Chasing the Phantom Car of Gotham. Vicky Vale is Live at the Event

Vicky was just on her way home from an event in New York where multi-billionaire Lex Luthor had presented his newest charity program. As usual, she had turned on her police radio to keep up to date as soon as she had returned to Gotham. She and her cameraman, who sat in the back, listened to the usual police reports and enjoyed the peace and quietness. The event at Luther had lasted until late at night and now they were all looking forward to a warm bed. While their driver was just driving over Gotham Bridge and they could see the city's shining skyscrapers, Vicky's attention was immediately captured by a single word.

"Sports Hearse!"

"Hey! Bill! Hit it!" she slaps the driver and turns up the radio. The driver reacted startled and pressed the accelerator all the way down. The car made a leap and accelerated aggressively and luckily for her the bridge was completely empty. At 2am there were very few cars left in Gotham and so they made good progress.

"Boss! What's going on?" asked the driver nervously just to hear a nasty hiss. The cameraman leaned over to answer while Vicky stared intently at the speakers as if she could hear better.

"Sports Hearse is the police code word for a car chase." he told Bill quietly enough not to bother Vicky.

"And why don't they just call it that?" Bill asked quietly, concentrating on the road. Even though there were few cars, the speed was a little too high for him personally.

"Because this is not a normal chase, Bill. This is a gargoyle," Steven grinned and unpacked his camera. "Boss. Ready when you are!"

"Gargoyle?!" Bill stammered and suddenly pushed the gas pedal even harder. He hadn't been in Gotham that long, and this. He had only heard rumors about these Gargoyles and to see them with his own eyes was just too tempting.

"NEXT RIGHT!!" Vicky suddenly screamed when she heard a street on the police scanner.

"Hold on!" Bill just grinned as he pulled the handbrake. Even the usually so unshakable Vicky screamed out in horror as he turned the handlebars just to counter-steer and accelerate again almost immediately. The car slid sideways and yet Bill didn't lose control of the car for a second. With a perfect slide he shot into the corner and even accelerated. While Vicky panically held on to a handlebar she could hear Steven cursing loudly from behind. When the centrifugal forces were no longer acting on them, she saw Bill buckle up while steering with one hand. Then the engine roared as he shifted gears. A quick glance at the speedometer showed her that they were flying 120 miles through downtown. Bill passed other cars left and right. With an incredible skill he operated the 2 tonne vehicle and often only pulled a hand's breadth past other cars. But while Vicky fastened her seat belt she could see the highly concentrated expression on Bill's face. One hand rested on the handlebars while the other hand flew back and forth between the handbrake and the gear lever. To her astonishment Bill even managed to accelerate and to take a roundabout in a slide with squeaking tires.

"Bill! Remind me that you are my permanent driver from now on" Vicky grinned broadly and heard Steven cursing in the back. "up ahead on the left!"

As Steve took the last turn the car slid across the road right between three police cars only to get back on track. The police cars could not compete with the Lamborghini Urus and so the heavy car passed them. Bill now needed all his attention as he had maneuvered himself into the middle of a swarm of 12 police cars.

"Sure boss!" he said calmly and risked a look at the navigation system in the center console. With brute force all passengers were pressed into their seat belts as he braked down from 180. When he had about 30 miles remaining, he pulled hard to the left and ejected from the police convoy. He immediately accelerated again and the 650 HP pushed Vicky, Bill and Steven into the leather seats. With a rapidly increasing speed he drove through a side alley that was barely wider than the car and Vicky clung to the side handle with her eyes wide open.

"BILL! This is the wrong way!" she shouted when she saw that this street was a dead end. "WALLL!!!! WAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL" she yelled as Bill pulled the handbrake again and turned into another side street. It was so tight that the side mirror on Vickie's side almost touched the wall. Shortly after gasping for air she looked at Bill who still wasn't paying attention to her and then at the navigation. She finally realized what he was up to. While the main road took a wide turn around Wayne Tower, this side street led directly to the only possible road. "Either I fire you or I fuck you if that works," she laughed and actually managed to make him look away from the road for a moment. "Eyes on the Streets Hotshot!"

With one last turn the car spun around again and drove backwards through the alley. His concentration was now back on the monitor, which showed the reverse view and finally he turned from moving around to moving forward. Accelerating immediately, they could see it.

Far behind them, the police cars just came flying around the corner and bathed The City in the lights of the sirens. But the police cars were almost a mile behind them while the real action was in front of them.

"Steven! Get him," said Vicky, knowing that he already did. "Bill! If you let this thing get away, you're fired!"

"Yes boss!" Bill grinned and grabbed the handlebars with both hands.

