AN: Howdy, kiddies. This is the first of the last two chapter of Second Heat. I will try to fit as much in these two as I possibly can. There will be a lot of character advancement this time around, so get ready for a lot of talking. Yeehaw.
Oh, just on a note. About 75 of Chapter 11 was written by Collision, an not me. She is still new at writing this story, so give her a wee bit of slack. For the most part, this chapter is written by me.
Chapter 12: Crash
Psymon sat in the lobby, starring at Atomika, who sat across on the sofa, writing something down in his journal. Psymon had a confused look on his face as he scratched this head, he was thinking about something, he was confused.
Atomika didn't notice Psymon until he yelled.
"Yo, Atomika!" Psymon called out, causing Atomika to look up.
"What?" Atomika didn't even know WHY Psymon yelled his name, but he is sure it was for some silly or goofy reason.
"…Why DID you throw a fuckin' chunk of ice at my head?"
Atomika sat there, he didn't reply, he instead went back to writing in his journal.
"Hey! I'm talkin' to you!" Psymon threw a couch pillow at Atomika, this time getting his attention.
"Hey!" Atomika yelled, his shades falling off, "I threw it because I needed something to throw and someone to throw it AT. You were the closest."
Psymon cocked his head to the side, "So, you are pissed off that Tata McNipples was playing you the whole time."
Atomika shrugged, "I wouldn't say she was playing me…"
Psymon continued, interrupting him. "So, you throw a chunk of ice at a boarder's HEAD."
"Yell..sorta.."
"The head of…" Psymon picked up a copy of SSX Magazine, and read a quote,"…'the craziest frickin' boarder to ever tear up the circuit'"
Atomika shifted his eyes a bit, not putting his shades on yet. "…I guess…"
Psymon looked at Atomika, "So…you threw…A ROCK….AT MY HEAD…FOR NO REASON?"
Atomika nodded, "…Yep."
Psymon looked like he was about ready to explode, you could almost see the steam rising from him. "Okay, just checkin'." Psymon got up, and walked out of the lobby as if nothing happened.
Atomika sat there for a second, utterly confused.
"…What in the hell just happened?" before he could finish the thought a handfull of snow collided with the side of his face. Psymon could be heard cackling in the background.
Zoe was taking her fifth shower since she got back from Spiral Mile. Drum was sitting on her bed with Mac.
"…Man, do you even KNOW what happens when you fall of Spiral Mile?" Mac whined, he rubbed his head.
"Yeah, actually. You fall about 30 feet onto an air cushion, that dosen't hurt at all." Drum said, without even looking up from his M-Comm.
Mac looked a bit deflated, he was trying to play up that he might've gotten hurt, "Well…yeah…it hurt though! I mean, the plastic on those things is rough!" Mac pulled out his own M-Comm. "What ARE you lookin' at?"
Despite Drum having won his first actual race on the circuit, no one else seemed to notice it, most people were talking about the fact that Zoe had penguin slid into a puddle of Psymon juice. Or Atomika's ice chunk rampage.
"Oh snap! You won?" Mac checked out the current standings. "About time you finally won SOMETHING." Mac joked.
Drum gave him a bit of a shove, "Shut up. At least I didn't get pushed over by a little asian girl."
Mac's face got serious. "Not funny, man."
Drum noted Mac's hurt expression and changed the conversation quickly.
"You alright? I didn't mean to offend or anything." Drum said, not looking up for his M-Comm, instead checking out his next race.
"Nah, you didn't. I just don't like where things are going right now." Mac put his M-Comm away. "Yuri….her and Kaori are hanging out more and more." Mac shrugged his shoulders, "I mean, the girl who hates me hanging out with the girl who likes me? I don't want Yuri to rub off on K, you know what I mean?"
Drum nodded, "Yeah, but maybe Kaori might rub off on Yuri?"
Mac's eyes widened. "You mean Yuri might like me, too?"
Drum bopped Mac upside the head, "No! I meant maybe Yuri might see your good side? Not the crazy little wigger boy who tries a bit too hard to talk smack and pump his ego."
Drum smirked at himself. It took Mac a little bit to actually catch what Drum had said.
"Hey!" Mac shoved Drum, barely moving him. The bathroom door opened and out came Zoe, who was just in her towel, she didn't know Mac had came in.
"Drum, where in the hell did I put my black bra? The one with the red line." Zoe asked, not looking up to see the two of them.
Before Drum could speak, Mac was already speaking, imitating his voice.
"Oh, I sold it to your number 1 fan on Ebay. Easiest five-hundred bucks I have ever got."
Zoe looked up, only to see Mac.
"…."
Before Mac knew it, he was thrown into the hallway square on his ass. Landing right infront of Eddie.
"...What? A guy just can't sit in the hallway?"
Eddie rolled his eyes and kept walking. He didn't even feel like joking around with Mac today; he just wanted to get his Big Air over with. The faster he finished, the faster he could come back to the lodge.
That was until he turned the corner only to see Atomika.
Eddie's eyes lit a bit under his goggles. Atomika tried to avoid his glance a bit but kept walking forward nonetheless.
