"Alright listen up team, today we take on the Cyclones, they are 2-2, we are sitting at 4-0 right now, but don't take the Cyclones for granted, both of their loses where by less than a touchdown, they've been in every game, especially since they added a new Quarterback, Aaron Slade, this kid is sick, he's deadly accurate on short throws, and has a very quick release, however he tends to freeze up if things start to go badly, so hit him hard, and hit him often."
"Let's hope today goes better than last week." Joseph said as he adjusted his white number 26 jersey.
"What do you mean, we won easily last week?" Troy asked as he took a seat on the bench next to his teammate.
"Wasn't talking about the game..." Joseph said in a low whisper that only Troy could hear, and he knew what the rookie Guardian was talking about, their dismantling by this new threat.
"Joseph, we weren't prepared, whatever it was caught us off guard, but next time, we'll kick it's butt." Troy said in a confident whisper as he gave his friend and teammate a slap on the shoulder pads, which made Joseph smile as Ish and Tua walked towards the bench after going to mid-field for the coin toss.
"They won the toss, they are going on offense." Ish said as he and Tua took a seat on the bench.
"Good, cant wait to see my former teammates on the field, make them realize they shouldn't have cut me when I still have so much gas left in the tank." Joseph said as he stood up and started stretching his legs, as Ash and their special teams unit kicked off the ball and it went end over end into the endzone where the Cyclones return man took a knee, and their offense jogged unto the field, while Joseph, Carlos and Marty as well as the rest of the defense jogged unto the field for the Bulldogs.
"I'm coming for you, Slade!" Joseph yelled as he tried to get in the young QB's head, but to his surprise Aaron raised his head and smiled at Joseph, and that surprised the young defensive back.
"Blue 20, blue 20 hut!" Aaron yelled as he took the snap from under center and dropped back as Carlos was trying to get to him, but was being blocked by both the left guard and tackle, which prevented 'The Wall' from getting to his target as Aaron fired a dart in between Marty and the Bulldogs Free Safety and his receiver caught it for a gain of 17 yards before being tackled by the teams strong safety.
"Carlos, I've trained with all the receivers last season, they will make good catches if the ball is on target, they are that good, you've got to get to Aaron, I have a sense he's going to tear us up if he gets all day to throw the ball!" Joseph said in an urgent tone in the defensive huddle, which resulted in a silent thumbs up from Carlos as they took their positions again.
Aaron took the next snap from the shotgun formation and looked to Joseph's side of the field and made a throwing motion, which got Joseph to react, but that proved to be what Aaron was looking for as he had merely done a pump fake and fired it back to the middle with such speed that it went over their strong safety's head for a 23 yard pickup, and another first down.
"This is going to be a long day." Joseph said with a sigh as the Cyclones went no huddle and quickly got back to the line and ran another play, as the Cyclones left side wide receiver ran past the Bulldogs defensive back and ran into the end-zone for an easy touchdown, giving the Cyclones a 7-0 lead.
"He's getting to much time to throw the ball, we're going to get some one on ones, we've got to get to the Quarterback!" Joseph yelled at his fellow defensive players as they sat on the bench. After the Cyclones first score, Ish and the offense had managed to put together a couple of scoring drives, but Aaron and the Cyclones had matched them punch for punch, and it was 21-21 at the start of the second half.
"We're doing our best Joseph, but he's got among the quickest releases I've ever seen, he lets it go as soon we get close to him!" Carlos yelled back in frustration as he thought about his inability to get to the QB.
"Guys, calm down," Ish said as he walked over to the defensive players from his meeting with the offensive coaches, "I've noticed he's throwing short passes 90 percent of the time, he's only 1-4 on deep passes, plus he's rolling out to the right where he's most dangerous, so here's the plan..." Ish said as he leaned in and whispered the plan to the defensive players.
The Cyclones and Bulldogs units took their positions as Aaron took a look at the defensive players, keeping an eye on number 72, for he had almost got him a few times, but to his surprise he didn't see him, as he kept looking for him, "Clock!" his center yelled as Aaron realized he had only ten seconds left to call the play.
"Set hut!" Aaron yelled as he took the snap and rolled out to his right only to see a white number 72 Jersey crash through the line and wrap him up at his waist and drive him to the ground, and to make matters worse, the ball came loose, and Joseph fell on it, to give the Bulldogs possession of the ball at the Cyclones 18 yard line.
"That's what I'm talking about baby!" Joseph yelled as he handed the ball to the ref as the defense jogged off the field, and upon looking back he noticed Aaron calmly walk to his sideline, but he was keeping his head down, and Joseph could only imagine what the young Quarterback was thinking as he took his seat on the bench.
"I must say," Carlos said as he took his seat, "Ish is taking a page out of Jim Johnson's defense form the '04 NFC Championship game where Johnson switched his Defensive Ends, and put Jevon Kearse on the right side, and it allowed him to keep old Michael Vick from escaping to his left, where the Quarterback was most dangerous, now that I'm on the left, it allows me to keep Aaron from rolling out to his right where he's most dangerous, it's genius man." Carlos said with a smile as he and Joseph slapped high fives.
"What works in the NFL sometimes works here as well, and no we'll be all over them like a bad haircut." Joseph joked, which earned a laugh from Marty as he took a seat on the bench and let his backup come in as running back.
"That was a good win today." Marty said as he reclined in his seat at the bowing alley, "once we adjusted on defense, they never came close to scoring again." Marty joked as Joseph spared his frame of bowling.
