Friday. Late afternoon. Tokyo Megaplex. Psymon. 26-year-old Canadian Psymon Stark was pumped. He loved this track, loved the speed, the curves, the general craziness of it all. He was about to burst with anticipation, and finally exploded, yelling, "Bing-bang-boom- HEY! I'm a pinball freak and a wizard, eh?" He glanced over at his one - and only - true friend, 20-year old Zoe Payne. She grinned and shook her head. Typical Psymon. Before she could open her mouth to answer, though, the P.A. came on, saying, "All SSX racers be ready. The competition will begin in approximately one minute." They both strapped their snowboards on and stood ready and the starting gates. "You think we'll win this one, Psymon?" Zoe asked him. "Well, of course! We're gonna rock! I OWN this place!" He laughed, and Zoe raised one eyebrow at him. "Racers, be ready!" It was the P.A. again. They both tensed and gripped the bars on each side of them. 3... 2... 1... GO! They both launched forward, side by side. Kaiori, one of the younger racers that Psymon never really liked, gained on his right, sticking her tongue out in mockery at him as the curve approached. He growled. Swerving up next to her, he knocked her off balance with a swipe of his arm. Psymon could hear her squeal as she fell, far behind him now as he leapt off the edge. Since he had to slow down a bit to knock Kaiori down, Zoe was a ways ahead of Psymon. She was already in the air when Psymon launched off the cliff, but right after he went airborne, he glanced at Zoe - and something hit him. It was as if he were stuck in a trance. What was wrong with him? Why did he have this weird feeling in the pit of his stomach? Did - "Oof!" He hit the ground with a thud, face-down in the snow. Like always, he paid no mind to the stinging pain (or the cold snow up his nose), but instead of getting up and going on as usual, he just...lay there. He never felt like this before. He would have lay there forever, wondering what was wrong with him, but then he suddenly he realized his oxygen supply was cut off. He was forced to jerk his head up, gasping for air, and watched the last racer - Brodi - board by. Instead of snarling, jumping up and slamming Brodi into the snow in a blind rage, he just lay there some more, thinking of Zoe again. A small grin crossed his face, doing nothing for his already dazed expression. Did - did he - whoa! Did he actually LIKE Zoe?! He shook his head. "No way," he muttered. "Impossible. Don't even THINK that way, man..." He picked himself up, brushed himself off, and finished the race. He ended up in last place, and when he finally caught up to Zoe at the finish line, she crossed her arms and smirked at him. "What is up with you?" she asked. "I thought you said you owned this place, remember?" He just stared for a moment, then finally spoke. "Yeah. Well, um...good question - " He was strangely nervous, and rubbed the back of his neck. "Er, I guess I wasn't really concentrating out there...I just had other crap on my mind and..." His tension suddenly skyrocketed, and he felt himself blushing. He tried to talk, but it seemed his mouth wouldn't work. Zoe interrupted, saying, "Hey, that's okay, no reason to freak out. Let's go get some grub at Burger King, okay?" Psymon blinked, then nodded. "Yeah...alright. C'mon!" He ran off to the snack bar, Zoe chasing after him.