FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The Adipose-Munich Run: Part One

By Psion

An Adipose City Story

The sky was overcast on the day before the great race between Adipose City and Munich. The German-American automotive combine Kraftwheels was hosting a transcontinental race to promote their new catalog of automobiles. From Adipose City to the company's international headquarters in Munich, Germany, running along the transcontinental roadway bridging North America to Europe via Greenland and Iceland. A several day journey by car, taking drivers through sub-artic conditions and past potentially hostile Consortium territory, it was ultimately a marketing ploy to showcase the ability of the Kraftwheels' brand to endure a variety of conditions. The idea to make it a highly publicized race with a million credits in cash and merchandise for the first place winner came about after the corporation thought about it a little bit more and decided it would be cheaper to outsource the liability then risk their own test drivers.

Hence the Adipose-Munich Run, a race between a mixed group of freelancers and corporate agents representing Burger World, Taco King, PanAsia, Aristo, and Motherland Provisions; more then enough rivalry to satisfy a competition like this. The rest of the rules and stipulations were simple; weapons were restricted to stunners and light firearms for deterring bandits and Consortium idiots, each Road Hog racer was able to pick one Kraftwheels vehicle, had a hundred thousand credits to modify it with upgrades and after-market extras, and if the vehicle could support an additional passenger, racers could elect to have a Big Tool ride along as an onboard mechanic. As the route was particularly dangerous, it was a choice all of the contestants either elected to take advantage of or had the decision made for them from someone higher up.

Hummer smiled as she headed back to her spot in the Kraftwheels garage. The blond pear-shaped vulpine animan slowly sipped on a Big Gulp soda as she waddled along, bulging white-furred belly peaking out from underneath Expandex denim jeans and an equally stretchy leather jacket. In her black "socked" hand was a stuffed bag full of take-out for her mechanic Thunder and herself; together the two of them made up the sole independent team in the race. She wasn't particularly close to the portly human but the two of them had worked together often enough that she was hard pressed to think of anyone she trusted as much for something like this.

Her partner was busy tinkering with their car, the human femboy's enormous denim-clad rear wiggling at her as the vulpine walked in. Hummer smiled and elected to silently enjoy the view for a moment as the freelance techie adjusted something with a Mega-Spanner. The domineering biker vixen briefly considered helping herself to a free slap but Thunder was the shy bashful kind, probably would have ended up banging his head against the hood in response. Instead she just smiled and let him work on the metal goliath they had been partnered with.

Their vehicle was a model called the Armadillo; a modular van Kraftwheels designed to handle all sorts of shipments from commercial deliveries all the way to transporting valuables for banks and businesses. It was an armored, six-wheeled, boxy beast of a truck not too dissimilar to the T-52 "Rolling Fortress" favored by an Aristo Road Hog Hummer ran with once. When the vixen saw it, it was pretty much love at first sight though she knew her "girl" still needed a few adjustments before she was truly ready for the race. Extended fuel tanks, some after-market vehicle sensors, and a Hardlink uplink. All of it was well within their budget for modifications and all perfectly legal under the rules of the contest.

Thunder blushed and wiped his hands on a rag as he looked up and saw the broad bellied vixen standing there. "Oh Hummer, didn't hear you walk in. Just finished fine-tuning the engine the way you wanted." He replied, cleaning the engine grease off of his hands and face.

The fox smirked. "So that's it then, everything's ready for the big day tomorrow? How are you holding up? I brought dinner if you want some." She asked, holding up one of several bags of fast food takeout.

The human put on a smile that the driver knew wasn't truthful. "Of course, ready to start on our grand adventure first thing in the morning." He replied with an enthusiastic nod.

Hummer knew better then to ask what was bothering him. Not many people knew about Thunder's girlfriend Soy but the vulpine road warrior did. She knew he was seeing a PanAsian field techie. The two Big Tools hit it off comparing their tools... and their tools. Suffice to say the pear-shaped pretty boy was conflicted when he saw who was on the PanAsian team. It was perhaps the only reason she had for doubting her partner's abilities on the race ahead but then again, Soy was likely having the same misgivings about competing against her boy toy...

In the next space down, the Aristo team was finishing up their preparations for the race. Pounds, a she-wolf animan with a magnificent black pelt, matching shoulder length hair, and bright blue eyes; slowly paced back and forth as her partner finished adjusting the suspension and the seats. Anvil, an effeminate equine Big Tool, shook his platinum blond locks as he put his tools away. Granted the heavyweight lupine speedster provided a marvelous view as she waddled back and forth; Pounds was as luxuriously padded as the cars she drove, with some magnificent trunk space in her back end. Yet the British Road Hog was not entirely pleased that she wouldn't be able to race her rivals in her prized custom car, the Lethal Bulk. And in hindsight Anvil couldn't blame her, the LB was a luxury sedan modified like a tank... in spirit if not in actual function. A super-charged engine, reactive nano-polymer armor, and more gadgets then a spy car, Pounds' vehicle quite literally lived up to its name. Unfortunately, it also had to stay in its garage for duration of the race.

