MUCH LIKE STEPHEN'S ROOMMATES, these two shop owners knew a lot more than he thought. Hacking into Dyna Blades and having charts on a ranking system for riders? There's no doubt about it; Dyna Blades were changing this world if they hadn't already.
"Explain what I saw," he demanded. "Now!"
The woman smiled at his eagerness for knowledge and said, "Okay, malchishka, I'll let you in on something."
"Why not everything?" he asked.
"Because," she responded with a straight face, "I didn't like your tone."
Stephen tried his best to compose himself. If he needed that information, he had to be more respectful.
"My apologies."
"Always forgiven, malchishka… Every Road Rider has a specific Road they can ride on. Their Road determines what type of rider they are and what types of tricks they can perform. Over time, the rider's Road develops into a repertoire of special tricks. Riders who perfect their Road reach the level of a 'lord.'"
When Stephen remained quiet to hear more, she said, "That's it! That's all I'm gonna share for tonight."
He was internally annoyed but recognized he had it coming for having disrespected his elders. Regardless, he got at least one piece of information from tonight, and the other thing he needed was to see if they could help fix his Dyna Blades. Removing them from his feet, he placed them on the counter, asking for assistance.
The woman examined them intently. Her eyes widened as she exclaimed, "Look, ol' man. I haven't seen one of my products come back to me for a repair in years!"
Stephen didn't show it, but he was relieved to see her joyous expression, especially since one of the Dyna Blades he had brought was handed directly to him from his roommates. The woman reminisced about how some years back, a young girl came to her shop to have several of her Dyna Blades repaired because of her aggressive style of riding. Considering these were Allison's trainee Dyna Blades, he figured she was referring to her.
Taking them apart, the Russian woman examined the motor to confirm if it was truly one of her products. Stephen noticed how small a Dyna Blade motor was. Seeing his interest, she explained, "This particular motor is actually a top-secret one used in military robots."
"Can you fix them?" he asked.
"I'll do more than fix them; I'll charge you half off!"
The relief slowly faded. He didn't have any money. Disappointed, he took his skates back and prepared to leave.
"W… Where are ya goin', malchishka? I thought you wanted them fixed."
"I'd like them fixed, yeah, but I don't have any money."
"Well, why didn't ya say so? We'll open an account for ya and issue you a loan."
Informing the woman that he neither had credit nor a job to qualify, she assured him that this was a no-credit, no-income, and no-background check procedure. Something like that in America was rare unless it was a scam. He knew he could pay these people back, so he signed their contract.
"How much does he qualify for, ol' man?"
Typing up something rapidly before hitting the enter key, a piece of paper printed out of their fax machine. The woman looked at it and smiled, saying, "Good news! You qualified for twenty-six."
"Twenty-seven what?"
"Why, twenty-seven thousand, of course," she replied.
Twenty-seven thousand dollars to spend at a Dyna Blade shop wasn't really a lot. Thinking for a second, Stephen made the right decision and decided to use his loan to buy two pairs of Dyna Blades. They each had their speed limiters removed free of charge. Even though he couldn't get his repaired, he could at least keep his promise to Castiel and Maxwell.
After checking out, he departed the shop and rode home. Not even five minutes away, both of his Dyna Blade wheels came apart!
It took him several hours to finally make it home on foot. It was a minor setback, but he managed to secure his purchases without daring to ride them. They belonged to his teammates, and it was only appropriate he give them the honor of trying them first. That was his upright way of thinking.
Opening the door, he was immediately greeted by Kimberly. She looked worried about where he had gone, trying her best to hide the fact she had been following him. He smiled, thanking her for being so considerate. After explaining that he went to pick up new Dyna Blades for his peers and that his wheels broke, neither Victoria nor Kimberly was surprised.
Not seeking to trouble him after he had a hard time coming home, Victoria instead gave him a warning—it was either that or another punishment added on top of the current one.
