"Just checked the radar and the conditions over at Peak One's Metro City are excellent right now! If anyone listening's thinkin' about goin' for a snowboard ride, my advice is to get over there, pronto. With great conditions and dazzling scenery over there, what could be a better place to enjoy the night while it's still young? Anyway, that's enough about how awesome the weather is. We got a request comin' in from SSX competitor Wolford, sayin' he wants some good ol' rock 'n' roll to shred to. Well, guess what, mammal? We got ya covered!"

Judy never thought that the mountainous views of Peak One could get any more amazing than they already were. That was, however, until she saw them during the nighttime from the window of the moving gondola lift. With that typical smile beaming across her face, she looked out the window at the few but bright twinkling white and yellow dots that shimmered from down below, coming from some establishments there that had turned on their lights for the night.

"So pretty," she said to herself, though it was stating the obvious.

Nick, who had invited her to come to one of his favorite spots on the peak, smiled back at her and nodded his head. "If you think that's a pretty view," he stated, "then wait 'til ya see Metro City. You're gonna be amazed."

The excitement to get to this wonderful-sounding destination only grew larger in the mind of the doe, and she was pretty much bouncing in her seat out of anticipation. "So are we getting close to it yet?" she inquired eagerly. "We getting close to where we can go do some snowboarding across some different terrain? Gotta get practice in before this next freestyle happening soon."

The fox chuckled at her infectious enthusiasm. "Well, aren't you an eager beaver?" he replied jokingly.

"More like an eager bunny," Judy responded with a grin.

Another laugh came from Nick. "Anyway, Carrots-"

"Carrots?" interrupted the rabbit with an eyebrow slightly raised.

"That was the second nickname I had for you," explain the vulpine after her inquiry, rubbing the back of his neck. "I already came up with Fluff before, and you had the nickname of Slick for me, so I had to come up with something different."

The subject matter shifted shortly after this, with Judy returning to the ongoing SSX competition. "So what's this R 'n' B place like that the freestyle's gonna be at?"

"It's a pretty sweet course," Nick replied. "Got a bunch of different routes you can take that can get ya a nice score if ya time it all right. Stretches much further than the Crow's Nest course from before, so there's plenty more shredding to do on that event."

"Sounds pretty cool," replied the doe with a smile.

The tod then remembered something else he thought was noteworthy about the course they were talking about. "Oh, and I better give ya a little note about that place. There's some special spots on the course where the judges will give you double the points to the score they give you if you do a trick near them."

"But how do I know where they are?"

"There's no need to worry about finding them. They normally have them scattered around in different places each time, but you'll see a glowing sign that'll tell ya that's the checkpoint."

Judy nodded. "That's good to know."

Nick turned his head and looked away for a quick moment, noticing the sights the rabbit had been anticipating coming even closer into view just now. "Well, Fluff, we've arrived at our destination," he said to the rabbit with a smile. "Welcome to Metro City."

The instant her eyes gazed out the windows of the gondola, the doe's mouth hung open in a state of the good kind of shock. Nick sure was right when he told her that she was going to be amazed when she saw it for herself. This part of the peak, which was actually the lowest point of it, was the prior views but multiplied by a hundred in terms of how dazzling to the eyes they were.

She could see some tall-standing buildings coming up ahead, looking like the kind she had seen in photographs of popular cities elsewhere in the world. Several more of them were even further out in the distance, nothing more than speckles of luminosity against the abroad darkness. Rather than just the plain yellow and white lights that could be spotted on any given course, this place had ones that shimmered in deep shades of purple and blue, creating the illusion that the blanketing snow was glowing down below.

"I remember the first time I saw this spot like it was yesterday," Nick said, breaking the brief moment of silence that had stirred within the gondola. "My reaction wasn't that far off from yours the moment I caught a glimpse of it all. Matter of fact, this is where I took part in my first ever SSX race."

"This has to be a dream," Judy murmured to herself, still in a bit of surprise.

The tod laughed quietly under his breath. "Nope, it's not a dream, Hopps," he replied. "And with none of the other circuit members bein' around here right now, this place is ours to shred and explore. Whaddaya say? Ya up for some freeridin'?"

Judy snickered at the vulpine's inquiry, thinking that it was quite obvious that she was ready from the start to board around this course. "Fluff yeah," she responded.

