<span style="color: #FF0000">Body poised and ready for take off, Fernando looked over at the flag girl once again, this time in a much more serious manner. The race was about to start, and he had to block off any kind of distractions. The roar of the crowd, the grumbling of the two engines, and Matt's incessant taunting were all only background noise to him now. He was confident in his own abilities, but he couldn't afford to lose concentration, or he would surely lose.<br/><br/>When she signaled for them to take off, he was ready. He switched gears and took off, neck and neck with Matt for about ten seconds. Then, the first turn of the track came up, and he switched gears again to drift in the perfect arc that would carry his car into a perfect starting position to take off once again once the track leveled off. Matt drifted effectively as well, but not as precisely as Fernando, and Fernando gained a small lead as they turned the corner.<br/><br/>He was feeling the exhilaration now, the rumbling of the car and the violent jams of the car's wheels against the track as well as the wind buffeting his face and hair. <br/><br/>The excitement, however, was short lived.<br/><br/>As he continued to edge farther away from Matt, gaining a clear lead, he heard a shot being fired from a distance. Almost immediately after, his car tilted violently, its front nearly touching the ground from the right side. Feeling this, he knew immediately that someone had shot the wheel of his car, with an almost impossibly deadly precision. Judging by the crowd, who were looking around wildly, they didn't know who had fired the shot either.<br/><br/>And so Fernando's car began to spin out of control, finally crashing onto a wall on the side of the track, as Matt sped past him unabashed. The impact made Fernando's seat belt cut into his skin as he jerked about wildly, then suddenly stopped. The fast stop that his car made with the collision made his neck snap a bit, sending a sharp jolt of pain down his neck and back and rendering him unable to turn it to the left without another sharp intake of pain. Grimacing, he opened the door of the car, on his side, for the other door was completely smashed in, and reached into his coat for his gun. <br/><br/>He didn't much care that whoever had shot at his car could still be about, he was too angry. Still in pain from his neck and back, he strode straight towards Matt's crew and said, "All right, one of you is going to tell me who that was, right now."<br/><br/>The thought that maybe it had been someone completely different didn't even cross his mind.</span>