S1, E8 | The Cavern Stratum

“The recon bots are online!” Ellis proclaims, staring at the landscape that he’s paid a good, lengthy look at without being able to see much of note. “Good! Get the bots to the end of the stratum!” Caesar quips back, turning around just as the second level is bathed in a sea of green light, the concentrated energy only now reaching the point at which it will allow drivers inside.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to get there before the drivers do” the right hand man responds, looking on in confusion at the poorly-lit environment that his robots enter, only able to make out where he is by the jagged, oddly luminous stalactites that appear in every direction. “Why not?” Caesar responds, leaving his seat for only a moment whilst taking his eyes to the litany of monitors that his white coat mechanic looks into.

“Because, I-” Ellis replies, pausing for a moment and he takes another survey of the screens that he sits at the helm of, “I think we’re inside a cave.” Pressing his lips together, Caesar looks on with disappointment in the terrain that his eyes are afforded a good look at just as the first few racers dart through the portal.

Spilling out from the hovering, blue orb at the start of the stratum, Harland’s Oldsmobile becomes the first vehicle to touch down upon the race’s newest leg, only this time- its tires don’t make first contact with track. “Where the hell are we!?” the Crew’s leader blurts out, keeping his foot pressed to the pedal for a few seconds before the thought to turn on his headlights enters his mind, affording him a better look at the cramped confines they now must navigate to an end.

“Why is it so dark in here!?” Ronny shouts, going one step further than his group’s leader by turning on the storm lights fitted to his roof. “Because you’re inside the Cavern Stratum” Caesar responds, watching as the flurry of various dash cam feeds fill his wall of monitors, one driver entering the new leg after another. “There’s no track, Caesar! How are we supposed to find the end of this thing?” Vert inquires, straying to the right of the gathered-together biker gang he enters after.

“The lack of a racing track shouldn’t change your ability to find the end of the race” Caesar replies, looking into the man’s dash camera before turning his eyes to the one nearby. “What about the robots you were sending into this place? Taro questions aloud, keeping his focus on the road ahead whilst passing a glance toward the entrance to a separate tunnel open to be taken for any who choose to take a chance on it, “can those things help us?”

“In most circumstances, they probably could” Caesar responds, taking a brief glance over his shoulder to the wall of screens behind himself, finding the same dark and answer-less result as he’d initially seen, “but the only way my robots could find the end would be by navigating the stratum alongside you.”

“We have splits in the first two tracks that eventually led to the same place already; I’m willing to believe this stratum will be no different” Talia replies, following behind Vert’s car whilst keeping her eyes glued to the McLaren gaining ground just behind herself. “There’s finally something the deaf girl and I can agree on” Alec responds, letting his eyes trail to the supercars following behind him, “Hey, Esteemed. I’m gonna go wherever Nolo goes- the rest of you should split up.”

“Why would we split up?” Eric questions back, following the lead of Ross’ Tributo whilst Lana trails a few yards behind himself, “wouldn’t that just make it easier for the drones to take us out of the race?”

“We should split up because I said we should split up” Alec answers, playing the leadership card at first before thinking better of it, offering up a more preferable answer to save face, “besides, if we split up, maybe one of us will get lucky and find a track that gets us to the end the fastest.” Though displeased and left slightly uncomfortable by the suggestion, Eric settles into his seat and keeps his eyes glued to the narrow corridors that he and his teammate’s traverse.

“For once, the preppy kid might’ve just had a pretty good idea” Harland remarks, addressing his own squad whilst keeping to the same route as the rest of his group, “Crew, split up into pairs. Ronny will stick with me while Taro and Wayland will stick with each other.” Indifferent to the plot, the group’s co-founder nods in agreement with the plan before glancing into his rear-view mirror, staring at the front of the Firebird that keeps on his tail.

“We gonna follow suit or keep to the original plan, Dale?” Butch questions aloud, lowering his visor as the back tire of the DSRC’s leader begins to kick up grains of sand, shielding his face from the pebbles and dust. “We’re on bikes and I don’t know what shit’s gonna get thrown at us in this race” the group’s leader replies, watching as another potential route appears in the near distance, the tunnel’s entrance luring him in, “we’re sticking together... follow me.”

“What’s the call, Nolo?” Kurt questions from behind the leader’s Porsche, fine with whichever decision is made in lieu of just being able to race again. “The DSRC’s on bikes. They’ve got a reason to stick together the rest of us don’t really have” Nolo replies, barely able to see his second in command remove the aviator shades from his face, their presence over his eyes acting more like an obstruction than a benefit, “we’ll split up. No matter what, though- make sure Alec stays with me.”

