Blood Brothers 2: Prelims

The tournament had begun, crowds of citizens and summoners alike cheering for their favorite champions from the stands. Swain sat at the head of a table, seated by the sideline of the warmly lit basketball court.

"Preliminary rounds: 2 versus 2 matches. The winning team proceeds to the next round. Games go up to twenty-one points, loser's ball. Any magic that affects your opponent is prohibited," Swain spoke into his microphone, his blown-up voice overcoming the ear-splitting roar or people. "First match is Garen and Ziggs on blue side. Leblanc and Xin Zhao are opposing them on the purple team. Give it up for the first match!" He spotted people paying his agents for better seats, which amused the grand general. 'Hehe, more money for me...'

Garen and Ziggs stood from their benches and walked on to their side of their court. Well, in Zigg's case, he did his usual frolicky walk. Leblanc daintily made her way to her side, dressed in actually modest sports attire. Xin Zhao was marching next to her, ready to win now.

Darius, of course, did the job of tossing the jump ball. It was one of the many perks to being dunkmaster. He nodded at the deceiver and gave a respecting glance at the spearman. With a glance at the sphere of rubber and gas in his hand, he heaved it up and casually jogged back to his seat.

Xin Zhao managed to grasp the ball, falling from the jump as he landed on his feet. With a roar, he heaved the ball across the court, toward his own net. The crowd was shocked at the random and seemingly pointless move. Suddenly, Leblanc had appeared and taken the ball, dribbling it with a smile. Garen roared as he turned around, charging at the woman. Ziggs bounced around, keeping Xin Zhao busy.

Leblanc just disappeared once more. Garen came to a halt as he turned around in confusion. There was a blare as the horn blew, signaling that a point was scored. "What?" he gasped as he saw Leblanc giggling, tossing the ball to him from under Garen's own net.

Garen grimaced. 'I hate mages,' he grumbled to himself as he suddenly thought of a flash of light in his mind. 'Nevermind,' he sighed.
-Elsewhere-
Lux felt spite towards her brother all of a sudden. She recoiled at her own feelings, surprised.
-On the Court-
Ziggs had checked the ball with the seneschal of Demacia. Xin turned around to look at Leblanc as they exchanged a nod. Suddenly, there was another blare. Everyone was in shock as the ball fell to the ground. Turns out, Ziggs had a really good throwing arm. "Good job, friend," Garen smiled as he patted the crazed yordle on his cap-covered head. Ziggs grinned madly as he cackled with glee. Another perfect toss.

The scoreboard continued to change until the score was 20 to 19. Garen's team was in possession of the ball as he dribbled it furiously, charging across the court. He knew that he had to make this, as they were down 1 point. His hair was damp, only somewhat sweaty. Thank god he was one of the best runners in the fucking world. Garen breathed in deeply, taking in his surroundings like a true general of Demacia. 'Xin will expect me to flank his left... push the right around but circle back. Pass to Ziggs. Ziggs go right, I flank deceiver. Ziggs goes for throw.'

In his mind, Garen felt that this couldn't go wrong. He smiled to himself. The battle was won.

...That is, of course, until Xin Zhao spun violently in a circle and knocked the ball away. The man fell to the floor, the effort to create such a wind pressure without a spear taking a toll on him.

Garen's eyes widened as the ball bounced off the rim precariously. The world slowed as he knew what he had to do. Leblanc was flying in from the side, distorting the area around her. Garen jumped. He jumped as hard as his runner legs could. With a flourish, he grasped his hand around the brownish-red ball. He knew what he had to do. 'For Demacia,' he called in his mind, summoning the honor and righteous fury he brought upon his enemies.

"JUSTICE!" he roared as he fiercely brought down his hand from over his head, a flash of energy sending a shockwave through the air. The field distorted everyone's vision as the ball tore through the hoop, Garen's hand taking the entire hoop with him.

"...Winner, Garen and Ziggs," Swain called out in an uncertain voice, somewhat amused and shocked at the same time.

