Well, I'm back, and thank you for the reviews! As always, they inspire me to keep going.

Now, for this chapter…there really wasn't much of a direction. I just started writing, and this is what I came up with. The group ended up going to Madtown, as it was mentioned last chapter. Originally, this chapter was going to be broken up into two parts, but I decided against it, so it's another long chapter.

Now, as always, I do not own anything dealing with Rocket Power. Klasky-Csupo has that honor.

Chapter 20: Crushed Egos & Crumbling Faith

"Hurry up slowpokes!" Roderick shouted to the guys, making his way towards the entrance of the Madtown Skate Park. "I want to practice some new moves!"

"Quite an interesting kid there, eh?" Sherry laughed. "I can, like, barley keep up with him even with my blades on. He's like a bundle of energy."

"Um, yeah, he's always like that," Twister replied distantly. 'C'mon bro, don't overdo it. I don't want anything bad to happen to you!'

Since Roderick was way ahead of the others, he rushed in and headed straight to the half-pipe. There, he started to breathe a little unsteadily. Since he had pretty much ran all the way to the Pier from Sherry's - well, he did stay ahead of the others on his skateboard - he was slightly tired.

'No, I can't let them think I'm weak! I just have to catch...my...breath, that's all.'

"Hey, Roderick, wait up!" Clio called. "I don't remember him ever being this hyper before."

"I guess he's just excited," Reggie answered dryly.

By the time the kids made it to the pipe, Roderick had finally caught his breath, but he was still a bit tired. Due to his illness, his immune system was a bit low, and at times, his energy level would drop dramatically, but he never let that stop him. He didn't want anyone to think of him as frail, or a hindrance.

He turned around and smiled at the older kids, dismissing the fact that he wouldn't have minded sitting down currently. "Man, you guys sure are slow. Are we going to skate or not?"

'I guess he's not as bad off as I thought, but I still wish he'd take it easy.' Twister pulled his camcorder from out of his backpack and gave the boy a thumbs up. "Let's do this thing, bro!"

Reggie wasn't in the mood to skate the half-pipe and wandered off to the Blader Bowl. Twister, Sherry, and Sam remained with Roderick who was trying to perform a perfect McTwist.

The others were so into Roderick, and skating along with him on the half-pipe, they hadn't even noticed Reggie's taking off to be by herself; everyone, that is, except for Clio. She noticed her skating off towards the bowl gloomily from the corner of her eye. Clio went after her.

'Now I know something isn't right.' It didn't take her long to find her. She had skated to the other side of the park through the tunnel and was sitting down on the ground by the fence, sighing.

"Oh, there you are."

She looked up. "Oh, hi Clio."

"Don't you 'oh hi,' me, Reggie Rocket. What's going on?"

"Going on?" She gave off a timid laugh. "There's nothing wrong. What makes you think something's wrong?"

Clio shook her head. "Must I go over everything? I don't really feel like it. Now, Reggie, if there's something wrong, you should talk about it. I sensed something was wrong from our first meeting today."

"It's...weird," Reggie managed to say as she hugged her knees up to her chest, "but I don't really want to talk about that." Her mind was wandering between Twister and of what Lars had told her about Otto.

Clio smirked knowingly as she sat down beside her. "Oh, let me guess, boy trouble?"

Reggie gasped slightly, and started to sweat a bit in embarrassment. Was she that obvious?

"Oh, so it is a boy! You know, Reggie, you can tell me all about it. I'll always be there to listen, even if we don't physically talk to each other often. I understand that there are some things you can't really discuss over the phone or through email."

Reggie didn't know what to tell her. How could she tell her about how she had been thinking about Twister constantly for the past couple of days and how she had a few times prior? She'd noticed how handsome the boy had become over time, and would've been foolish to deny that.

"Well, you're right about the boy trouble," Reggie partially admitted, "but not in the way you're thinking. It's my brother."

"What's happening with him?"

Reggie came right out and told her everything about Otto, about how he had been horrible towards Twister lately. Clio listened attentively.

"Man, what's his malfunction?"

"That's the thing, nobody knows, but Sam thinks it may be stress from the pressure of tomorrow's competition, but we both know that he's not going to be in it now, due to that fight, and it still doesn't explain why he's being so mean to Twist."

"Maybe you should try talking with him?"

"No way! I give up on him!" Reggie said with forced anger. No matter how much she truly wanted to be, she just couldn't get mad at him. They were supposed to be on the same team. Otto's motto was always, "Rockets Rule!"

"Reggie, I think that's about the only thing I can suggest to you."

Reggie looked down at the ground again and sighed. "I wish he and Twister would go back to being friends." She then inadvertently got a wistful look on her face as she stared over at a group of kids blading the bowl. "Twister is too nice a person to get mad at. He's so sweet, kind, and caring. He has a good heart too; how could anyone get mad at Twister?"

