Asher

I swear to God, don't... don't leave me! Please!

"Lord!" I wake up with a startle, the sentence I heard myself saying over and over as that shadowy figure left me behind - fading away from me.

I... what...

"You all right, Asher?" Michael waved a hand in my face, trying to get a response.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine..." I pushed Michael's hand away, as I seemed to find land just moments after.

"I... I see land!" I rub my eyes and squint at the island, from the fatigue I have.

But soon, fatigue became excitement and anticipation as I see Diana Coast for the first time, in person. The island's coconut trees and sandy beach lined the perimeter as a lush forest occupied the bulk of the land space, with a lake located off center.

"Holy shit-" I rubbed my eyes again, thinking I was hallucinating because my eyes weren't focusing, but that beautiful sight with the sandy beach reflecting light from the sun was definitely it.

That's definitely Diana Coast.

"First time?" Michael looks out the window of the heli with me, and I frantically nod, my palms resting on the window, my face planted to the glass, trying to see the island coming up upon us.

"You don't say! There's no way to reach here other than by helicopter, which I obviously can't afford-" I put up a hand to my mouth by reflex, to stop myself from continuing. I was speaking in a tone undesirable of me right now, and I needed to stop.

"Sorry," I finally find the strength to remove my hand from my mouth, trusting myself to retain my composure. Michael raises an eye at me, puzzled about my actions, but seemed to figure out what was happening.

"It's fine actually, don't feel bad about it," he reassured me, and sat comfortably in his seat, "I've seen it many times, but perhaps you should watch what happens next, since we're arriving."

"Wha-" I was about to ask further, but I hear something outside that wasn't from the helicopter. The lake of Diana Coast parted in two to reveal a hangar underground...

Whoever built this place for the Aces definitely knew how to balance nature and tech at the same time...

"Told you that you should watch," Michael lets out a chuckle as he slowly gets up. The helicopter descended at a snail's pace as it stabilised itself onto the landing pad, before I heard a rumble of a moving platform, causing us to descend further into the compound.

I'm in awe at the things happening before me - the technological marvels that I thought never existed, were all in this very underground hangar. And as the moving platform stopped, the once-spinning rotor blades came to a halt.

The pilots get out of the helicopter through the individual doors for them, while Michael and I wait for our passenger door to open. Michael leaves first, and I follow close behind.

"How about I show you around?" Michael turns back to me and gestures for me to walk first. I stand rooted to the ground, confused. Isn't he supposed to be showing me around, anyway?

"Sure," I reply anyway, walking along with him.

"So, as you can see here, this is the hangar. The only way you can arrive here is by helicopter or boat, so it's pretty well-designed for this. About up to a hundred Aces can arrive at any one time," Michael points out the landing pads for helis and docking points for boats, and I observe that other Aces are tending to their transport, some even fly the helicopters or operate the boats themselves.

"Not everything is centred about street racing. Out of races, everyone delves into something else, like these. There's others, but I won't go into detail." He continues walking on as we are escorted, along the very wide walkway that had people maintaining aircraft, and handling electronic systems. The walkway never seemed to end, the junction leading to other hallways seemed so far, until we walked to a travellator taking us right to the end of the walkway.

"This place is so fucking big," I mutter to myself.

"Sorry?" Michael asks.

"I, uh... nothing. What's our next destination?" I say, but Michael's phone rings, and he takes the call.

"Hi? Yes, this is Michael. Sorry, couldn't hear that properly. Oh, briefing room? Okay, I'll bring her there. Be with you in 5 minutes, Kane." Michael hangs up, and takes my hand.

"Well, the head wants to meet you." He starts walking along the travellator at a very fast pace, making me have a slightly hard time keeping up, even though my hand was held in his.

"This is a bit too quick? Why?"

"Don't ask me." He continues pulling me across hallways as we cleared the travellator, and we finally reached two enormous glass doors. We walk in and I observe a great round table, with office chairs arranged around it.

"Oh, so this is the new face. Hello, Asher, I am Kane Westwood. Welcome to Diana Coast." I shake hands with Kane, and we take a seat.

"Well, Asher, I'm very fascinated by your skills in your races. You're one of the most unique racers I've ever seen. Thus, because of your sheer ability to conquer, even though your experience is little, most sponsors have reached out to you. In fact, big names in the sport." He gestures to the stack of files on the table, laid out for me.

I skim over the names on the files, including sponsors like BRIDE, Brembo, Sparco, Motul, Pirelli, Bridgestone, Apex, Advan and more...

"All the top sponsors want me? I didn't do much." I pick up the file for Sparco, and take a look.

"True, but they are willing to sponsor you. The only difference being that you have to prove yourself to them over the duration of the contract. Have a look through a few of the files." Kane replies.

I flipped through the file for Sparco and read the details. It seems demanding. It's as if they're tailored for me to help improve my experience, but through arduous means.

"What about normal sponsors? Are there any? I just want to compare." Kane perks up, a bit confused, but he takes files and places them on my side of the table.

I take a quick look and find that the requirements and cash payouts are vastly different. But the normal sponsor contracts seem too easy, and not worth taking.

"Decided?" Kane asks as I put down the files.

I say nothing as I take all the files from the top sponsors, reading through them carefully and picking them out, to sign them.

"I see, so that's what it is." Michael says, watching me sign the contracts one by one.

Once I've finished signing, Kane leads me and Michael to another room.

It's a garage.

"You've got all the top sponsors, but you've first got a beginner league to finish. You're limited in car selection, because hypercars aren't available for choosing. You've got tuner cars, however."

He gestures to the parked cars in front of me, and I focus my eyes on the Toyota Supra in front of me.

"The Supra," I gasp in awe, and run over to hug it.

In the background, I hear Kane talking to Michael, "She seems to really love these cars, doesn't she?"

Michael replies, "Indeed. If I might add, she can probably even communicate with them."

"Take the Supra, Asher!" Kane calls out to me as he throws the car keys over, but someone catches them before me.

"If you want the Supra, beat me first." A new face. A rival? I take a glance at Michael and Kane, but they say nothing and just simply shrug.

"He's participating in the same league as you, Asher. He's also selecting from the current selection here as well," Kane shrugs again and seems to have no reaction. Must be a normal sight.

"Adrian Labarre. Asher Lee, huh? You know the rules, yes?" Adrian introduces himself, and I nod in response, as I see him walk over to his Skyline R34, flashing me a grin.

"Then we race. Kane, open Diana Coast's racetrack for us."

Author's Note

OOOOOO, so Asher's first league rival makes an appearance! I've sort of planned out the real plot for this. It just clicked in my head one day, and now it's just to put to words every chapter inbetween. I know all of you have been waiting for an update for ages, omg. And I really hope you enjoyed this chapter :)

I'll try to get more chapters up, I'll be doing a poll on my message board every time after I post a chapter, so if you want to see a particular book updated, vote for it! It will be very much appreciated.

Till the next chapter, my readers :)