Nick smiled alongside her, also feeling that infectious positivity just as the gondola was preparing to stop at the drop-off area that was awaiting them down below.

Meanwhile...

"Thanks, dude," Wolford said to the guy behind him as he exited the shop. "Have a good night."

After taking a moment to enter the building behind and browse what they had in stock, it was time to get head back out into the night and do some more boarding. Despite a good number of the events in SSX taking place during the daytime, it was during these hours that he thought were the most exhilarating to shred during. The night was still young, and while it seemed some of the other competitors were either getting ready to rest or cruising around somewhere else, he was surely up for a trip down the snowy, streetlamp-lit passage.

Just 'til I approach the sign that points to the hotel I'm stayin' at, he thought. Then I'll think about gettin' some shut-eye for the what's goin' down tomorrow.

Due to the fact that he had taken that nasty wipeout during the Crow's Nest event, his current ranking amongst the others was lower than what he hoped it would be so far. He had remarked afterwards that he would try to make up for that setback in the future, and that was what he hoped to do at the freestyle event being held tomorrow afternoon. His ranking currently being on the bottom at the moment gave him a drive to avoid making that same mistake a second time, and that meant getting some practice in to ensure he would get the tricks down properly.

Even during the competition, his brain never shifted out of the mentality it had always been in throughout his life. He had always been a pure-blooded optimist, and the way he saw having the lowest score was that he could only do better. That the only direction to go was up after reaching the bottom.

Sure, some might've told him that was only if he didn't manage to get stuck in last place. But he wasn't going to dwell on that possibility, letting that perception sit in his mind and stir around in there.

He was going to just think about what was happening tomorrow, and how he was going to get to that course and do amazing out there. He could already see himself making his way down the paths awaiting him there, getting his tricks carefully but with the best precision possible. The fans would be cheering him on from where they were watching from the booths positioned in multiple places around that course, and he would letting out a howl out of the pure joy he would be feeling in that moment.

The canid, putting those thoughts aside, secured himself back onto his board and hopped back onto the snow. It was time to practice so he could make that become reality tomorrow.

A Few Moments Later...

Coming up ahead was a spot where the snow rose up a bit, and this meant it was time for Wolford to try and get one of the tricks he had planned for tomorrow down. He had the routine down in his mind and was ready to give it a shot in the actual air for the first time. The others that he had practiced prior to reaching this area had been successful so far, but this one, he believed, would be the icing on the cake on the timed course.

The wolf huffed a breath into the frosty air, picking up speed as he squatted down and got ready to do this. His tail started to wag even faster out of anticipation when his snowboard approached the rising section of snow. You can do this, he told himself once again. You can do this!

He zoomed straight up into the air, grinning as he reaching for the front of his trusty snowboard and grabbing it. After that short second of preparation, he quickly unfastened his paws out of it. He then leaped up into the air a bit higher while he did a quick spin, landing right back into his board's bindings but in the opposite direction.

Wolford, having done this trick without biffing it, couldn't have been more satisfied. He could now feel the confidence that he needed coming back, just in time for the circuit events that awaited him in days to come.

The wind started to bluster in the opposite direction when he landed in a different spot, the sound of it brushing past his sensitive ears. Snow started to blow directly towards him as he continued onward, making him scrunch his face up for just a moment. The winds and such might not have been a tremendous obstacle, but riding with it coursing towards him rather than behind him was just not his favorite thing in the world.

Wolford swerved smoothly to the right and took a little detour, coming up to some trees and rocks that he needed to make sure he didn't crash into by accident. It was as he was doing that when the sound of something striking the snow that was several yards ahead of him. Lucky for him, being a wolf and having naturally great vision in the dark, he could what it was that made that noise.

The canid veered through the last few pine trees and jumped up to eschew hitting the rock that was not too far away from them, which might have been missed if a casual boarder didn't pay proper attention. The moment he got closer to where he originally heard the sound, he could see much better the source of it despite it starting to move faster now.

Despite him thinking that this spot didn't have anybody here tonight, Wolford saw that the sound in the snow came from another snowboarder. Thought it was only me that was out shreddin' tonight.

From the moment that he was able to see who they were before they picked up speed, he could see that they were wearing some dark-colored ski suit, as well as some sort of mask and goggles that obscured their face from sight.

