"Let's check in with another competitor spotlight. Word on the street, or on the snow for that matter, says that none other than Skye's gonna be snoopin' 'round the scene on the next peak. Recent posts on her feeds say she's already there and lookin' to make a strong comeback after bein' drawn away from by the polar bear with the maddest skills, Snarlov, and newcomer Hopps. With thins not pickin' up for a whole week, my guess is she's gonna take this time and try to step things up even more. Will the vixen be on her A game and show 'em who's boss 'round this mountain, or are the other SSX competitions gonna keep upstaging her? Who knows? Let me tell ya, this week we're gonna have to wait is gonna feel a whole lot like an eternity. 'Til then, though, let's get back to the tunes ya came here for..."
There was quite a shift in her surroundings when she made the journey from the previous peak to the one the competition would resume on. It took a little time to adjust and to acclimate to some of it, but it was honestly nothing that she couldn't handle.
The first thing Skye immediately took not of was the change in the weather here. Unlike the other peak that seemed to have the perfect weather (minus the sporadic conditions of the backcountry), it was a little more unpredictable where she was now.
When the winds came about here, they came in harder and much stronger. Matter of fact, when she had first left her helicopter ride here on touched the first bit of the peak's snow, it was almost like the wind was steering her. Every time she wanted to turn to the left, the gusts caused her to still swerve in the opposite direction. On top of this element, there was much more ice around some of the portions she had explored of the peak this morning, meaning much more caution needed to be taken.
A little bit trickier, she thought, but nothing I can't get the hang of. Besides, I seriously need to back in the lights again after that demotion to third place.
Skye was nearing one of the peak's two designated lodges and gondola lift stations (the other one being located in the opposite direction a good distance away). The winds had died off after she had made to this part of the mountain, and things around her seemed to be surprisingly busy. It seemed there was a good deal of mammals out and about at this time, making for more to steer around as she got some practice in.
She passed up the lodge building, not feeling like she needed any new gear in that moment, and made her way past some trees. There was a sharper descent up ahead that she decided to take, and as she did so she felt the chilly air brush against her face. Her little expedition around some of these spots to get a lay of the land, so far, proved to be a positive one.
She had gotten to a point where had passed all the mammals that had been out on the snow with her, and it became just her out there once again. That was the way she liked it sometimes, just being able to go freely without an audience so she could practice some of her sweet tricks when the chance came about.
"On your side!" she could hear someone warning faintly from behind. "Watch out!"
The voice sounded like it was nearing where she was boarding down, mingled with the sound of another board carving against the snow. She turned her head a second too late to react to the speeding snowboarder that approached her a little too closely. She was sent tumbling to the ground unexpectedly, landing on her face before tumbling into her back.
She squinted her eyes at the sun that beat straight down on her before she hoisted herself back up. She looked to her side and saw that her Z-Comm had taken a bit of a tumble as well, laying a few steps away from her. She picked it back up and wiped the snow off the back of it, sighing with relief at the fact that it didn't end up getting a crack on its screen.
"Sorry there," the boarder that had knocked into her said, swerving to a complete stop and standing there idly.
Skye grunted under her breath and slipped her Z-Comm back into her grasp. As she approached the boarder a short distance away, she saw that it was a rabbit with striped fur, colored goggles over his eyes.
"Hey, you need to watch where you're going, bud," the vixen snapped.
"I gave you a heads-up," returned the leporine as he lifted the goggles off his eyes.
"You're just lucky you didn't cause me to fall hard enough to crack the screen on this thing," Skye said as she waved the Z-Comm in her paw in the air. "The newest models ain't exactly the cheapest thing on the planet."
"Look, I'm sorry," the rabbit apologized once again. "For real, I didn't mean to do that. I just-"
"Mammals that don't know how to glide properly got no business being on a snowboard," Skye interrupted ignorantly. "Just saying."
Seeming to take that personally, the striped leporine scoffed. "Well, what if I told ya that I'm actually more versed in snowboarding than most?"
"If that's the case, then why so clumsy just now?"
"I'm not familiar with this terrain, that's all."
Skye shook her head, not buying the rabbit's explanation. "If you've been on the snow once, you know how to handle anywhere that's got it."
"Not quite. Once you've been to the places I've traveled to, that's something ya learn rather quick."