“You got it” Kurt replies, casually shifting into the next gear before triggering his turn signal and departing from the rest of his team, pulling off to the left and venturing into the newest-appearing tunnel system. “Follow Kurt, Taro” Mark proclaims, instructing the higher-ranking driver on where to go without thinking much of the act, though he’s not met with the refusal that the co-founder would otherwise be in position to wield.

Veering left, Taro leads the younger Wayland sibling down the system taken by the older one, this action noticed with ease by what remains of the Esteemed. “I’m going down the one the brothers went down” Ross proclaims, quickly pulling his Tributo’s tires down the frequented system with the faintest warning, heading off into the depths of the stratum on his own, “see you guys on the other side!”

“Hey Alec, keep a good look at me!” Nolo shouts back, diverting from the rest of his drivers in pulling closer to the right of the main cavern system than the others, still given the typical six-car width to work with. Triggering his right-most turn signal, the Kaiyo leader offers the Esteemed’s leader a hint at where he’s headed off to, waiting for a moment as the trailing driver’s McLaren also pulls away from the rest of his group.

“Whatever the next tunnel system on the right is- I’m taking it” the Kaiyo leader remarks, tempting the cocky racer with the flashing, yellow indicator as a new mouth of the cave opens up. “If you really wanna see who can put their money where their mouth is, follow me” Nolo doubles down, turning his steering wheel in the direction of the approaching passageway, venturing through its entry just two seconds prior to Alec following the same suit.

“You gonna let me know where you’re pulling off to, Tali-?” Vert questions back, looking into his rear-view mirror just in time to watch the woman’s yellow indicator vanish into the opening of a system he’d already passed, her warning not offered as one would anticipate. “I think I’m gonna follow after the mute one” Lana proclaims, quickly directing her Pista down the same tunnel as the Kaiyo driver’s M-Coupe, “maybe we’ll have ourselves a little girl’s night out!”

Without speaking a word, Eric follows after the woman’s vehicle ahead of him, interfering with his teammate’s humorous plans in following after his friends, leaving the system as a host of three. “Alright, I guess I’ll just follow Harland and Monkey” Vert proclaims, keeping his eyes held upon the cavern’s central system, willing to play ball with what lies ahead and keep to the road he sees little issue with following further.

“Hey, Harland? Is there any chance we could maybe not pick a fight with Vert?” Ronny wonders aloud, holding a sincere tone of voice in his request, “I know he’s a Kaiyo driver and all, but he called me by my nickname.” Chuckling, Harland presents a smirk as he looks at the mirror on his Oldsmobile, only able to make out the rival driver’s headlights behind them.

“I don’t have a problem with you, Vert. Ronny seems to be keen on letting you stick with us, so I’ll just say this now-” Harland replies, extending his teammate’s request for the Kaiyo driver to answer, “as long as you leave us alone, we’ll leave you alone.” Shrugging with very little reason to see a need for competing for supremacy this early into the stratum, Vert settles into his chair for a ride more casual than it typically is, “I guess I’m down for a Sunday drive.”

= Driveline is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series belong to Zachary Serra and his entity of Pacer1 from the start of Season 1 onwards =

“I know we’re in a cave and it’s supposed to be quiet, but don’t get comfortable” Dale calls out, continuing to man the DSRC’s frontlines from behind the handlebars of his Fury, eyes glueing themselves toward the walls of the cavern on either side, “be ready to act when the stratum stops being quiet.”

“Yeah, or whenever the dro-” Tyson attempts to joke, only to instinctively duck close to the base of his chopper just as the rest of his group does, the sound of screeching emanating with vicious intensity and interrupting whatever quip he’d intended to make. “What the hell was that!?” Butch’s son proclaims, the first to pull his head away from the bike and take his eyes toward his immediate surroundings, watching as the once-low ceiling of the cavern begins to stretch higher and higher.

“I don’t know, but whatever it is should probably know that I’m armed” Pat replies, quickly retrieving the shotgun from his bike’s internal chambers whilst staying on high alert. “Like I said, we shouldn’t get comfor-!” Dale proclaims, only to interrupt himself by veering off to the right without the faintest warning ahead of time, forced to react to the set of massive feet that swoop toward the ground and quickly retreat higher into the cave’s system.