He simply put that aside for a moment and focused on the snowy descent, only for his brain to put who he had seen together with other things he had read. The moment his mind had the little revelation about that matter, his eyes widened with surprise and he exhaled a small gasp.

Wait a minute, he thought. It can't be…

Wolford brought himself to a stop before he could proceed toward the descent, reaching into his pocket and yanking his trusty Z-Comm out as quick as he could. After the press of several icons on its screen, he loaded the camera on it. With how dark it was during this time of night, the light automatically came on. He quickly slid two fingers against its small screen to zoom in, managing to get a closer view of who he had seen.

Click!

He captured the photograph of the snowboarder, which was a little bit on the blurry side due to it being taken from far away with not-so-steady paws. Luckily, though, he was still able to see who it was supposed to be. And anyone else would be able to clearly see who it was too when they looked at it.

"The Unknown Rider," Wolford muttered quietly to himself, the breath in between his words visible in the cold. "Never thought I'd end up seein' him."

The messaging boards that were accessible by anyone with a Z-Comm in paw could read about a variety of topics, ranging from updates on the mountain's weather conditions to mammals asking about what the best restaurants around were. But among the many different things being discussed at any given time was the subject of the Unknown Rider; there wasn't a time something about the mysterious mammal didn't show up on everyone's feed.

The Unknown Rider, for lack of better clarification, was a snowboarder whose actual identity remained not familiar. The hubbub about it all unfolded when somebody under that exact username posted a selfie of themselves. The species of the mammal that took said photo remained concealed, as the selfie didn't reveal a face whatsoever. It was nothing more than an image of the same mammal in the ski suit, the mask and goggles veiling their identity. No one, however, was exactly sure why the whole thing came about so suddenly. Was it just somebody random that was trying to get recognition? Was it, like most suggested, somebody who would be coming to SSX that wanted to create hype beforehand? And if that was the case, was it somebody new to the competition or a returning champion from circuits in the past?

From that moment onward emerged several folks around the mountain spotting the mysterious mammal in photos and the like, sparking discussion and leading to others getting on the bandwagon. Wolford was among those that grew intrigued through the discussions that came about, and him actually seeing the Unknown Rider in the flesh was one of the last things he would end up doing during his time practicing for the event tomorrow.

The timber wolf quickly opened up the message boards and selected to start a new conversation, putting the picture he just took at the top of his post with the words "Unknown Rider Spotted on Peak One" below it. A couple more seconds than usual went by—the number of bars his device got was never great outside of the accommodations—and the photo taken by him officially was posted for others to see.

"Won't be too long until somebody responds to it," he said to himself with assurance, clicking off his Z-Comm and sliding right back into his pocket.

Tonight ended up being quite an interesting night for the canid, and it was time for him to wrap his practice up before heading back to get some much-needed rest.

Meanwhile, in Metro City...

Even though she only traveled a short distance across its terrain, Judy was fairly certain Metro City was going on record as one of the most breathtaking places to snowboard at. Not only was it pretty because of the lights and buildings on basically every corner, but the paths turned out to be pretty neat as well.

Up ahead of her was three different routes for her to take as she continued on this course through the new surroundings. The choices to the left and right of her were two ascents, the one on the left side being slightly higher than the other. Straight in the middle of where the path split, however, was a trail that approached what looked like a tunnel.

With her board coasting along at the speed she was at now, Judy only had a quick moment to figure out where it was that she was going to go. The three choices ahead reminded of her a bit of some of the adventure games she enjoyed in her youth, where multiple possibilities would come about that each led to their own actions.

Not that far ahead of her was Nick, who immediately shifted himself to the left and continued on that path. Judy's attention, as he did this, turned to the right for a moment. She first considered going that way or following Nick's lead instead, but then her mind ended up being redirected towards the tunnel that was dead center.

That tunnel seemed like it was calling her name, and she just had to answer that call and go that way. Following her intuition in that moment, she didn't make any turn and continued straight ahead.

Sorry, Nick, she thought. but this passage just looks to cool to pass up.

She was certain she'd probably catch up with him later. Either way, she assumed, probably brought you to the same location in the long run.

The doe soon found herself coursing downward a bit and right into the tunnel, the sights of the glittery stars in the sky being replaced with that of the passage's chilly interior. Had it not been for the deep blue lights that were shining directly above her head, the tunnel she was in wouldn't be as bright to navigate through.

