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Having found a note on the door to his apartment, an invitation to go boarding, Derek soon found himself headed to the skatepark the next day. While he was in no real hurry, he made his way east at a fairly quick pace. Excitement drove him, as he hadn't had a chance to see the skatepark just yet. Not only that, but he was curious to how Z was with the board. While he was feeling a little sore from yesterday's training, he was definitely up for skating now.

It didn't take long for the boy to hear the familiar sounds of skaters and their activities. A grin slowly crept onto his face, which grew further as he spotted the place up ahead.

There were a few people there, but his hazel eyes scanned the area to try and find one individual. It wasn't too hard; Z was pretty easy to pick out in a crowd. At least that's how Derek felt. And from the looks of things, the other boy was already out and skating about.

"Yo Z!!" he called out in greeting, throwing in a wave to try and catch his attention, "What's up?"

Slowing down now, he made his way to meet up with the other boy, whether or not Z would notice him.

The look on Z's face was fairly similar to some of the ones he had seen when they first met, when Z spoke about Tokyo and about the ability to become a weapon. Most likely, it meant that he was enjoying himself quite a bit in the skatepark.

Sharing a similar, but not quite insane, grin, Derek nodded and laughed.

"Nope! Made it here without a hitch," he said before watching the other boy do an impressive kickflip, "Sweet move!"

His hazel eyes were lit with excitement; it seemed that Z was pretty good on a skateboard. Aside from enjoying doing things himself, the Technician always found it nice to see others pull off tricks as well. And well, newbies weren't quite as interesting to watch usually, so he was pretty glad to see that Z was beyond that.

"Oh yeah, definitely."

Without another word, he kicked the concrete to start picking up speed. Grinning as he felt the wind breeze through his hair, he hopped up onto the railing near Z, feeling the board grind against steel under his right foot. It lasted for roughly a second before he hopped once again to flip the board with his heel.

Looking back towards Z, Derek grinned before nodding, "Yeah, it takes a bit of getting use to. I'm sure you'll get it down soon enough though!"

Then, as the other boy breezed past to head towards one of the ramps, he watched to see what he would do. Wide eyes, filled with excitement, watched as Z executed a pretty sweet move. Once it was done, he moved to meet up with the other boy.

"Haha, hadn't done it in awhile I guess? If that's the case, you're doing really good!"

He was sincere with his words. Going off of how well Z was doing here, he wouldn't have ever guessed that the other boy had put down the board for awhile. Z didn't seem to be all too shaky or rusty at all in his opinion. Though, since it was more or less his turn to go, he didn't offer any other words, and sped off towards the ramps as well. Once reaching the half-pipe he picked up some speed rolling back and forth to reach one the top of either side. Once he gained enough momentum to reach the lip, he firmly planted his palm down onto it to do a basic invert. Then, dropping back down, he picked up speed and went airbourne on the other side to do a Japan Air.

Adrenaline rushed through his body as he did all of this, and for him, time always seemed to go more slowly whenever he was in the air. Even if in reality it all happened in a matter of seconds. The landing was a little on the shaky side, but he managed to keep from bailing off the board. Taking in a few deep breaths, he grinned over at Z to see what he would do now.

The other boy was going to try the tricks he had just performed. With a grin, Derek stood by and watched to see how well he'd do. Personally, he found working in a half-pipe a little more difficult than freestyling.

His eyes followed Z intently as things seemed to start off well. Though as good as it looked, the timing was a little off for the Japan Air. And as he landed, the guy had to bail. For a moment, Derek was worried he'd hit the ground hard, but he soon saw that Z was perfectly fine. Laughing as the other guy back flipped, he glanced around, taking a note that a few people were staring.

"Haha, well at least you have a good attitude about it. Some people get kinda angry if they don't stick a trick," he grinned.

Just then, someone zoomed on past them and into the half-pipe. Looking over to the side to see what was going on, he saw one of the other skaters doing what he and Z had just done. Only, the skater managed to land the Japan Air without a hitch, throwing in a 360 to the grab for the heck of it. Once done, the guy looked over towards Derek and Z before announcing to everyone.

"And you see boys, that is how a pro does it."

Derek blinked at this. While he had to admit the other guy was good, he wasn't so sure why he had to throw in what he said. What did he have to gain by showing them up?

"Haha, true that. Not to mention you can't really learn if you never fall." His logic there was that if someone never fell or had to bail, they weren't pushing themselves hard enough to ever really improve.

To Derek's surprise, he caught a wild look in Z's eyes. There was a sort of fire within them. It seemed he was planning something, but for the time being he wasn't entirely certain what that was. In the next moment he saw the boy speeding back towards the halfpipe.

The Technician tilted his head before crouching down to watch what was about to happen. It seemed that Z took the loud-mouth's words as a challenge.

"This should be good..." he said, grinning in the process.

Sneering at the boy with violent eyes, the show off looked at Z when he circled around him. The guy didn't look too impressed, but he was willing to see what this boy had to show. The stalefish he pulled off wasn't bad, but the next trick made his jaw drop unintentionally. Wide eyes stared into the crazied expression on Z's face before he realized he heard some clacking from around the area.

Impressed with the maneuver, Derek, as well as a few of the others who had been watching were smacking the ground with their boards as a way to applaud Z.

Then, standing back up, the Technician skated over by Z as the show off stomped off angrily.

"That was sick man! I know I can't top something like that," he said with a laugh.

Grinning as Z returned, Derek shook his head in amusement, "Hey, quality over quantity man. Quality over quantity."

There was still somewhat of a competitive air in the area, even though the little showdown was over. Derek enjoyed pushing himself to the limit if possible, so a small idea came to mine. Perhaps Z would like the idea as well. Nothing like a little friendly competition after all.

"Say... why don't we have a little race of sorts. Not head to head - that'd be hard to do on the obstacles. But kinda a timed challenge. Some of the others in the area might not mind judging and if that's the case we'll be scored on how fast we are and on our tricks."

Then, pointing out to the skatepark, he was trying to figure out some sort of course they could take.

"So I guess it's kinda like an obstacle course, on a skateboard. You up for that?" he asked. This was one way he'd be able to see some more of the moves Z had, while having a blast himself.

For a moment, Derek considered inviting a few others. It would certainly add a little more spice to their game. And as Z said, they might learn a few things in the process, which would always be a plus. So with a grin, he nodded quickly before waving over some of the others that were watching. He took a moment to explain the basics of the competition. Two of the skaters decided to sit out, but would like to judge and keep time. Two others, including the one loud mouth from before jumped into the challenge.

It amused Derek that the one guy decided to return. The loudmouth must have wanted to try and redeem himself or something like that. In any case, it should be interesting to see how things go.

So then they needed to come up with the course. The two that volunteered to judge decided to come up with the course to try and keep things more fair and such.

"Alright, start off at the top of that quarterpipe. Drop down and head over the bauer box over there. Then head towards the rails on the right, grind the first and make the jump to the second rail next to it. From there, hit the quarter-pipe and double back to the pyramid over there. Pick up some speed and hit the launch ramp before going to the half-pipe to perform three tricks. Once you land the third trick, the timer stops. Feel free to do any ground tricks inbetween the obstacles."

Listening closely, Derek nodded. It was a little much to remember but the skaters repeated it a few more times to help the competitors get it to stick.

"Alright, sounds good to me!" he said with a nod.