Bee

Burning Rubber Three (Bee and kingkonrad)

Peering through the monocle, Athena noticed that the people that were originally outside of the house were moving rather quickly in and out. They were moving way too fast for any sort of business transaction. Athena's time in the NYPD had taught her that people moving that quickly were always moving with an intent to kill or harm. They weren't here to make a deal -- they were here to claim some lives. Athena's intuition was quickly confirmed as one of them had been stabbed rather quickly, before they moved to conceal the body away from the eyes of everyone else, including Mark and Athena.

"Jesus Christ." Athena swore, putting the monocle down, before listening to Mark talk. Athena had dealt with her fair share of mobs and gangsters, but none had operated with this amount of efficiency and ruthlessness. They definitely did things differently in Europe, and Athena was in for a rude awakening as she witnessed the men just pour into the house like nothing else had happened. Not a trace of what had just happened was left to be seen around, and only Mark and Athena were the only other witnesses of what was going on. From what it seemed, they were recovering data, and whatever they were packing was going to prove to be real valuable. But that also posed a rather interesting decision. What were they going to do to recover the data?

Athena thought for a second, before coming to a decision. "Let's get them here while we still have them in one spot." Athena said, "There's two cars, and only one for us." Athena said, pulling out her pistol. "This is our best chance at taking them down right now. If we tail them we risk losing not only one, but both of them." Athena glanced at the Range Rovers, "Just warn me before you go in."

Burning Rubber Three (Bee and kingkonrad)

A few days ago, Athena was busy training in a facility somewhere in the United States. Honing her gun skills was the focus of her training session that day, handling various weapons systems ranging from the ordinary pistols in the Glock and Sig Sauer, ranging all the way to heavy sniper rifles chambered in .50 BMG. It wasn't just target practice either. Athena was being drilled in various different scenarios and situations that she would face in her new job. It was hard to find someone who could actually train her in more advanced techniques, but eventually she found herself where she was now. Her instructor was a bit of a hardass, but she was rather familiar with him and knew what exactly he needed to do to get Athena to the proper level.

Retired Navy SEAL, Commander Michael Rossi (aka Athena's oldest brother), was at the head of this training program, and it covered techniques that police, military, and special forces alike would be able to apply in their day-to-day operations. Athena had been in the program for a while, and it helped her catch up to her counterparts in INTERPOL, as that was where she was stationed now. The first few weeks were a bit rough, considering Athena was coming off of NYPD ESU training while she was surrounded by all sorts of military backgrounds. But, it didn't take long for her to adjust and she quickly caught up and absorbed as much technique as she could.

Athena was toward the trail end of running down a narrow alley, her pistol close to her and tilted at a forty five degree angle. Coming up to the last pair of targets, they rolled out of their compartments and flashed in front of Athena, who extended her gun forward and shot quickly enough to dispatch those two targets. The execution of those two targets marked the end of the drill, and Athena walked out, sighing as she felt her phone vibrate in her plate carrier. "Excuse me." Athena said, as she walked past the group, pulling her phone out. "Amsterdam?" Athena looked, before glancing back at the group getting ready to run through their drills, "I'll be there."

So there Athena was, a few days later, sitting in the passenger seat of a European car as she heard Mark speak. "Trust me, I'm from Northern California -- the high life isn't all that." Athena chuckled, before continuing to stare at the phone in front of her. Suddenly, it buzzed and Athena let Mark take care of the formalities, while Athena took the time to check her own plate carrier. Shortly after, Athena pulled her own Sig Sauer out, pulling the slide back just a bit to check if a round was chambered. There was a 9x19mm round chambered in the gun, prompting Athena to quickly put the pistol back in her holster, before Mark drove off.

This was the first operation she'd been on with Mark, so she wasn't exactly sure what she would be expecting when it came to these sorts of operations. Though, she supposed that there was a first time for everything. Holding onto the side handle as Mark whipped it around the streets of Amsterdam, she went over the details that she and Mark went over in the briefing. It wasn't supposed to be a very high risk operation, something that the two of them were more than prepared for.

Pulling up to the site of the operation, Athena already noticed something peculiar as the car came to a stop nearby. There seemed to be a lot of movement in and out of that flat. "Intel didn't say that there were going to be this many people here." Athena said, looking over to Mark. "Is there a deal going down right now?" Athena wondered. "We might have to rethink our plan for entry."

Burning Rubber Three (Bee and kingkonrad)

Kaitlyn was looking around, before seeing that Max had darted past her. There was only one thing that could've resulted from a man with that much conviction in his movement. He had a plan and had a location in mind to get away. Kaitlyn had no choice but to follow the man in the Skyline, because he sure as shit had more of an idea as to what to do than Kaitlyn. Shifting into second gear, Kaitlyn applied more throttle to stick behind Max, sticking onto him like a fly on sugar as she followed him into what seemed to be an underground facility. She didn't even realize that was a viable option until Max shot in here.

