3RD YEAR ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL - PART 2
Hello readers! This is the continuation of my 3rd year anniversary special of my Gran Turismo fan fiction. This post shall now deal with the summary of the current GT6 Era plot. While you can simply just go the OP and click the links provided for each title, I still feel the need to summarize and refresh what has happened so far. For the new readers, this could also save you from trouble of reading them all if you are strapped for time.
GT6 Era (August 2014 - Present)
Note: The Boom (which is the prequel of Reaching The Apex, set 20 years prior) is also included in the GT6 Era since the photos were taken from GT6. It started in January of 2014 but I treat it as a special title. You can comment down below if you do wish to see its summary. For now I shall focus on the present timeline.
- The FIA GT3 Championship -
The Dream Alliance moves on to their next conquest, and so with their exploits being recognized by the world, they got an invitation from the FIA to race in the GT3 Championship. At first, Takanori was the only member who knows the car they'll be using. Eventually, the rest finds it out as Hiroyuki unveils their steed - a chrome silver Mercedes Benz SLS AMG GT3. Obviously, they meet rivals along the way, such as
Stephen Biemann who pilots the BMW Z4 GT3. However the team is to fulfill a moral obligation as they focus on their robotic opponents in the Team Silverblade that used the Audi R8 LMS Ultra as their weapon of choice.
Those robots are products of the NH Program, which was taught to be perished for good. Someone from behind the scenes have definitely revived it. The members of the team in question are -
Nina Hanne, Noel Honore, Nicholas Ho, and
Nash Hall who were led by a
mysterious cloaked figure.
The Dream Alliance didn't have a good start in the championship when the SLS broke down in the first round, making Takuma upset and guilty because he thought it's his fault for letting the team down. The team enjoys a brief break after the first round, but they join a rallying event to prevent them from being idle. Yuki Kanonji pilots Sir Ben's Audi Quattro rally car, and manages to defeat Nicholas Ho during the event. The robot has been burned out and its damage is irreversible as it exhausted all of its energy during the duel.
In the second round of the championship, the team manages to score a win thanks to Nobuhiko. In a spark, their decades-long rivalry that spanned from their fathers have revived, and Takuma swore to himself that he shall land a win for his late father's sake.
Meanwhile, Stephen has gotten desperate for a win, and so the mysterious cloaked figure takes advantage of the situation by offering a free sample of a vial that contains the same nanoparticles that the robots have. Stephen hesitatingly accepts the vial and ingested some of it. He noticed a boost in his body performance in Round 3, which made things tougher for Takuma. Takuma then unleashes his true potential for a brief moment and finally scores a victory on his part.
4th Round, and this time Hiroyuki sends his son Nobuyuki to finally apply his months of training. It turns out that Nobuyuki has incredible stamina, which he demonstrates during the race. He simply dropped his pace at the beginning and then unleashed everything eventually. The strategy paid off and they bag another victory.
The team then returns to Japan for the final round to be held in Suzuka. However, Takuma, Nobuhiko, Rob and Nigel sprang into action as they are to save Stephen who was abducted by the team Silverblade. They manage to unveil the identity of the mysterious cloaked figure who turns out to be NH3 - a robot using the old body of Nobuhiko. After their struggle, Takuma and Nobuhiko managed to destroy the robot while Nina Hanne and her human brother Adrian escaped to start a new life. Stephen is taken to the hospital as he was drugged.
Come final round, and Nobuyuki decided to disregard his father's orders as he is to prove that he is also a force to be reckoned with in Suzuka. However, a new enemy arrives, in the name of a British professor named
Bill Murray. Bill takes charge of the Team Silverblade. Even though Noel Honore was destroyed at the end of the race, Bill resumes the project and vows to return. The Dream Alliance takes the overall win.
The Dream Alliance's celebration was cut short as they hear rumors of a futuristic dark purple supercar targeting street racers. Eventually, Takanori was one of its victims and urges his twin to join in the action as well. While Takanori sent his brand-new Corvette C7 to WEST Tuning shop, Takuma receives his one-off Pagani Huayra originally tailored for Sir Ben.
