CODE X 777

C O D E 2 9 G O T H A M

Slaine looked past Riley, at a bright blonde head among the crowd. He recognised it immediately. "Lupin!" He shouted as he pushed Riley away from his field of vision. Axel and Asselyum stood beside him. Axel pointed at Slaine and she looked at him.

Slaine looked back at her. Her blue eyes were just staring at him. This made him a bit conscious of himself and he fixed his bangs. His cheeks turned peachy from white. Riley looked at her and grabbed his board tighter.

Axel ran up to the ramp and reached Slaine.

"Oof. I'll just tape it all, it should do the work for today. Just don't fall or apply too much pressure on it."

He took out a plastic tape and fixed in two nails to hold the board together.

Meanwhile, the horns went off and Riley went down. 'That girl...' He thought of Asselyum, 'You like her, don't you? You're so easy to read, Slaine Benjamin.' 

"Riley. Focus." Frank said from the crowd. Riley went up, did a full 360 rotation of the body and board together in one motion, back-side, but landed in an awkward position, falling down the ramp.

"Oh, man!" Tray did a facepalm.

The crowd booed. 

"I think he was trying an Ollie 360."

"Too bad, it seemed he wasn't focused," Rory said.

"It's very important to be focused while you perform any trick."

"It's a fair score of 15"

"This heat might go into Benjamin's hands."

Axel had fixed Slaine's board by then.

"How is it?" He asked.

"Feels a bit heavy," Slaine said as he did an ollie.

"I've taped it a lot. This should hold on your weight."

The horns went off. It was Slaine's turn to shine.

"Good luck, bro," Axel said.

"Axel."

"Yeah?"

"Thank you for coming." 

"Hey, no biggie, mate!" Axel said in Rory's Australian accent and they laughed.

Slaine got on the board.

'Alright, I should take it more seriously now.' His hands were still trembling but he was confident, as least he thought he was.

He went down. Something in his mind told him to try a Gazelle. Maybe this time—It would work? So, he jumped over his board, spinning his body 360, while his board did a 540 flip. He was almost at it, but he failed on his backside 180 like always, and went down the ramp, he fell on his board, snapping it into four, non-uniform pieces.

"Oh no. I hope he's okay" Tray said.

"How unfortunate. I anticipated a good move." Rory said.

Slaine got up and felt a streak of immense pain on his left leg.

He sat on the pieces of his broken board. He had failed again. It had been five years since he had been trying to do a Gazelle. He wanted to do it ever since he started skating. But he had still not done a Gazelle flip. Not even once.

It was a legendary trick for him. Not many pros could master this trick. Nobody he knew could do it. But he wanted to do it. Disheartened, he got up, staggering on his right leg. He looked at the crowd and saw Evelyn. He didn't expect him to be there. He snickered, "This just got even more embarrassing."

He picked up the pieces of the board and threw them in the dustbin. He slowly climbed the stairs and reached the top of the ramp. Lupin was there too. He quickly ran towards Slaine and rolled up his jeans. It was a friction burn. He began treating him.

"Slaine," Jimmy walked towards him, "Why would you do something so reckless? You know you haven't perfected that—Don't you think before you do anything?"

"You told me not to think."

"I—" Jimmy breathed out "Seriously? If this continues, you're gonna lose."

"I'm gonna lose, right? Why do you care?!" Slaine shouted while Lupin wrapped a bandage around his knee.

"Why do I care? Because I'm your friend in case you've forgotten."

"Then, you should understand how hard all this is for me. I'm trying my best but it's just not good enough. I'm gonna lose!"

"You won't," But Slaine left with his bandage half done, "Slaine!" Jimmy called out and sat back.

He threw the bandage aside and walked down the stairs, feeling the pain in his leg. On his way down, his hands were rolling down through the railings. Suddenly, his hand touched another cold hand.

He looked up. It was Asselyum. The moment he saw her face, he broke down crying.

