Chapter 11: Rough and Tumble.
Zoe and Drum overlooked the mountain they were on, Drum recognized it already, it was Peak 2. Zoe's claim to fame after she took it from Nate last year. The track was filled with jumps, cracks, ice, and sharp rocks. God must of made this track speicifially made for her. Zoe grinned and held her hands behind her head.
"Well, this is it. My race." Zoe smiled, looking over at Drum.
"What the hell is it called?" Drum looked at the brightly colored flags that littered the area. One set of them were red, the other set were green. Drum had no problem seeing which ones were his.
"I call it Rough and Tumble," Zoe smirked, "The objective is to get down this race before I do...AND to get all of the flags. No holds barred." Zoe's mouth was watering. She was all ready to get out there and crack some skulls, this race against Drum was going to be one of the funnest things she will have done since she got here. Drum didn't feel the same way, he was almost dreading this, he was already new to the snow, but now he had to race down a track that could possibly kill him? Man, this wasn't shaping up to be a good day.
"Whatcha starin' at, Newbie?" Zoe laughed, she was enjoying getting into Drum's head. "You already having second thoughts about it?" Drum snapped, and looked over at her as the trolley pulled away from behind them.
"You wish, I was just wondering if you still want to keep your little stipulation." "Oh, Im going to beat you, with your own board. I like the smell of salt inside of a wound." Zoe licked her lips, this was going to be sweet.
Drum didn't know what to prepare for as he took his place between the gate, strapping on his back up board and making sure it was nice and secure under his feet, Zoe was on the opposite side, the board already on her feet, the bindings were a little bit too big for her, but she figured that it would be okay, so she ignored the extra space. Drum grabbed his gloves from his belt loop, he was sure he was going to need some sort of grip to grab those flags. Zoe didn't bother putting on her gloves, she was been practicing under these conditions for years, and this peak was hers to own. She knew exactly what she was doing.
Drum and Zoe's M-comms beeped respectively, each of them reached down and flipped it open, Rahzel's voice crackled through the speaker.
"Well, we are going to start radio silence as soon as the light goes green. We have a tracker on the mountain, so we will be able to tell who wins. At that point, we will go ahead and send a helicopter down to pick the both of you up." Rahzel finished, still sounding just as a serious as he did before. Drum and Zoe nodded as if Rahzel could actually see them, and took their positions, Drum already leaning foward so he could get a good push off.
Red light.
Yellow light.
Green light!
Zoe and Drum took off from the gate, Drum had never noticed before, but the first forty to fifty feet of the track was solid ice, seeing as he wasn't prepared for the lack of traction. Zoe, on the other hand, loved seeing Drum in trouble so early on. She skillfully leaned to the side, skidding right infront of Drum and giving him a hard punch to the shoulder before she came back around. Drum flinched a little, her hand ramming onto his arm did not feel well in such cold weather. Zoe laughed hard, coming back around to smack Drum again en route to the first flag, but Drum was smarter this time, and he flipped his board on its side, causing Zoe to tumble. Drum leaned foward, the farther ahead of Zoe he was, the better.
Zoe was used to falling, so she propped herself up quickly, going for her first flag. The flag was hanging on the end of a sharp rock, she slid straight at it. Drum's flag was danging in mid air, over a particularly small gap, but a gap nonetheless. Drum jumped, not as well as he would of liked, but well enough to get the flag, and landed. The landing wasn't graceful in the least and he took a nice facefull of snow, while Zoe on the other hand, was already en route to her second flag.
Drum gave a little grunt, pushing himself up and skidding down the snow, he had to find some way to get infront of Zoe before she took too far of a lead. Zoe was already overconfident, stopping to yell insults back at Drum, and then just to make him a little angrier she even stopped to point him in the direction of his next flag. Drum was beginning to get very annoyed with her tactics. As the race progressed, Zoe still had her lead, she was ahead of Drum by just a little, and she had two more flags than him.
Drum fell out of the sky like a rock picking glass shards out of his hair, and looking back at the broken window behind him.
