Michael went to bed late that night in an exhausted haze of joy and fear. He slept well, and awoke the next morning well rested and excited, although quite sore from getting his ass kicked six ways from Sunday by Evelyn the previous evening.

After a quick shower, Michael got dressed and put on his watch, and found a text from Evelyn linking a YouTube video.

Michael clicked it, and found a first person perspective of last night's mission, complete with different angles, such as a camera angle on the front and rear bumpers of the Nightshade, and tidbits of footage from the security cameras. It had all been cut and edited together almost professionally. Michael was immediately confused, as there was no Evelyn could've done this. He supposed there must be a compluter program that does this, but he wasn't sure.

The video was titled the date and time of when the mission had taken place, and the channel name was simply "Asphalt Knight" with no profile picture, and the default channel art.

Michael then saw how many views the video had.

28,479,129 views.

Oh shit.

Michael then scrolled down to the comments.

"Holy shit! The story is real!"

"Most likely fake, it's probably a publicity stunt for a movie."

"Yeah, and the first thing he does is protect some corporate warhouse. So much for a hero of the people."

Michael then googled "Asphalt Knight" and found several news articles about the incident.

"Vigilante stops Fusionite robbery, police stumped"

"Real life Asphalt Knight spotted in urban Palmont"

Michael checked various social media sites, and found numerous discussions about who the identity of the Knight could be. Most suspected some billionaire, although one person on the newly created Asphalt Knight subreddit said it was probably just some street racer who was "tired of these orginized criminals giving racers a bad name". However, a vast majority of the posts were assuming that the entire thing was some publicity stunt, movie trailer, or maybe even a video game trailer with excellent prerendered graphics.

Michael noticed that the Shockwave detonation had been cut from the video, instead cutting after he smashed out of the road block, so it looked like the power has just gone out and he slipped away unnoticed.

The whole thing overwhelmed him, so he muted his watch and ate breakfast with Michelle.

They headed to school, Michelle driving while Michael dozed off in the passenger seat.

*****
School passed relatively uneventfully, as did the drive to Ed's shop afterwards. However, after less than 20 minutes, Amelia triumphantly announced that the engine was completed.

Immediately, Ed came out of his office, box of Chinese food in hand, and made a beeline for the silver, black and blue engine.

The engine was a long block of aluminum, with a set if exposed cam gears at it's front and a large twin scroll turbocharger, (which to the untrained eye looks like a giant snail shell made of metal piping), and the valve cover was shiny carbon fiber.

Edd walked around the engine stand and inspected it carefully, making sure every was tight enough and no part was slightly out of place, occasionally grabbing a tool to adjust something. After about five minutes, he grinned.

"It's ready to go in the car!" He said rubbing his hands together anxiously.

He whistled loudly, and the carrier droids came around from the side of the building pushing a dolley with the BRZ sitting on it, beneath a tarp. The robots placed the BRZ on one of the lifts, and promptly left the room.

"Now I've taken the liberty of of pulling out the old motor, I also cleaned up the engine bay, and I already installed a new differential that has a longer final drive ratio, the car can handle the power now."

"So all we got to do is bolt it in the car?" Amelia said excitedly.

"Pretty much."

******

The process of putting a large engine in an engine bay it wasn't supposed to put in was difficult, but not impossible. With Ed's guidance, the combined strength of Michael, Nick and Alex, and Amelia and Michelle's expertise and steady hands, the engine was bolted into the car in about an hour.

Then the real "fun" began. They spent about a solid 2 hours plugging in various fuses and switches to make sure the cars electronics such as the radiator fans and air-conditioning functioned.

Finally, once Ed confirmed that everything was plugged in correctly, the team put the finishing touches on the car, installing a massive intercooler complete with a sprayer, and reattaching the bumper and wheels. By the time the car was assembled, the team has to go home, and Michael payed the AutoCab fare for them.

Michael and Michelle were left alone with Ed.

Ed hit a button on the lift to lower the car to the ground.

"She should be turn key ready, I preloaded the software in the ECU, so it should run great right outta the box. Still, it's gonna need some tuning."

Michael and Michelle nodded.

*****

Michelle took the key to the BRZ out of her jacket pocket, and carefully walked to the door of the car, opened if, and sat in the Sparco racing seat she had grown so familiar with. It seemed alien to her now, since she had been driving two completely different cars for the past couple weeks. She gingerly put the key in the ignition, and gently caressed the Momo drift steering wheel. She took a deep breath, and turned the key.

