Sticks and Stones

Sticks and Stones

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After the final pep talk was over, the coach slapped the waifish woman on the back. »Tina, you’re up.«

»Yeah,« she said, nodding to herself. She could do this, she could! »I know.« She continued down the path to the field.

»Go get ’em!« The coach spurred her on, barely audible of the roar of the crowd. »Show em who’s boss!«

The eleven Camelot Lions had already taken to the field. The two keepers were ready at their goal posts and materialised huge neon bludgeons. Neither would reach the middle of the goal if they swung, leaving a small area in the centre unprotected. That was where she was aiming at, the grail she’d need to gain victory for her team. And she’d need to do this multiple times.

Tina looked over the field. Her team, the Atlantis Tigers, were taking up positions in a slightly off-centre 2-3-4 lineup. It was a good tactic against the strong defence the Lions usually fielded.

In her opinion the Lions’ choice to put five players in defence was borderline insane, especially with only two Midfielders and two Attacks, but their goal ratio spoke for itself. Only two goals had been scored in previous games, and those had been in their games against last year’s champions, resulting in a draw and a loss. Naturally the bookies were heavily favouring the Lions for this season.

Opposite her was the other team’s Stone. She hadn’t caught his name, but there wasn’t need for it either, he was easily recognisable. He was a towering block of muscle, massing over two hundred pound easily, and probably not far from that number in kilos either. He looked like he ought to be a Goalie, or in defence. Maybe Attacker, once in a while, to throw the opposing team off, but as the Stone? That was just plain insulting to her team.

The Stone’s role was somewhat peculiar, since they were more or less glorified balls. To compensate that, they had the choice between two modes, creatively called big and smol. The former was rigidly standardized—the spherical forcefield interacted with everything within the designated 2 metre diameter, be they Goalie bludgeons, fielder rings, the field’s walls, or anything, really. But when they went smol, the interaction diameter shrank to anything the Stone could squeeze themselves into. Usually this translated to something slightly smaller than half that diameter of space. The only exception was the floor; the Stone would continue to interact with it as if nothing changed, but every other contact, either player or walls, had to deal with a smaller Stone.

She took deep breaths. »You can do it, Tina,« she hyped herself up. »He’s just a man. And we’re better.«
Her eyes roved over the lineup again. Yoshida, Bolt, and Aisha were likely to get their first hits in, but their Stone… Bolt was the only one who stood a chance. He’d need to pass for attack, but—
The penultimate whistle sounded. Both Stones took up positions, encased themselves in spherical forcefields, and waited for the start whistle.

She didn’t hear it, but simply dropped, freefalling for fractions of a second before the tube directed her motion.
Damn. She’d hoped chance would direct her elsewhere, but Lion Midfielder got a hit in, propelling Tina straight past her teammates to the Lion Attacker, who whacked her further. A brief mental calculation confirmed it, this would be a close thing.
Tine went smol.

The loss of air friction let her roll far, putting her back into reach of her Goalies. A split second before she reached Ashton, the Tigers’ left Goalie, she reactivated her field and mock-saluted as he pummelled her back into the field. She passed the two Lion Attackers without them being able to reach her, despite wildly swinging, then the Midfields, and then the drag flipped. Until now she’d been on her Tigers’ side of the field, but she crossed the middle line; now she was being pulled towards the Lions’ goal. It was their turn to keep her from rolling in, and from her chance to score.

By chance the other Stone was also on that side of the field. While keeping him from the Tigers’ goal was hard if he was on that side, the reverse was also true, and the Lion Goalies were bludgeoning at their own Stone to keep him from scoring one for the wrong side.

»I’ma pound your ass to gravel, you pebble!« the Stone bellowed. A well-placed bludgeon by their Goalie and redirect by the left Defence had put him on a collision course with Tina.

»You can certainly try,« she retorted. She already knew he’d fall short, unless he went smol.

Yep, he just went past.

Now it was up to the four Tigers’ Attacks to position their Stone well for a goal. Tina ricocheted multiple times between Attacks and Defences, flipping between big and smol whenever she thought she could eke out an advantage. Then she saw a chance.

So far she’d been flung a couple times towards the Goalies, both intentionally and unintentionally by Attacks and Defences, but in their frantic thwacking they’d only cursorily paid attention to keeping the Lions’ Stone away, and only because he kept bellowing threats loudly at anyone he approached. If his trajectory held true, then she might be able to…

A lucky—or unlucky, depending who’s asking—redirect placed Tina on a fitting course. The Lions’ Stone would ordinarily hit the field wall, roll downslope, and be bludgeoned back into play by the Goalie on that side. It was a standard move, and the one that provided the most direction and force to a Stone. A well-placed bludgeoning could put the Stone not just out of danger of scoring, but shoot them to the other side’s field in one fell swoop.

»Here I co~me!« Tina ignored the other Stone’s continued ranting. She’d been going smol, but when she was next to the him, she went big, almost stopping him smack in the middle of the field, just short of the closet field players. Instead of hitting the field wall now he’d roll downslope towards the goal. Best of all, it was in a straight line down; changing modes wouldn’t change his trajectory at all.

She looked behind herself. Changing the Lions’ Stone’s course had imparted a lot of momentum on her, and she was flung quickly—wait, was that? Yes, it was possible!

»Mike!« Tina called out to her left centre Attacker. He in turn looked to her, pointing at the goal. He nodded. He’d seen the ricochet of the field wall would put Tina on a trajectory crossing his position, and he was well placed to punt her towards the goal. He did.

Now Tina was on an interception course towards the Lions’ Stone. He would reach his Goalies first, and they were already prepared to clear the danger by a double bludgeon from both sides. It was a difficult play, requiring excellent coordination from the Goalies. They’d have to hit the Stone at exactly the same time. Many a goal had been scored by not getting that coordination right and subsequently making the Stone spin unpredictable—and almost assuredly—into the goal.

But the Camelot Lions were nothing to sniff at. All their players were excellently trained and far above the norm, otherwise they wouldn’t be the nearly uncontested candidate for the title.

Tina saw the situation in perfect clarity, despite the rude face the Stone ahead was making at her. He knew how this would play out, and saw it herself. The Lion Goalies were like mirror images. They shared a look, swung back, and bludgeoned at the same instant.
Even though they struck with all their might, the interaction and position was awkward by design, imparting a vector change in the Stone. It was only slight, but it would be enough to deflect him in a secondary bludgeon and prevent him from scoring for the wrong team.

Except that change was swallowed by Tina’s presence. The Goalies had overextended and weren’t able to react in time for another bludgeon, and that was all there was to it. The Lions’ Stone rolled the last few metres into his team’s goal, scoring double, all the time crying bloody murder.

The Goalies, ever the professionals, only grimaced. They, after all, had still to deal with the Tigers’ Stone, Tina, and she was rolling downslope just like their Stone just had. The same tactic to that stopped him would also work for her.
Except she was smol. They swung perfunctorily, but couldn’t reach her. She gave them a sympathetic smile as she slowly scored another goal.

The Tigers were in the lead, 3-0. This would prove to be an interesting game.