Still unable to bring himself to speak, the DSRC leader’s troubles don’t end with the sudden call to action, but continue as his bike violently thrashes from one side to another, unbalanced in a way that leaves it incapable of being controlled. “Dale!” Butch shouts, trailing behind the man as all that can be seen from the vice president’s point of view is the headlight ahead shaking without stopping and slamming into the ground.

“Go around him, boys! Go around!” Butch hollers, pulling back on his chopper as his fingers wrap around the bike’s brake and tug at it with all of his might. Aware of what is expected of them, the younger members of the DSRC are left with little time to react, the orders that they’re given becoming the only instructions they have to go off of.

Leading the charge, Tyson continues on through the spacious corridor whilst Pat follows suit, not a soul ahead of him to call out shots ahead of time. “What the hell do we do now!?” the Tarken child blurts out, briefly glancing back as the sound of ear-piercing screeches commences behind them once again, this time sounding much closer than it has any right to be.

“Keep going! Keep going!” Pat shouts, keeping loyal to his friend’s lead before feeling heavy gusts of wind crash against his back, their spaced-apart nature leaving the DSRC’s remnants concerned that their troubles have only just begun.

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“Excuse me!” Ross shouts amidst a chuckle, firing down the tunnel system’s straight away behind the use of his booster as he passes the Crew teammates that had been ahead of him. “Hey, watch it preppy!” Mark calls out, pulling his car off to the left in an attempt to gain ground on the Esteemed driver, only to find the back of Taro’s ‘Cuda Convertible cutting him off from doing so.

“Move out of the way, Taro!” Mark shouts ahead, watching as the Tributo’s tail lights continue to journey forward through the near completely-dark tunnel system. “Draft with me” the Crew’s co-founder replies, paying no mind to the order that was called out for him as he shifts into the next gear, blocking the younger Wayland sibling off from passing him again once the vehicle behind him shifts toward the right.

“Wayland, the last time you didn’t follow orders, it cost us an entire race” Taro calls back, laying down the line for his teammate to follow of his own volition, “now do what you should’ve done last time and fall back in line.” Subduing a grunt, Mark slams his balled fist against the Firebird’s steering wheel before slightly lessening his speed, following the commands paid to him by the squad’s superior.

Humoured by the hand his brother had been forcibly dealt, Kurt grins at the discourse a few paces behind himself before taking notice of the headlights that approach. “Welcome to the leader’s circle, kid” the older Wayland brother proclaims, keeping the smirk held upon his face as he maintains his lead on the three drivers trailing behind himself, “when I beat you, do me a favour and try not to take it too hard. It’s nothing personal.”

“Shut your mouth, street punk” Ross replies, steadying his focus on the car that his own vehicle quickly approaches, forced to let off the gas as it manoeuvres to ensure it keeps ahead. “Those are some harsh words, preppy” Kurt replies, lifting his chin as the cave system’s roof begins to gradually increase in height, “I’m just trying to give you a heads up. I’ve been winning street races since before you were even out of diapers.”

Refusing to come up with a retort to offer the second in command just a few yards ahead, Ross’ silence allows him and the other drivers within the vicinity a better opportunity to hear the echo-heavy sound of screeching with total clarity. “Hey, what the hell are you two doing up there!?” Mark shouts out, still within the range of the other squad’s racers whilst the sound of horrid screaming resonates all the way toward their position in the back.

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“Can you hear me, girlie?” Lana wonders, keeping within the range to see the M-Coupe’s tail lights ahead, unsure if the driver is paying any mind to the words that she utters. “Only because I have to” Talia responds, staring at the centre console of her vehicle as the screen she’d wired into it affords her the information that issues connecting to a viable network prevent her from flooding her ears with music.

“Oh come on, I can’t be that bad” the Esteemed leader’s girlfriend responds, her left hand cradling the bottom of the Pista’s steering wheel whilst her other sits atop it, “besides, I’m the only other girl in these competitions for you to talk to.”

“I don’t see how us being the only girls in the race matters whatsoever” Talia replies, shifting her vehicle into the next gear as she pulls the wheel toward the right, following the curve in the stratum’s route. “‘Cause us girls should really be sticking together, don’t you think?” Lana rebukes, keeping a passing glance on the headlights that follow her car’s own lead, aware of who they belong to in spite of her refusal to acknowledge its driver.

“Not really” Talia responds, straightening out her vehicle as their passageway merges with a second one, the track they hadn’t taken and yet now occupy the same route as appearing to have not been chosen by any other racer. “I don’t care if you’re a dude or a chick... I’m a better driver than you” Kaiyo’s silent artist of the wheel clarifies, also aware of the shadowing that her friend amongst the Esteemed performs a few yards away.