"Really?" asked Skye in denial. "And just where are these places, huh?"
"Oh, just all the big spots around the globe," the rabbit replied with equal snark. "Nothing much, really. Kinda take that stuff for granted as a member of the Deadly Descent team."
The arctic vixen started to laugh at that remark, receiving an upset look from the lagomorph in the process. "Hold up, hold up," she said as she held a paw out. "You expect me to believe that you are part of that division? I mean, aren't some of 'em descents they've done a bit too dangerous for a bunny such as yourself?"
The rabbit only grinned and laughed under his breath at the bias hurled towards him just then. "They're dangerous for anybody, not just my species," he clarified, though the vixen still didn't seem to believe him. "Anyway, I'll let you get back to what you were doing before."
"Please," Skye sighed as she watched the rabbit get back into gear and board away.
Now that that was over with, it was time that she did the same, going in a different direction than he went. She still couldn't believe that the lagomorph that caused her to tumble a moment ago was a Deadly Descent member.
That story just didn't seem to be possible in her brain, and anybody could say anything nowadays and somebody would believe it if they were foolish enough.
Even if there was a bunny currently in the circuit that possessed a lot of energy, it didn't seem like a probably thing for someone of that species to flat out throw caution to the wind and do what that group does. Others might have called her biased or whatever, but that was just the thought that was in her mind at the time.
Well, she thought, at least I probably won't cross paths with that guy again.
Later, in the Afternoon...
The buffet place that Skye managed to find during her ride around turned out to be a lot more crowded than she thought it would be. The place was near what she thought might be its full capacity, and she was lucky that she managed to get herself a place to sit.
After filling her tray with what she felt like having for lunch, a little bit of something from each kind of cuisine the buffet offered, she started to make her way back to the chair with a plate full of good food. Just as she was approaching where she was sitting, she turned her head and was beyond surprised to see someone she didn't expect to at the table directly in front of hers.
A certain striped buck she had encountered earlier in the day was seated there, a fork in his paw as he enjoyed some sort of grilled vegetable medley that was on his plate. How was this even possible for her to run into him a second time? It hadn't even been more than a few hours in between, had it?
"Oh no..." she muttered under her breath.
Skye just tried to ignore that fact, setting her plate down and taking a seat. Just as she was about to take her first bite of what she got, she saw that buck waving over at her within her vision. She looked over at him with a sigh.
"Hey," the rabbit said, "did you follow me or something? Guess my fans'll go to anything nowadays."
"Trust me," Skye replied, "this was entirely coincidental. I'd didn't even know you'd be here, Mr. Stripes."
"Actually, my name's Jack," the bunny corrected. "And you're that Skye that's on this year's circuit, I believe?"
"Yeah," answered the vixen, setting her fork down on the napkin to her left.
"I've heard some things on this mountain's radio stations about you."
"Positive or negative?" wondered Skye with unusual curiosity.
"Fifty-fifty," answered the rabbit named Jack. "Anyway, I hear you call yourself the queen of this mountain or something like that."
"Actually, just the queen of the peak below this one. That was before I ended up gettin' defeated where I normally get all the glory by-"
"Hopps?" interrupted Jack. "That other rabbit, I heard, was a newcomer."
"Don't get me started about her, or that polar bear that's been a real show-off as of recent."
"That Snarlov fella? Yeah, I hear he's a machine on a snowboard. Look, I get the pain of someone takin' your glory. Believe me, I do. Like, on the Deadly Descents team right now, there's this new-" He stopped midsentence and looked back at her for a brief moment. "You still don't believe I'm a part of that, do ya?"
"I could believe maybe you were a boarder for a different kind of competition or something, but not that extreme of one," Skye replied with blunt honesty.
Jack then got up from his table and walked over to where she was seated, abandoning his plate that only had a few pieces of veggies still left on it. He pulled out his phone and tapped on its screens couple times, showing the screen to her a moment later.
Skye looked over at his phone, which started to play a video with a track of rock music in the back of it. Much to her surprise, in the clips shown was none other than the striped rabbit standing in front of her, swerving through various places with conditions unlike the ones on this mountain.
It continued to play and showed him dodging an outrageous avalanche, carving against thick ice, and jumping over big and sharp rocks while wearing some kind of armor. Once that footage stopped playing, it showed him standing in winter attire with his arm crossed, the name Jack Savage underneath him in bright letters.
