Chapter 8: An Amazing Discovery

Helicopter to R&B

In the helicopter, SSX was on their way to R&B. Everybody was waxing their board to get it ready for a ride. Mac on the other side got some water splashed in his face and got a cup of coffee offered by Atomika to stay awake on the next course.

"Ah thanks, feels much better. Still tired but I'll be okay now." Mac said.

"You better be okay, these analyses are important for the team. That way, I can calculate your chances of winning in the competition." Atomika said.

"Yeah I know it's important. I'll try my best, was the race at least decent?" Mac asked worried

"I'm not going to lie, it was a disaster for you, but for the others it was really good." Atomika said.

"Awh man, why did I have to fall asleep?" Mac said with his head down.

"Just do your best at this last event and you can sleep as much as you want back in the resort okay." Atomika promised him.

"You got a deal!" Mac said.

"Excuse me, I overheard you conversation and I wanted to let you know that we are here and we are clear for landing." the pilot said.

"Well, there you go." Atomika said as the door automatically opened and the team walked out one by one.

They saw their old course and it looked even older than Snow Jam.

"Man, can't believe it looks like this, kind of sad too see." Mac said depressed.

"We can't do anything about it anymore. You have to let it go. Come on, we have to go to the start positions." Zoe said as they all went to the start line.

"Okay before we start, all of you will show your best tricks and moves. To stay fair, you have to finish in less than 5 minutes, or else your score will not count." Atomika yelled.

"We got you man, go on." Zoe said

"Okay, are you ready?" Atomika said.

"Yeah!" everybody yelled.

"Steady... Go!" Atomika yelled as everybody started their Trick It.

While everybody took the first rail they saw, Mac on the other hand took the big jump he saw a couple meters away.

R&B Trick It Course

Meanwhile on the course, everybody showed their skills on high jumps and long rails. Mac thought about the last time he was tricking on R&B in the third tournament.

"I know this course better than anyone. Let me see, I'm now at the tunnel, now I have to take the rail that goes into the sky." Mas said as he took to rail.

He did a handstand on his board and right before the jumped, he got on his board again and did the Huge in Europe Uber trick. Seconds later, he got on his board again and landed on to the next rail.

"Ha, those guys are just doing random tricks, they should know you have to mix up for more points." Mac said.

Meanwhile, the others were way ahead on Mac, doing tricks better than ever. Tane and Ty were on first place while followed by Zoe, Moby and Alex.

"Tane, you think you're better at tricking than me?" Ty asked.

"I don't think so, I know so. Tricks are one of my strong points, so don't underestimate me." Tane said.

"Yeah right, wait till Atomika tells us the score, I probably have the highest of everyone."

"Don't get too cocky, let's not forget that we are one of the best boarders in the world. Like me." Zoe said when she was railing next to them.

"Hello people, I just want to inform you guys about the score. Right now, Tane's on first place with 39 million points, then follows Zoe with 35 million, Moby with 30 million points, Alex with 27 million, Kaori with 26 million and Ty with 22 million point." Atomika said from the helicopter.

"What, only 22 million, but how is that possible?" Ty asked.

"Apparently, you have only been doing the same amateur tricks instead of mixing up with Uber tricks. Try not to do the same tricks, do more professional Uber tricks with mix ups." Atomika said.

"That's not cool, wait you didn't mentioned Mac, how many points does he have?" Ty asked.

"Mac has 10 million points at the moment." Atomika said.

"Ha, only 10 million, at least I'm better than him. Maybe I should teach him a thing or two." Ty said arrogant.

In the meantime, Mac was still behind the other, but because he thought it was a trick it and that he knew the course, he didn't bother much about it.

"Only 10 million huh, I have to step my game up." Mac said.

He was getting close to the mountain area, Mac took every jump he saw and only did professional Uber trick. From Handstands to Lugar Boardslides on rails, from Blackbirds and Skycrapers in the sky as Uber tricks.

Atomika was watching from the helicopter, he saw Mac's points sky rocketing and noticed something very odd about it.

"That's interesting, Mac's points are getting higher and higher, yet they are not as high as the others. But his is already at 20 million now Could it be that he's actually going to win this?" Atomika said.

"He is a special case my friend." the pilot said.

"That's for sure." Atomika said.

R&B ¾ Done

The Trick It was starting to get to an end, the riders were close in the tree area and almost at the finish.

"Okay riders, you have 1 minute left, finish up what you want to do before the timer runs out." Atomika said through the headset.

"Got you Mark, I am close to the finish. How is everyone else?" Zoe said.

