DISCLAIMER: Same as before, EA owns SSX and characters and everything else, I just write a story based on the concepts taken from their game with certain "literary freedoms" taken in my interpretations of the people and places otherwise depicted in the game. Now enjoy.
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The group followed Atomika into the lodge through the large double doors, followed by the interested fans and reporters. Moby pulled in a deep breath through his nose, enjoying the familiar scent. It didn't matter if he was back riding the familiar mountains in Europe or here in North America; the natural wood floors and walls of the lodge mixed with the ever-present smell of wet hair and clothes just brought a small smile to his face. It felt like familiar ground, even though he had never been here before.
As they walked, some of the veteran riders were chatting with each other about what they thought this season was going to be like. The new riders, however, were all staring around the room wide-eyed as they took everything in. Nate, the "mountain man" as some called him due to his gruffy appearance, had his mouth hanging slightly open as he looked around at the people surrounding the group. The reality of the situation was really starting to hit home... they were here. This was it. About to compete on a professional level with some of the world's best, whom they had seen on TV for the past 2 years and had always wished they would have a chance to face off against. It was a little overwhelming, to say the least.
A few League workers peeled the onlookers and reporters away from the group as Atomika led the riders into the meeting room. A small stage was at the front of the room, with a half dozen rows of seats set up in stadium-seating style opposite the stage. There were only about 40 seats in total, but this small room was still decked out with wall mounted speakers, a ceiling-hung projector, and 2 screens behind the podium that stood on the stage. Atomika turned and motioned for the riders to take a seat, and they walked past him to do so. Most of them chose to sit by themselves, staggered throughout the room, but the four newest additions to the League roster sat together in the upper row. Mac had ended up choosing a seat behind Elise: he leaned back in his seat and reached his feet out to rest them on the armrest in front of him, but fell off-balance in his chair as Elise's elbow roughly shoved his shoes to the side.
Atomika walked behind the podium as the lights dimmed, the ceiling projector coming to life and displaying a large "SSX" logo across the two screens behind him. Atomika brought his sunglasses down off the top of his head and perched them in front of his eyes to combat the light from the projector that was shining squarely into his face, and he looked around the room for a moment. He smirked slightly when he saw the bunch of new riders grouped together in the top row; since he was brought on board for this year's League, he was as green, and probably as nervous, as they all were. In a way, he wished he could be up there with them. His eyes glanced over at the League officials sitting together in the front row on the left watching him. He had better get to this.
"Again, welcome! Welcome back to those of you who have been in the League, and especially welcome to those of you here for your first time. We hope all of you enjoy what we have in store for you this year; but let's cut to the chase. You're not here to listen to me ramble on, you want to know what's on your plates. We'll just roll some footage from the new courses and that should answer some of your questions." Hitting a button on the remote he picked up off the podium, he moved to the side and a video started playing on the screens.
The video showed an Osprey (a cross between a helicopter and a plane that many of the riders were familiar with riding in from their more exotic backcountry sessions) flying high above a mountain, and the camera zoomed in towards a man-made object jutting out against the natural terrain... a starting gate. Panning down the mountain, the people in the room saw kickers, gates, and trees littering the mountainside. "This here is a shot of Snow Jam, one of the race courses we have this year," Atomika chimed in from the side. The camera stopped to detail an enormous dropoff just above a patch of woods that the trail apparently merged into. "This is pretty mellow compared to some of the other courses."
"Now, this year we're not just going to have race and trick competitions. Which, by the way, the latter of which is being called "slopestyle" over the previous years' fairly blaisé "showoff" title. We're also going to have superpipe competitions where you'll all get to flex your halfpipe muscle and Big Air events where I can guarantee you'll all be catching more air than you have ever had in your lives. Up next we have some shots of one of our slopestyle tracks where you all get to show off the tricks in your bags, R&B." The camera cut to another mountain face, absolutely peppered with rails. "Holy crap," Mac muttered under his breath: Elise heard him and nodded slowly in agreement. Even the ice queen herself was stunned by the track; it seemed like there wasn't even a solid line down the course where you wouldn't bump into half a dozen rails. Tricks had never been Elise's strongest point, altho she was certainly better than most since she was here in the League after all. But here in the past, she had dominated the race events and been able to at least hold her own in showoff. Something like R&B was sure to cause her some trouble this season.
