章 134: New Car Smell

"Alright, we've socialised enough, can we look at the car already?"

"Right." Quentin mutters, nodding.

"What'd you get anyway? You've been keeping it under wraps for days now... It ain't gonna be like one of those old Nascar jobs is it? Covered in fucking corpo stamps?"

"Ugh, I'd rather shoot myself than ride in one of those." Rebecca visibly grimaces.

"No, nothing like that." Quentin assures, "No one wants to be connected with it anyway, win or lose, having their name or company name on it would be stupid." he says as he walks over to a large light switch.

He pulls it, causing a large creak to ring out as the back of the workshop lights up, revealing a large vehicle hidden under a synthetic tarp. "I know, it looks sexy as fuck even when covered." he chuckles to himself.

"It's big... You sure you want us to use it? Something this size can't be all that fast." Ori questions.

Quentin just nods, striding over and gripping the tarp, "Trust me, even a baby with no limbs could win a race with this thing." with that he pulls the tarp off, revealing the vehicle in all its splendour.

"Are tanks allowed to race...?" Rebecca wonders aloud as they all stare at it.

It was large, maybe as wide as two sports cars next to each other, it was slightly longer than your average car, and it was maybe one and a half times as tall. It had eight heavily reinforced wheels, no visible windows, and was obviously armoured to high hell. It was complete with dark red colouring, though Ori wasn't sure if it was paint or just the colour of its metal. (Like this but as described: https://kill-zonefanon.fandom.com/wiki/AWC-2410_Rain?file=AWC-2410.jpg)

"This isn't technically a tank, so yeah." Quentin states beginning to point at it, "Its engine isn't big enough, the weapons aren't classified as military-, but that's more because the guns are so new that they haven't been fully tested yet." he broadly grins, "No treads or jets either, slap on some indicators and it's 'civilian'."

"That sounds like some S-Tier bullshit. You really expect people to let this thing race? Guys driving beat-up pickup trucks and scrap mobiles won't go anywhere near it!" Rebecca protests.

Quentin just shrugs, "I already got the green light for it. Now it's up to your three to drive it through the finish line. Don't mind about the others guys, if they quiet when they see it that's just fewer competitors."

...

"Is it weird that I feel bad...?" Ori mutters.

"If you feel bad now, just wait til I show you the rest of it." Quentin states, opening the door and hopping into the driver's seat. "Check this out." he calls out, pressing some buttons on the dashboard.

*Tvvwip!*

Panels of metal open up on the sides of the car, revealing large automated machine guns. "That ain't all though!" Quentin laughs, causing the machine guns to turn backwards, red lasers lighting up as they aim backwards.

He proceeds to show them the many other addons the car has, wheels that shoot spikes out to slash the tires of nearby vehicles, a compartment of metal caltrop-like things at the back, and more.

To be honest, it was shocking how good the thing was, and Ori was feeling pretty nervous at the prospect of actually driving it. Which only got worse when he heard about how much it cost.

"I think it was somewhere around a hundred to two hundred thousand Eddies?" Quentin murmured in thought before shrugging, "Something like that anyway."

"T-TWO HUNDRED?!" Ori squeaks, cupping his mouth to stop himself. "A-and you want me to drive it?! Are you mad!?"

"Calm it Ori, it isn't like we're giving it to you. Just think of it as a business vehicle or something?"

"A business vehicle I'm gonna be crashing into cars, people, lamposts, and whatever else gets in the way! Is it insured!? Does insurance cover bullet marks!?"

Quentin snorts, "Insurance? Pfft, you think anyone gonna insure a car this expensive headed into a death race? Hell no! Try not to get too attached to it either, 'cuz we're stripping it and selling its parts once you win the race, try and get some Eddies back on it."

Ori takes a moment to breathe, calming himself as he turns to the others, "What do you guys think...?"

"I think we're biting off more than we can chew." Sasha admits with a light shrug.

"Well I think you two are being pussies, we coulda won the race in that piece of shit Ori used to have, with this thing though it's already over!" Rebecca states.

"That's the spirit!" Quentin laughs, "Oh, by the way, before you take it out for a spin a few warnings. Don't take it anywhere near City Central, Westbrook, Pacifica, etc. The police or any gangs see this thing they're gonna shoot at it, no questions asked, so keep it in the desert of Santo Domingo, cool?"

Ori nods, "Yeah, would be funny to see the look on the suit's faces if we drove it through the corpo plaza though, all guns deployed."

Quentin shudders, "Don't joke about that. Trust me, you may have gotten off easy after that Biotechnica gig, but they aren't fooling around anymore. The Tyger Claws have abandoned the place, and you know what happened the other day? Two rivalling guys tried to have a gunfight, but ended up getting obliterated by the specced up security systems."

"Got a video of that? Might wanna check it out later." Rebecca asks, drawing a sigh from him.

"Just check the Net, probably won't be hard to find. Anyway, I left some notes on what the thing can do in the backseats, I've got a dinner with some acquaintances so, get familiar with it, drive it around, and get ready for the race in three days. It's one of the two qualifiers, so be there."