Netherworld: Chapter Three Title: Netherworld Fandom: Galactik Football Characters: Rocket, Sinedd, Tia, D'Jok, Warren Rating: PG Summary: The Shadows play the Snow Kids, and Rocket's unsure which side he's rooting for, while Sinedd secretly meets Harris.
Netherworld: Torn Loyalties
Overall, their first night together could’ve gone much, much worse. Sinedd had ordered two meals from room service for them that they could actually eat and Rocket had showered while waiting for it to arrive so that he’d be in the bathroom and not seen by any of the maids. Sinedd had convinced them to clean up the table and the mess in the room after they dropped off the food, then taken a shower while Rocket started to eat. Rocket left enough for Sinedd, and started to hunt for the mouse.
The mouse was never found. Neither of them slept very well that night but – as Rocket pointed out when Sinedd complained in the morning – the mouse also hadn’t bitten either of them. Sinedd left housekeeping a note to deal with it.
After Sinedd muttered something under his breath that Rocket decided he’d better not ask Sinedd to clarify, the two of them were silent for a while.
“Hey.” Sinedd finally broke the silence. “You know who we’re playing today?”
Surprised, Rocket glanced up from where he’d been sorting through his Galactik Football cards. “There’s no official match on today.”
Sinedd nodded, the corners of his mouth twisted strangely. Something like apprehension was in his eyes, but it was hard to tell at the angle that Sinedd was bent at as he went through his morning stretches. “Yeah. I know. It’s supposed to be a friendly.”
His words dripped with disdain. Sinedd couldn’t have said more clearly that he didn’t believe in the concept of a ‘friendly’ if he had ‘I hate people’ tattooed on his forehead. Football wasn’t a game played for the fun of it. It was played for the fun of winning.
“This close to the finals?” Rocket couldn’t believe that any team would risk injury by playing unnecessary matches against the Shadows. Their fouls were practically a strategy, though still not as bad as the one that Tia had suffered during their first match on the Wamba planet. The thought of Tia collapsing on the pitch still made Rocket’s stomach twist around itself, even though it had happened so long ago. It was something of a miracle that the Shadows hadn’t killed anyone yet.
“Yeah.” Sinedd stretched his leg out to the side, then bent towards it from the waist, hands together and fingers stretching to his toes. It looked for a moment as if he was going to wait for Rocket to ask whom the Shadows were playing against, but instead, as he straightened up, he volunteered, “Guess Aarch wants to make sure his new team members’ll get some practice playing as a team with the rest.”
Rocket had known, on some level, that he would have had to have been replaced. The team couldn’t continue in the finals if they were missing a player. Aarch had probably chosen Mark, the same way he’d wanted to when Micro-Ice had disappeared.
It still stung to hear that Aarch had managed to replace him so quickly. And line up a match.
Though a match against the Shadows?
Rocket looked at Sinedd, who had a foot pressed to his chest and his knee to the ground, bending his spine over it. Sinedd wouldn’t go easy on them. Any of them. Not the new team members and definitely not on D’Jok. Never on D’Jok.
What was Aarch thinking?!
Rocket knew then that he’d have to watch the match somehow. He might not be able to stay in the room during the day while the maids hunted for the mouse, but there were TV screens all over Genesis for outdoor crowds to enjoy the match. He’d wear his new clothes, keep his hair pulled back, and watch the Shadows play his former team.
Aarch might’ve as good as kicked him out and the Snow Kids might not be his team anymore, but Tia was still on it. His friends were still on it. He had to watch the match, even if he wasn’t going to ever play with them again.
It only then occurred to Rocket that Sinedd had done him a favour by mentioning it. He could’ve easily just skipped over it and left Rocket to find out about it afterwards, or from someone else. “Thanks for telling me.”
“Whatever.” Sinedd rolled his shoulders backwards, then lay on the ground so that he could start some one-handed push-ups. Eyes on the carpet instead of trying to look at Rocket, he offered, “I can get you into the stadium if you want. We get tickets to give out to family members and…”
His voice trailed off there. Sinedd didn’t have any family. He didn’t feel the need to have to state it outright. The fact that he was an orphan wasn’t anyone’s business. Least of all Aarch’s nephew and the ex-Snow Kids captain. He hated taking pity from anyone, and certainly wasn’t going to take it from Rocket.