It turns out that the mysterious car was also a one-off - a Nissan 2020 developed by Kaido and... Michiharu Kanonji. However, only Michiharu's spirit animates the race suit and helmet. The twins, with the help of Jintei, encountered that ominous supercar and took it on. Jintei quits the race as his R34 overheated its engine, while the twins managed to finally defeat the opponent. Then they discovered that it was their father piloting the said car, and had left an emotional message specifically for Takuma. The car was meant to be a gift.
- Dysfunctional Family -
Meanwhile, in London, Rob hears news of Professor Bill Murray's involvement in the NH Project. To start off, he planted a tracking device to Nina Hanne and acquired her data so as to find out Bill's whereabouts.
While waiting for the information, Rob helps his little brother Dennis prepare for the World Time Attack Championship. However Dennis met his ex-girlfriend
Rebecca Crewe who also turns out to be his opponent. Nash Hall is to represent Silverblade.
In the first round in Ascari Race Resort, Rob detected Bill's henchmen and disposes of them single-handedly. He discovered that they are to abduct Dennis under Bill's orders. After Dennis' victory in the first round, Rob found out from his superior that his mother
Amelia Hatch is also involved thanks to the data found from Nina. Amelia was apprehended and Rob interrogates her, with rage in his heart.
This is where the Hatch family troubles were revealed. In his youth, Rob had not been in speaking terms with his mother ever since the divorce. Rob went along with his father,
Brandon. However, tragedy strikes as the young Rob witnessed his father's murder in the hands of Bill. The cause of Brandon and Amelia's divorce was that the latter has been caught cheating as she sees the professor in secret.
With the hatred burning in his heart, Rob resolved to protect Dennis ever since. Even before he started his racing career, Rob enlisted in the military in order to muster strength, and eventually made it in MI6.
Now that his family's problem have arrived in full circle, Rob decides to take action and protect Dennis at all costs. First, he forces Dennis to skip the 2nd round, much to the little brother's chagrin. They instead focus for the third round which will be held in Tsukuba Circuit in Japan. Upon arriving, Rob asks a favor from Takanori to watch over Dennis, while he is to settle things with Bill once and for all.
But first, Rob takes Dennis to Suzuka, in order to bring back some fighting spirit as he breaks Nobuhiko Hiramoto's lap record using his KTM X-Bow R.
In the 3rd round, Takanori does as what Rob asked. Dennis performed exceptionally well, beating Rebecca and Nash Hall once again.
Meanwhile, Rob enlists the help of Takuma for the mission of taking down Bill. In an unexpected twist, Amelia decided to help out as well, in order to heal the wounds of their family. The trio break their way in, with Amelia feigning capture of Rob and presenting him to her former lover. The mother and son eventually turn on to Bill and they took him down.
Seeing good faith from his mother, Rob found it in his heart to forgive her. Then upon returning to UK, Dennis and Rebecca finally settle their differences in a race with Dennis taking the win. Even though the reward was having a spot in a racing team, he gives it to Rebecca as he thinks that he has so much to learn.
After the testing session of the new Honda NSX at the Nurburgring, Yuki Kanonji is given a vacation, along with taking the car with him - after all the NSX does belong to him as his late mother's gift. He takes advantage of that opportunity by circling around Europe with that car. He eventually arrives in Italy, and having deduced that it is a wonderful country, he stays. Yuki then enters the Monza circuit and just as he is about to get in the car, he encounters Alessandro Rossi, and his nephew named Giuseppe. Giuseppe strikes interest for Yuki, as he is younger than him. Yuki sets off to do some laps, and Giuseppe senses a kindred spirit from Yuki.
It turns out that Giuseppe was once an aspiring painter. But after his parents' passing, the passion for painting has burned out and was lured into the world of racing thanks to his uncle taking care of him. His cousin, Millena made attempts of convincing him to follow his dream, and what truly makes him happy. But because of Alessandro's exploits, Giuseppe becomes more fascinated in speed, and has developed skills in driving.
Once again, Yuki and Giuseppe meet. The two then go to a mountain pass on the latter's request. Yuki demonstrates his ability, and that made Giuseppe wonder what real passion is and if he could ever have one.
