Football Practice (OPEN)

[Oby]

Oby took the tongue lashing that Coach dished out after the blown pass play, and ran the laps that ensued from it, wondering about the girl wildly cheering in the stands at his mistake. Did she hate guys, or just like to make fun of football players? He came back to the running backs after that, determined to do something to show the coach that he still had it where it mattered. Reed huddled them up, and called for a halfback sweep, looking up at Oby, grinning. "Your play, granite. Let's see what you got." Oby quirked a smile back at him, feeling like it was about time that the camaraderie came back in the give and take of challenges on the field. "Sure thing, Hot Shot, just make sure you get me the ball." Both of them let out a short scoff, and lined it up.

Reed got the snap, and fell back, selling the pass play. Oby watched his linemen push their blocks, and saw the guard and tackle pull to the left. Oby cut in back of Reed, who handed him the ball crisply. Antoine took off to the left side of the field, following the blocks of his linemen, and waiting for an opening to cut through. Patience, patience....it'll open, don't rush it and blow it. Come on guys give me a hole...THERE!! Oby saw the blocks on the linebackers, pushing them in opposite directions, opening a hole just big enough for him to smash through. Arms reached out to try to snag him, but he busted through, shoving them aside. All the work with the slam pads paid off. He cut back right, to open field, and spotted the cornerback coming at him. He waited for the cornerback to get close Wait for him to lower his shoulder for the hit...yeah, come on...UNGH! Oby waited till the cornerback's helmet dipped as the defensive player leaned forward into the hit. He shot his arm to the side, slapping the palm of his hand hard on the forehead of the helmet, driving the other boy's head down, as he used the momentum to shift his hips away from the grasping hands. The cornerback fell, sliding to the ground and Antoine bounced to the outside, near the sideline. He looked to see Ollie Fox, the new kid, trying out for safety flying towards him, like a human missle. Ollie crashed into Oby, and got his arms wrapped around the running back. Ollie's flying tackle pulled Oby out of bounds even as he tried to spin out of Ollie's grasp. Both fell to the ground in a heap, Oby's spin landing him atop Ollie.

"Nice hit!" Oby said, getting up and offering a hand. "I thought for sure I was heading for the end zone. Crazy flying tackle took me by surprise. What's your name?"

[Oliver Fox]

"Hey man, I'm Ollie" Oliver replied as the two climbed off the ground, "Man, I wasn't sure if I was gonna catch you."

Oliver got back into the formation after the play. He found he only had limited success trying to stop the run. Oliver was 100% speed and brute tackling, with no real finesse to speak of.

Towards the end of practice Oby had the ball on a break away run down the sideline. Ollie was already full speed, running like a frieght train on an intercept course. He was closing fast, and Ollie could already taste the sweet victory of plastering the back to the ground.

Suddenly, Oby hit the brakes, stopping suddenly for a spit second. Oliver however was past the point of stopping. Ollie flew past Obly like a rocket, crashing into the table and Gatorade cooler. Cups and flourecent liquid flew everywhere. Oliver lay on the ground and could hear tha laughter on the field and the stands.

"Mind as well just play it off for the crowd", Oliver thought as he got up.

Oliver kicked some of the plastic cups, and then picked up the now empty cooler. He threw the cooler to the ground with a slam that would have made Jesse Ventura proud.

"Yea, that's what you get!" Oliver shouted raising his hands over his head in mock victory.

When he finished and the coach was done yelling at him, he walked back towards Oby.

"I have officially tasted defeat" Oliver said with a grin, "It tastes like Strawberry Gatorade"

[Lamierine Gemellate]

Mieri Nodded to Aura "Si it does talk about what is a legal tackle and what is not, see.”

Mieri handed the book to Aura open to a page on tackling some diagrams of where you can hit and not hit displayed on the page.

Mieri looked up just in time to see Ollie run past Oby and fall into the table she tried hard to suppress a laugh and was doing a fairly good job until Ollie decided to spike the water cooler then she broke out into that very unladylike laughter she tries never to show.

