I'm back! Yayness! So Shadows of the Future took up most of my imagination and I had to force myself to finish at least a new chapter for Olympians At Heart, for otherwise I'll loose my train of thought and the actual Turin Olympics would be upon us. That would be bad. This is a pre-Olympic celebration! I do not own Slayers. I wish I did own them, or Zelgadis at least.
Juu-ni
"I want a clean game, got that?" Referee Ramon warned. "Do you both got that?" A muffled grunt came out of both the USA center and Gourry. Warily, Referee Ramon dropped the puck and Gourry and the American center slammed into each other, fighting over the precious black puck. Sander River threw his body into the American center, freeing up the puck for Gourry and allowing him space to speed down the ice at breakneck speed.
"Watch out!" Gourry faintly heard Lina scream. Sure enough, he was slammed forcefully into the boards by one of the Americans. Gourry fell onto the ice for a split second, yet quickly got up. He had lost the puck and was determined to go and procure it once more.
The American however, did not want Gourry to get the puck. He had seen tapes of Gourry and his wicked slapshot and knew that it was a force to be reckoned with. He sped towards Zelgadis and tried to shoot at the goal, every intention of scoring. Gourry and defenseman Max Brothers though, did a highly spiffy maneuver that involved both men slamming into the puck carrier on opposite sides, making a sandwich out of the American. Ed Daiyo saw this as his chance and made a beeline for the puck, getting it and going towards the other side's goalie.
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"Why are we losing out there?" Lina yelled in the locker room during the first intermission. Every one of them had just pushed themselves so hard that no one was able to give her a reply. The American team had out-skated the Slayers and it was almost like a repeat of the game against Russia. "Well...! Can anyone answer me?"
"They're a bunch of dirty, rotten cheats," Vladimir Sarionov groaned. "Those damned zebras are not calling stuff!" What he was referring to was the referees not calling penalties on anyone else but Gourry. The only reason that they were even behind in the first place was because the referees were busy observing Gourry instead of watching the Americans run over Zelgadis and score a goal. The crowd from the Netherlands, Seiryuun and the various Seiryuun supporters were all making booing noises whenever Gourry was treated unfairly. Even though the referees did not mean to do the Slayers harm, they seemed to be quite good at making sure they suffered.
"Vlad, there is only two of them," Jules McInnon answered. "Those blokes are too busy dissecting Gourry's every move to be concerned about us."
"At least they don't watch me," Willy Jones cackled. He seemed to have developed a tripping fetish, constantly sending Americans to the ice so they fell flat on their faces.
"Just because it is beneficial to you does not mean that the rest of the team is at ease!" Lina retorted.
"Lina... I'm hungry," Gourry whined. Lina's own temper broke as she took the clipboard and slammed it down on Gourry's skull. "Ow! Lina! That hurt!"
"Damn jellyfish!" she screamed. "Is it possible for you to go for three minutes without complaining about your stomach?"
"...but I really am hungry!" Gourry whimpered. Lina beat him again with her clipboard and turned around to face the rest of the team. She blushed when she discovered that the whole locker room was staring at her and Gourry, nearly bursting with their contained laughter.
"Save it for after the game Coach," Nathaniel Cor laughed from his spot next to Frederick. "Then you can tie him up and hit him all you want." Now that comment would have been fine if Nathaniel had not place emphasis on the tying up part. Since he did say it in that manner which implied kinkiness, both Frederick and Sam Penn smacked him.
"Don't make me bench you Cor," Lina spat, making the laughter vanish. "This game is highly important and I think that everyone here really wants you to help out the team in our efforts. What we should be doing is preparing our strategy for taking down those damned Americans! Any ideas...? Anyone...?"
The locker room was dead silent. They, meaning the athletes, usually left the plan-concocting to Lina, Frederick or Elena... maybe Zelgadis. Never were they given the opportunity to give their input and now that they had the chance, every single one froze.