The vehicle they managed to select from the common pool wasn't too bad however. A relatively speedy off-road racer known as the Spirit, it was a fast little sedan designed to handle as well on off-road as it did on pavement. All he had to do was modify the suspension and seats to support the combined weight of two lavishly padded bottoms weighing over four hundred pounds apiece. While he had to wonder why anyone would want something like the Spirit, at least it was bigger then the comedic clown car Burger World got stuck with. The logistical problems of that thing would definitely make the equine booty boy consider suicide...

While it was nearly impossible to get him depressed enough to consider taking his own life, this current challenge definitely did not leave Daisy Dukes feeling as full of rainbows and sunshine as he usually did. The Lady Bug was a chassis based off the pre-peak Volkeswagen Beetle family. While not the smallest vehicle post or pre-peak oil the vulpine femboy worked on, it was still a very little car. Especially since he was going to be riding in it with Jennifer "Tank Ass" Moore, the ursine tank driver balancing her enormous rump on a fuel drum as she watched him work on the interior. Normally she would have chased him out of the garage but for once the mountainous blond ursine welcomed the broad hipped fox in the pink coveralls. Getting this tin can ready was going to take the both of them and as much as Moore disliked her "size rival," she disliked the idea of losing to one of the other corps even more.

Finally, after an entire day spent overhauling the engine and making sure the suspension, tires, and drive shaft were able to support their weight, they were able to turn to the one problem that worried and confounded the vulpine Big Tool the most, the cabin. Both of them were proud and round personifications of Burger World's caloric wealth and the American appetite; or as the PhysEd Consortium would likely put it, they were both big-assed, burger-chugging porkers. One of them could squeeze into the front without too much difficulty, they would take up both front seats but they would still be able to fit snugly if they pushed the seats all the way back. But both of them together looked virtually impossible, there was simply too much fox and bear butt for the current seat configuration. But then a light bulb turned on in Dee's head and he took both a Mega-Spanner and a Mass Driver to the inside of the car.

"Why does Kraftwheels think this will sell? We both own boots bigger then this car." Moore grumbled as Daisy continued to take a Mass Driver pneumatic multitool to the bolts holding in the front seats.

"Don't know Jenny, maybe they sell to the Consortium under the table?" The fox replied over his shoulder as he removed one seat and started on the other.

"Are you kidding me? Have you seen the size of their CEO?" The bear chortled at his suggestion. Yet Moore had to admit, as much as she jabbed at "DumDum" for pretty much everything, it would have taken her a lot longer to think of ripping out the front seats.

Daisy shrugged his shoulders. "Don't know then, maybe we're looking at Kraftwheels first big failure." He replied while taking the second seat out. "Alright, let's see if this fits."

The fox sat down in the back of the car while Moore climbed in after him. Pushing up against his lap, the she-bear squished her copilot beneath her pear-shaped figure. Even then, her plump beer belly was barely a centimeter away from the steering wheel and the vehicle's polymer shell gently squeezed against their thunderous hips. It was a tight fit, but it would do for the race tomorrow...

The weather was clear for the first day of the race. The racers gathered together and lined up their vehicles in front of the Tom Jerky Mass Transit Center at the northern side of the city. Here, buses and passenger trains connected Adipose City with the rest of North America and beyond. As the clock ticked down, the contestants were logged, their vehicles inspected, and the final preparations were completed. Choques smiled and did her best to ignore the butterflies in her stomach. The pear-shaped mouse girl wasn't nervous because of the race, if she didn't place first on the trip to Munich it wouldn't be for a lack of trying. No, this would be the first time since the raid on PEC's chemical factory beneath Adipose City that she ran the risk of encountering Consortium lunks without the assurance of knowing that her patron Taco King had her back.

The Lady Bug's suspension groaned slightly as she slowly drove the tiny car towards the starting line. The brown furred rodent's road to recovery after getting hit by a PhysEd lipogun was... interesting. Once back with her corporation, she was promptly transferred to the special care of one Dr. Morin Crammitin, one of Taco King's Druggists and generally regarded as a sociopathic mad scientist obsessed with gastrointestinal augmentation. Seeing her firsthand... well she certainly helped Choques gain back the weight she lost and then some. Fitting her now elephantine figure into the small vehicle was a challenge for the short, dirty-blond female but she managed. She would have gotten a larger vehicle but being late for the drawings meant she got stuck with the same tin can as the Burger World team did. Oh well, at least she got to race, that more then made up for having to figure out how to squeeze her massive rear into the driver's seat.

