Work Text:
Vale Nights
Chapter 1:
Race Night
The air around her was ice cold, she moved her hand to turn the air conditioning off. The sound of fans trailed off, making the loud rock music coming out of the speakers become louder and more clear. She downshifted, the sound of the 2JZ-GE powered Chaser roared in the outskirts of Vale. The metallic ice white sedan sped by a decrepit sign that had it's destination written on it.
‘Mountain Glenn 80KM’
One of Vale’s worst decisions became one of the greatest opportunities for Vale’s underground. Mountain Glenn’s abandoned, desolate streets became a hotbed for street racing of all sorts, from drag racing to the touge. Someone at one point restored power to the area, lighting up the street lights that lined the district’s streets and spotted the expressway that weaved around and throughout the main section of the borough, the snaking roads on Mountain Glenn however, stayed pitch black, except for the stop at the radio tower, where racers set on the downhill prepared.
That’s where she was headed tonight.
Tonight she was racing the only other her level, she didn’t know his name, she didn’t want to, something about him put her on edge. He didn’t seem like a bad person, but maybe that was her problem, he seemed too genuine, his smile was too honest, and he seemed familiar to her with his slicked back blond hair and after all this time she still couldn’t figure out why. She never took her racing helmet off anywhere inside of Mt. Glenn, and always tucked her hair into it for her wanting to be unrecognized, her deep blue sport jacket with deep blue khakis helped disguise her frame, but it did little to hide her stature as she wore black converses. She hid her identity, and never went near the blond, for fear of recognizing him, or worse, him recognizing her. She could no longer avoid direct contact with him.
The drive to Mt. Glenn was a rather uneventful one, only made better by the low hum of the engine at highway speeds and the rock music blaring. She busied herself by humming along to the Eagles’ Witchy Woman, as she slowed the Chaser down upon her approach to the entrance of Mountain Glenn, the helmeted girl came to a halt as she pulled up to what would be more or less the bouncers of the borough, they took a glance at the licence plate of the sedan. ‘1C3 Q3N’ They quickly waved her through, not wanting to upset the Ice Queen. She never talked in the underground, another one of her identity keeping moves, someone jokingly called her that because of the plate, and it eventually stuck.
She made her way through the maze of orange tinted streets, cruising towards the base of Mt. Glenn. As she approached the base of the mountain, she noticed the road up was blocked off by some cars. The Ice Queen pulled up and got out of her car, a few people looked at her, but went back to their own conversations, as they noticed the blond who was up until then looking at the mountain pass upsettedly, while leaning against his Championship White Integra Type R. He swiftly walked towards her with a purpose, she looked at him through the closed and darkly tinted visor, he had a crisp dark grey button up on, it contrasted his relatively pale face, which drawed her eyes toward it. His jaw was dusted with golden brown stubble, lightly tinted sunglasses sat low on the bridge of his nose, revealing gentle azure eyes. She was about to place the familiarity she saw, but it was interrupted by his low, gravelly yet smooth voice.
“We’re gonna have to make some modifications to our race conditions and remove the first leg,” He nodded his head towards a worse for wear purple 180SX “Some kid got reckless and hit the guardrail, there’s oil all over the pass now, and it’ll be a few days before it can be deemed safe enough for racing, so instead of postponing the race, I was thinking of just doing the sprint and the Expressway Circuit, with one lap of Route B instead of two with A, is that alright?”
The helmet wearing girl nodded, she was disappointed by the downhill being cancelled but also relieved, the downhill could wreak havoc on your nerves, let alone your tires and brakes, but Route B? That was dangerous, maybe even more so than the touge, but it was a fair trade.
“No one has ever heard you speak, not one for words are you Miss Ice?” The blond looked at her questioningly and then shook his head “If you ever do feel like talking, you can call me Jay, now how about we get this show on the road?” After he got her nod of approval, he turned and started walking back to his Honda, quickly whistling for the ‘officials’ to start setting up for the race. They got in their cars to set up at their positions, as the two racers got into their cars to set up at the stop light at the bottom of the mountain pass, the start line was silent excluding the low rumble of the straight-six powered chaser and the hum of the high revving four cylinder B18C.
