Ultraball #1

by Jeff Chen

  “No,” Boom said. “I’m not doing that.”

  “I’m the coach and general manager of this team, and I say that’s what we’re doing,” Strike said. “It’ll be good for us to get to know each other better.”

  She shook her head. “This is exactly why Dark Siders stay far away from the United Moon Colonies. You have zero respect for people’s privacy. I’m not answering any of your stupid questions.”

  Strike almost backed down, but the word “stupid” made him bristle. “You don’t want to answer any stupid questions? Then you better keep the lead.”

  Boom glared at him. “Fine. I just won, so I get to ask a question.” She turned to Rock. “Why do you write so much stuff in that notebook? I mean, who catalogs jokes?”

  Rock’s face turned a shade of red even brighter than the jumpsuits of North Pole Colony. He looked at Strike, his eyes pleading.

  “Hold on,” Strike said. He kicked himself inside for thinking that any idea of his could be genius. “That first one didn’t count.”

  “Sure it did,” Pickaxe said. “Dang, I always wanted to know about this. I mean, do you really write down details about all of your farts?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” Rock said. “I only keep track of my poops.”

  Strike stepped in front of his rocketback 2. “Look, it didn’t count, and that’s final. Rock gets a pass on that one. He doesn’t have to answer.”

  “I thought you said any question must be answered,” Boom said. “Or does that only apply to frakkin’ Dark Siders?”

  Strike stammered, but Rock stopped him. “I’ll answer,” he said. “Working together as a team means knowing and understanding each other.” He pulled the little notebook out of his back pocket. He hefted it in his hand, his lips pressed tightly together.

  A long moment passed, long enough that everyone looked at each other in an uncomfortable silence.

  “This is the only thing I have left of my father,” Rock finally said. “He gave it to me when I turned five, so I would stop scribbling in his notebook.” He bit his lower lip, his jaw trembling. He stopped and started, finally forcing out his words. “That was three days before he died. In the Fireball Blast.”

  Everyone fell quiet. Strike hated himself. Memories of those soul-crushing days after the Fireball Blast clawed their way into his head. Dark, evil daggers pressed into his brain. It had to be just as bad or even worse for Rock. Strike squeezed his eyes tight, forcing himself to push and stomp and punch every one of those memories back down into his dungeon of nightmares.

  Boom took a cautious step toward Rock. A lump slowly choked down her throat. “Oh jeez,” she said. “I didn’t mean to—”

  “It’s okay. I should have told you all about this a long time ago.” Rock turned pages until he reached the very first one, with a note signed by his father. He displayed it with fierce pride. “My father was a great engineer. The best on the moon. He obsessively recorded anything and everything. He used the data to make Taiko Colony a better place. His analysis of satellite information allowed him to locate the Hokkaizen ice field just underneath Taiko Colony. Without it, Taiko would be in a serious water crisis by now. And the colony would never have been able to solve its post-Earthfall carbon dioxide level fluctuation without my father’s observations. I must carry on his work. I must record everything I can. Without data, there are no answers.”

  The arena went quiet as everyone looked at each other. At the ground. Anywhere but at Rock.

  Finally, Boom approached and awkwardly patted him on the shoulder. “I didn’t mean to put you on the spot.” She took a deep breath. “My name is Malala Al-Bashir. My mom was a tunneler from Cryptomare Colony. My dad was an electrical engineer from Saladin Colony. They both left for the Dark Side in the mass exodus after Earthfall. They were taken in with open arms, lots of Dark Siders helping them make a new home for themselves in one of the caverns that make up the Federation of Free Territories. They had me, and then . . .” She turned away from everyone, her fists shaking. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

  Strike glanced guiltily at the others, wishing he had never opened his mouth. He was such an idiot. “Hey, Boom—”

  “This is exactly why I value privacy,” she said. “No more of this frakkin’ touchy-feely crap. We got work to do.” She raced off, toward the heart of Taiko Colony.

