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 is stupidly big.
This is Sage Sawyer's first thought as she bounds out onto the court in Storm Zen for the Jackalopes' first game of the playoffs: the Quarterfinals versus the Bother Bears. She tries to breathe it all in. Revel in the moment. But Sage finds her senses so incredibly overloaded she's realizing that's basically going to be an impossible task for her.
Ithaca Court is a large round dome. Its dark roof rises far above even Storm Zen itself, flowing down into walls surrounding the Pandas' home court. The crowd sits in actual stadium seats. They've really entered the big leagues now.
Expensive-looking spotlights shine down on the green court. The artificial turf beneath Storm Zen's feet seems stable but spongy. Every once in a while, a tub kicks up the rubber pellets making up the turf, but Sage can already tell it will be a compellingly playable court. Speed will be a factor. She almost laughs. Whenever speed is a factor, she knows it's her time to shine.
As Phoenix Beacon and Jolly Roger make their way out onto the court, so do the Bother Bears from the other corner of the stadium, their green tubs blending in with the court, as always. Sage curses. She had nearly forgotten about that.
Each team's city is scattered about the court in clusters of four or five. While Wendy will have her work cut out for her shielding the Jackalope skyscrapers, Sage has every confidence she'll be able to pull it off. That leaves Gee and Sage to deal with the Bears wranglers and their humor.
Sadly, lately Sage hasn't been feeling the same sort of confidence in Gee that she has in Wendy. But no matter. They're just going to have to figure this out on their own.
Or at least Sage is.
The game begins. The playoffs are on! Sage becomes eerily aware of the rhythm of her own heart. It's fast. Unrelenting. It won't let her cower on such a bright stage. Sage is immensely grateful for that.
The Bears' thaumaturge has manifested a great green bear humor with solar panels for eyes and a giant scorpion's tail protruding out of its backside. In the other manifestation station, Wendy has produced what appears to be a monstrous stegosaurus. Only, instead of spikes running all along up and down its back, it sports an entire miniature Barnum skyline. It's oddly beautiful in its inherent fragile savagery.
"Damn, Donkersmit," Sage calls down the comm, "you've definitely gotten much more creative in your manifestations lately, I gotta say."
"I guess so. Maybe I'm just getting more comfortable with my feminine touch." Wendy replies.
Sage chuckles, but then refocuses herself on the game.
It goes on for a long time. Back and forth and up and down. Sweat and exhaustion and frustration and elation. The crowd rises and falls as one animal, an ever present buzz in every jockey's ear. It's deafening. Sage has never played in a bigger venue, obviously, and Ithaca Court more than lives up to its reputation.
Finally, as most of the buildings from each team's city are swept aside, Sage notices Phoenix Beacon grappling with the scorpion bear humor off to the side. She hurtles Storm Zen over to get a better look. Gee is doing her best to keep the bear preoccupied, but there's something off about her movements. Something slow. Like her brain is somehow getting in the way of her body, which is causing Phoenix Beacon's blows to land just a second too early, or a second too late.
Sage watches these proceedings for as long as she can manage, but soon she grows tired of Gee's ineptitude.
She charges Storm Zen into the fray, knocking Phoenix Beacon back from her quarry. A volley of boos gets hurled down at Sage by the crowd, many of whom are wearing burgundy and brown. Sage understands what she's doing isn't entirely fair to Gee, but she wants to win, dammit!
Can't the crowd see that? She ignores them. They'll be happy before long.
She just knows it.
With Storm Zen in the right spot, Sage lands her tub squarely on the bear's head. This isn't exactly where she wanted to end up, so she has to quickly dodge the creature's flailing stinging tail. Thinking quickly, she grabs the striking appendage out of the air above her with one of Storm Zen's hands.
Sage pulls the tail down violently, embedding the sharp end deep inside the bear humor's skull.
She hears the inevitable POOF, but feels none of her usual victorious elation.
The crowd tries their best to provide it for her.
Their boos from five seconds ago are easily forgotten, as she had predicted.
The Jackalopes are on their way to the Semifinals!
Still, Sage glares at Gee through the joyful deluge.
Despite the thunderous noise, she really doesn't feel like celebrating.
***
Photo courtesy of Pedro Bariak on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/@vjpedro. Edited.
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