He usually sold off his ticket. Extra cash never hurt. Being raised in an orphanage meant that Sinedd understood very well the value of having a fallback plan and what money meant. This time, however, he could give Rocket one of his tickets and only sell the rest.
He told himself it was only because he needed to be on Rocket’s good side so that Rocket would keep playing in the Sphere. He didn’t want to think that maybe he pitied Rocket. Rocket had a father, an uncle, and a mother. And he had been the team captain. And had a girlfriend he loved more than his career.
If anything, Sinedd should’ve been jealous of him. Should’ve, but wasn’t, because Rocket had lost everything and was reduced to staying in someone else’s hotel room and not sleeping in case he got bitten by a poisonous mouse during the night. His career might be over.
And of everyone on the team, Rocket was the only one that Sinedd had any respect for as a player. Galactik Football, as a sport, would suffer from the loss of Rocket.
Sinedd couldn’t be the best unless he played against the best. Defeating mediocre players like Micro-Ice counted for nothing.
The offer of the tickets had surprised Rocket. Kindness from Sinedd? It’d mean sitting in the Shadows side of the stadium, but Rocket also knew that the only way for him to see the match – or any match in the future – would be to use Sinedd’s tickets. The matches were sold out for months or maybe even years ahead of time! Even if this friendly match had only been planned recently, it was probably sold out already.
It still left the question of why Sinedd was offering him the ticket, but Rocket knew that if he didn’t accept it, Sinedd was unlikely to do anything like that again. Sinedd was too proud and far too stubborn. If Rocket turned him down now, Sinedd would never offer him anything again in case it got rejected.
And it was something that Rocket wanted anyway. Somewhat awkwardly, bundling his hair behind him, Rocket replied, “Yeah. Sure. Thanks.”
That was twice in a row he had to thank Sinedd. It was disturbingly easy to get used to it.
Sinedd switched hands, and jerked his head in the direction of his blue jacket. “Left pocket. There’ll be three tickets there. Take any one you want.”
Getting up, Rocket went over to the jacket and pulled out one of the tickets. It was for the middle section, right behind the goal of the Shadows team. Perfect for watching the action on the Shadows side of the pitch, not so good if you wanted to watch the Snow Kids or the midfielders. Like Tia. But it meant that the Snow Kids definitely wouldn’t spot Rocket in the stands, anyway.
He wondered for a moment if he should offer to pay for it, but he knew he couldn’t at the moment. He had funds in his account, but if he accessed those, his parents might be able to use his bank account to track his movements and figure out that Rocket hadn’t left Genesis. Besides, who knew how much Sinedd was charging for them? Short-notice tickets in the Shadows section of the stadium would be prized highly, and therefore, Sinedd could easily price-gouge the fans.
Better to just accept them as a gift, Rocket decided, and slipped the ticket into a pocket. “When’s the match?”
“Three hours from now.” Sinedd finished his morning exercises and got up, hands in his pocket. “The Shadows are meeting in half an hour to get ready for the match. Artegor wants to have a pep talk,” Cue a roll of his eyes, “To make sure we get how important it is that we crush the Snow Kids into little particles of ice and humiliate Aarch for his arrogance and treachery and cowardice--” Sinedd stopped and admitted as he went over to pull on his jacket, “I stop listening by that point and go over plays in my head.”
With a snicker, Rocket opened the door, “And I thought that Aarch’s speeches were bad.”
“Unless he calls the coach of your rival team a fat fluffy sea lion, he’s got nothing on Artegor.” Sinedd went through the door first, locking it as soon as Rocket got through. The two of them split up then, heading to take opposite exits to the lobby so that nobody would see them together. That way, even if Rocket was caught in the hotel, nobody would think that it was Sinedd’s fault.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The Snow Kids-Shadows match was the first one that Rocket had actually sat in a stadium for. Every match before that, while he’d been on the Snow Kids, he’d watched on a screen, usually with his team in the common room. Before that, he’d watched them on the TV while he worked in the flower shop.
