[Mach 1]

//Characters and elements from the shows Initial D, Speed Racer, Tailenders and of course Redline will be featured in this book.

I AM A PUBLISHING GOD!

...At least until my break ends. Then I will be the DISAPPOINTING GOD...//

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What does it take for something so stupid, so ludicrously insane and MAD to become interesting and fun? Audience. Game shows, TV, racing, all it takes for something to become popular is to appeal to a certain demographic.

It may not sound easy, but it truly is. Especially now that interstellar travel is possible for almost all folks. Planets, species, technology, discoveries and breakthroughs left and right to the point that people could no longer keep up. There was a flux of information that common folk all but didn't care about.

It was annoying and even depressing that the world was quickly leaving them behind, and so, for the maniacs, by maniacs, a new sport was born. Race, ethnicity, shit like that didn't matter to anyone! The sport that only the truly skilled and mad could participate in... racing. But not just any sort of racing, oh no. This new reincarnation of the quite old sport was anything but safe.

Cars that would hardly qualify as anything short of a madman's wet dream became the norm in these races. Accidents and even deaths were all but a high possibility for the unfortunate and the unskilled.

Weapons, foul play, there were no rules! Well, there was one...

Despite safety being largely neglected in the new age of racing, there was one race that pushed the boundaries of morality and car design. There were only 7 of these races so far, yet each and every time the entirety of the galaxy would come together to watch the event take place.

The race...

"You know even after two interplanetary wars, REDLINE is more popular than ever with folks far and wide. Yes folks it's the ultimate race, the only rule is that competitors cannot use anti-gravity engines."

...was called REDLINE.

The voice of a male announcer loudly echoed across the barren desert of Planet Dorothy, the homeworld of canine-like humanoid species that were often referred to as "furries", much to their annoyance. They were race enthusiasts and bikers, and as such, there was a large number of them gathering by the start/finish line of a very, VERY important race.

To qualify for the biggest shitshow, an utter clusterfuck of MADNESS the brave and the stupid had to stand toe-to-toe against one another in two preliminary races first! BLUELINE was the first, it was the race where the weak and pathetic were separated from the rest of the crop. Thousands were sent home, some either in an ambulance or a casket. Only a hundred or so managed to qualify for the YELLOWLINE race, the final qualification for the REDLINE.

YELLOWLINE was currently in session, nearing its final lap.

And the audience was EXPLODING with excitement! In some stands, the expression was quite literal...

-VROOOOOOOOOOOOOM-

In the distance, even if the marvels of engineering were not visible the audience could already make out the distinct ROARS of their engines. No car had less than 1000 horsepower, if you had you'd just be sent home and get laughed at. FOUR DIGITS WERE ROOKIE NUMBERS!

-VROOOOM- -WHINE- -VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM-

Soon, very soon, the cars slowly came into view and each one didn't look anything like the rest. Big and clanky, sleek and small, the variety was extraordinary. Among these marvels of modern engineering dialled back a couple of hundred years was a green hypercar. Sleek in design and small in size, the metal machine didn't need any fancy gadgets or weapons. It was a sturdy, nimble and most of all EXTREMELY FAST masterpiece!

The car's shape resembled a missile or a highly sophisticated jet fighter. Two large, shiny superchargers protruded from the left and right sides of the car's small hood, the twin-charged double engines being clearly visible as they roared with life, pumping at least 30 000 horsepower each with the help of their superchargers and turbochargers. The car was perfectly symmetrical, having two side exhausts visibly connected to the unprotected engine bays. On the very front of the car's hood was an engraved text, the name of the car.

It read... Mötley Crüe.

-VROOOOM- -WHINE- -VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM-

The cars whizzed by the finish line, entering the final lap of the race and blowing the spectators who came too close a good few meters back. But they all cheered nonetheless as the group of maniacs with too much horsepower quickly disappeared.

Inside the Mötley Crüe metal beast sat a male in his early 20s with dark-coloured hair, fair skin tone and a reasonably muscular body with an above-average height of 189 centimetres. The man had a toothy grin on his face, revealing two rows of sharp teeth. His eyes were pink, almost nearing magenta and hidden behind a pair of pink sunglasses. He didn't wear some fancy protective gear or anything like that, no, the male was dressed in an unzipped black button-up jacket with many small, darker-coloured crosses running across the whole fabric. His pants were the same colour, a lighter shade of black too light to actually be called black and too dark to be called grey, they were being held in place by an untucked red belt with a golden buckle. One of the man's feet rested against the brake pedal, but didn't so much as apply even the minuscule amount of force to it, he wore a blue shoe on this foot while wearing a red shoe on the foot he used to RAM the gas pedal into the floor. His hands firmly gripped the steering wheel with all their might, on his right hand he had four rings, one being golden and blue, one golden and green, one golden and pink and the final one being pure gold. He also had a few ear piercings, three to be specific in his right ear.

