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The Awakening
Episode 002 of Airborne - Earth’s Champions
By Artemis ()
Chapter 01: Consequences
Waking up ill is never a pleasant experience.
But waking up ill after a night filled with nightmares and feeling like you just survived several weeks in space without sleep, gravitation and food under attack by Mars State is an even less desirable experience, I can assure you of that.
You see, we space occupants are not easily bothered by our physical condition. When you live at a Habitat, space ship or station for a long time you suffer inevitably from the typical colony diseases. So when we are complaining about feeling bad, we’re really in a bad shape.
And I felt like dying this Tuesday morning.
#Urgh! What the hell happened to me? Hopefully that’s not another flu#, wished Akinori. Then he remembered what had happened last night - and which was most likely the cause of his actual illness.
#Oh no! That has to be one of the nightmares. I mean, it’s impossible. There are no supernatural things and I surely am no god. No, no, no. It’s impossible and it’s already ridiculous to consider such a fairy-tale could be true. Jake’s weirdness is catching, that’s all. After a cold shower and breakfast I’ll feel like myself again and tomorrow I won’t even remember the silly fairy-tales. Shower, dressing, food, school, that shouldn’t be too difficult.#
“Akinori, are you awake?”
“Huh? Yes, I am. Good morning. I’ll just take a shower and then we go to breakfast, OK?”
“No, you can’t stand up.”
“Why?”
“Well, for example you have a fever. Then you went just last night through your awakening and that means that you’re in no state for school. Akinori, I really regret that I didn’t told you about the… side effects. My awakening wasn’t such bad. It was also painful, but nothing like yours, it’s also faster over. I felt tired after it and had to stay in bed for two days, but I was still able to explain my friends everything. I would’ve warned you if I knew you would be this badly affected.”
“It wasn’t just a dream?”
“No, it wasn’t. Try to go back to sleep now, Miss Mitchell will be here soon.”
“Huh?”
“I already went to Miss Mitchell and she wants to take a look at you and then she’ll decide whether you just have to stay in bed or go to the infirmary”, was Akinori told by a proud Jake. #Yes, I actually managed to go there by myself! I’m good!#
“You did what?! I don’t want to go to the infirmary, I don’t want to see Miss Mitchell, I just want to take a shower, have breakfast and go to classes.”
“Absolutely impossible! I’ll try to convince her that I can take care of you myself when I come back, but if you can’t stay we’ll talk as soon as you’re well again.”
“But…”
“No buts. I’ll tell you what’s studied today and you can make homework. Not that it could be a challenge for you anyway.”
“How late is it?”
“A quarter past seven. But don’t worry, I’ve already had breakfast, won’t be late. And I’m not going to leave before Miss Mitchell arrives cause I’m afraid you’ll come. Never met someone as keen on school as you.” Jake fetched his timetable out of his briefcase and glanced over it, “just tell me where Technology is taught and then I’ll find my way somehow or other.”
“Oh, it’s downstairs in the catacombs, difficult to find, even with the map. Try to follow the others or look for an Arytherin who takes you there, the short cut leads you anyway through their territory.”
“Oh, that’s easy. I’ll look for the Moreno twins or force Romano to be my guide today”, Jake planned cheerfully.
“Don’t allow him to provoke you, OK?”
“I can’t promise you anything, but I’ll try.”
“Thanks.”
Someone knocked on the door. “Miss Mitchell here, may I come inside?”
Finding the Moreno twins or Julian Romano was easier said than done.
After he’d climbed down the stairs to the ground floor and walked to the intersection, there hadn’t been any time left to hire a guide at the dining hall. So he went down the staircase at a venture, without any idea where to go. Or where he would end up, for that matter. But Jake Berger was never one to be hesitant, he hadn’t even considered he could get lost.
20 minutes later he’s cursing his stupidity. Because somehow, Jake had ended up in the inner Arytherin territory and had no idea how to get out again. The scent of roses was here such penetrating that he doubted he would ever get rid of it, already several times he’d gotten pricked by the rose bunches taking every free space and the climbing rose vines.
