Ding.

Ding. Ding.

"Snooze... Snooze..."

Thunk.

Down the Alarm went, and just like Max, Alvin was up.

"What are you doing?"

"Training dude, what does it look like?"

Alvin narrowed his eyes. "Sorry. To clarify, I mean..." He exhaled then yells, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING TRAINING IN OUR BEDROOM AT 5:45 IN THE MORNING?"

Max sighed, removing his goggles. "I didn't want to wake everyone else up by working out in the living room."

"How thoughtful." Alvin deadpanned. Forget the part that I could wake up, huh? He shakes his head.

MAX

Max wasn't normally the type to be awake first before Shred. But there's something big coming up and it's got him riled up ever since his Agent told him all about it.

Not even seeing an adorable, bed ragged Shred in cute, nerdy pajamas was enough to make him loosen up.

"I've seen you prepare for events before, but usually it involves playing video games and eating pizza."

Max continued his stationary jog. "This is different." He said in between pants. "I gotta be crust-bust cause Yuud Nuuderuud is here."

"I did not understand most of that sentence."

Max stopped jogging in favor of walking to get his weights. "Yuud Nuuderuud, the Finnish Flash?" More like the Finnish Ass, Max scoffed and scowled at the picture taped to his punching bag. "My Enemy, My Arch rival, My Supreme nemesis. The most evil, vile, disgusting..."

"MAX!" Shred screamed after banging the Emergency bell several times to get Max's attention. "You're rambling."

Max took a breath before explaining, "He's the only guy who's ever beaten me." He said as he hydrated himself.

"Well, everybody loses once in a while." Shred tells him, ever logical. "It builds character."

"No Shred, it builds anger." Max rolled his eyes.

Yuud, the Cheater, and also reportedly outed as bi with strong preference to guys. Max was not gonna put it passed him to try something with his Shred just to get to him.

Ugh, Max shook his head in frustration. Don't be a creep, Asher. He's not yours yet... well, hopefully it's a yet.

Still, Shred is still obviously his friend. No doubt will Yuud try and use the genius against him. What other reason could it be that he'd come early to Blizzard Springs but to find a way to mess with Max? Since he cheats anyway, he didn't have to do the extra training.

"I need to beat him." Max turns to the punch bag and drops down some combination to it, or more to the point, Yuud's picture.

Shred blinks, not used to seeing the typically laid back and carefree Max Asher... Not so laid back and carefree. He rushed to remove the picture for a while, cause that much anger can't be good.

"Well, just go out there and give it your all. You'll be great."

Max was able to smile a bit. Shred didn't usually give pep talks, so they were nice to hear. It helps that he was hot for the nerd too. It didn't help though when Shred went on and made a mocking impression of Yuud. Even if it might just be to make Max smile. If it was any other guy he was making an impression of, Max might even play along with him.

But Yuud was no joke to him, that being said, good thing Shred was smart enough to quickly put back the picture to his punching bag.