A/N: So how did the previous chapter catch you guys, eh?

Chapter 7: Turning Point

Jason never thought this was possible. Was he in the next Fast & Furious movie or something?

There stood Adam Lee and Leon Woon, facing off each other in two equally exotic cars in the racetrack. And what was the prize of this competition?

“I win; you pay for my car’s repair bills. I lose; I’ll not pursue this case any further,” Leon simply said, leaning back against his car, the Vortege’.

Adam only raised his eyebrows as he got off his car’s side, walking towards Leon, who only remained on his spot.

“That doesn’t sound like something I’ll race for. Your car’s bill isn’t even my half of my week’s allowance,” Adam said with a grin.

“So what d’you think we should race for?” Leon said, already anticipating the answer.

“Simple,” Adam said as he walked over to his canary yellow Murcielargo. “We race for pinks.”

Some chatter began to grow as Peter scoffed at Adam. “Typical,” he muttered bitterly.

“What? What’s racing for pinks mean?” Eric asked, nudging Peter on the shoulder.

“It’s a short form for the word ‘pink slip’. It means whoever wins will get the other guy’s car,” Chris explained grimly.

“Wait, so if Leon wins, he gets the Lambo?” Eric continued.

“Looks that way,” Jason said, analyzing both cars. The Murcielargo didn’t need to show how fast it could go. It was a Lamborghini. That much was enough.

However, Leon’s car looked far cooler than the Lambo. It looked like a clean cross between a Japanese tuner and a European supercar.

“I don’t agree to those terms,” Leon simply replied, earning more chatter.

“What?” Adam asked, quite taken aback.

“I don’t agree. I stand to gain nothing from taking your Lambo,” Leon simply replied. The crowd only grew louder. Stand to gain nothing from taking a Lambo? Was Leon being arrogant?

That made Adam laugh. “What makes you think you’ll win in the first place?” he asked. Now that was something hard to retort to.

“I never implied anything. We have a 50-50 chance each. But another reason I won’t agree to the pink slip race is ‘because even if you win, my car won’t follow you home. They’re too stubborn,” Leon said.

“Huh?” Not just Adam, but some of the people from the crowd exchanged confused looks.

“They?” Jason repeated.

Leon only smiled as he took one brief glance at the car. “Ben, Gwen, I think it’s time you introduced yourselves,” he said.

Then the second thing that shocked everyone that night appeared on the ground, next to Leon.

There on his left, stood 2 holograms, a boy and girl in what appeared to be in their late teens. The boy had brown hair and wore a t-shirt that had a black streak running down the middle, plus a pair of green cargo pants. The auburn-haired girl had a blue t-shirt on and a pair of white pants.

“Allow me to introduce Ben and Gwen. They’re the AI Constructs for my car, guaranteeing full control parameters in my absence,” Leon said, smirking.

The chatter grew to a rapid crescendo of Oohs and Ahhs as the crowd examined the two realistic holograms.

“Okay, I can’t tell what’s real or not anymore,” Jason said in such a resigned voice, raising his arms mid-length for good measure.

“Wait, what the? You have these things in your car? What’s stopping them from doing all the driving, then?” Adam said. Visibly he was trying to pin Leon in any way he could.

Then the AI Construct called Ben leered at Adam. “Hey, we’re not some things, got it? We’re the closest thing to human beings you can think of, which is more than what I can say for you,” he said, earning a laugh or two from the crowd.

What surprised them the most was that when Ben spoke, it was like his voice was really coming from the hologram itself and not from some speaker from the car.

“Leon, are we going to sweep the floor with this guy or what?” Gwen asked, flipping her shoulder-length auburn hair backwards.

Adam looked scandalized, but said nothing. What could be more humiliating than to be dissed by 2 individuals that were not even physically real?

“Yes, Adam. Shall we race or not? The crowd here wants a race too, don’t you?” Leon asked, who was replied with a generous agreement form the rest.

“F-Fine then,” the boy said, trying to regain at least a little of his composure. He then got into his car and started the engine, which gave a deafening roar. He then turned to smirk at Leon as some people cheered rather appreciatively for Adam.

Leon only replied with a smile of his own that wasn’t hostile nor was it arrogant. “Ben, Gwen, start the car, please?” he asked.

Ben snapped his fingers and the engine roared to life. Unlike a regular car, it didn’t have the same roar a regular car did when it came to life. It sounded sleeker, more robust. And it sparked a memory in Peter’s mind.

