SSX Tricky and its characters belong to EA games. Again, I must give credit to a SSX Tricky character FAQ by Fisheye at GameFAQs for the name of Brodi's uber trick (I wasn't able to boot the game up at the time). Any other propriety material belongs to its respective owners. Enjoy! ^_^

PsYkeD

Episode 3: Race to Destiny

The athletes shot out of the starting gates. Almost immediately, Marisol shoved Zoe, prompting the shorter snowboarder to take a tumble. Glancing back at the fallen racer, Marisol waved and shouted, "See you at the finish line, honey!"

Spitting some snow out of her mouth, the punk girl grumbled, "This isn't over by a long shot."

The remaining pack of boarders stayed close together. Soon, a series of sharp bends in the track presented themselves. With her limited sight and depth perception, Elise was having a difficult time keeping up with the others and still remain on the course. She was quickly falling behind. Eventually, a stray rut caused the Canadian to stumble and pitch headlong off one of the turns. Reacting on instinct, Elise quickly reached out, managing to grab a hanging bough. Holding on precariously with both arms, the dangling snowboarder watched her snowboard tumble into the deep abyss directly below her.

"Maybe I should have listened to Brodi after all," Elise thought.

"Snap!" Alarmed, the blonde looked up and saw her bough beginning to break. With no footholds to speak of, and a cliff wall made up of jagged outcroppings, the chances of the Canadian surviving the fall appeared bleak.

Despite herself, Elise began to chuckle. "Killed by a cliché, how poetic. Brodi would probably find a meaning in it somewhere."

"Snap!" The branch Elise was holding sagged a bit more. "Come to think of it, isn't there a lullaby involving cradles and breaking boughs?" "Great," Elise muttered, "I'm going to be killed by a double cliché."

"ELISHE!!"

"Huh?" Glancing upward, Elise saw a gloved hand reaching down toward her. "Eddie? What are you doing here?"

"Whaz it wook like I'm duwin? I'm wying to wescue you!"

"O.K. Stupid question, " Elise grumbled. The Canadian racer shouted, "How on earth are you going to pull me up by yourself?"

"Don't haf to. Wotz of handwoltz here. Just weed to get you wup where I wam!"

Elise sighed. "Not that I have much of a choice." Carefully, taking Eddie's hand, the blonde snowboarder slowly pulled herself up to a point where she could readily grab some openings in the rock face. Assisting one another, the two athletes methodically scaled back to the top of the cliff. Exhausted from the effort, they both laid in the snow, trying to catch their breath.

Eddie exclaimed, "I wink I'm gowin to haf a hernwia!"

Elise turned her head toward her friend and asked, "How did you know I was in trouble?"

The redheaded youth shrugged, "Wust zixth zenze, I wuez."

Elise was silent for a moment. Facing Eddie once again, she said, "Does this mean you forgive me?"

Eddie thought a bit, then answered, "Swure. Wuh wair will grow back ewenwually." Becoming serious, he looked at Elise. "Long hair iz weazy to weplace. Fwiends aren't."

Elise was grateful she had such a good racing companion. "Thanks Eddie." Having gotten her wind back, Elise stood up. Smiling, she reached down to Eddie. "Buds, then?"

Taking his friend's hand, Eddie pulled himself off the ground and gave his usual lopsided grin. "Wight on!"

"Well then, bud," Elise gestured at the remainder of the course, "Don't you have a race to win?"

"What awout you?"

"Don't worry about me. I'll meet you back at the hotel." Elise pointed toward the cliff's edge. "Besides, I couldn't race, even if I wanted to. My snowboard's gone."

Eddie strapped his snowboard back on. "You wure?"

The blonde made a "shooing" motion with her hands. "Just go already, will you?" As Eddie pulled away and headed down the track, Elise cupped her hands over her mouth and yelled, "And win one for all us short-haired people!" Chuckling, Elise didn't need to see Eddie to know he had probably rolled his eyes at that comment. Surprisingly feeling refreshed, the Canadian turned around and started trudging back toward the starting gates.

