“Alright, everybody gather around.”  Said King.  The hour of preparation had passed, and the time of competition had started.  The rogues gathered in the west side and the hammers gathered in the east side, with King standing in front.  “Where’s Tomboy?”  he asked.  

“I’m right here.”  She said, pushing her way past the crowd of rogues into the clearing between them.  

“Excellent.”  He said.  “Let’s get started.”

“Where’s Cooper?”  

“Someplace safe.”  

“I want to see him.”  Tomboy said.  Nobody broke the silence that followed.  “Now.”  Her and King locked eyes, and he stood still for a long time.  His eyebrow twitched and then he snapped his fingers, the sound echoing in the park.  There was some commotion in the back and as it made its way to the front, Tomboy could make out Cooper, with two people on either side of him, holding onto an arm each.  “Cooper.”  She said to herself as he was brought out front.  He was in the same clothes that he was in when he was captured, and he had a scar running down his muzzle.

“Tomboy!”  he shouted, as people started murmuring to each other.  A shock hit Tomboy then.  She was looking forward to seeing Cooper, but now that he was here, there was almost no climax for her, no satisfaction.  She didn’t feel much of anything for him.  Her mind was set on beating King in the competition.  “Tomboy?”  Cooper said with some grief.  She didn’t look like she was that happy to see him.  Before they could look at each other much longer, the people holding his arms started to drag him backwards into the crowd.  He shouted for her, but she didn’t say anything in return.  

“Alright, that’s enough.  I’ve been waiting for this day for so long…it’s hard to believe it’s finally happening.  I don’t want to delay this any further.”  Said King.

“I know how you feel.”  Tomboy said, smiling.  Todd looked at her from the side of the crowd with worry.  Something bad was going to happen, he could feel it in his gut.  He noticed a change in Tomboy’s attitude and demeanor, and he could feel his twin brother’s anticipation.  There wasn’t that much hatred or rage in it, just anticipation.  Something wasn’t right, and something bad was going to happen.  But he knew that even if he said something, he wouldn’t be able to stop Tomboy if he tried.  So, he remained quiet, sharing his brother’s anticipation.  

“So, Tomboy, how exactly does this work?”

“What do you mean how does it work?  It’s simple: we both skate and decide who’s better.”

“Hm.  No, no.  That definitely won’t work.  Somehow, I don’t think you’ve been thinking about this day very much.”  He said.  This made Tomboy cringe.  “An event like this is highly competitive, more so than usual.  We have two crowds of people behind two competitors.  So who’s going to decide who wins?  Me?  You?  Them?  Even if we pick random people from the crowd, we could never put together an unbiased panel of judges.  So, if you let me make a suggestion, I say we settle this in a fool-proof manner.”

“What way is that?”

“HORSE.  First person does a trick.  The next person replicates, and elaborates.  The first person to screw up loses.  Get it?”

“Yeah, I get it.”  She said.  

“Good.  And as the challenged party, I believe I am supposed to go first.”

“Won’t make a difference, anyhow.”  Said Tomboy as King walked past her to the vert ramp.  The crowd gathered around the ramp as King climbed to the top, his skateboard attached to his belt.  Tomboy followed him up.  As she neared the top, he extended his hand down to her to help her up, but she slapped his hand away and reached the top herself.  The surface of the vert ramp was covered in graffiti and people now surrounded both sides of it.  King approached the edge and propped his skateboard up with one foot.  

“I think I’ll test you out, now.  We’ll start with something simple.”  He said to Tomboy, who was leaning against the back railing with her arms crossed.  He turned to the ramp and went down it, his wheels making a deep, guttural rumbling noise as they ran across the hard wood of the ramp.  He hit the curve to the flat section at the bottom and stood upright, but bent over slightly in preparation.  He crouched again as he sailed up the vertical surface of the other side and left the ramp entirely, airborne.  He grabbed both sides of the skateboard and spun around 540 degress at an even pace, and landed perfectly, coming down the ramp, across, and then up to where Tomboy was standing, popping the board out from under his feet and into his hands as he transitioned into a walk and leaned against the railing, next to Tomboy.
“Go.”  He said.  The crowd was murmuring amongst themselves now, and Tomboy stepped up to the lip.  She ran the Renevatio back and forth with her foot before she set its tail on the lip.  The faded fiberglass sparkled with light as it perched on the edge, and the crowd hushed up.  She stepped on with her other foot and glided down, the fiberglass wheels making a deep humming sound against the wood as she came up the ramp on the other side.  It was hard to tell when she exactly left the ramp and entered the air, but she grabbed the tail and nose of her skateboard and spun with noticeably better form and speed than King.  This sent the crowd abuzz as she came back down, hovered across the ramp to the other side, and then came up in front of King.  She kicked her feet apart and the board spun violently around in various directions before returning to its rightful position right before Tomboy hit the ramp again.  The crowd gave oohs and aahs as she hovered back over to the other side, came up to the surface, and leaned against the railing, staring at King.  She performed the trick flawlessly, and he knew it.  He didn’t say or do anything as the crowd, especially the hammers, talked to each other about what just happened.  A single drop of sweat ran down King’s face.  He smiled.  