"Danger don't scare me," he said in the video before that video replaced with the Deadly Descents logo, a skull against a yellow hazard sign.
"Well, I'll be damned," Skye muttered once the video stopped playing. "Guess I stand corrected."
"And that's why ya don't judge the book by the cover," Jack responded pridefully, knowing he had been right in the beginning.
The vixen was now excited. Being a fan of what the Deadly Descents team did, she took back everything she had said to him before. "Never did I think comin' up here before the circuit continued that I'd meet someone from the best out there," she replied. "I mean, SSX is pretty intense sometimes, but it ain't what some of you guys do."
The rabbit laughed under his breath. "All in a day's work."
"Okay, I got questions," Skye told him abruptly.
"Ask away. I don't mind."
"Just how many places have you been to?"
"Oh, I dunno off by heart, but I'm just glad I got to see so many places mammals only see in pictures."
"You ever get caught in one of those crazy avalanches?"
"Like hell I have. Felt like my whole body was put on rinse cycle."
"What's it feel like to be part of that team?"
"Ya never know what you're gonna be doin' next, but I'm always up for a challenge."
"What's, like, your main motivation?"
"What do ya mean?"
"What drives you to keep going more than anything? Like, for me, it's all about-"
"Domination?" Jack interrupted.
Skye was taken aback for a second, as if her mind had been read by him. "That was just what I was gonna say. What have that away?"
"That's what drives me as well," he answered. "Also, I know somebody who's competitive when I see 'em."
Skye simply grinned at this remark. "So if you're part of something that crazy, what brings you to somewhere that's so... the opposite of dangerous?"
"Switching things up, to be honest," Jack responded. "Figured going from surviving Mother Nature to doing something a little more was a change of pace. Besides, this gives me a chance to hone in some more skills to take on someone that's on my radar. You know how ya just said you've got a problem with that newcomer upstagin' ya?"
"Yeah?" Skye inquired.
The striped buck sighed and continued, "I got somebody that's been tryin' to get under my fur. You familiar with the name Dawn Bellwether?"
"I think I've heard of her. Yeah."
"Well, that new member's sayin' that she's gonna take my spot as the best on the team. Hell, she's already sayin' she's better than I'll ever be, soakin' up all the glory she's gettin' like it's sunshine."
Skye shook her head. "I understand. I went from bein' a shoe in for first place every time to not doing the hottest in the matter of a short time."
"It sucks, don't it? That's why I'm actually gonna enter the qualifying race here on the peak, to get some more practice before my league starts a couple months later."
"Huh," Skye replied, "I guess I'll be on the same course as you then."
"Yeah..." responded Jack, the look on his face changing a second later like something came to mind. "Hey, I got an awesome idea, uh... Skye was your name, right?"
"Yeah."
"So, anyway, I just hatched one helluva an idea. Ya mind lendin' me an ear?"
"Go ahead," said Skye, not minding whatsoever.
"I'm gettin' in this circuit to get ready to take down a rival, and you just said you've got a rival of your own. I got the solution to both those issues."
"And what would that be?"
"Now hear me out a sec 'cause this is gonna seem insane. You come along with me and the crew and do a little practice the way the Deadly Descents does it."
"Uh, I don't got the gear that you guys all wear. They don't really carry that at the lodge here."
"Our team's got more than what we need," assured the lagomorph. "The way I see it is if you can handle the elements that we face just fine, then you've got all the training you'll ever need."
Skye was silent for a moment, tapping her claws against the tabletop before looking back at him. "Can I say something even crazier?" she asked him. With an ecstatic tone of voice, she added, "I'm in!"
Jack chuckled at the enthusiasm. "Cool, cool. Now just so ya know, we're not doin' the most extreme things. But we are gonna train in some places that unlike anything over here."
"Sounds good to me."
"Awesome," responded Jack. "The only thing I ask in return is you maybe show we some of the things you know about SSX."
"But you're snowboardin' in the deadliest places around. What advice could someone like me give somebody that's already so much better than me?"
"I never said I knew everything about every snowboarding competition known to mammalkind. The main thing I liked to learn is how some of y'all do those crazy tricks in the air. Like, where a lot of the descents we've done are, you don't got the chance to do stuff like that 'cause your main focus is gettin' to the end of the course. I'd like to know some techniques if ya got any to share."
