A/N: remember, Kori named her bike Miya. And she's kinda strange, so she refers to her bike as almost an actual person, and she says things like "we" instead of "I," talking about both her and Miya. If you don't remember that, this chapter will confuse you. Oh, and I apologize to all Tommy Clowers fans simply because in this fic in general I make him seem like the bad guy. It's only because Kori really wants to beat him, nothing against him. I, personally, happen to be a Tom Cat fan.

KORI

Day 3, 12:30 pm

Briggs' voice was still taunting me. I was getting so sick of it that I just wanted to deck him. Hard.

"Why don't you go back to Japan where you came from?"

I smirked. "Because I came from China."

"Don't give me that, sweetheart. I have your best interests at heart. I just don't wanna see you get hurt."

I glared at him. Dean once told me that if I glared at someone long enough I could kill them from fear. I was hoping he'd drop dead.

"It's too bad that little foreign girls have to come all the way to your pathetic country just to teach bratty boys a lesson," I countered. (A/N: I love America, don't get me wrong. Kori's just really mad right now and is looking for any and every way to offend Briggs, including his nationality.)

"Really? I got the impression you were doing something else with that rookie, Carson."

The comment put my fist on automatic. I didn't even think before I realized my fist was in his gut.

He grunted, maybe in surprise, but my punch didn't do much else. We were right in the middle of the Step Up competition, so he was wearing padding and such.

"You don't wanna play rough with me, baby," he said in a deep, threatening voice. For some reason he enjoyed giving me pet names.

"Don't tell me what I wanna do," I replied forcefully, trying to match his tone. Then I slit my helmet on, started up Miya, and rode to the jump.

29 feet. Normally we'd be able to make it, but right now I was nervous and upset, and I knew that they would affect us negatively.

With a glance to Tommy Clowers, my nervousness turned into determination. I was no longer upset, but aggressive. We would make the jump and we would show these Americans what real Step Up was all about.

I warmed up Miya by revving the engine and took off down the jump, then up into the air…

I realized in a panic that Miya's back wheel was going to hit the bar. I turned so that Miya and I were nearly 100% horizontal, running parallel with the bar, and saw it pass below my face. With a sigh of relief, I turned us back to normal and landed a no-hander, my arms in the air to display our victory.

I wheeled her back to where the Step Up competitors were hanging out. I flashed a smile to Briggs after my helmet was off.

"Be careful, darling," I mocked, using his own fashion of pet names. "That's a long way up, and even longer coming down. Especially when you're falling."

"You'd know a lot about falling," he countered.

"Of course," I replied calmly. "What's perfection without experience?"

He smirked. "Y'know, we could go at it all day if no one stopped us, but eventually one of us has to back off. And girlie, it ain't gonna be me." He nodded to the crowd. "See them? You should be thankful for each of them. They're your saviors." Then he added in an eerie whisper, "Without all these witnesses, you'd be dead by now. Or worse."

I forced myself to smile back, even though the hard note in his voice made me uneasy. "You have no idea who you're dealing with."

"A small baby girl who's a long way from home."

"Not nearly. Kori Talon."

"Talon? What happened to Natorei? Oh, that's right… I forgot. Your mom's dead and you relied on another nation's pity."

That was it. He was tearing at my last nerve, now. My mother was such a painful subject, I could barely stand to hear little kids shout "Mommy!" in the mall. And now here he was… telling me about how she was dead.

My mother. Motocross champion.

Great friend.

Murdered.

Not technically "murdered," but that's how I thought of it. Someone had intentionally killed her, bike or no bike.

My fist flew at his face, but he dodged it. In a flash, Nick Jayland and Tommy Clowers (both of which had been standing next to me) were holding me back from landing a real punch, and Michael Reed and Travis Pastrana were keeping Briggs from retaliating.

"Don't talk about my mother!" I yelled, struggling against the 2 guys' holds on me. "And I don't take pity!"

"You wanna start something, China girl?!" he roared back. "Do you really wanna mess with me?!"

"Bring it on!" I screamed, infuriated. I yelled so loudly that my throat scratched itself and was suddenly deathly sore. (A/N: I've done that. It hurts like the Dickens.)