The race starter leaned against a gunmetal grey Civic reading a magazine when the radio on his waist crackled with an ‘all clear’, he put his magazine down on top of the little hatchback, and went to stand in front of and between the two racers. Jay drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, the Ice Queen settled into her seat. They both watched with their peripheral vision as the starter dropped his hand, tires screeched, the Chaser accelerated swiftly with its six cylinders putting out plenty of torque that went to the rear wheels, the Honda took off the line more carefully to avoid burning out, it lacked the torque and grip that the white sedan did, but what it lacked it made up with it’s high redline as it easily caught up while remaining in first gear as the four banger screamed, full of spirit.
The two white comets navigated between forgotten skyscrapers and apartment complexes, the sidewalks on either side of the street however were packed, filled with spectators eager to watch the top racers duke it out.
The two were not disappointing.
The Chaser braked to make the turn before the straight away that ended in the on-ramp for the expressway, but the Type R went by and braked much later and continued to brake while accelerating through the corner
‘Left foot braking? He’s better than I thought.’ the helmet clad girl thought to herself, before intentionally breaking the rear end of her Chaser loose to perform a grip-drift through the corner, closing the gap the Honda coupe had created. The two rocketed down the straight, hitting the narrow on-ramp side by side, they effortlessly glided onto the wide freeway, barreling past two tollbooths, the final half of the race had started, Route B.
Route B was dangerous, unlike of the other routes, Route B was half above ground on the expressway, other half below on a suspended road that hung above the abandoned and unused cave expansion below. The highway they followed weaved around the outskirts of the district, the duo blared underneath a sign with a downwards pointed arrow, indicating the turn off for the underground route. This turnoff was narrow, barely wide enough for the two cars, it was direct, leading into a tunnel that connected the hanging road to the surface, the racers entered the unlit tunnel, the darkness swallowing them both, but it could not stop the concrete tube from amplifying the exhaust notes to a thunderous level.
Bucking, the cars transitioned from the tunnel to the suspended street, the supports groaned loudly and the road swayed, not liking the weight and abrasive action of the racers. Thoughts went through the girl’s mind a million miles a minute, was she really doing this, one wrong move meant death. All of them stopped suddenly, her mind only focusing on one thing, driving as fast as she could. The blond haired Jay, he never let any thought through his mind, letting his instincts guide him through the narrow winding road that was only visible through the lacklustre illumination headlights could give him, he could feel his coupe hop as the road buckled and dropped slightly as a support gave slightly, light illuminated his right side as he could feel the sedan’s left front fender make contact with his Honda.
The Toyota did not take well to the shift in road height and the Ice Queen fought to remain in control as her sedan angrily fought against her, trying to spin out. The rear end fishtailed and pointed the car in the opposite direction of the right hand corner directly in front of them, she counter steered hard. The car complied and pointed in the right direction, and she took the inside, but the front tires were at their limit and broke traction, understeering the sedan bumped into the Integra on it’s left. The Helmet wearing girl could only hope the skill of the other driver was good enough to maintain control.
He did, he kept his Integra stable and used its front wheel drive to pull both cars through the corner. The front tires of the white sedan gripped the road as they exited the corner.
Adrenaline pumped, this was a sign that the road was definitely unsafe, and more events like that were very likely to happen, and both of them had to be on guard. The road kept bucking and swaying, but they weren’t as bad as the first one, not that it stopped the racers from trading paint as their cars bounced and skidded with the movement of the course. Jumping once more, they transitioned from the deteriorated roadway into a upwards leading tunnel, streetlight shone brightly off the cars as they rocketed out of the tunnel, onlookers cheered in excitement and gasped in awe as they saw the battle was still close, which was unusual coming out of that particular section.
