“I don’t know, brother,” Denny said. “Are you sure you didn’t rearrange some of her chromosomes or something by accident? You’re coming with us to study group and the game later, Sandy. Can you call your folks for permission?”
“Sure… I’ll call after lunch. Mike didn’t rearrange anything on me other than my attitude though, Denny.”
“It’s just a precaution,” Joanie added. “We don’t want you walking out in front of traffic or anything while you might be suffering from Captain Darkness fever.”
“Oh, you two are hilarious,” Mike said, watching Denny and Joanie sharing a laugh and fist bump. Even Sandy had looked down at the table with a smile. “Ever have one of those nightmares where you find yourself in class naked? Want one?”
“I’ll tell Mom,” Joanie replied smugly. “She’ll beat you with a broom.”
* * *
The Arroyo team, suited up, and waiting for word from Coach Larkin, greeted Mike when he walked in ahead of Larkin in uniform with cheers. Mike waved away the enthusiastic hellos as Larkin walked in behind him with a DVD in hand.
“Coach Larkin wants me to brief you guys on a couple things I think we can exploit, and set Concord back on their heels. We waited until the last minute so we could have a sealed locker room. No use taking any chances tipping them off.”
“There’s no downside to what Mike has in mind. Even if his ideas don’t work, we won’t lose anything trying them,” Larkin added, gesturing the team over to their wide screen setup for watching game films. He put in the DVD and fast forwarded it to the place Mike wanted and handed the remote to Mike.
“These will only work once because they’re easily corrected for. If they work it will be like a gut punch to Concord. Watch the Concord center snap for the punt here.”
Mike smiled at the puzzled looks he was getting. “Watch again.”
This time he paused it right after the snap. Instead of the player doing a typical blocking position, Concord’s center dived low right after the snap was away, barreling into the opposing player over center. “He dives into an engagement block every time there is an opposing player in position over center. I’m sure he was coached to do that. It jams the center of the line pretty well. It’s not going to work this afternoon. I’m going over him, and block the punt as far as I can toward their goal line. Our whole team will be going after the ball. If I blow it and he gets the punt away, no big deal. We’ll just take over a little further in our own territory.”
Mike fast forwarded to a place where it was a passing down for the team facing Concord. They swarmed the quarterback practically before he could get the snap. “Concord overplays the blitz on passing downs, because they have a defensive tackle that should have his own area code. We’re going to run the ball down their throats if we can with Brad handing off. If they don’t stop us, then fine. If they shut our running game down on the first series, I will come in on the passing down. Brad will shift to halfback. He’ll block momentarily and slip his guy. With me running for my life to the right, he’ll head for the left side line. We’ll flood the left zone with receivers downfield and I’ll toss him the ball. He’ll throw downfield to an open man.”
“Damn, Mike, that might work,” Brad said, with energetic agreement from the rest of the team.
“We still have to block, tackle, and run,” Mike said. “These guys are rolling over everyone. I noticed a couple things we might surprise them with. Coach has what it takes to win this game.”
Larkin stepped forward. “Big game guys. You all impressed me this week. I could tell you want this one. I saw it in your faces during practice every night. We need to do the same thing on the field we did in practice. It’s nice to have the prima-donna here sweep in with a couple trick plays, but we still have to play the game.”
Appreciative laughter echoed around the room, with Mike nodding and bowing.
“Good, let’s get ‘er done,” Larkin said, clapping his hands.
* * *
“Thanks for getting the seats for us, Frodo,” Stan said.
“No problem,” Denny replied, passing out the tickets to Stan, Jerry, Connie, Jan, and Gail. “I know you guys have a big home game tomorrow, but I needed your input on something. Laura’s really dragging today from school and the usual ‘Moby’ discomfort, so she said to say hi.”
“Mike may have slipped over the edge,” Joanie added, putting an arm around Sandy, and drawing her forward. “Meet his new groupie. Denny and I are hoping it’s just our imagination, but we think she’s on his string, and we think he’s not even aware of it.”
Gail walked over and grabbed Sandy’s chin. “Hey, girlfriend, how you doin’?”