“Are you searching for anything?”, was he suddenly asked by a dangerously silky voice.
#Thank goodness! Even he is better than being alone in the creepy - and bloody thorny! - catacombs.# “Romano, even if I did I would rather die than ask you or your kind for help”, he lied smoothly in a bored drawl.
“You are at my fraternity’s grounds, Snowdrop, and I have every right to know what you’re doing here.”
“Our fraternities are no enemies.”
“If you were a Phoenix you would be already receiving a remodelling of your face, so you should be grateful instead of cocky…”
“I’m always like this, if it bothers you that’s your problem.”
Julian’s piercing steel blue eyes narrowed in contemplation and he seized Jake for long, tense moments up. Then the turquoise-haired wizard nodded sharply, “follow me.”
They walked in an uncomfortable, penetrating silence through the maze of narrow corridors. Finally the boys reached a door Julian unlocked. It led directly into a luxurious single room.
This surprised Jake so much that he finally couldn’t hide his nervousness anymore. Only for a split of a second his emotionless mask was down, but he knew this was enough. “No affront, Romano, but I’m not interested. And don’t lock me in!”
“Typical earth dweller idiotism!”, snorted Julian disdainful while he sat down at his bed. “We need to have a talk, met by lucky chance in my territory and I just locked the door because I don’t want anyone to disturb or eavesdrop.”
#Oh.# “Well, what do you want to talk about?”
“There are a lot of things. About the supernatural shockwave last night, for example. And don’t worry that someone else could approach you about it, I think we’re the only wizards here.”
“You noticed it?”
“Of course I did. You didn’t considered that I sleep only a couple of metres away from the archives. Very thoughtless. Really, I credited you with more.”
“Yes, there was a supernatural shockwave last night. I felt it myself. But I didn’t caused it.”
“I even believe you, Jake. But you know who and what caused it. And I want to know more. Or would you like me to destroy your artefact?”
“Hah! It’s impossible to destroy an artefact. You may be able to damage it, but not to destroy it.”
“I will find a way, trust me. Would you like to hear my theory?”
“I suppose it’s the only way to get in time to Tech.”
“You came to Mars because you found out that here was another chosen one - Akinori Hart. You took care of being distributed into the same fraternity and room as him - telling me that you fit into Snowdrops would be an insult of my intellect, don’t bother. So either you knew that the artefact was also here or you cast Monday a spell to detect it. Then you took him to the archives for his awakening because you wanted more than what little power you would’ve been able to draw yourself from his artefact. But either you didn’t considered that other people could notice the shockwave, mainly me who is living nearby, or he awakened too early.”
To say Jake was dumbfounded would’ve been an understatement. He was shell-shocked by the Romano heir’s summary of his plan. #He even knows more than Akinori!# “You can impossibly have figured that all out on your own, knowing me only for 24 hours and having the little brains of yours.”
Julian ignored the insult, he’s much too triumphant to allow the little earth dweller to spoil his good mood. “It’s very unlikely, granted. But keep in mind that I’m from a magical family, I’m even more familiar with the supernatural than with politics and business. The crucial point, though, is that I only have to consider what I would do to figure your actions out. You would be surprised how many things we have in common, Jakob Berger. We are two of one kind.”
“Are not!”, he contradicted automatically. At least Jake had the decency to flush when he realized how petulant he sounded, which wasn’t difficult as pale as he was.
“Sooner or later you will be unable to deny the truth any longer. We have a saying at Venus: you can’t stop the sun from rising, you can’t stop the USE from being a dictatorship and you can’t stop yourself from being who you are”, recited Julian matter-of-fact.
Jake interrupted his pretence for a moment, accepting that he didn’t had to bother with Julian. Without his cold mask he looked resigned, defeated and aged beyond his years. “It’s worth a try…”
“Try as long as you wish, maybe it helps you to survive in our world. But in the end you’ll have to accept your defeat. You can’t deny your nature for a long time, trust me, I have experience with this.”
