Reservoir of Power Ch. 10

The crowd was going wild. Blood and carnage were just a bit of fun to the were, while the human players had subsequently progressed from frightened to aghast before settling into a state of burning anger... and that's when the first fight began. Two of the reserves, one from each team, were promptly ejected, while a number of other skaters (including Lena and Ylva) were sent back to the box.

As Ylva skated toward the sin bin, Mother Mary grabbed her ear and she hissed into it, "You go talk to her and the two of you get this stopped... now! We don't heal as quickly as they do!"

Florence must have said something very similar to Lena, for she was ready to listen when Ylva plopped down next to her in the penalty box. The first words out of the small girl's mouth were, "Okay, you're right. I would have blabbed your secret and I really shouldn't have called you a bitch."

Ylva's moods never lasted long and before her first words had even registered with Lena, Ylva had begun to grin and she said, "Sure... I mean you are a bitch, but I shouldn't have pointed it out in front of everyone."

"Takes one to know one," Lena spat back with a grin of her own.

"So... are we gonna keep our teams from killing each other," Ylva asked.

"As well as we can," Lena replied with an honest smile.

"I'm still gonna smoke your ass, bitch!"

"Bring it, whore!" Lena yelled as she skated back onto the track upon the penalty's expiration.

Both ladies flew back onto the track with their sisterhood intact, although neither one of them were quite ready to end their brawling just yet. The important thing was that they had, more or less, agreed to keep the blood-letting to a minimum; and that is how it went for the remainder of the half. There weren't any more actual fights, but both teams continued to be as interested in bruising their opponents as they were scoring upon them.

The buzzer sounded as the half came to a welcome end. The In-Heat was up by thirty two points and Lena felt a little odd as she skated away with the Misfits, rather than the team she'd been a part of for the first half. She'd been beating on her Kalispell friends since the match had begun and now she was heading to the locker room to change into their colors. The worried feeling evaporated quickly however as Ylva skated by laughing, "C'mon bitch, let's get you out of that slutty lingerie and into a real uniform."

Lena didn't bother responding; she just grinned and followed her sister into the tiny room that this venue had claimed was suitable for a dressing area. All of her Montana friends were crammed into the tiny space; they were battered and bruised, but they were glad to see her. None of them bore her any ill-will, they accepted the fact that she'd fight just as hard for them as she had for the werewolf bitches.

They all knew that she had stalked and captured her man and was now preparing to follow him to a much better gig; the Montana girls understood this and were happy for her. They understood the unveiling of the werewolves more than most of the human society had. Having spent their lives on the edge of virgin forest land, the Misfits knew the myths of the People, and had always respected them. Werewolves were sort of like family; Montana girls reserved their anger for governments that taxed their beer or their land.

Sioux let out a war cry as she stormed forward and grasped Lena into a tight embrace. "I'm gonna miss you so much. I can't believe this is the last time we're gonna skate together."

Mother Mary interrupted, "Never say never, Sioux; Lucky's contract is only for a year and maybe we can lure them back to Kalispell after that."

"How'd you know about our contract?" Lena replied, shock in her voice.

"A bee buzzed it into my ear. But never mind about that right now, we've got a match to win. Get yer ho ass out of that green crap and put your real uniform back on."

As always, Lena obeyed her coach, but it didn't stop her from wondering how Mary had known about Lochlainn's contract. She waited until Mary's exhortations ended; as the skaters were leaving the dressing room, she asked Mary again, "What did you mean when you said that a bee told you?"

Then the answer hit her... Honey Bea! She'd forgotten about her. Who was this woman, and why is Mary the only one who manages to speak to her?

Mary read the dawning look of understanding on Lena's face and said, "The bitch says that she's going to have a blast watching how this plays out, and she hopes that she doesn't need you for awhile yet."

Lena gasped, "But why is she talking to you? You are human, umm... aren't you?"

"Evidently the answer to that is, 'sort of'. I am being told that I am a medicine woman."

Lena choked, "Ja-mul isn't going to like that."

"Yeah, she warned me about him. She said that coyotes have always had it too easy, but we'll talk about him later. For now, all that you need to remember is that you need to keep Lochlainn's options open after his contract expires. I may have an even better offer for the two of you by then."

Lena nodded her assent. She didn't have the time to do much more; they were already late getting back to the track. The crowd had been lustily booing the Misfits as they skated back through the tunnel. No beer had been thrown- for wolves resist wasting anything precious, but empty cans had rained down in abundance.

Ylva leered at Lena's clean blue uniform and said, "Welcome back to the dark side. You gonna help us skin these wolves?"

"Damn right!"

"That's my girl," Ylva said as she skated away giggling in some sort of manic glee.

