“Oh man, I can’t make no Medicare co-payment…”

FUTURAMA (the episode where the Professor takes up Dimensional Drifting. Which, by the way, could be an awesome concept if done correctly. See bottom for more detail.) — So while he’s zooming off and racing, why not just turn around and go home? Is that guy going to be able to chase you down to where you live?

Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift — I heard that Japanese police won’t chase you down when you’re racing, they’ll just take pictures and show up at your house the next day. Those cars drive so fast that it’s a worse danger chasing them down.

RANDOM THOUGHT: I would hate driving around in the future equivalent of a family van. I’d prefer the shady lifestyle of Firefly with a tad less danger. Just tooling around the galaxy in my spaceship enjoying myself, then coming home to a normal house.

*

PROMPT: MC’s younger brother is into speed racing, and MC lets Brother soup up his vehicle. Then later when the action happens, he’s able to pull out the speed stops and break out of danger.

– MC is a normal guy that finds himself in extraordinary circumstances, and he shows a remarkable competence.

—

Yesterday he was sitting around his house watching the clock, waiting for his favorite show to start. Today he was in a desperate race to save his own life.

Thank God Maxie was such a gear head.

Rey had felt like disaster could strike at any moment, but he’d let Maxie work on his car. The kid had babbled for days about different adjustments he wanted to make on Rey’s Mock Faive. He’d been so excited that Rey couldn’t say no.

And now, because of Maxie’s upgrade, the Mock Faive — which had started out as a standard model with floor mats as the only luxury — was outrunning the squad of Law Officers that were screaming after him down the highway, their lights flashing farther and farther away in his rearview mirror.

“How the fuck is this happening?!” Tiny yelled from the passenger seat.

“Thank Maximilian. He gave the old Mock Faive a work over.” Rey neatly shifted and slid across the lane as smooth as he’d always dreamed of driving — it made him glance at his speedometer, his lips twitching as he held back an exuberant grin.

Sure, the cops were probably going to be waiting at his place to impound his car and ship him off to jail, but he couldn’t even care at this point. He was having the greatest adventure of his life, and he’d always promised himself (while watching movies, dreaming that he was Action Guy instead of Stable and Dependable Guy) that if he ever found himself in an adventure situation he would live the moment to the fullest.

He just prayed he didn’t end up sent to actual prison at the end of the night. A few days in jail was one thing. Something going onto his permanent record was something else.

There was a pained moan from the backseat. He risked a peek in the rear view mirror and saw the girl’s sweaty, pained face in the mirror. She was curled around her brother/boyfriend/dirty age-mate friend with her fingers digging into his jean-clad leg with desperate strength. Her dark brown hair hung in straggles against her face, sticking to her bloody, tooth-ripped lips as they opened in panting cries.

Her stomach was huge! Rey thought he glimpsed a ripple passing under the taut green tee shirt. That baby was about to pop.

“Where do I go?” he asked, taking a quick Exit in the hopes of avoiding drone coverage. If he were lucky, they’d amass along the highway routes, and he’d be able to slip past the whole mess before they realized he’d left the main road for a while.

“I don’t know,” the boy’s voice was painfully young and terrified. It made something ache in Rey’s chest — which was strange, since he’d never been the kind to care much for the woes of other people. The only ones he was warm to were members of his own family. Yet here he was risking imprisonment and Forced Re-Conditioning for a couple of runaway teenagers that had babbled some crazy story at him when he’d pulled over to check on them.

The boy’s rambling story, spoken much too fast to completely comprehend, had probably been lies, though he’d sensed enough from them both to know they were in bad trouble. They were on the run, chased by dangerous people that wanted the girl and her baby. That was all Rey needed to know, especially when he’d gotten a good look at the girl and seen how beat up she was.

Both of the kids were showing wounds on the exposed portions of their skin. It was mostly bruises on their faces, minor but painful looking marks, but there were cuts on their arms and hands as well as mysterious dark patches on their clothes. He only had to look in their eyes to see that they were in desperate need of saving.

It had been a no-brainer to let them in his car and start driving. Though he’d been terrified when those Company goons showed up and tried to run them off the road. It had only gotten worse when they’d pulled out an armory’s worth of weapons.

He’d never seen himself as a wheel man, but he’d outrun those Company cruisers and the Law Officers as well. It was kind of exciting.

“Seriously, where are we taking you guys?” he asked. “Because Tiny and I cannot get any more involved with your situation. Sorry, but we have families and lives.” “We… Can you take us to Bolston? Our uncle is waiting for us,” the boy said.

“Bolston, huh?” Rey looked at his gauge, checking to see that he had enough fuel to make it. He was glad to see that he had more than enough. “Yeah, we can drop you off.”

“Thank you,” the boy said. “Thank you so much for…” “Stop it. You’re making me uncomfortable. Let me just get you to Bolston.” Rey quickly put the commands into his Navi and the console began clearly stating directions. “It’s going to be forty-five minutes. How’s the girl doing?”

“Sha–“

“Ah, ah, ah, I don’t want to know any names!” Tiny shouted, covering his ears with his fingers.

“… She’s going to be okay. The baby wants to come, but I think we’re going to make it to our uncle before it starts really happening.”

“Good.” Rey focused on driving, switching on the music to drown out the girl’s loud pained breathing and whimpers. There was nothing he could do for her, and he couldn’t afford to be distracted from his driving.

Once he was sure they were far enough away from the Law Officers, he slowed down to regulation speed and hit the Camo Function on his dashboard. The color of the car didn’t really change, it was just a slight shifting of the armor scales that would make the paint shimmer a different hue, but he thought it would help. His car was no longer moving at blurring speed and the color would seem more plum than dark maroon. To the average eye witness, his car would probably be seen as a near navy blue.

Rey was beginning to enjoy the drive ahead. Though he couldn’t help some slight worries about his upholstery even with the towels he’d given the kids. It made him feel petty to be concerned about his car interior when people had tried to kill them, but a good detailing would put him over his monthly budget.

Shifting gears, he focused on the road spread out through his windshield. There were the lights of a town approaching, but they’d be able to drive right passed it. If things went right, they’d reach Bolston before 9 p.m.

Rey shifted his hands on the steering wheel and mouthed the words of the song playing through the stereo. It was something so normal that it relaxed some of his nerves. He was able to believe that everything was going to be all right.

All he needed to do was drive.

Rey = Reynaldo
Maxie = Maximilian