New Roads
"What an end to the season, Ricky." The sportscaster turns at the large desk to better face his co-caster. Behind them is an aerial view of a racetrack with blurred, excited movement. The final standings from the race are plastered on the right side of the screen:
- Kiramman 11
- Talis 48
- Ahri 55
- Braum 26
- Lux 18
"A harrowing end, with Lanes flipping into the grass and that pile-up..." Ricky trails off as the camera cuts to show footage from the final lap of the championship race. The number six car gets bumped on its left side by the 48 as it tries to move lower on the track.
"Sure, you've got Lanes, whose first year in the cup series went up in smoke, literally." The 6 car swivels as it tries to regain control to no avail. It knocks into the lead car, 40, before barreling hard to the left. "But let's not act like she was one of the championship four, or even a real contender here."
The 40 car spins to the right from the contact, getting hit dead on its right door by the 87 as the rest of the pack tries to swerve around them. "Careful, Jeff." Ricky warns.
"Hear me out, Lanes only managed a few top 20 finishes.” Multiple cars start to pile up as the open space to avoid the accident shrinks with each pile up. “She didn’t manage to make much of a splash for her rookie year, until tonight."
The 6 car barrels towards the grass. "Definitely not the kind of attention you want to be getting as a rookie."
"So we’ve got a driver who struggled in traffic all year, then comes out swinging tonight, causing a huge wreck-"
As the 6 hits the grass, still going too fast, it catches air. "Talis tapped her off-center, and she had been running a good, aggressive race here today." The 6 car starts to barrel roll through the air.
"Okay, sure, either way, she ended up in the grass on the final lap," the 6 slows to a stop, landing on its hood, "collecting Grayson, Finn, and a dozen others with her, leaving Kiramman up front for the checkered under caution."
The driver of 6 is seen climbing out of the car, grey smoke pouring from the engine as the track crew and an ambulance pull up near it. The driver seems to be marching straight to pit road, ignoring EMS.
"What's your point?" Ricky asks as the video changes to cover victory lane. It slowly zooms in on a somber-looking Caitlyn Kiramman with confetti falling around her.
"If not for Lanes' choking under the pressure from Talis, Kiramman would not be holding that cup right now."
Vi paused the footage on her TV; the words had lost their bite weeks ago. Cheap digs at drivers wasn't anything new in the industry. Besides, they weren't what she was after right now.
"See?" Vi stalked closer to the screen from where she had been standing guard, armed with the TV remote as she waited for the exact frame she was after.
Turning back to the couch, Vi could see Jinx squint at the screen and then back to her before a questioning eyebrow was raised.
Her sister had insisted on staying with Vi during the off-season this year, claiming Vi would need the extra help after her wreck. Not that Jinx had helped out around the place much. Vi didn't need it anyway, but she enjoyed the company. She'd been lucky to walk away with only a matching pair of black eyes and a few sore muscles. Her career hadn't been as lucky.
"Is this some conspiracy theory? Cuz I'd be all down for that, sis, but this is feeling a little stalkery." Jinx looked at her like the doctors had missed a head injury Vi must have sustained.
"Just-" Vi mumbled, rewinding back a few seconds and muting the audio, before playing it again. "Watch."
She paused it perfectly once more; she'd done it enough times it was basically muscle memory, and turned back to her sister, gesturing to the TV.
When Jinx just kept looking between her and the TV, Vi broke. "Her face!"
"What about it?"
"She's scowling."
"I don't think Kiramman knows how to not scowl."
Vi turned to inspect the image again before rewinding once more. "Look," letting it play, but not as far this time to pause right as Kiramans's gaze turned to the right to look past the camera and the gathered crowd. "See? She's looking right where my car was sitting."
Her mental map of the track layout had worked out that Kiramman was looking at her smoking six car rather quickly. The real question was why.
"And? You kinda made a whole spectacle of, you know, a major wreck." Jinx's voice had a tone of seriousness to it that Vi did her best to ignore.
Plowing forward, despite her sister being reluctant to humor Vi's spiral, she let the video play for half a second before pausing again. Pressing her finger to the screen with enough force that pixels distorted around it. "There, she frowns even more. Right after looking at my wreck."
"And...?"
"And," Vi dropped her hand from the screen, "I just gave her the cup series! And she's- she's." Gesturing helplessly back at the screen like it should prove what she's trying to explain, Vi stumbles around her thoughts. "Mad? Upset? I don't know."
Jinx flops back on the couch in exaggerated motion, pulling out her phone to doom scroll. "So what? It's not like we don't know Kiramman is a huge bitch."