The engine barely turned over before screaming to life.

Michelle was immediately struck by how much smoother the engine was at idle, as it was a straight six.

Straight six engines are amazingly smooth, since the cylinders vibrations easily cancel each other out, creating a very smooth and luxurious feel at idle. Michelle didn't really care however. She was interested in how much power it made.

Michelle gingerly pressed the throttle, and the engine screamed lowdly. It sounded similar to the Skyline, except it was deeper, and more rough sounding, and not as harsh.

"Right... She sounds good!" Ed shouted over the noise.

Ed pulled up the diagnostics on his watch, and looked at the data.

"Wow, so that 2J is making about 475 horsepower at the flywheel, as we have it at low boost. The engine's internals are rated for 1000 bhp, but that turbo is relatively small so at most we could push it to maybe 550-600 if we're lucky... But you said you needed to keep it in B class, so we'll leave it as is for now. You should be able to drive it home just fine, but before you go..."

Ed tossed a set of familiar keys to Michael.

The Foxbody.

"I've given her a full service and did that muktilink rear suspension conversion, it wasn't easy, but I think it came out well. And I believe the bill for the whole thing is... 6000 credits for the whole thing, but you guys out the whole thing together pretty quick which means I have space for more customers... So I'll only charge you 5 grand deal?"

That meant that Michael and Michelle would have just enough credits left for the entrance fee to the next race.

"Wow!.. uh... Thanks a ton man!"

"No problem. Every race you win means more customers for me! By the time you guys are on top of this city, I'll be pimping more rides than Xzibit! I call that a win win!"

Michael smiled and shook Ed's hand, and handed Ed a credits voucher.

"Pleasure doing business. I'm looking forward to seeing that race on Friday!"

Michael waved goodbye to Ed, and Michelle backed the BRZ out into the street. Michael double pressed his key, and heard the familiar depressed beep of his Foxbody's horn. It was parked by the side of the shop.

Michael eagerly jogged to to it and noticed the tires had been replaced, the dented rear bumper had been replaced, and the whole thing had been washed, waxed and polished, with all the dings and scratches gone for good. Michael eagerly opened the driver's door, and say inside, gripping the familiar steering wheel, and settling into his familiar seat. Despite having access to ultra rare tuner unicorns for the past week, this was still the car he felt the most comfortable in.

He eagerly put his key in the ignition, and noticed a sticky note on the dashboard.

New ignition coils, ECU and spark plugs put her up to 400 bhp, also gas mileage should be a little better. New multilink suspension will help prevent you from mowing down crowds.

Michael started the car and was delighted to find it ran smoother than before. He put the car in gear and pulled into the street behind Michelle's BRZ.

Michael's watch went off, and he answered it.

"Race you home little brother!"

"You're on, loser has to do the dishes!"

"10, 9-"

Both of them revved their engines, the BRZ's new nasally scream in harmony with the Mustangs angry roar.

"Go!!" Michelle shouted.

******

Michelle dumped the clutch, and immediately had to correct for sudden snap over steer from the wheelspin, and the BRZ set off, howling up it's rev range to a redline of 8000 rpm, before a hard shift from the new heavy duty clutch into second gear, the twin turbo emitting a loud whoosh from it's blow off valve.

Michelle was already in love, the car accelerated much faster, and had a lot more torque, had no trouble going up the overpass, with Michael's Mustang hot on her bumper.

As they swereved in between the AutoCabs, she noticed the car seemed a little less agile than before. It was simply the extra weight from the heavier engine. She would need to stiffen the front suspension when they got home.

******

Michael didn't notice much of a difference in his Foxbody's handling at first but as soon as they were ducking through herds of AutoCabs, he felt the extra grip of the Multilink rear suspension. The car no longer jittered over bumps, and now stayed planted on the Asphalt like it was nothing. He no longer had to hit the brakes to avoid cabs, he could keep his foot down in places where he'd have to lift. It was fantastic, he could now make use of his car's full potential, like he had been limited from the start.

******
Michael and Michelle dodged their way through legions of AutoCabs, ducking through alleyways and sharp intersections, pushing their cars past their newly extended limits. They passed each other so many times that they literally lost count.

That drive home reminded Michael why he loved driving. He actually found himself getting excited. Maybe things were gonna be good from now on.

******

A nice quick chapter for those who dig the technical car stuff. Full street race is up next!