Chapter Text
Dr. Ryland Grace was, for all appearances, a normal high school science teacher.
He rode his bike to school every day and he reminded the kids he taught about bike safety at every opportunity. He had black coffee first thing in the morning, he brought his own sandwiches and at lunch he shared his classroom with the kids who needed a safe space. He was a good, kind, sensible man. He was an outstanding teacher.
Dr. Ryland Grace also had a secret. You wouldn't guess it from looking at him and his half put together teacher look. Nor would you think anything of it initially once you found out.
Dr. Ryland Grace had a second job.
Normal, right? He's a teacher, teachers are paid pretty poorly. Most of Dr Grace's colleagues struggled to make ends meet, or were lucky enough to have a well paid spouse.
He worked eight to three, Monday-to-Thursday, and then stayed an extra hour to mark his papers.
Everyday except Fridays.
Fridays were different. Instead of having his last coffee at 1pm with his lunch, Dr. Grace would usually have several more over the course of the afternoon. When his students left at three he would soon follow after, instead of staying to mark papers. He would cycle back to his apartment downtown and swap out of his teaching clothes into something more discreet.
Like many high school teachers across the great country of America Dr Grace couldn't live off just his teachers wage, so he'd found an unexpectedly lucrative loophole.
His second job was very, very well paid. He had been surprised initially by how much he was paid for just one shift a week, but it made sense for what he was doing.
His best friend and flatmate, Rocky, had got him this second job.
The two had met in college when they were both freckle-faced kids. They had been assigned as roommates alphabetically. Ryland Grace and 'Rocky'.
It took almost two years of friendship for Grace to get Rocky's legal name out of him, and he was sworn to secrecy on pain of death.
The two became inseparable almost immediately, spending their time goofing around or running experiments together. Their college and then university days were full of mischief and a surprising amount of drama for two nerds. The other friends Dr. Grace made in college mostly drifted away as he grew up, as it often happens, but he and Rocky stuck together like glue.
They shared an apartment all throughout college and then whilst Grace did his PHD. Once it was over neither of them saw any reason to change the agreement.
So it stayed that way, Rocky and Grace lived together. Currently in a small two bed flat in the suburbs. It was nicer than anywhere either of them had lived before, but it wasn't anything fancy. The living room had a few stains on the ceiling and a little shabby balcony with doors that opened out onto the dull city nights. After rough days Grace would stand there and look out, decompressing slowly with a cup of tea. They kept the same stained sofa they'd had since college alongside a boxy TV and DVD player. Every Wednesday, without failure, the two would play Mario Party and watch a film, a tradition started in their college days and dutifully carried on.
On Fridays, the two would meet at their flat, grab some sandwiches and then head out to the old industrial estates on the edges of the city.
Twenty years ago, these areas had been massive, booming factories, supplying the country with high quality steel. Until the mines to the north ran dry and everything collapsed practically overnight. Now all that was left was a desolate landscape of smashed windows, concrete buildings turning to rubble and pollution that stretched out twenty miles on the city's northern border. The inner city dwellers called it ‘The Hellscape’ due to the abandoned architecture and hazardous chemicals left to rot. It was a volatile environment that drove most people away.
Except, it wasn't as dead and desolate as most thought.
After the chimneys plumeing smoke died and the slag turned cold, a new, equally dangerous industry started to grow. The innercity criminals expanded their activities outward, taking over many of the still usable buildings. Old steel factories turned into makeshift weaponry stores, drug refineries and dodgy nightclubs and brothels. It was a lawless land, the city authorities, strapped for cash and floundering, wouldn't care what happened there, even if they knew.
Gangs formed and conflicts broke out, the area turned to a melting pot of crime that bubbled over and boiled itself down to embers over the course of a decade.
The area now was mostly abandoned again, only a few of the larger factories were still occupied. The main industry there now was entertainment, nightclubs, underground raves, and illegal street racing.
The street racing scene in The Hellscape had boomed in recent years, carefully manipulated by a woman known simply as Director Stratt.
Stratt, who headed the crime syndicate known as ‘The Vat’ due to their base being in one of the massive old smelting towers, was a calm, collected and relentless leader. She had seen an opportunity hidden under the dust and rust, and had taken it. Old spillways and water tunnels became makeshift tracks, old roads diverted into each other to form circuits. Floodlights were put up on the old parking lots and scrap yards and they became makeshift drag racing stretches.
She ran the whole operation like a legitimate business, and that was where Dr Grace and Rocky came in.
Stratt had found Rocky when he was working in a small garage two and a half years ago, running simple MOTs and servicing cars. Rocky loved cars, he practically lived for them, but the job was driving him spare with boredom, and Stratt offered a solution. She had him come and work for her, initially just having him fix small issues with any machinery she needed to be used. Rocky quickly proved his ability to diagnose almost any mechanical or engineering issue and then fix it, so Stratt made him her head mechanic. Any car that wanted to be raced was sent to Rocky to be checked and then serviced, if necessary. Over time, a rag-tag team of mechanics and engineers formed under Rocky’s care. He loved every second of it, especially when newer, flashier cars came to his garage.
Dr. Grace was not a mechanic, nor did he have any knowledge about engineering. But he did have a pretty expansive knowledge of first aid and simple medical care. And so, when Director Stratt had expressed interest in hiring a doctor for dealing with any onsite injuries, Rocky had recommended Grace. He had conveniently left out the fact Grace was a doctor of molecular biology, not medicine, but thankfully it didn't end up being an issue.
Rocky brought Grace to meet Stratt, he did a trial shift and proved he could do what she needed him to, and the rest was history.
Dr. Grace, 8th grade science teacher at Grover Cleveland middle school, moonlighted as a doctor for an illegal street racing gang.