"Nngh... only five more flags, but I need to catch her." Drum leaned foward into the downward slope, a big ramp was comming up, and it was a solid straight away towards it. Zoe was losing her confidence, knowing that Drum's extra weight would lend him just enough speed to pass her, so she began to play dirtier than she was before, skidding her board side to side to send a sheet of snow back at Drum. It didn't work. Drum was too smart, and made sure he kept out of her spray, before he knew it he was neck to neck with Zoe, and they were heading up towards the jump. They both looked over at eachother, and then they looked past eachother. In a sick turn of events, it seem that thier respective flags were on opposite sides of them, it would mean they would have to cross over to get them, and still keep enough speed to make the jump.
Zoe made her move first, skidding towards Drum, hoping to knock him over and still get her flag, Drum did the same, trying not to give up too much speed. Zoe made the attack, she clinched her fist and swung hard at Drum, but this time she wasn't as lucky as she was the first time, Drum somehow manage to dodge her fist and kept going, snatching up his flag and self righthing himself, about two feet infront of the jump. Zoe, with some trouble, managed to do the same...but she was crossing over again...she was going to attempt to knock Drum out of the air during the jump!
Drum tried to keep himself steady, and he jumped, Zoe jumping at an angle, directly at him.
The moment in the air seemed to last forever, Drum didn't even see Zoe comming at him until it was too late, she had managed to tackle the big man in mid air, with a board attached to her legs. Drum didn't even know where he was landing, he just knew that he was going to hit it hard, Zoe on the other hand, knew exactly where she was going to land.
SMASH!!!
They both crashed through one of the many shortcut glass windows, shards of glass cutting and knicking the both of them, but to both of thier surprise, they kept falling.
"AWW FUCK!" Zoe yelled, looking past Drum to realize that passed that glass was a solid downward drop. And boy did they drop, Drum managed to roll almost the whole way down, while Zoe, who was used to the terrain, managed to recover from her fall and skate away. Drum pushed himself up, and snacthed the flag that was hanging right infront of him, Zoe had a monster lead now, and what made it worse is that the track now forked off. He was sure to lose her if he didn't catch up.
--
"What doya mean I can't go to peak two!?" Moby yelled, Yuri and Griff behind him. Moby was standing toe to toe with Rahzel.
"You heard me, Jones. We cant let you go to Peak 2 until the challenge is completed." Rahzel said calmly, blocking the way towards the trolley.
"But...but" Moby stammered, he was the only one that knew what trouble Zoe was in, but he knew that if he said it he would surely be banned from SSX. Griff steppe foward, and tried to reason with Rahzel.
"I'll give ya a free hamburger if you just let us through?" Griff said, reaching into his pocket for some money. Yuri stopped him before Rahzel could even get an answer, pulling Griff behind her and stepping up.
"But we just really want to see the race, is that so wrong?" Yuri pleaded, but it fell on deaf ears.
"No, plain and simple." Rahzel nodded and stepped away, "and Simmons, if you ever try to bride me again, Ill see to it that you don't race for a year." he took his leave. Griff tried to hide his embrassment by nuzzling into Yuri's neck, who responded with a swift punch to the arm.
"Ow, what the hell was that for?" Griff whined, rubbing his arm.
"Thats for being a dumbass" Yuri whispered, she wasnt completely serious, but she meant enough of it to make Griff shut up.
Moby was already walking away from the both of them, he was walking up the hill.
"Moby! Moby! What the hell are you doing?" Yuri yelled after him, following him a bit.
"Go home, Yuri" Moby coughed, his voice rigid and gravelly.
"You know something we don't, don't you?" Griff spoke this time, Yuri didn't hit him, she knew that Moby knew something as well.
"I just want ta see da race, is that a crime now?" Moby grumbled, he didn't do much to convince the two teenagers that he wasn't lying.
"Oh come ON, just tell us what you know!" Yuri almost begged, acting like she didn't know for Griff's sake, trying to keep up.
Moby spun around throwing his hands in the air.
"GO AWAY! BOTH OF YA, RIGHT NOW!" Moby yelled, and he meant every word of it. Yuri and Griff finally took the hint, then didn't want to anger Moby any more than he already was.
"Fine...We're outta here", Griff stated, grabbing Yuri by the arm lightly, expecting her to resist, but instead she rested her head on his shoulder, looking Moby in the eye before marching off with Griff.
Moby watched Yuri walk away, his stomach sank a little. She was just trying to help and there he goes yelling at her, he made a small mental note to set things straight with her later, but right now, he had bigger problems.
