CONSIDERING THAT STEPHEN HAD no money to repair his Dyna Blades, and he also needed to replace his peers' skates, he spent the whole school day thinking about what he could do. Just as class ended, Willis entered to deliver a package before leaving abruptly.
"What gives?" Castiel wondered. "He's supposed to be part of our team, so why'd he just leave like that?"
"He's actually not on the team yet," Stephen answered.
"Huh?"
Stephen and Willis's agreement in their Wheels War challenge was for Willis to give him his loyalty—not to join his team. Even after that, he still hadn't accepted his offer.
Inside the package, he found six raw mushrooms. Castiel and Maxwell were confused.
"Don't you guys get it?" Stephen asked in a confident tone. The two genuinely didn't understand why he was given a package full of mushrooms. "They're commodities to help. Brother Willis obviously would like me to use them in exchange for parts."
"You're so smart, boss!" the two complimented.
After school ended, Stephen went home to set his plans in motion. Having been raised with three females for years, he was a naturally good cook, so he chopped the mushrooms up and prepared two bowls of white rice and steamed vegetables. Finished, he called Mila into the kitchen. If there was something Mila liked most, it was steamed vegetables with soy sauce on the side.
Her taste buds were already kicking the moment she saw the bowl in his hand. Quickly grabbing a fork from the sink, she rinsed it off and ran towards him.
"Gimme, gimme, gimme!" she said, tugging on his pants.
"On one condition."
"I'll do it, I'll do it! I'll help you repair your DBs. Now gimme a bite, brother Steph!"
Ever since his win against the Rottweilers, Stephen had still been on punishment. That meant no one was allowed to help him repair his Dyna Blades. Since Mila caved, she agreed to immediately begin preparations while Victoria and Kimberly were out shopping for groceries. The last thing either of them would do was tell the others about their nefarious plan.
Just as they were eating, Chappy swooped in from an open window. It was like he could smell the food. Happy to share, Mila gladly fed him some mushrooms.
Hours later, when Victoria and Kimberly returned home, they were both perplexed. Sitting in the living room was a ten-foot rocket comprised of aerodynamic thrusters, a pair of tailplanes in the back, two jet-like engines, and what looked to be a pink slipper resting in the middle.
"You both came in right on time," Stephen said with red cheeks. Around Mila and him were a set of power tools, spray paint, a laptop, and a slim tank filled with nitrous oxide. Mila rubbed on the green fairings, saying, "Well, how's this? High-speed, one-point-two million horsepower! Brother Steph won't lose to anyone now!"
"Got that right," Stephen agreed.
Mila's face was just as red as Stephen's. The two began boasting about how powerful the machine was. Above them was Chappy, flapping his wings like he was a hummingbird. He circled around the living room as Mila and Stephen thought of ideas for adding emerald crystals to their contraption.
Victoria and Kimberly blinked simultaneously. They then walked to their rooms and shut the door, ignoring whatever ridiculous experiment was taking place in their home.
Past midnight, Victoria walked back in to see the giant robot in the living room. In her hands was a package addressed to Stephen. Because he was so focused on this contraption, she decided to wait until he calmed down to give it to him. Seeing him sleeping on the couch put a smile on her face, so she placed the package next to him. She then carried the passed-out Mila to her room before heading to bed herself.
The door shut, causing Stephen to wake up with a headache. He could hardly recall what events transpired after eating with Mila and Chappy. Upon noticing a package that looked like the one Willis had given him, he picked it up and saw that a note was attached to it.
'Dear brother Steph, I brought the wrong package to school. Please do not eat the mushrooms I gave you. They have high levels of psilocybin that my parents grow for medicine. What I meant to give you were some spare DB parts I had lying around. Don't worry about my finances. I sold enough parts to help keep things stable. From: Your brother in Christ, Willy.'
Psilocybin is a chemical found in plants that influences serotonin levels in the brain, meaning they lead to altered and unusual perceptions.
Stephen didn't have the mental capacity to think straight right now. All he knew was that there were several Dyna Blade parts inside the package. Rising from the couch, he grabbed the power tools and began quietly working. Upon noticing the giant contraption in the living room, he decided to take it apart and use it in his repairs.
He could barely remember why something like this was even in their home to begin with. But that hadn't mattered. Willis had given him not two, but six Dyna Blade wheels to use.
'I'll have to repay fat-boy one day,' he thought to himself, tinkering with the wheels.