Appearing up ahead were some abrupt turns to the left and to the right, but Judy, in her uncontrollable exhilaration, swerved when they came about with finesse. Not even a moment later, she could begin to see where the tunnel seemed to be reaching its end. A light, blue like the others, was strobing rapidly like one she would have seen in a club, the path seemed to be curving upward.

Here comes a jump, she thought, knowing quite well that that was most likely was would be greeting her in a few feet.

She came up to the jump and escalated back up into the sights of Metro City once again, getting in a few spins while in the air. As with every moment a snowboarder caught some big air, she hit the ground again, following up with a brief nose roll. After that was finished, she returned to simply looking around at everything around her while she cruised along.

The lagomorph, however, got lost in glimpsing at the structures and scenery so much that she nearly ended up running into a wooden pole that was nearby, which was positioned right by a payphone booth that looked old and no longer in use. She flinched and leaned away from the object just in time to save herself the embarrassment of tumbling down because she was staring into space.

"Whew," she said to herself. And a short moment afterward, she joked, "Now who put that pole out here?"

"On your left, Fluff," called out Nick as he slid back into view from the other direction, ending up back in front of her.

Judy giggled, a smile as bright as the lights around her forming as she followed the vulpine. Having been here before, Nick definitely knew some little shortcuts around the area. Simply staying straight down the path, she observed him as he jumped up started to grind across some nearby fencing. He went to the left once again, and she decided to just tread behind where it was he was going.

After following him in that direction for a short time, she and the fox both came up to a large

pile of snow against two buildings, forming an icy quarter pipe that made for a spot to catch some air. An opportunity like this was just something Judy couldn't pass up, especially when she had a trick event that was coming up tomorrow. What better way to hone in even more on her skill than through spots like this?

Judy rode up towards the quarter pipe with determination and shot up into the sky like rocket during liftoff, and Nick, from what she could see in the corner of her eye, did the same. While the tod was doing some flips not too far from her, she, having curved leftward while in midair, started to come near some luminous billboards. The two signs seemed to be sponsoring some sort of soda named znL.

The bunny held a small paw out in front of her and grabbed onto the billboard to do a handplant on the edge of it. She quickly followed up with a handspring and proceeded to do a flip in the air before grinding along the bright sign's edge. Several inches downward was another billboard, and she jumped and managed to land right onto it safely. She rode across it until she reached the end of it, which led directly onto a much thinner rail that was yellow in color.

The rail coursed sharply to the right and downward, allowing her to gain some more speed for a moment. While cruising across the neon-tinted object, she unchecked her paws from her board and sat down flatly in the middle of it. After witnessing Snarlov do this at Crow's Nest, she presumed that she could give it a shot whenever she had a chance to. Lucky for her, her presumption was correct and she was quick enough to execute the maneuver.

Feeling like she could take it a step further from there, she sprang back up onto her feet and before going into another trick where she did a handstand using only a single paw. That lasted for a moment before she clicked herself back into place on her board, being better safe than sorry while glided across the remainder of that rail. She then turned her head to glance behind her and saw that she was in front of the fox.

The radio station's music pumping through her earbuds shifted in that moment, replacing the electropop song with an old-school hip-hop tune. The station always had some of the greatest selections when it came to music for when she was snowboarding, and so far what she had been hearing kept her excited throughout this adventure.

A few feet ahead turned out to be another descending slope, and Judy could only grin at this. She was all for it right now, because something of this sort, after all, meant that there would be a big jump not too far away.

Time to see if my hunch is correct, she thought.

She started to voyage downhill on her new board, the slope's descending curve being a bit sharper and longer than she expected it be. The rush it provided when she picked up speed was like the kind she got during the first drop on a roller-coaster.

From the corner of her eye, she could see Nick starting to meet up with her on her left, pulling in front and swerving from side to side like a slalom skier. He then ended up making a prompt right turn and went down another path, becoming out of sight once again.

The leporine, meanwhile, saw coming up ahead in front of her what she speculated would be there. Another snow-formed incline laid out in the open, as if it had been purposefully placed there in hope that somebody like her would appear to take advantage of it. Directly in front of it was another one of the multitudinous buildings, standing like a giant pillar dead in the center of this passage.

