Warren Beasts

35: Jupiter Jackalopes @ Trumpet Falls Nephilim

Gee hates being here in Trumpet Falls again.

The memories from this summer were gold and glowing for months and months but lately she finds they've just been sitting there in her mind, souring. Technically, she is still going steady with Nate Jessup, but both of them have known the truth for a while.

Whatever it was that had been between them is slowly dying.

And she hasn't even told him about Sage yet.

It's really all Gee could think about earlier this afternoon, as the Jupiter convoy pulled into Trumpet Falls, barren red mountains rising up on all sides outside the dusty windows.

To be honest, it's all Gee can think about as she gears up in the visitor's locker room, fumbling with cords and straps that would've taken her half the time to put on any other Friday night.

But of course, this isn't any other Friday night, is it?

This is the night she gets to actually play against Nate in a game of tourneytub.

It's odd. Gee has been looking forward to this exact game for so long, only to finally find herself here and realize she's just dreading it now.

God has a pretty twisted sense of humor, she figures.

She just wants to get this over with.

Tell Nate about Sage. Break up with him. Move on from this whole horrible chapter of her life.

Genesis is in a daze as she climbs into Phoenix Beacon and marches along with the rest of the Jackalopes onto Trumpet Falls Court. She really doesn't notice much. Not the bitter cold. Not the condensation rising from the huddled masses of the crowd. Nothing but Nate on the other side of the court.

He's sitting in the cockpit of his own tub Holywatch, whose gargantuan gray pulsesteel frame blocks out half the floodlights beaming down on him. Gee can see the brown logo spray painted on its hull: a charging mammoth. A Nephilim.

Suddenly her throat is dry.

Suddenly all she can think about is Nate. The storm clouds of his disappointment gathering around them both every time she had to leave. His bubbling anger. His gaping moods, always widening like a yawning chasm between them. Him standing between her and Sage, even if he didn't know it.

Suddenly Gee isn't thinking anymore.

Suddenly she feels her own bubbling anger. Her own hurricane of disappointment.

Suddenly she's charging across the court before the umpire has even gotten into her tub.

Suddenly, so is Nate.

He doesn't even need to know about Sage to realize his relationship with Gee is over.

They meet in the mosh ring. Two identical black clouds burst forth from their lips. Like the opposite of kissing. Neither of them are thaumaturges, though, so they have no humor horns to blow into. Instead, the black clouds somehow slither out, escaping through the nooks and crannies of the tubs' cockpit windows. They coalesce ahead of the two jockeys.

Nate's humor is a gigantic black gargoyle-esque creature. All fangs and horns and months of monstrous, monstrous hurt. It howls to the moon glinting above the stadium. It even drowns out the astonished exclamations of the crowd.

This is not supposed to happen. But it's far too late for that.

Gee's humor, which happens to be a giant-sized version of the creature she accidentally manifested on the bus last week, flies in the face of Nate's, snapping its jaws over the gargoyle's throat.

Both humors crash down upon the gravel court below, instantaneously bursting back into the angry black clouds they had been mere seconds ago. Dark wisps float off one by one, leaving nothing but silence behind. The crowd must be in total shock because, at least for the first few moments following the event, nobody dares move even a muscle. Like all the air was instantly sucked out of the stadium.

Phoenix Beacon and Holywatch stand facing each other, stock still and stoic. The two jockeys within the rogue tubs pant heavily. They certainly hadn't planned this. Even though she's more than ten feet away, and there are two cockpit windows and two helmet visors between them, Genesis can clearly see sweat sliding down Nate's face. She absently wonders if he can see the same on her.

Nate's blue eyes burn like wounds.

For her part, all Gee can manage to feel inside are dying embers.

A whistle finally sounds. It seems far off. And then very, very close up.

The umpire, in her black and white checkered tub, lumbers across the length of the court, slipping in between Phoenix Beacon and Holywatch. She stretches her tub's arms out to ensure neither of them move even a step further.

"Cease all tub operations immediately," the umpire's commanding voice crackles over the comm and booms across the court's many speakers, "Holywatch. Phoenix Beacon. You have both been found in flagrant violation of the Tourneytub Code of Manifestation. Humors are to be manifested by thaumaturges only, and within the strict boundaries of their manifestation stations. Due to the nature of your violations, I have no choice but to disqualify both your teams from this game. Therefore, the contest ends in a tie."

As soon as the umpire stops speaking, the whole crowd starts booing.

Genesis can't blame them.

***

Gargoyle Photo courtesy of Pedro Lastra on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/@peterlaster. Edited.

Landscape Photo courtesy of David Lusvardi on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/@lusvardi. Edited.