Whoo! It's gettin' to crunch time in the story! Hopefully I can keep up with me updates. I do not own Slayers, Major League Baseball, Detroit, PMS and messing with people's heads just to scare the pants off them.
Ni-juu-ichi
Holy Fudge Monkeys! Will the Slayers Keep Their Cool?
"Umm... Mr. Graywords," Amelia said, poking her head in through the office door. It was the next day in the afternoon and the entire time both Amelia and Zelgadis were at work, neither was able to look the other in the eye out of embarrassment. "I think I found something in the filing system that you might want to take a look at."
"What is it?" Zelgadis asked, not even looking up from his computer screen. He had reports from the past quarter's business deals on the screen and had become too enveloped to want to divert much of his attention away and risk being lost in his place.
"I think it might have been something of your late grandfather's." Amelia walked into the room and held it out to the seated chimera. Zelgadis looked up at her to see that she was keeping her gaze towards the mug full of pens that was on his desk in order to avoid eye-contact. He figured it was from the night before's happenings, since her face seemed to be slightly flushed with red.
"Let me see that," he said as he snatched the envelope that read "Concerning the Slayers" on the front from Amelia's hand. "Stay here though. I might need a witness." He stopped Amelia right as she turned to leave.
"Why?"
"Incase it is some other stupid inheritance thing," Zelgadis sighed as he searched his desk drawer for a letter opener. "My grandfather was unfortunately an eccentric man who kept things I never would have thought of. Can you believe that I now own a few acres of complete wilderness in Maine because of him? Not to mention putting a clause in his will that prevents me from selling that baseball team, even if I wanted to."
"That does sound strange," Amelia agreed softly. She watched silently as Zelgadis opened the envelope and began to read the piece of paper that was inside.
So that's why he still has the team! Amelia thought angrily. ...but he did sound like he doesn't want to sell it anymore. He's such an enigma. Why can't I figure him out?
"This is ridiculous," Zelgadis moaned, holding the piece of paper out to Amelia and placing his head on the desk. "Shred it at once."
"What is it?" Amelia asked, noticing that the paper was simply a roughly scrawled, handwritten note.
"Proof that my grandfather was insane," Zelgadis said. "It is a note to me saying that one of the athletes on the Slayers is a woman."
"A... woman...?"
"Yeah. You may sound shocked, but that was just the way Rezzo was. The old coot thought Liam Inverse was a woman. That's bullshit. How is it possible for him to be one of the biggest rookie stars in years and still manage to hide something as big as being…"
"…a woman named Lina, perhaps?" Amelia interjected cautiously. Slowly, Zelgadis raised his surprised face to look at Amelia and spoke in a horse whisper.
"What did you say?"
"Is Liam's real name Lina?"
"How did you know that?" Zelgadis questioned in not the angered manner that Amelia had expected, but in one that was nearly excited. He had noticed that the time in which she had glanced over the note was not at all long enough to decipher his late grandfather's horrid penmanship and wanted to figure out how she knew.
"I grew up with her," Amelia admitted. "I have been in on her secret since the open tryouts she was signed at. So has Mr. Kurt and Mr. Xellos. We all have been sworn to secrecy. That's why I didn't tell you until now. We wanted to keep it a secret until at least the end of the season and…"
"That damn old fool," Zelgadis laughed heartily. Amelia looked at her employer with a slight bit of worry. She had never expected to ever see him like this. She waited until he stopped laughing to talk.
"What's so funny?"
"This is a classic example of something he would do," Zelgadis said, having gotten over the uncharacteristic laughing fit. "Clearly you met him before he died. How much did it take to get you to say that?"
"Nothing. It's the truth," Amelia snapped angrily, her stare becoming icy cold. Zelgadis's jaw nearly dropped in astonishment.
"You seriously mean the greatest rookie of the 2006 season is actually a cross-dressing woman?"
"Yes."
"Aw hell no," Zelgadis moaned as he fell back in his chair. "I'm so doomed if this gets out to the public..."
"I think you should give Miss Lina a chance," Amelia said, now more amused at Zelgadis's reaction than offended. "She does really well and has even gotten through an entire season without trouble. Now all she needs to do is get through the play offs without blowing her cover, right?"
"Right," Zelgadis said, looking up at the ceiling. He blocked the very fact that Amelia was still in his office out of his mind and began to talk to the ceiling. "Grandfather. You may be dead, but I still hate your guts for this." With that, Zelgadis could have sworn he heard laughter, along with some chimes, in response.
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"Play offs, play offs, play offs, play offs, play offs, play offs," sang Lina in a highly cheerful tone. Kurt was walking next to her as they traveled down a corridor in Jones Soda Stadium that led to the locker room.
