Fluctuating Lights: First Stage

Chapter 14: The Red Devil Part 1

Chapter 14: The Red Devil Part 1

Nathan and Mick's battle continues. Nathan has a decent gap on Mick. "Looks like I was too much for this kid. I don't even see him in my rearview mirror anymore." Nathan says exiting a downhill slope. Headlights appear in his rearview mirror as he approaches another curve. "What the hell?! He caught up to me!" Nathan says out of shock. 'I'm through with holding back on this guy. Time to go all out.' Nathan thinks as he dives into the curve braking as little as possible. Mick enters the corner behind Nathan, he steers his car to go as wide as possible doing a 90 degree drift on the outside. "What?! Who in their right mind would turn their car so sharply into a corner! This guy is not human! H-He's a demon!" Nathan says a chill goes down his spine. Mick goes for an overtake, Nathan notices and blocks Mick from doing so. "Dammit! I guess he won't let me have the lead so easily." Mick mumbles as they exit the curve into another steep slope downwards. "We're only about halfway through the entire course. If I want to pull out a win here I have to keep the lead." Nathan mumbles both of them exit the slope into a leveled straightaway. Mick changes lanes going into Nathan's blindspot. "The disappearing line, too bad for you that doesn't work on me." Nathan mumbles as they approach a hairpin turn that immediately exits to another steep slope. Nathan slams the clutch performing a clutch kick. He steers outwards a little bit and flicks back in inertia drifting into the hairpin. Mick heel and toes doing a braking drift while turning his car 90 degrees again into the hairpin. Both cars parallel drift through hairpin having no gap between them. They exit the hairpin at full throttle with Nathan still in the lead. 'This slope is steeper than any of the other ones on the whole course. It's where most beginners crash because the speed upon exiting the slope is so fast you have to immediately hit the brakes entering the curve at the bottom. Most rookies slam into the guardrail if they're not careful.' Nathan thinks as both Him and Mick are halfway through the slope. Mick changes lanes as both of them approach the curve. "Time to show this punk everything I've got!" Mick yells out as he passes Nathan with zero effort. "Not good! He's not hitting the brakes! He's going way too fast into that curve! He's gonna crash at that speed!" Nathan exclaims as he lets off the throttle. "Why did he slow down? Oh fu-" Mick says as his Impreza's front end slams into the guardrail rebounding off of it doing a full 360 degree rotation. Nathan floors the throttle passing by Mick winning the race. He slams the brake pedal coming to a complete stop. "I knew he would do that on this part of the course. Course knowledge is key when you're racing. He may only have been racing here a few weeks but I've been racing here for years." Nathan says as he pulls his handbrake upwards. "SON OF A BITCH!" Mick yells out. Mick opens his car door with Nathan doing the same. Both of them close their car doors in synchronization and walk over to each other. "Looks like you banged your car up pretty bad. The front end is completely fucked, i wouldn't be surprised if the front tires' suspension got damaged completely. You got off easy, it could've been a lot worse." Nathan says to a frustrated Mick. "Tch." Mick lets out as he clenches his fists into a ball while looking away from Nathan. "Let's pop the hood to see if the Impreza is damaged internally." Nathan says calmly. "Fine.... It's not like it'll change how I feel." Mick says, trying to calm down. Nathan pops the hood to look at the damage on the inside of the car. "Good news, looks like everything is ok on the inside. Next I'm going to check the suspension to see if it's working properly." Nathan looks at the car's suspension when an expression of complete horror comes across his face. "What is it?! How bad is the damage?!" Mick says worryingly. "The suspension is non-existent. Every part is damaged beyond repair. We'll have to replace each part." "Damn, that's just great isn't it. Well that's gonna cost a pretty penny to get fixed." Mick says with a saddened look. "I could get it fixed for you but it would take at least a week to fix the damage." Nathan says with a smile. "You would just do that for the brother of the Grim Reaper?" Mick asks as a surprised look crosses his face. "Yeah, since I also race semi professionally I could get this to my mechanic and they could fix your car." "That's way too kind of you." Mick says as he cracks a slight smile. "That stuff doesn't affect me that much. Plus it's racers code to help out racers in time of need." Nathan states as he pulls his phone out. "I'm gonna call my mechanic to pick up your car. Good thing only the front end and the suspension got damaged." "Thank you.... I just don't get why you have to be so nice to me." Mick says as headlights appear in Nathan and Mick's field of vision. "James, I guess he wanted to see how the race turned out." Nathan says with an angry expression. James' GTR comes into view but comes to a complete stop upon seeing both Mick and Nathan. "If your mechanic is gonna fix my car, how much will I have to pay you?" Mick asks Nathan as James hops out of his car. "We will get to that once the car is fixed." Nathan says. James hops out of his car and walks over to them. "So you lost huh, not like I'd thought you would win." James says as Nathan slaps him. "That's what you have to say?! He could've died! Not to mention his car is completely fucked! You're his brother for crying out loud and you're not the least bit concerned about him?!" Nathan says with a look of pure anger. "Of course I'm concerned about my brother, you little prick! If he sailed off the mountain do you think I would be sitting here talking to you?!" James says. Nathan stands there trying to figure out what to say but can't think of anything. "The tow truck will be here soon. Let's wait for it to get here." Nathan says as he walks over to his 2003 Fairlady Z.