"And," Atomika continued, "here's just a few snippets of some of the other courses up here on the mountain." Lightning flashed on the screen and the camera was suddenly racing above a woodsy course with high arching turns and green rails scattered among many of the trail edges. Cut to another scene of a raging blizzard enveloping a starting gate on what appeared to be the peak of one of the three mountains here. Cut again to a shot taken high above skyscrapers, with snow-covered paths cutting between the buildings. "Hey, it's Merqury City!" exclaimed Griff from the back of the room as he sat up in his seat, obviously excited to see a course he recognized from watching the League on TV the past two years. "Not quite," smiled Atomika. "This here's Metro City, and I promise you it will be much different than what you all are used to from back in Merq." Griff sat back in his seat, obviously disappointed that he wouldn't be able to ride at Merqury City. That had always been one of his favorite courses to see the riders on.
The screen showed one more shot, the camera rising slowly up what appeared to be the third and highest peak on the mountain. The powder covered every inch that wasn't a large rockface, and the scene was more stunning than any of the riders in the room had seen in their collective experiences. Off to the side of the screen, a large chunk of snow suddenly fell away from the mountain, revealing the large chasm that the chunk of ice had only moments ago been suspended above.
"Avalanches? We're going to be riding with AVALANCHES on the mountain?!" exclaimed the until-now quiet Zoe. Her tough exterior led most opponents to fear her, but the sudden revelation of what appeared to be an unstable mountain obviously had disturbed even her. "Oh, don't worry. The course officials promise that they won't get in your way during the events... much," Atomika winked at her. His words weren't much comfort, however, and she slouched back into her seat with her arms across her chest and a stone, determined look on her face..
The movie ended, the lights came back up and the group squinted in the suddenly brightly lit room. "So, are there any questions?" Atomika asked as he approached the podium again. "Yeah," Allegra raised her hand from the back of the room, a grin reaching from pigtail to pigtail that hung down from under her beanie on either side of her face. "When do we start?"
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Bleh, I'm sorry about no action still after part 2, but I hope you're all at least still enjoying this. I enjoyed writing this part, giving a touch more insight into some of my interpretations of the riders and going over how anyone might feel if they were confronted with these courses. I promise, next chapter will have some action in it. :) But I've been trying to really give the feeling of being involved in the story, and trying to push things too fast isn't something I wanted to do. As always, comments both positive and negative are welcome :) Thanks for reading this
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The group followed Atomika into the lodge through the large double doors, followed by the interested fans and reporters. Moby pulled in a deep breath through his nose, enjoying the familiar scent. It didn't matter if he was back riding the familiar mountains in Europe or here in North America; the natural wood floors and walls of the lodge mixed with the ever-present smell of wet hair and clothes just brought a small smile to his face. It felt like familiar ground, even though he had never been here before.
As they walked, some of the veteran riders were chatting with each other about what they thought this season was going to be like. The new riders, however, were all staring around the room wide-eyed as they took everything in. Nate, the "mountain man" as some called him due to his gruffy appearance, had his mouth hanging slightly open as he looked around at the people surrounding the group. The reality of the situation was really starting to hit home... they were here. This was it. About to compete on a professional level with some of the world's best, whom they had seen on TV for the past 2 years and had always wished they would have a chance to face off against. It was a little overwhelming, to say the least.
A few League workers peeled the onlookers and reporters away from the group as Atomika led the riders into the meeting room. A small stage was at the front of the room, with a half dozen rows of seats set up in stadium-seating style opposite the stage. There were only about 40 seats in total, but this small room was still decked out with wall mounted speakers, a ceiling-hung projector, and 2 screens behind the podium that stood on the stage. Atomika turned and motioned for the riders to take a seat, and they walked past him to do so. Most of them chose to sit by themselves, staggered throughout the room, but the four newest additions to the League roster sat together in the upper row. Mac had ended up choosing a seat behind Elise: he leaned back in his seat and reached his feet out to rest them on the armrest in front of him, but fell off-balance in his chair as Elise's elbow roughly shoved his shoes to the side.
Atomika walked behind the podium as the lights dimmed, the ceiling projector coming to life and displaying a large "SSX" logo across the two screens behind him. Atomika brought his sunglasses down off the top of his head and perched them in front of his eyes to combat the light from the projector that was shining squarely into his face, and he looked around the room for a moment. He smirked slightly when he saw the bunch of new riders grouped together in the top row; since he was brought on board for this year's League, he was as green, and probably as nervous, as they all were. In a way, he wished he could be up there with them. His eyes glanced over at the League officials sitting together in the front row on the left watching him. He had better get to this.
