Hello there again! Updating just for the spiffy weekend! Gather 'round all and read the greatness that is not my own. (You know, the chracters.)
Shichi
"Hello there folks and welcome to the Quarter-finals of the Olympic Ice Hockey Games," the radio announcer said, seated high in his press box, overlooking all of the ice rink. "My name is AirJay and this next to me is my co-announcer Naga."
"Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha," Naga laughed. This is sure to be a fun game, especially since the match-up is so uneven."
"Yes," AirJay said with an official and knowing tune. "Today's match-up is against the tiny newcomers of Seiryuun against the hockey-giant Finland."
"They are hockey-giants?" Naga asked. The white dog at her feet started barking.
"Rrrruff, ruff! Ruuruff ruf rufufuf!" (Damn straight! Too cold for anything else!)
"Right Kiko," Air Jay cut in, "...and now, the starting lineup for Seiryuun! Gourry Gabriev, Constantine Michev, Sander River, Frank Van Dyne, Zach Zimmerman and Zelgadis Graywords!"
The sound of AirJay's announcement and his various translators bellowed in the arena. The fans filled the air with cheers of utter joy and excitement. It truly was the very first round of the Olympics. In other ice rinks, Russia and Denmark were near to waging war, the United States were running over Germany and Canada had already beaten the bloody tar out of Norway.
Once AirJay announced the athletes for Finland, the players from both Finland and Seiryuun skated around on the ice to warm up. Zelgadis glided into the net and stretched out. Looking up, he saw Elena watching him from the team's bench. He quickly diverted his eyes away and started to concentrate on blocking practice shots from his teammates. Naga was calling out the names of the Portuguese referees as he took a puck right in the face mask. It felt so good to take part in all of this good, violent activity.
It had been nearly a week already since when Elena had pulled him aside that day and disrupted everything. Zelgadis had done his best to avoid Elena and Frederick seemed to be taking the whole situation quite well, trying to stay as neutral as he possibly could. Amelia had found a way to be away from Zelgadis at all times and Lina had even told him about the verbal fights Elena and Amelia were getting into. She said that they were so loud and heated that everyone over in Seiryuun could probably hear them.
All of this did not matter at that moment though. All that mattered, was the referee called Sunny dropping the puck between Gourry and a Finnish man and the game getting into full gear.
80808080808080808
"What in the hell are you lot doing out there!" Lina yelled. It was the first intermission of the game and they still had the score tied at zero. The only thing that had kept them there though was Zelgadis's goaltending prowess.
"They're really tough Coach!" Sean Axel panted. He and the defenseman Josef Kiernov had quickly become favorite checking targets for the Finnish players, nearly spending all of their time on the ice sandwiched between the boards and an opponent.
"I do realize that Sean," Lina said. "Gourry! You were blind-sided four times already! Where are your brains you... you... baka jellyfish!"
"Leave him alone Coach," Nathaniel Cor said. "We all just need to adapt."
"You are Olympians now! You have to adapt in an instant!" Lina yelled. She paused for a moment, took a nerve-steadying breath, then looked at Zelgadis. "You just blocked over thirty shots; do you need a break?"
At first, Zelgadis did not answer. He just glared at the floor as if in a trance. It was only when Gourry nudged him did he look over at Lina.
"Sorry... What was that?"
"Do you need a break?" Lina repeated.
"No, I'm fine," Zelgadis said, fatigue resonating in his voice.
"I am replacing you though as long as everyone else straightens up," Lina said. "We cannot exhaust you in the first game due to sloppy play... right gentlemen?" She got a groan of agreement from her tired athletes. "Frederick, who do you have pegged to start next period?"
"Monreal, McInnon and Biope," Frederick answered uncomfortably, adjusting his eyeglasses.
"Xellos, your defense," Lina barked.
"Jones and Cay," Xellos said with a grin. He popped up out of nowhere, right behind the already-skittish Sam Penn. The spooked man jumped up and thus started a comical chase around the locker room, trying to thwack Xellos into non-existence. Lina sighed and gave up the prospect of giving her team more of a lecture.
"Zelgadis," Gourry part-whispered. "What is the matter? You seem to be depressed. Is it still Elena and Amelia?"
