First of all, I'm both surprised, and very thankful for the positive reaction I received when I posted this. Secondly, I apologize for the wait of ten days or so, I got a bit stuck on this chapter. Right now, I only have one request: Reviews. I don't care if you hate or love it. If you feel strongly about this story, then I implore you to give me feedback on why.
The Groundside Lodge
They had decided to give all the riders one day at the foot of the mountain, to prepare and achieve mental and emotional balance.
At least, that had been the way that Ormstead had described it. Atomika, on the other hand, merely saw it as a way to relax before they hit the slopes. Of course, there was also the fact that many of the riders would be more relaxed on the slopes rather than the foot of the mountain. Psymon was notable in this respect.
Hence the reason they were only staying for a day.
All of them relaxed in their respective ways, Brodi would be meditating on a snowdrift somewhere, Mac would either be with Kaori or be doing something stupid, Zoe and Moby would be biking on the ice or doing something else. Luther would probably be eating the fridge; Elise could be doing anything, from meeting sponsors to flirting with the other boarders.
Or, they could all be pranking each other and making mayhem in the lodge.
Allegra
"C'mere Allegra!" Psymon bellowed from somewhere behind her.
"No way!" She shouted back, jumping a sofa, then a chair, trying to escape Psymon and his damn water gun. Mind you, this was no little water pistol. No, somehow, Psymon had managed to obtain a massive supersoaker that held at least two gallons of water. He had filled it to the brim with ice water, and then went on a rampage. Poor Viggo was back in the second floor common room, soaked and shivering, Griff had also gotten doused, and now she was Psymon's next target.
A blast of water slammed into the floor right by her bare feet, and she heard a loud cackle as she dashed up the stairs to the next floor. Allegra nearly ran into Kaori and Mac on the way up.
"Run!" She gasped, "Psymon has a water gun!"
"C'mere Allegra! Mr. Tattoo has a surprise for you!" Came the shout from further down the steps.
That was enough persuasion for the both of them; they were right behind Allegra when she reached the top of the stairs. From here, it was another massive common room, two hallways that led to more rooms and another hallway that looped back around to the common room, and the other stairwell that led back to the second floor.
Kaori said something in Japanese, and Mac translated. "Split up!"
Split up? That was a terrible idea!
But Mac and Nishidake were already sprinting towards the other stairwell, probably planning to loop around and get back outside to escape the chaos. That only left her one option, the hallways.
Unfortunately, she was only halfway when Psymon got to the top of the stairs.
"Come and get your penance sausagegess!"
Another blast of water flew over her head, and smote the wall. Allegra reached the welcoming dimness of the hallway, but she ran into an obstacle.
It was JP, that annoying Frenchman. She tried to juke by him, but he grabbed her by the shoulders. "Hey, Sketchy, I caught one for you!" JP laughed.
What an ass, Allegra jerked away with sudden strength that seemed to take JP by surprise, and for his trouble he was nailed by the gouts of water Psymon fired at her.
Allegra kept sprinting; maybe Psymon would run out of ammo soon. There were screeches of dismay from JP, and she could hear Luther shouting as well, along with Sketchy's hysterical laughter. Two more people down on the maniac's list.
Allegra came out into the common room again, she ran to the stairwell and hustled back down to the second floor with Sketchy behind her.
There was no sign of Viggo and Griff once she got back down, but there was Moby and Zoe standing in the center of the room.
Remembering something Kaori had said, about how Zoe was the only one capable of controlling Psymon, Allegra sprinted forward and dove behind the couch nearest to Zoe. Payne looked at her, bemused. Moby chuckled, and muttered something Allegra didn't catch.
Psymon came hurtling down the stairs, and he spotted Allegra when she peeked over the couch. Throwing caution to the wind, she got right behind Zoe, watching Psymon from over her shoulder. Stark hesitated when he saw Zoe, but he still raised his supersoaker.
"Don't you dare, I'll throw you out the damn window if you spray me with that thing." Zoe said lightly.
Psymon assumed the stance like to that of a pleading puppy. "Then move?"
Zoe stepped aside, Allegra yelped and dove behind the couch again. How could Zoe do that?
She could hear Psymon coming closer, cackling. "C'mere Alle-ACK!"
Moby was laughing again, and she saw why. The Englishman had his own weapons. Snowballs, and he had just nailed Psymon right in the face, coating the entirety of it in fine white powder. Moby walked forward quickly, ducking a poorly aimed blast of water, and then went calmly through the open door on the other side of the room that led outside. Psymon wiped the snow from his face, and with his supersoaker raised, he went after Moby, who threw two more snowballs and then darted out of sight.
Allegra picked herself up off the floor, and shot Zoe a look. "Why did you move?"
She shrugged. "To give Moby a clear shot, and I didn't want to get wet."
"Is he going to be alright?"
"Moby? He'll be fine, he can handle Psymon."
Allegra flopped onto the couch, a bit winded after Psymon's persistent pursuit.
"Is Psymon always like that?" Allegra asked, wiping a hand across her brow.