Grumbling, Vi made her way to sit down on the other end of the couch, rewinding the video back to play it again. "What an end to the season, Ri-"
"Can we not?" Jinx huffed out.
Vi's eyebrows furrowed as she regarded her sister, who was still preoccupied with her phone. "What?"
"I don't want to- Vi, you could have died."
"That's not-"
"You're using this Kiramman thing to ruminate when you need to move on." Jinx gave her phone an annoyed look. "You know what Dad said."
"I am not ruminating." Vi pointed out, despite her eyes tracing her car's path on the video. She hadn't meant to get stuck watching her wreck over and over, but Kiramman's scowl had latched itself into her head with no signs of letting go.
It's not like it had been her first wreck. Not even close to her worst. And it certainly wouldn't be the last. Half her job was avoiding crashes.
Jinx dropped her phone onto her chest, fixing Vi with a disbelieving look. "Then what is this? You got a crush or somethin'?"
"I do not have a crush." Vi sputtered.
Shrugging, Jinx gave the screen another look, once again paused on Kiramman's face. "Coulda fooled me with how much time you spend staring at her."
"I'm not staring."
"One," her sister held up one finger, "you so are. And two," a second finger joined the first, "you need to get over yourself and just take the offer."
"It's not that simple."
"Do you want to drive the cup series again?"
"Obviously."
"Do you have any other offers that would let you do that?"
"...no."
"Then take the damn offer!"
"I don't want to drive for HexTech." Vi grumbled, rotating the TV remote around in her hand. "I told you that."
Vi's original team, Enforce, had dropped her after her first year. Vi couldn’t blame them for the decision much. Her performance nearly all season had been less than stellar, best positioning at a measly 12th. The championship race had been her last chance to make a mark and show what she was capable of. One she took in stride, advancing positions within the first stage rapidly and keeping pace in the top ten until the final lap. Where, unable to keep control of the car under pressure, she wrecked into the 40.
Grayson, the 40 driver, was on course to win the championship, and being teammates, it was expected of Vi to help defend Grayson's position and secure a win for Enforce. Instead she'd clipped her bumper while trying to maintain control, throwing away their team's chance and crashing a staggering total of 18 cars in the process. Definitely not Vi’s finest moment.
Not to mention the 'conversation' Vi'd had with Talis on pit road after the race, which had netted her a few hefty fines.
The Enforce team manager had personally come to visit Vi a few days after it all. Explaining in no uncertain detail that they would not be having her drive for them next season.
In the aftermath, the only team willing to touch her was HexTech. The very team she had given the win to.
"This is your second chance." Jinx got up, walking off into the too-large apartment. Vi guessed to go to the guest room her sister had taken up residency in. "Don’t fuck it up this time."
Vi hummed, clicking play to watch the video again.
The next day she called the number a HexTech Racing representative had given her.
December 5th - 2 months till Exhibition
A week later, Vi was stepping out of her car in the parking lot of HexTech Racing's operation center that sat on the outskirts of Piltover.
The large white building was structured similarly to a warehouse with dark blue detailing to give it a polished and clean look. A winter chill clung to the air with a few piles of snow that would only grow in the coming months scattered around.
Vi ran a hand through the longer section of her hair, hoping the motion would help settle the nerves building inside her. She hadn't been around Talis since the championship. Since the man was a co-owner of HexTech Racing, she'd have to swallow the simmering anger that still licked at her lungs.
With the cold starting to seep through her leather jacket, Vi made her way to the front doors.
She didn't know much about HexTech Racing. The team, despite being relatively new to the Runeterra Association of Stock Car Auto Racing (RASCAR), was an anomaly. They seemed to have no problem with funding, running two to three cars on their team across its three years of existence thus far. Not to mention the top-of-the-line gear they used both inside and outside of the cars.
Their cars had been widely considered some of the best on the track throughout the season, managing well from superspeedways to road courses to short tracks. They had quickly cemented their name with no signs of backing down anytime soon.
Normally, younger teams were scrappier, fighting tooth and nail for both sponsors and positions. Firelight Motorsports was a good example of that. A team that struggled to keep even two cars running, more often than not having the resources for only one. With constant changes to their wraps as sponsors moved in and out throughout the season, the team fought hard just to compete.
As Vi reached the entrance, the door swung open with a skinny, rundown-looking man who leaned heavily on an equally worn-down cane, greeting her. "Ms. Lanes, it's a pleasure."
"Vi is fine." She greeted, skirting past the man to reach the heated interior of the building. A welcome change to the frigid air outside.