Everyone, that is, except for Xellos.
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Gourry skated around on the ice, staying clear of all the other players. It was all part of Xellos's plan of supposed genius. As the puck went down towards the American goal, he skated over to Zelgadis and glided behind the net.
"Coach Metallium must be nutters," Gourry said loudly. "Why can't I do anything?"
"The damned zebras target you," Zelgadis answered. "If you are away from the action, they will be forced to make the calls they are supposed to!"
"Then why don't I just sit on the bench?"
"That is something to take up with Coach Metallium," Zelgadis laughed.
"He creeps me out. I don't wanna talk to him," Gourry said with a whine. His ears then perked up, for Lina called him back to the bench. Skating over in a rushed manner, he was saddened by the fact that he could not really play hockey.
If only there were a bench-clearing brawl, he thought.
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"Hello there folks, AirJay here again with play-by-play coverage of the Turin Ice Hockey Championship," AirJay said into the microphone up in the pressbox. "Here with me today is the lovely and beautiful Naga!" He looked over at his girlfriend and grinned as she raised her eyebrow conspicuously at his words.
"AirJay, since we are in intermission between the second and third periods, what do you think of the Seiryuun team now that they are still trailing by a point," Naga asked, trying to stay professional. Since the incident right before the game, the both of the announcers were warned about their on-air conduct and were going to be monitored closely, to AirJay's severe disdain.
"I think that they can come back," he replied. "Seiryuun at this moment is like the American team of 1980. They came out of nowhere, battled giants to their disadvantage, yet have still put up a fight. If they truly were out of their league, the score would be in the double digits favoring the United States. Besides, looking at all of the support Seiryuun is getting, it seems as if winning did not matter."
"I think that you might be right there," Naga said thoughtfully. "Although, odds are that this game is in the bag for the United States of America."
"Odds are not a very good indicator of the facts..." AirJay replied.
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"... odds are never a hundred percent correct. That is why underdogs win and the favorites are humiliated."
"I was just saying..."
"Oh, I am sorry Naga my dear, but we have to go for a few moments. This is AirJay, here with Naga... and now for a word from our sponsors.."
The radio flicked off as Lina turned the dial. She was all alone in the darkness. It was calming, that pitch blackness of the frozen hallway. It almost felt as if she were stiff in her grave six feet underground.
Seiryuun was still trailing by a point when the second intermission was called. The whole distressful situation was simply disheartening. Lina might as well have been dead. She could not keep up. Her team was failing, her assistants were failing, she was failing; as good as everyone was together, they were all failing. Lina felt her spirits hit rock bottom and tearful stress consumed her as she curled up upon the floor and cried.
"God just kill me," Lina whimpered. "If you exist or even if you are Allah or Buddha or Zeus or Krishna or something... just kill me and get it over with..."
Lina could not go any farther with cursing herself and instead choked on her words as tears streamed down her face. She laid there and cried, wanting to drown in her damned tears.
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"Where is Coach Inverse?" Alexandre Tierski asked Frederick. The whole rest of the team was assembled in the locker room, sans Lina and Xellos, who was out procuring some more potato chips for himself.
"I do not know," Frederick replied.
"Don't even think of asking me because I do not know either," Elena said, cutting off Alexandre before he could even ask her the question. Alexandre looked over at Gourry and Zelgadis, who each responded with a simple shake of the head.
"She's been gone for too long," Alexandre said.
"I agree," Zach Zimmerman added. The whole room was a chorus of agreement. Hardly anyone was able to keep from collapsing when they arrived from the ice. All of the men were frustrated and worn.
"Next time, let us not listen to anything that Coach Metallium says," Gourry moaned, the strain on him being the worst since it was mentally.
"I agree," Zelgadis chimed in. He was sick of listening to Gourry whine from behind the net every time he was out on the ice.
"What are we going to do?" Constantine Michev sighed.