The scene in front of him was actually more suitable to drive away, but he was in a rush of speed. In front of him he could see two heavy, black SUVs fleeing from a car. Bill really knew a lot about cars and had seen almost every existing version of sports cars, but that one in front of him was something completely new.

The car was deep black and from the rear it looked like a Lamborghini Aventador, but it was wider and higher. The rear spoiler consisted of several individual lamellas, which seemed to be set up differently to make the best use of the airflow. Bill knew such ideas from the tuner scene he came from, but so far none of the tuners had been able to come up with a reasonable system. On top of that, he found it difficult to distinguish the contours of the car. He had only been able to see the slats because the sports car had just driven across them. Now that he looked at the rear they were just not visible anymore. It was as if this car was a black hole that swallowed every light.

While he was still admiring this car, bullets kept hitting the car, shot by the gangsters in the escape vehicles. However, the pistols, MPs and rifles did not seem to do anything against this monster of a car. But one of the SUV's back doors opened and Steven shouted loudly.

"Boss! They got a fucking minigun!"

All of a sudden the street was bathed in a hail of stripes of light when the multi-bladed minigun started to open fire. The criminals did not care which pursuer they were shooting at. Knowing that this car wouldn't last 2 seconds against the fire of a Minigun, Bill was about to pull the handlebars around when the black super sports car sat directly between them and the Minigun. Bill immediately recognized what the car in front of him was up to and immediately adjusted his maneuvers to match those of the car. Even from their position they could hear the impact of the bullets and see the tracer bullets bouncing off the car.

"Incredible!" breathed Bill. No car he knew, no car he could even imagine, could match the characteristics of this vehicle. Armored enough to withstand such firepower, maneuverability like nothing he knew and the acceleration of a goddamn Hayabusa.

"I want that car!" Vicky laughed out loud and drummed on the seat in front of him. "I want to ride this car!"

Suddenly there was a bright flash of light in front of the car and the "Dragula" and Bill flew past the 2 SUVs that slowly rolled out to the side as if they had just been unplugged.

"Don´t you dare to slow down, Bill! Nobody cares about them! Hang on! Stay on the Dragula" Vicky threatened and Bill nodded briefly. In his youth he had participated in some of the wildest races on the scene and even competed against Dominic Toretto once. As expected, he had lost that race, of course, but this was something else. This driver was at least as good as Dom.

"Go for it! Get past it," cried Vicky, who didn't dare touch Bill to keep him distracted.

"No chance boss. He's playing with us," Bill finally realized. As if on command, the car began to accelerate.

"Why are you braking?!" cried Vicky in horror as she looked at the speedometer and turned pale.

194.2 miles per hour.

"What?" she just stammered as the car in front of them kept accelerating. In less than 10 seconds, it was over 200 yards away and getting further and further away.

They were on the road leading straight out of town and could already see the lights of dozens of sirens in the sky. E

"A roadblock! We'll get him after all!" Vicky cheered and shook Bill around like crazy who almost lost control of the car. After only a few seconds he slowed down and put the car across. Immediately Vicky and Steven jumped out of the car and pointed the camera at the event.

"This is Vicky Vale, live from the New Gotham Bridge where police have set up a roadblock to finally apprehend the phantom car called Dragula! What you see here is a police roadblock of 11 vehicles and it looks like there are also security measures in place for escape. Be there when we finally get our first glimpse of this brave driver who has protected Gotham for months." She said while pointing to the policemen who were setting up straight nail boards behind the car. Dozens of police had lined up behind her eyes and pointed assault rifles, sniper rifles and pistols at the black car.

The black car was barely visible due to the dim lighting on the bridge, especially since its body was still swallowing the lights. Only the fact that the police lights were shining directly in front of him lifted the silhouette of the car.

Then suddenly it was dark.

All sirens were off, the lights went out and even flashlights of the police officers went out. For a maximum of 3 seconds the lights were off, but when they came on again, there was nothing more to see of the car. It was just gone, as if it had never existed. Searchlights scurried across the bridge but there was no trace of the car anywhere.

"Please tell me you recorded this," sighed Vicky who feared her camera was turned off, but to her relief Steven gave her a thumbs up that they were still there. "What you have seen here has indeed happened. Please don't ask me how he did it, but "Dragula" just disappeared into thin air before our eyes! It looks like we will have to wait a little longer for the identity of the driver.

"Bill! We really need to talk about your driving skills," she laughed as she got back into the car. "Welcome to the team!"

"That was an electric motor." Bill said softly and went on. No internal combustion engine, even with nitrous oxide injection, could manage such acceleration at this speed. Besides, he drove right past us and we didn't hear him."

"You know a lot about cars, don't you?" Vicky asked immediately and as he nodded. "Who could build such a car?"

He looked at Vicky for a long time and then said quietly. "Nobody!"