Driving inside, the only things Kaitlyn could see were the things illuminated by her car's headlights, as well as Max's car as they drove through the dimly lit facility. The sounds of their engine echoed throughout as they looked for a nice spot to tuck in and park while they waited for the cops to disperse. But, the cops were probably much too far away to hear their cars, let alone see the lights illuminate the facility they were in.

Parking her car next to Max's, she turned it partially off, leaving the key turned just to the point where she could still maintain control of her electronics. Kaitlyn opted to have her low beams on to provide some light as they waited out the cops. She closed the door behind her, sighing and rubbing her temples as she heard Max's reactions to what had just happened. The adrenaline was still coursing through Kaitlyn's veins. She had to take a few more breaths as she heard Max curse up a storm in the background. As she stood up, she turned to see him ask for her number. She laughed, before gesturing for his phone. "Sure." She smiled. No harm in giving him her number, right?

Burning Rubber Three (Bee and kingkonrad)

Kaitlyn glanced around her and saw that the amount of flashing lights were increasing with every second that passed. Something didn't feel right with Kaitlyn, and she took a moment to weigh her options as she figured out what it was she could do against the increasing amount of cops. At some point, there were going to be too many cops to reasonably carry on the race. Sure, there was a race, but there were very few prizes that were worth losing your car and spending some time in the slammer. As Kaitlyn continued down a block, she was eyeing even more cops pouring out of seemingly nowhere. It was time to call it.

Seeing some more police cars pull out of a nearby street, Kaitlyn whipped it right into where they came from, forcing them to have to make a u-turn as Kaitlyn floored it, letting herself pull away from the nearest cops as she figured out a plan. There didn't seem to be a helicopter anywhere nearby, which meant that Kaitlyn's prospects of an escape were higher. Eyeing her rearview mirror, the signature R33 GT-R of Max was right on her tail. Hopefully he would follow her in her plan to escape.

There was a construction site nearby with a wide open gate, conveniently enough. If Kaitlyn's memory of this area of Los Angeles was right, it was close enough to a good hiding spot for them. There didn't seem to be many flashing lights behind them, if at all. Kaitlyn whipped her car to the left once again, entering the construction site's gravel trail. As far as Kaitlyn could see, it was open road and they could figure out a place to hide in this construction site. Turning left, Kaitlyn turned onto a street full of buildings under construction. Now, to pick one that was big enough to conceal her car and hide out in until the cops gave up.

Burning Rubber Three (Bee and kingkonrad)

Kaitlyn continued to blast down the freeway, glancing at the GPS from time to time to see when this long stretch would end. Kaitlyn's car was the more powerful one, as it turned out, but her car's top speed was only so high. Luckily, the car held itself down very well with the sheer amount of aero that was on the car, but that came at the cost of stunting its high speed. Glancing in her mirror, she could still see the distant flashing of lights. No doubt, the cops were going to deploy their helicopter soon and they couldn't have that. A helicopter was often very hard to evade. Kaitlyn didn't know how she was able to get away from her encounters with the helicopters.

Glancing at the GPS, an exit was soon to come, followed by a relatively technical section that Kaitlyn figured her car would excel in. She slowly drifted into the rightmost lane, preparing to exit and making as sharp of a turn as she could to shake the cops off. Going up the exit, Kaitlyn went as right as she could, barely avoiding the gravel that was just off of the exit, and she just sent it, mashing on the brakes brakes before gently letting off as she got to the apex, flooring it on her way out of the ninety degree left hander, her car's tires squealing and screeching with all of their might.

The next section consisted of a ton of turns and twists through downtown, meaning there was a lot of dodging involved. It wasn't even two blocks before Kaitlyn had to make another right hander. She knew that there were cars going down the other side, so she needed to keep her line tight so she wouldn't drift into oncoming traffic. Braking just momentarily, she whipped her car as hard as she could as she made the next turn, the rear end kicking out slightly as she powered out. Right after this, was another hard left into another side street, where Kaitlyn quickly took her position on the right of the street and dove left, cutting right into the intersection as she continued to gain some distance from the rest of the pack, excluding Max.

Burning Rubber Three (Bee and kingkonrad)

Kaitlyn was waiting at the stoplight, her foot stomping firmly on the clutch as she waited for the light to turn green. After an internal countdown, she stepped on the gas pedal, hearing the anti-lag system kick in and start popping and spitting flame as the turbos spooled. The sounds that came from Kaitlyn's car were akin to that of a warzone. Rapid-fire explosions and popping were all that could be heard from Kaitlyn's car, as she held the gear lever in the first gear, waiting for the light to finally turn green. The car couldn't keep up the anti-lag for long -- but then the light turned green, and Kaitlyn let go of the clutch as the car sank back, a layer of rubber being laid down as she darted off.

