STEPHEN AND KIMBERLY WERE now both on land. They were panting heavily while she lay down, her back turned to him.
"What the heck's wrong with you?" Stephen asked, coughing up water.
"It's not like I was gonna drown," she said. "It's too shallow."
"Shallow or not! What's your problem jumping into the water in cold weather like that?"
"I… I was in a hurry to finish my homework, alright."
Stephen calmed himself before he chose to sit down. He noticed Kimberly gripping her uniform tighter by the second. Without turning around, she thanked him. But little did he know, she was thinking about why he had jumped in after her if he liked Skyler so much.
"Skyler asked me to join her team," he said softly. "For me to get better, training with an expert would help out a lot. If it wasn't for her, I never would have been so into DBs."
Kimberly felt her heart weigh heavy. She closed her eyes, not wanting to hear any more.
"But forget all that!" he smiled.
Kimberly quickly opened her eyes and turned to see that he was standing. His back was turned to her as he said, "All this lord of the roads crap. Sounds like someone ripped it off from a movie franchise. And I can't imagine myself riding with that water-boy anyway."
Turning to face her, the sunset gleamed over his head. All she could see now was how bright and sincere his smile was.
"My team's name is Team Toris… Or maybe ya forgot that?"
Kimberly was speechless. She had completely forgotten who Stephen Huntley was for a second. Remembering that, her body began to feel warm again. The sun finally moved, revealing that he was blushing.
Wondering why, she looked down to notice her wet uniform was see-through. "Ah…" she said, getting up. "Steph, don't look!"
Not long after, the two rode around in their Dyna Blades as she tried to catch him. Smiling, he was glad to see that things were normal again.
'Whoever those other lords are,' he told himself, 'I can really give two craps about them. I follow that straight and narrow path that God set for me!'
As the weekend approached, an unexpected call for adventure lingered in the air.
A few days later, things had been quiet recently. Maxwell and Castiel would gather to train at their warehouse. Kimberly would come by from time to time and make sure the other girls that hung around there weren't flirting with Stephen. As for Willis, he still hadn't given an answer about joining his team.
Nonetheless, that didn't stop Stephen from practicing. Out of all the moves he had been trying to perfect, it was wallrides. Simply riding up a wall with his Dyna Blades wasn't enough. He needed to be able to perform advanced tricks while moving upward. After seeing Willis perform that eighteen-hundred-degree spin, he made it his goal to learn it.
When the group was at school, things seemed much more troublesome. Stephen and his boys had secretly dug a trench in front of the school's gymnasium. Covering it with a tarp that matched the pavement, they watched as students kept falling in.
"What are you three doing?" Kimberly asked after receiving a notice from the student president about the trench.
There was only one person she knew who would be cunning enough to pull this kind of stunt. And being on the student council, she had to put a stop to it.
"Do you have to ask?" Castiel retorted. "We're trying to recruit members for our team."
"What the heck does trapping the students inside a hole have to do with recruiting people?!" she screamed.
Maxwell told her to quiet down. The captain of the school's varsity basketball team was walking in their direction. Stephen grabbed Kimberly's hand, causing her to feel dazed as they hid behind a corner. Unaware of the trench, the basketball player walked over the tarp and fell inside.
"Nope, he's not good either," Stephen said, letting go of Kimberly's hand.
Looking at the scene, she saw the student climb out of the trench, confused at what had just happened. Castiel and Maxwell grabbed the tarp to place it back over the hole.
"Oh no you don't!" she said, ripping up the tarp.
"Hey, that's my mother's tarp!" Castiel yelled.
"I don't care!" she pouted. "Students aren't allowed to dig trenches on school property! Anyway… Since I came all the way here. Steph, this is for you."
Pulling out an envelope from her bag, she handed it over. Maxwell teased her about how she was finally handing him a love letter. This caused her to blush, running off as she screamed, "Just stop doing stupid things to make our school look bad!"