  The Miners followed Boom down Main Street, winding their way toward Taiko Square. She bounded along, the others barely keeping up as she executed crazier and crazier stunts. Most people were already at work, but the sick and the elderly and the people caring for their kids came out to watch the spectacle. Boom slid all the way under a green delivery rover from New Beijing Colony at a full run, and Strike had to tell her all about his most embarrassing moment, when he peed in his jumpsuit during his first day at the Tao Children’s Home. She leapt for a high window ledge before doing twenty straight pull-ups, and Strike had to tell her about his secret crush on Hammer Fist, the Beatdown’s rocketback 2.

  Even though Boom was putting up a highlight reel of athletic prowess, Strike was sure he was going to beat her. But every time he got close, that was her cue to up her game.

  Then they ran down the same alley that Strike and Rock had chased Boom into the first day they had met. From the back of the dead-end alley, Boom spun around and took off at full speed. After zigzagging between the two close-set walls, kicking off higher and higher, Boom leapt to slap the bottom of a windowsill before dropping back down.

  Strike sprinted and jumped to follow her, kicking off one wall and then the other. His final burst propelled him high enough that he caught the windowsill with one hand. With a desperate grunt, he held on tight, his shoulder burning. One finger popped off, but he bore down and somehow managed to work his other hand up. Gripping on strong, he did ten pull-ups before turning to grin at Boom.

  She studied him as he landed, a poof of dust kicking up under his feet. “Okay, not bad. You going to pump me for information now? Demand that I spill everything about me and the Dark Side? What is it with you United Moon Colony people, so frakkin’ interested in everyone else’s business?”

  Strike’s not-so-secret plan to get Boom to tell all her secrets now seemed even dumber. Teammates weren’t supposed to grill each other—they were supposed to trust each other. Why was he listening to TNT, anyway? “I’m giving my question to Rock,” he said. “It’s only fair, because you got to ask him one—”

  “Do you have a boyfriend on the Dark Side?” Rock said.

  “What?” Boom said. “Eww, no. You could have asked me anything in the world, and that’s what you want to know?” She shook her head at all the snickers coming from the others, but a tiny smile creased her face. “Just lead on, Strike, will you?”

  As he searched for new feats to try, Strike ran the Miners in a circuit through the gray-brick buildings in the heart of Taiko Colony, past Taiko Elementary, the Tao Children’s Home, Shinjuku Park, and dozens of apartment towers. His chest heaving, Strike ran past the machinery complex containing the oxygen recycler and the waste control systems, the entire facility surrounded by a high chain-link fence. He was keeping ahead of Boom, but her footsteps pounded right behind him.

  Workers on a break were standing on top of the oxygen recycler, eating hardtack bars in front of a big radio as they listened to Berzerkatron and the Mad Mongol. One caught sight of the Miners and waved to them in a frenzy of excitement. A crowd gathered by the fence, the workers abuzz as they pointed at the hometown heroes. They excitedly held out the decals on their jumpsuits, many of them sporting both Strike’s number 8 and Boom’s number 3, and a few having all five Miners decals.

  Suddenly, Nugget tore away from the pack. Racing toward the fence surrounding the oxygen recycler, he yelled to a guy standing on top of the giant apparatus. “Miners are going all the way this year. High five!” He bounded up a large rock and launched himself upward, crashing into the fence. Clinging to the chain links as they rattled back and f
orth, he crawled up toward the workers atop the oxygen recycler before slapping his hand through the metal wire. “Come on, Miners, get up here!”

  The other Miners turned to look at Strike. He couldn’t help but grin at the little boy’s enthusiasm. He raced toward the fence and vaulted off the rock, slamming into the fence and scrambling up next to Nugget to high-five the adults covered in sweat and grime. Pickaxe followed behind, and then Rock, the four of them clinging to the fence and yelling at the tops of their lungs, whipping the workers into a frenzy. The cheers heightened from the growing crowd, a chant of “Mi-ners, Mi-ners, Mi-ners!” starting, people slamming their hands against the chain-link fence in a metallic drumbeat.

  “I don’t care what Berzerkatron or the Mad Mongol say,” one of the workers yelled. “Miners are going to win the Ultrabowl!”

  Strike was breathing hard, and his legs, arms, and back were burning. He hadn’t been this exhausted in a long time. But as he looked at his teammates, hanging on to the chain-link fence and roaring with pride, he realized that their futures were not his burden alone. They were all in this together.

