Maria scrabbles furiously, trying to dislodge the beaver's boot. The beaver responds by shifting his full weight over the boot, crushing Maria's windpipe. Unable to breathe, Maria starts to panic. As she begins to black out, training and instinct kick in. Extending her claws fully, she slashes the beaver's shin several times rapidly. With a yelp of pain, the beaver jumps backwards, bleeding freely from several deep gashes.

Coughing and spluttering, Maria rolls onto her side and breathes deeply. Her senses come back to her just in time to block the beaver's revenge charge. She catches the beaver's attempted kick with both hands, stopping it dead. Without pause, Maria twists the boot hard. The beaver is thrown off-balance and falls, hitting the tarmac heavily. Having bought herself a few moments, Maria wastes no time extracting herself from under the bikes. And by the time the beaver is back on his feet, Maria is ready in a combat stance.

"You're gonna get it now!" the beaver growls.

Maria doesn't respond. She simply smiles wickedly.

The beaver charges, aiming a swinging punch at Maria's head, but the lynx neatly sidesteps the charge. The beaver skids to a halt and turns into a second charge. This time Maria doesn't sidestep, instead blocking each and every punch the beaver throws at her with ease.

"Stop playing and fight back!" the beaver demands.

Maria complies. Deflecting a punch to one side, she counter-attacks with a straight gut punch. Before the beaver can react, Maria follows up with several more rapid punches before dropping and sweeping the beaver's legs from under him. Winded, the beaver slams hard into the tarmac, where he lies dazed and confused.

"What on Avalice?" the beaver asks himself as his senses return.

Standing over her defeated opponent, Maria extracts a loop of scarlet fabric from a pocket, unravelling the infinity scarf before placing it around her neck. Shen then looks at the beaver with an expression that asks 'Ready for round two?'.

"…OK, I admit it was just an accident," the beaver concedes sheepishly.

With a smile of satisfaction, Maria returns to the bikes. After severing both the fuel and brake lines on the beaver's bike, she finds those same lines have already been severed on her own. With neither bike fit for use, Maria reluctantly heads to the barrier. Perching herself on top, she watches as the beaver slowly gets up and limps away to lick his wounds. Only then does Maria decide to attend to her own wounds. Under the matted fur of her right shin and arm, she's relieved to find the only damage is some moderate grazing from the crash itself that has already stopped bleeding.


Maria watches the rest of the race from her barrier perch, her scarf back in her pocket, giving Carol a cheery wave as she passes by. Once the five-lap race is over, she gets a lift back to the paddock in the recovery vehicle dispatched to pick up stranded racers and their bikes. Once back at the paddock, she wheels her bike back to her allotted space next to Carol's.

"What happened?" Carol asks as Maria parks her bike. "Are you OK?"

Maria nods, but doesn't say anything, instead miming to explain she's unwilling to speak.

Carol then notices the bruising on Maria's throat. "Let me guess: ya tried to get pas' the beaver jus' after I did, and he turned in on you and took ya both out?"

Maria nods.

"And I'm guessin' he tried to strangle you?"

Maria points to her shoe as she mimes how the beaver held her down.

Carol shakes her head in disbelief. "Where is he now?"

Maria shrugs.

"He probably did a runner," Carol theorises. "Tell you what," she adds. "While you get checked at the medical centre, I'll fix your bike. Deal?"

Maria smiles, nods, then heads to the medical centre.