Sunday

Nicholas Sato was taking a late shower when Sensei informed him that he was getting a call on his cell phone. “That’s new. Can we answer it from here?”

“Not without a proper audio connection. They are leaving a message. I can play the message for you?”

“Sure,” Nick said, shutting off the water and reaching for a towel.

Then he heard Dan’s voice in his ear: “Just got a call from Trinity. Her brother has a block of seats for the game today that he is not using and is willing to let her have them. Call me back, or her, if you got her number, if you’re free and able to come, and we will figure out transportation.”

“That is the entire message,” Sensei added unnecessarily.

Nick toweled off, put on a bathrobe and went downstairs. His mother was reading several newspapers at once in her home office. “Hi mom,” he said. She paused the feeds on all three of the large monitors in her office and turned to look at her son. “Have you eaten yet, Nick?”

“No, that was the next step,” he admitted. “Dan just called. He has seats at the game and wants to know if I can come.”

“If you can find a way back after, I can drop you off - I need to go into the office about a half hour before the game but will probably still be tied up when the game is over.”

“Great! I’ll let Dan know. Thanks, mom,” the young man replied, heading to the kitchen for some food to take back to his room and eat while getting dressed.

When he got back to his room, he saw he had a text from Sandra as well as one from Dan. Dan’s text repeated the message he’d left as a voicemail, and Nick texted back that he'll be there if he can get a ride home after.

Sandra texted that her family was going to the game and if he was too, she might be able to sneak off and join him. He texted back that he would be there but may want to slip away to join her group - and would probably need a ride home. She replied that she would ask her parents about that.

“You can intercept calls and not texts?” Nick asked Sensei.

The reply was: “The text app uses security more advanced than my own. The phone has not changed much in three centuries.”

Nick dressed quickly, then ate the food he had brought back, spent a little time on the Internet, and then went downstairs to find his mother talking to four other people on her multi-screen display, and went back up to his bedroom, vowing once again to not follow her footsteps into the world of business. His current plan was to become a mathematics teacher, but he was only a junior - he had at least a year before he needed to have anything set in stone.

He played around on the internet for a while and then his mom called up: “Slight change of plans - I need to head in now. If we hurry, maybe we can get lunch together in the executive lounge before you have your game, and I have my meetings?”

Nick grabbed a light jacket and called down: “That sounds great; on my way, mom.”

***

About twenty minutes later, at about the same time his father was concluding his meeting with Edo, Nick’s mom apologized for having to hurry off mid-lunch and left Nick alone in the executive lounge. He finished his lunch quickly and then headed out of the building for the ten minute walk to the football field. There were several small parties going on in the parking lot, and he stopped to chat with a few friends before spotting Judy, Carol and Trinity. Judy was quite obviously trying to ignore Trinity, and hurried over to Nick. “You just missed Dan; he went in to suit up. Nick, tell me truly,” she said, giving him a quick hug and lowering her voice to as close to a whisper as she could and still be heard in the busy parking lot, "is there anything going on between Dan and Blondie over there?”

“They just met yesterday so I don’t think so,” he said honestly. “And he’s a bit of an idiot but a good guy. He’d break up with you before he cheated on you.”

Judy looked at Trinity and then back at Nick and thought about it for a moment. “Yeah, you’re right,” she admitted. As soon as she stepped away from him, Trinity walked over and said “Nicholas Sato, right?”

“If you’re Trinity Gee, then I think you’re right. If not, we’re both in the wrong place,” Nick answered. 

 She laughed and locked an arm around his: “I have Salvatore’s car today. Seats six and has a party kit in the back. Even has a grill. Want some hot dogs?”

The car she pointed to was a big, gold beast; the rear end was open revealing a small refrigerator, an electric grill and a modest sound system.

“I just ate, but could use a drink, thank you,” Nick said.

Trinity flashed him a brilliant smile and opened the fridge - it was fully stocked with a wide array of sodas, water, and juice drinks. “Very nice, thank you,” Nick said, taking a juice drink and stepping over to Carol’s side just as Peter turned up. 

“Nick! Hey! Having fun with the Party Van?” Peter called out, while holding up a hot dog and grinning. Nick just smiled and sipped his drink.

Peter walked over to Trinity. “These are really your brother’s seats then? All six?”

“Yep! One of the perks of being on staff!” she replied proudly.

“Then we can go in now - we were by the gates when they announced ‘Staff, Faculty and those with disabilities could now be seated’ about thirty seconds ago,” Peter informed them.

“Well, then everyone grab any snacks you want and let’s head in, after I lock up his car!” Trinity announced.

They all grabbed some stuff and headed in. Trinity seemed to keep trying to get near Nick and finally he just turned and looked at her. Her smile brightened: “You really actually met the Giant?” she asked him, a little shyly.

“I think we’re calling him ‘Protector’ now,” Nick said, “and ‘met’ may be overstating it. He picked me up in an alley and dropped me at a safe location a few blocks away before engaging the attacking monsters. I didn’t really see much of it.”

