"I can't believe it," muttered Mei, "we work so hard to win and now we have to do try-outs just to stay in the team!"
"Chill out honey," soothed D'Jok, "you know you're going to be fine."
"Alright, next into the holo-trainers, Numbers 1, 8, 14 and 23! Goalkeeper training!" Announced Aarch. Ahito rose to his feet, wiping the sleep from his eyes but he stopped in his tracks when he saw a familiar orange haired girl.
"Yuki?" He gasped.
"I'm guessing from your shocked expression that Thran forgot to tell you that I was coming down!" She giggled.
"But…you…you…are…goalkeeper?" he stammered.
"Ahito, hurry up and get in the holo-trainer!" barked Aarch. Ahito scrambled into the holo-trainer behind Yuki and the other two potential goalies.
A few moments later, Ahito was standing in the goal, readying himself for a barrage of footballs. Ahito sprang into action, darting in front of each ball and hitting it away from the goal. He slid across the ground to keep out a low shot and then leapt into the air to punch a shot over the goal.
"Nice work Ahito, 10/10 shots kept out!" congratulated Aarch in Ahito's ear. "Next up, Yuki!" Yuki skipped past Ahito and took his place in goal. She lowered into a defensive stance, her eyes locked on the incoming balls.
For once Ahito, did not feel even slightly sleepy, his eyes locked on his lithe cousin as she sprinted up and down the goal, knocking away shots left and right. She high kicked a ball clear off the pitch and cart wheeled to hit another away.
Suddenly a spin ball shot towards the upper left hand corner, Yuki only just noticed it at the last moment. She leapt into the air, arms outstretched, like a dart. But she was too late, the ball slipping between her fingers and hitting the back of the net.
She dropped to the floor, skidding across the synthetic grass. She lay still and just let the last ball fly into the open goal. Yuki got grumpily to her feet, ignoring Ahito's words of encouragement.
"Good try Yuki, 8 out of 10 saved! Next!"
Mei glared angrily at all the "new" tryouts. "They don't stand a chance of taking my place," she muttered under her breath. Beside her Thran was stretching his legs, it was obvious that he wasn't so sure that his place was granted.
"Defender candidates, here's the deal! Stop the attackers!" A whirring sound echoed around the pitch as almost a hundred clones appeared, each one with a ball at their feet.
All eight candidates sprang into action, hurling themselves at the clones. Mei slid two out in one tackle and then kicked a ball out from another. Thran glowed blue as he used the breath, he sprinted at super fast speed towards the clones, tackling three and then spinning into another.
Mei swore under her breath as she saw a tall blonde girl take out another clone, "she is not taking my place!" Mei growled. She clenched her fists as she used the breath, blue energy swirling around her slender figure. Mei sprinted towards a cluster of clones heading for the goal. She dropped and spun a low kick, taking out two clones at once, then flipping over another one. She showed off her impressive skill as she tackled a third, a fourth, a fifth opponent. She began to head towards another but she was stopped as a huge, black guy took him out instead.
She shot him a dirty look and he returned a knowing smile that put Mei slightly on edge. She spun around to discover the last of the clones disappearing in front of Thran.
"Ok, that's it!" Grinned Aarch. Beside him Clamp was tallying the scores of each player. "Alright next up, passing exercise!"
Rocket gave a Tia a little kiss on the cheek as they prepared for their midfield training. Beside them other players prepared for whatever was coming up.
"Here's your test!" Announced Aarch. Footballs appeared before each of the players feet. "You need to hit the balls into the hole at the other side!"
Tia squinted as she looked to the edge of the pitch, she could see a tiny black circle, the perfect size of a football. No room for error.
Rocket kicked first. The ball, at first, looked as though it was going the wrong way, but moments later curled back round, slotting perfectly into the hole.
Tia bit her lip nervously, she couldn't imagine her life without the snow kids, she couldn't mess this up. She watched as player after player kicked. One player, a tall dark skinned kid with spiky hair managed to hit it perfectly, most of the others failed.
Tia stepped towards the ball. It was her turn, she had to succeed. She concentrated hard and began to feel a build up of energy around her. Rocket smiled as he saw Tia staring at the ball, the breath swirling around her. Her blond hair ruffling from the force.
She ran towards the ball and kicked it with all her power. The ball raced towards the hole on the other side, blue energy flying out behind it. The ball smashed into the hole, curling round the lip. It teetered on the edge and then ever so slowly, dropped out onto the pitch floor.
Tia stood, mouth slightly agape, her arms hanging limp. Had she just lost everything?
Rocket pulled her into a hug, he could see that she was seriously upset. Rocket kissed the top of her head affectionately and she cried a little into his jersey.
"You're being stupid," he insisted, "Aarch knows how good you are and there's no way he's dropping you."
The other players were giving Tia and Rocket strange looks, after all most of them had missed it, but they weren't taking it that hard.
"I know Rocket, I know," whispered Tia, "I just couldn't bear to lose this team."
"Well well Micro-Ice, let's see if you're as good as I am then!" Laughed D'Jok, dribbling past Micro-Ice as he waited in the line of attackers.
D'Jok sprinted down the field towards the goal. Ahead of him clone defenders began to move in and a clone goalie watched his movements carefully. D'Jok span past the first defender and as the second ran at him he stopped the ball and went the other way, shaking the defender off.
