Act - 1 - Revolution

Paladeian Suitball Power!

Paladeia

P.I.S.L. Championship Game

Super Bowl Arena

52 Minutes Remaining in the First Half

Pacifica Galaxy 0 – Golden City Firebirds 0

Tracking a loose ball that bounces along the unpainted concrete playing surface, two opposing attackers utilize the speed of their lightly armored suits.  Streaking through the massive, million-and-a-half-seat, crater-filling arena, they hand-check and jostle for position.  The Pacifica Galaxy's left attacker and the Golden City Firebird's right attacker engage in an extremely physical foot race.  It elicits a raucous roar from the crowd and brings fans to their feet.  Gabril Arcange can only hope his Galaxy teammate is able to come away with the orange titanium ball.  His up-armored suit has a much slower pace.  It leaves him helplessly trailing the speedy combatants by twenty yards or so. 

The Golden City Firebirds are clad in brown with golden feather-pin-striped paint.  The organization has earned its spot in tonight’s championship game with a high-octane, fast-paced, aggressive game plan.  Painted white and navy blue, the Pacifica Galaxy are spearheaded by a staunch, stingy defense.  So far, they have succeeded in containing Golden City’s offense.

Montu “Mayhem” Molakhu mirrors his opponent’s angular adjustments up the sideline.  The seventeen-year Pacifica Galaxy veteran easily out-muscles his much less experienced adversary.  Annoyed at having his advancement skillfully slowed, Golden City’s third year right attacker, Etward, plants his rubber-soled boot into the concrete.  Dipping his shoulders, the young Firebird attempts to throw off his high-tackling assailant.  Having seen this move at least a thousand times before, Montu instead dives for his foe’s foot.  He immediately sinks into a deep ankle lock.  Desperately spin-stepping to escape Mayhem’s grasp, Etward is spectacularly unsuccessful.  Falling to the floor, the right attacker slams his head into his opponent’s four-foot-tall, reinforced cement sideline.  Dazed and in no condition to overpower the grizzled Galaxy veteran, Etward easily loses their wrestling match.

Fans in the section above the battle encouragingly cheer, "Oooooh!" 

Pinning Etward, Montu jams a fist into his helpless opponent’s unprotected armpit and yanks at several components.  A geyser of dark hydraulic fluid erupts from the Firebird’s primary upper-body coupling.  It sprays Mayhem’s pure-white uniform top with thick, viscous liquid.  Molakhu victoriously dismounts his downed opponent.  In a borderline excessive celebration, he hurls his fists high above his head.  The disablement of the Firebird is, as always, captured by a sideline camera.  Immediately displayed on the jumbotron above the playing field, it receives thunderous applause.

Gabril sprints past his celebrating teammate and extends four fingers above his helmet.  He yells as loud as he can, "FOUR, FOUR, FOUR, FOUR!" 

Mimicking Arcange, Mayhem Molakhu relays his captain’s command up the field: "FOUR, FOUR, FOUR!"

Gathering his team’s possession from the corner behind his goal, Gabril Arcange swiftly turns to throw a pass over his goalie.  It lands in the arriving arms of his evenly armored teammate.  After securing Gabril’s pass, Lugus Gwayador, the finesse forward for the Galaxy, turns even more quickly than his captain had to launch a pass down his team’s sideline.  Golden City's entire defense shifts right.  Violently swiveling their hips, they compensate for their teammate's disablement and prepare for a massive heave.

The throw never comes; it’s a fake.  Turning back to Gabril, Gwayador spins a clever bounce pass around their goal.  The captain, emerging to make eye contact with the one-foot-diameter, helium-filled ball, staggers his gate for a kick.  Arcange catches his helpless opponents in mid-shift by booting a lofty pass upfield.

Combining a disablement with a hard downfield fake, the Galaxy had antagonized the entire Firebird defense. Synchronizing her blitz with her opponent's opposite-field shift, Pacifica’s extremely fast right attacker tracks Gabril’s kick.  Sprinting uncontested into Golden City’s territory, Smoke moves under her captain’s pass.

Over the diving left defenseman’s extended pole-net, Arcange’s pass falls gracefully into his teammate’s hands.  Another wave of ear-splitting cheers breaks out from the stands above.   Bobbling her reception but keeping control, Smoke turns to see Golden City’s last line of defense barreling aggressively down upon her.

While all suits in suitball are approximately the same size, a goalie’s suit is an entirely different matter.  Built on a dissimilar chassis from its teammates, a goalie’s suit is ten feet tall and headless, with large fingerless stubs for hands. 

The two rivals rapidly closed to within twenty yards of one another.  Golden City’s brown goalie suit is desperate to prevent any further Galaxy ball advancement.  It breaks stride and squats its center of gravity to spread its limbs as wide as possible.  Smoke's exaggerated head shimmy, followed by her violent juke move, sends the still-decelerating goalie sprawling.  It clumsily swings its massive forearms at Smoke’s feet, who high-steps in hopes of avoiding them.  Finishing her glorious run on the ten-foot-tall, thirty-foot-wide, netless, square-beamed goal, Smoke’s high step turns celebratory as she scores.

As Gabril sees the scoreboard shift from 0-0 to 12-0, hundreds of thousands of jubilant supporters shake the concrete beneath his feet.