The strikers and midfielders stood on the halfway line, the ethereal land of the holo-trainer spinning around them. In front of them Mei, Derek, Thran and Yuki stood in their way of the goal.
"Alright, now is a chance for you to practice working on your own. Remember tomorrow is the Galactik Cup qualifiers. Our match against the Red Tigers."
"Ha, the Red Tigers? We'll crush them!" Laughed Micro-Ice.
"Never be overconfident!" Replied Aarch angrily, "the Red Tigers will have been practising like crazy for the whole year preparing to take you on again! And I'll tell you this: they'd love to knock you out of the tournament right away."
"Moving on. Yuki, Derek, Mark and Rose don't have the Breath yet, so we're going to train them till they do!" Announced Aarch. "You will go one at a time! D'Jok you're up first."
D'Jok nodded, taking a deep breath and stepping towards the just-materialized ball. The others watched him intently, they all knew that D'Jok hadn't been himself recently. Outside Aarch was watching closely as well. Had D'Jok really lost the Breath?
D"Jok kicked the ball in front of him and began to head up the pitch, eyes on the defenders in front of him. Thran came at him first but he managed to kick the ball high into the air and spin past him. Derek ran at him next but D'Jok was ready dragging the ball in the opposite direction and leaving the lumbering defender flailing.
Mei watched him running towards her.
She took a deep breath and the Breath began to swirl around her. She sprinted at her red haired boyfriend and attempted to slide tackle him. However D'Jok was ready. He clamped his feet round the ball and hopped over Mei's attack.
Still in mid air D'Jok pelted the ball at goal, but, without the breath, it wasn't nearly fast enough and Yuki cushioned the ball into her chest as she stopped it.
"Nice save Yuki," murmured Aarch, but he was more worried about D'Jok's lack of Breath. D'Jok stomped back down the pitch. Mei held out her hand for him to pull her up, but he ignored it, leaving his girlfriend slumped on the pitch floor.
"Ok, Micro-Ice, you're turn." Micro-Ice grinned as he ran onto the ball. He was definitely on his game at the moment, dribbling straight through Derek. Then, he tricked Mei and Thran into bumping into one another in their attempt to stop him. Micro-Ice giggled as he found himself without a defender.
He pulled his leg back to shoot, but suddenly realized it was Yuki in goal. He hesitated for a moment as he looked at the girl who had so captured his attention.
This moment of hesitation was enough for Derek to slide the ball out from under Micro-Ice's feet and punt it off the field.
"Micro-Ice you need to commit more," sighed Aarch, "Mark let's go." It was clear that Aarch was not happy with the team's performance. They definitely were not playing like Galactik Cup champions and Aarch was becoming increasingly worried about the upcoming tournament.
They just weren't up to scratch when it came to goal scoring. He watched as Mark lost the ball to Thran before he even reached the penalty box. Rocket was forced to shoot from far out because of the high level of defence and because of that the ball wasn't fast enough and Yuki managed to deflect it away from goal.
"Defence is working very well, but offence is lacking," Aarch said to Clamp and the technician nodded back to him.
Tia was up next. She took the ball and started off down the pitch, concentrating deeply. She dribbled past Derek, escaped Thran and kicked the ball through the legs of Mei. Tia shot the ball at goal with 200 volts of blue flux. The ball flew into the back of net before Yuki had a chance to do a thing.
"Brilliant shot Tia!" Laughed Aarch. Yuki swore under her breath and watched as Tia strolled back down the line.
"Last up, Rose!" Rose nodded, annoyed at being last to go. She was going to make sure that last wasn't least. She hurried down the pitch, avoiding Thran narrowly. She kick flipped the ball over Mei, leaving her panting on the floor.
Derek charged at her, eyes fixed on the ball. Rose smiled sweetly and shot the ball straight through his legs. The ball span through the air, taking Yuki by surprise and slotting comfortably into the back of the net.
"Great work Rose!" Encouraged Aarch, "alright that's enough."
The Snow Kids watched as the pitch slowly returned to white cubes and then slowly disappeared into thin air.
"Nice work team, head to the showers." Smiled Aarch, the team slowly seeped out of the room leaving only Yuki and Micro-Ice standing in the training room.
"That was an awful training session," whined Yuki.
"Why? It wasn't that hard," Asked Micro-Ice.
"But I let in two goals," she sighed, "maybe I'm not cut out to be a Snow Kid."
"What are you talking about?" Gasped Micro-Ice, "Of course you are!" She looked at him as though expecting him to be joking, but he took her hands in his and looked into her eyes. "You are a brilliant goalkeeper." Yuki looked into Micro-Ice's blue eyes and she could tell that he was being completely honest.
"Thanks Micro-Ice," she whispered, giving him a peck on the lips, before turning away. "You'd better have a shower, I don't want you smelling of sweat on our date tonight," she called back to him.
Yuki slipped into the corridor and bumped straight into the large form of Derek.
"Sorry," she smiled, but he fixed her with a piercing look. "What?" She asked him, bemused.
"So you're all smiles now?" He asked her.
"What are you talking about?" She replied.
"You weren't so happy at the Quad Cup, were you?" He answered.
"No…I guess not," she responded, furrowing her brow in confusion.
"You're the weak link," he said plainly.
"What?" She cried.
"You lost us a match, you let in two goals, you're bad in training!" He explained viciously, "I don't know why you're still here. Ahito should be the goalkeeper, you don't deserve to be a Snow Kid."
Yuki was shocked, filled with rage and sadness at the same time. She wanted to tell him that he was an idiot, but she couldn't. She knew that there was wisdom in his words.
A tear rolled down her cheek and she turned away from Derek, her foot squeaking on the linoleum floor. Derek grinned as she trailed away, he was very good at his job.
Derek booted the ball through the air. Alone in the holo-trainer he felt more free and he handled the ball much better. He had set up a load of clone attackers to come at him and he was enjoying taking each and every one out.
From the corner of his eye, Derek saw a clone race towards goal. The clone was fast and Derek could see that it was about to shoot. Derek clenched his fists and an explosion of black emerged from his body, swirling around him like a dark tornado.
Derek disappeared in a cloud of black smoke and reappeared in front of the clone. With a laugh, Derek took the ball out from under the clone's feet.
"30/30 attackers stopped!" Announced the intercom. Derek grinned to himself as the holo-trainer dissolved leaving him standing alone in the middle of the training room.
Alone that is, except for Mark.
"That…that was the Smog!" Gasped Mark. "You're a Shadow!"
"Oh dear," drawled Derek, "you know my little secret."
"I'm telling the others! You're not going to mess up the Snow Kid's chances!" Mark insisted, heading towards the door. Derek launched himself at Mark, twisting the smaller boys arm behind his back and putting his muscular arm around his neck.
"I wouldn't do that," hissed Derek.
"What are you going to do?" Croaked Mark, "kill me?"
"No," replied Derek, "But I could tell them about your parents." Mark looked round to Derek, a shocked expression on his face.
"How do you know about my parents?" Spluttered Mark.
"Oh yes," chuckled Derek, letting go of Mark, "I know all about your parents. Do you think the Snow Kids will be happy to know about your little…secret?" Derek asked with a slimy smile.
"You're not going to get away with this. I hate you." Hissed Mark.
"Oh well, I'm not really here to make friends," replied Derek, making his way to the door. At the last moment he turned back and said, "If you tell anyone about my secret, I'll know. And you will lose your place on the Snow Kids."
Hope you enjoyed!
Oooooooo conflict!