World Lacrosse Championships 23: Everything Thread

[Ferret Civilization]

Going up against the number one team in the games was something for the Ferrets, it was something along the lines of knowing one was going to lose but still excited that one had gotten this far to play against such a team. Whether it be luck that they didn't have to play them earlier or a system of design, they were able to work their way up against some pretty great teams to get themselves here in the first place. The game itself was like any other, only it was played more like those from when the team started out in the games. Everyone was working together well now, but the other team had the skill and the advantages and they used them to their fullest ability. Vaughn and the other defense members tired themselves out trying their best to prevent the other team from scoring any points, and the attack and midfield members did their best to try and get points for their own team. It was probably more of a joke to the other team by now, but that's how things likely turned out for team's with skill. Though continuing to try hard at least got them somewhere in the games, they lost less badly now, and they did have an amazing implausible winning streak.

Abanhfleft 12–9 Ferret Civilization

After the game was over the team decided it would be best to just rest for now. They had done great during the game as it turned out, managing to at least get nine points of their own. That score against that kind of team was more than expected, at least now they knew how to lose less badly, which would also be seen as an improvement. In the end they were all very happy for themselves and enjoyed the situation they were in very much. They also still had a chance to get third place for the entire game, which also was pretty fantastic for them all and The Colony's sports program. Hopefully that would help them make a name for themselves too, the exposure was all they really needed, and so far they had gotten a lot more than that out of this. They learned a lot, got along well together, was actually able to meet another team up close outside the game, and did something for the greater good. For now though they were all tired and exhaustion was now catching up on them, so they were just going to relax until the final game and maybe go out and see this host nation for the final time too.

[Associated Godlands]

A slightly less late cutoff. Progress!

Really sorry though, I've been very inconsistent and I apologize.

---

 Natanians and Nosts 9–19  Ferret Civilization

Congratulations to Ferret Civilization, the third-place finisher at this tournament!

[Ferret Civilization]

Maxen looked at the team, this was their final game. They had gotten very far, ridiculously so, he was sure The Colony would allow them to continue playing in this game. The team felt ready for once too, they played against a lot of different teams now, they had a somewhat solid game plan they could now follow. They had also spent more the the previous day and night relaxing after the bout of exhaustion. Now all there was to do was play the game. Which during the game the entire team continued to work well together, the defense members were getting a little better at taking the pressure of Vaughn. And the attack members were starting to figure out how to use their size to apply a little more pressure on the other team. Maybe luck was on their side, maybe they could start claiming to have skill, either way it had worked for them. A bunch of nobodies came in to this game to get a chance at third place, they all felt great about that fact alone.

Natanians and Nosts 9–19 Ferret Civilization

After the game one of them knew what to think, for they had just gotten third place. That was a bronze in many games, top three, from the likes of them. Still should be considered impossible, but they had did it, together and with hard work during the games with relaxation and partying after them. Maxen was able to finish his report now, which was pretty thick full of scraps of paper and a mess of information. The Colony would be proud, they certainly were, and they had a lot to talk about once they got back home. They had decided to stay though a little bit longer to watch the final game to see if they could learn anything from the two best teams in this set of games.

[Abanhfleft]

Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Part Five Part Six Part Seven Part Eight Part Nine

No Place For Heroes, Part Ten

Chah Rajawhm National Airport
Chah Rajawhm, Gharbambiyah

"What's going on out there?" Gerry Anthony asked Cassius Kevorkian and Rysa Browne, who were both watching the situation currently going on outside the hangar that their deniable operations unit had been provided by the government of Gharbambiyah. Vorky and Rysa's shouts of alarm had woken up the other members of the unit, and now they were spread in various places throughout the hangar, aiming weapons at the galvanized iron sliding doors.

"They're just holding up outside the doors, Gerry," Vorky replied as he took a closer look at the security monitors in front of him. He had a Beretta pistol in his hand but he then decided to put it down in front of the monitors in favor of a Vector submachine gun.

"Can you make out any details, who they are?"

"They're Group I, that I'm sure of," Vorky said. "I saw the logo on the side of the cars. You showed it to us enough times that I now know it by heart. Looks like Group I knows about us."

"Yeah, and it appears like they don't like us asking questions about them," Rysa added. She had an M4 carbine ready on her shoulder and pointed at the massive doors.

"Switch to night vision," Gerry ordered. "See if we can recognize them."

"I don't know how to work this thing," Vorky replied. "Denny! Get over here and help me out! Gerry's orders!"

"Damn it," Dennis "Denny" Messi muttered before slinging the MP5 that he was carrying onto his back and running back to the security station. As Denny slid into the chair in front of the monitors, Vorky ran and took Denny's place in the defensive formation in the hangar.