Clio blinked. 'What's with that look? She actually sounds like she's talking about her prince charming or something...but that's just weird. Why would she get that look just because of Maurice?' She decided not to even get on that subject and went back to discussing Otto.

While they were talking, they heard a certain energetic boy call, "Big sis! Cuz Clio! Where are you!"

They looked towards the entrance of the Blade Bowl and saw Roderick and the others skating through it.

"There you guys are. You missed some epic footage of Roderick, you two!" Twister said while holding up his camcorder. "Even the Squid nailed a couple of decent moves which included him doing a perfect tail grind! He's definitely better than when we were kids."

"Yeah, Reg, he was totally awesome! I've never seen Sam get so much air!"

Sam blushed slightly. "Th-thanks Sherry."

"I wish Otto could've seen me!" Roderick breathed out hard. The skateboarding was a bit exhausting.

Reggie stood up and gave the younger boy a gentle smile. "I'm sure Otto would've been proud."

"Yeah! I can't wait to see him! I'm going to tell him all about it!" The boy put out his hand. Everyone else nodded and put out their hands as well and did their "woogie" handshake.

"Hey, I'm in the mood for some Guava shakes at the shack," Sherry said.

"I could use a bite to eat too," Sam added while rubbing his stomach, "and I could sure go for some fries and a chocolate shake."

"Ooo, I'll get to see Tito and Ray! C'mon guys! Let's hurry and go!"

"Yo, Rod, chill," Twister told the boy while grabbing him, giving him a few noogies.

"How can I calm down when I'm having so much fun?!"

Everyone laughed at the boy's response; they all found it amusing, and somewhat cute. No matter what, Roderick always seemed to be in a good mood. It was like nothing could ever bring his mood down. He never seemed to get upset about anything. Reggie figured that during his sick years, he had to learn to cope with it, and as a result, tried his best to always remain cheery and optimistic about things.

After it was decided, the group walked - even Roderick took his time - up the ramp and headed to the Shore Shack. It was so-so, the crowd.

"Let's all sit together," Roderick suggested.

"We don't have much of a choice," Sherry told the boy. "We can't all sit at the counter."

There were two free tables left in the whole beachside restaurant.

"Hmm," Roderick began, "there's only four chairs to a table, so maybe we can take two chairs from the other vacant table, and then we'll have six."

"I'm cool with that, how about you guys?" Sherry asked.

Everyone else nodded in agreement. While they were discussing, over at the counter, Tito stood. He saw a familiar pair of black, square-framed glasses, on a certain husky boy with blonde hair. He ran from behind the counter to the boy.

"Sammy!"

"Huh, Tito?"

He hugged him tightly, forcing the boy to stand, and his chair to topple over. "Sam, lil cuz, are you all right?"

"Y-eah, I'm fine, Tito," Sam said slowly, growing a bit embarrassed from the customers watching them.

"Oh, I'm so glad that you are," Tito said in relief after letting him go. He would've continued on, but he noticed Sam and the others had company.

Ray, at the moment, was in the back. He walked out front and saw Tito with the kids.

"Hey kids," Ray called from behind the counter. He then noticed the two extra kids with them.

"Wow, Clio, Roderick! Alooooooooha!" He gave them a big hug. "When did you get here?"

"Just this afternoon, Uncle Tito!"

"Uncle Tito," he smiled proudly, "I've always liked the that."

Roderick gave him a toothy grin. Twister, Lars, Reggie, Otto, Sam, Tito, and Ray were like family to him. He seemed to have a name from everyone. At times, he would even refer to Raoul and Sandy as "Uncle Raoul" and "Aunt Sandy."

"Have a seat kids," Tito told them. "You guys decide on what you want to eat." He then whispered to them, "It's on the house."

"Thanks Tito!" everyone told him.

"Fuh-ree, my favorite flavor of everything," Twister grinned.

Tito went back behind the counter with Ray while the kids discussed what they could eat for dinner. Sam was relieved when Tito had left. He hated a lot of attention drawn to him, especially if it wasn't by choice.

After they decided on Hula Burgers and fries – including Reggie - the group sat and talked about everything and anything they could think of. Most of the time, Roderick would go into idolizing Otto mode, and talk about him constantly and how he would love to learn all of his tricks, especially surfing wise and how he couldn't wait to see him for the competition.

This made Reggie, Twister, and Clio feel a bit uncomfortable. Twister wasn't in the mood to hear about Otto, and both Reggie and Clio knew of how Principal Healey had kicked Otto out of the surfing competition for that next day. Neither one could break that news to Roderick. Reggie didn't even really feel like mentioning it to Sam, Twister, or Sherry as of the moment.