Now that it was the weekend, Stephen believed it was a great opportunity to take his fully repaired Dyna Blades on a test run.
"What?" Kimberly asked while doing homework on her laptop. "You wanna go on a test run?"
"No, well… Even though I've improved a lot, I don't think it's a good idea for me to be alone on DBs after everything that's happened. I saw you doing your homework and was gonna ask you to join but—"
Her eyes widened as she quickly shut her laptop. She then rushed to the other room to grab her Dyna Blades. In the span of a few seconds, she was all ready to go.
"Wait," Stephen paused. "What about your homework?"
"I'm going!"
Outside, the two were seen racing at high speeds around suburban neighborhoods. A huge smile was on Kimberly's face. This was the first time she was able to ride with him without hiding. The experience excited her greatly.
"Wow, Steph, you really have improved! See if ya can do this move!"
Coming down a hill, Kimberly performed a sliding seven-twenty-degree spin before flipping in the air, twirling her body sideways, and then spinning again. Her impressive combo finished with her landing on a three-sixty-degree spin off one Dyna Blade.
He quickly performed a T-stop at the top of the hill, impressed due to the degree of difficulty of that move. He asked Kimberly down below where she learned to do that. She responded that it just takes a little practice. Though Stephen had improved, he wasn't ready to perform complicated tricks like that one.
Later, on a high jump, Kimberly looked next to her to see how happy Stephen was riding. He had a joyful smile on his face.
The two eventually stopped in West Valley City. Stephen claimed that he needed to go find someone there. She was troubled by the idea that he came here to see Skyler. Entering the Latino Mall, she waited outside as he walked into Champs Sports.
"Resigned?" Stephen asked the store owner inside. "Do you know of any way I can contact her then?"
After asking the owner about Skyler's whereabouts, he informed him that she had resigned without saying a word. The manager blamed himself for having treated her so well because of her popularity among his customers. Noticing the Dyna Blades on Stephen's feet, he asked him if he was a Road Rider. Stephen confirmed.
"Kinda glad she left," the owner said. "My store would have gone up in smoke from all those Road Riders of hers."
"Careful what you say about her when you're around me," an annoyed Stephen said.
Since the owner couldn't give a former employee's contact information, he left the store. Kimberly had both heard and seen their entire conversation. A thought brewed in her head. It was Skyler asking her what Stephen was to her.
"Guess I'm never coming back here again," he said upon approaching Kimberly.
As he prepared to ride away, he noticed she wasn't following. He turned around to ask her what was wrong. Whatever was troubling her heart, she couldn't hold it in any longer. Smiling with tears flowing down her face, she suddenly blurted out, "Just go and join Skyler's team!"
He couldn't help but stare at her. When she noticed that she was crying, she wiped her tears away and tried pretending things were alright.
"Kim, I—"
"It's… It's nothing!" she said, smiling while trying to fight back more tears. "I'm fine! I'll head back first!"
A lot of people around the mall looked their way. So she dashed out of the mall despite Stephen calling her name.
'Why did I follow him there?' Kimberly asked herself, riding down a street. 'If I had known sooner, I would have stayed home and finished my homework.'
Tears continued to flow down her face as she leapt over a building to grind on a steel fence.
'I knew from the beginning… To Steph, we're like brothers and sisters. That's all…'
Coming to the edge of her grind, she jumped and started skating on a smaller building.
'Why did I run…? That wasn't natural of me at all! Dang it… How am I going to explain this to him when he gets back? I really am a fool. Just what was I expecting?'
As Kimberly jumped to grind another fence over a bridge, she missed it and began falling.
"Ah!"
Her momentum was too strong, causing her to land in the lake. Rather than attempt to swim, she remained still and began sinking. All she did was open her eyes. The rays of light looked beautiful to her underwater.
'Steph doesn't know anything about Lion's Den. If I told him the truth, we'd definitely end up fighting each other.'
A school of fish swam by her as she continued descending.
'But I don't want that! I don't want Steph to be in a battle like that. That's why I kept it from him for so long… I tried to keep it a secret.'
Kimberly brought her hands close to her chest. Whether she was feeling cold from the sadness in her heart or from the water's low temperatures, she couldn't tell anymore. All she knew was that if Stephen was always being compared to a bird flying, then she must have been a fish swimming.
'The sky feels so far when underwater… From the beginning, we lived in different worlds.'
Eyes closed, she felt the waves shifting her body. But when she looked, she saw it was Stephen holding her and bringing her right back up!