"There," Denny said as he typed in commands into his computers. "The cameras are now night vision."

"That's better," Gerry said. "But it's not really done us any good, to be honest. They're still wrapped up in their head scarves. Can't identify anyone of them even from here."

"At least they're just standing around waiting for something to happen," Rysa muttered. "Maybe they're waiting on us to come out and talk?"

"Probably more like come out and let ourselves get massacred," Denny replied. "They look like they're taking it easy, but they're like the grunts I served with in the Army while on guard duty over in Mezaladbyi. We go out there and they'll level those guns of theirs and mow us all down."

"You may be right, Denny," Rysa said. "Looks like they're spreading out around the front doors. Probably getting a clear field of fire on the doors themselves."

"Hang on, that can't be right," Gerry said. "They're just a little bit too randomly placed to be getting a firecone on the doors." Then as Gerry began to compare the position of the Group I operators in relation to his own people, he began to see a pattern. "Shit," he muttered.

"What? What is it, Gerry?" Rysa asked.

"I think they've got infrared," Gerry said. "Look at how they've positioned themselves relative to us. It looks like they can see us through the hangar walls. They know where we are exactly, just as we know where they are. I don't know what they're thinking, but I think we just got ourselves in a Mexican standoff here."

"Heads up, guys, we've got movement from their vehicles," Denny called out. Gerry could sense the atmosphere in the hangar suddenly become tense, and the tension was a very palpable thing in the air. If he could reach out and touch it, he was willing to bet that he could do it.

"Someone's coming out of the big Chevy in the middle," Denny reported. "Looks like their leader or commander. Big shot type with the big belly and head scarf."

Gerry watched with bated breath as the man that he assumed to be the leader of the Group I operators approached the hangar doors. One of the Group I operators handed a megaphone over to the leader guy, who took it without acknowledgement, and then he lifted the megaphone to his lips and said, "Geronimo Amadeus Anthony! Come out, come out wherever you are!"

"Oh, shit, Gerry!" Denny said. "They know about you! They're here for you!"

"Shut up, Denny," Gerry growled. Denny took the hint and continued watching the screen. But despite that, Gerry could feel the eyes of his people turning to look at him from their various hiding places.

"Gerry Anthony, is this any way to welcome a friend to your new home?" the figure continued. "I thought I taught you better than that!"

"Sounds like he knows you really well, Gerry," Rysa said. "Are you sure that you don't know who that guy is?"

"Trust me, Rysa, if I knew who he was, we wouldn't even be in this situation," Gerry replied. "Denny, can you find me a way to talk to these people?" he asked.

"Working on it, boss man," Denny replied. "I can get you on the old hangar intercom, if that works for you."

"It's good enough for me, Denny," Gerry said. "Now how do I go about talking to them?"

"This little doohickey here will help," Denny said, attaching a microphone set to his computer. "Try it now."

Gerry lifted the microphone to his lips and said, "You out there." Apparently the system still worked because the leader guy turned around to look for the source of the voice. "Yeah, you," Gerry said. "You go around my place shouting my name, claiming that I know you. Why don't you pull down that scarf around your face so that we can finally have a talk face to face. It's not a fair fight if you know me but I don't know you, correct?"

The leader guy stood still for a moment, slowly deliberating his next course of action. Finally he lifted his hands up in surrender and said, "All right, hotshot, you got me. Boy, these walls must be pretty thick if you can't recognize even my voice through them. I guess we're gonna have to do this the least exciting way." The man then put his hands on his scarf and pulled it down. "Now do you recognize me?" he asked, staring at the security camera to give Gerry a good look at him.

"Well, I'll be damned," Gerry muttered. "Everybody stand down!" he ordered.

"What? Stand down? What are you on about?" Rysa asked.

"I know him," Gerry replied. "Not just casual 'I know this dude,' it's 'this man is a real friend of mine' level of knowing him."

"Are you sure? What if he's just a hostage trying to get our shields down?"

"I know him. He'd rather die than be captured by anyone or anybody or anything." Then to the people outside, he said, "All right, I'm coming out!"

"Open the doors, but only enough to let me through," Gerry ordered Denny. "If they look so much as thinking about rushing them, don't hesitate and lock 'em quick."

"What about you, boss man?" Denny asked.

"Don't worry about me; I've survived worse."

The hangar doors slid open with a metallic whine. Gerry readied himself as he stood in front of the gap appearing between the two doors, and he raised his arms up in surrender with his MP5 hanging loosely down his side. The doors opened just wide enough for him to go through, and he sent a silent prayer that his mind was indeed not playing tricks on him. The desert night outside was both paradoxically hot and cold at the same time. The place itself was still simmering hot from the refracting heat from the sandy soil, but the sea breeze coming in from the west was cool and dry as could be. This breeze whipped the scarf that had once covered the face of the "leader" of Group I, but the black-and-white rag stayed tied tightly to the top of his head. "Gerry!" he said. "It's been a truly long time. Two, three years, I think it was?"

