Author's Note: Well, this idea has been preying on my mind for the longest time now and I guess I just need to release it. After failing horribly in writing a past Galactik Football fic, I decided to finally give it another go. I DESPISE MARY-SUES....*coughs*, sorry I just needed to get that out. This one uses, I'm afraid, one of my OCs however she is NOT a Mary-sue and all precautions have been taken to ensure that no Mary-sueish-ness, (or OOCness for that matter), will occur. Feel free to let me know if you think I'm failing in it though.
It feels good to write a Sinedd-centric fic as he probably is my favourite male character in the series.
Disclaimer: I do not own Galactik Football or any of the characters, place names and other unique nouns in it. I do however own Ebony, (not an author surrogate!), I don't mind if anyone wants to use her in a fanfic themselves or a DA picture but please let me know first.
Warning: This chapter contains swearing and rating may go up for quite mature content in later chapters.
The smog.
An enigmatic black haze.
A magic trick.
The player disappears but where will they reappear?
The smog.
An illusion.
Yet a truth.
It confuses the mind.
Yet reflects emotion.
The smog.
A predator of the mind.
An ensnarer of the senses.
Made to excite the user.
But to bewitch the beholder.
The smog.
Poison.
Deadly.
A risk to use.
Power at a price.
Might for madness.
The smog.
The ultimate blessing for the strong.
Yet the ultimate curse for the weak.
And Sinedd, the Shadow's star striker, was certainly not weak.
The siren blared from the score board above, announcing the turn of the second half.
"Pick it up!" Artegor Nexus, coach of the Shadows, barked from the controls. "You're ahead but not by much, you can do better!"
Sinedd wiped the glistening sweat from his face, muttering curses and running a free hand through his soaked jet-black hair.
"You'd swear he was the one actually doing the playing," he grunted to Fulmugus, the tawny-haired captain of the Shadows, who answered with one of his usual deep chuckles.
He took up his position on the mid-field line. Opposite the red-headed captain of the Snow Kids.
Waiting with bent legs and baited breath for the ball to whistle up through the duct between them.
D'jok flashed a cocky grin at his rival to which Sinedd replied with a sneer. Conceited bastard didn't deserve the attention he got. He didn't deserve the fame or attention.
"I do," Sinedd murmured breathlessly as the ball shot out above them. "'Cos I'm better than you D'jok."
The two sprang, rocketing into the air and bathed in flux.
Their feet met in a sharp friction on the wildly spinning ball, their mouths both open in a silent roar of adrenaline.
Sinedd pushed himself, sucking the air between his teeth as he felt gravity take hold again and pull him back to the pitch below.
A hiss. Blackness before his eyes. Lungs burning for air.
The smog engulfed both him and the ball and then he was in the opposite the goal.
The crowd below gasped and cheered, marvelling his speed.
"They should," Sinedd thought. "That's right. I'm the best here. I'm the one you came to see."
He swung his leg back, fiercely strong yet strangely graceful when veiled by the smoky haze of his flux. His eyes found his desired spot of bare netting and his entire body seemed to line itself up to aim. His kick was firm, controlled and loaded with ferocity.
The ball became a dark meteorite as it plummeted back to earth and bounced into the back of the net.
Flawless.
He tumbled back to earth, lungs refilling and legs bent to catch his landing. The Shadow's hero, the one the crowd was screaming for, rose slowly from his heels. He was savouring the Snow Kid's crestfallen sighs, his team-mates triumphant laughing and Ahito's wide-eyed slack-jawed expression as the ball slowly stopped spinning in the net and rolled down to his feet with a thin, resounding thud.
"Ok then!" buzzed Artegor's voice from the intercom. "That's enough for today. Get in, get cleaned up and meet back in the common room. We have some work to attend to."
Sinedd grunted and watched as the pitch, crowd and players around him disappeared in a cloud of fuzzy white sparks. Piece by piece, illusion dissolved into reality. Players reduced to pixels. They were only holograms of course but that didn't stop him from giving a sharp, hostile glare to the red-headed player opposite him.
