20 Minutes Later

Now that the trio had escaped the city, they found themselves far off their intended route. They intended on finding the freeway ASAP, one that led eastward into the hills that could put them back on their intended route. For now, they were on a hilly backroad, leading into the Equestrian countryside and Viral was struggling to keep up with the much smoother cars her companions were driving. While the M3 and 911 Carerra were easily suited to the windy roads of the country, her Camaro was struggling to cope with the corners.

"Viral, you ok?" Akula inquired, noticing the mare falling behind slightly.

"Just fine, but the car is not exactly happy with the road. Just keep going, I'll keep up as best I can."

Dean and Akula kept going on without Viral, ahead a pack of cars coasting along. But as Viral did all she could to keep the Camaro at speed, suddenly Viral was blindsided by a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X and Pontiac Firebird overtaking her on either side.

Not happy with being passed, she kicked into high gear, pushing the unhappy Camaro to its limits on this type of road. She got back past the Firebird going to a wide left corner, then passing the Lancer as they went under a train bridge. She continued to pick up the pace, shaving some time by cutting under another train line overpass and then blasting through a trailer park and likely pissing off some earth ponies in the process.

Eventually she caught up to her companions, and not a moment too soon. Akula and Dean were merging onto the freeway amongst a pack of hatchbacks and tuners that had no chance of keeping up with their high end speed.

The trio got into the fast lane and began overtaking the slower racers at an alarming rate. Viral closed in on a Renault Megane, but the opponent attempted to squeeze her over towards the emergency lane and into the barrier to defend. She backed off and cut around the other side, not wanting to deal with a dirty racer. Said racer had other plans as they turned right back into her and knocked her out towards the shoulder.

The next time she got alongside, she gave a love tap back before pulling away.

"Imbecile...if you can't keep up don't block like that."

Now that she was back with the others, and on the freeway, her Chevy Camaro was once again in its favorite element. She blasted ahead, Dean able to keep pace, but again the top speed of the M3 was holding Akula back. His M3 was built for track times, not overall high-speed.

Worse, a purple Dodge Challenger separated itself from the pack and began to close in. The changeling attempted to fend off the attacker, but the speed of the muscle car was soon too much to handle as it got alongside. He tried to force the issue, but the Dodge was also heavier.

As they went under a bridge, the Challenger forced the BMW onto the shoulder and nearly off the road. Akula was forced to control the car and avoid crashing, while the Dodge made an evasive action to avoid him.

However, the driver of the muscle car should have been paying attention to the traffic. The Dodge rear ended a box truck at an alarming speed and slowed to a crawl, which caused a mess of traffic behind them.

Akula wrestled his car back onto the freeway, now seriously far behind his team. Thankfully they still had radio communication.

"Akula? Are you still with us?" Viral inquired about her friend's whereabouts.

"Fine, but I'm a bit far behind. Had to deal with some trouble."

"Well watch out, there's some serious traffic up ahead. We'll be taking it easy so you can try to catch up."

V. Velocity

195

D. Dean

196

D. Akula

197

Now that Akula had broken away from the pack of cars that had been giving chase, his current objective was to make up time lost when colliding with the Dodge. Dean and Viral were not too far ahead, having told their changeling accomplice they had planned on taking an exit that led to Mellowstone National Park. The exit was only a few miles ahead, but as Viral had warned traffic was indeed very heavy on the freeway. The Demon Lord used the nimble handling of the M3 to weave around the trailers and sedans, occasionally running on the emergency lane or shoulder to avoid collisions in congested sections of road.

Of course, the catch-up wasn't without incident. One car in particular attempted to merge into a slower lane as he wiggled around, nearly cutting him off and honking as if it wasn't their fault.

"Turn signal you fucking idiot!" He shouted, not expecting the driver he was mad at to even hear him.

"Akula, you alright?" Viral asked, checking in to see if Akula had caught up yet.

"Three clicks out from the exit, you?"

"Oh fuck, you should be coming up to us just about now."

Sure enough he was, a red Camaro and yellow Porsche cruising on the far right lane. They both gradually picked up pace, Akula blasted past, retaking point as they approached their destination.

"Competition is going to get tight in the park, expect some proper fighting from some other drivers. Once we get into the mountains the corners are going to be sudden and sharp."

"Is that going to be a problem?" Dean inquired. "You especially Viral. That Camaro is going to be a ride."

"I've got a trick under my wings." The Pegasus mare explained. "While I was overviewing our route I mapped out some rest stops for us to take advantage of, and had a friend drop off some wheels at marked locations which I highlighted for all of us. Remember when I asked you both about your favorite cars in specific environments?"

"You had this planned out in full didn't you V?" Akula pondered, asking the crimson mare.

"I'm not one to be unprepared for anything, let alone the kind of shit Dean got us into…."

"Hey!"

"We'll be able to hot swap with minimal delay, and if we wish we can also refuel the cars we are already using. This is a marathon, we'll need to take a breather whenever we can get it. That's our exit."

They took a right onto the 140 highway, heading for the hills. This race was well underway. There was no backing out now.