Chapter 2. Basketball Player Sells Sole: Wins Championship, But Loses Shoe Contract!

In a world between worlds, the land where nightmares and dreams are born (and sometimes come to die), a shadow was awakened by a dark voice.

The voice beckoned the shadow, asked it to come to his world and help him to defeat someone the voice thought might become troublesome.

The shadow ignored the voice and tried to go back to sleep.

The voice reminded the shadow how often others of its race had performed the same service, for him and others like him.

The shadow reminded the voice how often others of its race had died while performing that service.

The voice explained his situation, that his enemies had enjoyed peace and prosperity for centuries, while the owner of the voice did not even have a body. He had been all but forgotten, and only remembered as a legend. The voice wanted to remind his enemies what fear was. But two of his enemies had great power, greater than they realized, and they had just made a connection with one another. The voice did not want this to happen, so he bid the shadow to take the form of the more troublesome of the two and destroy him before he could cause a problem.

The shadow told the voice to do something quite painful, and most likely physically impossible.

So the voice wrenched the shadow from the world between worlds, and deposited it firmly in the world of the voice's origin.

The shadow swore silently for a moment, then went in search of this "troublesome" young man.

zzz

Link woke up on the couch, with a headache and only a vague memory of how he'd gotten there. There was the bar, and Sheik, and that pink phone...

And the message on the answering machine. He looked to see if there was another, but no such luck. It made sense, it was only ten in the morning, but still... He'd been hoping.

Link sighed and shoved himself off the couch. He was awake, so he might as well get up and out of last night's clothes. Ugh, they stunk of cigarettes.

Shedding clothes as he walked, Link headed for the bathroom. That was one of the few benefits of living alone; no one to complain when you walked around naked. Also, no one to care when you decided it was too dark and spooky upstairs, and just crashed on the couch.

That happened more often than Link's spine would like.

He stepped into the shower while the water was still cold, to jolt himself awake. Oh yeah, that was a hangover. He knew some stuff to kill it though, which he intended to do just as soon as the cool water stopped feeling so good...

It was mornings like this that Link was glad he didn't have a job. Sure, money would be nice, but sleeping in and having nothing to do all day was nice too. Choices, choices.

And then the phone rang.

Link spent approximately one-tenth of a second debating whether or not to grab a towel, then decided, "screw it," and ran for the phone.

"Hello?" he said, trying not to sound breathless.

"Link? It's, um, Sheik. From the bar?"

"I remember you Sheik," He grinned foolishly. "Hard to forget that bubblegum phone of yours."

"Hey, shut up. It was a gift."

"I know, I know," Link laughed. He was distantly aware of a spreading puddle of water and suds on the floor. "So what's up?"

"Nothing. I'm bored. I was wondering if you were doing anything."

"Well, I was in the shower, but me and Ralph and Kefei play basketball in the afternoon. You wanna come?"

Sheik was silent.

"Sheik?"

"What? Um, basketball. Yes. Okay."

"Are you all right?"

"Fine! Um, so, where and when?"

"The court at the easternmost side of the park, one o'clock. Um, the little park, not the one where all the rich people walk jog. You know which one I mean? I can't remember the name."

"Sure, yeah. That's Kakariko Park, by the way."

"Good to know." He poked at the carpet with his toe, and water welled up. "Hey Sheik, I'm sorry but I gotta go. I left the water running, and I think I've saturated this square of carpet. I'll see you this afternoon?"

Sheik paused for a second before answering. "Um, yeah. Afternoon. Yeah."

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Fine! You go, uh, do...whatever."

"Okay... Bye."

"Bye..."

Link headed back upstairs, humming Bon Jovi.

zzz

Zelda stared at her phone for a long moment. This could be bad. There were tons of TV movies and episodes of Law and Order about people who'd led double lives and gotten caught. It was never good. But it wasn't like she was going to hurt anyone. Okay, it was kind of awkward being friends with a guy she wanted to do carnal things to, especially now that she knew he really was as nice and funny as he seemed, but it wasn't like she was going to hit on him while Sheik. As funny as it would be to see his reaction...

In fact, it was probably best if she didn't change their school relationship at all. As much as she wanted to, it would just be too confusing. She could get to know him as Sheik, maybe dig for some information, then claim Sheik was moving away and invite him to a movie as Zelda! It was the perfect plan!