Mieri stopped laughing as the coach started to yell at Ollie and then leaned over talking to Aura.

"Hey Aura you want to maybe grab some pizza after practice is over I bet the boys will be hungry we could make a big thing of it?"

[Oby]

Oby grinned at Ollie's jest. "I don't know if that was defeat or not, but I do think you're tagged now." Oby turned to the rest of the team, "Someone help Foxbat out with filling up the cooler again."

The others looked at Oby confused. "Geeze, you guys seem to forget, the nicknames..." They still looked at him, not catching on. Oby slapped a hand on Ollie's shoulder, then wiped the sticky mess off his hand with a chuckle. Mimicking the 'movie guy's' voice, as best he could, Oby started, "You've seen him run full speed at the ball, no brakes to be found. He comes at you like a bat out of hell." Oby grinned, looking at the mess of the Gatorade cooler and table, "He even flies like he's blind. He's Ollie the Foxbat, Fox!"

The rest of the guys laughed, and several came up to Ollie thumping on his shoulderpads, or giving him a good natured cuff on the helmet. "Let's go Foxbat." Each of them helping the newly named teamate gather up the cooler, and cups to refill.

[Oliver Fox]

Ollie laughed at Oby's nickname, "Ha, could have been much worse" Oliver thought.

He grabbed the cooler and headed to get it filled back up. He also decided that when he got home he would hop on the computer and mix the "Firefox" and "Batman" emblems into a single "Foxbat" symbol of awesomness.

[Mercy Strike]

She stared at the pictures and arrows, eyes crossing. Slinging? High tackle? Wow. Who knew there were so many different ways to hit somebody. She looked at the field and the boys running around doing... something and then at the book again. They really didn't look a whole lot like the diagrams.

Maybe she'd have to study? The thought was really depressing. Maybe she should just go to the games and cheer when everyone else did.

"P... pizza?" She guiltily stopped spinning the book, thinking that maybe it would make more sense if she held it upside down. One of the boys was dripping wet and she squinted in disbelief. She must have missed something. She looked back at the other girl.

"I ... sure! If you want? I don't know any of them though," she had to confess. "They're all in higher grades than me." She felt really self conscious then about only being a grade nine. She firmed her chin though. If she went for pizza, she could figure out which was the cutest one for sure and then she'd know who to cheer for. She didn't have to say anything, just sit there and nibble.

"Do you know them? I mean, to ask? Do you think they'd really go?"

[Lamierine Gemellate]

Mieri smiled "I think so I know Ty and Ollie and that other boy and Bryan and Sam sure I know enough to ask I will be right back"

Mieri hopped down from the bleachers and ran over to the edge of the field and waited for the right moment to aks Ty.


"Ciao Ty hey do you and the rest of the team maybe want to go get Pizza after practice today I think it would be fun I can cover a few pies if so?"

[Blitzen]

Sam bounced on the balls of her feet, waiting for the snap. She and Harrison ran Horeshoe drills for the morning practice. It reminded her a lot of playing H-O-R-S-E while shooting baskets with Teddy Winston. It was the same "game" - line up on different positions near the end zone and take turns kicking the ball for accuracy. Those drills were easy. In the afternoon, it was time to practice under pressure. She lined up on the small patch of field, waiting for the snap, and focused on the ball. She tried to block out the image of Dar over to her left, his hands on his thighs as he gnawed on his mouth guard. It was just last Friday in Pocket D when they spoke, her joking and asking him to take it easy on the kickers during drills.

The ball snapped back and reserve quarterback Scott Sanders placed it on the ground. Sam blocked out everything going on around her except for visualizing the kick. The ball sailed off the ground towards the uprights but she wouldn't get to see it go through. Dar's shoulder pad collided with her midsection, driving the two to the ground in what felt like slo-motion. She squinted her eyes shut as if it'd help lessen the impact, and tucked her arms in to brace for the fall. When it was over, she could hear Dar chuckle as he patted her on the helmet. She slowly unclenched her eyes and attempted to smile back at the Outside Linebacker as he offered her a hand up.

