A couple of days before the race.
Park & Avenue Coffee, Horizon Bay, CA
A white Imperium Lux rolls into the parking lot and parks next to a purple Yuro Glaze. Out of the white Imperium comes a fairly old man, likely in his mid 40s. His hair is starting to gray out, and he looks of British descent.
As he enters the cafe he spots a young boy, 17 years old or so sitting alone at a table. He sits down next to the boy.
“Hello Pepe. What’d you call me out here for?”
“Tell me more about the Ursula, Jeremy.”
The young boy demands.
“I expected you to say that. Well first off, apparently he’s known as ‘The Showdown King’, he’s been driving since god knows when, and no one knows who he is, how old he is, and no one even is sure if it’s a guy or not.”
“That so? Where’d you find pictures of ‘The Showdown King’'s car anyway?”
“A few days ago, I was leaving a pub, and outside there it was, turning into an intersection. I got my camera out, and took some snaps before it left the place.”
“Where is this bar located? Might be able to trace it down from there.”
The man gets a piece of paper out of his pocket, with two addresses scribbled out onto it, and hands it to the boy.
“Here, don’t go in the pub. And don’t tell your mother you’re going to one either. The other address is where I think you might find ‘The Showdown King’ as well. There’s this thing happening in a few days, called the Street Showdown or whatever.”
“Street Showdown? What’s happening?”
The man proceeds to explain everything about the Showdown. The young boy looks at him with interest.
“However Pepe, do you seriously think you can win? You’re likely to be the youngest of them all. I’ve heard there’s roughly 22 people including your target.”
“If I can’t win this challenge, whenever I get the chance-”
The young boy makes a gesture with his left hand, as if he were firing a gun, and chuckles.
“-boom goes ‘The Showdown King’. Hopefully, anyway.”
The man stares at the boy. Worried thoughts were going through his head.
“Anyway, before any of that, don’t you have a part time job to go to? Your shift starts in…”
The man looks at his watch.
“… An hour or so? Think you can make it?”
The young boy looks at his watch with a horrified face, and rushes out of the cafe. He mouths “Goodbye” to the man before entering his car and driving off.
“Oh god. Here we go.”
An hour later
TopGas, Horizon Bay, CA
TopGas, one of the few gas stations in the entire continental United States that legally sells high octane race fuel, is where Pepe works. He parks his car behind the gas station in a special employees parking lot, he gets dressed and walks to the station’s convinience store, where he works.
“Aha, late by five minutes. Please, boss better not be here yet! How do I even smell?”
He thought to himself. He walks into the store and to his delight, his boss hasn’t returned yet, he then apologizes to his co-worker for being late and proceeds to work the counter during his shift.
Pepe’s first customer of the day arrives. A black FWT Vinette.
“Vinette, huh? That’s a fairly sizeable wing. Is he planning to fly with it?”
He thought to himself. The car pulls up to a gas pump, and the driver gets out of the car. It’s a female driver.
“S-she?! Not only that, but a hottie as well!”
Pepe is shocked, as this was the first time he has seen a female driver in person other than his mom. The girl approaches the store and Pepe gets even more nervous to the point he starts sweating. Pepe is what they’d call a “torpe” in the Philippines. More or less a guy who can never talk to women because he lacks confidence and a bunch of other factors.
The girl enters the store, and Pepe attempts to greet her.
“H-hey, w-welcome to TopGas…”
Pepe says in a silent voice.
“Hello, I would like $45 on 8 please.”
The girl says.
“Y-yeah! $45… 8…”
Pepe says in a rather silent voice.
She noticed Pepe trembling from nervousness.
“Ara ara… you’re cute.”
She said. She smirked and winked at him
“How old are you?”
She asked. Pepe flusters up.
“T-thanks… I’m 17…”
She reaches over the counter and touches his hand
“Ara ara, no need to be nervous.”
“‘Ara Ara’? Is she Japanese?”
Pepe thought to himself
He was practically on wits end. He had never been this close to a girl before other than his relatives.
“Oh, uh. Right.”
She smiled at him. “So cute.” she was thinking.
“Well, I’ll have to fill up my darling.”
She looked at his badge
“Pepe, is a cute name!”
She blew a kiss at him and left the store then went to the gas pump and selected 98 octane.
She would turn to look inside at Pepe and leaned against her Vinette like a model from an Import Magazine, even as much as leaning forward to reveal her cleavage.
Pepe stands inside, taking a couple of glances every now and then.
“What kind of situation did I even end up in?”
He tries distracting himself by fooling around with the security cameras, but to no avail. His immature and perverted mind kept thinking of situations that were, let’s say not very appropriate.
$45 read on the pump, and she put the handle back in. She started to walk back in to the store. As she entered she went to the back where the coolers were then to the snack stand. She then proceeded to the counter with a cold coffee and a bag of cookies.
“So Pepe, how much?”
He snaps back into reality. He looks at the items and quickly pops them into the register.
“T-that’ll be… $14.50”
He says in a rather quiet voice.
“$14.50?”
She asked. She look at the register and smirked.
“Silly you rang up the cookies 3 times.”
“O-oh! S-sorry!”
Pepe says, embarrased.
“The hell am I getting so worked up for?”
He corrects his mistakes and fixes the register.
“That’ll be $6.50…”
She smiled and reached over and patted his head. Pepe flusters up even more.
“That sounds more like it.”
She then gave him $6.50 along with a napkin. The napkin had a lipstick mark kiss along with the writing “See you soon! -Amaya”
“Well I have to go my cute little Pepe. Chow!”
She blew a kiss and left the store, entered the Vinette and drove off.
Pepe sighs and relaxes a little bit, and looks at the napkin he was given.
“Amaya, huh?”
Little did he know that it wouldn’t be his final encounter with Amaya.
Off in the corner of his eye, he notices his co-worker behind the half opened door to the employee’s only area, secretly filming on his phone.
“Oh, hey Pepe. Sight for sore eyes, ain’t she?”
He flusters up and takes his .44 Magnum from beneath his desk and heads towards his co-worker.
"THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!"
And that was the day Pepe’s co-worker was almost shot to death in a Gas Station bathroom.
Later that night after going home, Pepe locked himself in his room and proceeded to do some… Let’s say, not very appropriate stuff.
21:11, Same day
Somewhere in the mountains
The often silent mountain roads nearby Horizon Bay are brought to life with the sound of a turbocharged 6-cyl. The purple Glaze burns its tires as it slides along through the mountains.
The driver upshifts as the car reaches the rev limiter along a straight, before slowing down slightly before a turn.
"Street Showdown, eh? Explains the amount of people coming into the gas station lately. "
The driver mutters to himself. He slams the accelerator and yanks the wheel hard into the corner, causing the rear end to slip out slightly. He quickly countersteers and slides into the corner.
Shortly after leaving the corner, he slows down slightly and reaches for his iPod inside the glovebox. He puts on earphones and hits play.
“Time for a bit of practice.”
As the song plays, the driver slams the accelerator yet again as he enters a corner, sliding the car around at over 150km/h.
The car leaves the corner and begins sliding into the other with a seemingly seamless transition. The car barely lost any speed going through any of the turns.
“Well, guess that wasn’t too bad. Probably.”
On the straightaways, the purple Yuro screams through at over 250km/h before slowing down for a corner. It downshifts and the rear starts to slip out yet again. The car revs through redline before leaving the corner and slowing down. As the car slows down, the driver almost misses a gear while downshifting.
“Shit, it’s getting late, guess I’ll call it a night.”
The Revenge of Pepeng Kaliwete Part.02
Featuring @Vena.Sera423 (Night Rain/Amaya)
/end
