Chapter 7

Sports

I couldn’t just steal a ship or buy a ticket off-world; both would draw the kind of attention I wanted to avoid. A bit of quiet nosing around the spaceport the next morning ruled out the mail pods; they were automated and not fit for biological use. I needed a passenger flight, one big enough to sneak aboard without getting spotted, and they weren’t as frequent as I hoped. My first chance wasn’t for a long month.

It was a sobering discovery. I’d spent the last two days on auto-pilot, enjoying the novelty, dodging disasters as they came. If I was going to be here long term, I needed to get more serious about it. My goals were simple: get as much as I could from my time at the Academy and get away again without spending time in Tartarus, or worse.

I kept my head down and got on with lessons, tried to dodge feathers whenever I saw them in case Veritas was looking for me and kept my profile as low as I could manage it. Classes ranged from the interesting (‘Tactical Combat Analysis’) to trivial (‘Parkour Basics’) to the disappointing (‘Yellow Wood: About Heroic Vulnerabilities’). That part of the plan went well enough, I devoured the learning on offer, particularly where I could apply it to my own life.

My plan to pull away from socialising, on the other hand, struck a large green four-armed stumbling block.

One day it was “Pilvi’s having a movie evening in her accommodation block.” The next “We’re all going down to the Gamma Bomb again tonight.” Or “Board games with Gadget Dude!”

It wasn’t as though he didn’t have other friends, but for some reason, he always wanted me there too. Did his latent powers include some sort of mind control? All I can say for certain is that somehow, I always ended up going along.

“Great news!” Seventhirtyfour said. We sat in the communal kitchen of our accommodation, a couple of our housemates preparing their breakfasts at the counter behind us. Seventhirtyfour was onto his third bowl of cereal and his second cup of coffee. “I’ve signed us up for Power Ball.”

“You did what?”

“Don’t worry, it’s all inside.”

“Why would that matter? No, I meant, I don’t know what Power Ball is.”

“You’ll love it.”

“The fact that you’re not telling me what it is, makes me think you know I won’t.”

“It’s something fun for us all to do together every couple of weekends. Team building. Practical tactical exercises. Puzzles.”

“Oh for the love of… just tell him!” shouted Dean from over by the toaster. “It’s a sport, Grey, a superhero sport. Like a cross between hockey, dodgeball and sudoku.”

“That’s pretty hard to imagine.”

Seventhirtyfour cocked his head, considering. “It’s a fairly accurate description, actually.”

“I see,” I lied. “And when you say ‘us’, who did you mean?”

“You know, the gang? Our group? Me, you, Pilvi, Dez, Avrim and Gadget Dude? Oh, but that reminds me, I need you to tell Avrim that he’s on the team.”

“Me?”

“He’ll take it better from you. You’re very persuasive.”

“I can’t persuade him, I still don’t know what it is.” I mean I probably could, but that wasn’t really the point.

“You have a free period this morning?”

“After ‘Superheroics and the Law’, yes.”

“Great, get Avrim to meet us in the Dome then, and we can have our first team strategy session.”

# # #

The Dome, as the name suggested, was the large dome-shaped building on the quad. It was the Academy’s stadium. At its centre, a vast circular field with several small platforms suspended above it, each of the platforms had a console in the middle. Across the field, pockets of other students were practising, which mostly seemed to involve knocking a small spherical drone around the field with batons or standing on the platforms doing something with the consoles.

The six of us gathered on the benches at the edge of the field, Seventhirtyfour unpacked his own drone and bats. He switched on the drone, which rose gently into the air to about waist height. Pilvi gently put a hand on Gadget Dude’s shoulder before he started disassembling it.

Avrim sat on the second row and let his wings unfurl. “I’m only here because this is supposed to help prepare for the end of year practical exams,” he said. The ammonia scent of irritation from his wings was particularly sharp.

“It does?” asked Dez.

“Anyway,” I cut in, “who wants to tell me how this all works?”

“The problem with a sport for superheroes,” Seventhirtyfour said, “is how to make the game fair for all. When they invented Power Ball they were looking for something where strong players, fast players, smart players and tough players could all contribute. When everyone can have such different levels of strength, speed, reach and so on, what you need is an equaliser. That’s where the drone comes in.”

He tossed me a bat, then dragged the drone ten paces away, so he was standing in the middle of a pair of goal posts. “I’m going to knock the drone towards you, all I want you to do is score a goal; get the drone past me. All players can strike the drone with their bat, but as goalkeeper, I’m also allowed to block your shot with any part of my body.”