Jack is staring off into space while in his last hour class. "Hey Jack, is your head up your ass or something?" Sydney asks him as he stares off into space. Jack continues to look dead inside resting his head on the palm of his hand. Sydney smacks him in the back, snapping him out of his day dreaming. "Huh?" Jack says as he looks over at Sydney. "Finally you snapped out of whatever that was. What were you thinking about that was so important anyways." Sydney states. "Uhmmmm. It's hard to explain." "Oh really, what was it?" Sydney asks. Jack gets red in the face with embarrassment upon thinking about it. "W-Well. Like I said, it's hard to explain." "You were thinking about a girl weren't you. Why else would you get so red in the face." "Uhmmm, well that's correct." Jack says. "Sooooo, who was it?" Sydney asks intrigued. "You wouldn't know her probably. But her name is Michelle." "H-Her?! I can see why you would like her but she probably wouldn't like you back." Sydney says with a laugh. "So you do know her huh." "Well duh, I don't know anyone in this school who doesn't know her." "I guess I was the only one who didn't know her." Jack says as he lets out a small chuckle. Sydney does the same. "Hey Jack, I want to talk to you about something." Trent says as he walks into the classroom. "Yeah sure, what is it?" Jack says, turning his attention towards him. "Let's talk outside, Follow me." Trent says as he walks out of the room. They get to where Trent wants to talk. "So, what did you want to talk about?" Jack asks, trying to break the dead silence that occurred when walking over to where they are gonna talk. "Well, I just wanted to say that Michelle has been going on about you a lot lately. Since I'm close friends with her and all. But What I actually wanted to talk to you about is that I want to finish that battle we had a bit ago. I've gotten a lot better since then. It's now time for me to show you my true potential." Trent says with a serious expression. "Oh yeah? Do you think that you can keep up with me? Let's do it, I'm up for a new opponent." Jack says with a smile. "It's settled then. Let's do it tonight at 9 PM." 'So Michelle has been talking about me, that's good I guess, maybe Sydney was wrong. She can jump to conclusions pretty easily.' Jack thinks to himself. "Well, I guess I'll see you tonight." Trent say's walking away.

Jack and Trent are at the start of Highway 57 ready to start their race. "So here's how I want things to go down, once we exit the first curve we go full throttle as we enter the first straightaway." Jack says, looking at Trent. "That's fine by me, let's go. You lead, I'll follow." Trent says as he gets in his 1969 Nissan Fairlady Z. Jack does the same and starts to drive slowly down the highway with Trent following him. "Time to see how good Trent has gotten since we last raced." Jack says as both cars exit the first curve.