"Aren't you glad I took it easy?" He asked, pulling her to her feet. Thankful that he didn't pull her shoulder from its socket, she nodded and tried her best to not to look like she'd been run over by a HumV. He chuckled again and thumped her on the back, making her take an extra step before he trotted off to the defensive line.

"That one near tapped the left goal post, Douglas." Sanders said, pointing towards the uprights. "So let's run it again."

"Vecchia, Rayburn, watch the big guy over yonder." She said pointing towards Brown. The big defenseman waved a few fingers at her in response and Sam laughed, shaking it off. "Please!" She added, because it never hurts to be polite.

Being run over by Darweishi Brown? That's another story.

From the nearby stands she thought she caught the word pizza, and smiled. There was no better cure for war wounds than sauce, cheese and the perfect crust.

[Lamierine Gemellate]

Mieri walked back to the Bleacher's after Ty got yelled at to get back to work.

"I think that Pizza after Practice will work out great Aura"

Mieri sat back down next to the girl that Mieri was quickly becoming fond of.

"did you learn anything from that book while I was gone?"

[Gravwarp]

Bryan mopped sweat from his forehead as he sat on the bench near the bleachers drinking water from a white bottle with the words "Saint Joesph's School Athletic Department" stenciled to the side. Coach Waters had finished running drills with most of the team, now paying special attention to those that needed one on one help.

He rubbed at the palms of his gloved hands, he could tell the skin under the leather surface was red. Pealing the gloves off, he felt some of his teammates sit down of the aluminum bench beside him and some of them dropping to the grass. Water bottles were passed out, as most of the team sat and joked complained and boasted amongst themselves.

[Brandon]

Brandon loved getting back into the swing of things on the field. Walking in out of nowhere and into the tight end position, especially a couple days after practices had started, was no mean trick. But he had never believed in going halfway...halfway was for people who lost. So he endured the coach's screaming and thrived on the laps thrown his way. He'd been a runner for years anyway, since the idea of getting fat was anathema to him. It wasn't easy running in the pads, but he liked to think that he had a better time of it than some of the other guys.

He'd always been a decent receiver, and he was pleased to find that his skills hadn't gotten TOO far out of shape during the off-season. He'd never be the star, but he knew that he wouldn't embarrass himself.

Hitting was hard...he'd spent a lot of time paired off against Darweishi, and he had the fading bruises to prove it. At first he'd smirked and tried to stand strong against the linebacker, since he knew that lots of big guys didn't know how to hit (and were usually too slow to hit him anyway). Three or four plays had bashed that out of his head, and he switched to deflection instead. Redirecting Dar's charges worked a lot better, and he'd even managed to stop the larger boy a few times. Damn few. But it was better than nothing. Dar had joked about taking it easy on them in the showers, and Brandon hoped that he wasn't kidding; any more power and the other team would just resign at halftime.

Brandon just ran his plays as hard and fast as he could, never complaining about another lap or an extra re-play. He knew that teamwork was the only way to win, and there was no room for hot-dogging. God knows that he'd heard that enough from his old man, and from HIS old man. Military lessons applied on the football field too, sometimes.

Once practice was over and he'd spoken to Aura and Mieri (and WOW that was a combo...something about that Aura girl just really caught his attention; he made a mental note to look into that later), Brandon took his play book and found a quiet corner. He spent the next hour and a half poring over the plays, running them in his mind and trying to get to the point of recognizing his position and movements just from the name of the play. He'd made some progress by the end of the study session, but he wasn't perfect yet. He resolved to get up an extra half hour early to study it some more before his morning run.

But, until then, there was pizza and girls. He smiled to himself. Maybe he'd see Aura. If not her, something else would crop up. Something always did.

[Angavu]

"Kill!" Dar yelled through his mouthpiece, dropping to the ground into a push-up position, shoving himself back up to his feet as quickly as he could only to begin stomping his feet as quickly as he could; a practice technique the Coach referred to as "gorilla stomps". The big kid could move fast, but it still wasn't quite fast enough for the Coach.

