Natria made a leap for the ball as Trowa also reached up. Unfortunately
for her, he was much taller and knocked the ball easily from her grasp.
She swore and vowed that next time she wouldn't be nice and knock him down
before he would get it. The boys took the ball for a few moments. Natria
was close behind Trowa who was dribbling at a lightening pace. Duo gave a
high-pitched whistle and without a glance, Trowa tossed the ball to his
teammate. Dorothy was right on Duo's tail. She was catching up to his
flanks quickly and reached around and swiped the ball from his grasp.
Regretfully, Dorothy and Duo both lost their footing and tumbled into a
mass of arms and legs. The ball rolled away off to the side more in favor
of the boys. Dorothy cursed and pounded the ground once with her fist
quickly before she jumped back up and chased after the ball, Duo right
ahead of her. Cathy then jumped forward and grabbed hold of the loose
ball. Holding it like a baby, she crouched when she saw Quatre barreling
towards her. He flipped over her suddenly hunched back and landed hard on
his hip. He grunted as the pain shot down his leg and up his side, but
quickly recovered as Cathy took off at full speed down the court. Heero
was surprised by her speed, but he saw that she had missed seeing him come
towards her. P
"I'll take that," he mumbled. He immediately shot forward and snatched the
ball out of Cathy's hands and the tide was now heading back towards the
other hoop. Wufei guarded him on his left. The Chinese player roughly
shoved Dorothy back as she landed hard on her back as they continued their
way down the court. Relena stepped in then and snatched the ball just as
quickly as Heero had run forward and grabbed it from Cathy. Now it was
time to show why she was the leader of this team. Her speed was almost as
fast as Cathy, but her agility was phenomenal. Duo was standing right in
front of her in a guard position. P
"It's time to break the barrier," she thought to herself. Her eyes
narrowed in her resolution. Shooting straight forward, she was heading
right into Duo. Right before she was going to ram him she flipped around
and whipped out a knife. Duo's eyes widened when he saw the blade and
reared back. Relena came down and let the knife fly freely in her hand.
It made its way towards Duo's chest. Hilde held her breath as she watched
her best friend come down on Duo's arm instead. The gash was deep and
caused Duo to wince in pain. P
"She missed on purpose," he thought in shock. Relena cursed herself and
went quickly over in her head why she had suddenly changed the course of
her knife and quickly shoved the thought aside, putting her mind on more
important things. Hilde glared after Relena for a moment but then followed
the same guard position Wufei had been on for Heero. She whipped out a
dull dagger and was running just as fast as Relena as they maneuvered
around the other players of their team and the others and knocking down
players if they were in their way. Finally the basket was in sight and
Relena's head bowed in deep determination as she purposely shot ahead of
Hilde, leaving her behind and ran to slam dunk the cursed ball. The ball
went through with a whoosh. The first point had been scored. Cheers were
going up as some of the money was being traded among the viewers. Bets
were placed on the first point before the game now there were bets for the
ending winner. P
Duo hastily wrapped his arm with a ripped piece of his shirt. He pulled
the knot tight with one hand and his mouth. His eyes were centered on
Relena. She had missed purposely. He had put his guard down. It would
have served him right to be bleeding on the ground at this point. Sighing
he quickly returned to his guarding position in front of Dorothy. The ball
was thrown over to Heero who barely even looked at it as it flew towards
him. Instead, he was examining the players. He had assessed that Natria
was the one who was the best at sacrificing herself to get the ball and
would go all out at any cost. She definitely wasn't the best one to throw
the ball towards, in Trowa's direction. The problem was that Trowa was the
fastest on their team and could easily take the ball down the court.
Heero's gaze then shifted to Hilde. She was good, really good with her
weapons and would have been bad to provoke any further injuries. Relena
had purposely pulled out hers to break the weapon barrier that always
formed in the beginning of every game. This particular barrier was
different though. They were going to hurt the people they cared for.
