THE ALL-PRO (29 page)

Quentin raised the ball and faked a throw to Becca.

Three-tenths of a second.

The oncoming, white-jerseyed Ki lineman reached up to block the pass, long multi-jointed arms raised vertical like living prison bars.

One-tenth of a second.

Quentin sprang forward, shooting past the reaching Ki linemen, feeling Chaka’s pincers again brush against his back.

Too little, too late.

In a half-second, he was five yards past the line of scrimmage. High One had blessed him with speed and Quentin was thankful for such gifts. The run-fake had drawn in the other linebackers — Quentin shot past and found himself in the open field.

He let his feet do the talking.

The defensive backs closed in on him, or tried to, but the downfield blocking of George Starcher, Hawick and Milford kept them from making a straight-on attack.

Quentin ran toward Starcher’s back. Starcher fought with the Sklorno free safety. Quentin faked to the left. The free safety tried to match, then Quentin cut right, toward the sidelines. The free safety again tried to match but couldn’t react with Starcher’s hands on her chest. She fell to her back, out of the play.

Quentin hit the sidelines and cut upfield.

At the 25 ...

Somewhere in his brain, he realized the home crowd screamed so loud that paint flaked off the stadium walls, that the turf vibrated beneath his feet, that the Low One himself flinched and looked away in fear.

At the 20 ...

The Ice Storm cornerback angled toward him. She would get to him at the five, knock him out of bounds.

At the 15 ...

Yes, he was supposed to slide, but the end zone loomed ahead in all its blackness ...

At the 10 ...

Quentin reared his head back, then brought it forward and to the left with all his weight. The blue/white/chrome missile launched at him, a collision sure to kill brain cells and break bones. He would teach her a lesson, he would show her who ruled this field, he would make an example to all the Ice Storm players and to the entire league and

BLINK

Sanity grabbed hold of him like a mousetrap snapping down on a tiny neck. Head-to-head hits weren’t good for the team. He was an asset and he would act like it.

At the 6-yard line, Quentin suddenly leaned back and stutterstepped, breaking his forward momentum just enough for the over-committed Sklorno to shoot past and crash into the sidelines.

BLINK

The world came rushing back. On the second play of the season, Quentin Barnes casually jogged into the end zone. A 46-yard touchdown run. The stands
shook
, vibrating with thousands of jumping, insane, screaming fans.

Fireworks exploded overhead as the sky turned a deep orange — the entire city dome changing color to signify the first Krakens touchdown of the year.

Quentin tossed the ball to a flying zebe, then knelt and plucked a few black-painted, circular blades of Iomatt.

He sniffed deep, inhaling the slight scent of cinnamon.

He started to stand but was knocked flat as Hawick and Milford hit him harder than most linebackers. The squealing, chittering Sklorno weren’t even speaking English, just babbling in their native tongue while they hugged him and shook him. Seconds later, Starcher and Ju Tweedy jumped on the pile. Quentin hoped this would become a trend, that the worst beating he would take during a game would be during a touchdown celebration.

• • •

THE ICE STORM WASTED NO TIME
striking back. Paul Infante hit receiver Füssen on a simple out pattern. Berea, the right cornerback, slipped on the tackle and fell, leaving Füssen gobs of open space. She sprinted to the 5-yard line before Davenport brought her down. On the next play, Infante hit running back Scott Wilson on a hook. Wilson caught the ball just as John Tweedy landed a big hit, but they fell in the end zone.

Extra point good, tie game, 7-7.

• • •

QUENTIN ROLLED OUT
to the right. Chaka the Brutal blitzed again, reaching for him. Quentin, a left-hander, switched the ball to his right arm. His left forearm then shot out, smashing into Chaka’s helmet. The blow knocked Chaka’s head back, making him stumble. The Quyth Warrior linebacker grabbed Quentin’s arm as he fell, pincers raking deep gouges through Quentin’s Koolsuit and into his skin.