Looking at the other vehicles and their drivers while waiting for the starting flag, she quickly glanced at her competition. Six cars, two Armadillos, two Spirits, and two Lady Bugs, and it appeared she was the only one who decided to risk making the trip alone. The Iron Sisters, two female polar bears, represented Motherland Provisions in one of the Armadillos. Pounds and Anvil of Aristo as well as Soy and Bansh from PanAsia had taken the Spirits, the British wolf smiled as she revved her engine. Meanwhile Jenny Moore and Daisy Dukes looked about as comfortable as she felt in the other Lady Bug. Finally, in the other Armadillo was...

"Hola Thunder! I was wondering why you were not available chico. So, are you still seeing that mysterious someone or will I finally get you to come service my engine after I've collected my winnings in Munich?" She flirted warmly over the car's radio, her accent like smooth honey.

"Oi, your winnings? Someone certainly sounds a little big for her britches. Which says something considering how big those are." Pounds rebutted with a chortle. And with that, the radio chatter picked up and devolved into some righteous trash talking. At least until the head judge butted in by remotely silencing their radios.

"Racers! Welcome to the first Kraftwheels' Adipose-Munich run!" The judge began in crisp English with barely a hint of a German accent. "Over the next several days, you will compete against the elements and each other on the North Atlantic Roadway. The first car to arrive at our world headquarters in Munich wins one million credits and the title of Kraftwheels champion. So without further delay... on your marks, get set, GO!!!" The Kraftwheels official boomed.

The racers tore off with a start as their cars roared down the highway. Soon the skyline disappeared behind them as their route took them out of Adipose City and into the post-peak landscape. The highway lazily weaved through the endless fields of corporate farms, hundreds of tons of vegetables and grain crops ripening to either side of them with the occasional greenhouse breaking up the monotony of regional produce. Traffic was pretty light at this particular time of day; the road was empty except for the occasional semi or mega-tractor belonging to the corporate farms. That would change later but for now the racers had the road essentially to themselves.... Farmland soon turned to forest, deciduous woodland that grew so thick that the canopy blotted out the sun in places. Occasionally they would see the collapsed remains of a suburban home, trees and shrubbery conquering the ancient blight. Suburbia was one of the first casualties of the Peak Oil crisis, the lack of cheap petroleum lead to people moving back to the cities or isolating themselves into small rural enclaves that formed the eventual base for the corporate farms of the megacorps. The forests meanwhile remained largely undisturbed, the new world powers deciding it was more lucrative to manage the new growth and capitalize on the resources it provided then clear cut it.

Pounds was smiling despite herself, the sun was shining, the sky was clear, and she had slowly nudged her way into the front of the pack. At least she was in the front until that damn Burger World bear sped ahead in her little clown car with Choques hot on the other female's heels. The she-wolf growled and accelerated to catch up. The Spirit responded quickly, a small grin flashing across her face as she felt her padded rump sink into her seat. Her body might have been fleshed out with fish and chips, but there was definitely racing fuel in her blood. The eight-cylinder methane-fired engine roared while the wolf nimbly weaved the red and blue Spirit between the two smaller vehicles. The British Road Hog was not surprised to see her two competitors start to slow down; small cars meant small engines that weren't entirely up to the task of lugging their oversized occupants around. Once again the lead was hers... until a Spirit painted in PanAsian jade rocketed past, Bansh playfully waving back at her as the Mongolian Wild Ass animan took the lead. Thus continued the game of tag the four cars played with one another.

Towards the rear of the procession, the two Armadillo trucks kept a leisurely pace with one another. The polar bear twins seemed to be in no particular hurry while Hummer merely made sure there wasn't that much of a gap between the two of them. Thunder raised an eyebrow at his vixen partner from his spot in the copilot's seat. "Shouldn't we be trying to catch up to them?" He gestured to the four cars ahead of them.

The vixen shrugged. "We've still got a little more then six days to get to Germany. And we have to do it by driving through Greenland, Iceland, and the North Atlantic seatunnel. I've done those roads a few times, if they're all as good as they think they are; they'll know that they have to slow down the further north we go. Sooner or later we'll hit snow, ice, and Consortium thugs. If we're lucky, it won't all be at once. But let's be honest... odds are it will."

"Since when have you started turning into me Hummer?"

"Nah, I don't have an ass nearly nice enough to start turning into you, I'm just being realistic." She joked with a smug grin, "The last time we ran a job against the Consortium, the storage facility we were supposed to scout turned out to be a chemical processing plant the size of a city block. So if I expect our luck to be piss poor, that means I'll be pleasantly surprised when we drive through Iceland without hitting anything more a pothole."

