Chasing Stars

Looking for a silver lining

Originally, Jude had planned to spend his evening locked in his room, pouring over footage from the attacks. He'd asked his father to find him recordings from the match between Gemini Storm and Kirkwood, and the one they'd played against the Veterans - it hadn't been easy to get, and most of it was low-quality, but he'd make due. They would fight against Gemini Storm again, and it was Jude's job to figure out how they could win.

That said, he still dropped everything when he received a call from Mark at seven in the evening, where he told Jude to, quote, 'Head to the Riverside immediately, I have a surprise!' just to hang up on him before he could react.

He shook his head just remembering that little interaction.

When he arrived at his destination, the entire team was already present, spread out across the sides of the pitch. Nathan, Jack, even Bobby and Erik had made it back from their excursion to Kirkwood. The latter two looked a little worse for wear, with sacked shoulders and dark rings under their eyes. If what little Jude had glimpsed from the Kirkwood footage was indicative of what they'd found there, he wasn't surprised it had had that effect on them.

"Yo," Bobby called, leisurely raising a hand in greeting once he noticed Jude approaching. "You wouldn't know what Mark called us here for, would you?"

Jude shook his head. He'd been puzzling over it the entire time, but, knowing Mark, it was probably something completely unpredictable. Heck, he hadn't thought the entire Soccer Club would show up - he figured it might have been something Mark would have wanted to discuss with him, and maybe with Axel.

Speaking of, Axel and Mark were the only ones not present, aside from their three managers. The latter of which was especially weird; What could concern the entire team, but not the girls?

"I'm sure we'll find out soon," he said, pointing out a small smudge of blue-and-yellow on the horizon. Even with that distance, the Raimon tracksuit was difficult to miss - they didn't have to wait long for Mark to join their little gathering.

What Jude thought was more interesting, however, was the person Mark had dragged along; Mainly, that they wore the quite distinguishable Raimon uniform. Aside from that, he couldn't make out much - they seemed rather uncomfortable with the attention, dragging their feet and constantly adjusting their hat.

"So. I did promise you a surprise, didn't I?" Mark announced, a wide grin on his face. He gestured towards his companion, making them squirm a little at being presented that way. "This here is Jeanne! She offered to join the team and help fight against Alius Academy with us - Great, isn't it?"

Jude huffed. Yeah, he certainly hadn't seen this one coming.

Kevin walked up to the girl, scrutinizing her - while she wasn't exactly tiny, Kevin still had a good head on her, and she refused to meet his eyes. "I'm not sure about this," Kevin grumbled. "Do you really think she can keep up with the Aliens?"

Jeanne huffed. "Last time I checked, you couldn't keep up with them either," she shot back. In response, Kevin almost lost his temper, but was held back by Nathan, who'd been monitoring the exchange carefully. Probably for the best. With a little more confidence, the girl grinned. "That said, I don't think I play any worse than you guys."

"Heh," Todd chuckled. He nudged Jack in the ribs, and in a conspiratory fake-whisper, he said, "She can't be worse than Willy."

Of course, everybody had heard that little jab, including the boy in question. He flushed red and yelled, "I resent that!" at the group, causing everyone to laugh at his expense. Even Jude let out a small chuckle - but nothing more than that. He had an image to maintain.