Erica dodged a fist aimed at her head, having caught the glow of an EMP unit in the corner of her eye at the last second; it had been wired into the other rider's glove, most likely with enough voltage behind it to send her into a fit. Swerving around a fallen lamp post, she gritted her teeth and scowled; there were too many other bikes between her and her attacker to retaliate now - but she would remember that helmet, and seek it out later.  Revenge was never a pretty sight, especially on the track. Many lives in the past had been lost due to grudge matches, and that was not about to change. There was hitting someone, and then there was blowing their brains out with electricity; the latter was fair more deserving of a retaliation, in Erica's opinion.

Just then, she saw a hint of pink and black up ahead, and urged more speed out of her bike; it responded, and she ramped off of a broken boardwalk to close the distance as much as she could manage at that moment. Erica was close enough for her augmented eye to pick up on the protection field around MacGrath's bike; seeing it brought a genuine snort of amusement - the last time Erica had tried to get through that, she had nearly lost a hand and had to finish the rest of the race with one good arm. The scars stung a lot less than the smug looks she was subject to for the rest of that season, but it could have gone a lot worse; now, the scars remain to remind her not to punch people fond of lasers.

As the streets widened, the jumble thinned out to something resembling order; however, it would be a terrible idea to relax - old buildings crumbled and creaked with every passing second, with the rubble from ones that had already fallen littering the cracked roads. Since they were on hoverbikes, they could avoid the worst of it, but one wrong move could mean a catastrophe. On the big corners, stands had been set up for the viewers and gamblers, hastily constructed out of ruins. Others just watched from the streets, taking their lives into their own hands; sometimes in the past, there had been reports of people like that just going missing, with no explanation. But, the population of the city was so huge, and the abandoned city so vast that no one looked into it too far.

Camera droids appeared in greater number as Erica caught up with MacGrath, pushing her custom bike to its limit; she knew her rival had access to much better gear, but pressure is what it is - and Erica worked well under pressure.  On the other hand, her bike could not keep this pace up forever without risking malfunction; she would either have to rely on MacGrath to make a mistake, or to just pray fate was kind to her. For now though, Erica kept up the breakneck speed that had them neck and neck.

"Christ, she's going all out this time..." Erica thought, glancing across.