“And still we are supposed to be enemies.”
“Enemies - maybe. Rivals - in any case. We are too similar to be able to be friends. Social pack people could maybe manage it, but we’re lone warriors, we yearn for the competition, the battle and the bloody noses we receive quiet often with our attitude. I don’t see how we could get along, with both of us wanting to be the boss and non willing to submit occasionally.”
“Yes, I see the problem. How … Aren’t we going to be late for Technology?”
“No, the classroom is only a couple of metres away. If we leave now we’ll still be on time, just let me lead the way.”
“Are you sure? I mean, we’re both new here and…”
“I am sure and either you come now or you stay behind, it’s your choice. I don’t want to attract the disfavour of my host yet and he won’t take it very well when I’m late to his class.”
“Uh… okay.” Jake really didn’t felt like being caught in the maze any longer than absolutely necessary. And if Julian Romano could help him out, then he wasn’t bothered by the identity of his helper.
Again they walked in silence through the narrow catacomb passages. Until the boys reached an arch from where the corridor was wider and painted in white. Hadn’t they both been newcomers they would’ve known that they’d now left Arytherin territory.
Shortly afterwards they reached already two metal doors tagged
Technology classroom and Office Professor Sandro Reuter - Technology Professor, host Arytherin, ass. Principal
“I wonder what kind of Professor he is. Can’t be worse than Jour, though. If you took French you will have fun next Monday, Romano, he hates Arytherin and me with a passion.”
“Then I’ll hate him even more”, Julian shrugged unimpressed. Stopping in the doorway he scanned the classroom for anything that resembled to the disgusting Literature classroom, but it’s faultless. A modern, friendly, nevertheless professional room. #If Professor Reuter decorated it there is maybe still some hope for the students of Sunny Valley…# With confident, efficient steps went Julian to an empty table. But before he whispered to Jake, “your secret is safe with me as long as mine’s with you, Berger.”
Jake did the same, but he went to a vacant table at the far end of the room. #Just because we managed to have a more or less civilized conversation for a couple of minutes and no one is dead doesn’t means that we have to get along.#
A young man, maybe in his early twenties, swooped into the room. “Good morning, ladies and gentlemen! I’m Professor Reuter, your Technology teacher this year. Like you should know, Technology is one of the subjects that will only support the USE project. The Phoenix Fraternity will still have this class on their own and I believe that it’s in the interest of all of you. So let’s start with the roll call and then we’re going to deal with the life support systems of Habitats, space ships and space stations!”
The lesson had been okay, judged Jake in the aftermath.
In fact, it’d been more than okay. Professor Reuter was a humorous teacher who taught his subject in an entertaining, interesting manner. He also seemed to be a decent person, never favouring the fraternity which’s head he was, treated them with understanding and authority at the same time. They even got no homework and hadn’t had to pair off, which would’ve left him with Julian.
But he couldn’t enjoy the breather before class with his own fraternity’s stewardess - by now he’d gotten to the conclusions that 99 percent of the Snowdrops were stuffy and boring. Jake had been too worried about Akinori. And that was disturbing him greatly. He wasn’t a social person and it happened once in a blue moon that he befriended someone at the first go. There were only half a dozen people at all about whom he truly cared. Now Akinori Hart was one of them. Very disturbing.
And the day got only worse from then…
At Law they were distributed into groups between three and five people. Him, Julian and Nelly Bridges were paired off by Dr. Mariner and to top it off they also got a - for them - difficult assignment: They had to write due to in four weeks each 20 pages long essays about UFA naturalization, UFA-Marsian import restrictions, foreign trade and the legal position of space ships.
General Natural Science had turned out to be even quite interesting, their Arytherin mistress wasn’t too bad either.
But at lunch the bickering between him and Julian annoyed some Xanas and they spent the remaining recess at the infirmary. Luckily nothing was broken, but both were nastily bruised from head to toe. The Xanas, though, would have to stay the rest of the week with Miss Mitchell. This earned all of them another detention…
Sociology got him luckily no detention - a reason to celebrate for Jake - and a moderate amount of homework.