If I take this ramp here, that means I'm gonna soar across that building from that height, she realized, quickly putting that together in that moment. Sweet cheese and crackers…

A small portion of the rabbit's mind believed it would be a better idea to just disregard the huge jump altogether, but she decided to ignore that. She was a junkie for thrilling experiences of all kinds, and this opportunity would be another one that she could include on that compiled list.

"Let's do this," she told herself, glaring out at the building in front of her with determination.

Still boarding at this fast pace she was at now, Judy kept straight and made sure not to slow down. The hip-hop beats being rapped over continued to pulse through her earbuds, keeping her avidity levels high along with her adrenaline.

Along came the incline, and with it Judy was sent soaring many feet high into the nighttime air. Just like she thought she would, she ended up hovering so high in the sky that she was directly above the roof of the tall-standing building.

Her floppy ears continued to blow back in the wind she felt from up here, and her eyes looked downward and just how high up she was, surprising herself. She wasn't afraid of heights whatsoever, but this experience right now almost felt unreal to her. Had she not known any better, she would have believed she was in the most wild and vivd dream she ever had in her young life.

Hovering above the top of a lofty building surely couldn't be enough for her, though. Even with nobody around to observe her, she still felt that urge, incapable of being controlled, to take things up a notch. Some one-foot tricks from this distance upwards would be the thing to do just that.

Here we go…

Out she slipped her left paw out of the board, kicking it out in front her as she held a pumped fist into the chilly air. The lights around the bindings of her new board changed color, going from green to red where she had taken that paw out to do the trick. She clicked it back in, making the lights turn all green once again, only to take the other paw out and place it behind her, reaching both her arms forward to grab the front of her board.

Everything felt like it was moving in slow motion from up here, like time in Metro City had stopped in its place specifically for her.

For the first ever female rabbit to join this circuit.

For a groundbreaker in SSX history.

For a soon-to-be snowboarding champion.

She placed her right paw back onto her board, only to slip both of them out and get in her special trick that she called Lounge in at this towering height. As she soared the air like a care-free butterfly, with her board behind her and held tightly in her arms, she could feel her heart beating as fast as the wings of a hummingbird.

Even if it was most likely no one would be able to hear her, she felt an unforeseen urge to whooped out of the sheer jubilation pumping through her right now. Her eyes were glowing exuberantly and smile wider than any she made throughout her time on this mountain beamed across her muzzle.

"I'm the best bunny alive!" she declared in that instant, saying simply what popped into her mind as loud and proudly as she could. "Woot woot!"

While she just kicked her paws that she had released from their bindings slowly to and fro, the way someone swimming in deep water would to avoid sinking, she wished that she could freeze this moment and stay in it forever. Though she knew, of course, that she would have to descend from this height.

Judy's eyes casually glared downward while she maintained her trick, knowing that it was about time for her to prepare to touch the ground once again. She tapped her foot paws together, the teeny step that was the final part of her special trick's process. She then gave the board she had been holding securely behind her a little twirl in her arms, something she hadn't done in previous events, before popping herself safely back into it. It was after several seconds of floating down that her board crashed back onto the snow.

If it were possible for one to explode from the amount of peppiness they were feeling, Judy just might have right then and there. The act of soaring that high on her brand new board was fun at its finest to her thrill-loving self, but it was nice to get back to the ground again.

There's probably more jumps where that came from, she assumed in the back of her mind.

It was a few seconds later that Nick returned not too far from her side, and the two of them continued to board at the same speed. Judy wondered for a quick second if the fox, from the direction he had taken earlier, managed to catch a glimpse of her flying over that building before. Not that she was ever one to toot her own horn, but she was fairly certain if he did see her do that, he was probably impressed by the height in which she had traveled then.

"That was beyond spectacular, Hopps," he complimented sincerely, looking over at her for a moment. It was as if read her mind and heard her wondering about what he thought of that performance.

Judy smiled back at him and bashfully replied, "Thanks."

She returned her focus to what was in line of her and the vulpine's motion. It now seemed like they were entering a new spot in Metro City, this one having an international flair to it. A set of structures, tiered and crafted in the likeness of pagodas, stood on either side of the snowboarders, with an ornamental archway several feet in between them.