D'jok...he even hated the guy's hologram. It never quite gave the satisfaction of sneering at the real thing, especially after a goal like that.
That kind of adrenaline that burned in his chest overbore the pain of everything else around him. It was like a drug that he could let himself dissolve into and forget everything he didn't want to remember...and there was a lot Sinedd didn't want to remember. Sometimes he felt like it was the smog doing that. Erasing his memory like an eraser pressed to blurry pencil lines and splitting his vision like cracked glass. But power always came with a price didn't it?
Sinedd was strong. The smog was no baby flux. He had sworn to himself the day he'd learned to use it that he would endure the pain Artegor Nexus had warned him of and reap the rewards of his new found power.
He looked up at his reflection in the mirror.
A young man with a narrow face and smooth black hair. Handsome. A little rugged and gaunt. He was thin and lanky but taut muscles lurked beneath his loose black jersey. Muscles and bruises. Bruises from everything from playing illegal underground football matches to dealing with the backlash of them.
It had been a tough, gruelling year, he recalled, as he blotted the sweat from his forehead.
"Nothing I couldn't handle though," he mused, stuffing the remainder of his gear into his locker.
"Say something?" Fulmugus grunted from beside him. The other players were too engrossed in their own business to pay any attention to the young man's mutterings. Showering, stretching out their long, dark slender bodies and laughing away in their deep, inaudible language of growls and screeches.
Sinedd looked up. "No, I didn't...just thinking about the tournament...that's all."
The Shadow's captain gave a curt nod and raked his fingers back through his long brown hair. Sinedd was an alien among the rest of the team. Sometimes he looked at their long, muslin hair and their claw-like hands, their gaunt white faces and their eerie red eyes and it just sent shivers up his spine.
He was different to them, isolated but then again...at least they didn't have that irritatingly delusional "best-friends-all-in-this-together-get-involved-in-each-other's-problems" that his former Akillian-born team-mates had.
His new team-mates were also more than willing to make fun of those air-headed Snow Kids and, (sometimes quite literally), stand behind him if the situation called for it. But most days on the planet he now called home, he kept his thoughts to himself. He could do we wanted.
Lonely? Never. He was content with no one to bother him.
No nagging coach.
No pestering team-mates.
No parents back home to constantly fuss over him...
No one.
Sinedd sloped down the hallway flanked by his fellow players, dark eyes glittering with anticipation with each step. Coach would be brimming with praise for him after this practice.
"Happy with yourself?" Kai, their goalkeeper, smirked, noticing Sinedd's little grin.
"Why wouldn't I be?" he glowed.
Fulmugus laughed. "You make us proud, Snow-balls."
Sinedd grimaced at his less-than-favourable nickname but rolled with the punches. "And I'll make you prouder when we take the title at Blitz..."
It had been about a year since the last Galactik Football Cup and with the next not due for another three, the Shadows had their sights set on a new prize...the Blitz Tournament. It was an inter-galactic knock out tournament. Simple rules. Every team entered on every planet plays with no preliminaries. The teams are put against each other at random and one loss means you're out.
It wasn't as big as the Cup but it held more than just a flashy trophy...it held reputation. It was a chance for teams to show off their endurance.
Each match was held on the host-team's planet and the final was held on the planet holding the most goals.
"And that planet's gonna be Planet Shadow," Sinedd laughed in false-triumph amid the chuckling chorus of his towering team-mates.
Nilhis, the only girl on the team and a vicious midfielder behind her ivory hair, broke the symphony. "What about Sheirk? We still need a replacement for him."
About a week beforehand, the striker who played beside Sinedd had been hospitalised after an "incident" during their last match with the Xenons that had got a little out of hand.
(Apparently no one insults Luur's mother under his breath and gets away with it.)
They had been holding trials for the past week but had found no one who could play up to their level, (or even survive playing beside their future team mates without ending up with several minor injuries for that matter).
"What about that guy we had yesterday?" one of the other players chipped in. "He was pretty decent."
"Decent?" snorted Fulmugus. "Decent won't get us to the finals of the GF cup."