Jake’s reflection of the day was rudely interrupted by Professor Jour’s cold voice, “Berger! I have seen first years cleaning more bathrooms in an hour than you did in five! You will stay until you have finished all boys dorms or you continue tomorrow!”
#Well, you jackass, just maybe that’s because I’m cleaning a bathroom for the first time in my life! While you barbarians still scrub your tiles with rag, water and cleanser we have house robots for such minor chores.# But he knew better than to say that aloud. “Yes, sir.”
Akinori’s day hadn’t been much better.
First Ms Mitchell fussed about his new illness and why he didn’t came directly, then to the increasing fever nausea and vomiting were added, last but not least Ms Mitchell said she couldn’t cure him until she’d figured out which disease he’s suffering from. Until then she’s only able to treat the symptoms with what sparse medicine she’d available.
And Jake hadn’t visited. While he knew that he’d detention from 1600 till 2100 he’d hoped the god would drop in and explain to him what happened yesterday as well as his sickness.
Clad in black slacks and a white snowdrop t-shirt Akinori sat in his bed at the infirmary and studied. He desperately needed the distraction. #I just hope he is alright. He seems to be one of the people who are gifted to get themselves into trouble and I don’t want him to get himself hurt.#
“Mister Hart, how are you feeling this morning?”
“Fine, Ma’am.”
“Very well. Would you like to go back to your tower now? Your state is stable now and frankly, I can’t do anything more than to supervise you and feed you some medicine.”
“I would love to!” Finally an opportunity to question Jake. “Can I attend classes again today?”
“Yes, that shouldn’t be a problem. I talked with your host and he promised that he’ll keep an eye on you, that you won’t overexert yourself. I would feel better if you didn’t attended all ten lessons today, by the way. If you feel bad, tell a teacher or Prefect and they will call me right away.”
“I will.”
“Please drop every day in, I need to check on you regularly.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“Oh, and there is a visitor for you in the waiting room. A Mister Berger, I believe he said he’s your roommate”, the nurse said disbelieving.
“Please tell him I’ll be with him in a minute.”
Akinori went snow-white as soon as he entered the waiting room. #Now it makes sense that she didn’t believed him. We really need to do something about Jake’s taste in fashion…#
Jake leaned casually against the wall, a backpack slung over his shoulder, hands in his pockets, sunglasses in his hair. But he wore a red, glossy one-piece cat suit with the compulsory stiletto heel boots, a black silk sash. His artefact hung at a black choker, from the same black metal were the ornamental bracelet and armband over his left biceps.
“What? Don’t you like my clothes?”
“You look horrible!”
“I look stunning, Akinori. The girls and boys love that.”
“I’m also male and I believe you look horrible. But I guess it’s non of my business what you wear. It’s just that no one is going to believe you are actually a Snowdrop, dressing like that. Sooner or later your behaviour, looks and laziness will make the people suspicious, they will maybe take the necessary steps to get you transferred into a fraternity that fits rather to you.”
“I don’t care. We need to hurry up if we want to fetch your books, breakfast and talk before German, respectively Italian. I take it that you recovered since you’re discharged.”
“No.” Akinori told Jake what the school nurse had said, then added, “but I’m sure that I’ll be just fine within a couple of days.”
“I hope so. I really didn’t knew that you would be so badly affected by the awakening. Like I told you I had almost no after effects. By the way, your artefact is locked away in one of my suitcases, nobody will find it. Which deity are you anyway?”
“Zeus.”
“Huh?”
“I am Zeus. I also had a hard time believing it, but the flashbacks left really no room for doubts. I… remembered him, I saw his life. Besides, the lightning bow only makes sense for Zeus, it would explain why I was so much worse suffering from my awakening than you.”