"I didn't even say anything..." She was confused.

"I can't do this anymore. I give up." He cried as he sat on the stairs. She stood there and looked at him.

"It's so easy to say this, right?"

"You don't know what it's like to wanna die."

"Do you want to die?"

He didn't answer.

"You know, Slaine. You've changed from the first time we met. You were much stronger back then, but you're so weak now. Isn't the opposite supposed to happen?"

"This is not a book."

"This is not a book. But you are a protagonist. You have to change constantly or you'll turn melancholic and weak. And weak protagonists are forgotten."

"Easy for you to say."

"Easy for you to be weak. And I hate weak people. But somehow... I still can't hate you." He looked at her "Not yet at least. This might be your last chance, Slaine."

She leaned close to his face and looked into his eyes, "Don't you want me to like you?"

He looked away "Board. I need a skateboard."

"Take mine." He heard. Evelyn stood behind Asselyum with his skateboard.

"You gave it to me when I needed it. Now, I'm giving it back to you, when you need it." Evelyn smiled and handed the board to Slaine. "Make me proud, dad!"

"You know what you want."

Slaine looked at Evelyn.

"You can't give up." Asselyum said, "We've got few X-DROIDs to kill. You remember Delete, right?"

Slaine reached the top of the ramp. Jimmy got up and looked at him.

"Let's do it."

"Your leg is still wounded." Jimmy pointed.

"It's not on my prominent leg. I still have my right leg with me." Slaine reassured him.

"At least get it bandaged."

"After this heat, I will." Slaine smiled at Lupin.

"That is, if I allow you to. Enjoy your final moment of freedom while you can." Riley interrupted.

"Can I break his nose?" Jimmy asked.

"Not yet," Axel said.

The horns went off and Riley got on his board. He went down and as soon as he went into the air, he did two and a half spins around a vertical axis.

"A 900!" Tray shouted.

"That was nice," Rory said.

"It was awesome! So well controlled and powerful!"

"This just reduced Slaine's chances to win."

"Benjamin will have to pull out some lucky cards to beat that."

"Let's have a look at the scores."

"85.6! It's amazing!"

"Oh well,"

Slaine was up next. He got on the old board and looked at the ramp ahead. He was thinking of what he should do to counteract that 900. Because 900 was the best move he knew of and now he couldn't do it since Riley covered it.

Jimmy moved towards him but Asselyum held him back.

"Let him think." She said.

They just stared at him. Slaine was thinking. His hands weren't trembling anymore. His blue eyes seemed focused. Finally, the horns went off and he went down.

"You have to change constantly" He could feel the wind in his air as his speed increased "Or you'll turn melancholic and weak." He could feel the ground beneath him, the friction running against his tyres.

"He's taking up a lot of speed!" Axel said.

"At this speed, if he falls and breaks his neck—It's over." Asselyum crossed her arms.

"Slaine! Slow down!" Jimmy shouted.

Slaine raised into the air. His back moved back and his pelvis pulled forward, forming a C with a body. He brought his knees closer to his chest and rolled into the air while his board rotated 520°. He landed a double salto forwards.

"And weak protagonists are forgotten."

He rolled down and stopped.

"Can't relate," He smirked, looking at Asseyum standing at the top of the ramp. "What an asshole." She said.

"A double front flip!" Tray shrieked, "Did you see that, Rory?! It's the first time I've seen one!"

"I did not expect that."

"It was absolutely impeccable. So flawless and graceful, look at the replay, just look how beautiful it is!"

"Let's see what the judges have to say."

"88.8! The victory belongs to Slaine Benjamin!" 

"Congratulations."

Riley and Frank vanished among the crowd. Riley had lost both the match and his freedom to continue his d**g racquet. Slaine looked at his board with a smile.

"You did great."

Back in the future, Dexter stood at the coast of the dead sea.

"Did you meet Ben?" He asked the sea.

-To be continued