"Alright you two kids, listen up! You are gonna run to your cars, put on your helmets and get as far away from here as you can. You two can stick together, but they can easily catch you if you're in a big group of cars, so steer clear of the main pack. Now GO! GO! GO!"

Jeff slammed the door of the van and sprinted to jump in the driver's seat. Michael and Michelle looked right at each other for a moment, and ran.

They sprinted through the meet, dodging tuned cars peeling off and people running and shouting. All the while Michael's mind burned with questions.

When he reached the Foxbody, Michael put his helmet on, and hastily got in the car, slamming the door behind him. He started it, and stomped on the gas, swerving to avoid cars pulling out, checking his mirrors to make sure Michelle was following him.

Michael was terrified. He hadn't even thought of the fact that street racing was technically illegal, although traffic laws were no longer really enforced. Michael and Michelle pulled onto a dark and empty street.

Suddenly, Michael's HUD lit up. Instead of racing related information , a small mini map and a meter labeled "heat level" took up the bottom left corner. The mini map was dotted with flashing blue and red arrows moving about on the roads. Michael realized the arrows had to represent police vehicles.

"Good, you kids made it out," Jeff's voice says over the helmet, "Alright, what you want to do is get out of their line of sight... the helmets will patch you in to the police scanner so you can hear what they're saying."

"I thought racing is legal if it's run by Racing Authority!" Michelle yelled angrily.

"Well, it's a grey area..." Jeff said. "But these aren't normal cops. These guys are the Shax Corp. Vehicle Response Team. They're a private mercenary that were brought in by the rich assholes in Argenti to keep gang violence and drugs out of the city. Problem is, our cars are worth a lot of money to the right people, and now they go after all of us for 'questioning' instead, but the real reason is so they can take your car and your cash. The cars get sold to Argenti's elite, converted into more cop cars, or if you're unlucky, scrapped for parts. Then, if you can't pay, you get put in jail for resisting arrest. Lucky for us, these guys aren't very good at driving."

"When did this all happen?"

"A few years after Kalinda was given the chapter. She's done a damn good job keeping us safe though. Big raids like this almost never happen anymore."

Michael concentrated heavily on driving. This would be so much worse than loosing that race, he thought.

"Michael!? I think one of them found us!" Michelle shouted.

Blue and red light suddenly lit up the road ahead. A police car had caught up to them.

"Control, this is Cobra 5, in pursuit of a black Mustang and a blue Nissan 2 door. Requesting permission to deploy AutoCab roadblocks..." The police scanner announced.

"Shit, ok the most important thing is breaking line of sight long enough for them to not see which turn you took," Jeff said, "Try alleyways, back roads, anything that can trip them up and slow them down. I gotta hang up, good luck guys!"

Michael and Michelle dove through alleyways, but the blue and red lights still followed. Michael was shaking with fear.

"What are we gonna do!?" Michelle said in a panic.

"We gotta break line of sight, like he said! You lead, I'll follow, I'll let him get me if it comes down to it! Come on!" Michael shouted.

"Ok... we can do this."

Michelle quickly passed the Mustang, and Michael focused on the four round taillights of Michelle's S13.

"AutoCab roadblocks deploying at your position, move in for the takedown, Cobra 5."

"Shit! Uh... take the next left!" Michelle shouted

Suddenly, a long line of police AutoCabs streamed out from the adjacent streets, blocking the intersection ahead. They blocked both the right and north streets. An automated roadblock.

Michelle put the S13 into a drift, and Michael followed closely, and the next street already had more police AutoCabs blocking the intersection.

"We're lucky those things don't have the tech to chase us..." Michael remarked.

Suddenly he felt a sharp lurch of G-force, and heard the sharp clap of metal on metal. The Mustang slid out wide, narrowly avoiding slamming into a street light.

He'd just been caught up to and rammed. Michael gathered the courage to peek in his mirror.

A black and white 2007 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500, complete with a giant light bar and ram bars was close behind. It had a muscular, fastback shape. Michael didn't know what came over him, but a hot rage filled his heart. Did this asshole have any idea how much it would cost to fix that?!

"Michelle, go on ahead!"

"NO! We're sticking together"

Michael swerved and slammed on brakes, and the cop passed by.

"Cobra 5, deploying spike strip!"

A sharp scraping noise echoed throughout the streets, and a plank of metal with deadly spikes poked up from, it slid out from beneath the police car, extending outward to be as wide as possible.

Michael swerved to avoid the sparking heap, then hit the gas and pulled alongside the police car, steering hard into it.

Michael was jerked sideways in his seat, and a loud clanging noise echoed throughout the Foxbody. The police car slid and swerved, its driver over corrected for the sudden over steer, and swerved right into a street light, smashing into pieces.

"YES! We got him! Let's get out of here!" Michael shouted.

Michael and Michelle wasted no time, they hit the gas and got the hell out of there, turning away from the factory district and heading deeper into the city. After what seemed like half an hour, they gradually slowed down to AutoCab speeds, and Michelle finally spoke.

"I think we did it... we got away, I think we can head home..." she said nervously.

"Holy shit... I guess we can." Michael said in disbelief. He accelerated the Mustang alongside the S13.

Suddenly a blinking flash of white light lit up behind the S13 and Mustang.

"What the hell?" Michael exclaimed.

"I think it's another cop! I FUCKING JINXED IT!" Michelle shouted, slamming on the throttle and burning rubber. Michael took off after her.

The light followed...

*******