“Okay.”

Seventhirtyfour tapped the drone and it drifted in my direction, slow enough that I could give some thought to my strategy. The goalmouth was large, but Seventhirtyfour covered much of it. Knocking the drone into one of the corners at some pace seemed my best bet. I wound up my swing, and…

THWACK!

The drone vanished off to my left, spinning uncontrollably, at right angles to the direction I intended. “What?”

Dez laughed so hard she fell off the bench.

Seventhirtyfour pressed a button on his control pad, and the drone zipped back to him. “There’s a force field on the drone; the harder or faster you hit it, the more unpredictable the direction of travel. A gentle tap like I used, and it flies true, but it’s easy to intercept. A stronger strike, particularly a super-strong one, there’s no telling where the drone’s going.”

“Okay, so, the solution to superhero sports is to bring everyone down to the same level? Seems like that defeats the purpose of it being a superhero sport.”

“That’s why the game has Puzzlers,” said Pilvi.

“Right! That’s my favourite bit, you know?” Seventhirtyfour pointed up towards one of the platforms and the console on it. “Each team will have one or more players whose primary job is to solve puzzles on those consoles. Whichever team solves fastest can choose different bonuses, like turning off the shield on the drone or making the goals bigger. It means teams need brains as much as power: you need Power Plays so the rest of the team can use their powers.”

“My powers. Sure.”

He beamed at us. “Great. Now we have that all cleared up, we need to run some practice, find out who’s best in which position: Goalkeeper, Puzzler, Strikers and Interference. Now, I think, obviously, I am probably the best choice for Puzzler, because I know how the puzzles work, which is a big advantage. First off, let’s try… Avrim in goal, Grey, Dez and Gadget Dude as Strikers, Pilvi, Interference?”

“I’ll try,” she said, waving her still-strapped-up wrist.

“Great! Let’s play Power Ball!”

# # #

“I’m about to solve the last puzzle,” Seventhirtyfour called down from his platform, “get ready for a Power Play… now!”

Dez tapped the drone, a little too hard, slicing it over towards me. Pilvi read the move and was already charging me down, baton held high, her jaw set in grim determination. Over her shoulder, the goal posts shifted as the Power Play went into effect.

I swung at the drone, but even as my bat connected, I knew I’d swung too hard again. With an electronic screech of protest, the drone rocketed skywards, caught the edge of one of the Puzzling Platforms, bounced randomly again, accelerating towards Seventhirtyfour. He threw himself backwards, toppled over the edge of his platform, fell to the ground with a heavy thud.

I rushed over to him. “Are you okay?”

Seventrhityfour gave a one-handed thumbs-up. “All good.” He gasped, caught his breath. “Maybe we try Grey on Puzzles.”

# # #

Below me, the rest of the team lazily knocked the drone between them. Pilvi passed to Avrim, who knocked it back to Seventhirtyfour. Gadget Dude was nominally on Interference, but he only waved his bat at the drone as it sailed past. Dez sat on the goal line checking her social media on her wrist pad.

I moved another of the puzzle pieces on screen. For reasons I wasn’t clear on, it changed colour. I’d been working on the puzzle for ten minutes now, and I was still no closer to a solution. I wasn’t even sure what the solution I was trying to get to was.

“Okay, Grey, I think it’s time to call this,” said Seventhirtyfour.

“Wait,” I said. I slid another piece up the screen, and this time all the puzzle pieces turned green, flashed, and vanished. Was that what was supposed to happen? “I think… I think I solved it!” Five icons lit up on screen, giving me my list of Power Play options. I couldn’t remember what any of them meant, but they were all supposed to be useful. I picked one at random.

The lights across the Dome all went out.

“Excellent choice if any of us had sonar or infravision,” Dez said. I got the impression that the rest of the teams practising were less impressed.

“Grey?”

“Yes, Seventhirtyfour?”

“Let’s try you in goal.”

“Sounds good.”

# # #

The end of the second week saw the start of the Power Ball season proper. Seventhirtyfour dragged me over to the Dome early, and we were far from the first to arrive. The place was already buzzing and only got busier as we waited for the others. It was the weekend. You would think that people would be off doing their own things in their own way. But it turned out that most of the students and staff crammed themselves into the Dome in preparation for the start of the league.

It also turned out that we were one of dozens of teams signed up to participate. While Seventhirtyfour goggled at everything, he was so excited to be here, I had plenty of time to skim through the listings.

I was still trying to decipher the boards when Avrim and Dez came up to join us.