Heero shook his head to clear it. Quatre was the best guardsman on the
team. Wufei second best but was definitely good at his weapons and stamina
as well. As he reassessed the situation he was coming to the conclusion
that they would have to switch up if the game continued in this fashion.
His eyes turned to Cathy. She was fast, faster than him even and he saw
that Wufei wasn't going to be able to keep up with her. Yes, there would
definitely have to be a switching around of players if they were to make it
through this game. The moment the ball was in his hands he shot forward
and wove his way past Relena, who had also been assessing the situation,
but was almost distracted a decimal past the time limit she had expected
and that gave Heero the chance he needed to get past her. She cursed and
took off after him. P
As Heero was half way down the court, he saw that Cathy was trying to make
her way around Wufei and Hilde had just gotten away from Quatre on his
right and was heading straight for him. He wasn't going to make it out of
the collision course, so he scanned for a player further down the court for
an open teammate. Trowa. Natria saw the quick recognition and moved to
intercept the ball, but Duo saw on the upper right court what Natria was
planning on doing and quickly ran for her. Just as the ball was in Trowa's
hands Natria crashed into him with a half drawn spike hidden in between her
knuckles. Trowa felt it ram its way into his side. He hadn't seen that
one before! Just as that painful connection Duo had reached them and had
literally bowled Natria over with his metal knuckle case he had whisked
out. It was a covering for his fist, something he had been working on over
the last few months. It was tied securely over his wrist, but with a flick
of his wrist it was covering his clenched fist. Natria felt the metal join
with her jaw and she felt like an explosion had just gone off in her head.
All three of them tumbled to the ground, Trowa still clutching the ball.
Instead of waiting for anything else to happen, Trowa leapt up and headed
straight for the hoop, not even bothering to glance at Dorothy as he used
his speed to fly around her and straight for the hoop. One hand holding
his bleeding side, the other reaching up, and the ball went in with a
whoosh. P
Back next to Heero, the entire time some more damage was being done. As
Cathy was moving to intercept Heero's run down the court, Wufei had leapt
out, extending his dagger. It ran right between the webbing of two of her
fingers, tearing it and another spike attached to one of his knuckles flew
up and smacked her in the ribs. Letting out a gasp, Cathy fell back,
clutching her hand, bleeding badly from both wounds. Relena was almost
upon Heero at this point, but he let out a burst of speed when he threw the
ball to Trowa. She saw that Hilde was going to intercept as well and had
been nearly brought down by Quatre and a result of that was a small pool of
blood trickling behind her. Her injury was somewhere in the patch of blood
covering her stomach. She let out a roar and rammed Heero's stomach. He
left out an 'oomph' and fell back, landing on Relena, causing her wrist to
be pushed back in an awkward position. Relena bit her lip against the
pain, but found that it would have to be all right in order get through
this game. By the time the ball had gone through the hoop, two of each
team were down and bleeding. Slowly they got up, painful inch by painful
inch. The crowd loved it. P
Up in the stands two owners watched with grim gazes as the game unfolded.
It seemed that the boys from there on out were barely able to keep up with
the girls point wise. P
"You better win you little wenches or I'm going to paint you black and
blue," grumbled Owner with a furious gleam in his eyes. His pudgy hands
were clenching as his face was changing various interesting shades of red
and purple. Hiroshi noticed this man's odd behavior and immediately became
interested. He leaned over and gave a conversational air to himself. P
"That your team down there?" he asked light-heartedly. Owner turned and
glowered at him, almost suspiciously. P
"Yes, as a matter of fact, they are." Hiroshi raised his eyebrow. P
"The girls?" Owner nodded. "They are fine specimens! One of the best
I've seen so far. My team I've trained personally is here as well," he
said, failing to mention his team was down there against Owner's team at
that very moment. Owner's eyebrows raised in interest. P
"Really? Perhaps we could do some business sometime, concerning the Lost
Children of course." Hiroshi almost regretted starting the conversation
due to the god-awful smell coming from the other man's mouth. It was the
stench of liquor and he almost knew right away that this was an abusive
owner. Not all owners were brutal, but many did not have much concern for
their Lost Children's emotions or feelings. This man had little respect
for anything in general of Lost Children. P
"I would like to do business sometime. If we see each other at the 3rd
Level Tournaments I'll be sure to give you my card and we can talk later."
