Breed

Chapter Twelve

"The prodigals return," Linc said as Mayumi, Mikaela and Drake arrived, each holding a steaming drink carrier with four mugs in them.

"Is this the real reason you paid for our coffee?" Mikaela asked. "So we'd mule some back for you?"

"'Mule' makes it sounds so sordid," Linc said.

"Also like we carried it in our butts," Drake said.

"I prefer 'smuggled.' It makes you sound like pirates." He took one of the coffees, peeled back the lid and drank. "Yarr!"

The frisbee game collapsed, as the players gathered around for coffee. "Creamers?" Ben asked.

"Yeah," Drake said, balancing the drinks in one hand and reaching into his pocket. He dropped several sealed creamers into the center of the cup holder.

"So, now that you three are done running coffee for me," Linc said, pausing to take a quick sip, "how would you feel about a quick scrimmage? It would even out our teams."

"Hell, no," Rox said.

"The math checks out, Rox, no matter how vehemently you disagree."

Cris made a show of counting on his fingers, before holding up both his hands. "He's right, it'd be 5-5."

"I meant we're not going to play with them. We're going to play against them."

"I think seven on three is probably a little slanted, even if they're older," Linc said. "So I'll play for their team, too."

"What?" she asked.

"We'll give you first possession. Sound fair?"

She nodded.

"Good. Then get to walking."

"What have you gotten us into?" Mikaela asked.

"Ultimate frisbee. Normal rules apply. Mostly. And you can use whatever powers you've got, provided you don't hurt the disc or the players. Except me. My powers aren't any good unless I'm willing to essentially cheat, so I'm just a normal guy, for the purposes of this game."

"Kae?" a familiar voice said from behind them.

"Dem?" she asked, spinning around.

"You guys playing?" Demi asked.

"Yep."

"Room for one more?"

"Sure. And I think I can even things out just a little more." She pulled a compact out of her purse, and looked inside. A double of her climbed out of the mirror, stretching until it was a full-sized copy standing next to her. "If anybody's got more reflective surfaces, I can pull a few more out." She looked at Demi.

"Sorry," she said, "I do whatever touch-ups at home. I don't primp on the go."

"Mayumi?"

She shook her head.

"Oh well, that still gets us a team of six. Four of us essentially vanilla human, but hey, at least we're prettier." Both Mikaelas grinned at the same time.

"Anything the rest of us should know about anybody's powers?" Linc asked. Drake disappeared, only to reappear on the opposite side of him. "Teleportation. Cool. And Demi zaps things; it ain't our first rodeo together. All right. Since we're outnumbered, I think we'll have to at least partially run a zone defense. Drake will take the back field, since he can cover the most ground. At least coming up the field, we'll want to coalesce around specific players. Anyone have a preference for who they guard?"