"Almost there." Moby said

"Yeah me two." Kaori said.

"I just finished!" Psymon said.

"I am too." Tane said.

"Good job Tane and Psymon, your scores are getting counted on my computer." Atomika said.

"Mac, what about you?" Zoe asked through the headset.

"Don't worry about me, I'm in the industrial park, I'll make it in time. Mac out." Mac said when he turned his headset off. "Okay, this is my chance for a comeback." Mac said as he went off the rail and did the Blackbird while doing backflips.

While Mac was still busy, everybody else crossed the finish line. Everybody was there waiting for him as Atomika started to count down from the 30 seconds.

"Where is Mac, he doesn't have much time left. If he can't make it in time, he will have only 0 points." Atomika said.

"He will make it, I know he will." Kaori said worried.

From the sky, Mac was see from a far distance.

"Walking the Doggy, woohoo!" Mac yelled from the sky while he did his signature trick and spun in mid air vertically.

"Hey look, there he is." Kaori said as she spots him in the sky.

"He has 10 seconds left." Atomika said.

"Hurry up or it will be for nothing!" Zoe said.

"I got this Zoe!" Mac shouted.

"5... 4... 3... 2..." Atomika said but then right before he was done counting, Mac landed right at the finish, right in front of Kaori shocking her.

"You made it!" Atomika said proud.

"Hah! Told you I would make it!" Mac said as he gave a small wave.

"You showed them what you can do." Kaori said back with a small wave.

"Hehehe, well you know..." Mac said while scratching his back head.

"That was great Mac, good job. My computer is calculating yours and the other riders their scores. We are done with the analyses, we can go back to the resort. I'll let you know the scores when I call you out." Atomika said.

Eventually everybody stepped into the helicopter, back to the resort.

"Great, I can finally go to sleep...!" Mac said as he fell a sleep on Kaori's shoulder.

"Go ahead, you deserve it, and... I'm sorry being so hard on you." Kaori said proudly but Mac was already sleeping.

"I don't think he's listening to you, he's rather snoring." Elise said.

"No matter, he would understand it." Kaori said happily.

SSX Resort

Hours later, the helicopter arrived at the resort and got ready for landing.

"Alright people, we are back at the resort safe and sound. Go ahead, you can go." the pilot said.

"Come on Mac, wake up for a second, we're back." Kaori said as she shuffled him gently around a bit to wake him up.

"What did you say?" Mac asked tiredly.

"We are back at the resort, come on, let's go inside." Kaori said when she stood up.

"Wait, can you help me inside, I'm too tired to walk." Mac asked.

"Of course I'll help, it's the least I can do." Kaori said when she helped him out of the helicopter and went inside.

Back inside, SSX got approached by Griff with a changed attitude.

"Hello everybody, how is it going?" Griff asked.

"Alright, what is your deal Simmons?" Zoe asked.

"Oh nothing just..." Griff said as he approached Kaori and Mac. "Wanted to know how it was going with all of you, hmmm?" Griff asked.

"We are okay, why do you wanna know?" Kaori asked.

"Nothing really, I wanted to know how it was going with your personal life, like friendship, best friends, love couples." Griff said.

"Couple? What do you mean couple, Mac and I are not a couple!" Kaori said mad.

"I never said anything about you and Mac." Griff said sneaky.

"Uhm, I uh, I never implied that uhh... We are just not a couple okay!" Kaori said furious.

"Okay okay take it easy, just consider being a couple." Griff said as he stood next to her.

"I can smell your breath." Kaori said with narrowed eyes.

"Alright buddy, it's time for you to take a hike, or I'll help you out." Moby said when she stood next to Griff.

"No need for that, I'll let myself out, later. Think about it Kaori, a couple." Griff said when he walked away.

"Ha, couple, what kind of weird idea huh?" Kaori said worried.

"Forget about him. Okay everybody, do whatever you want to do and I'll call you up in a couple hours." Atomika said when he walked away with his laptop.

"You guys, I'm going to take Mac back to his room, I'll be back later." Kaori said when she went to his room.

"Go ahead girl." Elise said.

Mac and Ty's room

In Mac and Ty's room, Kaori puts Mac safely in his bed as she looked at him while he was still sleeping.

"What Griff said got me thinking about... you... me and our friendship." Kaori said when she sat next to him on his bed.

"You have been my best friend for ten years, I still think about the times we were just kids in the first tournament. You were always trying your best to be everyone's buddy, especially me, but we eventually became best friends supporting each other." Kaori said when she smiled at him.