“Your scar.  You still carry it with you.”  He said, closing his eyes and smiling.  Tomboy raised her eyebrows, the right one having a hairless scar running across it.  “It’s funny, you know.  I have a scar in almost the exact same place.”  He said, his scar on his eyebrow remaining still.  “You probably still remember that night when I got it.  I apologize for that, by the way.  But it is my constant reminder of you.  And your boyfriend, who gave it to me.”  

“Would you just shut up and skate?”  Tomboy said.  Her words echoed loudly.  He remained still for a moment, then leapt onto his skateboard, went down the ramp, and spun his board around in much the same way that Tomboy did.  He came down, went up the other side, and then did a stall, flipping his board upside down and planting one of his feet on top of the underbelly of the tail, and his other foot underneath it as he wobbled back and forth for a little bit, and then flipped it back upright and skated across and up to Tomboy.  

“I think I can skip all of the easy stuff with you.”  He said, his scar twitching.  Tomboy’s twitched as well.  

“Good.”  She said quietly, then got up to the ramp.  She stalled just as he did, but as she wobbled back and forth to find her balance near the beginning, she stood upright, and she was perfectly still.  The crowd gasped as she came down, then performed a grab on the other side, one of her legs sticking out from the board.  The crowd was getting excited now, from the competition.  

The competition continued as such, the two pulling off increasingly difficult tricks and successfully completing the tricks the other had set for them.  Although they were practically equal in terms of skill, even those with an untrained eye would observe that Tomboy’s skating was much more refined and graceful, and if it were judged she would probably win.  But, according to the rules, King was still neck-and-neck to her.  Throughout the competition, nervous members of the hammers, fearful of Tomboy’s victory, kept telling King to do something called “the pirouette”, but King ignored them.  

The two were winded, on opposite sides of the vert ramp panting while King was on deck.  The competition had been going on for nearly an hour.  

“What is this “pirouette” move I keep hearing about?”  asked Tomboy.

“It’s nothing.  Don’t worry about it.”  King replied.

“Doesn’t sound like nothing to me.  What is it?”

“It’s none of your business.  I’m having fun, and I want to drag the length of this competition out a bit further.  When I want to win, I’ll show you, don’t worry.  But for now don’t worry about it.  Just let me catch my breath.”  

“Oh really?”  asked Tomboy, feeling insulted by his confidence.  

“Aw, now you done it, bitch!”  somebody from the hammers yelled.

“It’s King’s signature move!  Nobody else in a 100 mile radius can do it, let alone do it as well as King!”  said another.

“You sound pretty sure of yourselves.”  Said Tomboy.  The rogues remained silent.  “Come on, do it.  Humor me with your super-move.”  She said.  King remained silent.  

“Tomboy…”  Todd said from the ladder, climbing up.  

“What now, King?”  

“I wanna talk with you for a second.”  He said, getting to the top and ushering her aside.  Once they were alone, they faced each other , very closely.  

“Alright, what is it?”  she asked.

“You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into.  Just continue the competition the way it was going, your killing him.”

“And I think I can kill him a bit more if I beat him at his own game.”  Said Tomboy, tapping her temple with two fingers.  “If I can beat him up here – make him lose all hope, then it’s all over for him.”

“That may be.  But the truth is, what if you don’t beat him at his own game?  Then what’ll happen?”

“It won’t.  Why?  What’s so special about this trick?”  she asked.  He was silent.  “Why?  Have you seen it?”

“Of course I’ve seen it.  I’ve seen it many times before, and every time he was up I was praying that he wouldn’t pull it out on you, and so far he hasn’t, which is good for you.”

“What’s so special about it, King?”  she asked him.  

“It’s…I don’t know.  It’s a masterpiece.  Beauty and a work of art, into a single skateboard trick.”

“What is it?”

“I-well, I…I’m not even sure how he does it, there has to be more to it than what it looks like.  It’s like…it’s a grind.”

“A grind?”

“Yeah.  Only he pops up on one side and he kinda…he like sort of spins on one end of the board.  You know, like a pirouette.”

“That’s it?  That doesn’t sound so hard to me.”

“Well, no.  I’m not very good at explaining things.  Trust me, it’s not that simple, and you can’t do it.  Just stick to what you’ve been doing, and you’ll be fine.  Okay?”  he asked.  

