Wrangling teenage emotions is hard enough on good days, but what if on bad days they could manifest as giant flesh and blood monsters?
Pacific Rim meets Friday Night Lights as knee-jerk rebel Sage Sawyer is forced to join her high school "tourneytub...
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Ithaca Court.
Home of Penelope Bay Pandemonium, Atlas State's professional tourneytub team.
Talia's first love.
She can't remember a time the Pandas weren't front and center in her life. Posters on her wall. Colors on her clothes. Loyalty in her heart. To be here, in the heart of downtown Barnum, cheering on her favorite team, is a pleasure which never gets old.
Despite her leg. Despite her crutches. Despite her head.
Talia sits in the nosebleed seats beneath the darkened dome, the Panda's usual pregame light show flickering just above her head on the ceiling. Artie sits beside her in his wheelchair, with Peter on his right. They've been looking forward to this for a while now. They got tickets months and months ago.
The Pandas? In primetime? Against the Big Apple Bombers?
What could be better? Talia wouldn't miss this for the world.
Trumpets burst from speakers far below them on the court. Talia can see its artificial turf and the American Tourneytub Union logo spray painted around its mosh ring. Spotlights begin spiraling all around it. This part never fails to send a shiver coiling up Talia's spine. Only tonight, there's something new mixed in with her shiver.
Disappointment. Longing. Failure.
Talia pushes it all down as the Big Apple Bombers are announced and march out onto the court.
"Whoa." Artie whispers to himself.
"Whoa is right." Talia agrees, leaning over closer to her brother.
"The Pandas play here, but Ithaca Court also hosts the AHSTA playoffs every December as well. We could be playing right there by the end of the year." Peter points hopefully downwards in the direction of the court.
"How about you worry about winning one game first before you get blinded by all the stars in your eyes, Donkersmit." Talia says, but she's smiling. Peter shoots her a rueful grin back.
Now, finally, the announcers are introducing the Panda jockeys. First up is Kate Fox, the team's engineer and shield. Her tub, Big Delilah, is decked out in Pandemonium colors: black and white. In fact, these markings are not dissimilar to those found on real pandas in the wild.
"Fox's tub is an Appleton Umbrella. Sturdy Wisconsin pulsesteel. Fairly immovable. Great for shielding cities, crap for anything else." Artie says.
Next up is the Panda's wrangler, Davey Donahue, in his tub, The Pulp Mobile.
"Davey's a nutcase. The Pulp Mobile is an Everglade Swampstalker and I know the guy wants to appear loyal to his home state or whatever, but Swampstalkers are notoriously temperamental bastards, especially when the air around them isn't humid. I have no idea how Fox has kept that piece of junk running for so long." Artie continues his running monologue. Talia realizes it's more for his own benefit than anyone else's.