“Yes, it would. And it would explain why the shockwave was such powerful.” Jake smirked slightly, “well, now that you are Zeus’ successor, I suppose I will have to study when you tell me to…”
“I won’t use this… new powers against you. Without you I wouldn’t have ever awakened, I owe you big time. Nonetheless I wouldn’t misuse my powers on principle.”
“Akinori, when you’re honest with yourself. Do you regret that I convinced you to give it a try?”
“You didn’t convinced me, Jake, you pestered me until I said yes to be left in peace. While I asked myself this question all the time … frankly I don’t know an answer. It turned my world upside down and I was never asked if I wanted this responsibility and duties, but maybe I can become happy as a god, now that I’m not anymore feeling like an important part of myself is missing.
And a real family who’s actually available when you need them would be nice. My family, not the fraternity as substitute family - including all the back-stabbing of a real one - or the family of a fraternity mate whom I visit sometimes.”
Very reluctantly Jake spoke up again. “That’s also a thing I like about being one of the new gods. I don’t have a real family either, you see. My mother died when I was still a small child, I don’t have any sibs, aunts, uncles or grandparents, and my father is always on a business trip, vacation or visiting his… female acquaintances. While my friends at earth were far closer to me than any relatives, all of them had a big family that loved them.”
“Now we have an opportunity to get our own big family, one that is better than what we had. We don’t have the same parents or grandparents, but all chosen ones have at least a tiny bit of Greek blood running through their bodies. So who can be sure our ancestors thousands of years ago weren’t related…? And we have something important in common, haven’t we? I mean, we are going to found a new pantheon. That has to be enough.”
“It can be.”
The rest of the way to the dining hall we walked in silence, both of us lost in our own thoughts.
Consequences…
“When something happens that you can’t avoid or change, then you just have to try and see the bright side and treat it like it’s the best thing that happened in your life.”
I can remember my sister saying that and it’s also one of the more endearing trait of us Snowdrops. We don’t waste our time with trying to change things or people if it’s not promising. We rather arrange with whatever turned our life upside down, because it’s the logical step to take. And because we won’t have to go onto the battlefield this way, we can stay in the background and shadows where we feel more comfortable - no one expects us to be a hero.
But I didn’t knew if I could live with the consequences of my awakening.
Too much had changed within a second. And it doesn’t makes sense. We Snowdrops hate something making no sense, if we can’t judge it and predict it’s next step.
Magic doesn’t makes sense to us who only believe into facts, into what we can see and analyse. The renewed existence of gods - the resurrection of creatures we believed had never existed - doesn’t makes any sense either. It is very confusing, it frustrates us.
And now I was suddenly turned myself into a god. Some part of me still hoped that it was only a nightmare and I would wake up any second. But it’s silly to be afraid of the truth, no matter how bitter it is. And we can’t accept silliness.
So I had to accept that my whole worldview was shattered and had to try to build a new one on the basis of the new and old facts. Then I would have to come to terms with what I formerly believed into only being the product of misinformation. That is the way Snowdrops handle such problems, it’s the way I handle them.
At least usually. When I wasn’t just turned into a Greek god.
Even now I can remember way too vividly how miserable I felt when I was for the first time in my life confronted with a situation that couldn’t be solved with studying and research at the library. This time it just depended on me, how well I was able to handle the situation and my own life. That frightened me.
I suppose I’m lucky that I had Jake when I awakened, that I hadn’t been just as alone and confused as I could’ve been. That would have sucked really, if there’s no one to guide me.
Although I found myself doubting his motives at this walk to the mess.
Why hadn’t he told me what was going on instead of virtually dragging me into the archives? He was such eager to make me awaken and he’d gone through great troubles to get close to me. Jake even got himself into Fraternity Snowdrops, although he has to have known how unhappy he would become here. This could’ve all gone terribly wrong - he could’ve been locked away in a psychiatry, jail or used from my government as a guinea pig. Or I could’ve downright refused to go through what I went through.