“Hey guys,” Dez said. She was wearing a Power Ball t-shirt, a large foam hand over one of her claws, and a cap nestled on her head crest. “Have you visited the merchandise store yet?”

“Morning Dez. Do you know what the icons next to the team names mean? I asked Seventhirtyfour, but he’s a bit over-excited.”

“They show team size and make-up. Teams can have four to six players, so each icon shows whether the player is a Power, a Tech or a Skill hero.

“Okay. Hmm. So… most teams are all one type by the looks of it?”

“Yeah. The Academy doesn’t really have formal factions, but for practical purposes, you must have noticed, there are.”

“Did you see, there’s a team on that board called ‘Balls of Fury’, that’s a joke, right?”

The name cut through Seventhirtyfour’s excitement because he said, “Oh no, Grey, they’re deadly serious. They lost out on the championship last year, but the team that beat them have all graduated now; the Balls of Fury are the ones to beat this year, you know? It’s a small team, only four players, but they are the best of the best. Do you think they’re here yet? I need Wrecking Ball’s autograph to complete my collection.”

“You’re really into all this aren’t you? So what name did you give our team, I can’t see us on the list...”

“We’re not on this board, these are the top-ranking teams, the unseeded teams are on the board over there. There we are. ‘By The Numbers’.” He looked embarrassed. “Because, you know, I’m Seventhirtyfour... You hate it, right? It’s okay we can change it later, but I’m not very good at coming up with names. It’s not something we Brontom really do.”

“It’s as good a name as any, Seventhirtyfour, don’t worry about it. We’re at the very end of the second board. Does that mean...?”

“Yeah, we’re the lowest ranked team. But that’s okay, we aren’t going to win, I just wanted to be part of it.”

“Oh well that’s encouraging,” said Avrim. “Here I thought I was the only one who knew our chances, but it seems like everybody does. How very reassuring.”

“Good morning Avrim!” Seventhirtyfour enthused. “Have you seen the others?”

“They will be over shortly. Pilvi is attempting to keep Gadget Dude from tampering with the scoreboard. It seems we are very much off to a flying start.”

“Go and get them, please, we need to have a team talk, in case we’re up first.”

Avrim gave a winged shrug and wandered off to go and collect the others.

“Actually, who is playing today?” I asked.

“That’s the thing, it’s randomised. There are four teams on the field during a game, and this way, there’s less chance that pre-existing alliances can affect the outcome.”

“Does that work? I’d just think the big teams have more alliances planned.”

“Well, yeah. But it does help. A bit. You know?”

“Great. And I’m assuming from our placing on the boards, nobody’s tried to ally with us?”

“Right! You’re really getting the hang of this.”

A great roar went up from the crowd as the first match-up was posted. I had a small knot in my stomach as I looked but our team name was not amongst those called up.

“Interesting match,” said Seventhirtyfour. “All four teams are from the tech faction, so there’s nobody obvious for them to gang up on. The Technauts have a good record, but they lost their star player last year when he took a hero gig on Ceynakk. The We’re Not Black Holes squad are all second years... they had a fair result last year, so with experience on their side... I reckon they may be the ones to watch in this match.”

The six of us took seats high up on the south end to watch. Play was much faster than our practice games, and the Technauts’ Interference player was brutal, his tackles hard, and he constantly harassed the Black Holes’ Puzzler.

The Technauts’ Puzzler finished on his first console, then rocket-jumped to a higher platform.

“There’s nobody marking him!” Dez said. “Here we go!”

The lights in the arena switched to red, and the announcer intoned “Technauts: Power Play!”

The goalmouths for all the other teams expanded slightly, and as the other three teams scrambled into defensive formations, the lead striker for the Technauts wound up a mighty hit, there was a crack, and the ball flew unerringly into the back of the Not Black Holes goal.

The crowd erupted. Dez went wild. “Did you see that? Whack! Whoosh! That’s the way it’s done! Woooo!” She waved her foam finger.

“This isn’t much like we practised,” I said. “Nobody mentioned rocket boots.”

“The Tech students get to bring their tech,” said Pilvi. “Just like the Power students have their powers.”

“There are certain natural advantages that can’t be disabled,” added Avrim, flexing his wings. If the scent of cinnamon meant what I thought, he was enjoying himself.

“Like being able to fly, right.”

“Sure, it’s not perfect, but come on, look, it’s exciting!” protested Seventhirtyfour.

“Gooooooooooooooooooal!” shouted Dez. “Guys, you’re missing it, the Technauts are on fire!”