“I have to do his trick.”  Said Tomboy.  

“No, Tomboy.  I’m giving this as advice to you, and you will pay attention to it if you value this competition, or more importantly, what’s at stake here:  do not do this.”

“…fine.”  Tomboy said, defeated.  

“Atta girl.  You can see it later, if you’re really dying to.  But first things first, you gotta win this competition.  Now go get him, tiger.”  He said, walking down the surface.  

“Yeah.”  Said Tomboy.  He started to descend the ladder.  The murmur of the crowd rose up after this.  She looked up.  “Do the trick, King.”  She said.  The crowd was shocked, and a lot of them gasped before they all fell into silence.  Todd almost fell off of the ladder.  King stood completely still.  Tomboy looked to the side at Todd.  He wasn’t mad at her, or sad really, but he gave a morose face of deep pity, and absolute disappointment.  She didn’t care.  She knew she had what it takes to win the competition.  

“…very well.”  Said King, sighing.  Tomboy leaned back on her rail and was anxious to see what the hype was about.  He approached the lip and mounted his board.  He glanced up and gave one last look at Tomboy before he dropped in and shot up her side, went back down and came up the other side, doing a laser flip and landing it, then coming back down.  He veered and turned off of the ramp as the crowd quickly cleared out of the way and made a path for him.  He skated through them and jumped onto a rail.  He slid on the tail end of the skateboard and stood with one foot on the board and one foot kinked against his leg, his arms in the air.  He span quickly and beautifully, the board never moving, and his body never losing balance or momentum.  He finished and landed both feet on the board the moment his board ran out of rail and he landed it, sliding to a stop.  The hammers went crazy, cheering happily at what just happened as King stood with his arms crossed, a smile spreading across his face.  

Tomboy looked like she was going to faint.  A bead of sweat ran down her head.  She knew that it was too perfect, like they said, and that she could never do it.  She just lost the competition.  She looked down at her crowd.  The rogues looked up at her hopefully, but Todd was looking away in shame.  All of the sudden the fear and doubts that she felt before returned, and revenge was no longer on her mind.  She wanted to give up, but she also wanted to beat King.  

“What’ll it be, Tomboy?”  asked King.  He dropped his skateboard and climbed up the vert ramp, approaching Tomboy.  “What’ll it be?”  he asked her, more quietly.  She looked down at the ramp, and at her own skateboard, trembling.  “Are you scared?  You don’t have to go.  You can submit any time you want.  I won’t tell anyone, promise.”  He said.  Tomboy looked up at him and then back down.  “You should have listened to my idiot brother, Tomboy.  You can’t win.  The only way to go out with dignity is to admit defeat.”  He said.  Cooper briefly flashed in her mind, and she clenched her hand into a fist.  

“How is that dignified?”  she asked King, facing him.  He backed off a little.  She put her skateboard on the lip and prepared to drop in.  The crowd was talking.  She took some deep breaths.  Just remember what Jim taught you, she thought.  You saw him do it.  Just envision and emulate.  You can do this.  She took more deep breaths and dropped in.  She came up the other side and came back down, came up the other side and back down, over and over again in preparation.  Some people detected her nervousness and started to heckle her until the crowd became a jeering, loud mob yelling varied things at her.  She turned and left the ramp, squatting as she skated among the aisle of shouting spectators and came up to the rail.  Her back foot swiveled its way backwards and she prepared to jump.  All of the past flashed before her in the moments prior to the jump.  The time she spent with Cooper, the time she spent with King, with the gangs, right before she jumped, she had a moment of clarity.  She realized how much happier she had just been with Cooper, and how if she had confessed her love to him in the first place he might not have snuck her around and gotten kidnapped in the first place.  Cooper was more than a friend to her.  She must be more than a friend to him, too.  


Doc watched from the back of the crowd as Tomboy jumped.  He gritted his teeth in anticipation.  He had come earlier, looking for Cooper, and learned what was going on from one of the spectators.  


Cooper watched through a window in the far side of the park.  He moved his face closer to the glass as she left the ground.  


Tomboy squinted her eyes as she barely jumped but soared over the edge of the rail.  She was hunched over, but spread out her legs and arms as her truck hit the rail.  As soon as it hit, the lack of friction between the metal truck and rail caused it to slip with her foot out, and she flung the board a long distance ahead of her as she fell backwards and landed shoulder-first on the rail and landed on her other shoulder on the ground, sliding forward.  

The hammers’ cheer was deafening, as they all embraced each other and chanted King’s name.  The rogues all slumped in defeat and misery.  Tomboy’s sense of confusion and hopelessness was overcoming the pain from falling.  She stared at her overturned skateboard, as the wheels kept rapidly spinning on their own.  She was almost in denial of what just happened.  Like it was a dream.  It was inconceivable.  King’s foot stepped in front of her field of vision, and she looked up as he towered over her.  

