Ladies and Gentlemen, my fanfiction cohorts and comrades, fellow members of the Slayers Fan Guild... I am proud to present the chapter where I write in Gourry Gabriev! -Holy Grail cheer- I do not own Slayers, Major League Baseball, Portland, Knoxville, the Grand Ole Opry, reviewers or instant infatuation.

Juu-ichi

Mary's Met Her Match! Lina's Pitching Defeat!

Lina stood in the sweltering heat of the Kentucky sun, looking over the empty Ball Park Park that she would be playing in within a few hours. It had been a week and a half since she had been stranded in Washington D.C., with Xellos Metallium as her only company to boot. It was a very confusing day, trying to navigate through a city that had multiple streets with the same name. She had managed to get though it and not kill Xellos in the end and now she was standing in Knoxville, the city that held her next opponents: the Gladiators, an expansion team just like the Slayers were. Lina could taste a coming victory on the tip of her tongue as she walked down the stone steps of the bleachers and felt the sun's rays on her bare neck.

Hmm. I'm going to have to put on some sun block so that I don't get burned, she thought as she reached the seats right behind the visitor's dugout. Hopping on top of the dugout roof, Lina gazed at the field and sighed blissfully at the one place where she could be herself and was not criticized for doing so. She had even banned Amelia from coming along on this trip, hoping that some time away from her would help manage her secret easier and be beneficial to both of them. Yet who Lina really feared Amelia being around often was not herself, but Kurt. Him and Amelia had become very close; far too close for Lina's comfort. She shuddered to think about what they were doing while she was not around. In fact, she tried very hard not to think about it and attempted to think about other things instead... like baseball.

"HEY LIIIIINAAAA!" shouted Kurt's voice from seemingly nowhere, making Lina jump and fall off the roof of the dugout and onto the field. Kurt looked sheepishly at her from the dugout as she got up with a groan.

"What did you go and do that for Kurt?" Lina moaned. She shot an evil glare over at Kurt that screamed that she was ready to murder him.

"I thought that you should get ready before anyone else gets here," he answered. Lina looked over at her brotherly teammate and sighed.

"...and why are you not dressed and ready to play though we have over four hours left until game time?"

"You're mean Lina," Kurt grouched as Lina entered the dugout and the pair walked into the tunnel that brought them to the locker room.

"No, I'm just going to become the greatest baseball player the world has ever seen!" Lina exclaimed as she entered the locker room main.

"That has nothing to do with being mean or not," Kurt muttered as he slouched down on the wooden bench and watched Lina in a bored fashion as she walked over into the privacy of the bathroom stalls. Before long, the sound of Lina giving out a surprised yelping noise and another voice delivering a feminine screech filled the air.

"Kurt!" Lina bellowed as she stormed into the main of the locker room, still clenching her change of clothes. "What in the hells was Amelia doing in the stalls?"

"Ask her," Kurt said nonchalantly. He leaned back and rested on the wall of the locker, grinning as wide as a sly trickster fox would in such a situation.

"Mr. Liam!" Amelia yelled, rushing after her friend. "You should really learn to knock on public bathroom doors before entering!"

"Why in the hell are you even here?" Lina half-shouted. "You are supposed to be home in Nowhere... not here in Knoxville! Have you gone daft in the head?"

"I am here as Mr. Kurt's guest," Amelia huffed, folding her arms and haughtily turning her nose upward. "If you have a problem with me, take it up with him."

"Is that why you did not want to split a room with me this trip, huh Kurt?" Lina smiled as she looked over at Kurt.

"Amelia, don't bring me into this!" he curtly interjected. "She wanted to come and I couldn't exactly let her travel alone!"

"Mmm... sure," Lina sighed in disbelief. Since the initial shock of Amelia randomly appearing had faded, Lina decided to go and change. When she came out of the bathroom, Lina

discovered her two best friends sitting on one of the wooden benches, a slight bit too close for her comfort.

"Yech, get a room you two," Lina said in a disgusted voice.

"Mr. Liam," Amelia said through a giggle. "We already have a room."

"Uuuuugh..." Lina shuddered, throughly disgusted with Amelia's comment. Kurt broke out into half-contained laughter.

"Think before speaking Liam," he smirked. "You never now, that bad habit of your could cause trouble one day."

