(All righty, folks! Here's chapter 10! I never thought we'd get THIS far though I said the exact same thing in chapter 6, but to me, 10 chapters is a milestone! Mat and I are planning to wrap this baby up soon, so for now, enjoy the next installment! BTW, don't worry about the weird chapter title; it's the best I could think of.)
Log 10: Circumference Cycle
(Written by S.P.D. Gold Ranger)
(Bridget's P.O.V.)
As I sat down in my seat, I looked down to the court as the players began warming up for the 4th quarter. Mat was really giving it his all, despite his team being down by 3 in the final 6 minutes.
I looked around at my friends and smiled. Ever since I joined their branch in WOOHP, we've accomplished so much. We've stopped a bomb threat, took out a bunch of clones, and even saved Beverly Hills from destruction! That's a pretty good track record, if you ask me...
Then, my X-Powder rang. I quickly flipped it open and answered the call. "Bridget speaking."
"Bridget?" my mom, Maria Taylor, answered. "Is that you?"
"Mom? How'd you find this frequency?" I asked, surprised that my mother was calling me on my X-Powder!
"You gave it to me a few weeks ago, remember?"
"Oh, yeah," I said, suddenly remembering. "Is something wrong, mom?"
"It's your father! He's been attacked!"
Suddenly, it seemed as if time had stopped. "What? Who attacked him?"
This attracted the attention of the others. They all leaned over to check out the transmission.
"I don't know! But I need you over here!"
"Wait, Mom! I'm still at the stadium! The last quarter of the game is about to start!"
"Hey, Bridget, that gives me an idea!" Nick suddenly said. He raised his hand into the air, and a psychic energy orb flew out from his hand, effectively freezing time.
"How much time do we have until the next quarter starts?" I asked Sam.
"We've got at least 6 minutes," Sam answered.
"We'd better hurry up, then!" Haruka replied as we all hopped out of our seats. I quickly opened my X-Powder and switched into Sonic Mode.
"I'll meet you guys there!" I said to the others. With that, I shot off in an emerald streak.
"Man! I thought we were in the clear!" Alex exclaimed.
"It seems that misfortune just won't leave us the heck alone this week!" Clover complained.
"I know it sucks, Clover, but we're super-spies. We have to help anyone that's in trouble. That's our job, even if it does suck sometimes," Nick replied.
"I guess you're right," Clover said.
"Then let's do this, everyone!" Haruka exclaimed.
Later, at Bridget's house...
We'd all arrived at my house after about 4 minutes (thank god we live so close to the stadium!), even though time was still frozen.
Once we'd all gotten inside, Nick quickly unfroze time at just the right moment, as Dad's apparent attacker came flying down the steps. I took a quick look at the man and his masked face...
...and it hit me.
This was the same guy who'd killed my cousin!
"You!" I shouted. "I thought the police locked you up!"
"Not tightly enough, it would seem," the man replied. So he speaks now... "I'm here to finish the job! Your father's already down for the count, and your mother is next!"
"Why are you doing this?" Nick shouted. "Bridget and her family never did anything to you!"
"The mother of this girl," the man shouted, pointing to mom, "was the first one who'd ever caught me! Once I'd busted out, I figured, why not find this family and kill another loved one?"
I thought for a minute. Mom never told me that Grandma was on the police force! That's a surprise...
"You've done enough damage here! This is where your reign of terror ends!" Nick shouted.
"I'd like to see a bunch of kids stop me!" the man exclaimed before drawing his handgun and firing a few shots for us. As we dived out of the way, Nick shot a few psychic energy bursts towards him. I spun around to face Sam, Clover, and Alex.
"Sammy! You find dad and get him to WOOHP! Alex, Clover, you get my mom out of here before something happens to her! We'll take care of this guy!"
"On it!" all 3 said at once, splitting up to herd my parents out of the danger zone. I looked back at Nick and Haruka.
"Tag-team, guys?" I asked them.
"You're on!" they both replied.
All 3 of us took on an offensive stance as the man stood there, unsure of who to attack first.
"Let's hurry this tag-team up, guys! Only 10 minutes 'till the quarter starts!" Haruka exclaimed.
With that, Nick rushed forward and Haruka dashed to the man's backside. Giving him no time to react, Nick and Haruka both drove their elbows into the man's stomach, dazing him. I watched in amazement as they landed a few more attacks on this man in perfect synchronization.
