So, it basically boiled down to this, according to Void and Navi at least. Black River had been dumping money into Project X-03 since their parents started to step out of line. The Alternative Weapons Project had at least six current prototypes with a few functional models that were already in production and in widespread use by Elite Reborns, which were Black River mercs that had joined when the company was a start up, been killed after becoming Elites and initiated into Project X-02. Void explained that now that the Nano Forge was in our possession, they would likely give it up for lost, assume we'd weaponized it and attempt to develop counter measures, a EMP system in all likely hood. It wasn't exactly easy to hear.

"The day just has to get worse before it get's better doesn't it?", I asked Nina when I went back to the barracks.

"That look in your eye", Nina said, "this shit with Black River is getting to you isn't it?"

"Lack of intel is what's getting to me", I told her, "I just feel like we could swing our hammer a lot harder and faster if we had the full backing of the US Army. Mako and Morningstar work their asses off to get us something to blow up, but unless we can hit them harder and confiscate more of their shit, I have a feeling were not going to win."

Nina sat down beside me, "do you think you could make the case to Morningstar to go public to the Army?"

"I doubt it", I said, "Secrecy is what keeps Black River and ROE bullshit off our tails. There's shit we've done in the field that would get regular soldier's court martialed. Plus, how would it look to Military Brass if it came out that we have Spetsnaz contacts? Maybe if I could sell the idea that going to the Army would net us more resources, but we'd also have to sell to the rest of the military that a PMC group is a threat and never mind that the Army has a...interesting, history with the PMC's in question."

Nina sighed, "you wanna go for a drive? I think you could clear your head a bit."

"Yeah", I said, "better than sitting here on my ass."

I grabbed my wallet, watch, AR and sunglasses as well as the cloaker and followed Nina to the hangar, where I found Vortex and Calen waiting for us. They were the polar opposite of each other. Calen was white and gold with blue eyes while Vortex had turned jet black all the way around and had crazy iddrecisent eyes, bright neon green one way, soulless black the other. Vortex had wings and Calen didn't They both looked beat up and worn down, Carlos' handiwork no problem.

"So how was the road march?", I asked grinning.

"Brutal", Citrus said, "that shit was insane, two hours to go 12 miles with 60 pounds of shit I'll probably never carry again."

I laughed, "welcome to suck vile, population, you!"

"Shut up Josh", Calen said.

"Speaking of names", I said, 'what did you guys pick for the change?"

"You know what I picked", Citrus grinned.

"I know", I grinned, 'stupid question, what about you bro? What you pick?"

"Xac", Calen said, "but spelled x a c rather than Zack."

"Cool", I said, "by the way, fair warning, it only gets worse from here on out."

"Of course it does", Vortex said, "because nothing can ever be easy."

"Nope", I said. "You think this is bad, wait till flight school."

"Yeah", Nina snickered, "that shit was BURTAL."

"How bad was it? Exactly?", Calen asked.

"Throw your sorry ass off a cliff and take a 3,000 foot drop the first couple of times before you get it right", I said, "Carlos believes in learning on the Job."

"Wonderful", Vortex said, "just like SIW."

"Except not at all", I said, "see you guys later, Nina and I are going for a drive."

"Catch ya later dude", Vortex said as she and Calen walked off.

"They have no idea how hard it's going to get", Nina said as we entered the hangar.

"Nope", I said reaching for the Civic's keys from the key tree, they weren't there.

"What the?", I said looking at the tree to make sure my hand was in the right spot, it was. When I looked over where I had last parked it, the Civic was...just gone!

"The fuck!?", I shouted, "where the hell is my Honda!"

"Looking for something Ace?", Sam said stepping in through the open hangar door.

"Am I looking for something?", I asked sarcastically, "hmm, let's see am I looking for something? Where the FUCK is my car Sam!?"

"Getting freshened up", Sam said, "Black River knows what it looks like, so I took matters into my own hands."

"Where's my damn Honda Sam?", I asked, "and what the hell did you do to it?"