"You're thinking too far ahead," Kai interjected. "Sheirk should be out by then,"
"Yeah, but with a shattered collar bone and torn ligaments, he's gonna need ages to recover..."
"And he's gonna be out of training...Coach won't stand for that..."
"It's like all the football-talent in the galaxy has already been sapped, huh?"
"Heh, no players worth our time anymore..."
"We can't play in Blitz without a full team though!"
"Hey guys, calm the fuck down, alright?" Sinedd interrupted breezily and with a cocky grin splashing across his sallow. "With me up front, we don't need a second striker!"
The others laughed noisily, jeering and thumping him in the back but they all knew it was true. Maybe he wasn't fully one of them, but he had proved on more than one occasion that he deserved the place of honour he had on the team and the titles it had earned him from Genesis.
Fulmugus gave a deep booming shout of laughter. "Snow-balls is going to bring us to victory this year."
The Shadow players whooped and cheered, punching the air and chanting in growls around Sinedd.
"Yeah that's right!" he joined in, jumping ahead as they rounded the corner into the common room. "I'm gonna lead this team to vic-"
He stopped dead in his tracks, staring into the open door of the common room. His open mouth slowly closed, like a goldfish trying to breathe on dry land.
The other players who flanked him quietened too, stopping and staring just as he was, into the centre of the Shadow's team common room where the comfy black leather sofa was.
Only they weren't staring at the sofa.
They were staring at its occupant.
There, sprawled across their sofa with one leg stretched lazily out across the coffee table, was a girl.
Her arms were firmly folded against her chest and behind the sleek, blonde curls that framed her milky face, she looked about in her late teens.
She wore a bored, ignorant expression, eyelids lowered and lips pursed. She gave no reaction to the herd of players who had just entered the room other than a raised eyebrow. Her eyes remained fixated on the blank television screen ahead of her, like she was watching a movie that only she could see.
Sinedd exchanged estranged glances with his team mates, who all simply shrugged.
No, they didn't know who she was.
He turned back to her with narrowed eyes and a half frown. It wasn't unusual for a fan girl or two to bribe her way past security in order to get a chance to drool over one of her idolised players. She wasn't one of the usual ghoulish looking Shadowarian girls, (in fact she looked quite human) and true, she wasn't jumping or screaming at the sight of them...but she was a little trespasser all the same.
Sinedd's glare sharpened as he approached her: he wasn't in the mood for this shit today.
"Sorry girlie, but we're not signing autographs today," he said icily. "This is a closed practice session and you're interfering...so leave and come back another day."
She slowly turned her head to look at him. Her lips stretched into a smile. "No, I don't think I will...hmm, you're Sinedd right?"
He stared at her in numb disbelief. "Did you hear me? I said leave. This is a closed training session."
She looked at him with a haughty, insulted expression and opened her mouth, perhaps to retaliate but just then, the spiky-haired coach of the Shadows strode into the room.
Sinedd gave a sneering smile to the intruder; now she was going to get it, but his mouth fell open when Artegor walked straight past her.
He didn't even look at her from under his shining violet glasses. Instead he simply, pulled out his clipboard.
"Right, all of you. Sit down, sit down and direct your attention to the holo-trainer screen. We have two friendlys to play before Blitz and quite frankly..."
His team-mates obediently shuffled to a seat but Sinedd remained standing, indignant.
"If you haven't noticed, Coach, we have an uninvited visitor."
Artegor flicked his (invisible) eyes upward over the rim of his clipboard, lowering it and frowning.
"Yes Sinedd, I am aware we have a visitor yet this one is indeed invited. Now, as I was saying..."
"Then what's she here for?!" Sinedd demanded rudely, suddenly backed by a chorus of his team-mates.
Coach Nexus sighed and lowered the clipboard, exasperated. "As you are aware, Sinedd, we have been holding trials for a reserve player..."
The black-haired young man almost choked on his own breath, refusing to look down at the triumphant face of the intruder. "Wh-wha...? Her!?"
The other Shadows seemed shocked too, shocked and already laughing cruelly in disbelief. The girl was about half any of their size, (save a good head shorter that their beloved lead striker), gawky and stick-like and her blonde, baby's ringlets made her greatly resemble some kind of weirdo Barbie doll.