"...and you should've seen Sam that time in gym," Sherry said between laughs while sipping on her Guava shake, "it was so hilarious! We were playing soccer and Sam was our goalie, of course, and then…"

Everyone listened to Sherry's story while a hint of magenta filled the husky boy's cheeks. He didn't want to hear another story about how he embarrassed himself in a sport. Luckily, that attention wouldn't be on him for long.

They heard someone yell from in front of the Shore Shack. "WHERE IS HE! WHERE THE HELL IS HE!"

Everyone who was within earshot range could hear this person's yell; even those skating Madtown, those standing at the entrance of the amusement park, and those lounging around on the beach. The voice just seemed to permeate the airwaves. To Sam, he was positive that the yell had broken the sound barrier, if it hadn't already been broken by Ocean Shores' own temper-tantrum brat, *Mackenzie Duncan.

The customers all looked towards a heaving, somewhat short, teenage boy. He wore sunglasses with dark green lenses, and his hair was thick and dreaded.

"Otto," Reggie gasped.

Roderick saw the fuming boy with his skateboard in hand, but couldn't believe what he was seeing. He had never seen his "hero" so angry-looking before. "Otto? Bro?"

Otto stormed into the restaurant, not caring if he was making a scene or not.

"RAYMUNDO!"

Ray frowned. 'I guess they told him.'

Tito looked somewhat worried, especially since the boy looked as if he could do something quite rash. He walked up to Otto and held him by his shoulders. "Calm down, lil cuz. You should talk and-"

Otto jerked his shoulders back away from the chubby Hawaiian. "Leave me alone, right now, Tito! I have no beef with you!" He glared at the man behind the counter who was remaining quiet. He knew he would have to face Otto, but he didn't want to face him this soon.

Ray sighed and walked from behind the counter. He spoke to his irate son in a hushed manner. "Let's go in the back and talk about this in a reasonable, logical manner, son."

"NO!" Otto shouted. "So it was your fault! How dare you tell Healey to drop me! You knew how important this was to me! Coach Fletcher told me this afternoon what you decided."

"Otto, please," Ray said, a sad expression etched on his middle-aged face, "I didn't want to, but I had to. I'm proud of you for what you did for Sam, but for actions come consequences. I couldn't allow you to get suspended from school. You would've failed if I had chosen suspension."

"Look, Raymundo, I don't give a sh-damn! This competition meant the world to me! I've been practicing nonstop for this competition, and now because of you, I've wasted my time! What kind of a father are you, anyway!"

Ray placed a hand on his shoulder. Otto shook it off roughly.

"Don't touch me! You don't care about me! You've never cared about me! You don't want to see me succeed! You don't want me to become a pro surfer!" Otto snapped at him. "You need to stay the hell out of my life!"

There was no point in trying to reason with Otto. His temper was so bad right now, that logic wouldn't have sunk into that thick skull of his.

"There were going to be scouts there! Lots of them as well as those with surf magazines and some real pro surfers like the Rhino and Luke Egan and-and Joel Parkinson! I had a chance to achieve one of my life-long dreams, and then you had to go mess it up by siding with that old bastard Healey!"

"Now look here, Otto," Ray argued back firmly, almost regrettably since he understood what the boy was probably going through, but as a responsible parent, he knew he couldn't let Otto continue on in such a way, "I will not have you speak that way to me or in front of the customers! This is a family-themed establishment and you will watch your tone and language when here! I am your father, and therefore, in charge! You have no right talking to me like that, and until you act like an adult, and think things through, then I will listen to what you have to say, now go and we'll talk later in a more dignified, civilized manner!"

Otto glared at Raymundo again. The customers and his friends were still staring at him, wondering what was going to happen next. Otto looked like he was about to hit Ray, but he turned away, muttered some obscenities and walked out heatedly.

"You all may continue with your meals," Ray announced uneasily with a sigh.

After he walked out, the customers all murmured amongst themselves over the scene Otto had just made.

"O-man isn't going to be surfing tomorrow?" Twister blinked.

"Oh man, he must be totally tweaked!" Sam said.

"Yeah, very," Sherry responded sadly. "He's been working very hard for that competition too since it's such an important one."

"I can't believe dad let Otto say those things. Otto is going to get grounded for the rest of the year after what he said!" Reggie was expecting Otto to be angry, but not angry enough to come up to the Shore Shack and argue with Ray right in public. "I had a feeling he was going to take that news bad but not like this."

"Wait, you knew about this?" Twister asked in surprise.

"We both did," Clio confessed.

"How do you know about it?"

"Your brother," Clio answered.

"Lars? How did he find out?"