"I do not know," Frederick replied with a heavy sigh. Elena looked over at her brother and gave him a hug, knowing how much both her and her sibling needed it. The whole room was silent with the exception of Elena's half-restrained sobs. The whole atmosphere was so depressing that Gourry got up and left with his stick and helmet in hand. He exited and went towards where everyone else assumed to be the entrance to the ice. Everyone was wrong.
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"Why...?" Lina sniffled. "Why must this happen? Everyone is counting on us. Wh..." Lina was barely able to speak. She was crying there on the floor of the dark, unused hallway for seven whole minutes already. It felt as if there was nothing that could release her from her morose condition.
"Lina...?" a voice called out softly.
"Gourry?" Lina coughed through tears.
"What are you doing here Lina?" Gourry asked. The hallway gained the noise of the fabric in his uniform and the padding covering his body as he carefully found Lina in the dark. He set his stick and helmet down and put his hands on her shoulders so that if it were lit in the corridor, they would be facing one another. "The team is worried about you."
"The team?" Lina wailed. "Screw the team! All I want is to die right here and now!"
"No Lina..."
"The game is as good as over, though we worked our damndest to get this far!"
"It is not over until the buzzer screams for the final time," Gourry said firmly, as if angry at Lina's words. He was angry. She should not have decided to give up like that. "Stop and think. We are still Olympians, not matter what the score is at the end of the game. Olympians at heart, remember...?"
"Wow, I'm being lectured about thinking from a jellyfish," Lina said sadly. She shook off Gourry's hands and tried to lay back down on the floor.
"Lina! Snap out of it!" Gourry scolded as he held Lina up so that she did not sink to the floor again.
Lina gave no answer.
"Stop it!"
Silence still.
"Please do not do this to me Lina," Gourry pleaded. Without a response, he went and did the only idea that his brain could produce with the little gerbil and his running wheel as brain power.
He kissed Lina.
It was not a very long kiss, nor was it deep, yet it still had the impact of a thousand words. After Gourry brought his face away, Lina embraced him in a desperate hug. She never wanted to leave that moment, for her spirits were uplifted and she could not have happier.
"Lina," Gourry said.
"What?"
"Let's go win that gold medal."
"You got it."
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"What is everyone doing just sitting around here for?" Lina asked jovially as she burst into the locker room. She actually frightened everyone there with her sudden entrance, making half the team and the Yerbinski siblings jump.
"Where have you been?" Zelgadis asked.
"None of your concern," Lina replied. She seemed to have an aura of positive energy around her that the rest of the team could just feel that their coach had changed since she disappeared at the beginning of the break.
"Are you alright...?" Frederick asked cautiously.
"I am perfectly fine!" Lina said triumphantly, stepping up on one of the benches. "Now, why does everyone look so depressed?"
"We are losing the game and don't have a snowball's chance in Hell to come back," Jaques Monreal stated.
"The center of Hell is a wasteland of ice, thank you," Lina said proudly. "We are the Seiryuun Slayers, are we not? We have to do our best to stick it to those Americans! Plenty of hockey games are own in the third period! Remember what I said at the beginning of the game! We are Olympians! We are not about a medal or winning, but about preforming at our best and making sure that our names are remembered! Let us go our there and be the best damn ice hockey team we can be!"
Parodies/References I Do Not Own And Am Listing For I Want To Live
The USA Team: Even though I am an American myself, I do not own this team, nor do I even know who is going to be on said team. I do have a rough idea though, since I am an NHL nutcase. Also, I do not think that our athletes will be that mean.
The Referees: Also called "zebras" for their black-and-white shirts. These two are Ramon and Sunny from Gerao-A and I don't think they would do that cruddy of a job in real life.
Everyone Being Upset: The Nehszriah has turned the Olympic Games into something as big as the Stanley Cup of the NHL.
Gourry's Brain Gerbil: Poor thing. I hope all this thinking Gourry is doing does not kill the poor thing.
The Hell Reference: Dante. Simple as that.