"When I get high I get high on speed~ Top fuel funny car's a drug for me~ My heart, my heart~ KICKSTART MY HEART~"

The man watched with glee as his analogue speedometer was being pushed to do 360-degree rotations around its own axis while loud music played in the car, nearly drowning out the sound of the two engines constructed in such a way that they both worked in tandem to create tremendous amounts of horsepower.

The man's name?

Shelby Mustang, a demi-human from Planet Supergrass, the homeworld to one of the most advanced civilisations in the galaxy, primarily, however, only women were born on this planet. But that's a story for another time.

"Always got the cops coming after me~ Custom-built bike doing 103~ My heart, my heart~ KICKSTART MY HEART~"

Despite the impressive firepower that Mötley Crüe had under the hood, the driver was in the fourth position. In the first place was "Cherry Boy Hunter" Sonoshee McLaren, an absolute hottie in a hovercraft speedster of all things, its name was Crab Sonoshee.

In the second place was the very first champion of the REDLINE, Captain-2-Block in his Captain The Classic brick of a car that also had three fucking cannons on the front. Obviously, this was the man that everybody in this competition was looking to beat before entering REDLINE.

In the third place were two REDLINE regulars, Count Markdie and Spark who both shared one car named Snake Head. A green car much like Shelby Mustang's Mötley Crüe, except much larger and actually armed with weapons.

In the fourth was the man from Planet Supergrass, "Maniac on Wheels", "Nitro Addict" and sometimes even called the "Horsepower Kid", Shelby Mustang himself in his Mötley Crüe hypercar. He qualified 1st in the BLUELINE race and was notorious for having cars break down right after the race ends, sometimes even in the middle of it. His female lover/mechanic/fiance's the one that likes to make shit up, specifically, engines. So of course Mötley Crüe too was made by her.

In the fifth place was Psychoman & Loften's Psycho Bird. As the name would suggest, this was the most unhinged team of the race, or amongst the top psychopaths that Shelby has ever seen and that does include himself.

In the sixth place was a woman from the same planet as Shelby Mustang, Planet Supergrass ruled by a princess with magical powers. Yeah, that exists here. The woman racer's name was Deguon and she had a pretty sweet ride named Fire Bird.

In the seventh place was Planet Dorothy's own doggo, Bons with his Missile-EP4. A very cool dog-man-thing.

And finally in the eighth place was a man that Shelby Mustang knew personally, Sweet JP. A man with a very stylish pompadour and a fantastic sense of fashion. His yellow TransAm car could barely keep up with the pack, or at least it looked like that to the naked eye. Honestly, Shelby was waiting for the guy to smack in another nitrous capsule and blast past any second now.

"Hahahah! Come on girl, gimme some extra horsepower now will ya?!" the man had tunnel vision, something a lot of race drivers experience when they get in "the zone".

The zone is a state of mind, absolute concentration towards one goal and one goal only. The heart rate skyrockets, the adrenaline multiplies and the thought process accelerates. It's like doping, but legal and completely biological. Shelby loved every second of it.

"Oh, are you ready girls~? Oh, are you ready now~? Whoa, yeah~ KICKSTART MY HEART, GIVE IT A START~"

The music was almost drowned out by the sound of blood pumping through his own veins. Shelby... is a speed maniac. If he's going below 300 and he might as well just fall asleep. There is no life for him outside the fast lane. Shelby lives for speed. He lives for the sheer adrenaline that pumps through his veins whenever he floors the gas pedal. For the excitement that he can't restrain the moment the engine of his car starts rumbling like thunder.

Staying in the 4th place would be an insult to his woman's art!

-VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM-

The transmission system that Shelby's woman liked to use was lovingly referred to as "Infinite Shifting". While still having the appearance of a stick shifter, the contraption was unmoving, in the centre and allowed Shelby to shift up and down by briefly moving it up and down. Like steering wheel pedal shifters, but cooler. Now, of course, the Mötley Crüe didn't actually have an infinite number of gears. That's not how engines work buddy. It only had around... 24... What? It has TWO fucking V8 motors that produce 60 000 hp together, it needs a lot of gears! The top speed was: HOWEVER-FAST-YOU-CAN-GO-SWEETHEART literally written on a piece of paper and smacked to the dashboard with some glue.