“Does that apply to your other street punk friends, too?” Lana challenges, genuinely curious as to the depths that the claims of her rival team’s mostly-observant racer are willing to reach. Refusing to answer at first, Talia instead stares into the reflection of her rear-view mirror, looking at the pair of white head lights that follow behind her before a second-long glimpse of a third set of lamps join in on the fray, only their luminosity taking on the appearance of a green colour.

“We’ve got drones behind us” the M-Coupe racer calls back, the straight away they now reach affording her a more certain guarantee of the warning she’d provided. “Behind us!? How are they behind us!?” Lana questions back, briefly looking over her shoulder in an effort of glancing through her rear windshield, only to find the same sight that Eric does at their very end.

“I could be wrong, but I’m counting four of them” the lone male driver proclaims, keeping an eye and a running tally out for those ahead of him, the gentle turn of his wheel allowing his car to remain in front of the robotic convoy he now leads. “We must’ve beaten them into the stratum this time” Talia responds, keeping a closer look on her rear view mirror before the sound of an explosion occurs alongside the violent trembling of the ground beneath their tires.

“What the fuck!?” Eric exclaims, having just barely managed to catch a glimpse at the bioluminescent stalactite that had fallen from the heavens above, its jagged tip slamming back to earth and crushing one of the corporation’s vehicles beneath it- resulting in a bright burst of flames. Caught by surprise, Talia regains her bearings at the front of the group just in time to centre her focus upon the pathway ahead, where another glowing rock formation slams into the ground a few dozen yards away.

“Veer right!” the Kaiyo driver proclaims, disregarding their team affiliation in a moment that threatens more than just their professional standing. Fighting past the vibrations in the cavern, Lana and Eric follow the woman’s lead in avoiding the dimly-lit rock that obstructs their path in a way that a second drone behind them finds unequal luck in.

Programmed to slam on the brakes, the corporation vehicle at the front of the pack fails to climb down from its excessive speeds as its distance from the fallen formation proves too little to overcome. Folding up like a pancake, the drone car viciously wraps around the fallen stalactite whilst its two remaining aids continue on after the human drivers, hurrying down the dark stretch of the stratum that still lies ahead- waiting to be explored.

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“What is this thing!?” Tyson shouts back, watching a pair of fuzzy feet swoop down and spread its toes in an effort of latching onto the man’s chopper. “I don’t know!? Why the hell would you think I’d know!?” Pat exclaims, instinctively ducking every few seconds without certainty over what’s attacking them, the barrel of his shotgun aimed upward in hopes that he may get lucky in the event his ride becomes the focus of their assailant.

“We need to go back! My dad could be in trouble!” Tyson shouts back once more, arming himself with a firearm of his own whilst trying to maintain a grasp on the cavern’s layout. “Dale and Butch have the angel button, they’ll use it if they have to!” Pat proclaims back, tilting his shotgun’s aim slightly in his friend’s direction, aware that the club’s new, temporary leader seems to be earning the majority of the creature’s attention.

“Caesar, what’s this thing attacking us!?” Tyson shouts aloud, again ducking at the first sight of the assailant’s feet, lifting the barrel of the gun and firing into the darkness above whilst receiving no answer. “Caesar!?” the only son of the club’s vice president calls back, still finding himself having gone without a response.

“Get it back!” the scientist proclaims, up in arms over the situation unfolding at home in the second level. “I’m trying, we’re not getting any connection!” Ellis yelps back, waving his hands at both the monitors meant to receive the recon bot’s transmissions and those designed to return the driver’s point of view, not a single screen left with a picture other than static.

Steadying his aim, Pat tries to regain his composure and prepare himself for a counter-attack, brushing off the ear-stinging screaming from the cretin above the longer that it appears. “I’ve got a plan!” Tyson suddenly shouts from ahead, keeping up his pace against the threat that looms above, the comment quickly talking his now-subordinate down from the ledge of jumping into action he’d prepared to take.

“You’re gonna let off the gas just a little bit and trail behind me. Then, I’ll do the same when I’m a little farther away” Tyson remarks, setting himself up to be in the position of putting his faith in the DSRC’s odd-man-out, “when this thing reaches down to get me... fill it with bullets.”

“Are you sure, Ty!?” Pat calls back, finding enough substance in the plan to go along with it, but his mind can’t help but attach itself to the dangers that are posed. “I don’t see how we have any other choice but to aim high and shoot wildly! I don’t even know what this thing is!” Tyson replies, committing himself to the plot that’s been laid out, though his intestines tempt themselves to knot out of the anxiety such a tactic leaves him with.