Sam turned around, "Jackson! Bring that AMAZING Honda Civic around will ya?"

I heard the Civic start out back of the warehouse. The sound came around the hangar until a bright, matte orange, two door shooting brake Civic was sitting out front. It seemed like the front end of the car had been untouched, as the bumper, lights and wheels were still intact. There were FWD badges that looked like they were factory rather than the ones I put on it and the wing was stuck to the hatchback by some carbon fiber arms. There was a "Civic SS" badge on the hatchback and front bumper as well. The inside of the car was completely different too. The steering wheel, pedals, seats and shifter will still the same, but everything else was brand new. There was a 15 inch tablet sitting above the AC controls and there was a "Civic SS" woven into the tan fabric on the passenger's side dash broad. I also noticed now that the sifter went 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 in stead of just to five. I had new tires, big ass Brembo brakes with yellow calipers "Civic SS' floor mats and the backseats were now two full size Recaro's rather than just the tiny buckets that I used to have. The roll cage had been padded all the way around and looked like an integral part of the car.

"What have you done to my Honda?", I asked in shock.

"Black River knew what it looked like", Sam said, 'I fixed that. You like it?"

I looked at him, "you have built me the holiest of all holy things, of course I like it."

"Happy to hear it", Sam said, "by the way, we dinoed it and uh....the Supra has some competition."

Sam handed me a piece of paper that was flooded in half. The dino sheet. I took it from him and read it. The numbers were really surprising for a V6.

"1027 horsepower at the front tires!?", Nina asked, "holy fuck!"

"Look at the torque", I said, '1000 pounds at the ground."

"Damn", Nina said, "how the hell do the piston rods not go squish?"

"It's a Japanese motor", I said, "their all over engineered. Nice to know how much power the thing's making."

"Well I'll let you guys go", Sam said, "don't go too far and keep your radios on in case something comes up."

I nodded as Sam and his buddy left. I stuck my Ar underneath the back seat which was accessible by a pick up style door behind the main one on either side. Nina slid into the car and buckled up the harness. I sat in the driver's side, shut the door behind me, clutch in and started the car. The V6 shook the Civic a lot less than it used to, the 1000 horsepower now seemed more controlled due to the increased weight of the hatchback rear end.

"Seems more under control", Nina said.

"I know", I said, "fucking sucks I can't show my viewers."

"You have like 1,000 subs", Nina said, "how many of 'em are Black River?"

I shrugged, "is it a risk your willing to take?"

Nina sighed, 'I see your point."

"Just supra from now on I guess", I said putting the Civic in first. I drove out of 29, waited for a Ford F150 to blow past us and then turned and headed in the same direction of Bakersfeild. The Civic quickly pulled to 60MPH before I clutched in and made the transition into second gear. The pull of the shifter was crisp and ridiculously short, maybe about three inches.

"That's the shortest shifter I've ever used in my life", I said as the Civic pulled to 79 and then hit third. Nina and I cleared the road to Venom's shortcut fairly quickly. I unlocked the gate, drove the Civic inside and shut the gate behind me, going back to the car, sliding in and tightly buckling up the racing harness

"We have three more gears and 400 more horsepower than last time we were down here", I said looking my fiance in her eyes, "you know I have to."

"It would be weird if you didn't", Nina smiled tightening the harness.

