, "Night… -Kids?"

Kenji shook his head. "Nope. NightKids is already taken."

"By who?" Asked Roman.

"A famous touge racing team up in Japan," answered Kenji. "We can do better than the name 'NightKids' anyway."

"And we're not kids," snarked Wolf.

Suki went back to the proverbial drawing board in her head, and looked up at the name "Project Underground" on Rachel's master plan. Two and two came together, and immediately, she shushed everybody and snapped her fingers. "I got it! Somethin' cool, flashy, but confident, right? How 'bout… 'Team Underground?'"

"What?! That name sounds corny as hell, girl!" Disagreed Roman.

Throwing her arms up in the air, Suki flopped back up against her chair. "Okay, then, you come up with a better one! Shit! I'm the only one throwin' out ideas!"

"No." Rachel's sharp tone cut in. "I like it. It's got attitude, and it makes sense. It's a call back to our motivations," Rachel said as she gave a wink to Suki, thanking her for her sharp eye. "We'll roll with that. Now, as for cash, I want you all to rest easy knowin' I'm not lookin' to screw you over. Racing for me has its perks. I'll take a cut off the top, and let you all stash the rest. You'll each get a seventy percent cut of any winnings you earn. Rest of it goes towards the team's collective budget. Think of it like a shared bank account. We'll use that to put towards parts and any maintenance needed on our rides. We gotta lot of catching up to do with these other crews, so saving early on is gonna help a ton. Trust me. My personal budget will go towards rounding up sponsors and events for us to boost our rep."

Brian wiped his hands free of crumbs and sat back in his chair. "Sweet. So, when do we get started?"

"Tonight. No racing, though. I just want you all to cruise by the scene so you can get a feel for the energy down there." Rachel wrapped up her session by putting away her marker and erasing the board. Once she was done, she turned herself towards Brian, Rome, and Suki to address them specifically. "And on that note, I got in contact with your trailer from Miami. They hit a snag, so your rides will be a little late."

"Everything cool?" Roman asked with a curious eyebrow, worrying about whether or not the chrome wheels on his Eclipse were harmed.

"For real," Suki also cut in. "If I find out somebody screwed up my car-,"

"-It's fine," Rachel reassured. "Just late, is all. So, to make up for the hassle, you can borrow one of my rides for tonight," she said, tossing Brian a set of keys with an Acura logo on it. "Those belong to a friend of mine from Olympic City who doesn't need it anymore. I figured you all could give the car some fresh air tonight. Sounds like a deal?"

The smirk on Brian's face said it all. Getting another chance to drive one of Rachel's rides was always something he looked forward to. "Can we scope it out now?"

"Not just yet. I gotta tidy up a few things on it first. Swing by my garage later on and I'll have it ready to rock. Now, you're all free to spend the day however you like. Go out and get familiar with the city in daylight. Because, come midnight… Bayview is a whole 'nother ball game…"