“Alright, man! Here it goes!” the DSRC’s sharpshooter replies, slightly letting off the gas and allowing the group’s temporary leader to continue ahead without him, keeping the same pace as before for another few seconds before doing as instructed. Freeing his fingers from the handlebar, Tyson watches the speedometer’s number begin to lower as the gusts of wind that collide with his back only increase.

Wanting to ensure his plan’s effectiveness, the club’s new leader turns the barrel of his weapon directly upward and fires at the same moment that Pat does, their bullets provoking a guttural cry from the creature that plummets from the cavern’s incredible heights and crashes into the ground. “Stop! Stop! Stop!” Tyson commands, reaching for the bike’s brakes just as his subordinate does, their tires collectively dragging along the ground and coming to a total halt.

Catching his breath, Tyson steadies himself on the bike as the chaos that surrounds him comes to a pause, the screeching having been thwarted and overhead assault now ceasing. “Is that a bat!?” the man wonders aloud, turning his head toward the rider who stops just beside him, their combined headlights finally offering them a look at the deceased creature. “No, man-” Pat replies, staring in awe at the size of the killed attacker, “-that was a giant bat.”

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Diving through the gargantuan bat’s body as it collapses from the ceiling nearly one hundred feet in the air, the glowing stalactite takes care of one issue that the drivers passing it had to face, instead leaving them with a new obstacle to overcome. “Careful, preppy! We’ve got more problems raining down!” Kurt quips back, unphased by the plummeting rock formations that crash from above enough to prod at the Esteemed racer, “we wouldn’t want daddy’s car being totaled, would we?”

“Eat shit, street punk!” Ross shouts back, shifting his car into the next gear as he expertly navigates the falling obstructions, following the lead of the Kaiyo driver ahead of him better than what the leader had been anticipating. “You’re not a bad driver, rich boy” Kurt commends, shifting his own vehicle’s gear in order to kick his speed to a higher level, growing more comfortable with the cavern’s route the longer that he spends in it.

“Of course not... I’m the best” Ross replies, paying little mind to the snide remarks he’s offered from the second in command as he maintains his speed, keeping the distance between them the same as it has been since they’d entered the tunnel. “Keep your cool, Wayland” Taro remarks, the sound of his voice clearly irking the lower-ranking driver, the tapping of the younger Wayland sibling’s hand against the top of his wheel making it evident that he wishes to pass his superior.

“Considering who’s in front of you... I wouldn’t call you the best” Kurt responds, again keeping his vehicle in the way of the man that stays behind him, only to be met with less pleasantry than he had been given originally. “Watch it, asshole!” the Kaiyo driver barks back, his body jostled forward as Ross clams the hood of his Tributo into the rear of the Wayland brother’s RX-7.

“What’re you gonna do about it, huh?” the Esteemed driver pokes back, again ramming his hood against the Kaiyo vehicle before looking toward the heavens and taking notice of the stalactite that plummets. Pointing out his opportunity, Ross pulls toward the opposite side of the track as the man ahead of him and avoids the collapsing formation all the same, only this time allowing himself a chance to take advantage of the open space ahead.

“Not a smart move, preppy!” Kurt proclaims, refusing to get in the way of the Esteemed driver upon watching him speed ahead, taking advantage of the turbo as they near a corner. “How about you watch me instead, street punk!?” Ross exclaims, overtaking Kaiyo’s second in command with great ease before quickly watching the slope in the wall ahead approach.

“Shit!” the new leader grunts, watching as sparks fly off of his car whilst its left side drags against the cavern’s, the vehicle’s speed having been too great to properly turn with the approaching corner. “I think I’ll just keep on my merry way; thank you for the offer though!” Kurt chirps, retaking the lead as the racer he passes makes an attempt to free himself from riding the wall.

“Get off the- fuck!” Ross howls, sharply turning away from the wall before losing control of the vehicle entirely, his back tires dragging along the cavern’s surface as it begins to spin out. “Oh goddamnit!” Taro exclaims, stomping on the brakes and turning his wheel in an attempt to avoid the out-of-control Esteemed vehicle ahead, his efforts proving futile as they collide head-on.

Unable to help himself from breaking out into a laugh, Mark successfully evades the crash that his superior had failed to manoeuvre around before continuing on unimpeded. Bouncing in his chair, the younger Wayland sibling takes a guilty pleasure in seeing his teammate fall victim to the catastrophe that he now advances past, knowing that there’s no one to keep him from closing in on his brother ahead.