"Are you saying that I am the one who is too impulsive?" Lina spat as she shoved her clothes into her locker. "Look at the two of you, sharing a hotel room, being all snuggly in public, the nerve you two possess..."

"Speaking about getting on other people's nerves," Kurt said smoothly. "I think that you should get going Amelia my dear, otherwise someone from the team could walk in and see us and that would not be good for either us or Liam's sake, now would it?"

"I hate it when you are right about those kinds of things Mr. Kurt," Amelia sighed as she reached into Kurt's locker for her purse and walked out of the locker room. "See you at the room by about ten?"

"Hopefully," Kurt smiled as Amelia disappeared behind the locker room door. He stared at the door mischievously until Lina violently smacked him on the back side of his head.

"You damn pervert!" she snapped. Kurt looked over at his attacker angrily.

"What? What did I do?"

"Stop hitting on Amelia!"

"I am not allowed to hit on my own woman?"

"Your woman?"

"Yes, my woman. Would you rather her be your woman, Liam?"

"Yech, you disgusting pig," Lina muttered as she stormed her way over to the bathroom stalls again so that she could blow off some steam without risking being seen by other members of the team. There she waited for her temper to pacify. The process took a few hours, but she was luckily ready to go by game time.

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Lina looked around and inspected the surrounding spectators in the ballfield. There were many there who supported Knoxville, gold, scarlet and grey glittering the stands with hardly any sign of green in sight. There was a line of men dressed in outfits of the same coloring on the field as the National Anthem was being sung with much more skill than it was sung at Opening Day in Portland. A few of the men, being the Knoxville Gladiators' athletes, nervously shifted in place as the young man from a local high school belted out the national song. Lina smiled as the teen quickly ended the song and the game was put into action. She was ready to trounce the National League's fledgling team and she was not planning on going easy on them.

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"Óla and welcome to Ball Park Park, Home of the Knoxville Gladiators!" said a man with dark hair into a microphone that was set in the stadium pressbox. The pressbox was similar to the one at Jones Soda Stadium, but instead of many different broadcasters in the room, there

was only two men sitting at the one microphone. "My name is Ramon Wild Punch and with me here today is AirJay Andrades from the Portland Slayers broadcasting team, filling in for my co-commentator Nehszriah Shirubaa Kiri Morgana who so happens to be... erm... not here… at the… current moment. Today's game is going to be an interesting one indeed, where the Knoxville Gladiators are going to host the Portland Slayers in a historic first meeting of these two brand new expansion teams."

"Where's my Dear Sweet Naga?" AirJay asked, looking around with a worried and protective expression.

"Not here," Ramon said, covering up the microphone so that the audience did not hear their impromptu conversation. "You are filling in for my female counterpart. It is only for this one game. Come on now and cooperate."

"Where is she?"

"Who? Naga or Nehszriah?"

"Both."

"Just help me broadcast the game and I'll help you find Naga afterwards," Ramon sighed. AirJay gave a little dance of triumph and began to animatedly describe the game as if his Naga were standing right next to him. Little did either AirJay or Ramon know, but Nehszriah had actually stolen Naga and Kiko and the three of them went to Nashville for the day so that they could watch the Grand Ole Opry and throw things at the musicians who did not sing covers of Patsy Cline songs. Neither of the male broadcasters would see their female coworkers until late that evening when Nehszriah would drag a very drunk Naga into Ramon's apartment and leave the two befuddled men, and the reluctant dog, to take care of her. That was not a very nice thing to do, considering how mean of a drunk Naga was being that night and in the morning, the guys demanded an apology… which they got.

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Lina grinned as she walked up to the plate for her turn to bat in the top of the second inning. She went through her at-bat ritual of adjusting her gloves and then tapping the end of her bat on the inside, outside, then inside of her left foot. It was how she came up to bat ever since she was in middle school and it had become her tradition; just like so many other baseball players had superstitions in how they act in the batter's box. Lina raised the bat over her right shoulder and grinned.

Any last words, ya rookie? Lina laughed to herself as she brought her eyes upon the pitcher. A jolt suddenly went through the soles of her feet, bolting up her legs and surging into her spine. She froze at the plate, no more mobile than a statue.