Shelby is a fan of classics, his appreciation for the craft of his predecessors is one of the reasons he still has analogue dials in his car. Also because they are dirt cheap, but that's beside the point. The interior of Mötley Crüe was extremely rudimentary and simple, there was only one seat and that was by its standards more of a small sofa than anything. Also, no seatbelts. Not like they would fucking do anything at this speed anyway. There was, of course, Radio as Shelby NEEDED to hear some manner of tunes when he's out and about, also an air freshener and maybe a forgotten bar in the trunk.

"Whoa, yeah, baby~ Whoa, yeah~ Kickstart my heart, hope it never stops~ Whoa, yeah, BABYYYYYYYYYY~"

The racers rounded a corner, drifting through the desert at speeds impossible by normal standards. But, their highly modified, almost physics-breaking rides could easily get traction even in a place like this.

"Skydive naked from an aeroplane~ Or a lady with a body from outer space~ My heart, my heart~ KICKSTART MY HEART~"

As the machines excited the corner, a nagging feeling spread through Shelby's stomach before he saw a gleam appear in his rearview mirror. A second later, his toothy smile intensified tenfold. What he saw was a quickly approaching yellow race car, JP's TransAm!

"HAHA! THE FUCKER REALLY PUT IN THE NITROUS! ALL RIGHT THEN!"

-VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM-

Of course, JP's sudden gain of speed did not go unnoticed by the rest of the leading pack and immediately Psychoman and Count Markdie try to ram his car from the side. However, their large cars while intimidating were quite easy to dodge, especially with how manoeuvrable TransAm was as a vehicle.

"Say I got trouble, trouble in my eyes~ I'm just looking for another good time~ My heart, my heart~ KICKSTART MY HEART~"

A loud laugh came from Shelby's throat as he reached for his car's shifter and roughly slammed it forwards, shifting up without a second's delay. JP's TransAm quickly gained on Shelby's Mötley Crüe. However, just as they were going head to head did their speeds equalize, and now Shelby had the perfect opportunity to send JP a toothy grin. The pompadour man smirked back and the two friends gave each other a respective middle finger as the pack quickly neared another tight corner.

"Yeah, are you ready girls~? Yeah, are you ready now, now, now~? Whoa, yeah~ KICKSTART MY HEART, GIVE IT A START~"

The order changed with Sonoshee in the first, Shelby in close second after he unceremoniously passed Captain-2-Block who was in third now and JP who unfortunately couldn't get past the brick on wheels that was Captain-2-Block's Captain The Classic.

"Move your ass, hovercraft Roomba!"

But Shelby couldn't overtake Sonoshee here, there was no room to do so. Not to mention Sonoshee's Crab Sonoshee, a dumbass name, was way too big for it to be just an oversized hovercraft. In Shelby's not so humble opinion, she should have attached a big ass rocket engine to the back of her "car" instead!

Just as they were about to make it past the corner did Shelby notice that somehow, maybe, just possibly, Sonoshee might have heard him insulting her car, calling it a fucking Roomba of all things.

But the male grinned back and sent a wink her way just as they made it out of the tight corner. Now, they were coming to the final stretch by the seaside. There were a few bridges to be sped over, but otherwise, it was a single straight road to the finish line.

Surprisingly, to the shock of everyone, Sonoshee drove off the coast and right into the water... only to emerge completely fine with her hover jet swiftly skimming over the surface of the blue liquid. Much to Shelby's annoyance, speed is speed, regardless of whether the car has wheels or not.

His eyes darted to the lantern-like contraption mounted into his car's interior, right above the stick. With a mad grin, he reached for the top and opened it, revealing a small engraving for a small, fingernail-sized sphere.

This was the car's nitrous system. Shelby reached into his jacket and pulled out a golden capsule with a lightning bolt inside its glass casing. It would be like putting a nuclear warhead into an oven... which just made him slam that shit into the nitrous lantern faster.

"Whoa, yeah, baby, whoa, yeah~ Kick start my heart, hope it never stops~ WHOA, YEAH, BABY~"

"WOOOOAAAAH!"

-WHIIIIIIIIINEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-

Bright flames burst from the exhausts of Mötley Crüe, propelling the car forward at such a speed that Shelby's vision became blurry around the edges and the whole world shifted, like looking through a fish-eye lens.

The car nearly sped forth on its back wheels were it not for the excessive weight of the two engines in the front. Immediately, the speedometer became the most useless gadget in Shelby's car as it was literally doing laps faster than his car was around its own axis.