After that, the Not Black Holes had no way back. They managed to claw a goal in the last few seconds of the game, but the Technauts’ lead was too big.

I took advantage of the break between games to visit the bathroom. After, I decided it might be a friendly gesture to buy us all drinks, so I joined the long queue for the concession stand.

I was standing there, in the queue, hands in pockets and regretting my charitable urge when Dez dashed up to me. “Dude! Where have you been! The next game is called, and we’re up!”

“We’re up?”

“We’re playing, us against the Balls of Fury! And two other nobody teams of course, but, the Balls of Fury! Balls! Of Fury!”

“Oh, right.”

“Don’t just stand there, come on!”

# # #

We caught up with the others by the players’ entrance. Seventhirtyfour sat, head in hands, his spare arms flailing. “Oh no! This is a disaster! We can’t play today, we’re not ready. Grey barely knows the rules!”

“It’ll be fine, Seventhirtyfour,” said Pilvi, “we’re only here to have a bit of fun, it doesn’t matter if we lose, even you said that.”

“I know what I said! Now’s not the time to remind people what they said!”

Gadget Dude patted him on the knee.

“Can you at least suggest positions for us to play?” asked Avrim. “That would be something.”

“Right. Right. Yes. Positions. Well, we need our best Puzzler if we have any hope of keeping up, and I guess that’s me. Grey is… best in goal.”

“Right.”

He nodded. “Avrim, Interference, obviously, keep high, and try to keep the other puzzlers distracted.”

“Obviously.”

“Dez, Pilvi, Gadget Dude, keep moving, and look for your chances.”

“Right.”

“I’m so excited.”

Seventhirtyfour took a huge, calming breath. “Okay, great. We can do this. Let’s go do this. Remember people, By The Numbers!”

“That’s not the most encouraging battle cry,” mused Dez.

# # #

I spent the first half of the game padded up in front of our goal with nothing to do. The Balls of Fury had fallen back on faction bias and had kept the pressure on the tech team, the Circuit Breakers, scoring goal after goal against them.

The Balls were impressive to watch, their two attackers, Fireball and Mirror Ball ruled the pitch, and always seemed to be where the action was. The Balls’ keeper, Wrecking Ball, a Germile who simply had to stand in front of the goal to cover it, was untroubled throughout. Their puzzler, a Zalex bizarrely called Golf Ball, solved more quickly than I’d seen Seventhirtyfour solve anything.

But the Circuit Breakers’ puzzler was faster still, managing to keep all the others at bay, and despite Golf Ball’s best efforts, he couldn’t get the lead he needed to trigger a Power Play.

Still, by the time of the break, the scoreline told it all. Six goals to the Balls of Fury, nobody else had come even close to scoring.

“Well, that’s it, we’ve lost,” said Dez, lying panting on the ground.

“Yes,” said Avrim, and Gadget Dude nodded forlornly.

“Come on, By The Numbers, we can still do this!” Seventhirtyfour tried, but we all just looked at him, and even his head dropped. “Okay, we can’t; they’re better than us.”

“By a country mile,” said Pilvi.

Seventhirtyfour huffed, and then sank to the ground. “Oh, what’s the use?”

He looked so beaten, his enthusiasm battered and spent. It was just wrong.

He sighed the biggest sigh I’ve ever heard. “So disappointed. It would have been awesome to score even one goal against the Balls of Fury.”

I perked up. “Oh! If that’s all you want, yeah, we can totally do that. I thought you wanted to win.”

“Well, sure I wanted to win! But... no... wait, what do you mean we can score a goal against them?”

I hedged. “Well, not for sure, but I’m pretty confident. It’ll mean changing things around...”

Dez sat up. They were all looking at me now.

“Remember, this isn’t for the win... but... Don’t worry about the puzzles, we don’t need them. None of us have powers that the Power Play would help with, right?”

“Well, I suppose so...”

“Right. So, Seventhirtyfour, I need you in goal; we have to assume Power Plays will still happen, and we need as big a body in front of the goal as possible if only to make other goals more tempting. Avrim, when I give you a high sign, forget the ball, forget the other teams, I need you to focus only on Golf Ball. Harass him up to the limits of the rules, okay? If we can stop him solving a single puzzle, all to the good.”

“I can do that.”

“Dez, Gadget Dude and me, we stick on Fireball and Mirror Ball hard, don’t worry about the others, but crowd them as much as you can.