----------------------

Meanwhile, farther into the race, Brodi was having a terrible time maintaining the lead. Elise wasn't a threat. She had already dropped a considerable distance from the others not long after the beginning of the race. Eddie and Zoe were nowhere to be seen. Presumably, those two had found alternative routes down the slope. However, for much of the competition, Marisol, Moby, Kaori, Luther, and Psymon had been staying close behind the surfer. The nature of Brodi's alpine board made steering on the numerous turns quite difficult. Furthermore, any time Moby came within arms distance of him, the Englishman tried to push Brodi off course.

Spying a slope up ahead, Brodi prepared himself for the jump. "Perhaps performing an aerial trick will provide the calm I need to win this race." Hitting the jump perfectly, Brodi completed his favorite move, the hang 10 backflip. Feeling the air flowing around him, the snowboarder felt at peace. "Enlightening!" Seeing several of his peers falling farther behind, Brodi became more relaxed. "Thank you, Buddha."

Alas, Brodi's personal triumph was short-lived. The Buddhist had failed to notice Moby using Brodi's jump as a chance to close the gap between the two competitors. Hence, when the surfer landed, he was totally unprepared for Moby's shove.

"See you later, chap!" Out of control, Brodi careened right into a deep snow bank.

The Englishman took the opportunity to glance back and mock his fallen comrade. "Nobody messes with Moby Jones!" Unfortunately for Moby, that little distraction proved costly. With his eyes looking elsewhere, the English boarder failed to see the turn in front of him. Crashing through a small fence, Moby only had time to yell, "Oh bugger!'' before flying straight into a muddy pigpen. The local residents of the small farm stared at the strange intruder.

As some of the other racers passed, Luther took the time to shout, "Hey Moby! Decided to take time to visit relatives?" The Englishman was swearing profusely as he tried cleaning the muck off from himself.

Moby's mishap allowed Marisol to assume the lead. Close behind her were Kaori, Psymon, and Luther. Using a straight stretch running alongside a partially frozen stream to good effect, the Latino beauty extended her lead a bit. "If no more curves present themselves for a while, I should be able to maintain this speed easily." Already thinking about her upcoming victory, Marisol smirked. "Zoe underestimated me. Did she not think I could be aggressive as well?" A few small rocks suddenly fell down in front her, disturbing her pleasant train of thought. The alpine boarder looked up in surprise.

"Remember me?"

"No! That's impossible! Where did she come from?" From a ledge above, Zoe was keeping pace with Marisol.

Looking down at her competitor, Zoe grinned. "Did you think you could get rid of me that easily? Here, let me show you how it's done."

With that, Zoe launched herself from the ledge, intending to strike Marisol. Unfortunately for both athletes, the punk girl miscalculated her jump. Consequently, instead of making a clean landing, Zoe ended up getting entangled with Marisol. Both snowboarders tumbled right into the nearby creek.

"This is all your fault, you stupid cow!!"

"It wouldn't have happened if you'd minded your own business!!"

As the two racers wasted time quarreling, Kaori zipped by. Having had no mishaps herself, she was able to acquire a fairly decent lead. Seeing another series of twisty curves up ahead, the teenager grinned. Her current freestyle board was well suited to handling such sharp maneuvers. With luck, that advantage would allow her to win the race.

"FRENCH TOAST AND SYRUP!!"

"Or maybe not." Taking a quick glance, Kaori could see Psymon rapidly gaining speed. She had forgotten that Psymon's BMX style snowboard was equally adept at turning corners. "He seems to be going awfully fast in this dangerous area, maybe too fast." Sure enough, the psychotic Canadian was soon racing beside her, passing along the inside lane. Kaori was hard-pressed to keep up with him. Moreover, she was starting to get really worried about their increasing speed.

Kaori yelled at Psymon, "We're going too fast!"