Moby just trudged, he was actually going to walk up a mountain, to get to another, he knew by the time he would get there that the race would be long over, but he still had to try. He had not walked even a couple of feet before something flew over his head, it was someone on a snowboard, they landed behind him, skidding softly to a stop.
"Yo, Brit-boy. We gotta talk." Psymon scoffed, Moby was just the person he was looking for.
"Not now, Psymon." Moby turned to walk away, but Psymon had already taken the his feet out of the bindings of his board and shoved Moby hard on the back.
"Yes now, RIGHT now." Psymon growled, not his usual anger, but more of a subtle anger, which made this all the more serious.
Moby pushed Psymon away, he wasn't looking for a fight. Psymon grabbed Moby's arms and swept his foot out from under him, pushing him down into the snow.
"What da hell is ya problem, mate!?" Moby yelled, he had no idea why Psymon was acting the way he was.
"My problem!? What the yell is YOUR problem, old chap" Psymon grunted bringing Moby up to his feet before slamming his back into a tree.
"Wo..wot?" Moby grimmaced, his back slid along the rough tree bark.
"I saw the move you pulled in the board closet last night." Psymon seethed.
Moby couldnt belive his ears, someone had saw him?
"How, how did you...wait..I can expla--" Moby got cut off by a hard punch in the face from Psymon, who continued talking.
"You cant even handle a small...well, not so small, but a newbie? Since when do you have to sink to sabotage...not even -I- sink that low." Psymon chuckled at the little joke he made.
Moby pushed Psymon off, not bothering to run, but instead trying to explain. "I just want the little bugger out of my hair!" Moby yelled, his voice echoing off the trees around him.
Psymon swung a hard punch at Moby, he put all of his anger into it before it smashed into the side of Moby's head.
Moby reeled, his vision a little blurred, and fading.
"You deserved it, no one fucks with my friends." Psymon grunted, walking away as Moby collapsed onto the snow.
--
"AARRRAAAGGGH!!!" Drum yelled, falling yet again, the final leg of this race was going to leave him a lot of battle scars, Zoe was still ahead, and they were comming up on the last three flags of the race. Zoe had her place cemented, she was done in her mind. Zoe looked ahead at the track, it forked off in two different directions, she wished she had a hand in designing this death of a track. She took her path, Drum not too far behind her now. Zoe jumped onto a rail, skidding a long and snatching the a flag up with her foot, to her side she could see Drum do a hand plant to grab the flag, he was actually ahead of her now. Realizing the the grind was slowing her down, she jumped off, she felt the binding on her board wiggle a bit, but she wrote it off to the extra room. Drum snatched up his final flag, just was the cliche final jump appeared ahead of them, Drum was overjoyed, this was it, he had to clear this and win Zoe's respect. Drum put on his game face, leaned in, and took the jump.
In one fluid movement, Drum pulled his board off of his feet,threw it over his back, spread his arms out like an airplane, aligned his back with the board, and gave it a spin , the board spun like a helicoptor propellar. Drum let the snowy air hit his face as he soared over the gap, this was only the second time he had ever pulled off the Proper Propellar Drumroll, and he still loved it. Drum quicky flipped foward, grabbing the board between his feet and securing himself back in before landing, even though that was the final jump of the race, there was still a little ways to go before the race itself was over.
Drum neglected to notice the large section of mountain above him, on that large section, Zoe rode, her final flag in hand, and ready to take her place. Zoe jumped when the mountain permitted her, flying directly over Drum's head and pulling off a textbook Pommel Me, even taking time to give Drum the finger before she was completely out of sight. That was it, Drum had lost. It was over. Drum heard a loud crack and a thud, he assumed it was a tree branch comming down, and ignored it. Drum still wanted to finish the race, as he came up on the finish line, he noticed that there were no snow tracks, Zoe hadn't crossed yet!
Drum was ready to ride, but he saw something in the snow, the binding to his board...he followed the peices of his board...a small trail, that led to an unconcious Zoe, one leg still on the small peice of his board that was left intact, the other leg...broken, and snapped in a 90 degree angle...in a direction he never thought a leg could go in. A small puddle of blood was forming under her leg, and her head.
Drum took a look at the finish line infront of him, and at the mangled Zoe. He didn't know what to do...