They were both walking down the hallway, almost like a game of Chicken on foot.
They finally met, bumping each other's shoulders hard. Eddie retaliated by pushing Atomika away, hard.
"Get out of my way!" Eddie snapped. Atomika just looked at him.
"Dude, if I had known about you and Elise, I would've never—" Atomika started, he wasn't all too surprised when Eddie cut him off.
"Save it. I don't even want to hear it." Eddie began to walk away.
Atomika had enough of this. "It's not MY fault you were too much of a chicken shit to make your move! You had your chance!"
Eddie stopped dead in his tracks. It was pretty much taking everything he had to keep himself from leaping at Atomika.
Atomika waited for a reply, but Eddie never gave one. Instead, Eddie walked away to the boardroom. Atomika knew he had gone too far.
"FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!" Psymon and Griff chanted.
Rahzel was panting hard, running through the lodge and trying to get to the source of the trouble.
When he got there, he saw the lobby almost in shambles.
Moby had a busted lip, Drum had a slightly-blacked eye, and Mac was out cold, Kaori standing over him.
Moby jumped at Drum, swinging his fists wildly and doing anything to connect with the giant's face. Drum held Moby off a bit, giving him a stiff elbow to the chin.
Rahzel and Nate jumped between the two before anything else could happen.
"What in the HELL is going on in here?" Rahzel looked to the both of them, waiting for one of them to come up with an answer.
"Well?"
No one spoke. Everyone just sort of shifted around nervously.
"No one wants to speak up? Fine. All events are suspended until I find out what happened here." Rahzel was about to walk away before he felt Kaori tugging at his coat.
"What?"
"…I…I saw the whole thing." Kaori whispered.
Rahzel looked around. "Simmons, Stark, Logan. You get the next two days off if you clean this mess up."
He motioned Kaori to come with him. She followed him to his office; no one besides Psymon had ever actually been to Rahzel's office. It was sort of like going to Oz. His office was filled with rap trophies, microphones, and various pictures of the SSX stars. He sat behind his desk, motioning Kaori to sit in the plush chair in front of it.
"Okay, now tell me exactly what happened."
Kaori took a deep breath. "…Okay…"
(AN: This segment is a flashback)
Drum sat at the table, looking over his rider ranking on his M-Comm. Naturally, he wasn't all too high, but at least he had finally made a bit of a mark. He noticed that he was still well behind most of the SSX riders. The only one he was above was Viggo, due to his suspension.
"Will you stop looking at that thing? Geez, it's not going to get any higher the more you stare at it," Mac said, watching Drum from across the table. "The only way it's going to get better is if you go out there and whoop some ass on the slopes."
Drum nodded, "Yeah, I know. But still, it feels sort of good to finally win for once."
"Ya wish ya could say that when it came to the scales, dontcha?" a voice from behind Drum said, with a light chuckle tacked on.
Drum turned around to see who he expected, Moby.
"The fat jokes get really old after awh—"
Moby cut him off before he could finish. "It's going to be sad when ya little star snuffs out...when everyone stops feelin' sorry for ya because you are the new guy." Moby walked over to the counter, sitting up on it. "Because we all know that the only reason ya won that race is 'cause the vets felt sorry for ya."
Mac sat up out of his chair. "No way, man! He earned that win!"
Moby laughed, "Sure he did. Chicken Shit here, our #1 rider, was DQ'ed right at da start. Zoe and Psymon had thea own little vendetta goin' on. That left ya with Atomika and Yuri." Moby smirked, "I love Yuri ta death, but she ain't exactly vet material yet. And Atomika is just a lil' less of a poser than you."
Mac stepped up again; Drum had yet to say anything. "Man, dat shit is uncalled for! Atomika used to be your BOSS and now you are gonna dis him behind his back?"
Moby laughed. "Boss? That git was neva MY boss. Only reason he is down hea now because he got tired of wankin' to Elise on the camera, and decided to test out the real thing. Now sit back down and let me finish talkin'."
Mac was turning red in the face. Drum still looked a bit calm.
"And then thea's Zoe. Ya know, at first I was a bit sour that ya took her from me, but then I saw the light." Moby stood up. "She is doin' it outta pity." He smirked. "She knows dat you wouldn't last anotha yea here if ya didn't have at least one friend otha than Fraser."
Moby licked his lips, twisting them into a smile.
"She loved me. She pities you."
Before Moby could say another word, a dinner plate came crashing into the side of his head. Moby was shaken off balance for a second before he saw where the plate had come from. Mac was holding another in his hand, ready to throw it, too.
"OI! What the bloody FUCK is your problem?" Moby yelled, holding the side of his head and stumbling over towards Mac, drawing back to give him a hard punch to the face. Mac ducked before Moby could swing and thrusted the dinner plate into his gut.
Moby hunched forward a bit, letting out a bit of a grunt before bringing his knee up and slamming it right into Mac's head. Mac hit the ground like a dirty sack of rocks.
Moby stood back up. "Should mind ya own business, grommet." Moby turned around only to meet Drum's forearm. Moby was knocked flat onto his back.