“Leon’s car sounds like that fighter jet that flew by our school last week,” he said. Unlike the deafening sonic boom that always accompanied a jet, the Vortege’ sounded like the raw unadulterated sound of a jet’s turbine engine.

“That’s what a DNG for an engine does for you,” Gwen said, snapping her fingers.

The headlights flashed and the backlights glowed in a menacing red glare as a rock song boomed through the stereos.

Leon only gave one look at Gwen, his usual Leon-ism one that was an arched eyebrow and a curious frown.

The AI only shrugged and smiled. “Couldn’t resist,” she said. A second later Adam’s Murcielargo began to blare out a heavy rock song. He only winked at Leon. So it was a challenge about the sound system, then.

The crowd seemed to be pleased with this as they began nodding their heads to both songs. As far as Peter gathered, the mood was on. This race was inevitable.

Leon nodded at both Ben and Gwen, who disappeared as he got into the door, that swerved open in the same way the Murcielargo did; scissor-door-style.

Adam then poked his head out the window and yelled “Please back away from the exhaust ports, guys!”

With that, short bursts of fire came from the exhaust ports of the Murcielargo as he revved the engine. More cheers came form the crowd.

Leon however didn’t counter with revving his own engine. Instead, he only sat back on the seat, looking straight into the brightly-lit racetrack in front of him.

Trisha then walked up to the front, in between both cars. For a second Ken was wondering what she was going to do. Then he remembered those racing movies.

She stood there with such a confident smirk on her face. People were wolf-whistling at both Leon and Adam, and also at Trisha.

“On you mark!” she said, taking out one of her pistols.

“Get set!” she said, taking out the other.

Realizing what was going to happen next, most people yelled “Cover you ears!”

“Go!” she said as she fired a round from both guns, startling some people nonetheless.

And then the screeching sounds of tire against road drowned out the shots as smoke began to fill the air. And then both cars zoomed into the night road.

The crowd cheered on as the large projection monitors showed a constant footage of both cars as they raced through the track.

Peter was curious how this was going to turn out. It was either down to who had the better car, or who was the better driver.

*

Leon never felt so good to be in the driver’s seat before. He pressed the pedal shift on the steering column, changing the car to 4th gear.

“Y’know, it’s an auto transmission, Leon. Let the car shift itself,” Ben suggested from the car’s multimedia display.

“It’s a sports auto, dummy. Leon’s supposed to shift it,” Gwen said, knocking him on the shoulder playfully.

“Then why don’t we shift for him? So he can fully concentrate on the race?” Ben asked in return.

“Then that’ll be cheating,” Leon plainly replied, still neck-in-neck with Adam’s Murcielargo.

“Hey, shouldn’t we be overtaking him by now? We’re approximately under-powering ourselves,” Gwen asked, looking at Leon with a quizzed look.

“This isn’t a regular Murcielargo. He modded it,” Leon said, stealing glances every now and then. “The engine doesn’t sound like a regular one. And he changed the turbo system.”

He then made a daring drift left instead of braking, which was what Adam did, and that let Leon take the lead.

“Oh yes!” both AIs said as they hi-5-ed each other.

“It’s not over yet,” Leon said, looking at his back mirror. Adam knew he made a blunder, and was wasting no time in trying to catch up.

“He’s approximately 1.2 seconds behind us, but he’s gaining,” Gwen said, halfway calculating the constantly changing parameters.

The Murcielargo actually highlighted Leon several times, almost in an “I’m coming!” fashion.

“Why don’t you go faster than this, Leon? We’ve got the hardware!” Ben said, quite confident.

“I could, but he’ll blame you guys for helping me win this race hands down,” Leon commented, taking another swerve to deny Adam an entry.

“So you’re still winning nonetheless, right?” Gwen asked with a cheeky smile on her face.

“Yup,” Leon said as Ben chuckled appreciatively.

Leon then shifted a gear down as he made a sharp right turn on a corner, shifting it back up as he drove on the straight road up ahead.

“He’s still gaining!” Gwen said, quite worried as the yellow Murcielargo only sneaked further ahead towards them.

They were already reaching the starting line to finish the first lap. 1 down, 2 more to go.

*

“Whoah! Looks like Leon’s winning this one!” Jason said as the striking white car dashed through the starting line in a subtle zoom, unlike Adam’s Lambo, that roared as loud as ever as it tailed Leon.