"Chill! Chill!" Clowers' voice was paid no attention, by either me or Briggs.

"I'll kill you 10 times before you hit the ground!"

"Try it!"

"Don't be so eager, doll face!"

"Man!" Travis said. "Chill out!"

"Get off me, pretty boy!" Briggs answered.

That was the last clear sentence I heard. All of the Step Up competitors were gathered around now, yelling. Some cheering for either me or Briggs, some telling us to calm down, some telling each other to shut up. Before I knew it, a few men in uniforms – security guards – were standing in between Briggs and I and the guys holding us let go.

"What happened?" one demanded.

"Talon threw the first punch!" came a call.

"It's true! I saw it!"

"Briggs was giving her crap!"

"Shut up! I'll show you crap!"

More yelling, more chaos. Finally, the security guards regained control. One turned to me, the other to Briggs.

"You may be suspended from X Games for causing a fight," he told me. "Go back to your hotel room and wait for someone to contact you. We'll ask questions around here to find out what happened."

"I'll tell you what happened," I said, still mad. "He-"

"Thank you, you can go."

I wanted to punch that guy so hard that his head flew right off his shoulders, but I knew that wouldn't help my case. I bottled up my anger until I was outside, then I punched the wall until my hands were drenched in blood.

Anger, frustration, madness, hatred, and maybe even a hint of fear were exploding out of my body in the form of violence, and I hated that even more. I gave the brick wall a final punch that hurt the most. The rest had hurt, certainly, but this one was so much harder that I thought my knuckles would break. The already open wounds that were covered in blood stung more than anything I'd ever felt. Physically or mentally.

"Kori."

Dean was there, I knew it. It was his voice, his tired tone.

I didn't have to turn to see who it was. I glared at the wall only a foot from my face.

"What?" I grouched.

"What was that? You started quite a fight."

Tears started to come to me just thinking about what Briggs had said.

"We were just talking," I answered, slightly horrified at my tone. It was sad, like someone on the brink of crying. But I didn't want to cry here. I only cried in bathrooms and places where no one was watching. But now I started telling him, so I had to finish.

"Talking trash to each other, but nothing more. Before I knew it, Clowers and Jayland were holding me back. But I wanted so bad to nail him. Really pound him into the ground, y'know?" I turned and looked at Dean. He nodded.

"I know." Then he looked at my hands. He picked one up closer to his face and some of my blood tricked onto his hand. He said a word I shouldn't repeat.

"It's not bad," I said quietly.

"Kor, you've scared me before with your gothic stuff, but punching a brick wall is just insane."

I pulled my hand back. "I'm not gothic," I said.

"Well, not exactly, but your attitude-"

I knew what was coming next. His lecture about how I'm a freak. I didn't want to hear it.

"There are guys out there with attitudes 20 times worse than mine. Go bug them."

He smiled. "Geez, Kor, you really are one of a kind."

"Yeah? Well I like it that way."

"I understand he said something about your mother?"

All happiness I'd been feeling vanished in an instant.

"Yeah – something," I mumbled.

"I'll respect your privacy, cause I know that you have some kind of deep thing with er death, but you have to tell someone sometime."

I held back tears. "I don't," I replied.

"That's why you left China. Cause no one here knows anything about it. Right?"

"Something like that," I said quietly.

"How did she die?"

I bit my lip. There was nothing I hated more than crying, and I desperately didn't want to do that in front of Dean, anyway. I'd already come dangerously close to it.

"It was a motorcycle accident," I admitted, my voice betraying me. "She hit a barbed wire fence and lost too much blood. Everyone said I was crazy, but I just knew he cheated. I still do."

"Backup. You mom did moto?"

I nodded. "She was all for the "women can do anything men can" thing, and she wanted to prove it by doing something girls didn't do. And… that guy she was racing, he rigged her bike. I know he did. I don't know exactly how, but it was enough to ram her into barbed wire." Then the tears fell. "I could never prove it," I sobbed. Dean wrapped me in a hug.

"So you were close," he stated.

"Are you kidding? We did everything together. She was the coolest."

"I'm sorry, Kori."

"Don't be sorry. Be here."