[Illium, Nos Astra] highballing (closed)

an intermezzo

Taleeze was arriving in a Skycab at the small sports ground on top of a large office building. The whole roof was converted to hold a sports field with various installations, score marks, goals, various lines on the greenish surface some known to Taleeze, some not and a few other pieces of equipment, nestled into a corner besides a booth with cabins and a shower. The view over the city was spectacular. The day was bright and up here a light breeze made temperatures bearable. Nobody else was there.

A thin energy field netting was a weaved between four towers so nothing could get lost, a simple mechanical door with a terminal provided entry from the landing pad. Taleeze signed in with her OmniTool and the door open. She had a booking for today and has gotten here first.
She set her bag down on a bench and was switching into her pildavi shoes. She was already wearing her sports cloths.

“You bring your biotics, I'll bring the ball”, she murmured and took out the small round rubbery object. She weighed it in her hand and threw it up in the air a couple of times.
“It’s been a while…”

Since her partner was going to be late obviously she began doing a few swings and dribbling. The biotic fields illuminating the air around the ball and her hands with a blueish haze.

“Sorry I am late! I had to finish a quote for Daia” Vale seemed out of breath when she jumped off the skycar before it had landed, some 15 minutes late. She was still in her office suit but had a sportsbag in her hand.

“I’ll be with you in a minute!”

She didn’t bother with the cabin and opened her bag next to Taleeze’s, who was goofing around, dribbling circles around a marking on the field.

She stripped out of her jacket and pants, folded them neatly and pulled on her sports shorts and a bra. A few stretches and flexing of her fingers and a circulating motion of her head, that resulted in a noticeable cracking sound.

Damn was she tense, the morning in the office had been hectic but she had been looking forward to the little workout all week. Usually Vale was working out in the studio, she mostly had a hard time adjusting to other persons schedules due to her work and also this time, it had stressed her out to get here at least somewhat in time.

“Go easy on me, okay, I haven’t hit a ball in ages!”

Taleeze was reducing her warm-up efforts to only a little back and forth playing as the skycar descended.
“Heyo, Vale, no problem, take your time.”

Vale wasn’t shy, she just dropped her cloths at the sideline. She still wasn’t sure if this had been the Daia effect (some cosmic force that needed close scientific exploration but each scientist that closed in on that cosmic force ended up kind of naked and tied to a bed so it remained a mystery to the day) or if Daia had recruited Vale because of such little things.
Little things… like Vales sporty tiny breasts. Anyway.

Taleeze biotically picked the ball up and looped it over at Vale. The other asari cought it with one hand and a smiled. “Hey, not completely rusty.”

“Well, hand is off limits as of now, I’d say. Maybe you want to try around a bit before we go one on one? What do you prefer for starters, defence or offense?”

Vale dropped the ball and a slightly yellow-blueish biotic field appeared.

“Yes, and show you my weaknesses right away? Guess not, my dear.” Vale was grinning and rolling the ball left to right with the tiniest movements of her hands.

“I’ll go effense if you don’t mind” She had been an offensive player with the Etheai Dirtskirters a long time ago so that’s where she assumed she’d have the best chance to not completely lose her pride to Taleeze.

She dribbled to the far end of the small sqare shaped field that was marked on the ground, with it’s scoremarks on opposing corners.

“Okay, here we go, don’t cry on me later, ma’am.”

Vale was spinning around and started her attack run, leeting the ball fly from left to right in front of her so it moved in S-curves between her biotic handles, picking up speed. She saw Taleeze taking the typical defence stance, trying to cover a wide area just behind the middle line. Vale decided to try and spin pass her using her body to shield the ball.

Taleeze saw the sudden change in Vales expression as the old routines seemed to kick in. That quickspin was fast and Taleeze barely had time to take the stance and bring her biotic handles in place when Vale was already on her.

Spinblock, that was an easy one! Quick but unnecessarily close to Taleeze so the defending player had a chance to bring her body into play and actually reach around the offensive player if the biotic handles had enough reach. And Taleeze had reach.

Bump! They collided with their hips and the short moment of imbalance was enough for Taleeze to sling the ball out of Vales control. It went flying high and came to rest again with a thud.

“Hey, what are you doing, you want purple spots on purpose, Vale?” Taleeze laughed, as the office manager stumbled for a few steps but didn’t fall but trotted to where the ball had fallen in a wide circle.

“Just testing you” Vale countered and to top it off: “Didn’t hurt, you have good padding!”

She saw the astonishment on Taleezes face over that comment and decided to take it right from there. Picking up speed with the ball again, she feinted left-right-left.

Taleeze was trying to cover and was moving to the right again as Vale could use the open space now and passed Taleeze on the left indeed,
Her premature slingshot on the scoremark went wide though… damn, target practice.

“Hey, Tal, what’s wrong, that was lame. Do we have to go through a lecture about mass inertia?”

She knew that was a bad one but Vale was significantly thinner than Taleeze, her speed of movement had always been her bonus.

“Whoa, look at that!” Taleeze countered. “You may have tricked me once but what was that shot? You already losing stamina after that sprint? And there I thought I’d give you a chance to get a lead.”

You won’t get bye me a second time! She moved into her defensive stance and danced left to right a little bit, offering open spot to lure Vale in. That nasty little sack of bones.

Maybe her opponent would try another trick this time. Taleeze was prepared, her complete focus on the ball.

This time Vale would be doing something different. She saw through Taleezes moves to try an offer her n obvious “open” spot. This time she wanted to go right throth the other asari.

She saw Taleeze standing there, bent forward, legs wide apart, her biotic hands wide to the left and right.

She playfully passed the ball sideways left-right a few times and then started the attack run. Closing in on Taleeze she switched directions two times and noticed that the former Wildkat did not react. Taleeze was expecting her to go for the open side, but Vale had no intention to do so.

Instead she was shoving the ball right between Taleeze’s legs while she jumped over the biotic handle to the right… You didn’t see that one coming huh?

Taleeze had expected something like this, she would have been disappointed if Vale would not have tried the gutsy stuff, and nevertheless she was surprised about her precision in close counter play. Vale had just missed a safe score by a long shot after all.

Taleeze knew she couldn’t close her legs fast enough and at the very moment she realized what was going to happen fell backwards, spun around, stabilized with her biotics and started a dash alongside Vale who was fighting for control of the ball.

She could have triplashed the offensive player from that position but that was kind of not funny for a light-hearted one-on-one, so she managed to get her own biotic handle inside Vales, the moment the former Dirtskirter was ready to sling the ball to the score. The ball bounced up and Taleeze could rebound it with her other handle, curving away from a stunned Vale.

“He…”she yelled, panting “Some move, my friend, but not with me. Do you still think my ass is too fat, huh? You are too slo-how…..” she laughed but not in a nasty way, as she shoved the ball over again to her newfound fellow ballplayer friend with a loud laugh.

“Okay, okay, I take it back.” For a moment Vale made a really sad face but then had to laugh along Taleeze. This afternoon was going to be lot of fun!

It was nice to have someone who she could play with from time to time. Daia and Ana sure wouldn’t mind if she got some extra recreational time in.

Around Taleeze she would not have to worry about anything and could let go completely. An impossibility in the business world down in the streets of Nos Astra.

_______

After an hour of fun, sweat and a shower they took a skycab to have some lunch, somwhere downtown Nos Astra.

Fin