"Yeah. It is really hard. I want to be friends with Elena still but Amelia... I really want to be with her too," Zelgadis moaned. "I really, really want to be with Amelia, but I just don't know if she can stand me being friends with Elena after this."
"I think that it is kind of sad that you three have been good friends since you were all small children. Why should something like this ever tear you guys apart?"
"Women suck," Zelgadis said half-heartedly.
"Says the womanizer who cannot keep track of how many girls he's dated," Gourry joked. Zelgadis gave him a brotherly punch and laughed.
"Hey, not my fault... alright?" he joked. "I don't choose how they act after we break up."
"I know that, but still... why does there have to be a fight? All this friction between my friends really bites."
"Bites that it does my good jellyfish-brained friend," Zelgadis said as he got up and stretched. The both of them then walked out onto the ice to warm up. They knew that it would take a huge amount of effort to score on the Finns, let alone keep the score tied at zero.
80808080808080808
Gourry became a mere blur as he rushed past Zelgadis in the net. Standing behind the goal, he pondered his next move and in a split decision, burst off to his left. The game was still tied and it was nearing the end of the third period and the end of the game. Six minutes were left as Gourry passed the puck to Sander River and Sander made a vicious slapshot at the Finnish goalkeep. The clang of hard rubber on the metal goalpost resounded throughout the rink, yet hardly anyone besides the players heard for the crowd was in such a frenzy it was hard to talk to the person two seats down.
"Rebound! Rebound!" Sander screamed as Gourry and Jaques Monreal sped towards the loose puck along with two Finnish players. Jaques's stick touched the puck first and he snapped his wrists for a thrillingly fast wristshot. Fast as lighting, the goalie's reflexes jerked and caught the puck and the referee named Ramon blew the whistle.
"What a shot!" AirJay exclaimed from his broadcast booth.
"Yeah, I guess," Naga sighed indifferently. She and Kiko the Dog seemed to be much less into the sport as AirJay was.
"Come on!" AirJay yelled excitedly. "This has been an exciting game. I am sure all of our listeners at home are wishing they were here."
"O que," Naga muttered unenthusiastically. She patted Kiko on the head, wondering to why she had even accepted her job as a radio broadcaster.
Back on the ice, things were heating up fast. The near goal had lit a fire under the Finnish team. They got possession of the puck and bolted down the ice towards Zelgadis. The goalie tensed up for the impending goal attempt and waited while on the edge.
Sander River's ears perked up as he heard Lina call him into the bench. He came and almost instinctively, Igor Parov came out to take his place on offence. The fresh player sped down to the red center line, waiting for Gourry to retrieve the puck. He and the two defensemen Willy Jones and Ed Daiyo were attempting to commandeer the puck, yet they could not help to struggle against the Finnish players.
"Eat ice!" one of the Finnish wingmen cackled as he shoved Ed into Zelgadis, forcing the goalie to fall and the goal to go off-kilter. Ed had such a bad fall that his skate accidently collided with Zelgadis's right arm, slashing through jersey and padding, creating a deep gash that spewed blood everywhere.
"Zelgadis!" Gourry cried out. He lost his temper and flew at the Finn who caused the accident. Throwing off his gloves and helmet, Gourry sucker-punched the Finnish man and sent him flying into the boards. "No one hurts my friends like that!" he roared. Gourry and his opponent fought violently, causing a much longer pause in the game than needed to shuffle the wounded Zelgadis off the ice.
"Penalty on number thirty-eight of Seiryuun and number twelve of Finland!" Ramon said once he and Sunny, the other referee, were able to pry apart the two men and put them in separate penalty boxes. "Four minutes each!"
So thus the four-on-four play started. The minds of Lina and her staff were not on the game however, but on Zelgadis. With not even a minute left of the four-on-four left, Lina left Xellos in charge and she bolted off, along with Frederick and Elena, down into the corridor where two medic had taken Zelgadis.
"Damn it all!" Lina cursed. "Without Zelgadis, our game is jeopardized!"
"Trust Nerski," Elena said as they came upon the athletes' clinic. The three walked inside to see Zelgadis propped up on a bench, grimacing bitterly. He had his torso padding and jersey off so that one of the two medics present could gingerly wrap up his arm.