Garen and Darius exchanged glances as the fatigued Demacian sat down. "Quite an interesting dunk," Darius commented. "I must compliment your form."
Garen looked in surprise at the hulk of a man. "Thank you?" confused. Darius was never friendly.
Darius nodded and turned, watching the matches to come.

-Hours Later-

Darius was bored by the matches that passed. Sure, one of them was a complete sweep, as Draven and Graves's accuracy with their hand was impeccable. But holy frickin' hell in the butt, was Shen, Kennen, Katarina and Talon's match the stupidest shit in the world. What was supposed to be a basketball game turned out to be a sharp-object throwing contest. Darius almost weeped at the sight of the remains of his ball. Thankfully, being the super-duper manly man he is, he only sniffled a lot (and maybe a few tears... but I'm not allowed to say that, since he's gonna kill me if I d-*crash*).

Finally, his match came. He was teamed up with Zed, one of the few Ionians he respected. He exchanged a hand shake with the master of shadows and turned to see the wind guy teamed with the annoying-as-hell broken sword girl or whatever the hell her name was. 'Sigh,' Darius...well...sighed, I guess.

Swain did the honors of tossing the ball in the air, Darius feeling his blood boil. He jumped for it, the guy named Yasuo doing the same. Darius turned violently, shielding the ball with his body as he tipped it towards his team mate. Zed caught the ball and disappeared into the shadows. "Wow," Riven yelled. "That's not fair at all!" Zed reappeared next to her, just to mock her and poked her in the back. Disappearing once more, Zed dodged and weaved in between Riven and Yasuo, running to their hoop. Darius dashed to the opposite side of the court, waiting for a chance to help. Zed suddenly made a pass, bouncing it off the backboard as Darius lept up and smashed the ball into the hoop.

The match continued like this until the other team lost in a crushing 21-2 defeat. Darius nodded at the Master of shadows as he took a seat.

The next match had started, the newly minted Noxian colonel standing with Tryndamere. Sol grinned as his menacing eyes flashed. Tryndamere cracked his knuckles as Sol cracked his neck. Sejuani cracked her back. Olaf reached down to his foot and cracked his pinkie toe. "What?" he said when he noticed everyone looking at him funny." My pinkie toe feels a lil' sore."

Darius tossed the ball as the agile and speedy Sol took the ball, suddenly appearing behind Sejuani with it. With a flourish, he spun in the air as he tossed the ball behind his back, the ball falling into ''nothin' but net.'' Sol landed on a knee and a foot, grinning wildly to the crowds. He took a bow and walked to their side of the court. Sejuani and Olaf growled in anger. They hated fancy and tricky fools like him.

"Nope," Tryndamere grinned in laughter as he spun by and took the ball. Sejuani was not very good on her feet apparently. He tossed the ball in a ferocious underhand swipe as Sol took the ball. Olaf roughly dashed into him, punching his face and took the ball as he ran once more, tossing the ball easily into the other hoop.

Sol got up from the floor and massaged his nose. "Grrr," he gritted his teeth as Sol decided to play dirty as well. Knocking the ref out, a livid Tryndamere joined Sol in the fray. Sol snarled at the other pair as Tryndamere glanced at him. Sol nodded back as Tryndamere prepared himself.

Sol menacingly put something on his hands, a pair of brass knuckles in his fists. Thank god he loved hand-held weapons. Sol appeared behind Olaf with a flash and unleashed a flurry of ferocious fists to Olaf's chest. Thank god he learned martial arts from Lee Sin, his spiritual mentor. Tryndamere tackled the berserker into the floor and kicked him in the ribs as Sol easily put another ball in the net. There was a whistle as Sejuani called her boar to her, the behemoth making its way to the court.

Darius glanced at Swain. 'He has no intentions of stopping this,' Darius noticed, amused. He looked on at the grand spectacle.