Before anyone could answer, Sherry spoke up. "Wait, if Otto is out of the competition, that means Ocean Shores will have to forfeit!" she informed them. "We're supposed to have three representatives for our town, with two we'll be disqualified!"

"Who do you think is going to replace him?" Reggie queried knowingly.

The quietest one of their current group was Roderick. He was still in a bit of shock over seeing Otto act in such a way. He had never seen Otto so mad for as long as he'd known him. He had also tuned the others' conversation out.

He stood up gloomily. "I think I'm ready to go home."

"Are you sure, dude?" Twister asked. "You didn't finish your chocolate shake."

He nodded. "I'm sure, bro. I'm a little tired and I could use a small rest."

"I'm ready to go too," Clio abruptly stated. She could tell that Rod was feeling a bit awkward after witnessing such a thing.

Everyone else agreed, and left the restaurant. Everyone's minds were so preoccupied, that Sam even forgot to ask Tito for the Lemon Coconut tea that his mother had requested.

The walk home was silent, Otto's outburst still fresh in their minds. Roderick still couldn't believe what he had seen as the scene kept replaying in his mind. Otto showed such anger and malice. His idol, no, hero, had acted disrespectful towards his own father and seemed to show pure hatred towards him.

Roderick wasn't as enthusiastic or cheery as he was earlier. He was rather down. Otto was upset, which upset him. He had to do something for him, but he didn't know what that something could be. He really wanted to talk with Otto, maybe get him to act like his usual self, but he wasn't sure if that would've been a good idea.

The usually optimistic boy wasn't the only one who had Otto on his mind; Sam was also a bit distraught over the situation. He had this feeling that Otto was going to end up hating him all over again, or not speak to him for a good while.

'This is all my fault,' Sam speculated sullenly in thought. 'If it hadn't have been for me, Otto would've never fought Josh and he wouldn't have gotten cut from the competition tomorrow.' He shook some. 'I hope he doesn't whomp me for that!'

"So, I guess I'll head home," Sherry said, breaking the uneasy silence. They had finally made it to her block. "Sam, do you want to walk with me since you left your bike at my house?"

"Oh yeah, sure. I can walk with you," Sam offered. He wasn't in the mood to go home anyway. He had this strange feeling that his mother knew about his almost fight earlier, or was about to find out about it.

"I'll see you guys later, and it was nice meeting you, Roderick and seeing you again, Clio." She gave the two of them a smile as her dangling hoop earrings shimmered from the setting sun's rays hitting them.

"Yes, same here Sherry. I'm only sorry we didn't talk more," Clio told her.

"I can't wait to see you again!" Roderick nodded to her.

"Oh, and Reg, I'll call you later on tonight! We have to make plans for tomorrow and when we're going to leave in the morning to head over to Spray Beach."

"Alright Sherry, I'll see you later," Reggie responded.

With that, Sherry and Sam took off down the street, while the others continued on.

Twister shoved his hands into his pockets. "I still can't believe Otto won't be surfing tomorrow."

"Are you still going to go?" Roderick quietly asked.

"I don't have a choice. I have to film it."

"And I have to do interviews for my 'Zine and our school's paper."

A short while later, the group finally made back to the cul-de-sac. Twister and Roderick headed in, but before Clio and Reggie could split and go their separate ways, Reggie forced on a playful smile.

"Clio, I know you probably don't want to stay with a bunch of guys. Why don't you stay over tonight, then we can meet up with Sherry and Trish and head out to Spray Beach."

"Are you sure it'll be okay?"

"I'm sure it'll be fine." She lowered her head some and mumbled, "Besides, I could use somebody around right now."

Clio hugged her. "I understand." She let her go. "If you're sure it'll be okay to stay over, then I'll stay over. I thought you'd never ask!" She winked to her. "We'll be able to get a bit of girl talk in that way."

Reggie smiled weakly, "Yeah."

"You have a lot of spilling to do, tomboy."

Reggie put her hand on her hip. "You better tell me more about your trip to Hawaii and why you really chose to go there this year, 'lil Miss Tutu."

Both laughed. This was just what Reggie needed, someone else to talk to and Clio was perfect. She did have Trish, Sherry, Sam, Twister, and Trent, but sometimes she wanted to just talk "girl stuff," and that excluded Sam, Twister, and Trent. Sherry and Trish were good friends, but sometimes she just didn't want to talk with them. Sherry would get into gossiping during their conversations, and Trish would get into talking about sports. She needed a balance.

Clio put an arm around Reggie's shoulder, and the two walked to the Rodriguez home to tell Raoul and Sandy about her staying over at the Rocket home...
x x x

Author's Note

Note 01: Sorry guys, "Duncan" was the only name I could think of for Mackenzie. Has a ring to it….well, I think so anyway. lol