A bountiful blonde woman with long curls smiled behind her sunglasses as she leaned against a sunset hued bike, it was her first time in the district as motorcycle races weren’t popular here. She’d caught wind of a big race and decided to watch, she didn’t feel out of place as many other spectators had come on bikes as well. Her eyes trailed the cherry lights that vanished into the distance, despite only seeing that one short moment, it exhilarated her. She needed to get into a car, she knew where to get one and there was a perfect name to go with it. With a plan hatched in her mind, she got on her bike and took off towards the finish line, she wanted to know who won.
Side-by-side, they sped towards the tollbooths that signaled the finish line, an official sat in each one, to get times, to clearly decide who won. The two racers passed the toll booths and started braking to a stop, it didn’t take long as they braked hard wanting to know who won, and wanting to give their bodies a break as quickly as possible. Both cars came to a screeching halt, a few seconds passed before either decided to get out, to let their adrenaline levels drop. Getting out, they both walked over to each other and shook hands, it was a good race, it was clean racing, no one had any bad intentions. They turned to the race official who had run over to them.
“You’re not gonna believe this,” She said, the racers both raised an eyebrow, but only Jay’s facial movement was seen “It’s a tie; down to the last thousandth of a second.”
Jay wiped the sweat off his forehead with the back of his arm, as the Ice Queen undid her jacket, to reveal a loose tank top beneath, they were hot and race sweat covered them. The sweaty blonde looked at the girl, letting himself get a look at the clothing beneath the jacket, he saw two black points inside the neck of her pale blue tank top, quickly moving his eyes upwards, “Looks like we’re both winners here, or losers, however you want to see it.” he said waving the official away. Giving a curt nod his latest opponent turned around and walked back to her car with a certain level of authority in her walk, it sparked familiarity in his mind, he’d seen that kind of walk almost on a daily basis it belonged to a particular girl he knew, he waved the idea away, it couldn’t be, she wouldn’t do this kind of thing, he strode back to his own car, he looked at his reflection; slicked back hair, stubble. Then again, maybe it was, he smiled as he opened the driver’s door and slid in, and started off for the exit of the district, he was hungry after that, and he knew the perfect place to fulfill his need. He cruised, putting on the stereo to a chill song, and relaxed as a motorcycle went by him, he glanced at it, it was familiar to him, both the bike, and the person on it. He put a hand in his hair and ruffled, it fell around him in a haphazard mop of shagginess.
Life wasn’t always what it seemed to be, and Jaune liked that.
... A half hour later, In a warehouse on the outskirts of Vale…
The Toyota Chaser quietly crawled to a stop, the helmeted girl, stepped out and took off her deep blue outfit after closing the large warehouse door and turning on a section of the large fluorescent lights that provided light to the medium sized warehouse. Next her helmet came off, letting silver white hair fall around her like a frozen waterfall. She stalked towards a Audi A4 Quattro, the same colour as her now rough looking ‘yota. Opening one of the rear doors, she grabbed a bag from the carpeted floor, and pulled out the neatly folded clothes from inside it. She swapped her tank top for a more formal black v-neck short sleeve that was covered by a white autumn business jacket, and she put on a short light gray pleated skirt to tie the outfit together.
Putting her previous wear into the bag sans the helmet, she replaced the package in the back of the medium sedan and fished the keys for it out of a small clutch that she had left on a nearby desk. Finding everything was in order, she turned off the lights, got in the Audi and using a door opener inside, she opened the door and started the Audi, it’s V6 resonating in the cavernous warehouse. She savoured the sound, as she pulled out of the ageing warehouse, pushing the controller to close the door behind her.
Swearing, Weiss remembered, she needed to study for her test in Prof. Port’s history class which was tomorrow. She pushed the pedal down a bit harder, making sure she could get back to Beacon Academy within a reasonable time so she could study.
Just another night in Vale.