Chapter 36

“Nicky!” Keith was waiting for Nick as he approached the large building that was set to hold scatterball tryouts. Alana had transported Nick to an empty portion of the gymnasium, giving him a few minutes to prepare himself as he walked towards the Scatterball tryouts. They were apparently being held in one of the large, domed buildings that made up part of the gymnasium.

“Man, you look rough, what happened during your training?” Nick realized as Keith spoke that his body was covered with soot and his clothes had tears. Alana really had done a number on him.

“I’d rather not talk about it.” It was too soon, Nick had just managed to push the training from his mind.

“Fair enough man, you ready to have some fun?” Keith pointed towards the entrance to the building, a huge smile on his face.

“I still don’t know what scatterball is.”

“You’ll love it Nicky.” He walked inside, leaving Nick to follow after.

As he entered the building, he saw a small group of first years standing around Mark and a few third years. They seemed to be preparing to explain what was going on, so Nick hurried towards the group.

“Oh great, golden boy is here.” Trent’s voice came from the middle of the pack, and Nick saw him, and Marcus King, were both there to tryout.

“Well, I couldn’t turn down a personal invite from Mark to try out.” He nudged past Trent, putting himself at the front of the crowd. Mark’s eyes lit up when he saw Nick.

“Alright! Now that everyone is here, I’m going to explain to you all what scatterball is.” He motioned towards the empty field behind him. “To put it simply, it is a team sport where competing teams try and score the most points.”

Mark nodded towards one of the third years, and the girl began messing with a holoscreen near the field. Suddenly, the ground was shifting, and large buildings began to grow, creating a literal labyrinth of steel.

“Scatterball can take place in various environments, but one of the most popular is the urban environment.” He pointed towards the ceiling, where a massive orb had appeared. The orb appeared to have funnels angled from the top, with slots that were opening and closing on the bottom.

“There are two ways to score in scatterball.” The third year pressed another button, and suddenly five balls shot out from the five slots. “The first way, the easiest, is to get the ball into one of the funnels.” To demonstrate, another third year grabbed one of the balls, and tossed it lazily through the sky into one of the funnels. A loud chime rang out, and a holographic number 1 appeared under the word home. The ball then shot back out through the bottom slot.

“The second way, is to time it right, and get the ball in one of the bottom holes.” Keith shot Nick a wink as he walked towards the arena, disappearing momentarily before reappearing with a ball in his hand. He took aim, and launched the ball at the slot. At the last second, the slot opened up, and the ball entered the orb. A temporary flash of light sprang from the orb, and the score under home changed to 6.

“Seems easy enough.” Nick said, smiling at Mark. The fourth year grinned, and shook his head.

“Eh, it gets a little more complex than that.” A second year appeared, pushing a cart. “Like I said, this is a team sport, played against an enemy team.” He pulled a strange gauntlet like object from the cart. It strapped onto his left arm, his fingers sliding through slots. It almost looked like a metallic glove.

“Every player wears one of these.” He flexed his fingers, and blue energy pulsed through the glove. “It limits players to level 10 energy use, to ensure teams are on a fair playing field.” He grinned, and clenched his fist. A glowing shield appeared along his arm, and blue energy extended from his fist.

He reached into the cart again, and pulled out what appeared to be a sword hilt. He smiled, and a solid blue burst of energy flowed from it, creating a blunt weapon. “During the match, players are allowed to attack players from the other team.” He twirled his weapon in hand. “There are various weapon options, depending on a player prefers.” He turned towards Keith, who was equipped with a gauntlet and what appeared to be an energy axe.

He swung at Keith, who raised his gauntlet arm to block, the weapon and shield smashing into each other, and reflecting back. “The trick to scatterball, is to try and incapacitate as many of your opponents as possible, while still scoring points.” The two fourth years turned back towards the group. “To do this, we usually assign three members on the team to focus on scoring, while the other two pair up, and hunt down enemy players.” They both had devilish grins on their faces, and Nick could easily guess what their job was on the team.

“We have five spots we need to fill. With these tryouts, we will create a new team of first years, which will be our C squad. The B squad is usually composed of second and third years, and the A squad is the top five scatterball players here, usually fourth years and third years.” He motioned at the three third years, and himself and Keith. “It is our job, as the A squad, to test all of you, and choose the best.” The third year pushed the cart in front of the first years.

“Now then, grab a gauntlet and weapon. Once you are all ready, we will begin tryouts.”