Kaori looked at the time, saw it was 3 pm in the afternoon and thought she could get some rest herself.

"I think it's my time to go, and for me to leave you alone, sleep well Mac." Kaori said when she stood up and walked away.

Kaori left his room and went to her own room.

While the riders were doing their own thing, Atomika was still on his laptop trying to calculate the racing time and the trick points of the riders. But before he could do that, he had a problem with his computer.

"Damn, I have to upload the full footage first, this can take a while." Atomika thought when he started an update and sat back.

4 hours later, the upload finally ended and showed the footage from the race and trick it.

"Okay I finally got it, damn upload, I really have to buy a new laptop. Okay, now to look at the time. Kaori has got 2 minutes and 26 seconds, Zoe had 2 minutes and 29 seconds, Moby has got 2 minutes and 31 seconds. Let me play the footage of Kaori and her victory." Atomika said when he saw the footage of Kaori from the helicopter.

He saw Kaori first way behind everybody, then he saw her taking a jump and then immediately going faster and faster.

"Interesting, before the race started, she got distracted by Psymon, therefore she got way behind the others. Now she has won the race by using her intensity. Kaori has got great comeback potential." Atomika said as he turned to Mac's race.

After he was done watching everybody their race potential, he switched over to the trick it event as he read the scores.

"Okay let's see the scores of... Oh my God, this is... this is unbelievable. I have to go tell the others about this and fast." Atomika said when he grabbed his headset.

"Hello SSX, meet me in the main hall immediately. This is very important, it's about the analyses and I have got some news!" Atomika said when he left the room.

Main Hall

After Atomika's call, Mac woke up in his room.

"Awh man, that was a great nap. Luckily I'm not tired anymore, and full of energy." Mac said while stretching his limbs.

He then noticed someone talking in his headset and grabbed it to hear who is was.

"Hello, who's this?" Mac asked.

"Mac, this is me, Mark. Come to the main hall this instant, everybody is already here, except for you." Atomika said.

"Okay, be there is a sec." Mac said/

He first changed his clothes and freshens up a bit. After he was done, Mac left the room and went to the main hall.

Mac arrived in the main hall and sat down with the others.

"Hey, wassup everybody!" Mac asked.

"You certainly are full of energy after earlier, you okay?" Elise said.

"I took a good nap, and I had a dream of a woman carrying me all the way to some place. Right now, I'm ready for the next challenge." Mac said pumped up.

"That was no dream, that was me carrying you to your room." Kaori said.

"Oh, well uh... Thanks for your help, I really needed that." Mac said while scratching his back head.

"You're welcome." Kaori said nicely.

"Enough talking guys, I brought you here because I have important news about the analyses. First of, good job with the race and trick it. I'll show you guys why Kaori won the race." Atomika said when he played the video.

At the point where she got distracted, Atomika stopped the video.

"Look, Kaori got way behind because Psymon distracted her, but look at this point." Atomika said when she played the video until she went faster.

"Kaori did a trick to get her adrenaline pumping in racing, and because Elise, Zoe and Moby got too distracted with their rivalry, they haven't thought about Kaori who was going just as fast as a rocket right behind them." Atomika said when he walked up to Kaori.

"Well what can I say, I have my own way of riding." Kaori said.

"Great, now she's getting cocky. Before you know it, you're going to leave the team just like Griff."

"Nah Zoe, I'll never do that, I love the team too much to just leave it behind." Kaori said.

"That's good to hear, what about the others Mark?" Zoe asked.

"Mac on the other hand, had a terrible race." Atomika said as he switched over to Mac's race.

"Yeah thanks for reminding me of that." Mac said bummed.

"I'm not showing this footage to humiliate you, I'm showing this because I want everybody to take notes about what happened to you. Make sure you have enough rest to do your events, or this will happen to you, right Alex? It can also have serious consequences if you are too tired while you are surviving, fatal consequences." Atomika said.

"Understand, I will have my rest." Alex said.

"With this, I mean all of you, do you all understand what I'm saying?" Atomika asked the group.

"Yes, we understand it." team SSX said.

"Then I'll keep it short. I don't have that much to say to you. Zoe and Elise are racing specialist so they just did their job, Psymon and Moby improved themselves as they both got faster than before." Atomika said.

"See, Japanese mountains do wonders." Psymon said.

"Alex is also a racing specialist, but this is not her full potential as I have noticed." Atomika said.

"Next time, I'll show full potential. Oh yeah, and what about the Trick it, how did I do that? Do I need help?" Alex asked.