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“Stay behind me! Keep your eyes on the-!” Talia exclaims, extending an olive branch toward the rival faction members in hopes of leading them to safety, only for her commands to fall silent with no explanation. “Talia, are you good!?” Eric shouts aloud, pausing for a moment as he follows his teammate’s trail, hoping that the route Lana follows is the same one his Kaiyo-affiliated friend provides, “Talia!? Talia!?”

Still left with no answer, Eric manoeuvres with each turn and avoided brush with chaos that Lana takes before catching a glimpse of headlights stopped in the opposite direction as them, parked on the side of the road beside a toppled-over stalactite. “Who was that!?” the Huracan’s driver calls out, hoping that the Pista’s operator would afford her teammate some clarity.

“Just keep following me!” Lana barks back, not answering the question her teammate raised, but instead attempting to lead his attention elsewhere. “What do you mean ‘follow you’?” Eric wonders aloud, doing as instructed whilst a single pair of green headlights remain in his rear-view mirror, the woman’s declaration not making much in the way of sense, “what happened to Talia!?”

“Owww... fffuuuccckkk” Talia groans, pulling her head away from the M-Coupe’s steering wheel whilst reaching for her neck, feeling an immediate soreness come over her from the whiplash she’d sustained. Listening to a group of engines roar past her, the surprising sound of a singular set of screeching tires brings the Kaiyo driver’s mind around to the task at hand, the stratum’s leg still open and waiting to be completed.

Trying to disregard the ringing in her ears, Talia takes a brief glance to the fallen rock formation just beside her driver’s side door before a set of green headlamps turn toward her, having retreated from further ahead in the cavern. Slowly turning around the fallen stalactite, the corporation vehicle turns its face directly toward the crashed M-Coupe, its bright-coloured bulbs shining upon the chrome body of the Kaiyo vehicle.

Unsure of what this display is meant to represent, Talia pauses for a moment and waits around for the drone car to act, her confusion only deepening once its front bumper begins to shift mechanically. Protruding from where the corporation vehicle’s bumper normally is, a barrel emerges from within the robotic automobile and takes its aim toward the human driver, the presentation one that no sense can truly be made of.

Deep within the cylindrical shell, an orb of electricity begins to form within, gradually making its way to the barrel’s exit as it pulsates and readies within. “Fuck” Talia murmurs, fighting past the pain that shoots up her left arm as she suffers it’s toll, knowing the impending danger to be worth reaching for the angel button. “Fuck, fuck, f-” she continues to groan, her yet-unknown injury making it impossible for her to reach the centre console.

Prepared to fire, the drone car’s barrel vanishes from the woman’s line of sight without warning as the speeding car that had just begun to approach slams into the side of her would-be killer. Armed with the battering ram that had been installed but had yet to be used, the Huracan’s front crashes into the unmanned automobile and sends it flying into the distance, crumbling and shattering upon impact with a far-off side of the cavern.

With widened eyes, Talia stares ahead at the now-stopped supercar as its door on the opposite side from her opens, allowing the racer within to spill out into the stratum. With a hurry in his step, Eric makes a mad dash for the chrome car’s passenger’s side, his crawl into the vehicle made in an effort to check on the wounded Kaiyo member. 

“Don’t worry, I’ve gotcha” the sympathetic driver assures, paying the injured competitor a comfort completely dissimilar to the dismissive disregard Lana had instead taken. Not in any position to fight the gesture, Talia goes along with the aid that Eric provides her, his soft touch helping her safely slide through the unobstructed entry to her vehicle as he leads her back to his ride.

“Do you know how much further the portal is?” the Kaiyo racer wonders aloud, hoping she doesn’t have to wait for too long to receive the medical attention she desperately needs. “It doesn’t matter and I don’t care” Eric replies, disregarding the stratum entirely as he loads her into his vehicle and attaches the towing line his car had been fitted with to the woman’s M-Coupe, “this race can go fuck itself.”

Buckling his friend into her seat, Eric covers all of his bases before flipping the plastic shell on his centre console and slamming his hand against the angel button. Vanishing in a flash of light, the Huracan and M-Coupe that it’s line is attached to disappear, returned to the second level alongside the drivers they belong to.