The next day, he woke up to a phone call from Castiel. Castiel had great news to share, so rather than going to school with Kimberly (much to her chagrin), he met up with Castiel and Maxwell at the park. The three made their way toward school as Castiel explained the good news.
"Boss! Look at these bloodshot eyes from Max and me. We spent all night searching the web for this info!"
"Not bad," he said. "What'd you two find?"
"There's a special forum post for Road Riders. On one of the threads, we saw this thing called 'Wheels War'!"
Wheels War was exactly what one would expect: battles fought by Road Riders to gain Dyna Blade parts, emblems, or territories. This was the official name of the challenges Stephen had been participating in all this time.
"That's not even the best part, boss!"
"Yeah!" Maxwell added. "We got a list of people in our school whose skills are mediocre. There's a fat guy named Willis Bower in the same grade as us. Plus, he's an E-rank rider!"
It didn't seem to register to the two that Stephen was an F-rank. However, the forum post caught the most of his attention. He didn't spend a lot of time on the computer, so it slipped his mind that he could have used it to gather information.
"Guys," he said, "I'm an F-rank, you know."
The two were beyond surprised. They honestly thought he was joking, even going as far as reminding him of how much talent he possessed. When he didn't laugh or make a face, they finally believed him.
"I don't care if you're in Z-rank, boss! You're the best rider I'd ever seen," Castiel said.
"Yeah, boss! And when ya win, you'll rank up quickly!"
The strange thing about Castiel's compliment was that there was no "Z-rank." Nonetheless, Stephen grinned. He was going to say something until the group was interrupted by a skateboard flying over their heads. Apparently, a guy missed his jump across the bridge they were walking on.
Castiel and Maxwell thought his skateboard was a goner since it was falling into incoming traffic. Before they could do anything, Stephen leapt off the rails after it. They screamed, but were left speechless when they saw him land directly on the skateboard and begin doing tricks. He nollied over a car, shifted past a truck, and then kickflipped right back onto the sidewalk.
Doing tricks on a skateboard was one thing, but doing it with incoming traffic was insane. Maxwell was so speechless that his mouth hung open.
"B… Boss!" Castiel said. "Your reflexes are incredible!"
As much as Stephen enjoyed that little stunt, he wasn't at all satisfied. He returned the man's skateboard, receiving many thanks. The only thought that lingered in his mind was, 'Skateboarding and riding a bike can be done so easily… but with those, I can't see my Road.'
After arriving at school and waiting for lunch to start, he got up from his seat and walked down the hall. Castiel and Maxwell had already been given their Dyna Blades, and the amount of thanks he received was a little overboard. They even promised to pay him back after he discovered he had taken up a loan.
But he wasn't that kind of guy, so he reminded them to continue keeping the Westside Toris organized. That was repayment in itself, considering he was too busy training every day to manage his gang.
When he arrived at the entrance of a different classroom, he opened the door and scanned the room for the obese student. Before he knew it, Chappy came flying in from the class's windows that were left open. He then casually rested on Stephen's shoulders like normal.
"Umm… Are ya gonna eat that?" someone asked him in a deep tone.
Looking over, Stephen noticed a Black male had stood up from his seat to stare at Chappy. He was easily seven feet tall and had an obese midsection. It was as if the buttons on his school uniform would pop at any moment. And those uniforms came in XXL!
The student had the build of a sumo wrestler. His arms were quite muscular despite all the fat on him. The only thing normal about him was probably his hair; they were dreaded.
Chappy was frightened, so he began chirping as he hid behind Stephen's neck. Petting him, Stephen said, "He's not on the menu."
"Aww! But these burgers aren't gonna fill me up!"
There wasn't a single doubt in Stephen's mind. This was the largest and only fat student in this classroom. Unless someone was absent, this had to be Willis Bower.
"Mr. Bower," he said. "I've been looking for you."
"Ah! How do you know my name?"