“Game over.  I win.”  He said.  “What did I tell you?  Whatever you do, there is no hope.  I’ll see to your punishment in due time, but for now…I’ll wait.”  He said.  Tomboy turned back to the ground as a tear ran down her muzzle.  

“I…I…”  she said to herself.

”You lost.”

“No…” she said to herself, shaking her head.  King started laughing.

”Oh…oh, this is too good to be true.  I’ve never seen you cry before, Tomboy.  I mean, you’ve been close, but not like this.”  

“No!”  Tomboy shouted and bolted to her feet, grabbing King by the fringe of his tank top.  “You cheated!  You can’t win!”  She shouted, her voice breaking.

“I won fair and square, Tomboy.  Admit it.”  He said as she threw him with strength that surprised King and Tomboy into the door, which gave way and he stumbled outside.  He regained his composure and uneasily held out a hand towards her.  “Now…now hold on just a minute, Tomboy.”  He said, backing up.  Tomboy advanced quickly on him and threw a wild punch.  King ducked under it and flew to her side, grabbing her arm and putting it in a lock, forcing her into the wooden light pole.  “Don’t let it come to this, Tomboy.  This is strangely how our conflicts usually end up and usually I end up winning.”  He said.  “Just calm down, and I’ll release you, and we’ll go on with your punishment as planned.”  He said.  


Doc could only catch snapshots of what was going on by jumping and looking over the crowd.  King had Tomboy in an armlock, and they were going to be in a fight soon, that was for sure.  

“Jason?”  a voice called from somewhere behind him.  He turned around and Kitty was walking amongst some of the people, looking for him.  He ran towards her as she noticed him and they hugged briefly.  

“There’s no time to explain, Kitty.  Tomboy and King are about to fight.”

“What?  Again?  Where’s Cooper?”

“Someplace around here.  King says he’s safe.  We have to stop them so King can tell us where Cooper is and we can all try to leave this unharmed, okay?”  he said.  

“Right.  Okay.  How do we get to the front?”  

“I don’t know.  Push, I guess.  Something.”


Cooper wrestled with the people holding him back as he watched in agony as Tomboy forced King out the door and undoubtedly into another fight.  He threw them each off and flew through the door.


Tomboy threw King off and they squared away, facing each other, waiting for the other to make the first move.  Tomboy was next to the lamp post and King was opposite her, and the crowd watched intensely.  All of Tomboy’s memories of other fights with him came back, and her veil of revenge came back, and she was driven by anger.  She felt cheated by her loss, and angry.  So thick was her veil of revenge that she didn’t notice a slight cracking sound as soon as she threw him off.  She didn’t notice more crackling that followed as the crowd started to vocalize more.  It wasn’t until King’s eyes shifted when she half-distractedly turned and saw the lamp post start to come down, and then double-took back at it.  She stared in aw as the black, wooden lamp post collapsed towards her and threw her arms up in futile self-defense as it came down on top of her.  Right before it crushed her, she was hit by another impact by the side, swept off her feet by a person moving extremely quickly, and watched in awe as the post came crashing down, the wood smacking the surface of the concrete and the glass shattering as the tip exploded off the edge.  She ignored the slightly odd feel of the sight of the post hitting the ground to close her eyes and feel Cooper’s warm embrace against her skin.  

Then, she quickly realized what was odd about the sight of the lamp post hitting the ground.  

King wasn’t there.

She opened her eyes and looked up to see King holding her in his arms, her body tucked closely to his.  Their eyes met, and for the first time, she didn’t see any anger, or hostility, or malevolence of any kind in his large, royal blue eyes.  They were tinged with concern.  With love.  

“Are you okay…?”  he asked her softly.  

“I…I…”  she stammered.  Her anger was gone.  And, despite all her will against it, love washed over her too.  She grabbed him by the back of his neck and kissed him passionately.  They weren’t sure how long they did it, but it was a fairly long time until Tomboy opened her right eye and saw Cooper standing not too far away, with his hand in his pocket and tears in his eyes.  

“Cooper…I…”  she said, but he turned and quickly walked away.  “Cooper, wait!”  she shouted.  

Doc saw Cooper approaching and knew he had to say something to comfort him.  

“Coop…I mean…”  he said, but Cooper marched past him and kept going, out of the skate park.  


“Ignore him.”  King said.

“But…!”

“I know.  But the fact is, I love you.  I’ve loved you since the first time I saw you.  And I guess it’s taken till now for it to come out.”  He said.  

“Oh, oh King…”  Tomboy said.  They kissed again.