"You know Lina," he said. "You've really been creeping me out lately. Being this cheerful is not your style."
"So?"
"Can't you at least tone things down a slight bit? I mean, what if someone catches you?"
"No one's gonna catch me," Lina winked. "Remember: I've gotten this far without a hitch. How in the hell's gonna stop me now?"
"Everyone and anyone if you aren't careful!" Kurt exclaimed as they entered the locker room. He looked around warily to check for other team members as Lina took off her wig and shoved it in her duffel bag. After a few moments, he gave the thumb's up signal and Lina began her unusually peppy chanting once more.
"Play offs, play offs, play offs, play offs, play offs, play offs," she sang again. Kurt slumped down into a chair he had placed right in front of his locker space and moaned.
"Lina, this is only going to be the first game of the post-season. We could get walloped big time."
"We have to stay optimistic Kurt!" Lina announced as she gathered her uniform together and headed over to the bathroom stalls to change. She emerged a half a minute later, fully dressed and ready for the game.
"I forgot, who are we playing again?" Kurt asked dryly as he pulled his uniform shirt on.
"Detroit," Lina snickered. "Gonna be a fun game by the looks of it."
"Only you would say that."
"Of course!" Lina said, giving a v-for-victory and grinning profusely. She saw the melancholy look on Kurt's face that screamed contained nervousness and took it upon herself to change that into a smirk similar to her own. "What's with you?"
"Nothing," Kurt answered, keeping his eyes towards the cleat laces he was tying.
"Did you fight with that new girlfriend you got?"
"I never told you about her."
"No, but you told Amelia two weeks ago and she told me," Lina said all-knowingly. "So... did you two have a falling-out?"
"No. I just don't feel as insanely giddy as you are."
"Liar. I think you are just worn out."
"Nervous is more like it," Kurt sighed. "I can't believe that the league changed the playoffs into a single-elimination tournament until we get to the semi-finals, just so that more teams could participate. This is placing so much more pressure on teams like us, isn't it?"
"Huh, what'd you say?" Lina asked, snapping her gaze in the direction of Kurt. She had not been listening at all, preferring to sit out Kurt's little spiel examining the rather large poster on the other side of the room that so happened to be of the entire Slayers team. She had been quite pleased to find her picture to be one of the largest, showing her smacking her thirty-second home-run out of Jacobs Field when the Slayers were in Cleveland in the month of July.
"You weren't listening to me."
"Sure I was. You were just mumbling."
"Bullshit Lina," Kurt growled. "What in the hell has been with you lately?"
"What's been up with you lately! You act as if you are going through PMS..."
"...I do not have..."
"...Psychotic Male Syndrome, yes you do have it. You've been acting like a little kid for some time now. Are you sure that nothing's up?"
"I'm sure. Sorry I snapped at you," Kurt said, keeping his eyes away from his teammate's gaze.
"It's okay," Lina said. She then grabbed Kurt by the collar and made a fist that hovered menacingly only an inch from his face. "Now if you go all weird on me again, I'm pounding your face in."
"I-I-It's a d-deal," he stuttered, grinning nervously as he eyed her looming fist. Lina smiled. She had Kurt back to the way he always was.
"Hey Inverse, what have we told you about playing nice with the other kids?" someone laughed. Lina and Kurt looked over to the door of the locker room to find Daniel, Jan and Sam standing there with their large duffel bags and laughing at the sight of Lina trying to beat up Kurt, who was near twice her size.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Lina sighed, half throwing/half dropping Kurt's collar and giving Sam a high-five as he passed her up. "Ready for the game?"
"Ready as we'll ever be," Sam chuckled. "You know, we're almost like a high school team compared to some of the other guys out there. We barely stand a chance."
"Ah, we're not that bad," Jan replied waving his hand in the air with a mockingly feminine flair. "Everyone that is going on the field tonight is a professional, whether they feel like it or not."
"The islander's right Sam," Daniel said as he sorted through his belongings. "You're just too pessimistic."
"No," Sam protested. "I just know that if we do make it past this round, the chance we'll survive will shrink and shrink with every game we play. Besides, the Tigers have been favored as World Series material ever since they stopped playing us in the April mega-series. They're gonna whoop us good."
"Relax," Lina said, her voice sounding clam and collected. "All we have to do is retain our focus and ignore the Wanker, right? I mean, come on now... seriously, how many seasons now have Tigers fans been hoping and praying and falsely predicting another World Series for their beloved team?"
"A long time."
"Exactly. The Tigers are news from 1984, not 2006," Lina said with a grin. "It'll be a piece of cherry cheesecake!"
"So Liam did learn something this season... I'm impressed," Daniel chuckled.
"Yeah, how to get along with you."