"It's all about what comes to mind in the moment, honestly," Skye admitted. "But if you're up for it, I'd be happy to maybe show you some tricks I know."
"Perfect."
"Look," the vulpine said with a slight sigh. "I'm sorry that I kinda got mouthy when we first bumped into one another. I just, ya know, have been frustrated from the competition."
"It's all forgotten," Jack insured. "Besides, I shoulda got further outta the way, if someone's to blame."
"So, when do we begin this training you're gonna give me for next week's events?"
"How about ya meet me later this afternoon at the Yellow Station? I'll see if there's any way to get to our destination from there."
The arctic vixen could barely sit still now. How many times in her lifetime would she ever have the chance to train alongside the Deadly Descents members?
This was the kind of stuff that dreams consisted of.
A Few Hours Later...
"Let me get this straight," Skye asked the rabbit seated next to her, the copter they had both boarded en route to where the next stop was outside of this mountain. "You rode the inside of a frozen volcano?"
"Yep," the leporine answered with a grin, "and, gods, was that a rush."
"That's not just something everybody gets to do," the arctic vixen remarked.
"To be honest, I don't think anybody's done that before I conquered that," returned Jack.
"I mean, what was going through your mind when you were doin' that?" Skye wondered.
Jack shrugged and reclined back as the flight to their destination resumed. "I don't really know. Just trying to avoid any lava pits, that's for sure. It was pitch black inside of their, too, so if it weren't the light they gave me to wear around my head, it coulda went real bad before I even knew I missed a jump."
"Gosh..." Skye muttered.
It was one thing to take on snowboarding as a whole, a whole different thing to make some of the descents like his team did, but riding through somewhere with lava pits was an entirely different story. What he was recounting was probably the last thing anybody would expect somebody to do on a snowboard. Nobody really thought of volcanoes whenever snowboarding came up in discussion.
"Don't worry, though," Jack reassured. "I can promise ya that this training don't involve any of that stuff."
"That's a relief," chuckled the vixen jokingly. "I'm up for a lot of different things, but I don't think that's one of 'em."
"No problem." Jack smiled back.
"We'll be making way to base very soon," said the thickly-accented pilot of their ride to the spot he was taking Skye too.
The arctic vulpine took the opportunity to look out at where she was going. Although snow was snow no matter where in the world you were, things looked entirely different. For one thing, where they were flying over right now did it have the vibrancy the mountain she came from had. The skies were more overcast and flurries seemed to blow in much thicker than before. The mountains she could see in the distance from the window looked sharper and steeper, much rockier and untouched by buildings and such like the ones built on the mountain she started from.
Skye, she thought to herself, I don't think we're on BIG Mountain anymore.
A Few Moments Later...
The plane that got her to this spot made its descent shortly, and Skye found herself touching down upon a base with several metallic buildings on either side. The spot that the landing had been stuck looked as if it had its own grayish clouds hovering above it in the sky, an indication that they she entering a whole new breed of snowboarding territory. The peak on the mountain she came from had its fair share of gloomier weather due to its altitude, but the skies here were nothing like that.
As Jack hopped off his seat and grabbed his board, Skye slowly did the same and followed his footsteps. Once she was touching the gray concrete ground of the base that served as the ground for the Deadly Descents team, she proceeded to follow him as he walked over to one of the buildings. He gave the door a good knock, the decals covering almost the whole top of it rattling just a little bit when he did so. The door creaked open a bit, the face of a rhino peering through.
"Can I have the password?" the tall ungulate inquired in a baritone voice.
"Come on," Jack replied in a no-nonsense manner. "You know it's me, mammal."
"Well, I mostly ask anyway 'cause I can see somebody with ya that I don't believe has been here before," explained the rhino.
"This lady behind me wants to train with us for a circuit that she's competing in. I gave her the invitation to do so and she gladly took it."
The rhino remained silent for a moment before closing the door on Jack, only to open it widely a second later. "Welcome back," he chuckled.
"Thanks, dude," the lagomorph responded, giving one of his friends a quick fist-bump.
Clanging noises rattled against the walls as Skye walked into the building right behind the buck, echoing like they would have if she were in a wide-open hall. Above the sudden sounds were several voices mingling against it, conversations being spoken with laughter bubbling after something presumably humorous she hadn't caught fully being said.