Inside was a waiting area that looked as stiff and unused as the exterior did. A red couch and armchair sat to the right, not a wrinkle of use in sight, and a security desk to the left with an older gentleman who looked half asleep as he stared blankly at a monitor in front of him.
"I'm Viktor, one of the co-owners here at HexTech Racing as well as our lead engineer." The man, Viktor, gave her a once-over. "I must say, we're all rather excited to have you aboard."
Vi doubted that everyone was 'rather excited'; Kiramman's scowl and Talis' remarks to her floated to mind, but hummed in acknowledgment anyway. Waving her to follow him, Viktor made his way farther into the building.
"We wanted to make this transition as painless as possible, so we already cleared all your requests." Viktor rounded a corner before opening the door to a small office.
The room's desk was covered in paperwork, with an egregious number of filing cabinets taking up the far wall. "All of them?" Vi questioned, sitting down in the only seat across the desk.
Vi's request hadn't been many, but they were a bit unorthodox. She wanted to keep her main sponsor, Jericho's, who have always supported her through her years in the lower-ranking series, have the final say on her pit crew hirings, and she wanted to drive under the number six.
Viktor shuffled a few papers around before sitting behind the desk and fixed her with a knowing look. "To be candid, we're still waiting to hear back about getting your number."
"Enforce?"
"Seemingly."
The news wasn't surprising. Enforce had requested the number six for Vi when they hired her to drive for them. It was the only number she's ever raced under, taking it with her through her career.
Often, teams kept numbers they were known for, and RASCAR would help keep it that way, but since Enforce had only had the number six for one season, they didn't have much claim to it. With any luck, HexTech could be given the number this season for her to race under.
Vi wiped the sweat gathering on her palms off on her jeans as nonchalantly as possible. The ease of this was unsettling. She'd always been forced to compromise with teams before, but Viktor was just handing her anything she asked for.
"Mel has a way with persuasion, I'm confident we'll be awarded your number." Viktor added, most likely mistaking her nervous energy as worry about the number.
"Mel?"
"Medarda."
Vi's eyes widened in recognition. "As in, Ambessa Medarda?"
Viktor hummed an acknowledgment, shifting some paperwork across the desk. "If that's all, sign here."
Ambessa Medarda was a racing legend, known for her aggressive and unapologetic driving. She'd won five championships and had a record-breaking 153 cup series wins. Outplacing the number two spot holder by nearly 30 wins. She retired a few years back and instead became a co-owner of her previous team, Elite Motorsports.
Pushing away her reservations with signing on with HexTech, Vi scribbled down the chicken scratch that passed as a signature. It was only a year; if she performed well enough, she might be able to jump ship to a different team and leave what was most likely going to be a nightmare of a year behind her.
With a curt nod, Viktor whisked away the papers to join the rest of the clutter that hopefully had some sort of system to it, and the two started on a tour of the facility.
The place as a whole was much fancier, or maybe it was just newer, than the Enforce Motorsports facilities Vi was used to. A state-of-the-art gym and reaction training area came with team trainers, an in-house print shop, a huge kitchen with its own chef accompanied by an even larger lounge area, and a mind-numbing amount of offices that lined hallways.
By the time the pair reached the garage, Vi was starting to forget why she hadn't wanted to drive for HexTech.
"This," Viktor motioned with his cane towards a section of the garage unlittered with people. A solid white, unwrapped stock car sat in the dock, "is similar to what you'll be driving." Vi made her way over to the driver window, fingers dragging across the smooth metal of the hood as she went. “It’s electric, used for testing and pit practice.” The inside was just as plain as the outside to allow for easily swappable parts and tinkering.
"Want to give it a spin?"
Jerking out of the car, carefully enough to not bash her head on the roof, Vi looked towards where the deeper voice had come from.
Jayce Talis stood beside Viktor, a blindingly sweet smile across his face as he watched her. He was dressed in a white HexTech team polo and khakis, more fitting for a golf course than a garage, Vi mused.
Shoving her hands into her pockets, Vi turned her gaze back to the car. The last time the two of them had been face to face, Talis' pit crew was hauling her off him. Vaguely, she wondered if any of the people meandering around the garage recognized her from the incident. "Sure."
"Come on, let's get you suited up."
As Talis led her through the unfamiliar space to somewhere Vi was positive would be as expensive and over the top as the rest of the building, he decided to address the tension in the air between the two. "You throw a mean right hook."
"Yeah…" Vi scratched at the back of her neck, pointedly not turning to face him despite the eyes she could feel on her. "Sorry about that."
Talis shrugged, turning to look forward as they went. "Nah, you're not."