Kaitlyn was having a few issues getting traction down, as was typical for a launch like that, resulting in some wheelspin that let her fall just slightly behind Max as she tucked halfway into his slipstream. She figured her best chance of getting ahead was using the slipstream behind Max to her advantage as she slowly caught up with him. There was bound to be a turn soon, so she was figuring she could use that opportunity to at least try a move. However, as Kaitlyn glanced at the map, the next turn was not a good opportunity to attempt a move as risky as that, especially if there was a long straight afterwards. She figured she should stay behind and wait until the more technical sections.

Going into the next turn, Kaitlyn stayed right on Max's tail, waiting for the opportunity to fully utilize her slipstream and get in front of Max. It wasn't hard to keep with Max through that corner, considering how much aero she had on that car. The car had nearly as much downforce as a GT3 car. Going down onto the freeway ramp, Kaitlyn saw a few blue and red lights flash in her rear view mirror. Already? Kaitlyn shook her head the two got onto the freeway, open air in front of them. It was now more dangerous to stay behind Max because she needed to get away from the cops as well. As soon as they merged onto the freeway and it straightened out, Kaitlyn gently pulled out, careful not to scrub much speed off as she let the car do its work in trying to pass Max and his Skyline.

Burning Rubber Three (Bee and kingkonrad)

It wasn't long until Kaitlyn was on her way to the venue. The Evo was purring gently as she rolled behind Max's Skyline. Despite the car having a mere four cylinder engine the size of a bottle of soda, the engine was more than capable of producing some serious power. Kaitlyn had nearly six hundred horsepower underneath the carbon fiber hood of her car. Combined with the weight saving measures she took (while maintaining the interior of her car, because she still wanted to enjoy amenities such as air conditioning or the radio -- because sometimes the droning of an engine drove her nuts, especially in her everyday day-to-day commute down freeways. Hearing your car drone on for so long really got to you, and sometimes music was the best solution.

A bit later, they'd finally arrived at the destination, seeing some cars she wasn't expecting to see around her. Kaitlyn was expecting to see some exotic cars, like a few Lamborghinis or Ferraris with drivers who thought they were hot shit just because they bought a fast car. Kaitlyn had more to be concerned about with what she saw. If they were brave enough to enter with cars like the ones she'd been seeing, then they were either really stupid and were likely to endanger everyone around them on the road, or they were worth their weight in gold and were formidable opponents. Either way, Kaitlyn was no stranger to the challenge, and was down to deal with whatever was thrown at her.

Kaitlyn parked behind Max, shutting off her car to let it rest before she would be pushing it to its limits not too much later. She sat in her BRIDE bucket seat, ready for the lady to present the route to her and get onto racing. She rested her head against her hand, which was propped up against the doorsill as she eyed the lady walk on over to Kaitlyn, prompting her to get ready and take her phone out. Taking the device out, Kaitlyn only rolled down the window, before scanning the QR code, which prompted her map application to open up. Kaitlyn gave a quick thanks to the lady, before rolling the window up. Based on her first glance, the race looked like it was suited for all sorts of cars. There were high speed sections for those cars that were good at it to excel, and technical sections for cars like hers to excel. Kaitlyn studied the route, wondering where exactly she could get the most out of her car and show just what she was capable of.

Burning Rubber Three (Bee and kingkonrad)

There was a lot of running around and finding people right now, which had bothered Kaitlyn just a bit slightly. The last thing she wanted to do was hunt people down just so she could get in on tonight's action. That wasn't something that she was particularly interested in doing. She missed the days of old, where you could just talk to someone and they could set you up right there and then. No having to jump through hoops and talk to a bunch of middlemen for the sake of maintaining an image. Sometimes she could just show up, slip a guy a band, and then the next thing you know you were leading a pack of cars, barreling down as fast as you could. Kaitlyn liked how things used to be done -- the only people she wanted to chase down were the people ahead of her. Though, she supposed that things were different in 2020 - much to her dismay.

Eventually, she and Max found the guy that they were supposed to talk to. Though, Kaitlyn wasn't in the mood to initiate these talks -- she wasn't entirely sure how she would go about this. Luckily, Max was with her and did a lot of the talking for her. She stood by quietly, observing the two before Max pulled out his roll of cash. There must've been a lot of cars in this, because a thousand dollar buy in didn't seem much for an event of this caliber. It was either there was something bigger in store, or that there were a lot of cars buying in. Regardless, Kaitlyn reached in her pocket, pulling out her own roll. It definitely wasn't just $1000 in there, but she figured the man would give what wasn't needed back to her. As the man unrolled the money, he only counted the first ten $100 bills, before re-rolling and handing the rest back to her. "You're good to go, ma'am."