"Oh about that... Mac I got a question for you." Atomika said.

"What is it, how bad did I do?" Mac asked.

"You were... still tired on the course right?" Atomika asked.

"Yes I was, what's my score?" Mac asked

"I'll get to you later. Let me got from number 9 until 1. Ty with 45 million points, Alex with 46 million points, Psymon with 58 million points, Tane with 69 million points, Elise with 77 million points, Kaori with 80 million points, Zoe with 84 million points, Moby with 90 million point and Mac with 120 million points."

"What!" everybody yelled as they looked at Mac.

"I'm sorry, I had something in my ear, how many points did you just say I had?" Mac asked shocked.

"You heard me, 120 million points on a course where only 100 million points are possible. Mac did the impossible and made a new record." Atomika said.

"How in the hell did he get 120 million, you told me he had 10 million on the headset." Ty asked.

"I'm just as shocked as you are when I saw the scores. But apparently, Mac did professional Uber tricks and his own self taught tricks with mix ups, on rails it's the same story. Followed with his greatest strength, his excellence of the sport and skilled execution of tricks. Unlike you Ty, you only did amateur tricks like Indies and Flying Squirrels over and over again. That will give you less and less points as you progress. Try to take an example of Mac." Atomika said.

"So does this mean that...?" Mac asked.

"That's right, Zoe might now be the best racer, it can still change I think but Mac is the best 'Trickster' in the team." Atomika said.

"Alright, I'm the best, I'm the best!" Mac celebrated.

"Take it easy there buddy, but I have to agree with you, Mac is the best in the group. If anybody want some advice or practice for Trick Its, Mac is your guy." Atomika said as he grabbed his laptop and other stuff and puts it in his bag.

"Alright team, that was it for the analyses, if you have any more questions, you can ask me whenever you feel like it. Alex, your Race it event against Griff will begin tomorrow morning around 10:00 am, get a good night rest. Good luck." Atomika said as he left them alone.

"Thanks Mark, see yah." team SSX said as he left.

SSX Main Hall

Meanwhile, the team was free to do whatever they felt like doing.

"Well now that it's over, I'm going to my room, lay in my bed and listen to some music." Mac said when he tried to leave.

"Mac wait!" Alex yelled as she approached him.

"What is it Alex?" Mac asked.

"Atomika told me I was a great racer, but my tricks needs help. Since you are the best trickster in the team, can you give me some advice again?" Alex asked.

"Sure, I'll try to explain some things, come with me to my room and we will discuss it together." Mac said as they left together to Mac's room.

Kaori saw them leaving together and quickly ran up to them.

"Wait uhh... Can you help me with my tricks too, I need it very badly." Kaori said.

"No, I can't you help Kaori ." Mac said.

"What! Why?" Kaori said shocked.

"Because I know you, you don't need my help to be a great Trickster, you already are awesome. I have no advice for you to give, and nothing to teach you." Mac said understanding.

"You really mean that?" Kaori asked curious.

"I certainly do, but I have to go help Alex with her Tricks. See you later okay?" Mac asked as he went back to Alex.

"Okay, bye, have fun with Alex, again." Kaori said.

Mac looked back at Kaori who had her head down and her back turned the other way. He saw that there was something wrong with her. He then felt guilty of letting her stand there all alone and approached her again.

"Oh yeah, one more thing girl." Mac said as he taps her shoulder.

"What?" Kaori asked depressed.

"You do know that I'm just giving her some advice right." Mac said.

"Yes I do, but I'll be honest with you, I was a little jealous that you were hanging out with Alex that much. I thought you liked her more then me." Kaori said.

"Alex is just a friend, it's not like we are a couple or that she is replacing you as my best friend, no one could ever do that. It's only business, nothing more, nothing less. You're still my number one girl and you always will be. Don't forget that." Mac said.

"Really? Thank you, that was very sweet of you to say, it really helped me out. You are right, I just need to trust you more. Go ahead, she's waiting for you." Kaori said with a smile.

"Thanks for understanding, oh and I got another question for you?" Mac asked happily.

"Of course, ask me anything" Kaori said.

"Can you... meet me tomorrow at midnight for something important?" Mac asked.

"What is so important then?" Kaori asked curious.

"Well there is something I want to... discuss with you and... it's kind of personal." Mac explained.

"Well okay sure, I'll come. Can't wait." Kaori said excited.

"You won't regret it. I have to go now, but we'll meet later okay, bye." Mac said when he ran away.

"Bye." Kaori said as she waved goodbye.