Artegor raised a hand to render them all quiet again and turned to the indifferent guest.
"You are Ebony, are you not?"
"I am," she replied slowly.
"And if the information I've been given is correct, you are eighteen years old?"
"Yes."
"You have never played for any clubs before this..."
A disbelieving stare. Silence.
"That's true."
"And your current residence is on this planet. Is that right?"
"Uh-huh."
He ran a hand down the clipboard tentatively, checking the information and clicking his tongue.
"Well, if all that is correct than you may change into your gear into the next room and wait in the lobby while I address my team."
The girl called Ebony gave a curt nod and walked out, without another word.
The frail blonde head had barely left the room when Sinedd began his uproar. "You can't be serious! We need a REAL replacement."
Fulmugus was a little more rational in his complaints. "Coach, she has no experience..."
"True," Artegor interrupted. "But I have had her...specially recommended by a prestigious friend of mine. Apparently she's talented...and at this stage we are in desperate for a replacement. Which, I may remind you, we cannot begin training without." He paused and scanned the troop of players before him, like a vulture singling out its prey, before turning back to the holo-screen.
"Now sit down, Sinedd and if you have any more "insight" for us all than please wait until afterwards to give it..."
Sinedd gave a growl, swearing violently under his breath, but sank reluctantly back on to the sofa with his team-mates. A familiar tightening feeling had just begun in his chest again, rising with the rage that had just ignited there.
The plummeting rollercoaster of emotion that had just shot through him was enough to make a demon of a saint.
His lips curled, deaf to his Coach's instructions. Maybe it was wrong to want to make that girl a surrogate for his sudden anger, but that hardly bothered Sinedd. He would take pleasure in seeing her smug little face when they rejected her for a place on the team. For whatever "special recognition" she had, he would expose her for the worthless little amateur she was.
The dim lights burned down over a synthetic green-glass pitch and two gleaming white goalposts.
It was almost like the ones back on Akillian, Sinedd would often recall, only narrower and slightly darker.
Sort of like the girl who padded her way across the pitch, her trainers squeaking with every step.
Artegor pulled the CCTV of the pitch on to the big screen monitor. Perhaps it was a little unfair of him to allow the whole team watch Ebony's first trial...but then again the Shadows were never exactly famed for their fairness, were they?
"Walk into the centre of the pitch," Artegor commanded over the intercom.
She jumped a little hearing his voice boom out of the system, (Sinedd noted with mirth), but obeyed.
Her legs looked shaky and her shoulders were hunched over in that "first timer's" way most newbie players walked out on to the pitch in, arms wrapped up as if they were trying to hold themselves together.
"Ok, Ebony listen carefully," Artegor began. "I'll be trying you out as a striker..."
He pushed a button and a clone-goalie appeared, guarding the net in front of her.
"Ten balls are going to appear in front of you in moderation. You have the simple objective of scoring a goal with each one of them. You need to score at least five or over to continue in this trial."
"Good luck...you'll need it!" shouted Sinedd mockingly, sending his team-mates into fits of silent laughter.
Artegor rolled his eyes as he leaned forward into the monitor. "Ebony, do you understand?"
She nodded quickly but her eyes remained shifty and uncertain.
"Ebony...I need an answ-"
"Yes. Yes I understand!"
"Alright then...begin!"
The first ball appeared on the white strip before her.
Sinedd leaned back into the soft, supple leather of his seat and sniggered to himself. Her first kick was a miss, the goalie knocking the ball straight back at her. Failed.
"Obviously," he thought to himself with satisfaction.
Her second soared straight out over the top bar, her face creasing slightly in disappointment.
Artegor leaned forward again. "Miss, I implore you not to waste my time."
The next ball shot into the bottom of the net before the man had time to breathe.
Her blurry pixelated face had grown sharp with frustration. Her fists clenched and this time she took two swift steps back before swinging another curved kick at her desired target.
Sure enough, the fourth bounced into the back of the net, just evading the goalie's careful grasp.
"Beginner's luck, coach, make the keeper faster."