"Oi! What is this, Pick on da Brit day?" Moby rolled over and stood up. Drum was busy trying to wake Mac. Moby picked up the dinner place that Mac had left and cracked it against Drum's head. At this point, Psymon and Griff ran in.
"Holy shit!" Griff yelled.
"HOLY FUCK!" Psymon followed.
Right in front of their eyes, they watched the fight unfold. It went from Drum and Moby slugging it out, to Drum literally throwing Moby through the kitchen table, and then to Moby almost breaking a chair against Drum's back.
"This is better than WRESTLING!" Griff yelled. He was sitting down at the broken table at this point, and Psymon was hovering over the microwave, waiting for his popcorn to finish.
Drum fell to his knees, grunting in pain before he stood up again. Moby ran at Drum full speed, knocking him onto his back, before he could punch him, though. Drum had drove his knuckle right into Moby's mouth, instantly busting his lip. Moby rolled off of Drum and tried to get back to his feet before Drum hit him hard in the back, and once again in the side.
Moby was heading towards the counter, no one knew what he was going for, nor would they find out. Rahzel had walked in at that moment.
Rahzel listened to Kaori retell the tale, robbing his chin.
"Is that all?" He asked Kaori, who hadn't looked up the entire time.
She just nodded, she knew deep down that Mac was going to be angry at her, but she had to do what she thought was right.
Rahzel nodded his head, "You can go now, Kaori"
Kaori almost knocked the chair over, she was so ready to get out of the office and check on Mac.
Rahzel leaned back in his chair, and sighed. He picked up the phone on his desk, dialed three numbers, and waited.
"Hello? Put me through to The Council. I need an appropriate punishment for three riders…"
Viggo and Brodi sat in the courtyard of the Mountain Peaks Hospital. Moby was still a bit blue in the face, but his mild frostbite was slowly going away.
"You aren't going to make me do some sort of 12 step program are you?" Viggo broke the silence.
Brodi laughed, "12 steps are not the way. I think you can handle it better than that. You aren't an alcoholic."
Viggo blinked, "Why do you say that?"
Brodi grinned, "Alcoholics don't get help."
Viggo thought about it, and nodded, "That's deep." Viggo looked at the local's snowboarding passed them. "When will I be able to get back on the slopes?"
Brodi looked around, Brodi hung up his own board after the Tricky Tour, he just lost the thirst for competition. "When you feel ready. Are you ready?"
Viggo shrugged, "I am ready to Snowboard, yeah….but I'm not ready to go back to the Lodge. I don't want to face her…not like this." Viggo ran his hands over his still bruised face.
"Then you will return when you feel ready." Brodi looked at the Sun. "Waiting a bit longer might work out a bit in your favor."
Viggo kicked some snow around with his foot. "How so?"
"Absence makes the heart grow fonder." Brodi said with a small chuckle.
Viggo thought about it, "What's WITH you and all of this deep stuff?"
The Lodge was abuzz with the news of the fight earlier, Zoe walked into an almost crying Kaori, a furious Yuri, and a positively giddy Psymon.
"Okay, what the fuck happened?" Zoe already heard the chatter.
"Drum and Mac fought Moby.", Yuri blurted out, Kaori giving her a shove.
"They what?" Zoe dropped her board, "Why?"
Psymon was still snickering, "Moby pushed all the right buttons, Wiggerboy went off and threw a plate at him, it all went downhill from there."
Zoe looked around, she didn't see Mac or Drum anywhere.
"Where are they now?"
Kaori, Psymon, and Yuri all looked at eachother.
"Rahzel called the three of them to his office about 15 minutes ago." Psymon said. "Haven't seen 'em since."
Zoe sat down, "Fuck. He is going to go and get himself suspended for real this time."
Allegra skidded to a stop as she crossed the finish line, Nate catching up to her, panting.
"Damn!" Nate shouted, "How the hell did you get down here before me?"
Allegra gave a half hearted shrug, "Shortcut."
Nate looked, and nodded. "Well, good race. Look's like I'll have to challenge someone else for their Snow God title." Nate shook Allegra's hand, and glided down towards the ski-lift.
Allegra smiled, weakly as Nate walked away.
When he was out of sight, she sighed and sat on the snow to unbuckle her board. She looked at the gold badge dangling below her neck. "…Yeah, challenge someone else."
At that moment, everyone's M-comm rang. Allegra was the first to pick hers up.
"This is Rahzel with breaking news from the SSX Circuit. Due to an accident between three riders, the SSX Council has handed down three separate punishments for Mac Fraser, Moby Jones, and Jordan Williams."
Allegra raised her eyebrow, "What accident?"
Everyone at the Lodge had their M-comms on, watching.
Zoe opened hers in time to see Drum's face on screen. "…Shit."
Rahzel took a slip of paper from his jacket, and read.
"We, the SSX Council have agreed that Mac Fraser, Moby Jones, and Jordan Williams shall be punished. The following punishments have been handed down to them…"
AN: I am SUCH a cruel man!
Sorry to leave it at such a cliffhanger, but the next chapter is the FINAL chapter of Second Heat. I should be out later this month, or early January, after that, a small break, and SSX Snow Gods: Final Lap will begin.
You know the drill, read and review.