But Shelby didn't care, he quickly began shifting gears, going up until he finally reached the maximum of 24 and a speed of just a little over 900 km/h. Cars were not meant to go anywhere near this speed, yet Shelby's masterpiece of a car pulled it off almost effortlessly and left the other racers in its dust.

"-whistles- My guy pulled out all the stops, huh~?" JP was quite amazed by the speed that Mötley Crüe could pull off, it was definitely the fastest of all the cars he's seen Shelby use over the years.

But... he wasn't going to be outdone this easily! This is a race, a ticket to the greatest race in all of the galaxy! THE REDLINE! JP all but forgot that he's not supposed to win this, but goddamn it. he won't go down without at least putting on a show. So, even when he knew his car's engine couldn't take another nitrous pill, he rammed it in anyways.

-VROOOOOOOOM-

Now, it was Shelby in the first place with a decent lead, however, JP was very slowly catching up. This... would not do for the other drivers. Especially not Sonoshee McLaren! With a grunt, she smacked her own nitrous pill into the system and blasted forth, leaving the other racers behind!

A loud laugh came from Shelby, his excitement going through the roof as his whole body was being tightly pressed against his seat! The G-forces being exacted upon his body were... strong, to say the least. It felt like his eyes would pop out from the sheer pressure alone! But, he was kept conscious by his own quickly beating heart, forcing oxygen into his brain.

"COME ON! FASTER! FASTEEEEER! HAHAHAHAHA!"

-BATOOM!-

Shelby was brought back into reality when he heard an explosion, but it didn't come from his engine or car. No, it came from behind him... Looking back, his eyes shot wide open when he saw JP's car literally FLYING through the air... but without its front wheels and doing so while it spun around its vertical axis.

"When we started this band~ All we needed, needed was a laugh~ Years gone by, I'd say we've kicked some ass~"

Shelby didn't even notice he was going head-to-head with Sonoshee now, the girl actually managing to slowly overtake him and score the first place for herself. The difference was marginal and impossible to spot with the naked eye, but Shelby was far too busy looking back through his back view mirror as the yellow TransAm flew through the air in what was for him slow motion.

Then... it slammed into the ground and continued to roll for what was arguably hundreds of meters, mangling the construction of the vehicle to the point it was almost unrecognizable. The yellow car disappeared behind a thick dust cloud as the cheers of the audience didn't so much as register to Shelby. They were nearing the finish line, and he was head-to-head with Sonoshee for the first place...

-SQUUUUUUUUUUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEL-

"When I'm enraged or hittin' the stage~ Adrenaline rushing through my veins~ And I'd say we're still kickin' ass~"

AND ACROSS THE FINISH LINE!

But Shelby didn't even register that, no, his foot slammed onto the brakes, he whipped the steering wheel to the side. He didn't wait for the car to slow down, at all, he just spun it in circles until it stopped and was pointed in the direction before stepping on the gas pedal again. But...

-WHIRRR-

Only a loud whirring noise came from the two engines before they began to dangerously vibrate and rumble. The Mötley Crüe came to a stop, its back pointing the right way while the rest of the racers blitzed across the finish line, leaving only JP's TransAm to tumble over it with him ending in the last place.

-RUMBLE-

-BOOM-

-POPPOPPOPPOP-

The two engines on Mötley Crüe simultaneously burst into flames, but they didn't downright explode. They began smoking before fires burst through the superchargers, consuming the whole blocks of metal in seconds. Tires systematically popped on the green-coloured car, almost as if they were timed to do so after the race finished.

"...Shit..." luckily, Shelby managed to easily exit the car without any issues, but its engines and the tires were as good as fucked.

These were all secondary issues for him though as he could do nothing but stare at the wreck of his friend's car just... lay there, on its roof, smoking lightly and thankfully not spontaneously combusting into flames.

"Dammit JP..." the male's smile was all but gone as he grit his teeth, not being able to do anything but watch as paramedics quickly arrived at the scene to free JP from his metallic coffin and, hopefully, save his life.

The firefighters were there too, but they rushed to Shelby's side instead and practically covered his totalled car in white foam and water. The male spared his destroyed car a side glance before sighing deeply and walking away so that the fires could be put out without him being in immediate danger.

The YELLOWLINE race was over, and the results were plastered across massive screens and radios. Shelby looked at the results with an unhappy glare, but there was nothing that could be done now about his friend's unfortunate accident. His fiance's hard work completely passed his mind, it was she after all that worked to make him that twin-engine car... Today was not a good day...

...

...

...

"In the second place, "Maniac on Wheels", Shelby Mustang!"