Thunder laughed. "You think their roads are that good? I would have thought the PEC wouldn't have roads because they hate cars. Why drive when you can jog everywhere with your super thigh muscles that propel you at fifty miles per hour?"

"Nah, we'll never see a lunk with big muscle thighs, they'd look too much like they'd have thunder thighs and that's something they'd never be able to live down." She chuckled while keeping her eyes on the road.

The black-haired man shook his head and smiled, turned his attention back to the vehicle's sensor feed. Nothing but the racers and the road until they reached the Burger World farms outside of Augusta, Maine...

The Augusta-Portland urban corridor was never particularly large before the crash. After the breakdown of the petroleum society, Maine's few cities grew as people left the isolated hamlets and small villages that dotted the coastline to find work or the relative security of the more urban areas. Even then, the result was nowhere nearly as built-up as Adipose City. Traffic was amazingly manageable for a city of its size and while everything was staunchly Burger World, Burger World supplied everything the locals could want.

Pounds gritted her teeth as she drove over the city limits towards the first checkpoint where racers could stop, stretch, and get something to eat or rest. That itself wasn't any cause for irritation but no matter where she looked was Burger World. On the back chatter on the radio, on the occasional banner ads on the side of her Hardlink data feed, on the signs on the side of the road. Burger World, Burger World, Burger World...

"Oh bloody hell, nothing but Burger World, Chick-e-ton, and Cosmo-Buffet. Probably not a single Slug's or Soup De Jour for miles..." The hungry Road Hog snorted. "At this point I wouldn't even mind finding the last O'Maddy's left on the planet." She chortled sarcastically.

Her Big Tool partner was silent as he busied himself with the car's onboard R-U-Lost computer, he actually HAD found the last O'Maddy's on the planet back in Adipose City, where some enterprising techie had jury-rigged an old forgotten Aristo automat vender to spit out several of the defunct Irish franchise's better known recipes. He still wasn't sure what to do with his discovery and despite having shoveled every menu item down his gullet at least six times since he found it, he still wasn't any closer to finding out which Irish upstart was doing this. In any case, that wasn't his problem right now. "Well at least that means we can eat at PhatStacks if you'd like."

"Pancakes and waffles for tea?"

"Would you rather Cosmo-Buffet?"

The black wolf growled her disapproval yet sure enough, once they were logged and timed at the Kraftwheels checkpoint, Pounds drove up and parked at the nearest PhatStacks. Anvil twiddled his fingers nervously as they spotted a familiar Lady Bug park across the lot from them.

"Well... ain't this a surprise." Daisy Dukes stated unconvincingly once the fox was able to crawl out from behind his ursine partner. Both mechanics looked at their drivers expectantly, silently wondering if they were going to have a fight on their hands.

"What's the matter wuffy, can't get any crumpets with your burger?" The bear snickered, getting an eye roll from her partner. Anvil declined to say anything as he forcefully lead his teammate into the PhatStacks. As luck would have it, the rival teams ended up seated next to each other...

Pounds didn't say anything as she looked over the menu and placed her order. Not to be outdone, Moore produced her company card and nearly doubled the wolf's choices. Both males merely shook their heads and requested less competitive portions. About ten minutes later the first course came out, and then the second... and then the third. Trays heaped high with Belgium waffles, blueberry pancakes, chocolate chip pancakes, and French toast. Everything was slathered in melted butter and dripping with maple syrup. Once the platters were set, the two racers wasted no time digging in. Hearty appetites demolished their meal in as much time as it took to prepare it. Stomachs bulged and tightened while reinforced benches groaned in slight protest to the growing weights pressing down upon them.

Leaning back, Moore rubbed her belly. "Ooooh, that definitely hit the spot." The stuffed bear smiled as she looked proudly upon the stack of dirty dishes in front of her. Fuming, Pounds finished up and waited impatiently for her partner. Paying her bill, the angry wolf waddled out with a determined glint in her eye...

The motel Kraftwheels booked the racers in wasn't particularly large, little more then a small travelers hostel with an automated check-in system instead of a live desk clerk. Thunder nervously carried his bag while Hummer checked them in. The PanAsian and Motherland teams were already lounging in the lobby. Choques was off somewhere else, likely getting something to eat. The black-haired man nervously smiled as he briefly caught the panda's eye before she turned back to a bag of burgers. Maybe later, after everyone else was asleep, they could meet up and spend the night together. If not tonight then maybe another night, there would be plenty of opportunities for them to slip away together on this road trip.