Her fifth was caught- but only barely.
Her sixth bounced under the bar and into the net.
"Ok," Artegor shouted in. "I'm going to send the next four balls to you at various heights and angles...steady them and shoot them in."
"Bring it!"
An annoying false confidence had begun to grow in the girl that Sinedd couldn't help but think was undeserved.
"You're not on the team yet, blondie, you've only managed to get three of them in. Go back to pole-dancing."
"Yeah, but she's better than most of the rest...and what makes you think she pole dances? Checking that out?" laughed Fulmugus, causing his team mate to glow red, realising he had just said that last "mental statement" aloud.
"Let's see you crash and burn," thought Sinedd, remembering his first trial.
The seventh ball whistled in from behind her. She managed to catch it against her chest, (a little clumsily), and position it for a kick that ended it in a goal.
"Anyone could have made that."
The eight missed but she did manage to catch it in mid-air.
"Heh...not good enough."
Ball number nine soared straight in.
"Luck over skill, I guess."
Number ten followed it.
"So you can score a goal or two. Big whoop."
Clearly, Coach Nexus didn't seem to think the same thing. He was smiling slowly to himself and nodding, watching her replay.
He whipped around to his team.
"Fulmugus! Sinedd! Gear up and get inside the holo-trainer. We need to put her through the paces. You know what to do."
The black haired striker smiled darkly. "Gladly, coach. My pleasure."
Artegor held up a hand against his Sinedd's chest, barring his exit.
"Don't use the smog."
"What?"
"That goes for both of you. No using the smog. There's no need to. I need to base this test on raw talent and that won't happen if you set the bar too high."
"Ugh, fine..."
"And Sinedd?"
"...yes?"
"Keep the pressure on but don't crack down too much. Same to you, Fulmugus."
Both players nodded, (one somewhat more convincingly than the other), before striding out of room and appearing moments later in the holo-trainer beside Ebony.
The two Shadows were tall and muscular in comparison to the scrawny girl at the goal before them.
Sinedd grinned and nudged Fulmugus before disappearing in a cloud of black. He appeared back into reality a few seconds later, seeming to glide out of thin air just in front of the girl.
Fulmugus raised an invisible eyebrow but followed suit.
This was a sadistic little game they liked to play with all the newbies and less experienced players. The smog intimidated people. It was power that was feared.
Ebony flinched a little, leaning back and crossing her arms indignantly but her face barely changed.
"Right. I am Fulmugus...the captain of this team," he growled. "You get five tries to dribble past Sinedd and me and shoot into that goal." He gestured to the gleaming white posts behind him. "If either of us gets the ball off you, then that counts as a fail. Understand?"
She frowned and murmured silkily: "Two of you, big boys against...one of little me? That hardly seems fair, now does it?"
"In a real match you won't get the chance to pick who tackles you and how many of them do," Sinedd snapped, flaring a little smog up around his ankles.
"Fine," Ebony sighed. "Where do I start?"
"Walk to the furthest touch-line and wait there," Fulmugus ordered. "The first ball will appear in front of you in thirty seconds."
Ebony turned on heel and jogged off down the pitch, curls bouncing behind her.
Fulmugus looked down at his team-mate's feet as they took up their positions. "Coach said no smog."
"He said no playing with the smog...now let's send the little wannabe packing..."
Sinedd's eyes caught Ebony's back as she turned, surveying her slender little form like a sniper ready to fire at his target. His eyes focused sharp on her figure at the other end of the pitch as he crouched, ready to run. Fingerless gloves clenched into fists.
Red eyes swivelled down to him. "Coach said not to crack down on her..."
"He said not to crack down on her too much," he hissed reedily, the words catching against his gritted teeth as the first ball materialised before them.
Sinedd shot forward, Fulmugus hanging back to defend.
After all, he knew his team-mate wouldn't need the extra strength this time.
She was quicker at dribbling than he had initially presumed. Her legs flicked deftly around the glowing white orb, shuffling it out of his reach.
He swerved around her, striking a heel or toe out at her ankles- not actually to attempt to get the ball off her. Just to rip her attention from the ball.