  Except that there were only four Miners hanging from the fence. Boom stood back by one of the boulders, hands on her knees, catching her breath.

  “Come on,” Strike said, waving her up. “Miners together.”

  Boom nodded, looking up briefly before dropping her head. She planted her back foot and raced into a sprint, flying up the boulder and leaping high. She smacked into the fence next to Rock, sending it shaking.

  Strike kept his eyes forward, holding out a hand for fans to high-five. He stole a glance at Boom. By telling them something incredibly painful about her past, she had given Strike even more reason to trust her. But something bothered him. Boom was in way better shape than the rest of them. She didn’t need to catch her breath.

  Why had she paused for so long?

  10

  Game 2 Vs. The Cryptomare Molemen

  SUNDAY MORNING, THE Miners headed down the Tunnel Ring to Cryptomare Stadium on an Ultraball league tram. Cryptomare Colony was the next stop after North Pole Colony, but the two couldn’t have been more different. North Pole Colony was the cushiest and most extravagant place on the moon, while Cryptomare Colony was the center of the moon’s tunnel-digging industry, filled with no-nonsense engineers and urban planners. It hadn’t fallen on hard times as badly as Taiko Colony, but it was close.

  As terrible a team as the Cryptomare Molemen were, the fans were still diehards. The tram station and the airlock entrance to Cryptomare Arena were jam-packed with rabid fans in gray jumpsuits, most of them displaying Grinder’s number 6 decal or Dirtbag’s number 2. Hardly anyone had phones, but a lot of people carried cheap radios, all tuned to the SmashMouth Radio Blitz. Genghis Brawn, a former league MVP and Ultrabowl champion with the Tranquility Beatdown, was doing color commentary, belting out his pregame analysis in his trademark raspy growl.

  After unloading all their gear and suiting up, the Miners waited on one side of the playing field for the announcer to finish his pregame routine. Strike looked around the deep cavern, scanning for any new features and details the Molemen had added since last season. The people of Cryptomare Colony sure knew how to dig and tunnel. The arena walls were so smooth, fused to a glossy shine. Every detail was done with so much care. A gigantic Molemen logo—a tunneling machine with ten sets of gnarly drill teeth spinning in front—was etched into the stadium’s ceiling. The tunneling device looked not only alive, but like it was hunting for prey. And the maze of tunnels built under the turf was staggering. Most of it was covered with clear impactanium so fans could see the action, but it was the visiting team’s guess as to where any new secret passageways might be.

  After the coin flip, the Miners lined up to kick off, the five Molemen in their gray Ultrabot suits lined up to receive. The crowd was roaring and chanting, but Strike could hear his teammates over helmet comm. “Miners ready?” he said.

  “We smash their teeth in,” Boom replied. “No mercy.”

  And she showed the Molemen none. As Strike kicked off to start the game, Boom raced like a runaway tram, beating everyone else down the field in a blur of blue. She juked out a blocker and smashed Grinder a split second after he caught the ball, launching him backward off his feet. It was all he could do to hold on to the ball as they tumbled toward his end zone, Boom launching a furious assault of punches at his chest plate. They rolled to a stop near the goal line, Grinder frantically clawing with one hand to stay out of his own end zone. Miners rushed in from one side and Molemen from the other, in a gigantic shoving match. It was all the Molemen could do to smother their own quarterback to the turf to prevent a Miners touchdown.

  Refs ran in, clearing the pile to spot the ball. The stands went silent, the home team pinned to their own two-meter line, lucky to not be down 7–0 already. Even the field announcer paused before saying, “What. A. Hit. That Boom is a killer. I know Grinder is in an Ultrabot suit and all, but I would not want to be him. First down and a long, long, long ways to go.”

  The Miners gathered together by the ten-meter line. “Awesome hit,” Strike said.

  “Just getting started,” Boom replied.

  Near the back of the end zone, the Molemen crouched down together, Grinder jabbing wildly in Boom’s direction. They broke the huddle, the five Molemen approaching the line of scrimmage.

  Grinder paused as he neared the ball. Boom had dropped into a three-point stance right in front of him, with Nugget shoulder to shoulder. Boom’s right glove was twitching, as if she couldn’t wait to launch a barrage of punches into Grinder’s face. She flipped her helmet visor to clear. Her nostrils flared, her eyes like that of a wild animal. She cracked a boot into the turf, making Grinder jump.