"It wont be that easy all season." Ish said with a sigh, and it was obvious to the other Guardians what was going through the mind of the African-American Guardian.
"Ish, you can't blame yourself for what happened to Ash, if anyone is to blame it's me." Joseph said as he took a seat next to his best friend.
"It's not your fault Joseph, I should have been there to help." Ish sighed as he took a slice of pizza from off the table in front of them and took a small bite.
"I did all I could, and yet it wasn't enough, I failed her, Ish." Joseph said sadly, and Ish put a hand on his shoulder.
"You did everything you could, you actually defended her, and got her to the HOK in time, you saved her life." Ish said in a small whisper as he mentioned the HOK, since the bowling alley wasn't that busy today, and their conversation could be possibly overheard.
"If I had gotten their earlier, Keith and Jacob wouldn't have gotten the drop on her, and I might have been able to prevent them from poisoning her." Joseph said with a defeated sigh.
"Dude, you cant blame yourself, we where the ones who couldn't find a safe place to armor up, so all we could do was watch." Troy said in his own sad tone as all five of their NFL-R's started beeping, indicating an incoming message from RZ.
"Guardians, please report to the Hall of Knowledge at once for an emergency meeting." RZ requested as all five of them stood up and quickly made their way out of the bowling alley, and towards the HOK.
"Guardians, I'm sorry to bother you after your game, but I'm afraid this cannot wait." RZ said as they entered the HOK and Ash sitting on her bed, and Ricky standing there, be it with his right arm in a sling, and that surprised everyone.
"Got injured today, Ricky?" Troy asked with a sly smile, and to his surprise, RZ answered.
"No Troy, Ricky was attacked before his game by Keith and Jacob, while he managed to fight them off, they broke his arm in the process." RZ said sadly, and that earned a grimace from Ricky.
"What is with all these attacks, first Ash and Joseph, and now Ricky." Marty said as he tried to take it all in.
"I think this is a message, a message we can be attacked whenever, by whatever the heck this new threat is." Ish said with a tired sigh.
"Endgame," Ash said out of nowhere, and they all turned and looked at her with much surprise, RZ included, "Keith said to me, 'Endgame sends her love,'" Ash informed her teammates, "I'm guessing Endgame is the one responsible for Keith and Jacob's kidnapping and brainwashing, and also is who we faced in New England." Ash said.
"Endgame, I don't like the sound of her name," Marty joked, and it earned a scowl from everyone, since this wasn't a joking matter, "sorry." he apologized quickly.
"Did you say, Endgame?" Swoop, the Eagles Rusher asked as he entered the HOK.
"Yea, I did," Ash answered simply, and that earned a sharp inhale from Swoop, "you know her?" Ash asked Swoop.
"Nope, just making sure I heard you correctly." Swoop replied as he gave a hand gesture to the Patriots Rusher, Freedom, and they quickly left the room and into a side room, which went unnoticed by the Guardians and RZ, but unfortunately they had bigger problems to worry about, they just didn't know it yet...
'It's time to begin phase two of the operation.' Endgame mused as she activated Keith and Jacobs stasis pods and within minutes they where standing before their master, as Endgame was currently hacking the passageway that lead to the Hall of Knowledge, and once she was done, she looked down from her throne at her Nega Guardians, "attack the Hall Of Knowledge at my signal, aim for maximum damage, I'll make sure they are not at full strength." Endgame ordered as she left her throne and headed for a pod that would take her to her target location...
"Am I the only one who felt chills when Ash mentioned the name, Endgame?" Marty whispered as he and three of his friends could be found back at the bowling alley after their emergency meeting with RZ.
"Not going to lie, I also felt chills." Tua said as he took his seat next to Marty after finishing his frame of bowling.
Before anyone else could speak up, they hard screaming and people started to flee, and upon running to the entrance they spotted a very familiar looking female robotic lady firing energy blasts at the parked cars, destroying them all in one blast.
"We've got to armor up." Ish said as they ran into the bathroom and locked the door behind them.
"Enter the Rush Zone!" they all shouted as their civilian attire was replaced with their Guardian Armor, and they ran outside to face their foe.
"Took you long enough, I was waiting for an actual challenge." Endgame mocked as she cracked her robotic knuckles.
"Unlike cars, we actually fight back." Marty joked as he fired an energy blast at Endgame, but she easily sidestepped the attack, and raised her right hand and fired lighting bolts at all three of them.
"RZ, we are under attack at the Bulldog, can you send backup!?" Ish yelled into his communication app as he front flipped over the lightning bolt and ran at Endgame, only for her to swat him like a fly and send him flying through the air where he flew and crashed thought the windshield of a parked car.
"Humans are predictable creatures." Endgame joked as she raised her left hand and a hole opened in the middle of it, and a jet black smoke emanated from it and the battlefield was covered in jet black smoke, and due to Endgame's armor color, she was able to blend into the smoke...
"This could be a problem!" Tua shouted as he and Marty began firing rapid fire energy blasts into the smoke in an attempt to strike Endgame, unaware of the real threat...
"Guardians, Ish, Tua and Marty are under attack at the Bulldog, I need you there at-." RZ never got to finish due the passage way opening inside the Hall of Knowledge and two very familiar armored kids emerged, well at least familiar to Ash, Joseph and Ricky.
"Enter the Rush Zone!" the three other Guardians shouted as they where soon armored up and ready to fight Keith and Jacob...
To be continued...