The maniac looked at her incredulously, "I hate to break it to you, runt, but this is supposed to be a race!" He pondered a moment and added, "At least I think it is." He consulted his shoulder, "Right, tatoo-boy?"

The Japanese youth persisted, "It's too dangerous!"

Psymon shouted, "What ARE you, my MOTHER?" Extending both arms from his sides, the Canadian exclaimed, "I LIVE FOR DANGER!!"

"Baka!!" Noticing a particularly nasty curve looming in the distance, Kaori decided to slow down a little. "I tried to warn him. If Psymon wants to foolishly risk his life, that's his problem." She suddenly felt an arm wrapped around her shoulders. Seeing it was Psymon, she yelled, "What are you doing?"

The Canadian explained, "You see, when I first came beside you, I thought, 'Now wouldn't it be fun to push that whinny little pipsqueak off the edge.' "

Kaori struggled to get away. "Let go of me, you jerk!!"

Psymon ignored Kaori's hysterics. "But then, when you talked about speed and danger, I figured, 'Poor kid, she's probably been deprived of true danger all her life.' "

They were still approaching the turn at an insane speed. Kaori tried slugging her captor, "Creep!!"

She could just as well have been tickling him. "Then, after much mental pain and anguish lasting for a nanosecond, I said to myself, 'Psy, old buddy, why don't you take the halfpint with you? Let her know TRUE danger?' "

As they were nearing the curve, Kaori could see a valley VERY far below. "Baka!! Do you want us to die!!"

Stopping his one-sided discussion, Psymon grinned at the youth. "Yeah, ain't it FUN!!"

They were almost at the edge. Taking a deep breath, Kaori looked Psymon right in the eye and screamed as loud as she could, "YOU'RE CRAZY!!!!"

"Gee, my doctor says the same thing!"

"Why do I even bother?" Kaori thought sourly. Knowing her doom was imminent, the teenager squeezed her eyes shut. "Perishing in the arms of a crazy jerk, what a rotten way to die." Suddenly, she felt herself yanked around in a tight circle and halting to a quick stop. "I don't think falling to my death should feel quite like that." Ever so slowly, she opened one eye. The first thing she noticed was that she was still on the racetrack. Cracking her eye open a little bit more, Kaori found that she was standing within a small donut-shaped trail in the snow. Finally, opening her eyes completely, the teen realized she was still very much alive and that Psymon was standing nearby, roaring in maniacal laughter.

"AHA HAA HAAA HAAA!!! Squirt, you should have seen the look on your face!!! BWAH HAAA HAAA HAAA!!!!"

Kaori could feel her face turning red as her temper began to boil over. Clutching her hands at her sides, she growled, "…Psymon…"

Even Psymon could tell the Japanese youth wasn't amused. His laughter subsiding, the Canadian scowled and shouted, "WHAT!! Didn't you think it was funny?"

Disengaging herself from her snowboard, Kaori marched right up to Psymon, and yelled in his face, "NO!!!!"

Irritated, the crazy snowboarder gave Kaori a push, causing her to fall flat on her butt. "Fine!! Last time I do YOU any favors, brat!!" Preparing to leave, Psymon regarded the teenager once more and added, "I'd like to say it's been swell, but it hasn't, so…I've got a race to win. Later, loser!"

"STARK!! Papa's comin' to bring you some paaaiiiiin!!" Before Psymon could react, Luther barreled right into him, launching the Canadian into the air. Psymon crashed into Kaori, who was just starting to get back up. The two snowboarders went sailing off the edge of the cliff into the valley below. Watching the two falling racers, Luther sheepishly mumbled, "Eh…didn't mean to get you too, kid. Sorry about that." Figuring there was nothing he could do to help, Luther merely shrugged and continued on the course.

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"Great!! Just FREAKIN' great!!" The last thing Psymon had wanted was to get clobbered by the overgrown oaf of an athlete.

Falling beside him, Kaori yelled, "This is all your fault, Psymon!!" True, blaming the maniac may have been a petty way to end her last moments, but it made her feel good.