The atmosphere in the lobby was relaxed. Bansh smiled as the two independents finished checking in and headed over to join them. Soy introduced them as Thunder and Hummer, freelancers operating out of Adipose City. The Mongolian Wild Ass carefully glanced at the panda's face as the human and vixen greeted him and the Motherland twins. Was it... maybe it was the black-haired pretty boy who seemed to be trying to make eye contact with her. If it was... well, Thunder was certainly as much of a big bootied cutie as Soy was. The effeminant Asian donkey smiled as he shook his head, long "plumes" of obsidian hair gently wobbling in time with the motion. He couldn't afford to distract himself on this assignment. Too long had he been sent on missions out on the fringe of PanAsia's territory for reasons he didn't like thinking about, it was good to be in more urban surroundings for a change and not on an insignificant assignment either. And of course, having several buffets within a stone's throw of fairly modern lodgings wasn't too bad either...

Bansh's conflicted daydreaming was interrupted by the arrival of another team lumbering into the lobby. Burger World waddled in after getting dinner, their driver looking particularly overfed and pleased with herself from the equine's perspective. Staggering like a bloated battleship, the ursine Road Hog was grinning from ear to ear as her stuffed stomach bounced like a swollen beachball. The PanAsian driver giggled to himself, that silly Burger World temptress trying to outdo everyone. And of course, he wasn't surprised to see what happened next. He was... excited by the extent that it happened for sure but definitely not surprised.

Aristo came in looking like they would have been better served by being rolled in. Pounds shuffled in first, swollen belly so full it would have looked like the wolf ate Jenny Moore were the ursine not already standing in the lobby, as flabbergasted as the rest of the group. Anvil followed in behind her, looking somewhat green as apparently once Pounds reached her capacity, she turned to stuffing her mechanic until he exceeded his. The black-furred wolf regarded her American rival with a smug glint in her eye. "Looks like... URP!... I was wrong about the Cosmo-Buffet. Turns out you Yankees know how to make a good steak after all." She crowed smugly while lugging her bloated belly up against the check-in desk and getting the Aristo team a room for the night. Her partner slowly trotted along, looking for all the world like he was just one mouthful away from throwing up, carrying their bags. Later, once they were heading towards their room and out of sight of the others, Pounds took her bag from him and gave his swollen stomach a gentle, loving rub...

Choques walked in a few minutes later, a burger in her mouth and a bag of them in her hand. Swallowing the food in her maw with the skill of a champion eater, she looked at the others with a puzzled look in her eyes. "What did I miss?" The big mouse asked as she arrived in time to watch Jennifer storm off in a thunderous huff.

"Just the sound of a few more restaurant owners in the city crying for joy or pity from the looks of it." The Motherland Road Hog, a pear-shaped polar bear nicknamed Teeninety, replied with a husky accent while her twin sister Ingenery giggled.

"Indeed, perhaps those of us who haven't eaten yet should consider getting something quickly. For that matter, those of us who already ate might want to do the same less we find that Aristo's mighty Pounds and Burger World's lovable Tank Ass have cleaned out the city before breakfast." Bansh suggested with a chuckle. "Hummer, would you mind if Soy and I joined your team for dinner?" The portly equine added with a batting of his eyes.

Hummer laughed with the others as she considered his offer, briefly looking the other animan over. His soft, plump hide was a light tan, a stark contrast to his jet-black hair and dark brown eyes. Appearance and figure were effeminate, as seemed to be the norm for the males participating in this race for some reason, and exceptionally pear-shaped with most of his weight concentrated in a pair of thunderous hips. He was a relative lightweight; at least a hundred pounds lighter then the other contenders, but one look into his eyes told the vixen he liked to wrestle with his playmates. The blond mercenary smiled as she looked into those eyes, he wasn't the only one who liked a little roughhousing. "Perhaps we should all go together, it might take all of us to find a place that those two haven't cleaned out yet... literally or figuratively."

The others chuckled at this but she noticed no one disagreed with her either. Choques smiled but declined, wishing to get a head start on tomorrow so she was going to go to bed early. So the racers parted ways for the night, Hummer and her hungry competitors enjoying a relaxed dinner before calling it a night.

The next morning, suspensions groaned a little louder as the overfed racers returned to the checkpoint and left in the order they arrived in. Taco King had managed to edge out ahead of PanAsia with third and fourth place fiercely debated between Aristo and Burger World. Motherland and the freelancers continued to bring up the rear for now. The race was still anyone's to win, the drivers had yet to cross through eastern Canada and take on the underwater tunnels of the TransAtlantic Highway...