The second half was much different than the first. In-Heat had been dominant in the first half, but one thing was obvious to every skater on the rink; Ursula Major made this a different game. The match was no less violent; indeed, bloodshed was up, but the Misfits were steadily chipping away at the In-Heat's lead.

With little time remaining and the Misfits down by only a couple of points, an all out brawl finally took place. By the time the referees were done handing out penalties; four skaters had been tossed, including Sioux, the Misfits starting Pivot.

Mary hadn't panicked, she'd just put herself back into the game after having sat out the entire second half. She entered the lineup at Blocker and moved Lena into Sioux's position. Lena hadn't played Pivot much, despite the ability of a Pivot to be an offensive or defensive skater, they spent 95% of their time skating on defense, so it really wasn't a reach and Mary wanted all of her best skaters on the track for this last jam.

The referee blew his whistle and Ylva skated away with a fierce look on her face. She had demanded the helmet for the last jam and she was determined to show the world that she deserved it. The blockers were on the track and ready to thwart the jammers from lapping them.

Faces filled with determination, the Misfit blockers began to spar with the blockers from the In-Heat as the bitches were no less ready to fight for their win. Maria, or maybe it was Margarita (no one could ever tell), had been selected as the In-Heat's jammer. The sisters were the fastest (and nastiest) skaters on the team and were selected for the most crucial jams.

Maria and Ylva nastily stared into one another's eyes as they sprinted away, each of them wearing the star-bearing helmet of a jammer. Maria was the first to attack, throwing a vicious elbow at Ylva as they rounded the first turn. Ylva had years of experience with short track skating however and a well placed kidney-punch was nothing she hadn't dealt with before. She artfully slid under the punch while giving the wolf bitch just enough of a shove to send her out of bounds.

With her opponent defeated for the moment, Ylva smiled dangerously and sped around the next two turns as Maria was forced to re-establish herself inbounds before giving chase, vainly attempting to catch up with Ylva. Ylva had won her battle, now it would come down to the blockers.

As Ylva approached the main pack, she redoubled her resolve; this was Lena's last match with the Misfits and she was going to send her sister home as a winner. She was not going to accept a loss!

The wolves were waiting for her however; they had locked into a tight trio on the inside line and they'd left their pivot in the middle of the track, in perfect position to take a clean shot at Ylva if she tried to skate outside. The Misfit blockers were doing their best to punch a whole in the In-Heat lines, but they were making little headway. Try as they might, the Kalispell girls were having no success on the inside.

Forced to go outside, Ylva watched as the Pivot peeled away from Lena and drew a bead on her. It was clear that she was going to lay a vicious hit on Ylva. Nothing was going to stop the hit, certainly not in this match where the rules were more or less guidelines. Lena was trying to redirect the pivot away from Ylva, but she'd been beaten on the play and would be arriving just an instant too late.

Ylva saw the pivot's line and understood that she was going to be hit, but that's when the idea struck her. Lena was playing Pivot for a change, and with the wolves locked up inside, she would have a clear route around the pack of blockers.

An instant before the pivot made contact, Ylva rejected the idea of attempting to dodge the oncoming freight train and instead, she embraced the hit. She drove her much smaller shoulder into the larger girl's solar plexus, and as she delivered the blow, Ylva simultaneously tore the helmet from her head and handed it to the startled Lena.

Lena had never been a scoring player. She'd played a lot of different sports, but no matter what sport that she had played, each coach had taken one look at her and pointed to the defensive side. She'd played defense and only defense for her entire life.

Beyond stunned, she foolishly looked at the helmet in her hands. She knew the rules for 'passing the star', but never in her wildest dreams had she ever expected to be asked to receive it. The crowd was screaming for blood and Lena was slowly beginning to understand the situation when Lochlainn's voice sounded in her head, "Go!" he screamed.

...and so she did.

When they had sealed off the inside of the track, the wolves had given up the outside lane. Their pivot was gone and their Jammer was hopelessly out of the play, so Lena only had to stumble forward a few strides and she'd beaten them. She skated past the pack and increased her speed enough to prolong the jam until time had expired. She signaled to the referee that she was ending the jam; she'd scored the points that they'd needed and given the Misfits a win.

The crowd continued to scream enthusiastically. Their mates had lost, but this match had only been a 'friendly' and they knew that they'd soon be getting Ursula as a full-time skater. She was clearly the most important player on the track, and now Ylva wasn't the only one who recognized this fact.

She watched as the victorious Misfits team mobbed her sister in their celebration. Pleased, Ylva smiled at the attention that Lena was getting. Ylva had always gotten to be the hero and she knew that on the track, as well as in love; the big girls deserved to score once in a while.

Mary somehow appeared behind Ylva's ear and whispered, "You could have dodged that pivot easily; there was no way that she was going to beat you!"

Ylva didn't reply as she skated forward to hug her sister. She was proud of her... even if she was a bitch.