Chapter Twenty-one: "Shall we dance?"
"One, two, step left, One, two, step right." Norbert whispered under his breath as he waltzed with an imaginary partner. Stepping in tune with the quiet chant he moved from side to side in the empty locker room. When he heard voices approaching he straightened up and dropped to the ground beginning to do sit ups "Forty eight, Forty nine, Fifty!" He faked a grunt as he finished his three sit ups as his team mate Griswold walked into the room.
"Sup boss? You look prepared for tonights match." Gris commented taking a seat by the now empty locker of Big Barnacle. The ogre had somehow snuck back into the stadium took all his belongings and left a note that read 'Gone to da Grate Maw, Buh bye frendz.' alongside a scribble of a smiley face. Norbert got up and took a seat across from Griswold looking at his young team mate, The kid had been there from the start and seen some serious shit on the pitch.
"Yeah well we are against more of those Wood elfs." Norbert explained.
"Oh nice we demolished them last time. So what's this group of hippies deal?" Gris enquired.
"Apparently they're cursed. Won a tournament for being the unluckiest team in the league. Coach Shaun and them weird Robo Skaven were there had quite the match against them."
"So no worries if they are super unlucky we should be good right?"
"Well they've been getting better since and their dancers are some of the scariest in all of Iron Phoenix. One of ems a proper strong lass takes a special potion during each match I'm told. Undetectable by dope tests." Norbert sighed knowing it would likely lead to a few bloody noses after the match.
As the match began the Wood elfs began moving at a frightening pace down the pitch and before the Fish had even had a chance to react the score was 1-0
"God damn it!" Cried Bass "What just happened?!"
"Elf magic baws." Guppy (the new lineman who seemed a little slow) said. Norbert ran over to Nathan and said
"No time to worry bout that man. Look." He pointed to one of the Dancers on the other side of the pitch. She pulled a glowing red potion from her belt and began downing it "That's the potion! We gotta stop her come on!" He sprinted up field the moment the ball was kicked and Bass followed him. Grabbing the dancer it was obvious the potion had taken affect already he barley held her arm down in time for Bass to run past him and kick her leg out from under her. She fell to the ground stuned as Bass followed after her, Seeing an opportunity to cause some pain he jumped up and brought his elbow down onto his would be victim. The dancer was quick enough to roll out of the way just enough that Bass only grazed her leaving them both on the floor prone. The other Elfs taking a chance pushed Norbert back and stomped on Nathan. One boot connected with Nathans throat and the ref whistled. In the end the Elfs smooth talked their way to a warning but Bass was carted off as a baffled Norbert watched on. As all this was happening one elf had slipped by the defence and low blowed Sting Ray. Grabbing the ball from the winded man the Elf made the score 2-0.
"This is not happening!" Marty McFlyingfish yelled throwing a wild punch at one elf fan who had somehow gotten on the pitch breaking the poor guys jaw.
"Calm down guys I got a play." Norbert began explaining it to the team.
"Uh baws?" Guppy spoke up again. "Wont I get urt by da flowerman?" Refering to the treeman on the elf team.
"Nah you'll be fine he is a big ol softy isn't he boys?" the remaining team members on the pitch all voiced their agreement and sent the poor naïve lineman to the LoS. As the whistle went the humans took a different approach this time holding several players back whilst Krill, Doc Oc and Norbert moved further up. Once they where in position one elf attempted to jump over the humans screen but lost his footing leaving a gap for Ray to pass to Norbert who sprinted down field and handed off to Krill in the end zone.
"All right that's more like it lads!" Griswold clapped his hands and whooped.
Just before the second half was underway the Dancer that had downed the potion made her way over to Norbert and Griswold who were still celebrating. Outreaching her hand as if to shake Griswolds he happily accepted only to receive a super kick straight to his chin nearly breaking his neck. Norbert immediately got straight into her face pushing her back. Luckily Gris escaped death thanks to Doc throwing a magic sponge on him. Outraged he jumped back to his feet. "What the hell lady!"
"Sorry I thought we were dancing." She said with a wink.
"That's not dancing that's dirty!" Norbert yelled
"Nah its ok boss. We'll get her back." Gris said backing off from the doped out dancer. Whilst the rest of the team checked on Gris the Elfs ran in a fourth touchdown having bribed the ref to restart the clock whilst the Humans had taken their time out.
Going into the second half Fish and Co were down three touchdowns. Receiving the ball they pulled of a sloppy play managing to score quickly thanks to the Treemans roots planting themselves into the earth and as this happened an Elfs foot got caught on one tripping him up.
Once again kicking the ball to the Hazards the Fish and Co where quick to mark up any possible receivers forgoing there more aggressive defence of the first half. The gambit payed off and Norbert had snatched the ball from one of the Catchers hands as he tried to dodge away quickly lobbing it up field. A huge scrum broke out in the Elfs half, the ball was lying on the ground as Elfs and Humans punched, kicked and pulled at eachother. Looking up Norbert saw one of the Dancers racing towards it, Muttering "I trained for this." to himself he charged into the middle of the fighting "One, Two, Step right." He chanted in his head stepping right just in time to miss a clothesline from an elf. Moving forward he chanted in his head again "One, Two, Step left." and this time he moved to the left out of the way of Guppys unconscious body being flung by the Treeman. "One, Two, Step right! One, Two, Step left!" He chanted out loud now as he shadow waltzed his way forward, dodging wild punches, diving tackles and everything else in his way while doing so. He ran and did a forward roll over the ball picking it up in the process then using the momentum slid out of the brawl and sprinted into the end zone to bring the score to 4-3.
With limited time left The fish exploded into the enemy half Setting the ball loose but as Norbert went to pick it up the Treeman once again set its roots down. This time several branches speared through the ball deflating it as well as locking it into the ground and try as they might the Humans couldn't get it free. As they struggled to tear the roots out of the tree the Doped Dancer walked towards the changing room laughing and congratulating her teammates on another match won. Griswold spotted her and realised that the clock hadn't quite ran down yet. "Hey!" He yelled "Red head!... No not you the other one!" He yelled again running over to her.
She turned and smirked at him "Shall we dance?" She asked and kicked at him in the same way she had last time. This time however Griswold stepped to the side and punched her square in the face sending her reeling back. Looking down at her she was dead but in a moment of pity he threw the magic sponge he had been holding onto at her reviving her.
"That's how you dance!" Gris shouted as the full time whistle blew and he started busting some sick freestyle moves at her.
NOTES: Not much to say really fun match that had a lot of dramatic moments in it. GG Squigg