"Faster!" The Coach yelled before blowing his whistle again, sending a section of the defensive line back down to the earth to push up again. They all responded in kind, grunting with exertion and coated with sweat and grime. Finally, Coach Waters blew the whistle three times, signaling the group to relax for a bit. His legs, burning with aching pain, wobbled a bit, but the large boy stayed on his feet, pulling the helmet off his bald head quickly. "Grab some water defense! You take the field in 5!" Coach Waters yelled out, moving to organize the offensive line to run a few plays.

Will Briggs had made it to the water cooler before Dar, and the other outside linebacker held out a dixie cup filled with cool-ish water towards the teammate.

"Thanks dog." Dar said, using the cup's water to splash his face and head with before grabbing another cup of water. Briggs nodded and took his own cup, drinking it slowly. With a shrug, Dar turned his attention to the offensive line, which was knelt in a huddle and going over plays which they were bound to use in their scrimmage today.

Angavu...while I do not debate the positives of this type of training, I still do not understand the point in it. The gravely voice of Hodari rumbled in the back of the linebacker's head.

It ain't for nothin' but fun really. It's all a game. Nothin' real practical about it unless you take knockin' a person senseless into battle. Dar responded, making sure to keep his lips from moving, which was a bad habit of his when he talked to the spirits inside him. It was odd, but despite Coach Water's presence, he could still converse with the spirits in him; he just couldn't call any power from them.

Indeed Hodari...even if the actual skills practiced here are not applicable to the Angavu's life now, the principles behind them are sound. Janja's watery, unisex voice responded in support of Dar's statement...kinda.

Would y'all mind pipin' down till after practice? Damn. Dar flashed angrily at them, not wanting to have to hear banter while trying to remember plays. It wasn't until Briggs knocked him on the shoulder with one meaty paw that Dar noticed that the Coach was calling the whole defensive line over. With a quick nod, he tossed the helmet back on and charged out to the field.

===============================================================================================

Dar slid to the side, facing straight into Brandon Jordan, who had hopped over to match him. Muscles loose, but senses alert, Dar's body hunkered down, like a rhino ready to charge when the ball snapped. The role was simple, get past the tight end, take out the quarterback. Since it was practice, tackling the QB was out of the question, but it was the principle of the thing. The addendum to the role was that if the QB passed the ball off, take out the Half or Fullback on his way. In the span of a few fractions of a second, Dar watched as Stephen Reed dropped back with the ball, spinning behind him and tossing a lateral towards Luke, who after an initial fumbling of the ball in his hands, caught it. Dar was already moving forward, staying low and faking to his left, drawing Brandon off to the side. Using the juke to his advantage, Dar spun, getting past the tight end and charging straight forward, right into Luke's running path.

Now, Dar had been hitting most of the offensive line in the scrimmages lightly, keeping himself held back so as not to injure his teammates. However, he was aching to show Coach Waters just how good a linebacker he was. This was his chance, and Luke didn't even see it coming.

You know those videos of a forest standing in the way of an avalanche or a landslide? At first, the trees are standing there, stoic and tall, unmoving. Then the wave of cascading dirt or snow hits and everything is just smothered by the moving force of nature. That's sort of what happened in this case. Dar crashed into Luke so hard that he barely lost his momentum. Luke, on the other hand, had all of his forward motion stopped and turned backwards, being carried by the linebacker towards the ground. They hit with a solid thump, sliding for a moment before stopping. Dar stood up, looking down at Luke, who was trying to suck in breath but having some difficulty with it. The kid still managed to hold onto the ball, but had the breath knocked clear out of him.

"Brown!" Coach Waters yelled, rushing up towards the linebacker and kneeling down next to Luke. "You're all right son, just stand up and walk it off." He said, helping the boy up to his feet. The Coach's eyes focused on Dar with a fierce fire behind them. "Keep that in check Brown, save it for the games. I don't want you killin' off your teammates. Got me?"