Trailing a stream of fresh blood, Quentin switched the ball back to his left hand and raised it to his ear, ready to pass, as he kept moving toward the sideline. Ryan Nossek tossed Vu-Ko-Will aside like 600 pounds of trash, then closed in.

Quentin saw all the moving parts as one unified dance — he knew Nossek would hit him, but that the hit would come a moment too late because Hawick had a half-step on her defender. Quentin planted his feet, bounced forward and fired the ball. His blood had spilled onto the cool, brown leather — as the ball spun, it sprayed off a whizzing stream of red droplets. No sooner had it left his fingertips than the HeavyG defensive end hit him in the chest, driving him to his back.

Quentin let out a half-cough, then calmly waited for his breath to return.

Hoooo, that sentient could hit
hard
.

“Hey, rookie,” Nossek said, so close to Quentin that only their facemasks marked the distance. “How’d that taste?”

The crowd roared in a way that meant only one thing.

“Tasted like a sixty-two yard touchdown pass,” Quentin said. “And I’m not a rookie anymore.”

Nossek stood and lifted Quentin like a rag doll, setting him gently on his feet.

“Good pass,” Nossek said. “See you again, real soon.”

“I’m having company? Heck, Ryan, I’ll make you a nice cup of tea.”

• • •

AT THE HALF, THE KRAKENS
led 14-10. Doc Patah worked on Quentin’s torn arm. The locker room felt electric. A year ago, the Ice Storm had pounded the Krakens in the first half. Back then, it had almost been an apples-to-oranges comparison — one team destined for the playoffs, the other that didn’t really deserve to be in Tier One at all.

But not this year.

The Krakens dominated every aspect of play. Quentin was 7-of-10 for 146 yards, with another 56 yards rushing and a touch-down on the ground. Ju Tweedy had carried the ball 10 times for 39 yards. Aside from the one hit on the touchdown pass, Quentin hadn’t been touched. Chaka the Brutal kept blitzing, but he couldn’t get past Becca Montagne’s blocks fast enough to catch the fleet-footed quarterback. Only one half into the season and already Quentin’s instincts told him that he could count on Becca to block her player every time.

Defensively, the Krakens weren’t playing as well, but they had only given up 10 points. Ice Storm quarterback Paul Infante had put in a quality performance, but nothing spectacular — 11-of-20 for 112 yards and a touchdown. Quentin had concerns about what would happen when the Krakens faced off against a premier quarterback like the Pirates’ Frank Zimmer, the Criminals’ Rick Renaud or even — as much as he hated to admit it — the Orbiting Death’s Condor Adrienne. He would worry about that later. All that mattered now was the win.

One game at a time.

• • •

LATE IN THE THIRD QUARTER
: Ionath 14, Isis 10.

Quentin dropped back and planted, standing tall, so close to the end zone he could smell the orange paint. Late third quarter, second and goal on the Ice Storm’s 7-yard line.

Chaka the Brutal blitzed yet again. Quentin’s first instinct was to scramble, but Becca was responsible for picking up that blitz so he kept his feet planted. Chaka sprinted in, reached out, desperate to get the sack and change the course of the game.

Sure enough, Becca drove her shoulder pad into linebacker’s midsection. She had been surgical with her blocks for the entire game, applying just the right amount of force in just the right direction to take defenders out of the play. This time, however, she must have seen that Chaka wasn’t watching her — she hit him so hard she bent him in half, drove him back, a highlight-reel hit that left her standing and him lying flat.

Quentin checked through his receivers.

Hawick: covered at the back-left corner of the end zone.

Starcher: covered on a hook route to the right.

Halawa: late on her break for an out-pattern, she wouldn’t be open before Quentin had to scramble.

The defensive line attacked his blockers. The pocket closed in around him.

Quentin calmly turned back to face the middle of the field. Becca had done exactly what she was supposed to do — block the blitzing linebacker, then run to where the linebacker had come from.