"Strike one!" the umpire called out as the baseball whizzed right past Lina and into the catcher's mitt. Lina did not even see the pitcher release the ball, let alone see the ball coming at her. She was too taken aback to do anything, yet she could not put her finger on the reason to why. The man on the mound was very tall, so tall that he could have easily been playing professional basketball instead of baseball. He had very long blonde hair that was pulled back with a crimson band and laughing blue eyes that shone underneath long bangs. He concentrated in a peculiar way as the catcher threw back the baseball, as if he took his eyes off the white object for even a split second he would get hit in the forehead. Lina had become mysteriously captivated by this man and the very idea of being captivated by anyone, male or female, was disturbing enough.

Who in the hell is he? Lina thought, still in her inert form of panic. Without moving her head, she was able to look over at the scoreboard where the names of all those out on the field were posted. Gabriev...? This "Gabriev" guy... there is something about him...

"Strike two!" the umpire announced as the ball screamed past Lina for a second time. She shook her head and snapped out of her standstill. Shifting in her position in the batter's box, she went through her at-bat ritual once more.

Goddamn it all, Lina grumbled internally. She looked over at the pitcher once more, ready to smack the ball out of the park. Once she looked at the pitcher though, her muscles froze up once more and Lina Inverse could not move even a single bit. Her brain went numb as a white streak went by and her worst fear was announced.

Liam Inverse had struck out.

Now, Lina was no stranger to going down on strikes. She went down about as much as her other teammates did, more or less, yet this strikeout was different. She could not fight back. There was no effort to be made to hit the ball, let alone move. If the pitch had been wild, she would not have been able to move out of the way in time. The pitcher, the man named Gabriev, he had her under some type of spell. It was the most disturbing thing to Lina, so disturbing that she stayed in her batting position until she felt a tap on her shoulder.

"Liam, go sit down in the dugout now," Takashi Takeda said as Lina slowly turned around to look at him. There was a look of brotherly concern on his face as she softly nodded her head and meandered back to the dugout and collapsed on the bench next to Kurt.

"Liam, you don't look so good," Kurt observed. Aaron Reeds, who was sitting on the other side of Lina, curiously looked at Lina as well and cocked his head in wonder.

"He seems fairly pale. Maybe it is exhaustion. My dad was a sports doctor and I saw him get tons of patients like that; pale as a sheet and overworked."

"Do you... think he should sit out?" Kurt asked.

"The rest of the game?" Aaron exclaimed.

"Sure. I know it is kind of drastic, but what good is Liam if he just stands there?"

"I guess you have a point," Xellos inputted, making Kurt and Aaron jump at the sudden invasion of their conversation. The violet-haired man gave a mischievous grin and called over the young Hispanic man named Esteban Hernandez who was Lina's backup. The young man accepted the assignment of Lina's spot in the lineup and when the Slayers were forced to switch to defense for the bottom of the inning, he went out onto the field in her stead. Lina had been allowed to go back to the hotel for the day, which by no means was going to be a good thing for her to do.

Things To Know

Ball Park Park: How do I put this...? The stadium is named after the Ball Park brand of hot dogs, making it "Ball Park Park". Get it? Still, if you say it real fast, it sounds as if you are barking like a puppy!

Is This Amelia/Kurt Gone Too Far?: Remember, she is still addressing him as Mr. Kurt and not just Kurt or using a pet name, so there is still hope... right? -nervous sweatdrop- I am glad that most reviewers enjoyed the setup for the pairing. I was kind of sweating it to be honest.

AirJay and... Ramon?: Comic relief. I do not own these two characters, for there is no way that I can own my reviewers. I do own, however, the spiffy little character I threw in there that is me. (The middle names I picked for myself mean "silver" and "fog".) I am also not advocating myself in a fiction pairing with a reviewer. That would be weird.

Gourry: Yes, he has finally been written into the story! Huzzah! I bet many people are happy now, right? I too really wanted to get to this point. Things are now right with the world.

Grand Ole Opry and Patsy Cline: Umm... I normally don't like country music and so if I went to see the Grand Ole Opry (which is like a country music concert that plays in Nashville only), I would definitely get thrown out for hurling things at people who try to sing a song that's a mix of country/rock (I wouldn't throw things at Kid Rock though, since he's cool that way) and well... yeah... I'm weird. Sue me.