Vi could feel the anger boiling hotter in her chest. "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"
"Relax," Talis held up his hands in surrender, a small laugh escaping him. "I just mean that I deserved it. You caught all the flack for that wreck when I'm the one who pushed you. Bump and runs aren’t usually my style." He worked his jaw, as if remembering the blow that landed there in their original confrontation. "I was ready to put you in the ground at the time, though."
A laugh made its way out of Vi as the anger started to sink away; maybe the guy wasn’t that bad. "I'd like to see you try." She made a show of flexing one of her arms, the gesture losing most of its effectiveness on account of her leather jacket.
Talis barked out a laugh before his eyes turned serious and his smile faltered for a second. "I'm glad you joined us. This team needs a driver like you."
"A middle pack driver who isn't afraid to put the team's leader into the grass?" Vi huffed. Maybe listening to that video on repeat did get to her a little bit.
Shaking his head, Talis gave her a smirk. "An aggressive driver who isn't afraid to take what she wants.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t want some driver who’s won a bunch and turned complicit. I want a driver who’s hungry."
Two hours later, after she and Talis had returned with a mostly fitting fire suit and measurements taken for her official ones to be made, Vi was pulling the stock car out of the garage. Viktor had assisted with some minor adjustments: the seat, controls, and safety equipment to allow for a decent enough experience for Vi on short notice.
"It's a mile track." Talis had informed her. "Turn three is a little tricky, got a low bank, so take it high or slow down."
Anticipation drummed through her veins as she adjusted her grip on the steering wheel. The fibers of the gloves bit into her skin uncomfortably; they had been the best fit, but too long in the fingers and not wide enough at the palms. Her personal set would be secured as soon as they got a number. Currently, a blue 11 stared back at her on them. Vi tried not to think about that much.
She really should have brought some of her old gear that has just been taking up space in a storage locker for the better part of a year now. But she hadn't expected to get the opportunity to drive so soon after signing. She'd have to stop by tomorrow to get it.
Vi imagined the map of the track Talis had shown her in her head as she squared the car up at the line, revving the engine a few times before taking a slow lap around to get a feel for it. She wiggled the car back and forth, trying to get the tires up to the right temperature for grip and knock loose any debris. The movement was more out of habit than anything.
The first turn was sharper than it looked and needed a higher bank, in Vi’s opinion, but was otherwise fine. That led into a straightaway to a wide second, followed by a short stretch, then a tight third. Finishing out her pace lap, Vi took a deep breath and sped up as the car entered the restart zone.
The muted bass of the engine left something to be desired, far different than a traditional stock car, as the car took off, barreling down the track. The first turn felt uneven; Vi suspected the suspension wasn't adjusted properly. By the third lap she'd gotten a handle on it, but her left front tire kept locking up on the second turn. The grip on them was suboptimal, more than likely due to the cold weather.
By the tenth lap around, the car started to feel like an extension of her body, the two moving in tandem around turns and drifting from the top to bottom lane with ease.
Vi hadn't driven a race car since last year's championship, and she was unable to keep the smile at bay as she flew around and around. There was nothing that felt more freeing than sailing around a track at high speeds. Everything else fades away as the feel of the car seeps into your bones.
After a few more laps—she'd lost count of the exact amount—Vi slowed down for a final pace lap. Entirely indulgent in the fact that she didn't want to stop, but figured she ought to give a few notes for adjustments and could be back out in a few days. Eventually parking the car in the makeshift pit road, Vi noticed a few new bodies had joined her welcome team of Talis and Viktor. The group huddled together against the cold.
As the car turned off, Talis' infectious smile was already being leveled at her through the netted window. "Looked pretty good out there."
"A lot easier when no one's in your way." Vi bantered back, working loose the net before taking off the steering wheel so she could crawl out.
A scoff loud enough to penetrate the helmet Vi was still working to get off had her rolling her eyes behind the visor. Doing her best to ignore it—she was in a good mood after that drive, dammit—she finally won the battle against the chin strap, able to pull off the helmet.
Looking up after the brief disorientation, her eyes landed on Kiramman. Scowling, as usual, of course. It was her normal scowl, not the slightly different version Vi had spent hours staring at on her TV. Seeing the women in person felt as if her dreams were following her into real life. Like this face she'd poured over for answers had become less and less real over time, but now here it was. Downturned lips and furrowed brows examining her.
Vi's also not sure why now, of all the times the two have crossed paths, she's suddenly aware of how angled the woman's face is and how the dark blue hair frames it perfectly, is of importance.