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Trailing behind a pair of corporation vehicles, Nolo and Alec attempt to out-manoeuvre their racing adversaries to no avail, the cars ahead proving too efficient to leave them an opportunity to pass. “Move aside, street punk! You’re getting in my way!” the Esteemed’s leader barks, directing the side of his McLaren into that of the Porsche he travels at the same pace as.

“Not gonna happen, preppy!” Nolo shouts back, reciprocating the provocative gesture that had left streaks of black paint along his car’s chrome exterior to the man responsible. Aggravated, Alec reads his surroundings for a moment as the cavern begins to narrow once more, decreasing in size from the great heights that had watched bats and stalactites plummet toward them and back to the way it had originally greeted them with- a short ceiling and wide tunnel.

“It’s getting smaller... we must be getting close to the end” Nolo murmurs to himself, momentarily forgetting about the communication system in his helmet, cluing the Esteemed leader into such a fact. Convinced that his time to act is limited, Alec settles for the first opening that catches his eye, again slamming his McLaren into the Kaiyo leader’s Porsche in order to capitalise on a momentary opening.

Making use of his booster, the Esteemed leader fires off through the cramped space between the leading corporation vehicles and assumes the race’s lead, leaving behind both his human peers and the unmanned bots that tail him. “You ain’t winning this time!” Mark proclaims, just barely trailing his older brother’s car as they spill into the same tunnel system as the Kaiyo leader, a fact they quickly take notice of.

“I don’t care what issues the two of you have; Alec’s in the lead!” Nolo shouts, wasting no time in addressing the drivers that he tolerates much easier than the man who’d assume the leg’s most-desired position. “Preppy’s in the lead!?” Mark shouts back, immediately taking his eyes toward his older brother’s car before taking a moment to consider his options.

“Fuck it... Don’t let preppy win this thing!” the younger Wayland sibling proclaims, pulling away slightly from his brother’s vehicle in the name of battling a common foe. “Good luck stopping me!” Alec gleefully yelps back, watching as the rival siblings take on distance between each other to limit the corporation’s ability to counterattack.

Unable to cut off passage from the three racers behind them on account of being outnumbered, the drone vehicles opt to restrict forward progress to the advancing siblings. Strategically going just slightly slower than his second in command and the enemy faction’s wildcard, Nolo makes himself appear like the least-threatening of the trio to ensure the corporation overlooks him, affording him the opportunity to pass the automated cruisers.

In a last-ditch attempt to maintain their control on the situation, the unmanned ride closest to the Kaiyo leader pulls away from his only other source of support, attempting to pit-manoeuvre the Porsche’s back end when possible. “I don’t think so!” Nolo proclaims, his eye kept on the closest drone cruiser in anticipation of such an attempt, and his finger held atop the booster until the timing is perfect.

Firing past the corporation car, Nolo watches in his rear view mirror as the attempt leaves his adversary slamming against the cavern’s wall and falling out of control of itself. Losing its only capable support, the final remaining drone mercenary finds itself caught between four drivers- most of whom hate each other more than the unseen figures behind the company that manufactured it.

Its windshield stretching from the base of its hood all the way to the top of its trunk, the lone unmanned vehicle registers its situation before searching through its programming for the most efficient course of action. “I don’t care how many drones you get rid of or how many issues the three of you put aside... I’m not losing this race” Alec declares, speaking to the topless Porsche that gains along its right side, the glowing stalactites that had lined the stratum now nowhere to be found.

With a laundry list of reactions to take, the corporation vehicle settles upon the one option with the highest potential success rate, enacting the plan that appears to be its ticket to victory. Whilst Kurt approaches upon its left and Mark makes the same progression to his right, the unmanned car becomes surrounded in a dark purple glow that matches the change in colour upon its highly advanced dashboard, the vibrancy of such a distinctive outline strong enough to shed light on the tunnel.

“Will it win?” a blonde woman wonders aloud from the entrance of a sterile conference room, looking toward the single chair of many, its seat the only one occupied. “It’s a perfect machine... it should” a bald man replies, leaning back in his seat with one arm draped across the top of the table he sits at whilst the other leans against his chin, his right leg crossed over the left, “and if it somehow didn’t... That would be the worst result the humans could ever possibly ask for.”

“Are you guys seeing this!?” Kurt questions aloud, the only one with enough presence of mind to speak through his stupefaction. Veering to the right, the drone vehicle’s vibrant outer shell makes contact with the front of the younger Wayland sibling’s Firebird, provoking an intense bolt of lightning to strike at the Crew racer’s car, stalling it without warning.

