Sigma/Star

Chapter 80: One Special Camp-out

"Team, I am really looking forward to another win today." Mr. Toriyama beamed at the members of the CRU. "We're two for two and need to maintain top spot heading into the first elimination tournament. Some might say that winning isn't important and that the first tournament is only a warm-up and doesn't really count, but I believe each victory is as monumental as the next and that each-"

"Can we play yet sir?" Chase sighed, holding the ball in his hand. The opposing team had been glaring at them for some time during the teacher's ranting.

"Oh, right...sorry, go right ahead Chase."

"Thank you," the youth curtly replied as he lined up his shot.

"But don't forget the gravity of this situation," Mr. Toriyama added, interrupting Chase.

"I won't." The hothead closed one eye and his tongue slipped out a little as he focused.

"And the importance of each win." The entire group groaned as Toriyama chipped in more advice. "And that we absolutely have to mmph!" Raul slipped behind the teacher and wrapped a cloth around his mouth, dragging him away into the shadows behind the bench where they were sitting. There was some thrashing around that could be heard before, finally, silence.

"Now I can finally win us this thing." Chase fired the ball off down the lane, sending it rolling with his usual fiery ferocity. The ball spun right off the floor into the gutter at the last moment, putting a zero up on the board. "Well, Toriyama was distracting me. You can't expect me to make a great shot with such noise taking me out of my zone." There was a mass eye roll from the gang. Newly determined, Chase grabbed another bowling ball, whipping it as hard as he could up the middle for a six.

"Wow Chase, you've come such a long way from when we started!" Nami jumped on the boy, wrapping her arms around his neck as her tiny frame attached itself to Chase's upper half. "Oh you're so impressive in so many ways."

"Nami...you're...can't...breathe..." Chase's face turned blue and he slowly sunk to his knees, grasping at the air for assistance. The rest of the group completely ignored his plight, turning to Ardwen, the next shot.

"You know, I have a better plan than actually playing," Ardwen mused. "I mean we now have a score of six, and if they were to not have any other score from here on out, we would win without having to make another shot."

"But how would you do that?" Riya inquired in her quiet way, her head tilted a little. Raul held up his hands in response, with the same cloth between them he had used to choke out Mr. Toriyama.

"No, no." Ardwen waved the ninja away. "That kind of action would be blatant cheating. We need something simpler, more indirect. I'm thinking of a sort of situational occurrence that would result in their entire team being incapacitated. But we will need Porter." The group turned to look down the bench at Porter, who was shrouded in darkness and an ominous presence that was not of this world. They all shuddered as they stared at the new harbinger of death who had followed them around like a zombie.

"Chase, Raul," Ardwen continued, "could you kindly risk your lives carrying Porter over to stand next to the other team's lane please?" The two named boys exchanged worried glances but fulfilled their duties, averting their eyes away from Porter's as they brought him to the target destination.

"Umm, Porter," Chase asked, mumbling a little as he didn't want to have his soul sucked out. Raul had already dashed away as fast as possible, leaving Chase alone to die. "What's up?"

"Nothing," came the voice of death, "nothing at all." The opposing team's first bowler, about to take his shot, was caught up in Porter's empty stare, and his eyes glazed over, the ball slipping from his fingers and falling to the floor as he lost consciousness, his soul stolen by the reaper Porter. The rest of the team followed suit, as each one walked over to their fallen comrade to try and revive him and Chase continued to ask the keyword question "What's up?