Cam swerved through the wreckage, tires screeching as debris shot past their windows.
"Time?!" Cam shouted.
Roy checked his phone, calm as ever. "50 seconds. Then they're back at it with the cannons."
"This is so stupid," snapped the girl with the short, yellow-streaked hair. "We should've gone to a town!"
"Calm down, Viper," said the guy with green-dyed streaks in his black hair, his tone even.
"Fine, Rock," she muttered, folding her arms.
"That goes for you too, Silk," Rock added, turning to the girl with pink streaks.
Roy looked over at Cam, raising an eyebrow. "What weird names."
"They're clearly a band," Cam muttered, laser-focused on the road.
The timer hit zero.
"I don't hear any cannons," Viper said cautiously.
Then cam chuckled. "Roy's never wrong."
The silence didn't last. The girl in the back, Silk, twisted around and peered out the back window.
"They're not aiming at us. They're firing at—another car?"
Sure enough, a sleek blue car was dodging cannon fire with expert precision, flying through the wreckage. It looked brand new, the paint glinting even in the storm.
The car pulled up beside them, and Roy turned to see a group inside, their icons glowing purple—another team. In the middle of their backseat sat someone with a red icon.
Another chest.
Above, the pirate ship stalked both vehicles like a hawk.
On the deck, a pirate peered through a seascope, one eye squinting shut. "There's that red one," he said, watching Cam's car weave. "He's a pain to sink… but that blue one…"
A wicked smile spread across his face. "I've got an idea. Fire all cannons to the right! Force them into each other!"
"Aye aye, Captain!" shouted another pirate as he dashed below deck. In the cannon bay, the crew scrambled into position. "READY ALL RIGHT-SIDE CANNONS!"
BOOM!
Explosions erupted around the blue car. The driver swerved hard—right into Cam's vehicle.
The two cars collided with a screech of metal and a flash of sparks, spinning wildly across the rain-slicked road. But Cam wrestled the wheel with perfect control, stabilizing their car like a pro.
"Hey! Watch it!" Cam snapped at the blue car's driver.
In the back, Silk rolled down her window and screamed, "What the hell?! Watch where you're going!"
"Sorry!" the other driver shouted back.
But the people in the blue car didn't stop.
"Get out of our way, you lunatics!" one yelled.
Hearing that, Roy's smile widened as he continued tapping on his phone.
"You shouldn't have said that," he muttered.
Cam's hands tightened on the wheel. His face tensed—then curved into a smile.
"Oh, you want to play games? Fine." His voice turned cold. "I'll take you out before the pirates even get the chance."