I pushed the clutch in, put the Civic in first, revved up until the boost gauge filled and then let the clutch fly back. The front tires screeched in disapproval as the TCS light flashed and the car only skidded forward. After a small, two second burnout, the Civic launched forward like a rocket. The tach wound out to almost 13,000 RPM before I hit the limit of first gear. I kicked the clutch and threw the shifter into second gear, causing the tach to jump from 13,000 back down to 4 almost quicker than I could blink and the engine sound resulting from the shift would make you think I was running a paddleshift or performance automatic. Second gear carried me quickly through 5K, past the new 7500 RPM boost threshold before the turbo kicked on. It might have had to do with the extra gears in the tranny, or maybe it was something you get with front wheel drive, but if the boost was crazy before, now it was downright insane and I mean that, I talk a lot of shit about the boost level in cars I drive, because ever since I started One Take my sense of the power of forced induction had been lost, but this shit was unreal! Nina was pressed back in the seat, looking certain we were packing the 6.0 V12 from the Supra. The readout on the dash said the engine was taking all of 50 pounds of boost and thanks to the supercharger, the number wasn't exactly holding steady. By the time Third gear rolled around, the Civic was greedily sucking down over 80 pounds of air every second and the front wheels were happily bouncing all over the road as they dragged the unwilling car along for the wide. STM wasn't exactly approving, neither was TCS. I've driven some crazy cars and always thought the car that would be too much would be All Wheel Drive, nope. It was a Honda Civic.

"Damn this thing's hard to drive", I growled at myself as I fought the front wheels for control of the rest of the car while shifting into fourth gear.

"These front tires are evil!", Nina squealed happily.

The steering wheel was loading up the higher the engine wound out. Every time it approached the limit of it's capabilities, the automatic urge to hit the clutch and get the next gear overrode my common sense and I gave the Civic what it wanted. The Mph needle was creeping close to 220 and I was only in fifth at the moment. The V6 continued to screw the transmission in the ass as each new gear sent more and more power to the greedy front wheels, who were sucking down every bit of it and still wanting more. In sixth gear at 230 miles an hour, the Civic was still accelerating. Hard.

"This thing is scary in all the right ways!!", Nina laughed, even though she looked ready to piss herself. Holy shit did this car have some get up, this transmission wasn't to be fucked with. I could almost hear the engine yelling at us.

"REV ME YOU FAGGET!"

And was I happy to oblige. Then came the moment I hit seventh, the transmission only had one more gear to give, but did it give it well. Seventh carried us through 240 and to the speed that all Front Wheel Drive performance cars had ever chased, 250 miles an hour and at 13,000 RPM, I hit the clutch for eighth gear, topping the Civic off at 255MPH. Eighth gear must have had some kind of crazy ratio, because even at 255 the engine settled into a 9,000 RPM run and held there. I couldn't accelerate any more, was out of gears and I had also run out of room. I hit the brakes and put the transmission in neutral as the Civic slowed to a crawl and then a stand still. I pulled the parking brake, took a look at Nina, who was breathing heavily enough to make you think that she'd just gotten done running a marathon.

"That.....I don't know what that was", she smiled, "that fucking insane! I thought my Corvette was fast. What was that?"

"255", I laughed, out of breath myself.

"What?", Nina squeaked in disbelief.

"255", I laughed.

"We here a Guinness Book present you with proof and acknowledgment that your Honda Civic is the world's fastest Front Wheel Drive Shooting Brake, please accept this ribbon."

"Civic to Supra be like, "do you even front wheel lift bro?", I said laughing like I was little boy again and in my Dad's 240.

"And Supra be like, "do you even V12 dude?", Nina said giggling.

"Do you V6 bro? Honda Civic asks", I said.

"Do you even All Wheel Drive Dream Car?", Nina said.

"They could go on for hours", I laughed, "I'm sort of glad car's can't talk."

"Meanwhile my Vete be in the background all like, do you two even carbon fiber?", Nina laughed.

I was about to reply with another Do You Even phrase when my radio cracked up.

"Son", My Dad said, "you there?"

"Yeah Dad", I said picking the radio up, "what do you need?"

"Your CO caught sight of what looks like a Black River Train moving at a decent clip about 30 minutes south of where you are now. If you hurry, you might beable to catch it. Don't engage, just observe, your friend Mako is sending you the location now."

About a second or so after that, there was a "New Message", on the screen in the Civic's dash. I pressed it and it brought up the GPS which told me to make a right turn at the end of PV's road."

"Looks like we got a train to catch", I said putting the Civic in gear.