(A/N) Hey guys, time for the latest, slightly late, update for Grifball: Running Rampant! Unfortunately, ParabolaOfMystery, Will's writer, whose update was scheduled to go up today, is no longer writing with us, so we're moving ahead. Regardless, this chapter makes up for any possible disappointment you might be feeling, as Wednesday really brought her A-game to this! For those that didn't hear, the artwork of Jerem6401, one of the writers within our collaboration, was mentioned in the recent GTA V Online Let's Play, causing me to scream like a little girl for around five minutes. Not my finest moment, I will concede. So without further ado, I'm going to let you guys go ahead and read this, as Rampancy enter their second friendly game of the season, against Team Paladin.
Enjoy!
Chapter Nineteen - Why Walk When You Can Run?
Ellen Thompson
Written by WednesdayA 3567
"The healthiest competition occurs when average people win by putting above average effort." - Colin Powell
"-God, this armour just doesn't look right. I mean, I've gotten so used to the red sets in training, the thought never even occurred to me that our away armour would be blue. Though, of course, that makes total sense. I knew what the team colours were. I mean, duh, right? I don't know why-"
"Oi! Kiara! Calm down and shut up, would'ya?" Ellen interrupted before she ran out of breath.
Arika chimed in, too. "Yeah, really. You'd think the world was about to end with how fast you're talking."
Ellen turned to Arika and said with a smile, "I thought she might hyperventilate there for a second." Arika laughed, and Kiara blushed a little but laughed with her.
"Sorry. It's just... my first game. You know." She gave them a one shouldered shrug and a nervous smile before snapping her helmet in place. "You guys've already gotten over the first-game-nerves." Ellen slung her gravity hammer over her shoulder and magnetized it to her back in one smooth motion before looking back up at Kiara.
"Just stay calm and keep your head on a swivel." She and Arika snapped their helmets into place. "Watch your sensors." The three girls walked out of the locker rooms and towards Coach and the guys. "Keep moving. You'll be great, I promise." They stopped in front of Coach and could hear Will talking over last minute tactics with him. "Paladin's gonna be easy to beat."
Coach Anderson looked up from his own conversation when he heard Ellen's last sentence. He shook his head slightly. "Come on now, you don't know that. You've gotta give this - and every game, for that matter - your all. It doesn't matter who we're playing, you still work hard for every win. Don't get over-confident, ladies." Ellen took a tiny subconscious step back and gave Coach a small nod in acknowledgement. The rest of the team quieted down as he spoke. Jackson glared at the ground, arms crossed. Coach glanced his way before giving an almost imperceptible shrug and speaking to the team again.
"Okay, everyone. I'll admit, I'm fairly confident that we can win this easily." Ellen felt a smug smile on her face no one else could see. "But we have to remember the difference between confidence and arrogance. Confidence could help us soar to the top while arrogance could end us. Alright? That being said, I want you to do your very best. This is another chance to show the League that Rampancy is just as good, if not better, as we were before the changes."
Jackson snorted as he sank lower on the bench, like a bored teenager. Coach lowered his head slightly and took a deep breath. Ellen could see he had just about reached the end of his temper with Jackson, and she certainly couldn't blame him for it. He looked back up, his jaw visibly tensed. "Rothe," he barked, "something to say?"
Jackson whipped his head back angrily and Ellen could feel his glare even when it wasn't directed at her. He spoke harshly. "Nothing but the usual, Coach." Most of the team ignored him, per usual, and Anderson told him to shut up.
Coach sighed again and put up his hands, calling back the team's attention. "Just do your best and win, okay? Okay. The game'll start in a few minutes. Will, the power's in your hands today."
Will nodded and sat down next to Jackson, speaking quietly and almost angrily with him. Kiara started doing some stretches. Arika took her energy sword from her hip and, somewhat nervously, began activating and deactivating it over and over. Ellen thought that might be a good way to break it. She herself scoped the crowd.
There were a few different camera crews scattered throughout the orange-clad Grifball fans. Ellen smiled when she saw a large section wearing Rampancy blue. Her smile grew when she saw about half of their cheering section were women. A few people had different sorts of noise makers, and had already started a war between Paladin's and Rampancy's supporters; effectively filling the stadium with a deafening cacophony of air horns and thunder sticks. Ellen turned back around to watch the referee as he pulled the whistle over his neck. Will stood up, Kiara stood still, and Arika deactivated her sword one last time before reattaching it to her hip. They all looked toward the black and white clad conciliator, waiting. The air itself felt tense as the crowd quieted down as well.