“Please… I’m not under any kind of spell from Mike. Listen, Gail, honest to God, he didn’t do anything to me. I just want to help. None of you have felt what he can do, and he would never do anything like that to you. I can be someone he can touch base with, someone who knows what he’s capable of.”
“Oh boy, she’s juiced to the gills,” Janis remarked. “What is this then, an intervention?”
“I don’t think she’s juiced, Jan,” Gail replied, releasing Sandy. “What do you guys think?”
Stan and Jerry looked over Sandy with hesitant thoroughness. Sandy cooperated no matter how the Demon Inc crew commented. “I’m not under his control. Let’s just go see the game. You’ll see I’m fine. I have to be in my cheerleader uniform on the sidelines in the next half hour.”
“I think she’s okay,” Jerry said.
“Me too,” Connie agreed. “I can see why you two are worried, but sometimes things are what they are. She doesn’t seem anymore juiced than HG was before she got a Captain Darkness upgrade.”
“Oh, thanks, Aunty Em.” Gail tried to look outraged as Connie’s verbal shot drew laughter. “Go get suited up, Gail. I think you’re okay. You were the one that worried me in that group the other night. I’m glad you don’t plan on doing any more Haunt escapades.”
“Never, ever happening again,” Sandy stated with passion. “Maybe I’ll see you all after the game.”
They watched Sandy hurry away to get ready for the game. Joanie was the first to speak.
“You should have heard her at lunch. She called Mike’s power the hand of God.”
“Actually, that’s as good a name as any,” Janis replied. “We need to consider what she said. Mike’s never going to do us like he did her. When he did the mind meld on her, it probably felt like the hand of God.”
“Which reminds me,” Denny said. “Sandy told us Mike communicated with her telepathically, and he didn’t deny it. He’s getting stronger too. She said he froze her in her tracks outside of class today.”
Jerry twirled his finger in the air. “Ah… who cares? I mean it’s good to make sure Mike isn’t leaving behind a string of human mind wipes, but since he’s not, I can’t think of a down side to having the hand of God on our side.”
“Toad brother’s right,” Janis agreed. “If we have to attack another dimension with us as the storm troops, I want a powered up Captain Darkness on our side, and I don’t much care if he has to do a couple of cheerleader lobotomies on the way.”
“Besides, if we need a quick report on the inner CD, we can text the Holy Grail,” Connie pointed out, “or is that a report from inside HG?”
Gail pointed a finger at her laughing friend. “Keep it up, Aunty Em, and I see a falling house in your future. Anyway, I’m with Jerry too. Are you really worried about him, Frodo?”
Denny hesitated, but Joanie nudged him. “Go on, Denny.”
“It’s just that we were wondering… you know… that maybe Mike’s already so cranked, he can alter our perception of things without us even knowing it.”
That suspicion quieted the scene.
“I’d stake my life on that never being the case,” Stan stated.
“Ditto,” Jerry said, with Connie, Janis, and Gail all concurring.
Denny took a deep breath. “Good.”
> “I think I’ll start wearing my tinfoil hat just in case,” Joanie said.
* * *
Arroyo won the toss and elected to receive. The Concord kickoff guy kicked the ball into the end zone, resulting in Brad Sanderson and the Arroyo offense starting from the twenty yard line. Mike watched with his mouth tightened into a grimace as Concord’s huge defensive right tackle stuffed Arroyo’s following two running plays in spite of his friend, Tony Conterro, doing everything but tackling him. Coach Larkin, standing next to him, smacked the back side of his helmet.
“Good luck, kid.”
“Looks like we’ll need it, coach.” Mike sprinted in with the halfback named Ryan Newell slapping hands with him as he passed.
In the huddle Brad Sanderson smacked his shoulder pad reassuringly, but Mike noticed their offensive tackle Tony (Sasquatch) Conterro’s bloody nose. “Hey Tone, what the hell? First blood already?”
Conterro chuckled and spit blood. “Yeah, Mike, me and Godzilla over there are getting romantic. You ain’t jealous, are you?”
Mike and everyone else laughed. “I’ll get over it, Tone. Here we go boys. On one, Luke. Lay that ball into my hands gently. Remember, I’m the fill in.”