After another driving session with Alessandro, Giuseppe intends to challenge Yuki in a dangerous mountain pass duel much to the disappointment of Millena. With that, Giuseppe once again looks back to his paintings in his room, which further increases his doubts about finding his true happiness. Yuki finds out about this and willingly accepts the challenge. During the duel, Yuki displays his skill as a mountain pass driver, and as well as showing to Giuseppe how dangerous racing can be. This made Giuseppe rethink about his future, and deduced that he finally found his passion which is painting.
Back to Takuma's side of the story, he gets continuous e-mails from someone named Alfredo Agostini. It turns out that Alfredo is the self-proclaimed Fastest Tifosi, and always argues to Takuma online the greatness of Ferrari cars. Annoyed and intending to settle things once and for all, he prepares by going to Pagani's headquarters in Modena. He is then informed of his Zonda R's upgrades and was allowed to drive Horacio Pagani's personal Zonda for a while. Having being impressed by it, Takuma then goes to Sierra in Spain and wonders why some circuit paraphernalia such as clipping points and Armco barriers around the road. While shopping, Alfredo shows up and insults Takuma. The two engage in a race, with Alfredo losing control of his Enzo. Alfredo's mother, Carmela turns out to be the person responsible for turning Sierra into a racetrack as she is to host a time rally. Alfredo takes that opportunity to race Takuma once again, this time in his FXX. He also found out his mother's history and how she was defeated by Takuma's mother.
For the second time, the two men duel in Sierra. FXX vs. Zonda R. While the FXX initially got the upper hand, the Zonda R's increased power and improved downforce levels turned the tables. Once again, Alfredo loses control of his car and is defeated. Takuma then gives him a lecture about the difference in skill between a race car driver and a tycoon who simply bought a fast car.
With that settled, Takuma moves on to Nurburgring, to set a lap record for his Zonda R. While he did beat his old record, he failed to beat Rob Hatch's record time.
In London, Rob was given a new assignment - to track down Nina Hanne and as well as bringing her back home as it turns out that Adrian was looking for her. Another task is to retrieve Nash Hall as there were two people fighting for its ownership -
Martin Banks and
Francis Gautier. Martin was the one who bought Nash from the NH Program while Francis intends to extract the Nanoparticle data from the robot to boost his driving skill in order to fight off his aging body.
Rob flew to Los Angeles. There, he is to act as an event receptionist who shall attend to arriving guests at Martin's party in a luxurious hotel. During the party, Francis makes a surprise appearance, and orders his men to capture Martin. Rob gets caught in the action, and decides to fight back and shoot down Francis' men. However, one of them shoots a grenade and Rob narrowly escapes the explosion by crashing through the window and fall on a great height. Though he grapples his way back up to an empty hotel room is about to regroup with his partner
Mark.
Upon getting exiting the hotel, however, he encounters Sayuki. It turns out that CIA is after Nina and Nash as well, but intending to destroy them. Both agents clash, and Rob prevails when he knocked out Sayuki.
The next day, Mark and Rob meet a tuning shop owner to borrow a car for the mission. They try it out in Willow Springs and encounter Martin. After a brief race, Rob gets an invitation to a race in Laguna Seca. Upon finding out the type of cars his opponents would use, he orders Ricky to send his KTM X-Bow R to use for the event.
But on the next day, Rob finds out that Nina is on the run and follows her. It turns out that Nina intends to destroy Nash in order to set things right. The two robots clash, but once again Francis' men arrive and destroy Nash's home. Rob was able to save Nina and take her to the hotel. He asks the female robot to stay put while he searches for Nash.
During the race in Laguna Seca, Rob is to take care of the racing while Mark was tasked to steal all the vials that Martin intended to reward for the winners. Francis was also a participant, but even though he drives the Pescarolo C60 Hybride LMP1 car, he was soundly defeated by Rob. But that didn't matter for Francis since his men had successfully captured Nash. Martin goes on a frantic search.
Upon returning to Los Angeles, Nina offers to help Rob track down Nash as she still recognizes his signal patterns. When they are about to do so, however, a CIA Agent storms in and the two escape. But they were immediately surrounded by other agents led by Sayuki. The pair fight together, but Nina got shut down in the process. Alone, Rob takes down the remaining agents and threatens Sayuki to kill her if she won't let Nina go.