"Again, welcome! Welcome back to those of you who have been in the League, and especially welcome to those of you here for your first time. We hope all of you enjoy what we have in store for you this year; but let's cut to the chase. You're not here to listen to me ramble on, you want to know what's on your plates. We'll just roll some footage from the new courses and that should answer some of your questions." Hitting a button on the remote he picked up off the podium, he moved to the side and a video started playing on the screens.
The video showed an Osprey (a cross between a helicopter and a plane that many of the riders were familiar with riding in from their more exotic backcountry sessions) flying high above a mountain, and the camera zoomed in towards a man-made object jutting out against the natural terrain... a starting gate. Panning down the mountain, the people in the room saw kickers, gates, and trees littering the mountainside. "This here is a shot of Snow Jam, one of the race courses we have this year," Atomika chimed in from the side. The camera stopped to detail an enormous dropoff just above a patch of woods that the trail apparently merged into. "This is pretty mellow compared to some of the other courses."
"Now, this year we're not just going to have race and trick competitions. Which, by the way, the latter of which is being called "slopestyle" over the previous years' fairly blaisé "showoff" title. We're also going to have superpipe competitions where you'll all get to flex your halfpipe muscle and Big Air events where I can guarantee you'll all be catching more air than you have ever had in your lives. Up next we have some shots of one of our slopestyle tracks where you all get to show off the tricks in your bags, R&B." The camera cut to another mountain face, absolutely peppered with rails. "Holy crap," Mac muttered under his breath: Elise heard him and nodded slowly in agreement. Even the ice queen herself was stunned by the track; it seemed like there wasn't even a solid line down the course where you wouldn't bump into half a dozen rails. Tricks had never been Elise's strongest point, altho she was certainly better than most since she was here in the League after all. But here in the past, she had dominated the race events and been able to at least hold her own in showoff. Something like R&B was sure to cause her some trouble this season.
"And," Atomika continued, "here's just a few snippets of some of the other courses up here on the mountain." Lightning flashed on the screen and the camera was suddenly racing above a woodsy course with high arching turns and green rails scattered among many of the trail edges. Cut to another scene of a raging blizzard enveloping a starting gate on what appeared to be the peak of one of the three mountains here. Cut again to a shot taken high above skyscrapers, with snow-covered paths cutting between the buildings. "Hey, it's Merqury City!" exclaimed Griff from the back of the room as he sat up in his seat, obviously excited to see a course he recognized from watching the League on TV the past two years. "Not quite," smiled Atomika. "This here's Metro City, and I promise you it will be much different than what you all are used to from back in Merq." Griff sat back in his seat, obviously disappointed that he wouldn't be able to ride at Merqury City. That had always been one of his favorite courses to see the riders on.
The screen showed one more shot, the camera rising slowly up what appeared to be the third and highest peak on the mountain. The powder covered every inch that wasn't a large rockface, and the scene was more stunning than any of the riders in the room had seen in their collective experiences. Off to the side of the screen, a large chunk of snow suddenly fell away from the mountain, revealing the large chasm that the chunk of ice had only moments ago been suspended above.
"Avalanches? We're going to be riding with AVALANCHES on the mountain?!" exclaimed the until-now quiet Zoe. Her tough exterior led most opponents to fear her, but the sudden revelation of what appeared to be an unstable mountain obviously had disturbed even her. "Oh, don't worry. The course officials promise that they won't get in your way during the events... much," Atomika winked at her. His words weren't much comfort, however, and she slouched back into her seat with her arms across her chest and a stone, determined look on her face..
The movie ended, the lights came back up and the group squinted in the suddenly brightly lit room. "So, are there any questions?" Atomika asked as he approached the podium again. "Yeah," Allegra raised her hand from the back of the room, a grin reaching from pigtail to pigtail that hung down from under her beanie on either side of her face. "When do we start?"
=========================================================
Bleh, I'm sorry about no action still after part 2, but I hope you're all at least still enjoying this. I enjoyed writing this part, giving a touch more insight into some of my interpretations of the riders and going over how anyone might feel if they were confronted with these courses. I promise, next chapter will have some action in it. :) But I've been trying to really give the feeling of being involved in the story, and trying to push things too fast isn't something I wanted to do. As always, comments both positive and negative are welcome :) Thanks for reading this