Daniel just turned bright red in anger as Lina threw a laughing fit that echoed thought the room. He wanted desperately to at least injure her, but with the game coming in only a few hours, he would have to restrain himself and prepare for something more dreadful than the game ahead... a pep-talk from their manager.
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"Now then men," Xellos said, the members of the Slayers all gathered around him in the locker room for his traditional pre-game rant. "We are here at the playoffs. True, that the only reason that we are here is because there are new tournament rules, but we are going to show the world that they should not underestimate us!"
The response that Xellos received was an icy-cold one. Lina was too preoccupied with eating an apple to listen. Aaron was counting the ceiling tiles. Kenny was playing on his cellular phone. Kurt was absentmindedly messing with a rubber band, which he accidentally flung at Xellos's temple. The violet-haired man simply stood there, thinking silently to himself.
That Greywords bastard does not pay me enough to do this. I could be with my Filia right now. We better lose this game.
"Come on now!" he exclaimed, carefully concealing his disdain. "We have a baseball team to defeat! Are you ready? Are you all pumped for game time!"
A chorus of grumbled replies sounded. Xellos looked around to see that no one was really paying any attention to him.
I'm really gonna mess with them, he thought as he walked out of the locker room and into the dugout. Let's see how a little tweaking of the batting mulls over.
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KERRACK went the bat as it connected with the ball, splintering and creating a violent ricochet zooming in the direction of short. Lina easily snatched the bouncing ball from midair and flung it over to Aaron's mitt at first. That made the third out. It had been an easy half for the Slayers with each of the Tigers' batters striking or fielding out of play. Feeling confident about her performance, Lina jogged over to the dugout and took her usual seat on the bench next to Kurt.
"Feeling a little better?" she asked, lightly elbowing her teammate in the side as he sat down as well.
"A little. Catching that pop fly off their catcher was fun," he said, straining a smile. He took off his glove, put it over his face and slumped into his seat to rest.
"Get up Sleeping Beauty," Xellos said, nudging Kurt off the bench. The fielder fell onto the floor of the dugout hard, taken by complete surprise. "You're lead-off batter."
"Goddamn, I thought Jan was the lead-off!" Kurt retorted, getting ready to slug his manager.
"I changed my mind."
"Since when?"
"Since now. Move it ya Pansy!"
Kurt glared as he stomped past Xellos and over to the stairs. He did not even stop to pick out a bat, but blindly took one from the rack as he passed it. Lina smacked the back of Xellos's head as Kurt stepped into the batter's box, a storm cloud looming over his head.
"You idiot," she barked. "That's no way to motivate anyone! He's gonna suck now 'cause he'll be too pissed off at you to concentrate!"
"No he won't."
"Damn you..." Lina growled. She crouched down into her fighting stance and was preparing to finish the fight she started with the man seven months before at the open tryouts when she felt something touch her arm. It was the second baseman Gary. He was holding onto her upper arm, preventing her from attacking their manager.
"Leave him Liam," he growled, angrily glaring the entire time at Xellos. "He's not worth all the trouble at this point. Let him go."
"Alright," Lina scoffed, jerking her arm away. "Just don't stop me if you discover that after the game I decide to finish what we started when we first met."
"I'll be looking forward to it," Xellos said with a spine-chilling grin. The violet-haired man spun on his heel and then read off of his batting list. "Come on! Jan's on deck, then Takashi in the hole and Liam's up after that!"
"Looks like you're cleanup," Aaron shrugged as Lina sat down. He was usually the fourth batter in the lineup, so he was equally confused as Lina was.
"Ball four! Take the walk!" Sunny the Umpire yelled from behind the plate. A bewildered Kurt threw the bat over towards the dugout and lightly jogged over to first base. He wondered as to why he was walked, but then again, the Tiger's pitcher that was currently on the mound had a history of being over-confident, resulting in him filling the bases and then keeping the runs at bay often in order to show off. He got to first and quickly glanced into the dugout and made eye-contact with Lina. He looked dead frightened, as if he imagined that the tone of the whole game was riding on him.
Damn it all, Lina swore silently. Xellos knows that Kurt can't handle opening the game for us. The guy's more of a middle-game man and now he's gonna choke up and blow it...
Things to Know
Zelgadis Being Loopy: Well, what would you do? I figured he thought of the whole thing as a joke until Amelia told him otherwise, since that is kind of a joke my story's version of Rezzo would pull.
Laughter and Chimes: Yes, that was Rezzo folks!
Lina and Her Teammates: I figured that if put together for long enough, Lina can learn to tolerate teammates with bad attitudes and the rest of the team can learn to stand her. I was hoping to make this sort of like character maturing. I know this kind of thing happens in real life too. Take my morning classes as examples.