D'Jok headed towards goal and booted the ball into the upper right hand corner. The goalie didn't stand a chance.
Micro-Ice cheered as D'Jok headed back to the line, Micro-Ice was grinning but D'Jok seemed to look troubled. "What's the matter dude?" asked Micro-Ice.
"The breath." he said slowly, "I wanted to use the breath, but… I… couldn't…"
"You're just rusty is all!" Laughed Micro-Ice, taking his place at the half way line. Micro-Ice sprinted off down the pitch towards the defenders. He rolled the ball onto his foot and spun in a pirouette round the first defender. Then he kicked the ball up high over the second defender.
Micro-Ice used the breath as he leapt into the air. He spun in a backflip motion and kicked the ball down hard into the goalkeeper. The keeper was blasted apart by the strength of the kick.
"Well, there's no problem with my flux!" Grinned Micro-Ice as he headed back towards D'Jok. "Were you impressed honey?" he asked to a nearby girl. The girl had long blond hair, that was partly dreadlocked, her ear was covered in metal and there was a ring through her lip. She gave Micro-Ice a look as if he was something nasty she had just stepped in.
"Rose, you're next!" Announced Aarch. The dread locked girl stepped away from Micro-Ice turning her attention to the ball in front of her. She began to dribble up the field, her legs beginning to move faster and faster. She shoulder barged her way through the first defender and then blasted the ball through the legs of the next one. Leapfrogging over the clones back she punted the ball towards the goal. It succeeded, thwacking the back of the net with powerful force.
"Wow, you're pretty good," conceded Micro-Ice.
"I know." She replied with a dirty grin.
"Ok, that's the end of all the try outs, we've made our decisions." Said Aarch, beside him Clamp and Dame Simbai surveyed the miserable faces of the hopeful players.
"First in, is… Rocket!" No surprises there. The captain of the Snow Kids got to his feet, letting go off Tia's hand and strode over to stand with Aarch.
"And… D'Jok!" D'Jok grinned as jumped to his feet and hurried over to Rocket. Still, however, in the back of his mind, all he could think of was not being able to use the breath.
"And… Ahito!" Everyone clapped, but no one moved up to the front. Thran punched the sleeping Ahito hard.
"Wha…" mumbled Ahito sleepily.
"You're in you big dummy!" Chuckled Thran, although secretly he was annoyed that he still hadn't been picked. Ahito rose groggily to his feet and stumbled over to the others, where he lent against Rocket's shoulder and yawned loudly.
Thran looked over to Yuki, who was looking sad. It was obvious that she was less than happy that a goalkeeper had already been picked.
"And… Mei!" Mei got slowly to her feet, her long dark hair swaying behind her. She strode over to the others and pulled D'Jok into a long kiss. Then she turned and looked to all the new players, smirking that she was through.
"And…Rose!" There was silence. All the Snow Kids shot each other shocked glances. Rose walked slowly up to stand with the others. They all gave her cold looks.
"If she's through, then who's out?" muttered Micro-Ice.
"No please…" whispered Tia.
"Next…" continued Aarch, seemingly unaware of the awkward silence in the room. "Thran!" Thran let out a sigh of his relief and hurried over to the others. But he was still painfully aware that there were two snow kids left and only place left on the team.
"Finally…" Started Aarch, everyone in the room was paying their absolute, undivided attention to him. Who was going to take the last place?
"Tia!" Tia rose quickly to her feet, practically sprinting into Rocket's arms. But the rest of the snow kids found it hard to be happy for Tia when Micro-Ice was sitting, stunned in the front row.
"Micro-Ice…" Sighed Aarch.
"NO!" Roared Micro-Ice, jumping to his feet. "How can you take me all the way to the Galactik cup and then drop me next season like I'm worthless!"
"Are you quite done?" he said sternly.
"Yeh, that's about it," spat Micro-Ice callously, storming off towards the exit.
"Where are you going Micro-Ice?" Asked a voice from behind him.
"I'm off the team, you don't expect me to hang around and wash jerseys do you!"
"Micro-Ice you're not off the team!" Cried Aarch. The whole room looked to him incredulously. "I'm not only choosing seven players, a team needs subs you know!"
"But…then…why…didn't you…?" Spluttered Micro-Ice.
"Why didn't I tell you that earlier?" finished Aarch, "and miss that hissy fit? Not on your life!" Micro-Ice couldn't help but laugh as he hurried over to hug his old team mates. He looked to Rose and she gave him a withering look in return. It was clear that there was someone who wasn't happy about Micro-Ice's addition.
"Also through… Mark!" Continued Aarch, as though nothing had happened. The tall dark, skinned mid fielder got to his feet and Rocket recognized him as the only other player to succeed in the midfield task. Mark gave them a small nod, but it was obvious that he was a little nervous around his new "team".
"And… Derek!" The huge black man rose slowly to his feet, shooting the snow kids a cold look. He strolled over to stand with the others, folding his arms and glaring at the others. Mei glared right back, angry that Aarch had selected another defender.
"Finally… Yuki!" Yuki jumped to her feet cheering loudly. She sprinted across to Thran and Ahito pulling them into a crippling hug.
Aarch thanked the other try outs and asked them to leave. Then he turned to his new team of eleven players.
"So, I think it's time to suit up and get in the holo-trainer then!"
Hope you enjoyed!