"Yes sir!" Dar responded, nodding. "Sorry sir!" Coach glared at him some more and nodded quickly.

"Good hit." Coach said before walking away towards Luke. "And you, they're gonna hit that hard in the real game, so get used to it now or dodge him!" Brandon was next on the Coach's chastisement parade, saying something about not letting anyone past him. Poor Brandon looked like he was being blamed for getting wet in the middle of a thunderstorm.

Dar took a deep breath and headed back to the defensive huddle. He'd keep himself in check, that was for sure. He had gotten off light, but he had shown Coach Waters what he had in him...and given Luke a good hit in the process, which he didn't mind in the slightest. Biff called the next defensive play, and everyone moved to line up.

[Brandon]

Brandon grinned at Dar as the lines settled back into place. He'd just been torn up one side and down the other by the coach, and he'd gained several laps after practice...but it had totally been worth it to see Luke take a hit like that. He made a mental note that he owed Dar a pizza buffet sometime.

"Won't be so easy this time, man," he said to Dar. Then the snap came, and he threw himself into the fray one more time.

[Shadows' Mirage]

*This is for my NPC Damian "Dozer" Singleton*

Damian looked through the passenger side window as the SUV pulled up outside the practice field. He exhaled then looked down, even though he didn't want to admit it, he was nervous. He was going to a brand new team, going to meet brand new players, probably have to fight for his position at Defensive End. Not only did all of that weigh against him, he was going to the team, the only team that beat his team last year. A team that he considered a bitter rival, the Saint Joseph Flyers.

"So Damian, are you gonna get out?" His mother's words echoed in his ear.

"Actually...I wasn't planning on it."

"And why is that?"

Damian looks back out to the field, he eyes a couple of players that he remembered from the season before, the QB Stephen Reed, the dancer they called a WR, who had hands like glue Bryan Baxter...and that was just to name a few.

"Its the Flyers mom!" He retored as he looked at his mother.

"So, and your point is what....isn't that the team that beat ya'll last year" She smiled.

"Yea, so"

His mother looked at him as he turned away from her, somewhat ignoring the mocking comment that she just made.

"Don't catch a 'tude young man!" she snapped.

"Yes ma'am" He looked back at her "but its the flyers mom...how can I go from a Panther to a Flyer"

"Easily...change your uniform, now go" She said pointing out towards the football field.

She knew that Coach Waters was already waiting for me, she made that call earlier during the day. She wanted to know if I could play for the team, since it was the only thing that I loved most. He of course said sure, but I know I'm gonna have hella laps to run.

"Ok" I exited the SUV, opening the back door to grab my personal bag of equipment. I turned back to look through the passenger side window at my mom.

"Mom, I have two championship rings...I wanted another one this year."

"Well son, you should of thought about that before you used your powers on the boy...your school dumped you, I should of moved you here when you turned fourteen anyway." Her cell phone went off with a text. "Oh, thats your father...looks like Devoured Earth are causing some problems." Her eyes flashed as she exited the SUV, doing her spinning thing to change to her hero suit.

"The keys are in the truck...Ill see you-"

"Yea, when I get home." I interupted "You and Dad be careful ok."

"Ok D" She launched herself into the clouds, all I could hear was the crackle from her breaking the sound barrier.

Looking at the field, I thought, maybe it wouldn't be so bad...they all have powers, just like me. I walked over to the field, before I could even get to Coach Waters he had already turned around to see me. I heard all sorts of whispers as I walked past the bleachers...mainly "What is a Panther doing here" because of the huge panther head on my bag.

"Welcome to Flyer country Singleton." shifting his attention to my bag he smiled "you can add 15 more laps to the 40 you owe me because of that bag you got there."

Closing my eyes I thought "Dammit, good intro there D."

"Well go and change into your gear Singleton, and welcome to the Flyers."

Turning around I began to run to the locker room to change over.

"Oh, and make sure you get rid of that Panther gym bag Singleton...everytime I see it, thats 15 laps.

[D. Planet]

((Edit: Nothing to see here, move along.))