Wasting no time in attempting to gain ground on its adversaries, the corporation vehicle quickly veers toward the left and leaves Kurt’s RX-7 to find a similar fate, stalling at the behest of a lightning strike that the automated vehicle wields like a weapon. Keeping to themselves, Nolo and Alec push their vehicle to the fastest speeds they can manage, attempting to not only outrun the drone, but outright beat the other to the finish line.

“You’ve got no chance, Nolo!” Alec proclaims, battling the man’s efforts with his own certainty, staring at the Kaiyo leader through the passenger’s window before punching at his booster. Deploying a grappling hook from its front, the drone car latches onto the Esteemed leader’s McLaren and hitches a ride that Nolo himself matches, striking at his own booster as their robotic third wheel disengages it's supernatural, purple glow-initiating advantage.

Squeezing between the human vehicles, the corporation car advances at the same speed as its human contemporaries, left with little time to regain its mystical powers as they turn the final corner, finally being granted a look at the blue sphere responsible for bringing them home. With all other options expended and desperate to guarantee himself triumph, Alec violently throws his car toward the right, bouncing off the drone vehicle that he sends crashing into the Kaiyo leader’s own.

Bracing for impact as his tires drag uncontrollably along the ground, Nolo slams against the back of the propulsion machines whilst the corporation racer spins out a few yards behind himself. Only able to regain control of his car once the McLaren speeds past, the Kaiyo leader is forced to watch as the portal he’d neared so close to flashes in a burst of light, returning the first driver of the day back to where they’d come from.

Touching down upon the exit ramp, Alec’s vehicle speeds to the second level’s ground floor and drags its tires to a stop a few paces off to the side. Quickly taking a look around himself, the Esteemed leader surveys the area that hosts only a pair of horrifyingly-shredded motorbikes, a chrome M-Coupe and the blue Huracan that had escorted it out of the stratum.

Racing through the conference room, Caesar and Ellis lean over the balcony and stare at the driver below, watching him exit his vehicle whilst looking around in an almost paranoia-like pace. “Am I the first one!? Did I win!?” Alec questions aloud, hurriedly returning to the safety of his vehicle as Kurt’s RX-7 tears through the portal, his brother’s Firebird following only a few seconds later and Nolo’s Porsche touching back upon solid ground not too long after that.

“DAMNIT!” the bald man shouts, his voice startling the woman who watches on from the other side of the room as his fist slams against the table’s surface, forced to witness his machines fall victim to a loss for the first time. “What happened!? We lost communication just after you all entered the stratum!” Caesar exclaims, hurrying down the winding staircase with his mechanic in tow, the question reacted to poorly by Nolo as he steps out of the vehicle.

“I don’t know, how do I know if I won!?” Alec shouts back, throwing his hands out by each side before the unexpected appearance of a flash of light just a few feet away from his eyes prompts him to leap back. Whilst his hips slam into the side of the McLaren, the Esteemed leader’s face takes toward the small, glowing orb that manifests out of thin air, a sight that brings the founder of the second level to an awestruck pause as he reaches the end of his descent.

“What the-?” Nolo mutters beneath his breath, taken aback just as the Wayland siblings are only a few yards away, the shock and fear that’s presented upon Alec’s face making it clear that he’s not sure what to make of the spectacle either. “Oh my...” Caesar remarks, his eyes wide and mouth agape as he and his right hand man approach slowly, their arrival prompting all parties involved to turn toward them, “...it’s real!”

“What’s real!? What is this thing!?” Alec shouts back in a panic, trying to maintain as large of a distance as his McLaren’s massive frame will allow him to take. “Grab it!” Caesar hurriedly commands, watching the Esteemed driver’s eyebrows lift at the order before his hand acts as instructed, a moment of temporary fearlessness coming over him.

In a small explosion of orange light, Alec’s fingers wrap around a modest, card-shaped item that bears only a pair of odd, triangular shapes upon it, one higher than the other and both points facing away from each other. “A stratum key!” the scientist proclaims through shortness of breath, finally earning the right to see one in person.

“What the fuck is that!? What does that mean!?” the Esteemed leader questions aloud once more, still trying to keep himself as far away from the device in spite of the fact that he holds it in his own hand. “Many things!” Caesar responds, his inability to speak in more than the most-necessary terms prompting Ellis to take over the discourse, only saying what the possessing driver would want to hear.

“Congratulations, Alec...” the mechanic replies, his proclamation earning the undivided attention of all racers present, the pause he takes accompanied by a pleased smile, “you’ve won the Cavern Stratum.”

== Driveline ==