Need for Speed: Rivals - Zephyr
9The player assumes the role of Zephyr, a hardcore and professionally skilled street racer. Well known for his publicity stunts, Zephyr regularly uploads street racing videos as his point of argument that his fellow racers in Redview County should also be free. Upon his posting of a video of his car outrunning cops, a number of other racers also begin to post their own videos of themselves outrunning police cars. The police force begins to challenge the racers, and in the process, Officer John McManis, one of their pursuit drivers, is injured after a racer wrecked his car. After this incident, the police begin to use excessive force on racers. However, accusations of such force come to public attention, and the entire police force is sidelined while the FBI bring in their VRT, or Vehicle Response Team, consisting of ex-special forces and ex-street racers. The VRT, however, are no better than the police force at stopping racers, thanks largely to Zephyr and other racers. The VRT only manage to endanger the public, and on the midst of this, new street racers show up, including one by the name of F-8, or Fate. F-8 intentionally wrecks other racers, and eventually Zephyr realizes that F-8 is a cop in disguise as a street racer, going out to intimidate racers. Not long after, Zephyr steals a decommissioned police car, rebrands it with Zephyr-based graffiti, and proceeds to wreck cops with that car. As a result of that incident, Zephyr is seen as a Robin Hood-esque character, with public sympathy shifting towards the racers. Later, the police are cleared of their excessive force charges, and return to the streets. In a public address, Zephyr sets a number of locations as places where cops and racers can face off against each other. He also organizes a Grand Tour, a race spanning most of Redview County. Near the end of the Tour, however, as Zephyr is about to win, a police blockade forms, and he crashes into the blockade at high speed, flipping and damaging his car. A flash news report is broadcast not long after, with initial TV reports showing Zephyr's car smoking heavily behind a range of trees, and paramedics rushing to the scene. This is not before the cinematic cutscene suddenly cuts to Zephyr, who is revealed to have survived the crash. While barely awake, he repeats the dialogue he states in the intro of the game, "I am the reality show, the 15 minutes you'll never have." He then starts his damaged car's engine and drives away.