The two cruised directly trough the archway, the red lights above them casting their glow onto the snow. After they passed this up, they came up to a spot where there was another pagoda in the middle and an ascent on either side of it.

"Hey, Fluff, I got an idea," Nick called out.

Judy removed a single earbud so she could hear him clearer, turning her head towards him. "What's that?" she asked.

"You take that jump on the right," he replied, "and I'll take that one on the left. Just make sure you do a little curve to the left when you do it."

Judy simply nodded to let him know she understood his plan, even though she wasn't sure just yet where exactly it was going. "Got it!" she told him.

The doe did as the fox on her left suggested her to do, moving over much further to the right in preparation. When the jump was directly in her midst, she made sure she took off from it after bending to the leftmost portion of it. This sent her doing a curve in that direction while in the air.

Turning her head to the side, she realized that Nick had curved towards the rightmost side of the jump where he was. The two of them, based on their orbit through the night, meant that they would get close to one another directly above the roof of the pagoda.

Clever fox, she thought.

Surely enough, the two ended up right above the top of the ornamental structure, only a few inches away from one another while in the air.

Nick grinned towards her and held a paw up. "High-four!" he remarked.

The fox and rabbit slapped paws together as they orbited passed the pagoda and back down. Judy laughed at the little antic that the two had just performed there.

"I know a shortcut to get us to the end of this quicker," the vulpine said once they were no longer airborne. "Follow me."

She really didn't want the fun she was having here at Metro City to be over, but everything had to reach its end sooner or later. She simply followed her russet-furred friend from behind as he made some sharp banks away from everything, taking her across some tighter spaces that other boarders might not have known about here.

Just when she wasn't sure where they were for a moment, Judy started to see where the finish line the circuit placed here in the past had been positioned. Even though no event was taking place here, the spot glowed in the neon hues like it did on the other courses she had been to throughout the circuit.

The two snowboarders made their way over towards the finish line, only this time without an audience of fans present to ecstatically applaud them. The platform where the top three in an event were to stand was vacant and unlit. It almost felt a bit peculiar crossing a finish line without anybody awaiting them at the end of it, but that truly didn't matter right now. Judy nearly had forgotten about the tournament that continued tomorrow with all of the fun she was having.

"Well, how was that?" Nick asked after they both came to a stop. "How's Metro City?"

"It's amazing!" she responded animatedly. "Everything just looks so pretty at night. And how about that course?"

The enthusiasm of the bunny got the vulpine to chuckle. He knew that this would be the exact reaction she would have when he said he would take her here. "It's a sight to behold," he agreed. "There's no doubts about that."

"Thank you so much for offering to take me here," Judy said after a pause between the two of them.

"It was my pleasure to introduce you to the best spot on the peak. I don't mean to brag, but if you're ever in need a tour guide for the mountain, I'm the fox for the job."

Judy smiled back at him. "I'll be sure to remember that," she remarked in reply to his wittiness.

Nick reached for his Z-Comm and turned it on for a moment. He scrolled through some of the things had popped up just now, as things that were happening around Metro City would probably appear since he was in the location. Upon reaching something he saw on his feed, he snickered as he tapped against the screen of the device.

"What is it?" Judy wondered.

The fox vaguely responded, "Another one of these posts again."

"Post about what?"

"The Unknown Rider," replied Nick. "It almost went too long without somebody bringin' the whole thing about him up again."

The rabbit still was uncertain about what he was pertaining to just now. The most she ever did on her Z-Comm was check her messages and listen to music, so something being discussed on the device's message boards would have been unfamiliar to her. "Who's this Unknown Rider guy you're talking about? Never heard of him before."

"Some mysterious mammal that's been snowboarding at random times around the mountain," her friend explained. "His identity is-"

"Unknown?" interrupted Judy with a laugh, unable to contain herself from the opportunity to crack a little joke like that.

Nick grinned at this before continuing to bring the bunny up to snuff on the Unknown Rider. "No one knows who he is, since he's bundled from head to paw so you can't see him. Nobody knows for what reason he made himself known so suddenly either, so a bunch of folks started puttin' up their own theories on it." He turned the Z-Comm in his paw around to show her a picture of the mysterious snowboarder.

Looking at the image of the masked mammal, the rabbit nodded her head. "Y'know, with that mask covering his entire along with the outfit, he kinda looks like a character from Mammal Kombat."