"Let me introduce to the crew," Jack said to her as he exchanged a quick glance behind him and looked at her.
The two walked over to where that overheard conversation was taking place, only for the rabbit in front to be interrupted once again by a wolf with a toothy grin on his muzzle walking his way.
"Hey there," he said. "Was wondering when the biggest daredevil of the bunch was gonna come back."
Jack and the wolf slapped paws in a quick high-four. "Hey, Grizzoli." He turned around and looked back at Skye. "This is my agent. This guy right here's the whole reason I got to where I am today. If he wouldn't have looked past my size and just saw me for my talent, I wouldn't be standing here in this team."
"Who do ya got with ya today?" the wolf named Grizzoli asked, pointing to Skye.
"Someone who'd like the train like we do," Jack responded.
"So, she wants to hone in on her skills the way that some of the best out here do? Best choice someone could ever make, if ya ask me. But I'm just the agent. What do I know?"
"No, you're right, dude," replied the buck. "One hundred percent." He then started to walk towards where his crew was sitting on some benches with one another. Skye followed him as he gestured for her to do so. "Now then, here's the rest of the team," as he pointed towards one of the mammals, a tall elephant in a pink coat, that was sitting there. "This is Francine, the baddest elephant to ever take on some of the places we've been."
The elephant got up from her seat and chuckled, thumping on her chest with pride. "It's true," she remarked. "Matter of fact, the fans like to say I got stomps that'll send shockwaves."
"Why's that?" Skye inquired to her.
Francine responded, "Because when I touch the ground after getting some air, I can almost knock everybody out of their line like an avalanche. Some might laugh at that but it's kinda like a secret weapon for me out here."
Jack looked away from the elephant and over to the hippo that was equally bundled up for the weather standing next to her. "And over here's who we like to call Mr. Higgins," he introduced. "He came into the team right around the same time Francine did. A lot of folks didn't him seriously either, since they thought it was weird someone 'from the savannah' to wanna be somewhere like this. But he showed they were wrong to judge, ain't that right, dude?"
"Sure did," replied Higgins with a nod of his head. "Believe it or not, I like the feelin' of bein' here instead of where it's warmer. Ain't that somethin'?"
Jack simply laughed and smiled back at him, pointing them over to the next mammal of the group, a snow leopard with a pretty complexion. "This is Fabienne, the one who's been here from the very beginning."
"And, quite naturally, the one with the best looks," the spotted feline said back, a paw against her shoulder as she fluttered her eyelashes.
"Then over here," Jack concluded, pointing to the two on the far side of where he stood, "we got Peter, the life of the party."
"What's up?" Peter chimed as he waved a hoof.
"And last but not least, Manchas."
"Hello," greeted the jaguar he mentioned simply, waving to Skye in a friendly manner.
"This is awesome," Skye responded though it was quite obvious. "Never in my life would I have thought I was gonna be standing where the Deadly Descents team preps for their runs. I can't believe it."
"Oh, you better believe it," Jack replied to her. "And not only that, but you're gonna train like we do."
"Well, when do we get started with it all? I gotta get ready for my competition comin' up."
"We gotta get all the gear and what not loaded up on the helicopter and then we can be on our way. Can't do what we do when ya don't got the stuff ya need to prepare for such jumps. Also, we gotta wait for who always helps us get ready and motivated to arrive."
"Who's that?"
The sound of a door creaking open and it slamming shut echoed around the place, followed by loud footsteps clanking against the cold ground a few seconds later.
"I believe that's her right now," Jack presumed.
"All right, Team Deadly Descents," a voice called from behind everybody.
Everyone got up from their seats just as they heard this, and Skye turned around to see who they were looking at. A female polar bear dressed in a navy blue was casually walking towards the team, paws behind her back and a no-nonsense look on her face. Judging from the looks of her, Skye assumed she was the kind that was very tough and serious about things.
"This is Friedkin," Jack said to Skye out of introduction. "She's in charge of preparing us all and getting us ready for whatever new things come each year for us."
"That's right," the polar bear responded in her loud voice. "Now, I hear that we got somebody here with us that says she wants to train like the rest of the team does. Is that right?"
Skye raised her paw like it was roll-call in a classroom and spoke up with confidence. "That's me, ma'am," she said to her.