After a few more attacks, they both performed a leaping spin kick that sent him over to me. I quickly grabbed him by the shirt collar and pulled so that he was looking me straight in the eye. He actually looked scared of being faced down by someone nearly half his age!
"Do you realize the pain you caused my family when you killed my cousin?" I said with all the energy I could muster. He slowly shook his head. Nick and Haruka looked on, slightly worried.
"I loved Jeremy, and he did not deserve to die like that!" I shouted. "You have no idea the world of pain you caused for us. And you simply have no idea what I'm about to do to you, do you?"
He slowly shook his head again.
"I thought so."
Wasting no time, I let go of his shirt collar, subsequently forcing the man stumbling backwards. Moving quickly, I brought out my castanets and clapped them towards the floor. The sonic disrupter wave allowed me to propel myself about 10 feet into the air. (Thank goodness we have high-rise ceilings!) I used my terminal velocity to aim an attack for the assailant.
It came so fast, he didn't even see it coming. One spin kick to the back of his head and he was out cold. I landed on the floor, putting away my castanets. I looked over to Nick and Haruka; they were a little surprised.
"Whoa, Bridget," Haruka said. "That was amazing!"
"It just goes to show you that no one messes with my family and gets away with it."
Suddenly, my X-Powder rang. I flipped it open, and there stood Sam, Alex, and Clover. It looked like they were back at the stadium. "How are my parents doing, girls?"
"They're safe for now," Sam replied. "Your mom may need to stay here a week or two, but she'll be all right."
"We'll meet you guys back at the stadium, okay?" Alex said before giving a thumbs up and cutting the transmission. I looked over to Nick, who was smiling.
"Don't worry, Bridget, I'm one step ahead," he said to me. He thrust his hand into the air, using his psychic powers to freeze time once more.
"We're out of here!" Nick said before dashing out the door with Haruka in hot pursuit. I smiled a bit before following them.
Back at the stadium...
We were all seated down (and Nick unfroze time) as we all got ready for the start of the final quarter.
"Let's hope L.A. can pull this off," I said.
"Don't worry, Bridget. You heard them - the Hurlers are a 4th quarter type of team," Nick replied.
"I know that the Armed Response can pull it off."
(By Mat49324)
(up in the booth with Bil and Zach.)
Bil: Welcome back to "Extreme Dodgeball". It's time for the start of the fourth quarter. That means dead-man walking.
Zach: Now in the 4th quarter, each team must always have a dead man walking on the court. That player will be designated by wearing an orange headband. If your dead man gets out in any way, it's worth two points for the other team. When your dead-man walking does get out, he or she has to hand off their sweaty, disgusting, saturated headband to another player, who then becomes the new dead man walking, and so on, and so forth. So, let's get down to the floor for the start of the final quarter.
(Down on the floor.)
(Mathew's P.O.V.)
"On the whistle," Burns said.
He blew the whistle and the opening rush for the 4th quarter had started. Bobby Roe had grabbed blue ball, and Kel Watrin had grabbed the red ball. It was time for L.A. to mount a comeback. The dead-men for the teams were Gary "Spaz" Davis for Denver, and for the Armed Response was David "The Animal" Benedetto.
"Come on, guys, I know we can do this," I said to my team.
Just a little ways after the start of the quarter, Danno Kingman threw a ball, and it somehow hit Benedetto, resulting in a two-point kill. Benedetto took off the headband and handed it off to me. I put it on, despite the fact that it was pretty sweaty.
"This is bad," Sam said.
"No kidding," Bridget agreed.
To make up for it, I decided to play up for awhile. I did a simulthrow with Sebastien Sciotti and I ended up hitting the dead man, "Spaz", resulting in a dead man kill for L.A. I did an extremely brief celebration by clenching my fists together. We started to get a little more relaxed and we started to play much better than before.
However, things got a little scary. After about a couple of minutes later, after Mario Lopez was the dead man after I got hit on the knee by Bobby Roe, I got back onto the floor after about 50 seconds of being on the bench. Mario put the headband on his arm, and there was a simulthrow being done, and the blue ball went into the Armed Response bench, meaning it was no longer active. There was another blue ball that was dropped onto the court. The refs determined that the 2nd blue ball was the new one, and also, Jim Burns tended to Mario about the headband.