Zoe laughed. "Yeah, there was this one day that he tried to jump power lines on his bike, and Sketchy was born."
There was movement behind her, and Allegra nearly fell off the couch trying to see who it was.
It was Viggo, he looked rather grumpy, probably a side effect of being blasted with icy water. "Is he gone?"
"Yeah, he's gone." She replied, flopping back onto the couch.
"Everyone's heading to Hullard's at about 8 or something like that." Viggo said as he squinted at the clock. "And it's already 6."
Hullard's was the biggest restaurant on BIG Mountain, and apparently, reservations had already been made for the boarders.
"Perfect, that gives me plenty of time for the prank I want to pull on Elise." Zoe snickered, rubbing her hands together in glee.
Allegra perked up immediately. "Count me in."
Mac, Hullard's
Mac had no idea who had been the one to throw a small firecracker onto Elise while she was taking a shower, but the Bombshell had been PO'd in the extreme. She kept shooting razor-sharp stares at Allegra, Zoe, and Marisol, figuring that it had to be one of her enemies that would do something so heinous.
Mac couldn't care less. It was interesting certainly, but with Kaori sitting in front of him, he found it hard to focus on anything but her. They sat at a table alone, the rest of the boarders were scattered about the restaurant, talking amongst themselves. Mac flagged down a waitress and asked her for a refill, handing her his cup.
This was going to be a big year. Last year had been quieter, they had felt more… anonymous, more closed off to the outside world while they were touring.
But now? Hell, Mac had already gotten sponsorship offers from Coca-Cola, Red Bull, and Lib Tech, all asking him to support their products. Kaori, he knew, had been absolutely swamped with offers from a vast myriad of Japanese companies; she had accepted the majority of the offers, so she was going to look like a walking advertisement out on the slopes.
Kaori grinned at him, her brown eyes sparkling, she shot a question in Japanese at him.
Mac had made a great effort to learn as much Japanese as he could during the last few months, and Kaori had done the same with her English. He replied to her mischievous remark about Psymon with a dry comment about Sketchy compensating for something with the size of his supersoaker.
Kaori laughed, making Mac's heart go ka-bump. "What have you say to Coke's offer?" She had her own little speaking style when she spoke English.
"Nothin' yet, though I am looking friendly at Lib Tech, I wouldn't mind using one of their boards for free." He said, drumming his fingers on the table.
Kaori was about to reply, but then a large party of people barged in through the front door, and that drew everyone's attention.
In the lead was Ormstead with Rahzell and Atomika by his side. Behind them, was a group of five; they were old and gray, looking tired and worn.
Mac would bet his headphones that they were snowboarding veterans. They didn't look ancient, if he had to guess, he would guess they were in their 40s or 50s. But they all showed signs of prior injury, one had a slight limp, another had a crooked nose.
Dead silence now settled over the riders, except for Moby, who called. "Hey, Ormstead, what the bloody hell is this about?"
"I'll tell you in a second." Ormstead replied as he reached the other side of the room and turned to face the riders. He cleared his throat, and removed a folded sheaf of papers from the pocket of his jacket. "Alright, I'm going to tell all of you how we are going to decide who wins this year."
This was met with an outpour of noise. "You're telling us this now?" Zoe could be heard over the hubbub.
Ormstead rubbed his forehead, looking tired. "Yes, Zoe, we're telling you now, and I promise this won't take long."
"That's what she said!" Psymon hooted.
Ormstead said nothing, only glaring at Sketchy. He dropped his gaze to his papers. "We are going to go by points."
Another smattering of conversation, "This isn't football Orms!" Moby called.
"It won't be like football Moby! It'll be more like… I dunno, NASCAR!"
"What the bloody hell is that?"
"It's a bunch of cars driving in a circle, really fast." Allegra replied, looking bored.
Moby looked as if someone had told him it was 5 men hopping on pogo sticks. "What's the point of that then?"
"Hey!" Ormstead bellowed, cutting everyone off. "Can we get this over with so I can go rest?"
"Sure Orms, wouldn't want you to miss your beauty sleep." Zoe catcalled.
He ignored her. "Okay, when I said we were doing this on points, I meant that you lot are meant to earn points by winning events, like the super pipes, and whoever has the most points by the end of the entire tournament, wins the SSX Championship."
You could hear a pin drop in the restaurant now.
Ormstead looked much more "on" now that he had everyone's attention. "We are going up and down this mountain twice, so you're going to be doing every event twice this season. On every peak, there is one Big Air, Slopestyle, and Super Pipe event. With races, its more complicated, we have 3 on Peak One, 2 on Peak Two, and 2 on Peak Three."
Mac wasn't sure that he heard right. There was only 2 races on the first peak, and 1 on the third.
Ormstead held up a hand to stem the muttering. "Yes, I know, you guys were told differently, but the two new races we have were just finished. Honestly, I didn't think they would be completed in time, which is why you all didn't know."
"What's their name?" Brodi asked.
"Well, we got Braveheart on Peak Three, and the other on Peak One is still unnamed, so if you guys have any suggestions, drop them by me, pronto."
Mac was nodding, Braveheart eh? It couldn't be that bad.