The ursid looked back at her and nodded her head. "Mm-hmm," she murmured to herself before walking back and forth whilst looking at the team looking back at her. "Anyway, I know that you all know the drill and have heard it many times before. But I'm gonna say it again anyway because we got someone from outside the team in our presence today. The descents we make aren't just perfect little rides around with clear skies. No! These places we go to got some of the most unpredictable weather on the planet. We got avalanches, darkness, and whiteout just to name a few things that could come about. And if you ain't prepared to handle that jump... You'll. Be. Dead!"
The last words to come from the mouth of Friedkin caused Skye to shudder just a bit, and she continued to look over at her both attentively and with concern.
"Now we're not gonna handle the worst of the worst today," the polar bear informed, her attention directed solely on Skye in that moment. "Nor are we going anywhere that would lead to something bad. Getting to that stuff requires a lot, and I mean a lot, of serious practicing."
"Okay," the vixen sighed, breathing a sigh of relief. For a second there, she had herself convinced that she was about to be in a situation that would turn into something extremely dangerous that could lead to serious injuries. There was no way they were going to let that happen, so she wasn't exactly sure why that inkling of paranoia crept up on her like that.
"But that doesn't mean things aren't going to be super easy," Friedkin continued with assurance in her voice. "You're still gonna have to handle stuff you might never have handled before. But there's no need to panic. Like I just said, we're not going to the most extreme. And we also got all the gear to get you prepped to practice. That being said, who's ready to hit the snow?"
Commotion arose from around the room with that question, a definite yes from everybody on the team. Though this was something that was definitely different from her usual routines by a long shot, she felt pumped up and ready to see what this practice had in store for her. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so of course she was going to take it and see where it took her.
Later...
Skye found herself back inside the spacious helicopter as it flew away from the base and a good distance northward to the spot that the training would begin. Rather than it just being her and Jack as the occupants of the craft, there were several others that came along as well. In the seats adjacent to hers sat Francine and Fabienne, and retrieving some things from some storage compartments was Friedkin as she walked from one side to the other.
The elephant and snow leopard to her side were getting themselves ready for whatever jump was about to come, sliding some of the armor that was kept on hand inside the helicopter on. It slipped onto them easily like a glove, but it wasn't exactly that simple for Skye when she was told to put it on. Though it was an important protective measure according to Friedkin and the others, she found it a little bit difficult to get onto her body. She hadn't exactly worn this kind of stuff before back on the mountain she came from.
She grunted as she managed to get it on properly, looking back at the others with a little bit of embarrassment. They must think I'm a damn fool right now, she believed in the back of her head, insecurity peeping in right then.
Skye looked down at the armor across her chest, jet black with a green symbol in the middle of it. "Nice," she muttered out loud, shrugging as she felt a little stiff with the gear on her. "But it's a little... bulky."
"It'll feel like that at first," Friedkin assured her, "but once you know what we'll be shredding down, it'll be obvious why we need to wear that."
"I second that," Francine added in agreement. "With all the sharp rocks and the trees that pop up outta nowhere, it's a real lifesaver."
"True," Fabienne chimed in. "But the more important part is just watching out for yourself. That armor can only do so much, but keeping an eye out'll do even more, if you ask me."
Skey nodded before turning her attention to some other equipment she could see inside one of the open compartments that was keeping things stored. "What's all that and when does that get used?" she asked curiously.
"Those tanks you see over there," Friedkin replied, "are oxygen for when any of us are somewhere that's got thin air. Handling that kind of stuff is only for those with enough practice under their belt to handle it." She took a few steps forward and retrieved a pair of goggles, white with flourescent lenses, and walked back over to Skye. "These," she said explanatorily, "are something that the team says is one of the best things they've worn throughout the years."
As the bear handed them to her, Skye looked at them in her paw with a bit of confusion. "Aren't these just a pair of goggles?" she wondered.
"Just a pair of goggles?" Friedkin repeated before laughing. "Oh, they're a lot more than just somethin' you put over your eyes. Put 'em on and you'll see what I'm talkin' 'bout."
Skye shrugged her shoulders and proceeded to put them over her eyes, expecting them to do nothing special. When she placed them completely on, however, she turned to be dead wrong. As soon as she did this, everything around her had red grid-like lines across it, some of them brighter than others. She turned her head from one side to the other in a state of pure surprise.