Owner nodded contentedly. P
"All right." A moment of silence passed between the two men and Hiroshi
spoke up again, curious as into the response. P
"They are fine players. They could even win the championships. That would
bring you a lot of money. It's too bad that you would have to let them
go." Instead of an infuriated reply, Owner only let a sly smile spread
across his face and Hiroshi's theory was verified. P
"I'm not going to let those little jewels go." Hiroshi decided to humor
him and raised his eyebrows in mock surprise. P
"Really? They will want to buy their freedom. The way they're playing it
looks to be that they're pretty desperate." Owner merely shrugged. P
"Of course they're desperate. I let them nurse the idea of freedom and the
harder they play, but it does not mean I will accept the money. I may
refuse them instead. I could use that money they make anyway, but I will
not let these good finds go. They are the best I've ever had in my entire
time in the slave market. They are rare." Hiroshi nodded in
understanding. He had heard of owners doing this before, but very few did.
It was so dishonorable, not that the enslavement of children wasn't
already dishonorable, but this was beyond contempt. Instead of showing his
repulsion, Hiroshi turned his head back towards the game. It had been
going on for over an hour now and he was getting nervous. Not one game had
lasted this long before in the 2nd Level Tournaments, maybe in the
championships, but certainly not at a level tournament. The score was tied
and it looked as if Heero and boys were nearly at their ropes end. P
P
P
The smell of sweat and blood filled the court as some of the players
slipped in some of the droplets of blood littering the floor. The crowd
was much calmer, realizing the enormity of this game. This was probably
one of the most spectacular games they would ever bet on in their entire
lives. P
Heero looked about his team and realized that they were all equally tired,
but tried not to show it. His gaze then wandered towards the other
teammates and saw that they were faring a little better, but not by much.
They probably weren't near ready to give up. It was then that Heero made
his decision. He held up his arms in a single for a one-minute time out.
This was permitted to every team once in the entire course of a game.
Heero knew Hiroshi was examining this in the stands, but he figured his
owner would find out what he was doing soon. Relena's eyes narrowed when
she saw the called timeout. The guys huddled in a small circle and quickly
conversed among each other. P
"We're changing up the guarding pairs," said Heero, his breath coming short
and his voice filled with exhaustion, but his eyes showed he was far from
done. "Trowa, you're with Cathy, you two are the fastest on both teams,
you can cancel each other then. Wufei, stick on Hilde, she is familiar
with her weapons and so are you. You will cancel each other hopefully.