Rob then takes the deactivated Nina, and lets the IT team of the MI6 access her data in order to track down Nash's whereabouts. After some time, they are able to locate Nash in Francis' mansion in Hollywood hills. Rob heads there, and sneaked his way in. But the guards were alerted of his presence and intercept Rob. Rob fights them off, and that provided the opportunity for Francis to escape along with Nash.
With distractions dealt with, Rob chases down Francis throughout the city. The chase ended with Nash self-destructing, killing Francis as well. Rob watches Francis' Veyron burn and then reports to his superior.
- The Eternal Rivalry -
For quite some time, Takuma has been preparing himself to beat Nobuhiko. His rival knows of this as well, and does the same.
It has been 30 years since their fathers had an epic duel in Suzuka, but it was a draw. The sons decided that it must be settled. On Takuma's end, he successfully restored his Mazda RX-500 powered by a custom 3-Rotor unit from RE Amemiya. Nobuhiko planned to use his Toyota FT-1 that he received from his father.
On the day of the duel, every racing fan in Japan go to Suzuka and watch, including Kazunori Yamauchi. The battle was intense, with the two racers giving everything he got. The end got exciting as both cars spun out at the very last turn. However, Takuma manages to perform a J-turn to the finish line, finally setting the closure of the rivalry that left unsettled for decades. Upon arriving home, Takuma sees Sir Shaw's Mazda Furai stashed in his garage.
A month later, Hiroyuki secretly took the FT-1 and turned it into a racing machine. However, he senses a much bigger threat on the horizon - The Vision Gran Turismo Project.
Hiroyuki orders the team to gather, and informs them about the team's manpower issues. They have to gather at least three new members. Takuma and Rob head to Europe while Takanori solely heads to USA for the task.
In UK, Rob finds fascination to
Owen Watson, a barista in a coffee shop who happens to have alignment in cars. Owen was then put to the test, and after passing three tests, he is welcomed to the team. Unknown to both Rob and Owen, however, is that they are half-siblings...
Then Rob is given another assignment by the MI6. He is to search for
Mauricio Salvador, a well-known car designer from Portugal. After Owen winning the race in Ascari, a woman by the name of
Maria approaches them, and expresses her desire to be a part of the team as well. Rob once again puts the neophyte into the test, a rain race in Spa. Maria prevails, and explains the reasons for her participation - she is the daughter of Mauricio, and suspects Kazunori Yamauchi as the mastermind behind her father's disappearance. Seeing this as a lead in his investigation, Rob assists Maria. Eventually, one of Kazunori's henchmen demanded her father's design sketches. However, they see this as deception and they decide to deceive him back in order to capture that man. The plan works and Rob interrogates the henchman.
They all return to Japan along with the new members to meet Hiroyuki. They were briefed on how their team runs, and as well as their next step - which is to stop the Vision Gran Turismo Project led by none other than Kazunori Yamauchi. The revelation initially sends Takanori into disbelief, seeing that his greatest idol would be a threat to the future of racing.
Takanori then heads to America in order to recruit the last needed member. He encounters
Andy Midfield who apologizes for the late delivery of Sir Ben's Plymouth Hemi Cuda. With that taken care of, Andy returns to his work, until his ex-girlfriend Melissa talks to him. She then reveals that his best friend
Alan Long was responsible for rigging a street race two years ago. Alan had expressed his desire to Andy to be a pro race car driver by joining the Vision GT project. However, doubts start to enter Andy's mind and confronts Alan about what happened two years ago.
Alan's father,
Zhang, insists that the boys must settle their differences through a race. As planned, the boys initiate a duel in Willow Springs - Streets of Willow. Alan resorted to cheat, but those were thwarted. Andy takes the win and Alan simply disappeared. Andy vows to bring his friend back and joins the Dream Alliance.
With the recruitment task taken care of (and as well as having found the new Editor-In-Chief for the Motoring Monthly magazine), the Dream Alliance now focus their efforts in stopping the Vision GT Project.