Jason couldn’t help but laugh at that sentiment. “Hey a guy, does the Lambo actually sound like it was angry at the fact that Leon was winning? I mean, if compared to the Vortege’, that Lambo sounds like it’s yelling,” he said.

It was a noteworthy comment. Was a DNG reactor for an engine really that much different?

From the monitors, Jason could see that Leon was leading a safe distance away from Adam.

“Hey, where do you think he got that car from? He’s not that loaded,” Eric asked, watching intently as Adam suddenly passed over Leon, but not by far.

The rest were still watching, not bothering to answer Eric. That was until Ken decided to lay down the answer.

“Simple. Who among us here can grant wishes?” he asked, looking at Koharu. The rest then looked at her the same way.

“W-What? Leon had that car before he even met me!” Koharu defended, shaking her head.

“Mm-hmm. Leon told me you’re lousy at lying, Koharu,” Chris said, ruffling her hair. She winced slightly, but didn’t move away.

“So which wish was the car’s? His 3rd or something?”

“His 2nd. He’s never made wishes throughout. I guess…he really wants to save ‘em for a suitable time,” Koharu replied. Right now, both cars were approaching the starting point again in a neck-breaking speed.

“Lucky him…” Jason non-consciously said out loud as the Vortege’ trailed the Lambo. He was still in 2nd place, and that wasn’t good.

“Hey, is the Vortege’ better than Adam’s Lambo?” Chris asked Koharu. She only shrugged.

“I only helped Leon to make the car. I’m not sure about the technical details, though,” Koharu honestly replied, watching her ‘brother’ through the monitors.

Please don’t lose this race, onii-chan…

*

“Oh c’mon, Leon! Use the afterburners already!” Ben said, rolling his green eyes.

“If I did, it’d be really obvious, wouldn’t it? Last thing I want is to be caught ‘cheating’ or something,” Leon said bitterly, switching to the 6th gear.

“Y’know, I think I he used a nitrous boost to pass us earlier on that straight road,” Gwen said, her emerald eyes gleaming in thought in the multimedia screen.

“Transfer yourselves to the HUD,” Leon commanded, both AIs now appearing on his windscreen like it was some TV or something.

“Heads-Up Display system activated,” Ben said, all the vital parameters being displayed on his windscreen.

“We’re catching up. I calculate an approx of 5 seconds before we have the first opportunity,” Gwen suggested, indicating the curve up ahead. It was the sharpest turn in the entire course, and both Leon and Adam overtook each other earlier in that particular curve.

“I’m going to make a hard turn and shift a gear up, okay?” Leon asked. Both AIs nodded as Leon took a deep breath.

Adam already made a sharp drift right, his tires smoking in protest as his entire vehicle went into a different direction that from what would be normal. That was drifting for you.

Now! Leon thought, banking hard to the right as he shifted a gear down. The sudden change made his car’s grip to the road far more solid as he made a shorter turn than Adam did, shaving off his distance from him.

“We’re right behind him!” Ben said as Leon was now facing the menacing glare of the Murcielargo’s back lights.

Leon made another quick turn to the right, only to be denied by Adam.

“Dammit,” Leon cursed, swerving to the left, only to still be denied.

“He’s not giving us a break, isn’t he?” Ben asked. It wasn’t directed to Leon, but to Gwen who only shook grimly.

*

“C’mon! C’mon!” Jimmy Lim said, balling both his hands into fists as he saw the battle between Leon and Adam. So far Leon was still blocked by an ever-alert Adam. They were both approaching the finishing line soon, and Leon had to gain the lead now, or else.

Then Leon swerved for what seemed to be the umpteenth time, Adam already anticipating it and banking hard to that side. But instead of banking to the extreme like Adam, Leon actually stopped swerving in mid turn and returned to his original side, before accelerating hard, surpassing Adam’s blockade.

They were now both neck-in-neck with each other again as the crowd roared their amusement at Leon’s trick.

“Alright, it’s down to this,” Joash Mock said as both cars now raced on the remaining straight-track. And then Adam’s Lambo sped up, almost surpassing Leon.

“Wait, what happened?” Jimmy asked, quite confused as to why the stalemate suddenly crept back away, again.

“Wait…” Peter said, examining Adam’s car closely.

“Is he using..?”

*

“Nitrous! He’s using nitrous!” Ben cried out, Gwen looking quite scandalized as well. Using nitrous during a no-holds-bar street race was acceptable, but not on a circuit course.