Soon enough, they were told where to go, and Kaitlyn nodded, before looking at Max. "Come on. Let's go." Kaitlyn urged, before motioning back to their cars. There were a couple of things that Kaitlyn wanted to take care of before she set off to the epicenter of racing. Weaving through clusters of people and through parked cars, Kaitlyn eventually found her way back to her own car, and through that, Max's car as well. Before she could even think of setting out, there was a precaution she had to take. Pulling her keys out of her pocket, she walked around behind her car, popping the trunk open and pulling out a screwdriver. The license plates had to go. There was no way she was gonna let a cop write her plate down when she was out there tearing it up. At least without the plate, she still maintained plausible deniability. At least, she hoped. Eventually, she managed to pull the plates off and stuffed them inside her trunk, shutting the trunk and glancing over at Max. "I'll see you over there?" Kaitlyn gave Max a little salute, before walking over to her driver side door to make the two block journey to the black El Camino.

Burning Rubber Three (Bee and kingkonrad)

Kaitlyn only nodded as the Brit beside her raised a fair point. There were always a variety of personalities and people that you'd find in a place like Los Angeles. But, that just made the task that they had of locating Magnus all the bit harder, considering just how many people were before them. As they continued to walk and look around for Magnus, the crowd that had gathered at this party had only grown larger and larger. At this point, it was hard to track the sheer amount of cars coming in and joining the festivities. Even Kaitlyn, as much of a car nerd as she was, she wasn't able to really comprehend just how many cars were here at this point. The only thing she could be really be sure about, however, was that there was a little bit of everything. It was reasonable for Kaitlyn to extrapolate that cars from pretty much all aspects of car culture were here. Tracked out cars, exotic cars, stanced out cars -- they were all at this very event.

Soon enough, Max lead Kaitlyn into a cafe of sorts, which wasn't something that Kaitlyn had expected to find at a place like this. There was a significantly higher amount of people at this cafe, but Katilyn supposed that people had to somewhere to gather that wasn't just around a bunch of noisy cars. Stepping inside, Magnus was spotted faster than a blink of an eye. That man, despite the crowd in the cafe had a penchant for sticking out and making his presence known. Seemed like Max saw him as well, because she spotted him moving toward Magnus. It took her not much longer to follow after him and catch up.

There he was -- the boisterous Magnus, the man who commanded attention no matter where he went. Though, the implication of her and Max being a pair was a bit humorous. "Nah. We're not a pair." Kaitlyn shook her head, "We'd barely even met... a half hour ago? Yeah. A half hour ago." Kaitlyn laughed, before listening to what it was that Magnus had to say. Man was definitely speaking in some sort of code, but it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what exactly he was getting at. There were some less than legal occurrences taking place later tonight, which Kaitlyn was hoping what would happen at an event like this. Though, it was understandable that there were no pink slips involved. After Magnus finished his spiel, Kaitlyn chuckled and shook her head, before looking up at Max, who had asked her if she was going to be involved. "Yeah, why not?" Kaitlyn smiled, "Be ready to kiss your thousand dollars goodbye, though." Kaitlyn teased, before setting off again. "Let's go find this black hoodie man."

Burning Rubber Three (Bee and kingkonrad)

As thing stood right now, it seemed like Kaitlyn and Max had a mutual friend. Magnus, the car extraordinaire, had managed to bring them together at this event. Not that Kaitlyn had any objections to it. Magnus was a man of much power and allure, of course he would manage to attract so many different people from all over. Based on how many people were here already, Kaitlyn could assume that Magnus played at least a significant part in gathering all of these people. It didn't seem like Magnus had a type of subculture he was particularly attracted to either.

"Yeah, sure, why not?" Kaitlyn shrugged, before starting to walk down the parking lot. The woman was careful to make sure she was walking along the sides of the parking lot, close to the parked cars as she knew very well that cars were still rolling in. It also gave her a good opportunity to gawk at cars that caught her fancy. Such as the Mercedes AMG GT-R that passed by, or the Pagani Zonda Cinque that also slowly rolled its way into the venue. There was probably enough value in these cars to fund a small country.

"Where could Magnus be? This is his thing, isn't it?" Kaitlyn asked curiously, hoping she was heard over the sound of a Dodge Charger Hellcat being revved. It couldn't be too hard to spot Magnus, the man had a bit of an aura to him that was impossible to miss. Either he wasn't at the event, or he was somewhere that Kaitlyn hadn't thought to look in. Along the way, Kaitlyn quickly glanced at a Mazda RX-7. Man, there were all sorts of cars around.