It was different in the stadium. There was a crowd around him. Not just Shadows, but all sorts of football fans – there was a Ryker immediately to his left, and to his right, a Cyclops sat. Rocket was much smaller than one of them, and much taller than the other. The incongruity of it might’ve amused him at some other time, but for now, Rocket only had eyes for the pitch.
The Snow Kids came onto the field, and Rocket suddenly only had eyes for Tia. Under the artificial lights of the stadium, her pale hair gleamed like the snow on Akillian’s slopes. She looked up, and the camera zoomed in on her face, giving Rocket a perfect view of those soft turquoise eyes, the same hue as the ocean had supposedly been before it froze.
For a moment, Rocket longed for nothing more than to be on the pitch with her, then D’Jok stepped close to her and all that Rocket could see was the red band on D’Jok’s arm that marked him as the captain.
Tia was forgotten entirely. Rocket couldn’t think of her or even see her. His entire world was made of the red of the captain’s armband that had formerly been his. Everything boiled down to that alone, and Rocket had never been more aware of his body, his blood. Blood-red captain’s band, and his blood revolted against him. His body didn’t want to stay still. It wanted to take D’Jok and drag him into the Sphere, to prove that he was the best. That he was the captain. His body wanted to take D’Jok into the Sphere and hurt him.
In his seat, Rocket shook, arms about himself to keep himself still. He bit down hard on his lower lip, fighting to stay still. It felt as if he couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t breathe without thinking of the Breath.
Tia…. The thought of her calmed him slowly, and he tried to watch her on the pitch. She made his heartbeat slow; but every time the camera swung to D’Jok, Rocket felt that unfamiliar, terrifying rage surge within him again.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
On the pitch, Sinedd was having his own problems. The team should’ve been a pushover without Rocket! But the two new players were throwing him off. Yuki was an unfamiliar goalie, if too insecure to be any good yet, and Mark was a good midfielder. Mark and Tia didn’t have the instinctive cooperation that Rocket and Tia did, but Mark was good.
And D’Jok, of all people, had managed to block one of Sinedd’s attempts to score!
“Sinedd, I thought you wanted to win this match!” Artegor snapped at Sinedd over the team comm link.
Hearing Artegor’s voice did nothing to improve Sinedd’s mood as he protested weakly, ”I do.”
“Then you’d better start playing like it. I’m counting on you to win this match.” Artegor’s tone was authoritative. He’d stolen Sinedd from the Snow Kids because he knew Sinedd had talent. More talent than any of the actual Shadows, and if taking Sinedd from the Snow Kids meant that he had taken something from Aarch ... That was an additional bonus.
Sinedd looked at the clock, jogging into place again, “We’ve still got time.”
He wasn’t going to lose to the Snow Kids again! Especially with Rocket out of the team and D’Jok the captain.
Anger spurred him on, and Sinedd played like a demon for the rest of the match. He ran, he jumped and he used the Smog recklessly. He didn’t care how much it might tire him out after the match was over. For now, he needed to win. He’d give anything to win.
Just like D’Jok, who was rapidly tiring out.
Within the last few minutes of the match, Sinedd scored a goal that went right through the new goalie’s hands. It tied the match for them.
Not a victory, but neither a loss. A draw. Sinedd’s lips curled back from his teeth in a harsh, soundless snarl. A draw was like eating cardboard; tasteless if technically filling.
“Well done, Sinedd. Glad to see you can still score.” Artegor complimented Sinedd after his little fit of gloating was done.
Unimpressed, Sinedd shot back, “We would’ve won if I had more time.”
As he started to walk off the pitch, he passed by the exhausted D’Jok. At least being able to mock him was something. Looking down on the exhausted worn out Snow Kid, Sinedd sneered, “Nice hustle, D’Jok. I was hoping you’d fall over from exhaustion. Better luck next time, I guess – when it counts.”
He forced a laugh for the sake of appearances, feeling nothing but annoyance that the game had been a tie instead of a clear victory for the Shadows, and went straight to the locker room with the rest of his team.