"MY fault?"

"Hai!!"

"Is not!!"

"Is to!!"

"Is not!!"

"Is to!!"

"IS NOT!!"

"IS TO!!"

"IS NOT!!"

"IS TO!!"

"IS…where was I? I lost track."

"BAKA!!"

"You think this is fun for ME!! I've got to listen to some underdeveloped BRAT whine all the way down before we go SPLAT!!"

"You're so mean!!"

"Well, I LIKE mean!!"

"I DON'T!! Blehh!!"

"You call THAT a face!! Now HERE'S a face! BoOgAWooGAhugGiEnUGgiElugGIeIIIIEEEEEAAAH HAAA!!!!"

"Gross!! You spit on me!!"

"Well, isn't THAT sad? Bite me!! OWW!! Not literally, twirp!!"

"You deserved it!!"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Baka!! Why are you looking at me like that!"

"YOU did it!!!'

"Did what?!"

"You're the dirtbag who put syrup in my hair!!"

"…umm…How did you know?"

"I didn't, but NOW I do!!"

"…umm…You're not mad?"

"What! Are you brain dead? Of course I'm mad!!"

"You did it to me first!!"

"Oh yeah? At least I was more freakin' creative, stuffed bear-for-brains!!"

"Ooooh…Just shut up, Psymon!!"

"Fine!! Then I won't tell you about that little pool we're going to fall in!!"

"You just did!"

"Huh? Tattoo-boy!! How could you! I thought we agreed not tell the spoiled, whiny, loser excuse of a daddy's girl our little secret!!"

"…grrr…PSYMON!!!"

"Here it comes, brat. Hey! Why are you grabbing me?"

"umm…You'll cushion my fall?"

"WHAT!! You little…You're supposed to break MY fall!"

"Hey!! Stop that, baka!!"

"OW!! Hold still squirt! What the…we're right back where we started!!"

"Big meanie!!"

"Runt!!"

"JERK!!"

"TWIRP!!"

"SPLASH!!!"

The two bickering rivals fell into the small pool simultaneously. After a moment, Psymon broke the surface. Paddling to the edge of the pool, he pulled himself out. Coughing and sputtering, he tried to get his bearings.

"Ack…huff…wheeze…Nothing like a little death plunge to clean one's lungs…cough…hack." The athlete grinned, "Oh well, what is stronger will kill us." Psymon shook his head. "Er…that's not how it goes…ah, screw it!" Checking around, he tried to spot Kaori. "Wonder if the brat made it?" Deciding she might still be in the pool, Psymon glanced into the water. "Heck! Why am I bothering? The ungrateful rugrat would probably just… yell……at………me..."

Catching a glimpse of his reflection in the water, what he saw was certainly NOT what he had expected. The image peering back wasn't the grinning, handsome, albeit slightly psychotic, male visage Psymon normally gazed into every morning. Instead, it was the face of a young girl in her preteens, clad in a slightly ragged t-shirt and a denim skirt. A couple of sharp glances told Psymon that nobody else was present. When the snowboarder looked at the pool again, the young girl stared right back. The racer noticed a small object perched on his, now her, head. Psymon numbly reached up and gently grabbed it. Holding it in her hands, she could see it was a small unconscious humanoid creature, less than an adult hand's length in height. What struck Psymon the most about the little being was not it's dragonfly wings, or it's antennae, or even it's extra set of insect-like arms, but rather that it's facial and hair features were essentially identical to Kaori's.

This strange turn of events went far beyond anything the crazy Canadian's warped sense of reality could conceive. Screaming out to the heavens, the young girl cried, "WHAT IN FREAKIN' @#*$&)#!)\#*% IS GOING ON!!!!"

"I'm afraid miss customer," Psymon whipped her head around and saw a middle-aged woman addressing her, "that you and your friend have fallen into the spring of drowned magical girl hero and her magical companion."