Yeah, the perfect crazy stalker plan.

Zelda sighed and flopped back on her bed. "I have issues..."

zzz

One o'clock rolled around eventually, not soon enough in Link's opinion. He'd spent the rest of the morning sitting around, watching TV, and trying to remember the rest of the lyrics to "Lay Your Hands On Me." Time well spent indeed.

Kafei and Ralph were already there when he arrived, since they had a shorter distance to walk (and Kafei had probably driven, the lazy bastard). They were practicing free throws. They needed to.

"Hey guys!"

"Hey Link."

"Mrrgh," Kafei muttered.

"Feeling all right Ralph?" Link grinned.

"Eat me."

"It's your own fault you know."

"It was cheap, dammit! How was I supposed to know it was strong?"

"There are these things called 'labels?' They have a lot of information about the product they're stuck on."

"Shut up."

"Hey," Kafei said impatiently. "Are we gonna play or what?"

"Oh," Link glanced around. "Uh, well..."

"He invited Sheik."

Both boys turned and looked at Ralph in surprise.

"W- what?" Link said.

"Well you did. You keep looking around like you're expecting someone. And Link, no offense but you don't have many friends. As of last night, it's me, Kafei, and Sheik."

Link sighed. "All right, fine, yes, I invited Sheik. You got a problem with that?"

"Nah, Sheik seemed cool. Besides, it'll be nice to finally be able to play two-on-two again. Stupid Mikau and his 'dreams.'"

"The album drops next month, right?"

"Yuh-huh."

"You gonna buy it?"

"Oh hell yeah."

Link stripped down to a t-shirt and shorts, thankful it was warm for spring. He nabbed the ball away from Kafei with practiced ease, and lobbed it casually at the basket.

"Swish."

"Quit showin' off," Kafei retrieved the ball from where it had bounced. "Not all of use made the varsity team our sophomore year."

"Yeah," Link sighed. "And you guys didn't almost get held back because of it."

"Hey man, your grades slipped because you let them, not because of basketball."

"Well, basketball didn't help."

Just then a small figure appeared from behind a stand of trees. Dark skin, blonde hair, and, Like realized, just a trifle on the hippy side.

"Sheik!" he greeted the other boy cheerfully.

"Hey guys," Sheik said, smiling. "Am I late?"

Ralph shrugged. "I don't have a watch. You play much?"

"Well…no, actually. Only in P.E."

"Good. You're with Link." He took the ball from Kafei and tossed it to Sheik. "We might actually stand a chance this time."

Sheik looked down at the ball, then up at Link. "I'm your handicap?"

Link shrugged, grinning. "You got a problem with that?"

"As long as no one aims for my head, no."

"You're no fun."

zzz

The shadow watched the four young people from its hiding place among the trees. The tall blond one was his target, but the other three were interesting as well. All of them had a touch of destiny about them, all of them were young and strong, and the smallest one, unless the shadow was much mistaken, was actually female. The disguise was quite good, it would fool anyone whose body was grounded in the mortal world, but the shadow saw through means other than retinas, rods, and optical nerves.

The touch of destiny was brightest on the shadow's target, shining like a beacon for all who could sense such things. The other two boys had only a faint touch, but enough that they could prove meddlesome to the dark voice, and the girl in disguise was somehow blocking her touch. There was a faint shimmer, beneath the spell, and the shadow thought that without it she would shine even brighter than its target.

But now…what to do? The shadow didn't want to hurt any of these people. Why would it? It didn't even know them. In fact, they seemed nice! And so young…

But in his current form, the shadow was at the mercy of the dark voice. It was a being of magic and darkness, and to someone who had mastered both those things, it was but a puppet. The dark voice had already demonstrated how well it could control the shadow by bringing it to this plane. But it didn't want to follow the voice's orders. If only it could-

Wait. That was it! The shadow let out a silent crow of triumph. That was one problem solved, and one question answered. Now it just needed to wait for the right moment.

And this was not it.

The shadow decided to explore the town, to prepare for the next phase of its plan.

zzz

Link blinked, looking at the trees.

"Hey! Get your head in the game!"

"Did you guys see something?"

"What?"