“That’s too bad,” she replied. “Would be a great story if you had more details. Ah well, let’s go enjoy the game, right? Hey, is that your girlfriend over there? We have one seat left if you want to go get her.”

Nick looked where Trinity was pointing, just as Sandra glanced over their way. She smiled and waved at Nick, who waved back - and then Trinity began motioning for her to come join them.

Sandra talked briefly to her parents and then took out her cell phone and called Nick.

Puzzled, he answered immediately: “Hello?”

“Yeah, Nick, text me what block you’re in - dad wants me with the family for the kick-off, but says I can come over and join you guys once the game gets going.”

He replied: “Why don’t we meet at the concession stand about ten minutes in, and we can walk back together?”

“Oh, I like that idea. I’m sure dad will too,” came the response. “If dad doesn’t object, I’ll see you then, and if he does, I’ll text - will probably be too noisy inside to talk!”

As she hung up, Nick relayed the information to Trinity, who then said: “Well, for the first five minutes I can be your temporary girlfriend then, but no kissing, OK?”

Nick laughed, and let her again take his arm, leading him to her brother’s seat block. “By the way,” Nick asked as they neared the seats, “what is your brother teaching?”

“Environmental sciences,” Trinity answered.

Judy had been close enough to hear this and brightened a little: “So they finally replaced Teacher Harlan? She was my favorite; I was so sorry to hear she had an accident just before the school year and died two days after classes started.”

“I may be a little biased,” Trinity informed her, “but I think Sal is a really great teacher. He can make all sorts of complex things easy to understand. He’s not the friendliest person, but he’s smart and patient.”

The rest of the group was seated but Nick was still standing when a fanfare announced that the players were entering the field. One at a time, starting with the Visiting Team’s coach, then the Home Team, and repeating until all the players and assistant coaches had been announced, the names of each player blared across the loudspeakers.

Dan was a Defensive Tackle in the middle of the roster; Nickolas only recognized about a third of the names and only knew about a quarter of the ones he did recognize, but he joined in cheering for all of the names he recognized (even one of the visiting players, to his friends’ chagrin).

The game started rough, with the visiting team immediately mounting a drive for a six point lead, then blowing the extra points kick. By halftime, the scores had evened out to nine points on each side. Nick had missed the first points scored by his side while meeting Sandra, but they sat together for the rest of the half.

That was when things got weird. Suddenly the lights in the stadium (and, it turned out, the rest of the area) all came on at once, then shut off, and then went back on as a hideous noise 0was broadcast through every device capable of receiving an audio signal in about three hundred kilometers. At first, it seemed to just be random noise, but then it resolved into words spoken by an inhuman voice: “Greetings. I am called Destrax. I have been given the position formerly held by Lord Kao. My superior, the one you have named ‘King Ghidorah’ asked me to deliver this message: Enjoy this, one of your last days of freedom ever. Soon, either the Prototype, the one you name ‘Protector’ will understand his role and accept his position as proxy ruler of your world for the Exerian Empire, or he will continue resisting us and die horribly, taking many of you with him in the process. Remember this - he can spare you much suffering. Destrax has spoken.”

The lights did the same off/on/off stunt and then things seemed to return to normal. There was a lot of chatter on the stands:

“What was that?”

“Prototype? Of what?”

“Will the Protector really side with them?”

“What exactly is the Protector anyway?”

Nick and Sandra exchanged worried glances.

“That was weird,” Trinity declared.

An announcement came over the stadium’s loudspeakers: “We have regained control of our systems. The half time program will be shortened slightly and begin momentarily. We apologize for the interruption.”

It was clear the band and cheer squad’s hearts really were not in their performance. There were a lot of murmurings in the crowd:

“Was that real?”

“Is Protector one of them?”

“Should they just cancel the game?”

“We should enjoy this - it may be the last one!”

“There is always hope - they underestimate us!”

Nick was lost in his own thoughts when Trinity asked: “Do you think Protector will side with this ‘King Ghidorah’ or do you think we will see an epic fight between them?”

“That is a good question,” Nick said. “I doubt Protector would turn against us but maybe he would to protect those he loves or something. I would bet on a fight, but anything is possible, I suspect.”

Both Sandra and Trinity gave him searching looks at this but neither said anything further, and the game soon resumed. The score was still tied at the end of regulation time - but then the visiting team attempted a long drive in the opening seconds of overtime play, only to fumble a pass. Though normally a defensive player, Dan was close enough to recover the ball and run with it, scoring the first and only touchdown of his career to win the game eight minutes past the end of regular play!

The cheers in the stands were deafening - even some fans of the visiting team cheered the surprise run.

“Well, what do you know?” Peter said, “Dan finally gets to be a hero!”

Sandra leaned close to Nick: “Think he was doing it for Judy or Trinity?”

“Not even sure he knows, but he did it,” Nick replied back quietly, smiling. Louder, to the whole group, he said: “Let's head down and see if we can congratulate him.”