Callie's Heroes

PART VI: PANIC AT THE BUNKER

Rather than start play with the camp team in possession, the recruits decided on the jump ball option. If they won, it would give them more than enough time to at least score three more points to reach the triple-digit score. Unfortunately, despite a valiant effort, Lena was pulled from her leap, which allowed the opponents to ultimately get the ball around mid-field. Now with possession, the Major worked to get her team excited, hoping to at least add one more score.

The camp's team lined up, Cheena getting ready to receive the snap while the Major prepared to run hard. A whistle from the Shaman trainer started the charge, and she faded to her right, focusing on getting a throw off to the Major while not taking a hard hit.

Then, the recruit team abruptly all sat down.

Cheena slowed and then stumbled to a stop, confused, while the Major, having been unimpeded through the front, likewise stood dumbfounded. Around them, all the recruit players started idly humming, as if just waiting for something to happen, and a couple even began to whistle merry little tunes. Shrugging, Cheena threw the ball to Celeste, who just stood there gobsmacked as absolutely nobody came at her.

Cylanae swooped in to join the Major as the two made a slow run towards the far-end bunker, casually tossing the ball between them to keep under the six-step limit. As they got close, the recruit sentinel moved out of the way, giving the pair a grand gesture of welcome as the Duelist trainer pushed the ball through for three points, ending the charge.

This had been Callie's bright idea. Everything was coming down to time management. If they won the jump ball, great, and they'd make a drive for the last three points. But, as had happened, if they lost it, defending against the camp team would chew up most, if not all, of the time remaining. Instead, the plan was to simply let the camp team score on their first attempt. In turn, they'd be forced to either request another jump ball to start play again, or more-likely, they would turn the ball over to the recruits at their own quarter-field mark. Either way, there would be another chance to take possession of the ball as quickly as possible, with enough time remaining for at least a few plays. The score was so lopsided that it simply didn't matter if the camp team put more points up. Even a quick seven wouldn't do them a lick of good.

"Woo! You guys sure did a great job scoring that time!" Callie called out across the field in mocking congratulations, Pixyl holding her belly and almost stumbling in laughter next to her. The gesture that the smiling Major returned was … well … not terribly polite.

With time running low, the Major rallied her people to prevent the final attempt to score, and even caught an interception, but landed from her leap out of bounds, so it didn't count. After that, Xin instead focused on shorter plays, which had the unfortunate effect of slowly chewing up the clock, putting stacking pressure on the recruits. After four plays and only marginal downfield movement, Xin underhanded the ball sideways to Lena who had enough steps to duck into one of the side bunkers to reset the charge count. With such a short amount of time remaining, this also allowed for an optional timeout without expending a charge, which Callie quickly whistled for.

"They are really intent on keeping us from scoring," Fynisse said.

"All the more reason to do just that," Koda replied.

"How's your arm, Xin?" Callie asked.

"It is fine," the Lizardkin snapped in reply, her face wincing slightly. Callie fixated her with a bit of a glare, though. "It is getting tired and cramping," Xin finally admitted, rubbing her shoulder. "My accuracy is becoming very poor. You cannot rely on me."

"Okay," Callie said, nodding. "Let's not count on Xin scoring, then. If she can, great, but let's not plan on it. Thoughts?"

A few ideas were quickly thrown around, including at least two suggesting using some variations of Mass Confusion. The problem was, most of the plays counted on a pass from Xin or someone else behind the front, but with accuracy and range suffering due to fatigue, that was risky.

"Running attack, then?" Jesca suggested.

There were some grumbles of acquiescence. Their ground game wasn't as good given Xin's ability to dominate with her arm. They also came with lots of opportunities for dropped balls running that long and that hard, because of the step limit requiring passing off.

"Alright," Callie said with a sigh, glancing up to Pixyl who returned it. "Koda, Shirrax, open a hole so someone can get through. If you're carrying, run the steps out if there's nobody convenient to pass off to. Keep those passes short, though! Reduce risks. I'd rather pick up some gains than be intercepted. Xin, sit out for a couple plays to rest your arm. We might need it at the end."

Though grumbling, Xin surprisingly agreed. She wouldn't be allowed to use any of her skills like Refresh, though, and healing was right out unless there was an evident injury, so resting for a couple plays and working out the cramp was the best option. Taking the whistle off her neck, she handed it to the hovering Pixyl, who then held it out for Lena.

"Awww, why me," Lena growled as she unhappily took and slipped the whistle over her head.

A few more plans and plots were tossed around, until a sharp call from the referee forced the huddle to break up. It had been a long timeout, nobody really rushing the game. There were limits, though.

It wasn't pretty. It wasn't pretty at all. The first play resulted in the runner being stopped dead in their tracks at the front, while the second actually ended with a loss of position as Lena was pulled down by the rampaging duo of Celeste and Natala, the latter having flattened Melga yet again. Xin groaned in frustration at the results while she did windmills with her throwing arm to try and loosen it back up.

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The third attempt changed everything though. Lena handed off to Jesca, who managed to charge through the hole Koda and Shirrax created. On the verge of running out of steps, she underhanded the ball off to Moka, who took over the next few steps before tossing it back. Twice more they shuffled the ball, just about to get to the bunker, when Cheena came diving in, tripping Jesca, causing her to slide across the ground on her face. Miraculously, Jesca managed to hang on to the ball, denying the camp team any chance at recovering a fumble.

They were close now, really close. Less than a meter from the rounded line of the bunker, in fact. Callie fiercely blew her whistle repeatedly, while gesturing like a crazy-person for a time out. While it would take away their fourth attempt, there was almost no time left and they had to make it count.