Willis's tone was deep at first. It wasn't until Stephen denied him trying to eat Chappy that his pitch became really high. Despite how innocent his voice sounded now, this didn't change the fact that he was still a Road Rider, which meant he was as dangerous as they came.
"No need to play dumb, Bower. Let's have a Wheels War. Right here, right now."
The atmosphere slowly began to change. Many of the students started sweating when they noticed a fight was about to break out. They all knew of Stephen's status, and the fact they heard him ask for "war" meant trouble was afoot.
"Steph, wait!" a female voice suddenly called out.
Turning around, he saw that it was Kimberly. She was panting as if she had run here. Catching her breath, she said, "I came all the way from the band room to tell you something!"
"Band room? That's all the way across the school," he commented. "Can it wait?"
"No! It's really important. Please, I need your help!"
Without waiting for his answer, she immediately began pushing him outside of the classroom. Willis stared at the two with a dazed expression. It wasn't long until Kimberly took Stephen all the way to the school's courtyard to speak with him. She was still panting from her earlier run.
"Care to explain?" he asked.
"I… Huff… Ran all the way here when I saw Chappy fly into another classroom. I… Huff… Thought you were in some sort of trouble."
Stephen was impressed. The band room from that area was at least a three-minute walk. His encounter with Willis had only lasted a few seconds at best after Chappy arrived. That would have meant she sprinted all the way to the classroom at a speed that even their school's best track star couldn't beat.
"Let me get you some water," he said.
"No… It's okay. As long as you're safe, I'm fine."
Her smile radiated after she straightened herself. He looked at her, wondering just how much she cared for him. Casting those thoughts aside, he explained to her that everything was fine. All he was going to do was challenge Willis to a Wheels War.
"Eh! Steph, what are you thinking? You shouldn't start a Wheels War in the middle of school! And how do you even know about that?!"
Stephen was more interested in what she knew about Wheels War. She revealed that back when she was racing, Wheels War never even existed.
"Strange, though," she said, thinking about it. "I had no idea Willis was a Road Rider."
The two felt the ground tremble slightly. Behind them, Willis Bower was standing over them with bags of chips in hand.
"I guess ya found me out," he said, munching on potato chips. "I was trying to keep it a secret from everyone."
Moments later, six were seen sitting on a round table outside. They were Stephen, Kimberly, Castiel, Maxwell, and Willis—the last one being Chappy. Many of the school's students were enamored at the idea that the largest student in the school was having lunch with the most notorious one. The table itself was filled with various snacks that Willis brought over.
He shared his food with everyone, explaining that he wasn't at all a glutton. Comfortable, he then gave a short testimony of why he rides.
"Everyone's got a background, so here's mine… Ya see, my parents are big Christians. We go to church almost four times a week to worship our Lord Jesus Christ. I was saved after repenting and accepting our Lord into my heart. One day, I prayed in Jesus's name for a pair of Dyna Blades. About a month later, I won a contest I had entered two weeks ago but completely forgot about."
Stephen observed him carefully, looking for flaws.
"They weren't just any ordinary DBs; they were specifically designed for my feet. You'll know what I mean if ya ever see me wearin' 'em. Anyway, I could barely feel my heavy body when I rode DBs. The sky was so close; I felt as if my feet had grown wings!"
Stephen stood up to shake Willis's hand and give him a brotherly hug. Surprised at the sudden kindness, he explained that it was because he too was a born-again Christian. This made them brothers in Christ. About to cry, Willis held back his tears.
It came to him as no coincidence. There weren't that many wholehearted Christians, so he felt joyous that he finally got to meet one at school.
"I should mention one more thing," he said, wiping away his tears. "Our family's not the richest, and parts are expensive. That's probably why you saw me on the forums. It's better I try to earn my parts than to buy them. I'm pretty strong, after all."
Winds blew across the group, causing Stephen's hair to wave against his face. With a grin, he asked, "Say, Willis, how would you like to join my team?"
There was a brief moment of silence. In a straight tone, he answered, "Nah, I'm good!"