But that bastard Adam could deny by saying the rules were never specified or whatever junk he could come up with.

Leon swore under his breath as he floored the gas pedal, but it wasn’t enough to catch up with the Murcielargo now as it was already encroaching further from the Vortege’. Leon checked that he was already on the 7th gear, the car’s maximum, and it still wasn’t enough to match the nitro.

“Alright, the gloves are off. Release the limiter, and prep the afterburners,” Leon said, setting up a particular switch.

“But we haven’t tested it yet,” Gwen said cautiously, Leon only concentrating on the road. He figured it was only another minute or so before they both reached the final stretch of road.

“What better way to test it then,” Leon said. Ben nodded as he nudged his sister AI on the shoulder.

“Fine…” Gwen scowled. “Deactivating the limiter. Afterburners ready for diagnostic field test.”

“Alright. Activating now,” Leon said, pressing the two red buttons on the steering wheel.

Nothing happened for a good long second, but then the car lurched forward gently, which was followed by one loud, long roar from the engine, and then pandemonium broke loose on the inside space of the Vortege’..

Leon couldn’t even pull himself back up from the seat, the sheer force of the car now speeding to what Leon noted to be the maximum red-line threshold.

“Assisting in regaining control over the car’s maneuvering!” Gwen said through the ruckus. Was the car even out of control?

“DNG output at 100% efficiency!” Ben reported.

The road had started to become a blur in front of Leon’s eyes. Controlling the car was becoming slightly more difficult. He wasn’t even sure if he could hold onto it any longer. The DNG’s raw power was never tested to such an extent in a vehicle like this before.

Now Leon knew why this was the first car ever made with a DNG for a heart. It was just too risky for others. Not without limiters.

*

“Whoah, that’s cool…” Jason commended. He wasn’t over-exaggerating on that one.

It was clearly displayed on the monitor that Leon was catching up to Adam with a rather interesting display. Why so?

Instead of the typical short burst of fire that came out from the exhaust when one uses nitrous (like Adam…), there was a luminous trail of blue energy that came out of what appeared to be the exhaust ports of the Vortege’.

“Wait, why put exhaust pipes on a DNG-powered car? There’s no emissions, right?” Eric asked as he watched Leon closing the distance between him and Adam rather quickly.

“We’ll ask him when the time comes. He’s not getting away with this that easily,” Ken said with an evil smirk on his face.

He then noticed that Koharu was sneakily trying escape, and he grabbed her by the collar. She then tried running, but only remained on the spot with Ken’s grip still in place. The rest, including Vivian, laughed at the rather comical scene.

“You’re not getting away, neither. You’ve got some explaining to do, young lady.”

*

He was gaining on Adam, who still had his nitro on. Surprising, wasn’t it?

“I suggest we stop the afterburners now, Leon. I estimate he only has another 10 seconds’ worth of N2O in his system,” Gwen advised as Leon let go of the two red buttons, instantly slowing down the car, eventhough he was still catching up to Adam.

The Vortege’ was now ebbing closer to the Murcielargo’s side, and was Leon couldn’t help but smile at that. He floored the pedal once again, and brought the car up to the nose-point of the Lambo. Once again, they were neck-in-neck.

“Nitrous system should be stopping…now,” Ben said as the Lambo began to lurch little by little behind Leon. Both AIs laughed at Adam as Leon smirked. With the limiter taken off, the Vortege’ was undoubtedly faster than the Lambo, even in a clean honest race.

“This race’s in the bag!” Ben said confidently as the finish line now came closer and closer to them in the last stretch of road. Leon could see the crowd cheering as the Vortege’ made its way towards its maiden victory.

It made him wonder. Would the crowd be this welcoming if Adam won, instead? Were they neutral, because they didn’t know how much of a jerk the real Adam was?

But still, Leon had faith in his friends. They knew who to trust better. He already trusted them enough. He hoped that would be enough.

*

“Hah, I knew he would win,” Jason said as Leon approached the last few hundred meters while driving in the middle of both lanes. Then he did one stunt the crowd would never forget.

Just as he reached the finishing line, Leon spun the car –literally- while keeping it in the middle of the road. It spun over the finish line, and stopped dead-center facing the finishing line, and an approaching Adam.

The crowd went into a craze of cheers and whistles as Leon evidently won the race hands-down. It took Adam another good 10 seconds or so to reach the finishing line.