  Swiveling around and motioning to his teammates in a panic, Grinder dropped into a shotgun formation, all the way at the back of his own end zone. He motioned to his crackback 1, Drill Bit, to set up as his center, right over the ball. His gaze still locked on Boom, Grinder took a step back. Then another. Then another. He stomped a tentative foot.

  At the same moment Drill Bit long-snapped the ball between his legs, Boom leapt up and kicked off Nugget’s shoulder, hurdling over Drill Bit. She shot in at Grinder a second after he pulled the ball in and tried to scramble. He juked hard and gave her a spin move, but she read it perfectly. Accelerating, she speared him in the chest. As she drove into him, she lifted him off his feet and whirled him around into a dizzying tornado. She let go, rocketing Grinder backward. He slammed into the protective impactanium back wall of the arena before dropping to the turf.

  The ball bobbling in his grasp, Grinder scrambled toward a hole in terror and dove into the underground maze, running scared. Boom leapt in after him, racing in hot pursuit. Even though it was Grinder’s home field, Boom somehow managed to gain on him with each turn. But as they raced through a long straightaway, Grinder took a hard right under a slab of opaque turf and then suddenly disappeared. “Where’d he go?” Boom yelled over helmet comm.

  Torch’s voice came on as he screamed through his headset on the sideline. “Boom, go left and cover the exit by the fifteen-meter line! Strike, take the one by the twenty-five-meter line, center of the field. Everyone else, choose a Moleman and stick with them wherever they go.”

  Mobilized, the Miners raced into position. Shortly afterward, Grinder sprang out of the exit at the center of the twenty-five-meter line, but Strike locked onto his legs and whipsawed him into the ground. He picked Grinder up and whirled him around just as Boom had done, spinning faster and faster. As other Molemen rushed in to help, Strike let go of Grinder, firing him all the way back through his own end zone for a second time. With a thunderous crunch, he smashed helmet-first into the back protective barrier.

  The Ultraball popped loose.

  Players from both teams scrambled in pursuit as the ball pinged around, knocking off chest plates and gloves. It tumbled into a gaping entrance to the underground maze, and Boom
dove for it, plummeting in. Drill Bit and Junker dropped down to chase her, but Boom had already recovered the fumble and was off and running, zigging and zagging through the tunnels. Junker gained ground on her, leaping for one of her ankles, but she high-stepped out of his grasp. Spotting a hole leading back to the surface near the five-meter line, she burst out and leapt for the end zone. Stretching out at maximum extension, she slammed the ball to the turf for a touchdown.

  Grinder, still splayed out by the clear impactanium barrier Strike had thrown him into, flipped his visor to clear. His face in a red rage, he screamed bloody murder at his teammates. “You frak-face morons!” he shouted. “You have to protect me!” He got up and stormed off the field, calling for their one and only time-out of the game.

  Strike wondered if Grinder was mad enough to click right out of his Ultrabot suit. Strike understood the frustration that came with broken plays, but Grinder seemed to have snapped.

  The bloodbath continued through the first half and accelerated into the second, the Miners pounding the Molemen into submission. Strike ran for five TDs. Boom scored seven of her own, three of them on defense. Even Rock got in on the action with a twisty TD run, racing through the underground maze as Torch helped him navigate the secret passageways. The Torch came up huge all game, helping Strike direct the action. There was something about having an Ultraball legend in his coach’s box that made Strike think the Miners might be destined to go all the way.

  When the final whistle blew, Strike looked up into the stands, feeling bad for the fans in gray jumpsuits trudging to the airlock exits, having shelled out their meager savings just to see their beloved home team crushed into dust yet again.

  After a short autograph-signing session, the five Miners plus Torch rode a league tram through the Tunnel Ring back to Taiko Colony, their Ultrabot suits lined up along one wall. Pickaxe and Nugget wrestled and roughhoused on the floor, with Rock serving as a makeshift referee. Nugget’s nose was jammed into Pickaxe’s armpit. “What did you say?” Pickaxe asked. “You’re mumbling. Speak up.”