The team walked forward to take their place next to one another. Ellen double checked that her radio, but not her speaker, was on. Will muttered to them through his own radio. "Okay, let's start it off interesting with a Spawn Bonk. Ellen, you're one; Kiara and Arika, two and four; and I'll be number three. Sync?"
"Sync," they all replied simultaneously. They noticed Paladin speaking quietly across the stadium. Will nodded to the referee, indicating Rampancy is ready. Paladin did the same.
The stadium went absolutely quiet. Even the crowd became silent as the referee raised both his arms. Ellen heard Jackson shift on the bench behind her. She braced her leg muscles and looked toward the pad in the middle of the floor where the ball would soon appear.
Ellen heard the whistle, saw the bomb burst into existence, felt her feet nearly fly across the floor, and watched Paladin literally trip over their own feet. She heard Will shout, "Now!" Ellen looked up for a split second to see him fly over her and land a little ahead of her, ready to run. She casually sliced her sword across Paladin's Tank - who had been fumbling to get a hold of his gravity hammer - and sprinted to catch up with Will. She smiled as she realized Kiara and Arika had performed the perfect Spawn Bonk; Will was running faster than ever as he scooped up the bomb in one simple movement.
Ellen glanced Kiara excitedly and easily dispatching one of Paladin's Hybrids with her gravity hammer. She grinned and turned to see Arika dodging the clumsy Tank, now respawned, and slashing the back of his knees with her sword. She spun around again to watch Will easily toss the bomb onto the pad as Paladin struggled to understand what had happened.
First point scored in less than three minutes. "Booyah, baby!" Ellen shouted to no one in particular. Will waved them all over to their side of the stadium, and Kiara was just about skipping with excitement.
Ellen could hear the grin in Will's voice as he gave them all high fives and said, "Sheesh, that was amazing! I almost feel bad for them now!" Ellen de-polarized her visor and raised her eyebrows at him. He cleared his own visor to show her his defensive face. "What?! I said almost, alright? Okay, next round. They seemed really unsure what to do when we launched, so let's try the inside/outside launch this time. Arika and Ellen, you guys can launch Kiara and I forward and we'll see how it goes from there. That good with you all?"
They all smiled and nodded. "Sync?"
"Sync."
They all lined up again, but not to silence this time. Ellen was well aware of the crowd's cheers and yells all around her. Will gave the ref a thumbs up and Paladin's captain gave a grim nod. There was the whistle, and the crowd went wild.
Will and Kiara set their stances as Arika and Ellen backed up a tad. Will looked to either side of him to nod at the girls, and Ellen looked at Arika. Arika looked ready and sure of herself; she'd practiced this launch more than enough times to do it well. With a jolt, Ellen realized she had never used this particular launch in training before. 'Aw, crap...' Ellen thought as Arika began to lower her gravity hammer, and Ellen followed her motions. Ellen saw that she was a split second too late as Arika's hammer hit the ground first. Granted, Ellen was just barely late, but the inside/outside launch needed to be in perfect sync to work.
Will went flying to the left from the impact of Arika's gravity hammer, as Kiara went flying to the right from Ellen's later impact. Ellen cursed under her breath as she activated her sword and took off towards the center of the court, Arika right behind her.
"What the hell was that?!" Arika yelled.
"You know I've never done that launch before!" Ellen turned to see Will and Kiara flash back to the respawn point as Paladin was full-on rushing towards the bomb. "Keep 'em off my back, okay?" she called to Arika.
"What're you going to do?" Ellen didn't answer, but put on another burst of speed. She shook her head slightly, as though shaking the past minute's failure from herself.
She ducked and rolled past Paladin's Tank, not even taking the time to score the kill as he lost his balance. Keeping low to the ground to avoid the wild swords swinging at her, Ellen scooped up the bomb. She looked down at her arms and legs that had suddenly turned a bright orange.
Her radio crackled, and it was Jackson's strained voice that came through. She saw out of the corner of her eye that he had stood up, and he looked incredibly anxious. "Listen, to me, okay? Will's too far back; he doesn't have a chance. Take it slow, but you need to-"
"Rothe! We've already got the lead, why is this point suddenly so-" she leaped out of the way of a swinging gravity hammer and rolled to the side, "-damn important?"
"Every single point is important, Thompson. Don't get over confident. You have to score this point. Their Hybrid's clueless and has a weak left side. Take advantage of that." He paused, thinking, while Ellen painstakingly worked her way towards the goal. She now saw Kiara out of the corner of her eye. "If you don't screw this up, it's a truce.…mostly. Ish. Alright?"