I knew him already then well enough to be pretty sure that he wouldn’t take such great risks, if any at all, without the prospect of gaining something that repaid him for all his troubles. More than a family member whom he didn’t even knew. No, I just couldn’t believe that he was sentimental enough to risk his life for the vague chance of a new family member. He’d said himself often enough that life wasn’t fair, you had to take forcefully what you couldn’t get otherwise.
But then again the boy was still a complete mystery to me, why should I figure of all things his reasons for getting in touch with me out? Since he’s not likely to talk about it openly, I supposed there was no other way than to wait until he confided in me. And until then it’s not smart to let my judgment be clouded by distrust and vague suspicions. I would just be careful.
At Italian Akinori found out that a part of coming to terms with the consequences was to get used to his new abilities. Strange, him scaring abilities which he only noticed now that he was out of the isolation of the infirmary.
All his senses seemed to be enhanced - he could hear the whispering of the other students, had less difficulties reading without glasses and found the perfumed air bothering like he hadn’t since his second year at the Habitat. When he played with a pencil he broke it by accident. Without difficulty. Of course this brought new problems. For the first time since he could remember he had troubles concentrating in class and would need to go shopping for new school utensils at the weekend.
And there were other not dramatic, but still unsettling things. His books weren’t as heavy anymore as Monday. Now that he thought about it, the minute-long climbing up and down of stairs also hadn’t exhausted him as much as it should have, considering that he’d been seriously ill yesterday. Then there was the incident when he walked to Italian - some Venetians had pestered him and the other Snowdrops, suddenly a chandelier loosened and fell onto the Venetian leader’s head. A moment before Akinori had imagined how funny that would be, how much he deserved it.
#Considering that I’m too confused to think clearly and so won’t become aware of the most strange happenings, this is very, very bad. I don’t want anyone to get hurt because of me, not even the damn Venetians and Xanas. Luckily we have soon General Natural Science, I’ll have to make sure that I talk then with Jake about it. He has to have the same experiences, maybe he knows how I can control this scary stuff.#
“Thank you, students, that would be all. Have fun”, dismissed the Italian teacher the fifth years.
Akinori watched his year mates with slight amusement out of the corners of his eyes while he packed his stuff away.
The Arytherin weren’t bothering with concealing just how eager they were to get out of the sticky, old-fashioned classroom. They liked old-fashioned, but only if it’s luxurious and expensive. While they got well along with his fraternity they had nothing in common but ambition, the dislike for Xanas and Venetians. The Snowdrops in the contrary were taking their time, carefully putting their things away, some talking quietly and very serious about their studies.
Then a blonde head peeked into the room, “Akinori, are you ready?”
“What are you doing here, Jake, and why are you not in German?!”
“We finished a couple of minutes earlier. The teacher is pretty good, neither gave us homework nor detentions.”
“Just great”, muttered Akinori under his breath. “You didn’t told me what you’re doing here. You got into trouble again with Julian Romano, didn’t you?”
“Of course not! I don’t get into trouble every time we’re separated for a couple of minutes. But that’s beside the point. I need your help as tourist guide again. The Merano twins were chattering all German about how I have to join the Snowdrops surfball team – I agreed since I wanted to be left in peace. I have no idea what surfball is, though. I saw a field at the map and I asked Romano there, but since we got an opportunity to talk before I never bothered to take a look at the pitch.”
Akinori didn’t even wanted to know why Jake wanted to meet Julian there. His logic was giving him headaches. “How could you join a team without even knowing the sport, for goodness’ sake?”, he berated his roommate instead.
“I wanted them to go away.”
“The easiest way to make them go away would have been to tell them you’re not attracted to girls.”
“I tried, they said I was only chicken – whatever being gay has to do with poultry on your strange planet I don’t even want to know.”
“Fine, I’ll explain you what surfball is. But I have to warn you, the sport is very difficult to learn and not exactly harmless. Even if the teams compete only about the school cup someone is regularly injured seriously.”
“Then they’re right, it’s the perfect sport for me! Now come on, tell me already what I’m going to do, I want to give it a try while I’m here.”