Luke Ignacio, Arroyo’s center, coughed while mumbling, “pussy.”
At the line of scrimmage, Mike saw Concord’s huge defensive tackle make kissing motions with pursed lips at him. Mike made a quick forward motion of his right arm as if he were throwing the ball down field and then made a referee’s gesture for a touchdown. The defensive tackle’s face scrunched into a mask of promised mayhem as he pointed at Mike.
Mike took the snap, and immediately sprinted out of the pocket right, leaving Concord wondering if he were running the ball. Just as planned, Sanderson slipped away from his block and headed toward the left sideline. Mike released the ball in a tight spiral back at Sanderson with Concord’s front defensive line inches away. He went down in a heap under Concord’s defensive tackle with the rest of them piling on. Brad Sanderson caught Mike’s sideways pass cleanly. He threw a perfect spiral down field forty yards to wide receiver Alexander Graham Bell, who tucked it in and ran the rest of the way uncontested for a touchdown. Mike had to rely on crowd reaction for how well the play worked.
When the crowd went nuts, and the Concord players draped over him started cursing, Mike knew he had a hit. The big guy directly on top of him drove his knees, elbows, and helmet into him, pretending he was having a hard time maneuvering out of the pile. Mike barely freed his hand in time to grab an ankle as the defensive tackle nearly planted his size thirteen spiked shoe on Mike’s exposed knee as he straightened. Mike dumped him on his butt by carrying the ankle up with him. The Concord player leaped into attack mode off the ground only to come face to face with Tony Conterro. Tony smiled at the raging giant in front of him. Two referees shot in between and Tony turned away to embrace the grinning Mike.
“Man, big dog, that was sweet! I think Godzilla wanted to eat you up like a fruit rollup,” Tony said, as he walked Mike back to the sideline, where the Arroyo bench was coming unglued.
“Yeah, I see what you mean about him, Tone,” Mike replied. “He was tryin’ to rodeo with me on the first date down there in the pile.”
Conterro laughed appreciatively. “I tried to nail him on your play, but I barely got his attention. It’s embarrassing. He’s eatin’ my damn lunch like I was five foot two with eyes of blue.”
“Next series, I’m goin’ to get me a piece. You and I are going to make a hole for Brad right over Godzilla. I want you to go low, and I’m going to pancake that prick.”
Tony fist bumped Mike. “I like it!”
Sanderson and Bell greeted them on the sideline with the rest of the team. It was a good time, but Coach Larkin let the celebration go on for only a moment. “Listen up! We’ve barely started. Settle the hell down and let’s get ready. Lynch!”
“Yeah, coach?” Lynch, the Arroyo kicker, ran from in between his teammates to Larkin’s side.
“Kick that sucker out of the end zone! Let’s start them at their twenty. I’ve seen you do it. I want to see it now.”
Lynch nodded. “You got it! I’ll nail the point after too - guaranteed.”
Lynch did as promised.
Mike stayed near Coach Larkin as Lynch did as ordered, kicking it out of the end zone. The referees marked the line of scrimmage on the twenty with a fired up Arroyo defense facing off with their Concord counterparts. Tony Conterro, going both ways, jammed the first running play over guard from his defensive tackle position for a two yard loss. The Concord defensive tackle also going both ways fell to his knees, outmaneuvered completely by Conterro. Mike pumped his fist and turned to Larkin.
“Coach, give Tony a free hand to move anyway he wants on the line. Godzilla expects him to hit straight on and not flank his ass. He’s slow out of the tripod.”
“Go sub for Gannon at linebacker and tell Tony exactly that. Good call, Mike.”
Mike raced in, tapping Gannon for the substitution. “Come back in next play, Ed.”
“You got it, Mike.” Gannon sprinted off as Mike grabbed Tony’s facemask. “Tone, I’m free lancing you. Buzz that Godzilla dork any direction you want. That was a hell of a play.”
“Thanks, Mike. It was my survival instinct.”