As a country, Canada endured the Peak Oil crisis with mixed results. The rural areas, particularly the northern providences near the Artic Circle, were largely abandoned due to the shortage of heating fuel while the farmland and urban areas towards the country's southern border floundered until Burger World came and bought out the local franchises. Most of them were allowed to carry on as they used to, a few managed to even expand into American cities, but they did so under the Burger World banner.

Their route through Canada took them through the Quebec urban corridor, evergreen forests, and past the crumbled remains of ruined towns, the region's local inhabitants having left the countryside for the city or the corporate farms and greenhouses established inland. A few small towns still clung on, a series of picturesque fishing communities that supported the Burger World fishing fleet. There was no stopping along this road, the cars continued to chase one another while the trucks lumbered on behind them, until they ran out of highway on the other side of the Saint Lawrence River, near the city of Saquenay....

Jenny Moore glanced at the breadcrumb map through her Hardlink goggles, then at a topographical map at the top corner of her display, then back at the dirt road up ahead. "Well if they insist... Hope you're comfy back there Dum-Dum, it's going to be a bumpy ride." The blond ursine replied over her shoulder as she gripped the wheel and gunned the engine. Her partner was quiet as her enormous backside pressed into his lap and abdomen, smiling broadly and not trusting himself to speak as his face rested against her stubby little tail. There were many males in Burger World that would give their left arms to be where he was at this moment...

Choques resisted the urge to grit her teeth as the Lady Bug went off the asphalt and onto packed dirt. The car's frame vibrated as the Hispanic mouse raced along the uneven road, wobbling her body like it was made of gelatin. Hands gripping the wheel, she fought to keep pace with Jenny Moore as the PanAsian and Aristo teams raced ahead. There was hardly any doubt that their cars could handle the rough terrain. Shaking her head, she let her car fall into the middle of the pack. There would be time to catch up once they were in the tunnels of the TransAtlantic Highway.

As the crude roadway weaved up a mountain in a switchback pattern, trouble watched the motorized procession from the summit. With a grim smile on his lips, a muscular bear animan monitored the racers through a pair of digital binoculars. Lowering the field glasses from his face, the heavily armored ursine turned to his fellow bikers. There were eight of them including the leader, all Consortium Speed Freaks mounted on dirt bikes and other off-road motorcycles. The mix of humans and animen watched their leader expectantly, waiting for his decision regarding the Kraftwheels racers they were stalking. Paul gauged their moods as he looked back at them, silently working out what he was going to say. Several of them were hot-blooded and itching for a fight, the others were more hesitant and still licking their wounds after PEC's sound beating in Adipose City. While not without sympathy for the former, the muscle-bound biker bear's heart lay with the latter. This may be a perfect opportunity but still, the world was watching...

"Alright boys, we have a golden opportunity here; lets not screw it up. The blubber balls are going to drive up this mountain and down through the pass behind us. Once they drive by us, we're going to spring the trap. Everyone understand what we need to do?"

From the sound of all the cheering, Paul assumed the answer was yes. Putting on his most convincing smile, he slid his motorcycle helmet over his head and pulled down the visor. Straddling his quad and motioning for the others to take their positions. Once his team had their attention focused on something other then him, the bear let out a nervous sigh. They were all as ready as they'd ever be...

Finally over the mountain's summit, Hummer slowly inched her Armadillo ahead of the Motherland team as the boxy vehicle chased after the smaller cars ahead of it. Pushing herself back into her seat as her truck began a steep descent, the pear-shaped vixen heard the other engines before she could see them. As her triangular ears perked up in response to the noise, she saw them appear in her rearview mirror...

"Oh put me on a diet and turn me into a bimbo, I knew we couldn't have anything nice without the Consortium trying to wreck it." The blond wheelwoman grumbled and slid a pair of Hardlink goggles over her eyes. Over half a dozen proximity warnings flashed in her peripheral vision as the vehicle began projecting sensor data on an augmented reality display. Thunder slide back into his seat as the fat fox tightened her grip on the steering wheel.

"What are we going to do?" The fleshy human asked frantically, reaching behind him for his wrench.

"Us? Thunder, we're currently driving a methane-guzzling behemoth that shrugged off RPG fire during stress testing. I am in control of one fat, mean bitch... a girl after my own heart really. PEC isn't going to fuck me or Teeninety, we're gonna FUCK THEM!" She snarled while sideswiping a Speed Freak that tried to attack her truck with a machine pistol. The biker careened off the dirt road and collided with a tree. Dead or unconscious, Hummer found she didn't really care. The remaining seven were unfortunately too smart to try their luck with the lumbering Armadillos and raced on ahead to take down the smaller vehicles ahead...