Akinori’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. He couldn’t remember seeing Jake even remotely as cheerful as now. #Considering the boy’s character he has either done something devious or he is about to do it…# “Jake, what are you planning? And don’t bother lying, I’m a Snowdrop.”
“I don’t plan anything evil. I’m only happy because everything is going perfectly at the moment.”
#Happy he’s even scarier than before…!#, thought Akinori snappishly. While he didn’t trusted Jake he’d to admit that it would be smartest to play along for the moment. #That was my plan and I’ll stick to it. I can’t go into a fit every time Jake is in a good mood, now can I?#
“Where do I begin best with explaining surfball…? It’s a complex sport and most likely it won’t make any sense to you at the beginning. The Snowdrops have training at Wednesday night, so we can watch them later, that’ll make it easier for you to understand.
What makes this game so special and dangerous is, that nobody with common sense would play it or even allow this game. It’s either played by night or the environmental controls for the area of the pitch are adjusted to darkness. Surfers and spectators only see through neon colours, the players can’t orientate - after a tackle you don’t even know where’s top and bottom because the gravity’s different.
Surfball requires speed, agility, courage, great balance, recklessness, a great sense of orientation, teamwork, self-confidence, fairness, stamina, composure and a heavy punch. It’s a team sport, when you’re virtually blind, you’ve to trust in your coach’s and co-players instruction. It’s too dangerous for cheaters, only if you can trust your opponents to play by the rules you’ve fun. Beginners won’t find the goal even if they’re alone, advanced players score daily for the opponent, champs loose their bearings regularly - so you need to be self-confident and composed.
The players, called surfers, stand at devices that resemble flying mixes of snowboards and surfboards, to use earth terms. Players wear helmets, padded suits, gloves, pads. The ball’s 10 inch diameter, the bats are bigger than baseball bats. There’re two warders, small red baseballs. There’re two round, flat, ring-like goals of 10 feet diameter. Hitting the bonus area is pure luck, it’s a three by three feet big, moving area of the goal in shining white. The sports field is 250 feet high, 350 feet long, 210 feet wide.
The player’s outfit, board and bat are illuminated in the team’s colour, the ball shines a silvery white, the different areas of the court are marked with holographic neon lines. The goals aren’t in neon, surfers have to orientate by the holographic lines. Lines every 15 feet divide the field into squares, both in horizontal and vertical direction. To confuse the players furthermore, ceiling, walls and floor look the same, the lines aren’t numbered.
Red warning lights are installed into all walls - so you can graze them - and thickening, red holographic lines start ten feet from the walls away. When you’re three feet away from ground, walls or ceiling, there’s a warning signal. The trainers are constantly in touch with the referees at the pitch. If there’s a possible violation of the rules, the game’s interrupted and the referee confers with team representatives, usually the captain or trainer.
A game lasts 150 minutes, three units with 50 minutes, breaks last 25 minutes. Games ending in a draw are decided by a golden goal, which can only be achieved with the main ball. The game goes on until one team scores.
Players can be replaced and returned as often as desired, there’s no break for the exchange. But you’ve to be careful to have never more than 15 players in the pitch.
If you hit someone by accident, it’s OK, but no fights. Only two things are worse than cheating - to make someone unfair loose his board and to manipulate a board. While the game’s running the player’s body isn’t ought to touch wall, ground or ceiling. The penalties are among others sitting box, yellow and red card, point deprivation, suspension, fines for the professionals. There’s only one referee because it’s a very fair sport.
After so much explanation now to the real game. A score is 20 points, if the ball hits a bonus square you get 40 points, scoring at your own goal earns your opponent 15 points. If you make a pass over 150 feet distance and catch, you get 10 points, every 15 feet more you earn another point. To catch a warding ball earns you 5 points.
A team consists of 15 players. One or two Goalkeeper, two till five Warder, two till five Protector, two till four Strikers, possibly one Quarterback, possibly one or two Carrier, possibly one Catcher, possibly three till six Blockers. The teams are always very big and it’s unusual that someone plays the whole game without interruption. You only have the players on the field that you need in the current situation.”