His mind was already on the upcoming meeting with Harris.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Rocket returned to the hotel room only to find that Sinedd wasn’t back yet. He expected that Artegor would’ve kept Sinedd and the other Shadows back for some sort of team speech, but it had been two hours already. Sinedd surely should’ve been back.
Fortunately for Rocket, Sinedd had gotten him an extra key by telling the receptionist that he had lost his own. It meant that Rocket could start up the TV on his own and rewatch the highlights of the match, cut properly from the best angles instead of only seeing it on the large screens and in front of him.
Watching games live really wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, Rocket decided. He hadn’t seen anywhere near as much of Tia as he wanted to. Rewatching the game would let him see more of his girlfriend, Rocket hoped, but after half an hour of watching the game, Rocket threw the remote down on the bed with irritation. He couldn’t concentrate on the match. He kept seeing D’Jok and having everything turn red.
Where was Sinedd?!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Sinedd was just as bored as Rocket was, waiting in a coffeeshop for a man who seemed to have no intention of showing up. He stirred the cup of hot chocolate he’d ordered, spoon clinking against the china sporadically, and checked his watch again. Harris was either very late, or not going to show up.
Finally, giving up on him, Sinedd got up to leave, vexed that his time had been wasted so. Features set in a scowl, hands stuffed into his pockets, he left a tip for the waitress and started to head for the door, only to have his arm grabbed by Harris. “Let’s go for a walk.”
”I thought you said to meet here.” Sinedd answered, frustrated that Harris thought that he could saunter in so late and still jerk Sinedd around. Typical adult. Everyone tried to tell him what to do if they were older than him. The fact that he’d played a match today and still had the aftereffects of the Smog roiling through him in a low-key rasp against his lungs didn’t help his mood.
“I changed my mind.” Harris didn’t want to stay in any one place too long. If there were any eavesdropping devices that had been planted at the table, walking would get them the two away from them. And anyone following them would be easier to spot in a crowd than if they just sat down at a nearby table and listened in.
For security’s sake, Harris didn’t say anything until they were up on a bridge, high above the passing crowds below and leaning enough over it that their words fell down instead of being wafted back to the people walking behind him. Mindful of Sinedd’s ego and need for praise, Harris couched his directives in the most flattering terms possible. “I wanted you to know how impressed we were. Rocket is something else. His Netherball playing is…inspired. We’d like you to keep Rocket in the Sphere as long as possible. Our benefactor will be pleased.”
The hint of a reward should do much to keep Sinedd on their side, Harris was sure. Even though Sinedd’s expression was openly doubtful.
Sinedd wasn’t going to ruin Netherball. Netherball meant freedom. No coaches, no League, no rules. No fixes, either. He wasn’t going to cheat to keep Rocket in. But he knew that coming off so determined would make him seem uncooperative. He didn’t want that. Instead, he half-whined, half-explained, “Harris, I don’t know if I can do that. Rocket is like everyone else. He stays in if he keeps winning. If he doesn’t, he just you know –“
“We expect him to keep winning.” Harris interrupted him smoothly. “That means you’re not to play against him. Is that understood?” He didn’t pause for Sinedd to answer; the question was rhetorical and more of a threat than anything else. “Your job is to keep things running smoothly. As we say at Technoid, we’re making life better.”
Surreptitiously, money changed hands, slid into Sinedd’s pockets as the two males stood close together. Harris took a step back from the railing, and tossed over his shoulder as he left, “So long, Sinedd.”
The fact that Harris wanted Rocket to win so badly made Sinedd want Rocket out of the Sphere. How dare Harris forbid Sinedd to play in the Sphere? As much as Sinedd liked working the cameras and setting up the obstacles for the course, Sinedd liked the Sphere itself. He wouldn’t stay out of it because Harris told him to. But he wasn’t going to tell that to Harris’ face either, not as long as Harris was the one paying him.
But he would challenge Rocket in the Sphere. Eventually.
The Smog curled through his body like cold blood, and when Sinedd breathed in, it tasted not like victory, but like the defeat of others.