Zoe and Drum overlooked the mountain they were on, Drum recognized it already, it was Peak 2. Zoe's claim to fame after she took it from Nate last year. The track was filled with jumps, cracks, ice, and sharp rocks. God must of made this track speicifially made for her. Zoe grinned and held her hands behind her head.
"Well, this is it. My race." Zoe smiled, looking over at Drum.
"What the hell is it called?" Drum looked at the brightly colored flags that littered the area. One set of them were red, the other set were green. Drum had no problem seeing which ones were his.
"I call it Rough and Tumble," Zoe smirked, "The objective is to get down this race before I do...AND to get all of the flags. No holds barred." Zoe's mouth was watering. She was all ready to get out there and crack some skulls, this race against Drum was going to be one of the funnest things she will have done since she got here. Drum didn't feel the same way, he was almost dreading this, he was already new to the snow, but now he had to race down a track that could possibly kill him? Man, this wasn't shaping up to be a good day.
"Whatcha starin' at, Newbie?" Zoe laughed, she was enjoying getting into Drum's head. "You already having second thoughts about it?" Drum snapped, and looked over at her as the trolley pulled away from behind them.
"You wish, I was just wondering if you still want to keep your little stipulation." "Oh, Im going to beat you, with your own board. I like the smell of salt inside of a wound." Zoe licked her lips, this was going to be sweet.
Drum didn't know what to prepare for as he took his place between the gate, strapping on his back up board and making sure it was nice and secure under his feet, Zoe was on the opposite side, the board already on her feet, the bindings were a little bit too big for her, but she figured that it would be okay, so she ignored the extra space. Drum grabbed his gloves from his belt loop, he was sure he was going to need some sort of grip to grab those flags. Zoe didn't bother putting on her gloves, she was been practicing under these conditions for years, and this peak was hers to own. She knew exactly what she was doing.
Drum and Zoe's M-comms beeped respectively, each of them reached down and flipped it open, Rahzel's voice crackled through the speaker.
"Well, we are going to start radio silence as soon as the light goes green. We have a tracker on the mountain, so we will be able to tell who wins. At that point, we will go ahead and send a helicopter down to pick the both of you up." Rahzel finished, still sounding just as a serious as he did before. Drum and Zoe nodded as if Rahzel could actually see them, and took their positions, Drum already leaning foward so he could get a good push off.
Red light.
Yellow light.
Green light!
Zoe and Drum took off from the gate, Drum had never noticed before, but the first forty to fifty feet of the track was solid ice, seeing as he wasn't prepared for the lack of traction. Zoe, on the other hand, loved seeing Drum in trouble so early on. She skillfully leaned to the side, skidding right infront of Drum and giving him a hard punch to the shoulder before she came back around. Drum flinched a little, her hand ramming onto his arm did not feel well in such cold weather. Zoe laughed hard, coming back around to smack Drum again en route to the first flag, but Drum was smarter this time, and he flipped his board on its side, causing Zoe to tumble. Drum leaned foward, the farther ahead of Zoe he was, the better.
Zoe was used to falling, so she propped herself up quickly, going for her first flag. The flag was hanging on the end of a sharp rock, she slid straight at it. Drum's flag was danging in mid air, over a particularly small gap, but a gap nonetheless. Drum jumped, not as well as he would of liked, but well enough to get the flag, and landed. The landing wasn't graceful in the least and he took a nice facefull of snow, while Zoe on the other hand, was already en route to her second flag.
Drum gave a little grunt, pushing himself up and skidding down the snow, he had to find some way to get infront of Zoe before she took too far of a lead. Zoe was already overconfident, stopping to yell insults back at Drum, and then just to make him a little angrier she even stopped to point him in the direction of his next flag. Drum was beginning to get very annoyed with her tactics. As the race progressed, Zoe still had her lead, she was ahead of Drum by just a little, and she had two more flags than him.
Drum fell out of the sky like a rock picking glass shards out of his hair, and looking back at the broken window behind him.