She was standing one yard past the goal line, all alone.

Quentin threw a light pass. No need to gun it when a receiver was that wide open. Becca caught the ball.

The Wrecka’s perfect execution put the Krakens up by two scores. Extra point good: Ionath 21, Isis 10.

• • •

MIDWAY THROUGH THE FOURTH QUARTER
, the Ice Storm threatened to cut the lead to four. They advanced to the Krakens’ 12-yard line, but lost the ball when Mum-O-Killowe broke through the line and hit Paul Infante, forcing a fumble. Ibrahim Khomeni recovered the ball for Ionath.

Quentin led his team onto the field. He didn’t throw a pass for the rest of the game. The Krakens ran the ball over and over, grinding out the clock. Ju Tweedy carried on first down for five yards. On second, Yassoud Murphy swept right, picking up seven and a first down. And on it went. The Ice Storm defense was too tired to stop the Krakens’ punishing ground assault. Ionath chewed up four minutes of clock by running Ju, Yassoud and Becca. Jay Martinez — the third-string running back — even came in for a pair of carries. By the time Isis did force a fourth down, the Krakens were on the Ice Storm’s 17-yard line.

Isis had used up all its timeouts. With only 1:12 to play, Arioch Morningstar kicked an easy field goal to put the Krakens up 24-10.

• • •

THE SCORE REMAINED 24-10
as the clock ticked down to zero. Awash in the amazing feeling of winning the opening game, of defeating a playoff-caliber team, Quentin led his team onto the field to shake hands with the Isis players.

After giving Infante, Chaka, Nossek and the other players the proper post-game respect, Quentin looked to the sidelines. Actually, he looked
past
the sidelines, to the screaming, orange- and black-clad fans lining the stadium’s bottom row.

That’s what this was about, really. The fans. They paid for his salary, they paid for this stadium. Without them, Quentin couldn’t enjoy this dream of an existence. When the Krakens lost, the fans were crestfallen. When the Krakens won, life could not be any better.

He ran past his team’s sidelines, past the benches, past the used-up, bloody nanostrips, past discarded, cut tape, past the equipment racks and the med benches, ran to the head-high wall and reached up to the fans. He high-fived hands, pedipalps, tentacles, multi-jointed arms. He jogged, the wall on his right, happily slapping whatever appendage the sentients reached down and offered. Like at the end of last year, he was aware of Ju Tweedy running along right behind him, John behind Ju, the three of them followed single-file by the rest of the Krakens players.

The crowd ate it up, screaming in adoration. To cheer for your team was one thing. To be acknowledged by the players? That was almost more than the typical fan could comprehend.

Quentin made a full circle of the field before he headed to the tunnel. It was time to celebrate, time to enjoy the payback, a strong start to the long season. Tonight, he and his teammates would revel in this feeling, absorb how much they had improved.

That was tonight. Tomorrow, the victory would mean nothing. Tomorrow, they would start to prepare for the Yall Criminals.

Because the Krakens weren’t Tier One’s doormat anymore.

Now? Now the Ionath Krakens were the team to beat and they would take all comers.

Courtesy of Galaxy Sports Network

WEEK ONE SEEMED TO VALIDATE
the centuries-old saying, “And that’s why they pay him the big bucks.” Rick Renaud lived up to his record-setting contract with a record-setting performance, notching a new single-game passing yardage record with 452 in the Yall Criminals’ 44-10 drubbing of the Themala Dreadnaughts (0-1).

“New team, same story,” Renaud said after the game. “Right now, I feel like I can take whatever I want, whenever I want it.”

Renaud will try to take more of the same in Week Two when the Criminals (1-0) play host to the Ionath Krakens (1-0), who started strong with a 24-10 home win over the Isis Ice Storm (0-1). Krakens’ quarterback Quentin Barnes put in a strong showing of his own, going 17-of-25 for 252 yards with two passing touchdowns and another score on the ground.