Sejuani rushed the barbarian king as Tryndamere jumped to the side. Sejuani had the ball on the end of a rope as she swung it over her head, hurling it into the other net. By this time, Sol and the now-awake Olaf were in an all-out brawl. Sol summoned his blades as Olaf unsheathed an axe that he kept... who knows where.

The locked blades as Tryndamere and Sejuani continued to battle it off for the ball. Swain finally called the match. "It's a tie," he grumbled, annoyed with the outcome. "All four of you will proceed to the next round."

The four mentioned looked at eachother and stopped attacking one another. Sol helped up Olaf as he bumped knuckles with Tryndamere, high-fiving Sejuani. Darius couldn't help but to raise an eyebrow at the situation. It was almost like it was staged...

'No, couldn't be. Swain and I are the only ones who knew the game roster,' Darius reasoned. 'Maybe they just are good friends?'

"Thank you for attending today's Preliminary game series! We hope to see you tomorrow for the second round of matches!"

Garen was walking home with his little sister, who was gushing with admiration and bouncing around in joy. He recalled talking to Katarina at the tournament, eyeing his younger sister.

-Flashback-

"Hey Garen," Katarina had said. The sweaty might of Demacia turned to see the Noxian assassin sit next to him, Talon moving away towards a certain fencer. "You're sister... She's an odd one huh?" she commented as she gestured towards Lux in the crowd, who was screaming what seemed to be 'Garen,' and was holding a plastic model of Garen's sword.

Garen shrugged. "Yeah, well, sibling love right?" he gave a small smile. Katarina laughed and grinned. "I think it's a little more than that."

-End Flashback-

"I'm so proud of you, bro!" she had squealed in delight. "I love you so much. You're mine forever," she giggled as she embraced him.

Garen winced. 'I guess that's what Kat meant when my sister is crazy for me. Oh dear god. How do I break this with without killing myself...'

"Hey, Lux," Garen started. She looked at him, her blue eyes sparkly. "...n-never mind," he weakly said as he looked away. Lux held his hand and skipped, not paying any attention to his slip up of words. Garen sighed as he speeded up to keep up with his strange sister.

Katarina sat down next to her adoptive brother. "Hey," she greeted as Talon nodded and lifted up his mug of beer. "Hey," he responded as he introduced the woman next to him. "I'm pretty sure you know Fi," he affectionately said as the woman blushed at his pet name for her. "Hush, Talón," she said in a commanding voice. "I told you not to call me zat in public," she reprimanded as Talon grinned. "I do apologize, dear mistress. Please forgive this lowly street trash," he sarcastically responded as Fiora grinned.

Katarina raised an eyebrow. "So, I never knew you guys were a thing," she commented as she waved the bar tender for a drink. Talon nodded. "Yeah, it only happened recently. Funny story though..."

-12 days 138 cups of various alcohol ago-

"Hey Talon," Cassiopeia said to the only man she was close to. "Why don't you ever date someone?"

Talon raised an eyebrow. "Assassins have no time for love, Cass. Besides..." he trailed off. "I already have my eyes on someone." The snakey lady giggled as she pressed the question. "Who? I can't believe that the infamous blade's shadow is in loooooove," she mocked as Talon scowled.

Cass continued. "Oh come on Tal, don't be like that. Here, tell you what. Since it's a time of peace, I'm sure you're free to date. I'll set you up with this girl you like!" she exclaimed cheerfully. Talon gave a small smile. He couldn't stay upset at the girl who was like his younger sister. 'I'm glad she's finally happy,' he thought. 'I guess I might as well try this.'

-End Flashback-

"And yeah," he finished. Katarina smiled. "That's cute," she commented as she high-fived Talon. "Congrats for scoring such a babe," she laughed as Fiora grinned as well. The bar was filled with their joy and laughter, the night winding away in the mugs of bubbly drinks.

That's it for this chapter! Goodness, it's been a while since I've written such in such a happy fashion. Favorite, follow and stuff! I need some ideas for this story to survive.
-adrin