As Leon got off, the sides of the Vortege’ now were emblazoned with gold letterings that everyone laughed and cheered at.

Leon vs. Adam

1-0

Adam has been owned!

Leon himself laughed at the cheeky words that Ben and Gwen placed on the car. The boys made their way towards Leon to congratulate Leon –in their own special way.

Jason and Chris both pulled Leon into a friendly neck-lock as Ken grinded his knuckles over Leon’s head, all while Eric and Peter stood by laughing with the rest. Even Leon himself seemed to be amused by it.

When they let him go, Koharu gave him one big hug, earning some Oohs and wolf-whistles from the crowd. “I knew you could do it Kor-kor!” she said happily. That stopped the crowd in its tracks. “Kor-kor?” some of them repeated quizzing-ly. Kor-kor was the Cantonese for big brother.

“I told you guys she’s my sister,” Leon said to the crowd with a look of utter annoyance. Some people then looked away sheepishly or laughed again. “Two birds killed with one stone, eh?” Koharu then asked Leon softly, not wanting anyone to overhear. Leon only nodded with a new smile.

“Alright then, Leon, you won. You’ve proved yourself to be the better driver,” someone said behind him. Everyone turned to see Adam standing with his arms crossed. He wasn’t amused, to say the least.

“Thanks Adam. I’ll be taking my prize now,” Leon replied, letting go of Koharu to stand mere meters from Adam.

“Fine. How much is the cost of your car’s repairs?” Adam asked, taking out a cheque-book from his pocket. He keeps a cheque-book wherever he goes?? Peter thought.

Leon took out a receipt from his pocket and showed it to Adam. “Here’s the bill. You up for it?” Leon asked, Adam only chuckling. “It’s no big sum. I can handle this no-sweat,” he said confidently as he wrote on the book. He then separated the cheque from the book and handed it to Leon, who didn’t take it.

“What? Not enough for you?” Adam asked. Leon then looked thoughtful. “But weren’t you saying earlier that we were racing for pinks?”

. Adam almost dropped the cheque-book as his face fell in simple and utter shock. “I-I thought you didn’t agree to that?!” Adam protested.

“You’re right. I didn’t,” Leon said as he took the cheque from the Adam before nodding curtly at him, and then walked off.

Adam only stood there, rather stunned for a second before he realized Leon was pulling a fast one on him.

Chuckling, Adam then got into his car and drove slowly towards the exit, passing by the crowd as he did so.

But before leaving, he opened his window. “Hey Leon!” he said, most of the crowd looking silently as Leon looked at him.

“I enjoyed this little race, Leon. I’m looking forward to the next one,” he said with a smirk, one that Leon returned with as thumbs-up. “Same here” he said, and then nodding as Adam drove off into the main road.

The crowd also saw that it was time to leave, thus they thinned out, little-by-little. “Guys, I need you to stay back for awhile. Trisha, Rose, you girls too,” Leon said, all of them stopping in their tracks to look at him with rather curious expressions.

Koharu was hiding a smile as some of them asked “What is it?”

Leon only gestured them to follow him as he lead them towards the garage areas of the race track. It was quite dark, and the only illumination came form the Vortege’, which was driving itself

“Whoah, the AIs can drive this thing?” Jason asked. Gwen then appeared in a hologram with a scowl on her face. “Of course we can, dweeb. What do you think AI stands for?”

The rest then laughed appreciatively at Jason and Gwen as Leon led them to a hangar specifically labeled as HANGAR 3.

“So what’s the big surprise?” Trisha asked, arms crossed. The rest were just as curious. More so because it was strange to suddenly involve Trisha and Rose too, the latter being rather quiet throughout the whole thing.

“Well, I just thought I’d give you all your birthday presents early,” Leon said, taking out a remote and pressing it, a faint beep coming from it.

The large hangar door then creaked open, large enough for all of them –the Vortege’ included- to enter in.

It was extremely dark inside, and the Vortege’s headlights did little to illuminate the place. The rest remained silent as Leon then said “Prepare for the shock of your lives.”

With that, they heard another beep, similar to the one from the remote and the entire place was engulfed in light. The rest had to cover their eyes for a second before opening it, and what greeted them next proved that Leon wasn’t lying.

They did have the shock of their lives.

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A/N: So what do you think of the racing sequence? Liked it? Hated it? Do tell me on my blog.

Oh, and what do you think the rest saw in that hangar, eh? You’ll find out soon enough =)