She stubbornly kept her eyes downwards, giving him her back and rounding on the ball like a selfish little kitten.
Sinedd almost laughed; it was just like playing with one of the kids on his street back on Akillian. Where the seeds of a passion for football and a desire to be the best had been planted...where he an D'jok would lock knees outside Planet Akillian Cafè in the snow, shouting childish abuse at each other, their gangs gathered around them and his step-parents calling to him to not hurt himself again...
He was sent plummeting back to the here and now when Ebony slid past him, ducking by Fulmugus' defence. Her ball control was shaky but the Shadow's captain was too surprised by her speed to concentrate properly.
The two wrestled for a moment and seconds later, the ball was in the net.
Sinedd wanted to slap the smug little smile off her face.
He threw his weight against her on her second try, knocking her backwards. Slyly, it wasn't hard enough to knock her over (and get him in Artegor's bad books) but it winded her and sent her stumbling backwards.
"You don't belong here," he whispered dragging the ball back with his heel. "Give up yet?"
"N-no!" she gasped. "No."
"3 tries left."
Fulmugus took the next go, shuffling left and right like a ballroom dancer opposite his partner. She didn't try to avoid his eyes like most would but she still squirmed when his long ghostly body graced hers.
Sinedd added a third to their duet and made a swift kick at her shins.
She dodged.
He swerved.
She moved forwards for the goal.
Big mistake.
Sinedd stole the ball in one fluid kick and Ebony ended up flat on her face.
She shot him a fierce glare from beneath her tossed hair, now messy over her red face.
"That's two!" he sniggered, waving the two fingers in front of her face. "Two to one! Ready to pack it in?"
Ebony staggered to her feet and sneered. "You wish."
"Fine, bitch," he thought, taking up his position again. "Your funeral."
Her fourth was fast.
She spun past Fulmugus, the ball at her heels. Spun? Yes, spun.
Not like a footballer would at all but it did the job. In seconds she was pulsing towards the goal, ducking past Sinedd and taking aim for a shot.
The young man gave a vicious kick into her ankles that knocked the ball off its course...but it still bounced in, against the posts.
She was lucky.
She had fortune...not skill.
The three were panting, sweating even from their little session and three pairs of eyes locked hungrily on to the fifth ball as it appeared.
Sinedd had it beneath him almost effortlessly, Fulmugus ready to reinforce his lead. But the girl was
faster than before and had the cherished sphere between her ankles right under the striker's silhouette.
The two pro-players swerved around her, kicking and blocking mercilessly: her shins took the heat.
She managed to squeeze out of their trio, making a dash for the end of the pitch. Like a mouse running to a mouse-hole with its treasured little trinket.
Behind her, a dark Cheshire cat grinned and savoured the moment before his attack and exchanged a glinting glare with his team-mate.
He and Fulmugus sprinted after her to use an old favourite of theirs when it came to tackling.
Both leapt to the ground and slid, feet ramming into Ebony's ankle and knocking her clean into the air. Her leg swung upwards in a clumsy kick as she let out a birdlike cry that pierced the hot, sweaty air around them.
She fell to the ground, back pounding into the green glass below.
Owned.
Sinedd stood up, triumphant and laughing....until he followed his gaping team-mate's gaze to the net.
"You're screwing with me..."
Ebony had fallen, now grunting and groaning on the ground beneath them.
But the ball had rolled straight into the goal.
The girl laughed, arching her back in glee when she spotted her "achievement".
"That's three...if I'm not mistaken...," she rolled over, hauling herself to her feet. "Three to two..."
Sinedd growled, pushed past Fulmugus and stormed over. Rage pounded in his temples. "Look, you..."
Suddenly Artegor's voice buzzed through the ear-pieces. "That's enough... return to the common room."
A draining feeling washed over Sinedd. Fatigue, frustration and a sickening sense of being cheated all combined to do their best to break down his limited self control- and normally he liked this feeling, (when he was instilling it in someone else of course).
Half of him wanted to strangle the long white neck under the fluffy curls that primly took a seat in front of him in the common room. The other half wanted to break it with crow-bar.