Choques knew there was trouble the instant her saucer-shaped ears picked up the automatic gunfire behind her. None of the racers were permitted to compete so well-armed, a concession that was supposed to keep the race from turning into a shootout, so if someone was driving around brandishing military weapons... A chill ran down her spine as her Hardlink glasses displayed a visual of the fellows was trying to crash their fiesta, her mind briefly flashed back to the Subcity raid. Stilling her beating heart, she focused her attention on the road ahead of her. Last time was a fluke; last time they only caught her out of her element. This time she was doing what she drew best... gunning her engine and ignoring the way the road wobbled through her padded figure and rattled her very bones, she let herself become one with her vehicle as she pushed the machine to the limit. The race between her peers was momentarily forgotten as Choques mentally entered a new one. Come, come and enjoy your view of my big beautiful bottom you naughty Consortium boys, because you will never be fast enough to catch it... She silently sang, as the other Kraftwheels racers became mere obstacles for her to dance around.

As the two Speed Freaks flanked her on either side, Moore found herself wishing she were inside a Longhorn MGS instead of the flimsy Lady Bug. She also found herself wishing she didn't resist Daisy Dukes being made her designated mechanic, probably could have gotten a seat in one of the Armadillos if she hadn't made such a fuss about being partnered with the girlyboy. Snorting, she shook her head and promptly decelerated to avoid being caught in the middle of an automatic crossfire. Whole lot of good that sort of thinking did her now; better focus on figuring out how to keep her little tin can from getting shot up. As the bikers matched her speed and readied for another salvo, the ursine glutton gritted her teeth and shouted for DeeDee to grab her pistol. This was going to be ugly...

Bansh could think of a few ways he would have preferred to deal with this unexpected turn of events, the less vulgar of them involving one of his rifles. Unfortunately it appeared he was going to have to settle for using his car as a battering ram instead. Swiping one off the road, he quickly scanned ahead for more targets. Soy pulled a stun gun out of the glove compartment and quickly checked the battery before returning fire, nailing another biker squarely in the chest and causing him to crash into Pounds' vehicle before getting pushed aside. A smile crossed the equine's lips as the Aristo wolf shook her fist and accused them of doing that on purpose.

"Sorry my bountiful flower, these PEC buffoons don't fall as neatly as cordwood." He flirted while veering out of the way of a muscular ursine on a motorized quad. The apparent leader of the PEC ambush expertly swerved and weaved to avoid weapons fire from both Soy and Anvil. Bansh's eyes narrowed, his jovial mood vanishing as quickly as the morning mist. There was only one bear he knew that was as good as the PEC road warrior in front of him...

The remaining Speed Freaks seemed to be oblivious to the fact that three of their number had already crashed on the side of the road, pressing on with their attack as if they were at full strength. Paul barked orders but he could gradually see his control slipping. A particularly daring Speed Freak tried to bring his bike up aside the Burger World car and jump between vehicles. He quickly aborted that maneuver when one of his peers managed to shoot out one of the front tires and cause the ursine tank mistress to spin out of control and crash on the side of the road. Two more Speed Freaks raced on ahead after the Taco King car and its driver, shooting out her back tires and causing her to come to a sliding stop as sparks flew down the rocky dirt road.

Two down, four to go... Paul thought briefly before his mind turned to the problem of tackling the other racers. "Keep it together, we still have-HONK!-" The bear's rallying cry was cut short by the sound of Pounds pressing on her horn as the Aristo car rammed through the cluster of PEC bikers. Two were swept aside, knocked over as their bikes spun out of control. One was outright run over, both bike and rider making a sickening crunch as the Speed Freak's extensive body armor saved him from fatal injury... barely. PanAsia was right behind Aristo, artfully dodging the remaining bikers before making a 180 turn and came back around, the panda technician riding shotgun peppering them with stunner fire both ways. And then the Armadillos rolled up, each armored behemoth picking a downed vehicle and coming to a stop next to the crippled Lady Bugs. A human and polar bear Big Tool opened the back doors of their respective vans and quickly got to work using heavy metal chains to hook the disabled vehicles to a pair of industrial towing winches. Lifting the battered vehicles up, the heavyweight technicians worked on in spite of the nearby danger. Paul wasn't surprised given the amount of other things the Speed Freaks had competing for their attention. Realizing that everyone else had stopped to deal with the ambush, Aristo turned around and the big assed black wolfess racer representing the Anglo-Franco corp turned out to be more of a handful then anticipated. Five minutes later, it was over. As far as he could tell, most of his foes escaped with little more then some bullet-ridden bodywork and all he had to show for was a bunch of wrecked bikes and several lunkheads in bad need of a doctor. Time to count the cost so he could clean up and cut his losses...