“I won’t doubt that your explanation makes perfect sense to a good little Snowdrop … but I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about.”
“That’s why I want you to watch the training. Sometime this week a game should also be aired, then you’ll get a better impression how a whole game is being played.”
“Fine. What are the jobs of the different players?”
“One goalkeeper has a baseball bat, the other a glove similar to the ones used at baseball.
Warders are in charge of the warding off and the warding balls. When the opposing attack gets too near to their goal, they distract them with the warding balls. A Warder is often chief of defence.
Protectors protect the strikers from the efforts of the opposite Warders. They’re virtually the Strikers bodyguards and each scorer has it’s own Protector, sometimes there’re more. There’re quarrels about whether Protector is an attack position - cause of the location - or defence, so this can vary from team to team.
Strikers focus solely on the white balls and rarely leave the sight of the penalty area. They receive the ball from a Catcher, Quarterback or Carrier and score goals, are responsible for all attacks. But without a Protector they’re defenceless. Usually a Striker is attack chief.
A Quarterback isn’t necessary, but most teams have one. They’re often team captain, are the connecting link between defence and attack, because of their playing position - chief of the centre players - they’ve a good overall view of the whole game, all players.
Catcher’s a controversial job - they’re specialists small professional teams just can’t pay. But most amateur teams have one. They really can only catch balls with their special gloves. Warding balls are their usual targets, but if necessary, they help the goalkeepers.
Carrier is more or less a centre position. More or less, because the carriers move over the whole field. At a well organized team, they fill the gap of the centre positions, which are almost non-existent at this sport. Carriers are messengers and “transport” the balls. When the balls are flying, this is very hard.
Blockers are optional centre players. They can build a “wall” in the air and so are hated fiercely by Carriers, Quarterbacks and everyone else who’s blocked. Much else they can’t do, though.”
#I still don’t understand much and frankly I can’t imagine how the game is going to work in darkness, but I guess it can’t hurt to give it a try.# “Shit, we’re going to be late for GNS!”, shouted Jake suddenly, when they passed a clock.
Jake spurted to the classroom which he still remembered from yesterday, after all it’s a long way back down to the catacombs. Akinori followed his friend with a measured pace. He knew they would make it on time since Professor Douleur was always at least five minutes late and he knew some short cuts the blonde didn’t.
The school day had been bearable for me as well as Jake. He got no detention this Wednesday and I was able to visit all classes.
Until the tenth lesson. This was Arts, with Molly Career. The Xanas Professor shows her dislike of the Snowdrops students always clearly and we used to dread Arts. The whole year is taught Astronomy together, we have allies if she gets nasty then, but at Arts we’d to fend for ourselves. And my fraternity isn’t famous for that trait.
This time it’s exceptionally bad. Professor Career had now one victim more to pick on – that Jake’s USE made it only worse – and as if that wasn’t enough he wasn’t hesitant to voice what we all thought about the value of this subject…
After the horrible Arts period we went back to our room. Finally I wanted to get a good look at my artefact. Monday night I obviously hadn’t had any time for it between awakening, passing out and getting sick.
Jake opened the suitcase with his magical equipment and the lightning bow. The Austrian fetched the bow, a couple of books and a wand, put the suitcase again away and finally offered Akinori his lightning bow, “here, take it, it’s anyway yours.”
Akinori eyed the big lightning bow cautiously. “Uh… will the same happen as before when I touch it?”
“No, that was your awakening, the lightning bow only triggered it since it’s your artefact. I explained you that stuff already a dozen times, now don’t behave so childish and take the damn bow.”
“Okay, okay.” Akinori was slightly appeased when nothing happened the moment he touched his artefact. #Good, I really didn’t want to go through that again.# “What now?”
“Now I’ll return to earth.”
Tbc…
Will Jake really go back to earth? How thinks Akinori about it?