"There you are Coach Inverse," the free medic said. She was in a white coat and carried a clipboard. Her fire-red hair nearly made Lina's seem to be colored of dirt and her face carried a fearful expression. "I hope your back-up goalie is good."
"He is," Lina answered. "How long is Zelgadis going to be out?"
"We cannot tell," the medic said.
"Well Miss... Alandra, we have to know right now!" Frederick yelled, pausing to look at the woman's name tag on her coat. "How bad is it?"
"I already told you that we do not know," she stated. "His skin is highly unusual. Very tough. It was nearly impossible for us to even sew it up. It is very hard to predict his body's reaction to the wound. Why does he have no medical history for us to look back upon?"
"...because there is none," a voice panted. Everyone looked over at the door to see Amelia, trying to catch her breath from running al the way there from her seat in the skybox. "There has never been anything wrong with him."
"Amelia!" Lina scolded. "You should not have run all the way here!"
"I had to," the princess said wearily. "You see, our country does not need medial history of our athletes as long as we can prove that everything with them is just fine. School records show that Zelgadis-san had only one absence when he had the chicken pox in kindergarten and nothing else. No other person has had such an immunity to sickness."
"This is all fine and dandy Princess, yet I need to know why his skin is so hard and if it affects healing time!"
"It was a curse," Zelgadis piped up. The medic called Maliska, who was winding a bandage across his arm, had finished and so Zelgadis could move again. "My grandfather said that there was a curse put upon me when I was a small child. When I would get scrapes on my knees and small cuts when I was playing at recess or in P.E. class, they would always seem to heal by the end of the day."
"Yes Graywords-san, but this is a very serious injury. Your nerves were very close to being severed permanently," Alandra said officially. "If that skate came any further down your playing days would be over."
"Yes," Maliska added. "Just because minor scrapes heal quickly does not mean that this cut will. It could heal slower."
"Exactly," Alandra said smugly. "We have to keep Graywords-san here for some observation. Otherwise we can report to the head Olympic committee that he does not have a written medical history and that would be bad."
"Give me a report when you can then," Lina muttered angrily. She and the Yerbinski twins were shuffled out of the room, leaving Amelia and Zelgadis alone.
"Are you alright?" Amelia asked. "I do not really trust them. You know, those medics. I know I should, but..."
"I'm fine," Zelgadis mumbled as he flexed his arm, wincing slightly. Amelia went and sat down next to him on the clinic bed. He still had on his bulky shinpads and skates from the game, causing his body to look highly disproportional.
"I am so sorry Zelgadis-san," Amelia cried. She went and hugged him, careful not to touch his injured arm. "I should have believed you."
"You're forgiven Amelia," Zelgadis sighed, putting his free arm around Amelia as she cried. "Neither of us could prepare for what Elena slammed on us."
"We should forgive her too," Amelia sniffled. "Oh, I was so worried about you! Why did that brute have to shove Daiyo-san and cut up your arm?"
"It was the pressure of the game," Zelgadis said thoughtfully. He was angry at the Finnish player himself, yet opted to be calm and enjoy the fact that he had his Amelia back again. He even leaned over and kissed her gently on the top of her head, causing her to blush.
After a short while of silence, Amelia and Zelgadis could hear Gourry running down the hall, laughing merrily.
"Zelgadis! Amelia! We won!" he yelled as he poked his head in through the door. "Barry Jenkins scored with about three seconds remaining! We are going on to the semi-finals!"
Parodies/References I Am Not Owning So Please Do Not Harass Me
Gerao-A: I do not own my reviewers. -hides leashes- That would be silly. Ramon and Sunny are the referees, Alandra and Maliska the medics and AirJay and Kiko sit in the radio broadcast stand with Naga. They are awesome... but need to update more.
The Naga/AirJay shipment: Because AirJay likes it.
The Naga: She's here. Deal all you Naga-haters out there.
The Evil Finnish Players: I do not have any grudge against hockey players from Finland. This is just for story purposes only. I have no clue if the team is really this violent.
Zelgadis's Injury: Yeah, another reference to him being a chimera. This one is from a medicinal standpoint. I also feel like I have to constantly injure the poor chimera. Read The Unexpected Band if you don't get what I mean.
Amelia's Forgiveness: She had to forgive him eventually! How could she just say no to him? Who would say no to him? I'm not sure if I could!