Disclaimer: The Hot Wheels series is owned by Mattel. Hot Wheels Battle Force 5 is owned by Mattel and Nerd Corps Entertainment.

Be There

Would it be safe to say he was being bullied?

Locked in him and his brother's room, one Spinner Cortez was a mess. His hair was about to lose its straight hold, some of his clothes had tears in them, and dried tear tracks were down his eyes.

Spinner had been taking a lot of bullying as of late. First there was an accident with some tape, and then there was trouble when he lost his voice and people picked on him seeing as how he couldn't talk back. Now someone goes and deletes a file saved on a game that was nearly complete right in front of his face.

That was the breaking point and he melted down once he was finally alone. "And I've never felt so humiliated in my entire life!" he heard himself yell in his head. Spinner brought his knees close to him and started to cry, knowing that this has been the worst week of his life.

He was unaware that the access code to the room the brothers shared was overridden and someone had walked in. Feeling someone tap his shoulder, he graciously gave the person some space on the side of the bed to sit down on.

"Heard about what happened with your game."

Feeling something familiar about the voice, Spinner looked up and turned his head to the left to find A.J. casting a sympathetic look at him. "A.J.?" Spinner asked. He tried to straighten himself up as she asked. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be out snowboarding or something?"

"A lot of people have been showing unsportsmanly conduct toward you, haven't they?" A.J. asked.

"Yeah, but this time, I never did anything wrong!" Spinner wept. "I just want to play my game and she deleted it with no qualms. The lost file I nearly completed is eating away at my soul."

"Well, Sherman's giving those bullies a talking to right now," A.J. told him. "He also wanted me to give you this."

The Canadian pulled Spinner into an embrace that nearly broke his spine. Spinner was touched by this gesture and began whimpering as he buried his face in A.J.'s shirt, not caring if he stained it with his tears. After a moment, A.J. let go and gave the shuddering older Cortez brother a tissue, which he promptly blew his nose into.

"Hey, Spinner, why don't I come with you to the next anime convention in town?" A.J. offered. "We can bring Vert and Sherman along if you want."

"If you can get the two to be Tiger and Bunny again, that'd be the icing on the cake," Spinner agreed as A.J. stood up.

"There's one favor I gotta ask of you first."

"What's that?"

"Be there."