Secretly, she had truly wished she had enough courage to write one for Stephen, but the letter was an invitation given to her by Mila. Opening it, the group read about a Wheels War taking place tomorrow night. Understanding that Stephen was looking for people to join his team, she figured attending an A-ranked challenge would be the perfect opportunity to find people.
A date, time, and the teams participating were all listed in the invitation. Excited, the group decided to attend. Castiel commented about how the other team only had one person's name on it: Team Bullhorns versus Team Nagini.
"Hey, boss," Maxwell pointed out. "This Nagini rider has the same last name as you."
"It's a pretty common last name," Stephen said. "Besides, I was born a single child."
"Look closely," Castiel said. "Nagini's last name doesn't have an 'e' in it like our boss's."
Thankful that Kimberly shared this with them, Stephen made a mental note to invite her to the event. While the group was finishing their readings, they heard a loud thud behind them. Another student had more or less fallen into the ditch. But when they looked, Willis was seen standing on the other side of it.
"I heard you guys talking about a Wheels War battle," he said in a high-pitched tone. "Mind if I join ya guys?"
With the stakes raised and excitement building, the night promised to be transformative.
That same night, Stephen snuck out to visit the mysterious shop by the edge of the city. It had been some time since he'd seen the Russian woman and the old man, so he didn't want them to think he had suddenly skipped town to avoid his debt.
People knew who he was by this point. Rather than take his Dyna Blades, he decided to arrive on a bicycle. It was better to avoid any fights until he assembled his team first. Who knew what sort of high-tech Dyna Blades were out there in this world?
It took him some time, but he finally managed to reach the shop. Frustrated to see that he arrived on a bicycle, the Russian woman reminded him to come with Dyna Blades next time. Otherwise, he'd bring down their shop's reputation. He commented that no one had ever come to the shop around this time except him, so why did it matter?
"You're that rider who beat the Skull Raiders," someone suddenly said.
Turning around, Stephen saw a boy with the same color of hair as him. Bluish-white eyes, five feet nine inches tall, and a textured French crop haircut. Wearing an all-white leather jacket, he had his hands in his pockets. Whoever he was, Stephen hadn't sensed his presence until he spoke up.
'How long had he been standing behind me?'
Brushing that thought off, Stephen answered, saying, "That match wasn't posted online, so how do you know about it?"
"Why's an arrogant, low-ranked piece of crap like you talking back?"
Those words alone caused the tension to rise. They stared at each other for an unknown amount of time. Despite looking as if he were fourteen or fifteen, his look was deadly—almost like a serpent's.
The boy walked past Stephen to grab his Dyna Blades from the Russian woman.
"If it's off balance," she said, "I'll readjust it for you, zmeya. Still, I wonder why you need a motor with such crazy torque."
The boy put on his Dyna Blades, content to have them on his feet again. Turning, he warned Stephen to give up riding Dyna Blades or he'd be shredded to pieces. Without waiting for his response, his Dyna Blades produced an unnerving high-pitched sound as he sped away from the scene. Something about the way they sounded was more unique than other Dyna Blades.
Stephen didn't bother inquiring of the shop owners who that boy was, nor about the existence of special Dyna Blades. It was getting late, and if he spent more time out, one of his roommates was bound to know he snuck out again. The last thing he needed was another punishment after having fixed his Dyna Blades. Departing, the Russian lady wished him well on his journeys.
With a sense of impending confrontation on the horizon, Stephen embraced the road ahead.
Cold air blew past Stephen's face as he cruised down the highway. Only, he looked a lot more bored than normal. Behind him were Kimberly, Castiel, and Maxwell. And next to him was Willis.
"Tell me why you're all in my car again," Willis asked.
Because the event was being held in Rock Springs, Wyoming, Stephen and the others had no choice but to travel by motor vehicle. As great as Dyna Blades were, their battery life didn't last long enough to travel to faraway places. To get to Rock Springs from Salt Lake City, it would take approximately three hours. Then there was the time back.
Taking a bus was out of the question since Stephen had no money. So trying to purchase a plane ticket wasn't even considered. After finding out that Willis used his leftover funds from selling Dyna Blade parts to buy a Buick Encore GX SUV, the group thought it would be a great idea to take a road trip together.