"Eppie," Gerry said, lowering his hands a little but not truly bringing them back down to his sides. "Is that really you? I mean, are you really here with us?"

"Yes, of course, why wouldn't I be?" Ephraim Somerset, Gerry Anthony's mentor back when they were both in the police force, replied. "And I've brought friends with us too."

"Friends? What are you talking about?"

"Everybody, I think it's time to reveal our secrets," Somerset ordered. The other operators took their hands up to their scarves and began to unwrap them. One by one, familiar faces, familiar at least to Gerry, appeared from the swaths of cloth.

"Jesus H. Christ, I can't believe this," Gerry said as every member of Group I now revealed their faces to him and to the rest of his unit. "The I in Group I must stand for Interceptors, right?"

"I admit that I tried to be a little sneaky with the naming of my new company," Somerset said with a smile. "But at least it threw you guys from our tracks for a little while, right?"

"Wouldn't you know it," Gerry muttered. "But how did you get Group I started up like this? Just a few months ago, it didn't even exist!"

"Remember the Potosi job, Ger?" Somerset asked, referring to an incident in the city of Potosi in Bolivia. When Gerry nodded his head, Somerset continued, "I had to do something with all that silver that we found and kept for ourselves."

"Why not invest them in stocks and that kind of thing, Eppie?"

"Are you kidding me, Gerry? After that Seaman Brothers debacle with that Matthew Koppelberg guy, I've been wary of investing in stocks and bonds and that kind of thing. So, Ger, I heard that you're with the RBI now. Mind telling me what agents of our beloved Republican Bureau of Investigation are doing in a sandy backwater like Gharbambiyah?"

"Well, that's easy," Gerry replied. "You are."

"Me?"

"Group I, technically. But you know what I mean. The Bureau wants to know what an Abanhfleft-based PMC like you is doing here in Gharbambiyah, with the sincere hope that you're not here to help Cabulovowino take out his political enemies. You should know that while the international community doesn't like it that Cabs seized power the way that he did, they would rather prefer him in power than the guy he overthrew, Abdullah Sulaiman or something like that."

"Well, Gerry, you can now rest assured that me and Group I are not here to kill Isaiah Cabulovowino's enemies," Somerset replied. "However, we are here because we believe that there may be elements here that plan to destabilize Cabulovowino's regime even before it's had time to settle down. You said it yourself; everyone would rather have Cabulovowino in power than some other dude who doesn't want to get on the right side of Uncle Sam. We're watching over him just as he's watching over his people."

"Huh," Gerry said. "To tell you the truth, Eppie, when I first came here looking for the answer to my question, what you gave me was certainly not what I was expecting."

"What were you expecting, if you don't mind me asking?"

"You honestly wouldn't want to know."

"Well, seeing as we all now know each other very well, I'd just like to say that if you ever need any assistance, Gerry, Group I is available at your service. Here, I've even got you a secure satellite phone to call us if you need our help. Just one condition, though," Somerset said before handing the phone over to Gerry and looking him in the eye. "Don't ever tell the RBI that we, the Interceptors, are Group I."

"Oh, come on, Ephraim," Gerry said, using Somerset's Christian name for the first time. "When have you ever known me to rat you out?"

"Just make sure I don't find out that it's you, or else I'll be paying you a visit... with a bunch of Ultimate Meat and Cheese Pizzas from Pizza Stack."

"No! I wouldn't want to die of a cholesterol overdose ever!" Gerry said in a lightly sarcastic tone.

"Don't worry about us, Ger," Somerset said. "We're always near wherever you are. Don't you forget that."

"Yes, sir," Gerry said as he couldn't help but salute his mentor.

As the Group I vehicles began to leave the area around the hangar, Gabriel de Galicia went out of the hangar and walked to Gerry. "Who were they?" he asked.

"Just some friends back in my days in Riuwiee PD," Gerry replied.

"So, what are you going to do after this?"

"Simple. We keep looking for Group I."

End of Episode 1

[Associated Godlands]

The final cutoff! Who will be crowned champion? We shall see...

---

Spoilered because there is a champion. Will Abanhfleft win for the second consecutive time, or will Cosumar return to the winning ways?

Abanhfleft 9-5 Cosumar
Congratulations to Abanhfleft, the champions of the 23rd World Lacrosse Championships. A well-deserved win. Commiserations to Cosumar, and thanks to all of the RP'ers in this tournament. Banija, The Serbian Empire, Zovorissia, Ferret Civilization, Ko-oren, Alphateta, and of course Abanhfleft - it was a joy to read your RP's.