"Nngh... only five more flags, but I need to catch her." Drum leaned foward into the downward slope, a big ramp was comming up, and it was a solid straight away towards it. Zoe was losing her confidence, knowing that Drum's extra weight would lend him just enough speed to pass her, so she began to play dirtier than she was before, skidding her board side to side to send a sheet of snow back at Drum. It didn't work. Drum was too smart, and made sure he kept out of her spray, before he knew it he was neck to neck with Zoe, and they were heading up towards the jump. They both looked over at eachother, and then they looked past eachother. In a sick turn of events, it seem that thier respective flags were on opposite sides of them, it would mean they would have to cross over to get them, and still keep enough speed to make the jump.
Zoe made her move first, skidding towards Drum, hoping to knock him over and still get her flag, Drum did the same, trying not to give up too much speed. Zoe made the attack, she clinched her fist and swung hard at Drum, but this time she wasn't as lucky as she was the first time, Drum somehow manage to dodge her fist and kept going, snatching up his flag and self righthing himself, about two feet infront of the jump. Zoe, with some trouble, managed to do the same...but she was crossing over again...she was going to attempt to knock Drum out of the air during the jump!
Drum tried to keep himself steady, and he jumped, Zoe jumping at an angle, directly at him.
The moment in the air seemed to last forever, Drum didn't even see Zoe comming at him until it was too late, she had managed to tackle the big man in mid air, with a board attached to her legs. Drum didn't even know where he was landing, he just knew that he was going to hit it hard, Zoe on the other hand, knew exactly where she was going to land.
SMASH!!!
They both crashed through one of the many shortcut glass windows, shards of glass cutting and knicking the both of them, but to both of thier surprise, they kept falling.
"AWW FUCK!" Zoe yelled, looking past Drum to realize that passed that glass was a solid downward drop. And boy did they drop, Drum managed to roll almost the whole way down, while Zoe, who was used to the terrain, managed to recover from her fall and skate away. Drum pushed himself up, and snacthed the flag that was hanging right infront of him, Zoe had a monster lead now, and what made it worse is that the track now forked off. He was sure to lose her if he didn't catch up.
--
"What doya mean I can't go to peak two!?" Moby yelled, Yuri and Griff behind him. Moby was standing toe to toe with Rahzel.
"You heard me, Jones. We cant let you go to Peak 2 until the challenge is completed." Rahzel said calmly, blocking the way towards the trolley.
"But...but" Moby stammered, he was the only one that knew what trouble Zoe was in, but he knew that if he said it he would surely be banned from SSX. Griff steppe foward, and tried to reason with Rahzel.
"I'll give ya a free hamburger if you just let us through?" Griff said, reaching into his pocket for some money. Yuri stopped him before Rahzel could even get an answer, pulling Griff behind her and stepping up.
"But we just really want to see the race, is that so wrong?" Yuri pleaded, but it fell on deaf ears.
"No, plain and simple." Rahzel nodded and stepped away, "and Simmons, if you ever try to bride me again, Ill see to it that you don't race for a year." he took his leave. Griff tried to hide his embrassment by nuzzling into Yuri's neck, who responded with a swift punch to the arm.
"Ow, what the hell was that for?" Griff whined, rubbing his arm.
"Thats for being a dumbass" Yuri whispered, she wasnt completely serious, but she meant enough of it to make Griff shut up.
Moby was already walking away from the both of them, he was walking up the hill.
"Moby! Moby! What the hell are you doing?" Yuri yelled after him, following him a bit.
"Go home, Yuri" Moby coughed, his voice rigid and gravelly.
"You know something we don't, don't you?" Griff spoke this time, Yuri didn't hit him, she knew that Moby knew something as well.
"I just want ta see da race, is that a crime now?" Moby grumbled, he didn't do much to convince the two teenagers that he wasn't lying.
"Oh come ON, just tell us what you know!" Yuri almost begged, acting like she didn't know for Griff's sake, trying to keep up.
Moby spun around throwing his hands in the air.
"GO AWAY! BOTH OF YA, RIGHT NOW!" Moby yelled, and he meant every word of it. Yuri and Griff finally took the hint, then didn't want to anger Moby any more than he already was.
"Fine...We're outta here", Griff stated, grabbing Yuri by the arm lightly, expecting her to resist, but instead she rested her head on his shoulder, looking Moby in the eye before marching off with Griff.
Moby watched Yuri walk away, his stomach sank a little. She was just trying to help and there he goes yelling at her, he made a small mental note to set things straight with her later, but right now, he had bigger problems.