The two drivers had passed by one another on multiple occasions last year, between ‘class photos,' driver meetings with RASCAR officials, and overall being corralled into similar locations on race days or promotional events. It was more difficult to not have met another driver. In spite of the fact, Vi didn’t think they’d ever shared more than a few words in passing. Kiramman was no-nonsense, straight to the point, and bluntly short when talked to. Basically, none of the drivers but Talis or Grayson hung around with her.
"How'd it feel?" Viktor's question allowed Vi to pull her attention away from Kiramman. Hopefully she hadn't been staring for long; that'd be hard to explain: 'Oh hey, I’m staring because I've spent days rewatching you frown at the championship. By the way, were you frowning at me? And why? Also, you're really pretty.' Yeah, Vi doubted that would go over well.
"Suspension is a little off," Vi set the helmet on top of the car, starting to work on the velcro of her gloves. "Couldn’t tell if I was dragging on the turns or if the cold air was messing with the grip too much." Viktor nodded to the woman beside him that Vi didn't recognize, who jotted down the notes with fervor.
"Are those my gloves?" The question sounded more like an accusation with the posh accent and had Vi pausing in her motions, looking down at the gloves like she hadn't been painfully aware of the number on them.
Vi managed a choked sound as she searched for the words, unsure why her throat suddenly felt dry.
"Only pair we could find that mostly fit," Talis answered for her. "Even Vi couldn't fill your freakishly long fingers."
Do not think about her fingers right now. Vi's mind screamed at her. The adrenaline from driving must be getting to her.
"Says the guy who wears sunglasses when he races." Kiramman shot back, and Vi's eyes snapped back up to her, not expecting the playful retort from a woman known for her cold demeanor both on and off track.
"Helps block the sun." Talis shrugged. "Besides, I look hot in them."
Kiramman rolled her eyes, but a fond smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. And holy fuck, if Vi thought Kiramman looked good with a scowl, she was drop-dead gorgeous when she smiled. Vi's chest suddenly hurt.
"We’ll look into it." Viktor brought the conversation back to topic as he addressed Vi.
"When do you want my crew brought in?" Vi tore her gaze away from Kiramman for the second time. She might have to rethink Jinx's crush theory, but that was a problem for later.
“Eh, a week?” Viktor shared a glance towards the woman beside him, who gave him a ‘so-so’ motion with her hand. “We should have everything set up for you by then.”
Maybe this whole thing wouldn't be as bad as she thought. Talis was more personable than he was on the track, more like two separate people. Vi couldn't blame him there. Putting on that helmet had a way of setting your mind into work mode, where the goal of winning blocked out everything else.
Vi had raced him in the smaller series a handful of times. Talis, like most drivers, had put in the work and climbed his way up, eventually getting picked up by Keys Motor Club, where he thrived with funding and became a crowd favorite quickly. He was basically the poster boy for RASCAR, constantly doing promotional events and often found at movie premieres and concert venues when he was off the track. Eventually, he had moved on from the Keys team to form his own with a partner, and HexTech Racing was born.
And Kiramman… well, Vi wasn't sure about her yet. The woman had a way of ticking her off with the smallest of comments, and her silver spoon racing background left a sour taste in Vi's mouth if she thought about it too long.
Before Enforce had picked Vi up, she'd scraped by on smaller teams, worse equipment, and small crews. Her own background in racing was minimal compared to that of Kiramman.
No one really knew why Caitlyn Kiramman raced for HexTech, not when her mother, Cassandra Kiramman, owned the Keys Motor Club (KMC) that had racers across multiple series. KMC was basically synonymous with RASCAR racing. The team had been around for generations as it passed down through the Kiramman family.
On top of that, her father, Tobias Kiramman, with a legacy of 3 championships, was a RASCAR driver of his own. Sporting a career in racing with no uncertainty about his skill and dedication to the craft. Simply put, Caityln Kiramman was racing royalty with unending funding to back it, who grew up around the best equipment racing had to offer.
She never raced in the lower series for RASCAR. Kiramman signed with Keys and started in the cup series at the age of 19 right after graduating from multiple prestigious race schools. A blowout driver, upsetting the status quo on day one as she led a staggering 144 laps on her first race in exhibition for the series, only to be upset in the last stage.
HexTech Racing had a career-defining season in the 2024 series. With their two cars run by Kiramman and Talis taking first and second in the championship race as well as Kiramman taking home the cup series championship. Kiramman racked up 6 wins across the year, and Talis trailed her at 3. The team was never a question of if they could win as a newer organization in RASCAR, but when they would win again.
Whatever was to come with HexTech Racing, Vi was locked in for a year. She could manage that long.