"Roll down the windows!" Castiel yelled. "Someone just farted!"
"That was Stephen! Haha!" Willis laughed, rolling down all the windows.
"What the heck?" Stephen said, wondering who it really was.
Once the windows were rolled down, Kimberly put half her upper body outside due to the smell. Wind blew past her hair as everyone laughed.
Traveling down Highway Eighty, she looked at the partly clouded sky. Since they had decided to take this trip right after school, the sun was just starting to set.
"Ya know," she said, "the Wheel Wars thing started as a webpage where you could trade DB parts with other riders."
Willis added that it was supposed to be a way for people to make friends and pick up things they couldn't find in normal Dyna Blade shops. Castiel honestly didn't like it. He thought it would be better for riders to get the chance to form teams and meet up. That way, they could all have fun in a group battle.
"You'd think that was the case," Kimberly said, disagreeing.
The wind continued to blow past her head as she looked out the window. Not a single person said a word as she monologued: "Riding means different things to different people. There are all kinds of teams. I know that there are teams that just like to fight, but they really aren't the majority at all. Most people just like to ride. I think DBs are something you should just have fun with. All those silly battles, territories, and emblems… That stuff doesn't have anything to do with DBs."
The car went through a tunnel lit above the ceiling. Kimberly then rested her head outside the door to continue: "Every time we do a turn, do a twist in the air… We do it just a little bit better than yesterday. That's what matters to me—knowing that every time I ride, I'm a little better than before! I think when you build up your strength, when you push yourself harder and harder, when you accomplish what you set out to do… Well, that's what I call real riding."
Not a single person uttered a word.
Stephen hadn't thought about how much Dyna Blades influenced a Road Rider before. And Kimberly was right. With the vast majority of riders out there, not everyone was the same.
Once Kimberly noticed how quiet it had gotten, her face turned red as she tried to laugh things off.
Maxwell confessed that if she hadn't been so infatuated with Stephen, he would have asked her out. His comment led to him being punched hard in the arm by her. Stephen was too busy thinking of Kimberly's deep speech that he hadn't heard it.
"Ugh, guys, who's payin' for my gas?" Willis asked.
An hour later, the group was almost at their destination. When Maxwell thought he heard Dyna Blades, he turned around and noticed two Road Riders wearing helmets approaching. The helmets were in the shape of a bull's head and they had black visors.
"We've got company," Willis said, looking at the side mirrors. The riders were closing the distance. Stephen rolled down the windows to get a better picture of them. The moment he did, both riders came to a sudden halt.
"Huh?" Castiel wondered. "Why'd they stop?"
One of them removed his helmet, allowing Stephen to see how frantic his eyes looked. The rider then pulled out a radio and started speaking on it.
'Looks like they recognized me.'
"Boss, what do we do?" Maxwell asked.
"Keep driving."
With tension mounting and adrenaline coursing through their veins, the inevitable encounter loomed closer.
Inside a construction site in the city of Rock Springs, a group of guys were seen hanging around wearing bull helmets. In the midst of them was a man with a beanie, listening to his radio.
"From Utah?" he asked over the radio. "He must have found out about the match online. But to think that a high school rookie's actually coming all the way here."
The man shut off the radio and walked near an eight-foot-tall Knight XV truck. The vehicle looked like a militarized tank. It was clearly bulletproof.
"Nagini, did ya hear that?" he said. "Looks like we better put on a good show."
"Well, Nagini, what do you think?" another man with a lollipop in his mouth asked.
This man was sitting in the driver's seat, twisting his long black hair on his index finger. What he wore was a black tank top and blue jeans with a vest wrapped around his waist—and next to that was his holstered gun.
"Happy," a boy answered, legs sticking out the window of the back seat.
On the boy's feet were a pair of sleekly designed white Dyna Blades. The wheels were different from any wheels the man outside the car had ever seen; they were red, as if covered in blood. And they looked more like snake fangs.
"That low-ranked pissant's at the top of my list!"