Their newest victory already behind them, Kevin and Owsin sailed onward. The race track was more of the same, predominantly flat ground with the track having occasional clusters of buildings on either side. Outside the track there were several massive plateaus that dominated the landscape. Kevin and Oswin were approaching one now.

  “You've memorized the map for this right?” said Kevin.

  “Uhhh I tried to,” responded Oswin, petaling hard by his side.

  “There is a shortcut in the clouds coming up. Entrance ramp is on the plateau up ahead. We are supposed to get a speed of 350 mph for it. Normally we are short, but I think with the last in place boost we could make it.”

  “The shortcut takes us to the halfway mark right?”

  “Yea, yea” Kevin zoned out, trying desperately to prepare himself for what was to come.

  “Alright, lets hit it”

  Oswin poured his all into his bike, which was an orange and red lobotomy cycling unique, handed down by his father. Kevin followed close behind, keeping his mind as clear as he could possibly manage.

  The ramp soon came into view. It was chiseled into plateau, with large rough rock walls flanking it on both sides. The ramp was only 10 feet across, and extended hundreds of feet up, all the way to the top of the plateau. Beyond the ramp was a cloud, oddly long and oddly unmoving. It rested in the perfect position for someone looking to land on it.

  Kevin hit the ramp first. He thoroughly enjoyed entering the elbow of the ramp, feeling a force several times gravity's strength acting down on him. It was one of the few times in the race he could put maximum effort into petaling and not skid out. A certain part of him just liked to press hard, and unleashing his energy in this manner felt great, even if it was not terribly efficient.

  Following by a few feet, Oswin hit the ramp tired, but going at least fast enough to land on the cloud, or so he hoped. Once in the air he sat on his handlebars and struck a pose similar to the “thinking man”. Oswin expected to see Kevin going for a similarly conservative trick, but instead saw Kevin remain frozen in place.

  Kevin had no interest in doing any tricks for this jump. There was a far more important war waging in his head. He watched the ground get farther and farther away. Soon it was spinning. Then the ground seemed to be tilting, getting farther then closer then farther again.

  “I can’t ride on clouds, I can’t ride on clouds, I can’t ride on clouds” Thought Kevin. “Nono, I can— The only— I can’t ride on clouds. I’m going to fall.” Any attempt to steer his thinking towards anything positive was consumed by a sea of negativity. His rational mind was tied and gagged and could only watch in horror.

  Kevin disappeared into the cloud above. Oswin maintained his thinking man, and even thought while he did so. “We are going to bike on clouds” pondered Oswin. “Neither of us have ever done it before, yet I have a feeling it will be rather easy”. The wall of white approached Oswin rapidly. “Does Kevin feel the same way?”

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Oswin only cleared to the other side of the clouds by a few feet. A major benefit of this was all the extra milliseconds he had to grow accustomed to biking on clouds while he left the zenith of his trajectory. Clouds were soft, like biking on cotton. However the clouds of the race track were far firmer than Oswin expected. He centered his balance and began to steadily petal forward.

  Kevin, who overshot by hundreds of feet, was beginning his plummet down to earth. He screamed and flailed, letting go of his bike in the madness.

  “Grab your bike” shouted Oswin. There was just enough sense left in Kevin to quickly follow the order. As Kevin fell past, Oswin reached out and grabbed the front tire of Kevin’s bike. Kevin clung for dear life onto the back tire. Due to Kevin’s panic, and definitively not-cool flailing, all RAD had left Kevin's body. He drifted through the cloud as if it was mere mist, not particularly slowing down Oswin in any noticeable way.

  “How did you figure out cloud biking so quickly?” asked a delirious Kevin.

  “Why did you pick a shortcut that you had no ability to execute?” shot back Oswin, whose arm was already starting to grow sore from holding up Kevin and his bike.

  “That I had no ability to execute? By how many inches did you make it onto this cloud?” Mocked Kevin.

  Oswin snorted. “I suppose you are right. But again, why this shortcut.”

  “Sometimes my mind just tells me what I have to do, and all my body can do is attempt to execute it. This is one of those cases. We either take this shortcut, or we may as well forfeit the race.”

  Kevin gripped the back tire of his bike with both hands. By looking down he could make out the distance to the ground. The cloud that he and Oswin rode on was very thin. He was still deciding what scared him more: the view of how long he had to fall, or the view of Oswin growing more tired by the second.

  “Make yourself useful” stated Oswin. He summoned his signature weapon, this time a tube sock filled with quarters, and emptied all the quarters from it. “Use this to tie your bike to mine. Before I get tired” Kevin did as he was told, and thus Oswin’s arm was able to relax.

  Oswin picked up the pace, and also expanded his knowledge of cloud biking. By channeling more RAD energy into his tires, he could make the cloud underneath him more firm. A firmer track meant more speed, but also reduced his traction. Oswin appreciated he was even capable of any of this.

  “You help me out more than you realize” Oswin thought out loud.

  “Hmm? Me? You sleep through half our practices”

  “And the half I show up to benefit me greatly!” proclaimed Oswin, giggling.

  “You also have that great mentality towards discovering new powers: ‘Lean into every new feeling’”

  “I’m gonna level with you buddy. Think it’s just bad advice. I have pissed myself two times, zero new powers”

  “Really?” Questioned Oswin. “Because it has been working for me.”

  “Actually? What’s it like?”

  “At least for me, it's like taking a real deep breath for the first time in ages.” Electricity began to crackle and jump between Oswin and the bike. “And normally I shy away from it, but with you here…” Oswin’s eyes began to glow blue. He looked at Kevin a final time and smiled. “This is where we will be getting off.”

  The cloud track ended abruptly, especially from Kevin’s perspective. Being halfway in the cloud, he could not see very far in any direction. He anticipated spending time dreading the inevitable fall back to earth, but since the horrifying experience snuck up on him, there was nothing to fear. Except falling. Kevin was now falling.