So I'm back for more, hardcore football fan that I am. XD Thanks to Philip Clark for suggesting a sequel.

Revenge is Sweet

Or
Gold and Green

a companion piece to
Green and Gold

( http:/www(dot)fanfiction(dot)net/s/6725854/1/Green_and_Gold )

Vlad sat easily in his large leather chair, cradling a steaming cup of tea, as he set out to relax undisturbed by preoccupations of work or others for the rest of the afternoon, a luxury he rarely allowed himself but one which he could afford today.

After a few minutes, Maddie stalked into the room, meowing for attention. Once she had thoroughly finished rubbing against his legs, the cat sprang lightly onto his lap and made it quite obvious that part of the afternoon's ritual involved getting pet. Vlad obliged, running his hand through the soft white fur, for once not angered at the amount of cat hair that would come off onto his designer Italian suit.

It didn't matter today. He had nowhere to go, no meetings to attend.

The two of them had settled down into a comforting coexistence when a noise, very loud in the silent room, disturbed them. Maddie hissed as something began to shake beneath her and she wasted no time in leaping down and scurrying away when it happened again.

Vlad knit his brow in confusion. It took several moments for him to locate the source of the noise as an object in his pocket.

His phone...? Who would be calling him when he had specifically ordered...?

"Hello," he answered guardedly. For someone to call on this line when he had asked not to be disturbed meant that he might have to deal with any kind of emergency in a few seconds. "Masters speaking."

"Hey Vladdie!" the perky young voice at the other end answered. "What are you up to?"

"Daniel," Vlad answered, pinching the bridge of his nose, "why are you calling me?"

"I asked you a question first— what are you up to?"

The man grit his teeth at the playful tone the other halfa's voice had taken. Now was not the time. "If you aren't calling my private number for any particular reason, I shall hang up. Now tell me— why are you calling?"

"I just wanted to see how you were holding up."

Vlad blinked.

"After everything that happened last night and all."

Oh... no he didn't. The little brat.

"Or hadn't you been paying attention? I guess that you must be pretty busy with your daily schemes to take over the world. It must take a lot of time to discover new ways to fail every time. So I thought that you might have missed it and that would have been a shame," the boy lamented.

"You don't think I've been paying attention to... what?" Vlad found it very hard to keep his temper in check and practically seethed out every word in a soft whisper.

"To sports, you fruitloop."

"Sports?" the man asked nonplussed.

"Yeah, you know, athletics, scoring, points, teams, winning, that sort of thing. And I'm talking about the one sport that really matters."

"You mean cricket?" Vlad asked coldly, suddenly knowing full well where this was going and what the boy actually meant.

A snort. "Cricket? Are you serious, Vlad? No, I'm not talking about cricket; I'm talking about the sport that people care about: football, American football. More specifically, the NFL. He paused. "Ring any bells?"

Vlad didn't answer, so he continued.

"Well, I just wanted to make sure that you were in the know. I mean, strange stuff's been happening, like once in a lifetime stuff and it would be such a sad thing for you to have missed it all because you were failing at being evil."

Smiling, Danny assumed a newscaster's voice for this next bit, "For the first time in history, the Packers, once considered undefeatable Titanic of the football world have been felled by the mighty Giants, who came from nowhere to defeat the number one ranked team in one of the most surprising defeats of all football history…!"

Vlad glared irately at the phone, wishing for not the last time that he could perfect the art of shooting ectoblasts through the thing.

"It's gotta be hard for you, you know," Danny continued in his normal voice. "I mean, the playoffs are there to eliminate the teams that aren't good enough to play in the Superbowl and you guys just... weren't."

"We were good enough," Vlad countered heatedly. "We should have won. We were ranked first and only lost two games the entire season. That's far better than any other team this year."

"Yeah, but one of the losses was in, what, the first round of the playoffs?"

"Second," the man replied tersely.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. But you lose when it really matters. Did you even see the final score? What were you guys doing, taking a picnic in the middle of the field? You lost big time, dude. And to the Giants, too!"

Vlad tilted his nose a bit higher in the air, deciding to ignore the spiteful flavor Daniel was bringing to the conversation. "Hmm, perhaps. Nevertheless, something profitable has come out of this situation."

"Oh really?"

"Yes. I am now in a better position to buy the team." Vlad smirked.

"Ah, right," Danny drawled. "About that..."

"What?" Vlad asked, immediately on his guard again. He could just picture the boy nonchalantly rubbing the back of his neck while trying to hide a rakish grin that boded nothing good for him.

"I'm not sure that they'll sell any more of the team."

"Any more?" Vlad asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"Well, you know they were selling off shares of the team, right?"

Of course he knew; he'd bought the vast majority of them, except for a few that were released ahead of even his schedule and that he'd been unable to track down. But how Daniel knew about it and why he was bringing that up now was still a bit of a mystery to him.

Danny sighed contentedly. "Yeah, it's great having people like Sam as your best friend, you know."

Vlad didn't know exactly how that comment connected to anything so he kept quiet. Danny reveled in the silence, knowing that he had the great Masters stymied, and let it grow until it was almost awkward.

"Yep, being rich and everything, she was able to get a hold of some of the shares before they went on sale to the public. So now Dad and I each have some."

Vlad's eyes grew wide and once it registered in his brain, he seethed at the thought that Jack, of all people, owned part of the team which should by all rights belong solely to him. Was there nothing of his that he didn't stick his big fat fingers into to corrupt?

"But you know," Danny continued, "even though I own part of the Packers, I have to admit that I've become a pretty big Giants fan this season."

"Fudge nutters!" was Vlad's only reply.

"Well," Danny laughed, "now that I know you know what's going on in the sports world, I'll say my goodbyes. Goodbye, cheesehead! And good luck… oh wait, it's too late for that now, isn't it?"

Vlad stared gaping like a fish at the phone in his hand, now silent after the conversation had been so quickly terminated. He was rarely in this position, left hanging without the last word and without knowing what his last words would have been had he been given a chance to get them in.

On the other end, Danny closed his phone shut with a satisfying click and grinned.

Ahhh yes. Revenge was sweet.

Sorry to all you Packers fans out there (heh, yeah right), and I know more than most people that football is not the sport to end all sports (I'm a swimmer, and used to having the short end of the athletic popularity stick), but I can totally see Danny saying what he says here in order to get to Vlad, even if he doesn't personally have anything against the Packers or other sports.

Please let me know what you thought!