"Alright, now about some general guidelines and things you need to know, you'll have the smaller details in a small book we'll give you, but I'll cover the big stuff right now. As for behavior on BIG Mountain, just do me a favor guys, and try not to blow anything up."
They all cracked a smile at this.
"Tomorrow, all of you will be taken by Osprey to the top of Peak One, and from there, I don't give a rat's ass what you guys do, as long as you do not leave the Mountain. If at any time you leave BIG Mountain without gaining our approval first, we will assume that you have ditched the tournament, and you will be Disqualified. Aside from that rule, I really don't care what you do. If we're on Peak Three and you want to freeride in Metro City, then feel free. But keep in mind, we don't wait for you. If the whole tournament is at Ruthless Ridge while you're cutting through Snow Jam, we will race without you." Ormstead cleared his throat. "The span of time between events will be three to five days apart, which gives all of you plenty of time to freeride, talk to sponsors, practice, check out the course, do whatever."
"Hold on, so, if I'm racing on Snow Jam in two days, that means I would be able to ride that course before we race on it?" Nate said, cutting through the silence.
Ormstead nodded. "Feel free, I'm not your mother. Do with that time as you see fit."
Nate nodded, now seemingly deep in thought.
"What about the points?" Marisol asked from where she sat with Seeiah.
"I was getting to that." Ormstead replied. "First, we go over how these the events are set up, for the Super Pipes, Big Airs, and Slopestyles, we got three rounds of you guys putting up as many narly tricks as you can to take the lead and hold it. For races, we got our own little tourney." Ormstead withdrew a paper from his stack, and studied it. "The quarterfinals, there's two races of 6 boarders, one race of 5, the top 4 riders from each race will move on to the semifinals." Ormstead looked up to make sure no one was confused. "In the semifinals, we will have two races of 6 boarders, and the top three riders from each race move on to the finals. You win that race, and you win the whole event. You guys got all that?"
Mac had barely been listening, but he nodded with the others anyways.
"For points in terms of Super Pipes, Slopestyle, and Big Air, first place gets 35 points, second gets 30, third gets 25, fourth gets 20, and fifth gets 15. The next five each get 10 points each. The next seven get nothing."
This was met with an understanding silence. The message was simple: turn up to compete, or come away with nothing.
"For Racing events, the winner gets 35, the runner-up, 30, third, 25, fourth, 20, fifth, 15, and sixth, 10. The six boarders that went to the semi-finals but did not progress to the finals, will get 5 points each. The five boarders that did not make it to the semis will obtain no points."
"What about the Big Challenges?" Elise asked with her normal amount of suave.
Ormstead only grunted. "Those are sponsored, meaning they are up for grabs for anyone who makes it worth their while to fulfill them."
"Hold up." Mac called. "So, we do these challenges, and some big corp is just going to give us money?"
Ormstead nodded. "That's the gist of it. Of course, before you even attempt one, you have to put in a MComm text to one of our lovely agents." The people behind him grinned. "And they will let the sponsor know you're taking a shot at the challenge."
"Another question, this one is with Atomika's cams and the big media being here and all, we have any privacy on BIG Mountain?" Eddie asked.
He didn't ask that for him, it was a topic they were all concerned with. Sure, airtime was nice, but none of them wanted media intrusion to disrupt their peace on the slopes.
Atomika stepped forward. "Eddie, half the reason those cameras are there is so that we know where you guys are if you hit your head on a rock or break your leg. We don't want any boarders dying on BIG Mountain. I'd also like to add, none of my cams are inside any of the lodges."
Ormstead put his hand on his hips. "I want to be clear on this, so none of you will have to ask that question again. We may have more money flowing into this circuit, and we may have more big names knocking to slap logos on all of you, but riders come first." He growled, looking over all of them a bit protectively. "If media folks overstep their bounds, come find me, I'll them to back off, and if they do it again, I'll throw them off the damn mountain. Same deal with sponsors, I don't care if I do that with the reps from McDonalds and they pull their money elsewhere, your safety and security comes first over the corporations and their money."
This little speech made them all smile. Ormstead could be a bit pompous, he could be overzealous, annoying, and downright infuriating at times, but he loved snowboarding, SSX, and he cared fiercely about their welfare, he knew what it was like being a famous snowboarder, and he was determined that the unfortunate things that happened to him, would not happen to Mac or his fellow SSX boarders.
Which was why they, grudgingly, both liked and respected him. It was also why they had voted him in as director.
"All right then, with that, I bid you all a good night." Ormstead boomed as he started walking, a bit unsteadily, evidently, he was more tired than he had let on.
Mac turned his full attention back to Kaori as Ormstead and his small posse left. "So, what were we talking about?"
Okay, guys, I'm gonna need your help with naming that unnamed racecourse on Peak 1, I just couldn't think of a name that felt right. Speaking of the added stuff, don't worry, the events and locations that are in the game, will not change or be removed in this story, and the only reason I added content was to give the competitors more opportunities for points. And speaking of that, if you are still confused about how the points or anything else work, either PM me or leave a review.