What the heck? she thought. These goggles give off some kind of projection or something?
Friedkin chuckled at her reaction. "That's exactly what I knew you would do when you put 'em on for the first time. Those ya got on our are what we like to call pulse goggles. When you can't see where you're goin' because the blizzard's made the weather all milky, those'll show you what you're comin' up to on the terrain. You know, where the jumps are, where the pits you need to get past are, where it's safe to land, and all that jazz."
"Cool..." was all Skye could mutter in response to this before she took them off of her eyes. Once she was looking back at everything with normal vision and not with all the lines around her anymore, it took her a second to readjust.
Static came about around them, coming from the pilot of the helicopter as he was about to tell them, most likely, that they were going to be nearing the destination momentarily. "Okay, everyone," the burly voice announced. "We're approaching drop now, so get ready to hit the snow."
"That means it's time to get ready," Jack said as he stood up, grabbing his snowboard and getting in a quick stretch.
"So, what are we doing first?" Skye asked Friedkin then. "I mean, I know how to snowboard and stuff, but what kind of training do you got out here for me?"
"Well, this zone we're approaching is the best spot to start off with," the polar bear replied. "It's not dangerous but not very mild either. You just said how you like to race on the snow, didn't ya?"
"Yes," answered the vulpine as she stood up from her seat.
"Well, that's exactly what we'll be doing this afternoon," Friedkin informed her. "Watch out for all the big rocks but try not to lose."
"Keep an eye out and just try to stay ahead of Jack, Francine, and Fabienne," Skye said to herself out loud. "Seems simple enough."
"These aren't pebbles you're gonna be jumpin' over," Friedkin replied, seeing that she was seriously underestimating the terrain before she even set paw on it. "You'll see once we're down there. And those aren't the only ones you'll be racing with either."
"Who else?"
The polar bear reached into the compartment she had been standing by and pulled out another piece of armor that was bear-sized, also black but this time with a purplish symbol upon its center. "I'll be alongside you guys too." She laughed as she saw the look on Skye's face just then. "What? You didn't think I had some skills too?"
"We're right at the drop now," the pilot said over the speakers, getting everyone's attention. "I'll be waiting at bottom of run when you all hit the snow."
Friedkin grabbed a hold of a spare snowboard leaning in the back behind some other gear that was in frotn of it, dusting it off before slipping her paws into it. She walked up a few steps slid the door to the side open suddenly, the chilly breeze hitting everyone as soon as she did. She looked out at the snow a good drop below her, holding onto the side of the door as she hanged on the ledge of it. A few seconds of stillness on her part went by before she took a leap and started to descend, spinning while doing some sort of tweaked grab.
"Woo-hoo!" she cried out like an excited child before her voice became fainter.
Skye gradually made her way towards the open door next to her. Jack quickly ran up in front of her before getting himself speedily into his board in what seemed to be a record time, leaping out and making his descent onto the snow as well. Next up to exit was Fabienne, who confidently stepped upward and got a glimpse outside. She felt the breeze on her face for just a moment, catching a quick snowflake that breezed by on her tongue before making her jump.
"Outta my way!" the leopard proclaimed.
Now it was only Skye and Francine left inside of the helicopter. She looked back at the elephant that nodded her head back at her, indicating that it was quite alright with her if she went before her. She swatted those jitters from her mind like they were an unwanted bug buzzing near her, the way she always did before anything she did in the circuit she was training for right now.
Well, she thought, here goes nothing...
Author's Note: Hey there, everybody! :D
Hope everybody enjoyed this chapter. Like I said, I started to touch upon the Deadly Descents team in the previous chapter and decided to make this little diversion in the story with Skye training alongside Jack and the others on this particular team.
I figured that'd be something fresh and interesting to incorporate into this story, especially after replaying the whole SSX reboot game from 2012 and remembering all of its awesomeness. Not only that, but it was also interesting to throw in some other characters in the story as well. I'll be touching them in later chapters, and I'll also be continuing Skye's story as well as what Nick and Judy and the others are doing real soon. :)
Let me know what your thoughts were on this. I know this wasn't the most interesting or exciting chapter, nor was it as long as I was originally hoping to make it after a little bit of a break in between this one and the last one, but I hope you still enjoyed it. As always, your feedback, whether good or bad, is gladly appreciated.
'Til next time! :)