The Great Belligerency [Round 4: Static]

Originally posted on MSPA by Pick Yer Poison.

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Involved as they were in their game, it took the natives a few minutes to notice Phil and his horde standing and watching them. Phil, of course, was the only one familiar with the concept of baseball, and the bewildered faces of the villagers behind him made this abundantly clear. The umpire called a timeout. As the players stretched and wiped their brows, staring curiously at he newcomers, he walked up to Phil.

"Welcome to Obtanda!" he said warmly, hand held out expectantly. "I am Botan, leader of this village."

To his credit, Phil was caught slightly off-guard. He shifted his rifle to his left hand and shook Botan's hand, breaking off after several seconds when it was clear Botan wasn't entirely clear on how long a handshake was supposed to last. "Nice to meet you," he replied, deciding to go with something neutral. "Are you...playing baseball?"

Botan nodded approvingly. "Why yes, we are! I see you are one of the Enlightened."

Phil chuckled. "I don't see why knowing about a national pasttime qualifies me for enlightenment. I'd always been led to believe there was more to it than that."

"Ah, no, I must not have been clear. I did not intend to imply you were an Enlightened One, but that you were one of the Enlightened."

Phil took a moment to digest the sentence before deciding it wasn't helpful at all. "I...see. And you decided I'm Enlightened just because I knew about baseball?"

Botan shook his head. "You also speak the tongue of the Enlightened. I assumed only the Enlightened possessed this knowledge, with the exception of those they chose to teach it to, like us."

It clicked in Phil's head that whoever these Enlightened folk were, they spoke English and could play baseball, two things he was pretty sure were only evident on earth. "What'd the Enlightened who taught you baseball look like? Was he covered in bugs? Or was it a she?" He highly doubted either Julia or Cole would've been interested in teaching a village baseball, much less how to speak English, but it didn't hurt to check.

Botan looked taken aback. "Ah, neither of those descriptions fit. He was about as tall as that one." He walked up and gestured towards a man of about medium height in Phil's group of followers. The man began to raise his rock but Phil waved frantically at him, and he put it down in confusion. "And he was about as wide as...as..." He looked around, but none of the lean-to-emaciated villagers seemed to be of the right build. Finally, he settled for just spreading his arms out at his sides, indicating a slightly pudgy figure.

Phil sighed, wishing he had more to go on, the memory of the military dossiers he had once been accustomed to receiving on his targets came to mind. "That's good enough, I suppose." He grudgingly accepted that unless he wanted to start a real interrogation, he wasn't going to get much else out of the man, and doing an actual interrogation would take more time and resources than he was prepared to spend pursuing something he had no reason to believe wasn't just another dead end. Phil, and his mob of zealots, was proof that these villages didn't always know what they were talking about.

Botan grinned. "That is good." He gestured towards an area filled with clay benches fashioned into a crude set of bleachers. "Would you care to watch? It is the top of the eighth."

Phil paused. "Actually," he said slowly, an idea occurring to him. "Does either team have an opening?"

Botan took a moment to respond as well. "Would you like there to be one? Having an Enlightened play with us would be a great privilege."

Phil nodded. "Make it so."

A few minutes later, after the players were back in position and Phil's followers were crowding the makeshift bleachers, Phil stepped up to the plate, hefting a baseball bat made of what his suit identified as wood - a fact which confused him, as he had yet to see any trees. He patted the plate and choked up on the bat then prepared to swing, praying he hadn't gotten rusty in the...wow, nearly a decade since he'd last played. He took a couple practice swings - the bat was curiously heavy for being made of wood - and then nodded to the pitcher, who wound up and threw him a fastball.

A loud crack came from the bat as Phil connected with the ball, knocking it far off into the distance. Judging by the way the outfielders started to run after it, then stopped as they saw it sail over their heads, Phil decided it was a homer, and looked off into the distance to see how far it would go.

That was when he saw the dark cloud in the sky, which he didn't remember being there when the round had started. He knew instantly it had to be one of the other contestants - The Executor himself had said nothing new was supposed to happen in the Eternity Plateau. And as much fun as he was having reliving his memories at the moment, he knew he didn't want to stay in the Eternity Plateau any longer than he had to, which meant finding another contestant, and killing them as quickly as possible, was his best course of action.

He turned to Botan. "Sorry to cut this short, but I really have to go. Important Enlightened business." He was about to toss the bat to the village chief, then thought better of it. "I'll keep this, though," he said, hefting it over his shoulder. Having a melee weapon other than his rifle might be useful - he didn't want to risk breaking it by hitting it too hard on something.

He strode off towards the source of the disturbance in the sky, his followers leaping hastily off the bleachers to follow him.