"Smug little bitch...thinks she's so great..."
Her smug little smile widened when Artegor reappeared with his clip-board to face the waiting team.
A dull thump of embarrassment hit him when he remembered that his entire team had seen the two of them lose to that little amateur.
"Lose?" he thought to himself. "What loss? Her last shot was a total fluke. She's lucky, not a good player..."
In his daze, he barely noticed Artegor stride forward and shake Ebony's hand.
"You have raw potential, Miss. With a little training, perhaps we can make something of that..."
The Shadows whispered among themselves, grunting in a mixture of displeasure and curiosity; Sinedd gave a cynical snort of "You can't be serious."
Artegor frowned. "Like it or not, Sinedd, Ebony is a member of this team now. You'd do best to accept it..."
He turned back to Ebony, handing her a black plastic bag. "In this you'll find your uniform, training suit and timetable. It would be in your best interest to stick to it," he added sharply.
She took the bag with flourish, grinning like the sly little cat she was. "Thank you, sir."
"You are excused. Give your father my regards."
She turned on heel to leave, brushing fluidly through the sea of towering players behind her.
"I'll see you all on Monday then," she giggled as she passed. "Looking forward to it, too."
Artegor pressed his lips together, eyes working thoughtfully beneath his violet shades for a few moments after she left, then he turned back to his team.
"You all have an hour of free time and at seven I want you all suited up and back on the pitch for passing drills. The smog is back, we have to make the most of it..."
Sinedd was the first to leave, storming out of the common room and into the hall without a word but a vicious sneer on his lips.
"I almost didn't make it...ugh, I know, I..," Ebony whipped her head around, noticing the doors opening behind her. "Hang on, Papa, I'll call you back later."
Switching off the tele-watch, she hastily swung out of sight and path of the black haired teen who emerged from the slide of the doors.
She saw him stride into the hallway, like a wolf, the alpha male, consoling his territory.
From the alcove where she stood, hidden, she could see the anger in those shining violet eyes and the acute white shine the dim lights cast on his perfect, pale skin.
Ebony had seen him on t.v. before, heard about his turbulent transformation from Snow Kid to Shadow and caught a few of his interviews on Arcadia Sports...but knew nothing of his history...well, none more than a bouncy red-headed commentator had interrogated him about.
Whatever was going on behind those dark, handsome eyes, tantalised her.
Irritatingly arrogant and cocky as he was...there was something about this fabled Genesis god, the iconic all-star that drew her straight in.
She watched him lean against the wall, knuckling his forehead and groping against the shining metal as if trying to beat a headache out of himself. Beneath the black and green of his jersey, his outstretched arm was laden with smooth, tight muscle...not like she hadn't noticed on the pitch but, then...she hadn't the time to appreciate it...
"No," she told herself firmly, making a move to leave soundlessly without him noticing.
But before Ebony could take a step, her eyes were dragged towards the hazy wisps of smog, the toxic kiss of a flux, rising from his shoulders.
She made a grab for the canister of pills in her pocket, but then relaxed...sauntering towards him with a grin and a tainted mindset.
Unable to control the urge, Ebony took a deep breath of the smog floating around his shoulders.
Sinedd leapt around, scandalised. Her chin hovered on his shoulder, her lips inches from his jaw-line.
"What the-!?"
He honestly could not believe that she had been inhaling his flux! Without so much as a cough!
She gave an innocent smirk in response to his incredulous glare.
"You freak...what are you...?"
"The smog's not for babies, now is it? But not everyone hates it..."
"And I suppose you'd know? With your "experience", huh?"
She gave an annoying giggle and a shrug. "Perhaps...perhaps I'm just curious."
With that, Ebony flounced out to the door.
Sinedd couldn't deny the shudder that ran up his spine as he gritted his teeth, imagining grabbing those fluffy little curls and tying them to the engine of a star-ship before its launch.
"Weirdo..."
"I'll see you Monday then!" she called back, before disappearing out the front door with another witch-like cackle.
"And I'll give you something to laugh about then...," he hissed under heavy, smoky breaths.