Ellen didn't answer with words. Instead, she looked around. She spotted the clueless Hybrid that Jackson had mentioned guarding the goal. He was a giant hulk of a guy, and had his feet planted as Arika danced lightly around him. He spread his boots with loud clangs on the floor as he raised his hammer over his head. Ellen smirked behind her helmet.
"You said that last time. But don't worry; I got this." She sprinted towards them as Arika basically teased the Hybrid. Ellen waited for her opening. Arika took a few steps back from her friend the Hulk. That's when Ellen put on a great burst of speed and skill. As she came right in front of the Hybrid, she dropped down onto her side and slid smoothly under his legs and towards the goal.
Ellen managed to score an extra bonus at the same time, only due to pure luck. His gravity hammer came down right as she was back on her feet and beginning to run again. She caught the edge of the shockwave perfectly, giving her an extra launch.
She was mere feet from the goal pad, so she threw the bomb. As the explosion went off, so did the crowd. Ellen flung her hands in the air as she caught her breath, a giant grin beneath her back-to-blue helmet. She closed her eyes, breathing heavily from the sudden adrenaline rush and the sprint. She brought her hands down to her knees and opened her eyes to find Will standing right in front of her.
Her eyes widened and she did a comical double-take. "Will?! What- but I thought- you were- were you behind me the entire time?!"
"Oh, indeed I was, Miss Ellie," he said with a wide smile, "and that was one fine piece of running. Didn't know you had it in you."
"Pure luck, yes it was." Will laughed a little and began jogging back to the starting point for the next round. Without turning around, he waved Ellen forward to follow him back to their side.
The game was incredibly smooth from that point on. They'd only scored two points, but they'd already proven early in the game to both Paladin and the crowd that they could easily come out on top. Now, that isn't to say they didn't have to work hard. It's more like… from then on Rampancy was more of a team.
There was one small scare in the fourth round when Arika - who was guarding Will at the time - caught the edge of a gravity hammer. That left Will to simply try to outrun Paladin, which failed only because he was outnumbered at the moment. Ellen would never admit it, but she probably could have caught Paladin's Runner before he made it if she'd been more responsive. She hadn't been expecting them to make a move, meaning he made it past her. Also meaning Paladin scored a point. She was sure Jackson would point it out sometime in the future, though.
Will and Kiara pulled off a fantastic launch that scored them the last point of the game. It was just a simple mid-action launch, but it was timed and positioned perfectly. Will only came a foot or two off of the ground, and he flew fast enough to catch Paladin off-guard. He slid to a stop right in front of the goal and simply dropped the bomb into the goal. He didn't even have to toss it.
Ellen grinned at the amazing feeling of achievement the crowd's cheers gave her. Not even Jackson's ever present glare (although admittedly a little less caveman-like since Ellen scored) could dampen her spirits. She and the rest of the team took off their helmets for some fresh air, and she saw matching triumphant grins on each of their faces. She gave the girls hugs, and Will a high five.
Ellen felt her face would crack with her smile when she spotted Alex emerging from the crazy crowd. It was different seeing him in just a t-shirt and shorts, rather than his usual armor. His hurt ankle was wrapped, and he wore a flip-flop on that foot instead of a sneaker. Despite the slight limp, Alex made his way out to the team rather quickly and he was smiling wildly as though he himself had scored the winning point. He practically skipped up to Ellen and gave her one of his one-armed hugs.
"Ellie! That second point! Oh my god; I never knew you made such a good Runner! I can't believe you pulled that off! You just know that's going to be tomorrow's headline," he said excitedly. He had to practically yell to be heard over the crowd. Ellen loved how excited he was; she got caught up in it too.
She gave him a quick friendly kiss on the cheek, pulled back and replied, "Thanks! It was definitely a great game, huh? We missed you out there, though!" He smiled, a slight blush on his cheeks that her kiss left behind, gave her a high five, and turned to congratulate the rest of the team.
Ellen smiled contentedly to herself as she watched her team. Kiara was so excited and amazed; first professional games did that to you. Arika seemed triumphant; either with the game itself or her individual actions Ellen didn't know. Will made a better team captain than Ellen expected, and now his smile was proud and smug as he recapped their best moments of the day to anyone who would listen. Poor Coach had been dragged over in front of a TV camera, but he didn't look too sore about it. Being interviewed about your team's win probably isn't the most humbling thing on earth. One could have even seen a smile almost twitching at the corners of Jackson's lips.
Ellen just laughed to herself - out of joy, the adrenaline rush, triumph, or slight insanity, she couldn't tell you - as she surveyed her Grifball family.