“Pilvi, from what I’ve seen, you’re our best shot, so our best hope for the goal. Hang back, don’t get involved, conserve your energy, and look for your moment. When the time comes... hit that ball with everything you’ve got and put it past Wrecking Ball and into the net. Can you do that?”

“Well, no, not without a Power Play. Wrecking Ball is bigger than their goal!”

I grinned. “Leave that to me.”

Seventhirtyfour gave his four-shouldered shrug. “It’s worth a go. Let’s do it. By The Numbers!”

We all sort of mumbled a “By The Numbers” response, which seemed to please Seventhirtyfour immensely.

We did well, for the first couple of minutes. With effectively five strikers in play we got hold of and kept the ball, at least for a while, but try though we might, we couldn’t get a convincing shot at goal. Dez came the closest, but she over-hit in her enthusiasm, and the drone careened wildly around the Dome afterwards.

I took the moment’s distraction to get close to Diode, one of the Circuit Breakers’ strikers to have a quick word. “You want to take them down a peg, right?”

He pretended to ignore me, but I didn’t let that stop me. “We’re neither of us winning this, but I bet you’d like to spoil their day, right? If you can get a Power Play, we can get a goal. It’s not much of a victory, but you know it’ll annoy them.”

The ball was back in play again, and Diode ran after it; I let him go for now. He probably needed a little more convincing yet.

Moments later, Fireball knocked the drone to Mirror Ball, who sliced it into the top corner of the Circuit Breakers’ goal.

The two Balls high-fived, and Fireball threw a stream of flame into the air, a technical violation, but the ball was out of play, so the judges let it slide. From their goal, Wrecking Ball roared. “Fury, yeah! Fury, yeah! Fury, yeah!”

Diode caught my eye, nodded sharply.

I gave Avrim the high sign.

We dug in, as the clock ticked down. There was time for the play, but not much. Avrim went to work on Golf Ball, a close fly-by, some name-calling, even a shoulder-ram when the ball flew close enough to justify it, and Golf Ball cracked. He stood at the edge of the platform, and in the staccato manner that Zalex have, he shouted a stream of invective at Avrim. Avrim, literally, rose above it all.

But with our puzzlers out of play, and Golf Ball distracted, the Circuit Breakers’ puzzler only needed to move ahead of one other, and he took his chance. He solved one puzzle, then grapnelled from one platform to another, and solved a second in, well, seconds.

The arena lights went red, and the announcer called “Power Play: Circuit Breakers!”

Diode took the ball and fired the jets on his armour, with a roar of flame he flew full speed at the Balls of Fury goal; the ball seemed glued to his stick. Fireball and Mirror Ball closed in, narrowing his angle, Wrecking Ball shifted his massive bulk, covering the goal mouth, blocking any chance that Diode had to score. A practised and seamless move.

But at the last moment, Diode flicked the ball wide to me. For my part, it was all I could do to control its angle off my bat, so it went to Pilvi.

She didn’t flinch though. As the Balls scrambled to change tack, she drew back her stick, and let fly. The drone sailed past Wrecking Ball’s outstretched hand and buried itself in the back of the net.

The entire Dome erupted with noise, as several thousand people roared their approval. Mirror Ball shouted accusations at Wrecking Ball, who roared, pounding the ground so hard it shook.

Heady stuff.

Let’s not dwell on the fact that the Balls went on to score twice more before the game was over. That doesn’t matter. The simple fact of the thing is that in all manners other than the final scoreline, we beat the Balls of Fury that day.

# # #

In that first month at the Academy, I learned how much there was to learn. I tried courses in all sorts of things, sampled the technical courses, a few detective modules, attended workshops and lab sessions to see if I had any latent superpowers.

As the end of the month approached, my mind turned again to that passenger flight. My best chance of getting out of here. I knew I needed to start planning. Needed to sort out how I was going to get aboard, how I was going to remain undetected, but somehow, I never quite got around to it. In fact, I’d caught myself looking at the course syllabus for the second term.

Only a couple of days before I would leave, and yet again, I chose to rest in my accommodation block over reconnoitring the spaceport.

In my defence, between Combat, Power Ball and Grapnel, I was exhausted; bruised and abraded my muscles felt tight, yet somehow also strung out. I lent my full weight on the fire door to open it, pushing just seemed too much effort.

Seventhirtyfour was chatting to someone on the hallway comm. He looked up as the door opened.

“... oh, in fact, he’s just here,” he said to the comm. “I’ll just forward you through to his room. Nice talking to you Mrs. Gravane.”

I felt cold.

Seventhirtyfour grinned. “It’s your mother.”