Concord did an end sweep on Godzilla’s side. Conterro guessed the right direction, diving in front of Godzilla, resulting in the pile of players stripping away the halfback’s blocking front. Mike went over the pile, grabbing the halfback’s shoulder pads and dragging him down. Mike immediately rolled free to run over and help Conterro to his feet.
“Beautiful, Tone! Go with your gut, buddy!”
“Gonna’ have some fun now, Mike.”
Gannon came in as Mike left the field. “Watch Tony’s lead, Ed. Once that sack of crap commits, lance right over the open spot for the quarterback.”
“Oh yeah!” Gannon slapped hands with Mike on his way by.
“Tony’s gettin’ into it, Coach,” Mike reported, moving into a position next to Larkin.
“You still want to go with the punt block, Mike?”
“If they jam the pass play this time, we have a chance to really put them in the crapper with a blocked punt,” Mike replied, meeting Larkin’s questioning glance.
Larkin smiled. “I just wanted to hear you say it. Head on in for Gannon if they stop them.”
Mike nodded and watched Concord come to the line. This time, Tony blitzed past Godzilla over center, causing a hole on the right side, as the confused tackle tried to compensate. Gannon streaked left through the hole and nailed the Concord quarterback for a safety, who was making an error by running away to the left past the goal line.
“I guess we don’t have to worry about the punt right now, Coach,” Mike shouted, jumping up and down with the rest of the Arroyo team.”
Larkin grabbed Mike’s arm, corralling him back to full attentive reception. “We got this! Mike, listen to me. When we get the ball on the kick this time, I want you to work the combined block over Conterro’s man on the first play.”
“On it!”
The resulting kick from the safety sailed well placed to the left sideline at the fifty, where the Arroyo receiver managed to scramble out of bounds at the forty of Concord. Mike ran in with the rest of the offense. Sanderson called the play with Brad taking the ball over tackle. Mike assumed the halfback’s position in the backfield.
Luke snapped the ball to Sanderson. Conterro drove low into Godzilla. When the tackle straightened slightly to ward off the block, Mike hit him chest level at full acceleration. The big defensive tackle went down as if hit with a baseball bat. Sanderson followed Mike’s devastating block a split second after. He was into the secondary before Concord could react, shooting toward the right sideline at full speed once he cleared the line. Wide receiver Bell hit the Concord safety from the blind side, making Sanderson’s journey to the end zone from there unimpeded. Lynch kicked the point after a
few moments later to make the score sixteen to nothing in favor of Arroyo. They had to help Concord’s big defensive tackle, nicknamed Godzilla, off the field between two coaches.
After the ensuing kickoff again started Concord on its own twenty, the Arroyo defense swarmed over Concord’s offensive line without Godzilla. When they tried to punt, Mike vaulted the snapping center a split second after he snapped the ball. The punter, stunned by Mike’s onrushing form, fumbled the snap which Mike fell on at the Concord five yard line. Halfback Newell went over Concord’s Godzilla less tackle position behind Conterro into the end zone standing up. The point after by Lynch made it twenty-three to nothing, and the rout was on.
By the end of the fourth quarter Arroyo led thirty-seven to nothing. Concord had been unable to sustain a single drive past their own forty yard line. Mike had cheered the team on without entering the game after the first quarter. They received word at halftime the Concord star defensive tackle would not be returning, because of a possible concussion. Mike now stood next to Coach Larkin as Brad Sanderson ran out the last minute on the clock.
“You have a future as a coach, Mike,” Larkin told him. “If you hang around the area for college, why don’t you give me a hand coaching this bunch next year? We’re only losing seven seniors from the team. The rest would follow you right off a cliff.”
“That’s a great offer, Coach. I’ll think about it if I stay in the area.”
The game ended. Before the team went into celebration mode, Larkin yanked Mike over a few steps. “I don’t know how many years I have left coaching, but we have a real chance to win the state championship if you hang with us for the rest of the season.”
“I’ll do it if you and the team can agree to the prima donna aspect.”
“You got it. I’ll give you the scouting report on Bishop O’Dowd Monday.” Larkin held out his hand. “Thanks, Mike.”
Demon at War (The Mike Rawlins Series Book 3) Page 22