The ambush put a damp mood on the competition; where the communication between the racers was originally full of riotous trash talking before the attack, there was now silence. Everyone was on edge, waiting to make sure they were no longer being followed. Even the boisterous Pounds and Jenny Moore were quiet, attentions focused on their Hardlinks as the procession reached the Mass Atlantic Waypoint at last.

The M.A.W. was a corporate enclave on the northeastern coast of Canada, part of a rare joint project between Aristo and Burger World, which formed the start of a long series of tunnels that ran from North America to Europe. Teeninety smiled as she guided her lumbering truck towards the enclosed cluster of pre-fabricated buildings, fully expecting to be stopped and inspected by Kraftwheels officials before seeing about banging some of the dents out of her Armadillo. Being halted by one of Burger World's heavily armed tactical squads and directed to a waiting pair of corporate doctors from Motherland Provisions was not how she anticipated spending her first few minutes at the Waypoint. No sooner had the race official logged her and her sister then the MP doctors began to examine and fuss over them. The other corporate teams found themselves subject to similar treatment once they were on their feet or pried out of crippled cars. Somewhere else the portly polar bear could hear the pronounced Latino accent of a Taco King executive in a lengthy discussion with a race official. Even in a world of digital communications, this was surprisingly fast. Though from the look on the TK representative' face, he was not happy to be having this conversation with Kraftwheels...

"I told you already, DeeDee's fine. If he were squeezed any more snugly into the back seat he'd be wearing it. We're fine. Why not go bother the freelancer who nearly got his fat ass shot off giving us a tow?" Moore argued with the Burger World doctors as they took stock of the extent of her team's limited injuries. The tank driver had a large bruise on her belly from where her gut was pressed against the steering wheel and Daisy was left with a shallow cut where a tree branch broke through their window and scratched the side of his head. Unpleasant but nothing life-threatening or wouldn't heal in a couple weeks. Finally, after having been searched for every possible thing that could have happened to them, the two were let go to see what could be done about their car.

Daisy Dukes sighed and shook his head as he finished surveying the damage to their Lady Bug. It wasn't the worst wreck he ever worked on but the damage caused by the crash made it pretty close. In order to reduce stress on the engine from lugging Kraftwheels' usual heavyweight customers, the car had been given a plastic frame. While it worked as intended, it also meant that their vehicle was not meant to handle the stress of smashing headlong into a centuries-old oak tree. Stripping off the front of the body, the brown-haired fox readied himself for a long night with only his tools for company.

All things considered, the damage to Choques car wasn't bad. The back tires had to be changed but other then that her Lady Bug was still drivable. Most of the damage had been to the rear of her vehicle, with the majority of the bullet holes in the body around the trunk and back bumper. Minor compared to the mental rattling she went through... The mouse's Expandex bodysuit creaked softly as its overstuffed owner fidgeted nervously, currently seating her enormous bottom outside of the office Kraftwheels was using to officiate the race. Inside a Taco King executive was having a lengthy discussion with one of the Kraftwheels executives overseeing the race. Unsurprisingly, her handlers in Taco King were having second thoughts about making the Kraftwheels race a solo operation and wanted to add another agent to the company team. Which was somewhat irritating, the latino Road Hog wanted to prove she was fine enough for regular duty and that she didn't have to resort to becoming Dr. Crammitin's personal chauffer... an offer she was still quietly conflicted about. But the mouse kept her annoyance to herself, not because she was a good company girl but because the other agent was sitting right across from her. And of course, it had to be him...

Tanque was a coyote Big Tool of some repute in Taco King's pool of agents. Other technicians in the company's roster tended to joke and look down on Tanque for his talent at improvising and fieldwork, a textbook case of jealousy for the canine's almost magical ability to create quick solutions with nothing more then an Omni-driver and a handful of junk. Yet she could also see why none of his detractors would say it to his face, the tan coyote with the long black hair was a stout muscle-gut figure, emphasis on the gut. Strong, muscular arms and thick, flabby legs came together somewhere behind a huge, jutting beer belly the techie lazily rested one of his beefy arms on top of. Blue eyes regarded the shorter female with a look of polite indifference; Tanque currently seemed more interested in filling up his "tank" with a large cardboard tub of take-out soup from an Aristo soup place somewhere in the M.A.W. Seemingly unworried by the wisps of steam from the open bowl of soup, he began to slowly chug the whole thing down in one steady guzzle, finishing just seconds before their handler finished discussing matters with Kraftwheels.

"Choques, after much deliberation with our generous hosts, we are assigning Tanque to your race team. I believe the two of you have heard of each other so I'll let you get to it then. I believe he has to make some modifications to your car." The executive ordered before leaving the two of them to look at one another. The mouse woman cringed when she remembered her car, how were they going to squeeze that big canine belly into that tiny Lady Bug...