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...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The cold breeze feels like it's wrapped around Peter Donkersmit's very bones.
His logical brain knows it isn't, of course. He's sitting inside Jolly Roger's cockpit, bundled up in his Jackalopes uniform, but still. His animal brain squirms. It wants out. The ice cuts. Ruthless. Ever present. Gaining strength and power as the last vestiges of summer release their warm grip.
The sky is the same slate gray as Bridgewick Academy, rising up out of the hill behind Peter like one great lonely tooth. The Jackalopes march their tubs down a narrow strip of grass leading to Bridgewick Court.
Tonight, this court has been modified to appear much like an archipelago. Little islands float about in a deep pool of churning blue. Each team's city sits atop many of these islands, scattered about in groups of no more than three or four buildings.
It's going to be a near impossible task to defend them all.
But Peter can't worry about that. It's not his job.
This is his job: the manifestation station standing before him on an island within Jackalopes turf. He enters, moving about inside so he can get a good look at their opponents. The Bridgewick Academy Argonauts appear from a small locker room door just behind their turf. Their home crowd, mostly wearing navy blue and white, rise to cheer them. The Argonauts are not yet in their tubs, which kneel a little ways beyond the court. Peter watches the opposing jockeys, in their blazer-like uniforms strutting to their starting positions like three peacocks. They gesticulate to the crowd, which sends waves of enthusiasm showering down upon them. Finally they get on with it, attaching their helmets and climbing into their tubs.
"Frikken prep school chumps." Peter mutters as the Argonauts' own thaumaturge, jockeying a navy blue tub called Prospero, makes his own way into a manifestation station.
The umpire, who has been sitting in her own black and white checkered tub within the mosh ring located atop the central island, indicates for the thaumaturges to start manifesting.
Peter hunkers Jolly Roger down and focuses on the bleachers to his right, which now appear to tower over Bridgewick Academy far behind them. The Jackalopes' visiting crowd is small. Peter supposes this is to be expected after so many losses. So instead of focusing on the size of their support, he focuses on the individuals. On the benchpen just below the bleachers, where Coach Wu kneels, almost in prayer. Above the benchpen Peter can just about make out all the jockeys' families, waiting on tenterhooks. Waiting for him. His Oma gives him a nervous two thumbs up and a wink.
He can do this.
As always, Peter leans forward and breathes into his humor horn. Only this time, the breath is steady. Strong. He plucks the right string inside. And the emotion he pours into his horn...