"I am getting really tired of her knocking me on my ass," Melga scowled, trying to wipe a little mud off. "Why does she have it in for me? Just because I'm another Dwarf?"

"Knowing the Sergeant-Major, she's probably trying to instill some great lesson in you," Callie said with a laugh. "Or maybe she knows she can be extra rough with you?"

"It's something! She just seems to be going out of the way to get me. Even when I'm against someone else, she still comes at me."

"How do we use that?" Koda asked.

"I have an idea," Pixyl said, her eyes narrowing a bit as a smile came to her face. This was actually quite shocking. Usually the on-the-fly sly crazy ideas originated from Callie, not Pixyl, so everyone's attention snapped-to and refocused. "Melga, like Moka suggested, let's use you as b-b-bait!"

Fluttering to the ground, Pixyl began to draw in the dirt like Callie did. Callie, for her part, stepped back out of the way so her girlfriend could take the stage. As ideas went, it was solid, and the play accompanying it was solid, too. It had none of the crazy complexity of Mass Confusion or other bonkers ideas, but it would certainly be a surprise if it worked. That was the problem, it was really risky, and a few small changes were made to try to mitigate a bit of it. Still, everything had to go right for it to work, and if they managed to make that happen, they'd get three points in the end.

As Pixyl finished her explanation, eyes turned to Callie, as if asking if she approved. For her part, Callie just shrugged. It wasn't what she would have recommended. Too many things could go wrong, but Pixyl had come up with it on her own, so Callie wasn't going to crush it. She didn't care much about getting to one-hundred any more, but Pixyl was still set on it. So if the Pixie was willing to take the risk, who was she to say no? "Looks great to me!"

The huddle broke, everyone clapping and cheering together as a nervous anticipation started to roll through what was left of the crowd. The game may have been over as far as the score was concerned, but the goal of one-hundred was just out of reach, coming down to this last play, and that was enough to get everyone excited again. Xin, having returned to the field for this final attempt, dropped the whistle back around her neck as everyone got lined up. Soon the stomping and clapping started, lending the crowd's strength and energy to the flagging players.

Natala and Celeste had also used the timeout to rally their own side, getting everyone focused and ready for action. They'd even gone as far as pulling their Sentinel, moving another body up to the front. You got a sense they were going to come hard and fast in the hope of decisively preventing the score, willing to use succeeding with that last defense as a substitute for actually winning the game.

Lining up with the others, Melga swallowed hard as her nemesis took a grinning position opposite her. "Oh, I'm so going to knock you into next week," Natala snarled, her face painted with a stupid grin, yet utterly focused and ready to pounce like a feral animal.

"It's … It's going to be hard for you to do that with your boots untied," Melga sputtered in response. She was supposed to smack-talk back to get Natala riled up, and it had been an absolutely lousy attempt.

Still, it was enough, and the senior enlisted couldn't help but glance down. As soon as she did, Melga took a step backwards, allowing Shirrax to step into her place as she ran to the left, taking a spot on the other side of Koda, out of view. Natala sneered and looked up, seeing her target had disappeared. That was when Xin blew the whistle.

Immediately, Shirrax pulled Natala into a big bear hug. The Rhinokin just needed to slow her for a second as the Dwarf struggled, looking around to see where Melga had gone. She then kicked him in the shin, managing to get free as she charged in the general direction of where her quarry had disappeared. She was focused, pushing her own players aside to try to get to Melga, and generally causing a bit of chaos among the other players.

Xin received the ball and turned to the rear, beginning to move back and to her right. To protect her, a wall of recruit bodies formed. But the ball didn't continue in the same direction, as Jesca ran by, running quickly to the left side of the formation. The camp team, now stumbling a bit from Natala bulldozing her way through them to find Melga, stopped their pursuit of Xin. That switched all energy to the Cheetahkin, who mimed she was looking for somewhere to throw.

It was a mimed action because Xin still had the ball, having faked the handoff. At her angle, and with the rush certain to come back her way in a moment, she had no clear path to throw for seven points. Instead, she looked for her new target, a nervous Dwarf that had weaseled her way unnoticed through everyone and was standing alone in the bunker. Xin cocked back and threw.

Melga was wide open, having not had Natala on top of her immediately, but she was almost panicking. She wasn't a receiver! She wasn't even a player! She'd just stepped in because it didn't matter if she sucked. Now she was expected to make the final score, but would more likely completely bumble the attempt. The ball flew towards her, thankfully with much less speed and power compared to Xin's normal throws. She'd never be able to catch one of those.

The ball was dead-on accurate, despite her small stature, and Melga positioned to catch it, using two arms as a basket. She juggled it a bit, almost dropped it, but somehow managed to get control. Now all she had to do was push it through the hole only a couple meters away. She turned, ready to make for it, when a scream rang out and she looked to see Natala bearing down on her, face full of banshee-like fury, while at the same time she was laughing uproariously.

Melga shrieked in utter panic at the oncoming crazy-person! Yet, somehow, the weeks of training kicked in and some meager part of her battle instincts took over. To fend off the oncoming doom, she did the only thing she could do short of calling up a skill, throwing her weapon, the ball, as hard as she possibly could, right at the Sergeant-Major's face! There was a slap of leather, followed instantaneously by the crack of a nose. Natala's head snapped back from the force, her feet flying forward out from under her as she fell flat to the ground with a crash. As for the ball, it bounced off with nearly as much force as it had collided with, somehow at just the right angle to pass cleanly through the hole in the bunker.