Moby just trudged, he was actually going to walk up a mountain, to get to another, he knew by the time he would get there that the race would be long over, but he still had to try. He had not walked even a couple of feet before something flew over his head, it was someone on a snowboard, they landed behind him, skidding softly to a stop.
"Yo, Brit-boy. We gotta talk." Psymon scoffed, Moby was just the person he was looking for.
"Not now, Psymon." Moby turned to walk away, but Psymon had already taken the his feet out of the bindings of his board and shoved Moby hard on the back.
"Yes now, RIGHT now." Psymon growled, not his usual anger, but more of a subtle anger, which made this all the more serious.
Moby pushed Psymon away, he wasn't looking for a fight. Psymon grabbed Moby's arms and swept his foot out from under him, pushing him down into the snow.
"What da hell is ya problem, mate!?" Moby yelled, he had no idea why Psymon was acting the way he was.
"My problem!? What the yell is YOUR problem, old chap" Psymon grunted bringing Moby up to his feet before slamming his back into a tree.
"Wo..wot?" Moby grimmaced, his back slid along the rough tree bark.
"I saw the move you pulled in the board closet last night." Psymon seethed.
Moby couldnt belive his ears, someone had saw him?
"How, how did you...wait..I can expla--" Moby got cut off by a hard punch in the face from Psymon, who continued talking.
"You cant even handle a small...well, not so small, but a newbie? Since when do you have to sink to sabotage...not even -I- sink that low." Psymon chuckled at the little joke he made.
Moby pushed Psymon off, not bothering to run, but instead trying to explain. "I just want the little bugger out of my hair!" Moby yelled, his voice echoing off the trees around him.
Psymon swung a hard punch at Moby, he put all of his anger into it before it smashed into the side of Moby's head.
Moby reeled, his vision a little blurred, and fading.
"You deserved it, no one fucks with my friends." Psymon grunted, walking away as Moby collapsed onto the snow.
--
"AARRRAAAGGGH!!!" Drum yelled, falling yet again, the final leg of this race was going to leave him a lot of battle scars, Zoe was still ahead, and they were comming up on the last three flags of the race. Zoe had her place cemented, she was done in her mind. Zoe looked ahead at the track, it forked off in two different directions, she wished she had a hand in designing this death of a track. She took her path, Drum not too far behind her now. Zoe jumped onto a rail, skidding a long and snatching the a flag up with her foot, to her side she could see Drum do a hand plant to grab the flag, he was actually ahead of her now. Realizing the the grind was slowing her down, she jumped off, she felt the binding on her board wiggle a bit, but she wrote it off to the extra room. Drum snatched up his final flag, just was the cliche final jump appeared ahead of them, Drum was overjoyed, this was it, he had to clear this and win Zoe's respect. Drum put on his game face, leaned in, and took the jump.
In one fluid movement, Drum pulled his board off of his feet,threw it over his back, spread his arms out like an airplane, aligned his back with the board, and gave it a spin , the board spun like a helicoptor propellar. Drum let the snowy air hit his face as he soared over the gap, this was only the second time he had ever pulled off the Proper Propellar Drumroll, and he still loved it. Drum quicky flipped foward, grabbing the board between his feet and securing himself back in before landing, even though that was the final jump of the race, there was still a little ways to go before the race itself was over.
Drum neglected to notice the large section of mountain above him, on that large section, Zoe rode, her final flag in hand, and ready to take her place. Zoe jumped when the mountain permitted her, flying directly over Drum's head and pulling off a textbook Pommel Me, even taking time to give Drum the finger before she was completely out of sight. That was it, Drum had lost. It was over. Drum heard a loud crack and a thud, he assumed it was a tree branch comming down, and ignored it. Drum still wanted to finish the race, as he came up on the finish line, he noticed that there were no snow tracks, Zoe hadn't crossed yet!
Drum was ready to ride, but he saw something in the snow, the binding to his board...he followed the peices of his board...a small trail, that led to an unconcious Zoe, one leg still on the small peice of his board that was left intact, the other leg...broken, and snapped in a 90 degree angle...in a direction he never thought a leg could go in. A small puddle of blood was forming under her leg, and her head.
Drum took a look at the finish line infront of him, and at the mangled Zoe. He didn't know what to do...