The fox grinned back at her. "Never thought of that before. With that being one of my favorite games back in the day, I'll probably only think of that from now on."

With a broad smirk, the bunny replied, "You're welcome."

In the corner of his eye, Nick saw something from his far right becoming gradually closer towards them. He set his device down for a second to look over, and Judy did exactly the same. From some sort of jump that was presumably in that direction, a beaver on a snowboard started to emerge in the air from over there. The castorid flew forward with himself completely out of his board that was carved in the shape of a sharp log. He was holding the board tightly in his grasp and pretending to gnaw from one side of it to the other.

The beaver quickly finished up and landed, slowing down as he came up to where the fox and rabbit were watching him. Now that he was in better view, Judy recognized that it was actually who she was introduced to when Nick brought her to meet his friend. After seeing that sick trick he just pulled a few seconds ago, she knew why his nickname was "The Nibbler" back in his competitive days.

"Dave?" Judy said. "Is that you?"

The beaver gave a friendly wave back to her. "Judy," he replied. "Didn't think I'd end up running into you and Nick here."

"I wanted to show Hopps what Metro City looked like when the sun went down," Nick chimed in, "so the two of us did a little ride around the place."

"Small world," Dave remarked in response. "After closin' the shop up for the night, I thought I'd take a trip over here. Hadn't done that in quite some time for leisure, but I just had to go with the flow and get out here." He turned away from the tod and out to his left. "Well, I'm gonna keep on goin'. Was nice bumpin' into the two of ya here. Good luck to you both."

"Thanks," Judy replied. "See ya later."

The two stood silently as they watched the beaver pull away and continue on with his little freeride. Nick returned to the glowing screen of the Z-Comm in his paw, scrolling through what he was still looking at that had appeared before turning it off.

"How good are ya at dancing?" he inquired to the rabbit standing next to him.

The question came a bit out of the blue to Judy. "I'm alright at it. Got a couple moves I'm good at. Why do you ask?"

"I just saw on the feed that Metro City's hostin' a little concert only a short trek from here. Said that the legendary DJ Pawtomica is going to be doing a set for the next hour or so over there."

"Are you serious?" The bunny's eyes lit up at the mentioning of the artist. "I've listened to a bunch of his mixes from some of his older performances. That music just makes you wanna dance like no one's watching the moment the beat drops."

"I couldn't have summed it up better myself. What do you say we held on over there and see some of that show?"

"I'd say we better get over there before it starts. When did it say the set was starting?"

"Oh, not for about another ten to fifteen minutes."

"Well, what are we waitin' for? Let's get on over there!"

With that, the enthusiastic leporine followed Nick as he led the way to where the performance was going to happen. The night was still young around Metro City, and there was plenty more time for her to rest up before the event tomorrow.

Right now the only thing on her mind was to enjoy and dance to some sweet music alongside the friend she had made here on the mountain. It'd be even more fun to add on to what was most certainly the best night ever.

Author's Note: Hey there, everybody! Hope you all enjoyed the chapter this time around. I'll be getting into the details about the next event, as well as what's going on with some of the other riders, in the upcoming chapter, so I hope y'all will stick around for that! :)

The Metro City portions here were an absolute blast to write about. If you've ever played the games and raced or went for a freeride on this course, you'll probably recognize the scenery I incorporated into here. I'll admit, though, that the descriptions were a bit difficult to write at times. Hope I still managed to paint the image of Nick and Judy shredding across Metro City in your mind.

The Unknown Rider that Wolford ends up encountering in the middle of this chapter is actually inspired by an unlockable character. Just like in this story, the character has no known identity and has his face covered up from being seen. After I picked the game back up and started to play using that character, I decided that it'd be interesting to incorporate him into the story. I thought it'd just be a fun addition to the chapter, since some of the games in the series had some pretty neat characters that you could use the further you progressed, all of which I LOVED to play as. Matter of fact, Dave, the beaver Judy met earlier in this story and encountered in this chapter, is inspired by another unlockable character, who was also a beaver that rode a log as a snowboard.

Anywho, let me know what your thoughts were on this chapter. As always, your feedback, whether good or bad, is gladly appreciated. And thank you to everyone who has been keeping up with this little story of mine. I've been having a blast writing it, and I'm happy to know you are all enjoying it.

'Til next time! :)