Quatre, with Natria, Duo, stay with Dorothy. I think this arrangement will
be better liked by all of us." The others nodded, not seeing any reason to
argue. They all broke and then went to their assigned person. The girls
sent nervous looks at each other. The score was a tie of 4 points each,
but they had a distinct feeling that they were doing better off than the
guys. This sudden change in pairings was not a good sign. P
Cathy saw the glimmer in Trowa's eyes and her own narrowed. How did I get
stuck with him? She thought to herself. P
Everyone waited tensely as the ball was once again brought out onto the
courts. It was crusted with blood on many rounded parts, making it
slightly harder to grip, but the man didn't seem to notice. Cathy and
Trowa were set in the middle and faced off. The intensity grew to the
point of suffocation. Finally, the ball was thrown up in the air and even
a few watchers in the stands stood up with their anticipation. P
Cathy was prepared, knowing that Trowa was much taller than her and could
reach the ball before her so she ran forward instead and jabbed him in the
stomach with an elbow. Trowa could have sworn he heard a whispered apology
as Cathy snatched the ball and sped off towards the net, but Wufei took the
ball away from her. Hilde, as expected yanked out a knife and went after
him and he dodged, but losing the ball at the same time. This continued
for another hour, both sides scoring to always put them at an even, never
winning or losing. P
By the time the second hour was rolling around, all of the players were
fairly injured and bloody, the floor no longer sprinkled with blood, but
enough to make a player fall once or twice and lose the ball. P
Hiroshi looked up at the announcers and saw them whispering among
themselves. He turned back to the game and his eyes narrowed. A certain
pattern had started long ago. They would use petty attacks against each
other, but then a run for the net would always be followed by a mass of
injuries. Such as the one an hour ago where Trowa, Natria, Heero, Cathy,
and Relena all were injured at the same time, none of the injuries very
nice bits at all. Hiroshi could sense it, as well as the announcers, there
was going to be another full out massacre. This had been happening the
entire time; he hadn't noticed it until now though. The players were all
badly hurt, but weren't willing to back down and the announcers saw that.
P
At that very moment of thought, Hiroshi saw the massacre unfold. It was a
spectacular sight to see! P
Heero carried the ball now and was making a dead out run for the net on the
other side of the court, he wasn't going to make it. Relena was right
behind him and somehow, the other team had noticed that their leader was
onto Heero. They followed suit and somehow found their way out of the
guard positions and took a head on run at Heero as well, an all out ambush.
Heero was stuck in the middle of it. The guys were stunned for a moment
but followed their opponents after one moment and then tried to stop the
inevitable. No telling what would happen to their teammate if all of the
other team ganged up on him. P
Duo tackled Dorothy from behind and threw her across the floor as Wufei
used his dagger to make Hilde stagger in her footsteps and trip. He jumped
her and swung her out away from Heero who was now being grabbed around the
legs by Relena, pulling him down. Cathy had made it there as well but saw
that Hilde was being beaten as well and went to assist her. Trowa grabbed
her from behind, but she swung around and hit his already bruised cheek.
With quickness of a lioness, Natria next to Heero and pulled her dagger out
meaning to hold him still with the tip of it next to his throat, but just
as she pulled her knife out she was grabbed from behind and flung back,
running into Cathy who was just turning back around in her current
direction. Both of them went tumbling down. Natria shot back up, still
seeing that Relena was still struggling with stopping Heero from getting
back on his feet and was about to run to help, but Wufei being the one who
threw her back was there to stop her. Hilde had shaken her head and stood
up, running full speed at Wufei, locking knives with him. His strength was
more than hers though and she was now kneeling. Dorothy shot across,
leaping over Heero and Relena and rammed into Wufei, releasing Hilde from
the death trap. Natria at that time was diving for her knife that she had
dropped, but Quatre put his foot on top of it. Natria looked up and
glared, but quickly swung her leg out and tripped Quatre off of his feet,
putting him on his already soar leg. He let out a choked cry. It was a
near full out carnage! P
The entire crowd was roaring with cheers and laughter, egging the players
on. Hiroshi was frowning as if deep in thought. Owner's face was bright
red as the PA system blared to life. Hiroshi looked back at the announcers
and saw they intended to call an end to the game down below. P
"Due to the lack of time and exhaustion of us announcers, we have called a
draw. There is only 12 more hours left until the end of this tournament
and we will not waste it on one game. IT IS A DRAW!" the announcer yelled
as the crowd wailed in protest. P
The players down below seemed to give out that moment and fumbled to get
away from each other. Each team made a slow struggle towards the exit to
the Ice Cage. Their sweat was turned to cold ice almost immediately.
Relena stopped a moment to look back at Owner. His face was livid and she
felt her heart sink. Slowly, dejectedly, she turned away and headed back
to the Cage with her teammates, not even looking at Heero, who was staring
intensely at her. P
P