"Over there." He pointed. "Something moving."

They all crowded around and looked.

"I don't see anything," Ralph said.

"Well it's not there now, but it was a second ago. It was like…a shadow, moving by itself."

"That's crazy. You're crazy."

"Maybe it was a bird's shadow," Sheik suggested.

Link shook his head. "Too big and too dark. It would have to be one hell of a bird."

"A kite?"

"Do you see any kites around here?"

"I'm just tossing out ideas."

"I know, sorry."

"My idea is that Link is crazy." Ralph swatted him on the back of the head. "Come on, while we're young!"

He shook his head, but returned to the game. "Must've been my imagination."

"Or you're going blind."

"Good, just what I need." He rolled his eyes.

"Maybe it'll get you pity dates."

"I've never had trouble getting dates, Ralph." He kicked a loose piece of asphalt. "I can just never seem to get the girl I want…"

"Bitch later, play now."

Kafei threw the ball at Ralph's head.

The rest of the weekend passed uneventfully. The four boys hung out for the rest of Saturday, and devoted most of Sunday to sleeping in and homework. Since it started pouring down rain around noon, this wasn't difficult.

The rain didn't stop until late that night, and the sun rose Monday morning on a city full of puddles and sidewalk-worms.

Kafei, as usual, gave Link a ride to school. Link's house was just a bit too far from the school for him to be able to walk, and it was only a couple streets out of Kafei's way.

As they hopped out of the van and headed across the nearly-flooded parking lot, neither boy noticed the black shadow that slipped from under one of the tires and darted ahead of them, vanishing into a puddle.

A puddle which, moments later, Link hopped over.

Something struck him as odd as he crossed the last stretch of blacktop, but Link couldn't put his finger on it. It was as though something was missing, something that he never paid much attention to but which made a noticeable difference now that it was gone.

He shook his head and put it down to the early hour, not even looking at his reflection in the slass door of the school.

Perhaps if he had, he would have noticed the black-clad young man now standing in the middle of the parking lot, where no one had stood before.

The shadow leaned over and examined his new reflection in a puddle. Not bad, not bad at all. Young and strong, good-looking in an unthreatening kind of way. The shadow would have almost called the face "pretty," if it didn't top such a lithe masculine body. This was the type of body lonely housewives paid hundreds of dollars to clean out their pools in nothing but a thong.

Lonely housewives. The shadow remembered lonely housewives. Husbands too, it- or rather, he- wasn't picky. Gender didn't mean much to you when your natural form was without reproductive organs. The fun organs.

The shadow found himself smiling, and decided he liked the smile as well. Yes, this form would do just fine.

Of course, the entire point of taking this form was that he would know the original owner's strengths and weaknesses and be able to use them against him. The shadow did a quick mental checklist, decided the young man would be just fine on his own, and headed out of the parking lot for the big wide world beyond.

The dark voice had left instructions in the shadows mind, of what he wanted it to do. As he walked, the shadow found those instructions, examined them, and sent an answer to the dark voice.

No.

Then he sealed his mind off from the voice's commands and burst out laughing.

That was one strength that all mortals shared, that they took for granted, and that they most often forgot they had. Free will. No one could make a mortal do anything they didn't want to do. Sure they could force them physically sometimes, but for the most part, you just couldn't boss a mortal around. Teenagers were even better since along with free will they had a natural resistance to mind control. Their brains were half mush anyway, and the other half wouldn't listen to anybody.

The shadow was free now, truly free. He couldn't go back home, not until the voice was dealt with, but he could hang around this plane and live it up for a while.

He stopped walking outside a small café-like place with darkened windows and a Help Wanted sign in the window. He'd seen a number of attractive young people there the previous afternoon, so it looked like as good a place as any to seek employment.

After all, when your number one goal in life is to have fun, what better place to work than an ice cream store where you had to sing every time you got a tip?

Back at the high school, Link got a sudden chill down his spine, and couldn't for the life of him figure out why.

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AN: HA! How's THAT for productive! Two updates in two days!

And what's this?Voices, shadows, Ralph being observent, and even a little bit of foreshadowing? What happened to the high school fluff piece?

Can I help it if I have an addiction to plot?

Yay for Dark Link! Oh, and if you couldn't figure out that's who that is, I will hit you.