"And you... should be on your head," Burns said to Mario.
"But it's been all sweaty," Mario said.
"I know, it's, it's awful," Burns said.
Mario did as Burns told him and put the headband on his head. A little later, just before the two-minute warning, the Armed Response was tied at 40, and I tried going for a catch on Adrian Quihuis' ball, but missed it. I ran to try to catch it, and just as I caught it, I was hit on the hip by Bobby Roe. Tempers flared a little, but the refs determined I did make the catch just before Bobby Roe hit me on the hip. Our relentlessness caused us to go up by 3, 44-41. Whistles blew and the clock had stopped at 2 minutes flat.
"What's going on?" Nick asked.
"I don't know," Haruka said.
The girls and Nick heard the refs say, "Two minute warning."
"Two minute warning?" Bridget said.
"What's that?"
"Who knows," Sam answered.
(up in the booth again.)
(A/N: Get your thoughts ready for your votes because it's coming up in a little while.)
Bil: That's the two-minute warning! Armed Response has taken the lead! Can they hold on to it?
Zach: They've been playing like a brand new team, Bil, and they're up by 3. I'm excited about seeing the final two minutes.
Bil: Don't you dare go away, we'll be right back with the final two minutes of the game! Stay where you are, and we'll be right back!
Zach: By the way, GSN and Burger King want you to have it your way by picking today's Burger King "King of the Court". Was it: 1. Sebastien Sciotti (10 kills, 1 catch), 2. Danno Kingman (5 kills, 4 catches), or 3. Mathew Vasconcellos (8 kills, 3 catches)? Select 1, 2, or 3 to the author of this story, but leave at least 10 votes from different reviewers.
(Written by S.P.D. Gold Ranger)
Nick looked down at the courts as the players got ready for the "final rush", as he liked to call the last two minutes of a sports game; he could see them getting pumped and ready.
"Man, these final moments are ALWAYS so tense!" Bridget noted.
"And that's exactly what makes it so incredible when the home team comes back and gives the opposers what for," Nick replied. "Mom and I always enjoyed watching the 'final rush' at the arena football games they used to hold here."
"Hey, didn't they suspend that for a few months when the entire Milwaukee Mustangs team completely disappeared before their last game of the season?" Haruka asked in wonder.
(Author's Note: The Mustangs are really gone, people. My dad said something about the fact that the coach sold off the Mustangs. Really sucked, too, 'cause we went to a lot of their games! BTW, finally, a sport I can actually put in this!)
"Oh, YEAH! I can still remember that mission like it was yesterday!" Nick exclaimed, then toned his voice down low enough so no one could hear them as he recounted the time when a mysterious force made the entire Milwaukee Mustangs team disappear into thin air before their final game of the 2002 season against the Beverly Hills Bruisers (A/N: No idea if it's a real team or not, I haven't seen arena football in YEARS). Nick and Haruka had been put on the case because of the strange way they'd disappeared. After a whirlwind chase across North America, they'd found the culprit: a jaded ex-football player whose dreams of playing for the Mustangs had been shattered many years before by a much burlier player. The villain had used a powerful machine that could turn something into vapor and make it appear solid somewhere else. The catch? The Vapo-Randomizer, as its name implied, transported its target to a completely random place. After heading to Paris, saving the Mustangs, and destroying the Vapo-Randomizer, Nick and Haruka had been forced to play a freaked-up football game for their freedom. Luckily, Nick and Haruka, working together with the Mustangs, were able to defeat the criminal.
"Sheesh, I guess these old villains never get any less gimmicky," Clover replied.
"It's just a thing. That's the way WOOHP works," Haruka added.
"Hey, guys, it looks like the game's about to start again!" Sam exclaimed. This caught all 6 spies' attention, as they all looked down to the court.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Okay!
Next time:
Log 11: Roundabout Ruckus
It's the "final rush", and the Armed Response is up! Can they stay on top, or will the Hurlers make them regret it?
Ja ne,
Mat49324 and S.P.D. Gold Ranger
(From Mat49324 -- briefly)
Reviewers, be sure to leave your votes on who you think should be the Burger King "King of the Court". I'd like at least 5 votes for whomever you like. All those votes will be combined ex. 1 vote for Sebastien Sciotti 1 complete vote, 4 more left. All extra votes will be counted, so leave those votes -- and one more thing: You can only vote for ONE player. No one else.