They have encountered those futuristic vehicles in separate occasions. Yuki dealt with
Anton Volkov who drives the Mercedes AMG VGT in the touge. Yuki gives a dose of his dangerous side to Anton, winning the race in the process. Meanwhile, Owen finally finds out about his origins, and Rob welcomed him to the Hatch family.
After that, Maria duels with a woman named
Sabrina Mendez who is the test driver of the Subaru Viziv GT Vision Gran Turismo. Maria proves the superiority of a conventional four-wheel drive system and soundly defeats Sabrina. Sabrina is then arrested for her involvement in the project.
Back in Japan, the Mitsubishi XR-PHEV Vision Gran Turismo makes a return after its defeat from the Dream Alliance, but this time on the streets driven by
Rasmus Ahlgren. Jintei rises up and takes action, but a young racer named
Toru Tanaka makes a name for himself, after acquiring his late brother's FTO Super Touring car. Toru and Jintei work together to defeat Rasmus, who is then killed after his car hit the barrier at high speed.
In Germany,
Abram Volkov takes on the Dream Alliance after learning his brother's defeat. In turn, Dream Alliance sends out the upgraded Nigel Heidelberg driving the SLS GT3 with a new engine. During the race, Abram dismisses the robot as a mere tool and felt insulted. But Nigel demonstrates his new potential and defeats Abram. Hiroyuki tells Abram how Nigel is "more human" than he is. Humiliated, Abram and Anton left, abandoning the Mercedes AMG VGT Racing Series he used in the race earlier.
The flames of war have ignited much larger, as Dennis was killed during a race against
Auguste Amadieu driving the Alpine Vision Gran Turismo. Then Kazunori Yamauchi experiences the extent of Rob's anger and hatred, receiving threats and finally seeing his headquarters being destroyed single-handedly by Rob. Auguste decides to make things right, and proposes a fair duel with Rob in Silverstone. Rob uses Dennis' KTM X-Bow to show to his opponent what that race could have been. Ultimately, Rob forgives Auguste and drops the charges, knowing that Dennis wouldn't want this, and his death was just an accident.
Then the Dream Alliance returns to Japan after finding out that another Vision GT car threatens to change the face of Japanese motorsports. What's more, it is
Atsuo Kobayakawa's doing, who was once Hiroyuki's rival. Rob becomes a temporary bodyguard for Hiroyuki. However Hiroyuki got abducted by Atsuo to "test" him, but he is saved by both Rob and Nobuhiko.
The old men duel it out in Fuji, with Hiroyuki unleashing Nobuhiko's racing-spec FT-1 and Atsuo driving the Lexus LF-LC VGT. Atsuo makes use of all the hybrid technology, especially the KERS. But that backfired as its overall charge got lower and lower as Hiroyuki manages to stick close. After taking the win, Hiroyuki explains how Atsuo kept on abusing the technology, stating that technology works in its best when the users are skilled with it, and that he never used KERS that was also found in the FT-1 as well.
For Hiroyuki, however, it was his last run, and decides to return as the team director not only to guide his drivers, but also the future generation.
Maria then meets a new dilemma as she is to expect a child. But she keeps that from Owen as a secret, as she believes that they are not ready and they have many things to do. But she puts that aside as Takuma meets Nikko Sakamoto's sister named
Mako Sakamoto. Maria defends Takuma, but then a scandal regarding Takuma's impersonation broke out, further agitating Maria.
In the midst of trouble, Maria opens up her pregnancy to Owen, and expresses her reluctance in pushing through parenthood. This resulted to the pair arguing, with Owen storming out for a while.
But they immediately made amends and Owen assures Maria that they'll do this together. With that issue dealt with, Maria moves on to battle Mako, using the Mini Clubman VGT that her father created during his captivity. In a dangerous rain battle, she prevails over Mako, showing her newfound resolve.
That's all for the 2-part Refresher. True Muscle II is ongoing, so a summary is unnecessary.
What's in store for the future? The next one would be Takanori dealing with Kaz, to serve as the final chapter of the saga. There will also be more after that...
Thank you for taking your time to read the two posts. Hopefully they manage to refresh you as intended. But as always, if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment.