Dodge, Dip, Duck, Dive, and Dodge! (Richard)

[Ulrich Schneider]

Dodgeball... it can be defined as one of the most testosterone filled, aggressive sports to ever be played in school gym classes all around the world. The object of the game is to grab a ball, toss it at someone on the opposing team, and avoid getting hit all at the same time, but first, the two team captains had to pick their teammates. Of course, the larger, stronger, and faster people were chosen first, that was the nature of the game - choosing your team was half the battle. Unfortunately, Ulrich was chosen last. This meant that he was the guy no one wanted to be on their team because he appeared to be the kind of person that would just get in the way.

Boy were they wrong.

He walked to his team's side of the gym and immediately began wondering what the rules of the game were. He was probably one of the few people in the United States who never played a game of dodgeball... ever. In gym class, Ulrich rarely paid attention and never participated unless he had to. He'd much rather be outside shooting rocks with his slingshot than running around a gym with a bunch of sweaty people.

A whistle was blown and Ulrich stood back and watched as students darted to the middle of the gym where a line of red balls have been set up. Frantically, people scooped them up as quickly as possible and began tossing them. Balls were flying around in all directions, forcing Ulrich to duck a few times in order to avoid being hit.

It took him a few seconds to gather his wits before he decided to get in on the action. A ball conveniently rolled to his feet and he picked it up. It was red, rubbery, firm, and a little smaller than a basketball. He figured it would hurt pretty bad if someone threw it hard enough, but no one seemed to be pain yet, so assumed it was safe.

Ulrich took a few steps forward before launching the ball at the nearest opponent on the other side of the gym. It flew at the boy gracefully before slamming into his chest. "Out!" someone yelled, and Ulrich's target walked toward the bleachers and out of play.

Game on...!

The more competitive side of Ulrich kicked in as he put a little pep in his step in order to get another ball. He tossed it and BLAM, another person was out. Ulrich made it look easy, way too easy. He threw with the same accuracy he used in his shooting competitions before coming to Hammel, and it didn't take him long to narrow down the enemy team to one final opponent... Richard McAuliffe.

His sights were set, and he threw what he hoped would be the final ball of the game right at the last target standing.

[Richard McAuliffe]

Gym class, was unquestionably Richard's favorite subject in school. Not only because it was the only class that he actually excelled in, but also because there was no other class where his power was of any use. Now, Richard was good at pretty much any sport he tried, but he preferred competitive team sports such as football and soccer. Dodgeball was in his opinion not as sophisticated, but never the less he found it extremely fun to play.

Being aggressive was important in Dodgeball, and Richard was more than aggressive enough to make a very dangerous player. So as an all around athlete, who also happened to possess super-strength, it was no surprise when he was the very first person to be chosen for the first team. Immediately, he established him self as his team's de facto Captain by "suggesting" who the Captain should pick and who he shouldn't. As everybody was lining up and preparing to start the game, he briefly spoke to the rest of his team, telling them his game plan he had envisioned in his head.

When the whistle was finally blown, he rushed to the center of the gym to get as many balls as possible for his team. A mere moment later, balls were flying in all directions. A few people tried to take him out right away, but he managed to duck all the balls and responded by throwing back at them with full force, sending a few kids stumbling back and even falling down from the sheer force. He had probably hurt some of those kids, not seriously of course, but he wasn't playing just for fun. He was playing to win.

For the first few moments, it looked like the outcome of the game would be very predictable : his team was going to absolutely destroy the other. But then something happened. That dorky kid who had been picked last for the other team and hadn't really done anything up to that point... picked up a ball and tossed, actually managing to hit some kid in the chest. Richard's team-sports strategy instinct immediately kicked in and he recognized this new kid as a potential threat.

Grabbing the closest ball, he set his aim for Ulrich and launched the ball at him. Expecting to take out this threat easily, he was caught by surprise when Ulrich managed to duck it. Richard watched helpless in horror as he started wiping out his team with such accuracy that it must be the whole reason he was at Hammel in the first place. Desperately trying to take Ulrich out, his every attempt failed much to his dismay.

Needless to say, by the time that Ulrich had narrowed the opposite team to only one person, Richard was absolutely furious. With no one else left, Ulrich was obviously going to try to take him out next. Soon enough, Richard had a red ball flying into his direction. But he was not going to go down that easily. He'd simply duck to the side, grab a ball, combat roll and the- BAM. A red ball struck Richard in the face as he attempted to duck it.

Completely caught by surprise, Richard lost his balance and fell on the floor. Laying on the floor, Richard blinked his eyes as he was trying to regain his senses. To his side he heard not only the people on the opposite team celebrating, but an occasional person chuckling - probably at the way he had lost.

Lost!

Richard growled angrily and hit the floor in frustration as he was standing up. Walking back to the bleachers, he threw Ulrich an angry glance and he didn't cease until he sat down and some of his team mates exchanged a few words with him. He didn't really care what they had to say and didn't listen. His mind was focused on the guy who had taken him out. Oh how badly he wanted to slap him. But no, he couldn't do it in front of the teachers. He'd have to wait until the class was dismissed and then follow Ulrich to the changing rooms. There... he would be able to teach him a lesson.

[Ulrich Schneider]

While the rest of his team cheered over the decisive victory, Ulrich was unfazed. He really didn't care about gym class enough to bother celebrating, especially since he wiped the floor with the other team so easily. It was barely a challenge for him because of his meta-human power.

What did concern him was Richard. Ulrich noticed the intense frustration seeping from the bigger, stronger boy, especially when he hit the floor before standing up. It was obvious that he was pissed, probably over losing. He had seen reactions to losing much like that before in the past where he easily bested seasoned marksmen three or four times older than him. They just couldn't handle being beaten by a kid, but it was never really a problem for him. All he had to do was walk away and the volatile situations would typically diffuse themselves, so that's exactly what he did.

Ignoring the mean glares, Ulrich walked over to the bleachers and took a seat as far away from everyone else as he could, but before he could get comfortable, the gym instructor blew a whistle which signaled that it was time to head to the locker rooms.

He made his way to the boys' locker room which smelled of body odor and an odd mixture of various scents of deodorant, body sprays, and colognes. His locker was on the far side of the room, tucked neatly into a corner. After fiddling with his lock, he opened the locker door and spread his school clothes out on a nearby bench. He was very ready to get out of his scratchy gym clothes, so he quickly slipped off his shirt and stuffed it into his locker. He also applied some deodorant to his armpits to mask the sweaty teenage boy musk he was probably giving off since showering was not an option for him. Well, it was an option, but Ulrich always avoided it. He'd rather shower alone in his dorm anyway.

Little did he know that he actually pissed Richard off more than he imagined...

[Richard McAuliffe]

"Freak" he mumbled as Ulrich took a seat as far away as possible from everybody else. If there was something he just simply couldn't understand, it was how people could be shy. How on earth could it possibly be so difficult to just sit with everybody else? It wasn't! That kid just thought he was better than everybody else, there was no other reason. And somebody had to teach him a lesson...

Richard sat and waited eagerly as everybody stood up and went to the locker rooms. Avoiding eye contact with Ulrich as the latter walked past, he was the last person to stand up and leave the gymnasium. He didn't really know what he was going to do or say to Ulrich, but then he never actually planned ahead of time when he forced people to take "Don't mess with Richard 101."

Entering the locker room, Richard walked casually towards Ulrich, trying his best not to look suspicious. He didn't care if the kid saw him or not, but he certainly didn't want to alert him too soon. Meanwhile, Ulrich was taking off his shirt and applying deodorant. "Isn't he going to shower?" Richard wondered and quickly realized that he probably wasn't. Was he hiding something? "What a dork!" he thought and frowned in disgust.

Richard walked right up to Ulrich and took a few moments to just eye him from top to toe with a facial expression that clearly indicated disgust. He waited for Ulrich to notice him before breaking the silence by banging the nearest locker with his clenched fist so hard that it left a dent. "Well, well... who do we have here? Mr. Too fancy for other people?" he asked in a mocking tone, with his face twisted by anger.

[Ulrich Schneider]

BAM! Ulrich nearly jumped into the air when the loud bang of the lockers blasted into his ears and nearly scared the crap out of him. The shock of the sudden sound caused him to drop his deodorant on the ground. Startled, he turned around and took in the sight of an obviously pissed off Richard hovering a bit too close for comfort. The older boy had obvious signs of anger stretched across his face which made Ulrich nervous. He understood that he was angry about losing, but Ulrich never would have guessed that he would be that angry. It baffled him. He never really got angry about losing, so he couldn't relate very well to how Richard was feeling.

When the mocking started, Ulrich tried his best to not let it get at him. He was used to bullies and has had his fair share of the in the past. His experience with them taught him not to give them the satisfaction of baited into their teasing, which meant that he ignored them, but in this situation, he could not simply ignore Richard. Ulrich felt like he was trapped. Stuck in the corner of the locker room where his locker was located, he couldn't just slip by and walk away. Plus, chances were that Richard wouldn't let him escape anyway. "My name is Ulrich," he corrected Richard as politely as he possible could. He knew that Richard probably already knew his name since they were in the same class.

Ulrich looked to the floor and avoided any eye contact with the older boy. He didn't want to seem too brave in order to prevent a fight from breaking out. He was hoping Richard would get his frustration out by shouting and insulting him, but he also mentally prepared himself for the possibility that things could get violent.

Then, it dawned on him that maybe if he apologized, the whole situation would be resolved. Apologizes were always a nice way to ease tension, so Ulrich figured it would be his best option, even if he really didn't have to apologize for anything. He won the game fair and square, not that he cared, but it wasn't like he cheated or played unfairly. "I'm sorry," he explained with wholehearted sincerity, "I should have gone way easier on you."

[Richard McAuliffe]

Richard couldn't help but laugh out loud at Ulrich's reaction as he banged the locker. His reaction was one of the best one's he had seen so far. It almost looked like something straight out of a cartoon to him. Unfortunately the first impression he got of him, it didn't look like he was the sort of type that was going to stand up to him. Not that he wanted people to stand up to him all the time, but he wanted it to happen the first time he picked on them so he could use it as an excuse to beat them up.

Ulrich was like he had thought. When the teasing started, he made no attempt to get back at him and stand up for him self. Unfortunate, it meant that he'd just have to treat him much, much worse until he got the reaction he wanted. He wanted to bait him into answering for him self. Richard shook his head in disappoint as the kid corrected him. "Well, well Ulrich i'm Richard. Why are you being so formal you frigging idiot? Afraid of me or something?"

Richard kicked the deodorant Ulrich had dropped away. "No deodorant is going to be able to conceal your stench." He mumbled angrily and walked closer to Ulrich in order to push him a little bit back into the corner in order to make it more difficult to escape. When Ulrich looked down, Richard responded by trying to grab Ulrich's chin and forcing him to look up. "Look at me you freak!" he yelled at him.

Ulrich was already pissing him off. The comment that topped it all was when he apologized and said that he should have gone way easier on him. Richard exploded. "WHAT?! Are you saying I can't play or something?! Huh?!" He didn't wait for him to respond, at this point there was nothing he was going to be able to say to redeem him self. Richard needed to vent out his anger and he needed to take it out on Ulrich. Using both hands, he angrily tried to push Ulrich up against the lockers behind him and punch him.

[Ulrich Schneider]

"Shit," Ulrich thought as Richard pressed forward, forcing him against the cold metal lockers that sent chills down his spine. With his chin being forcefully tilted, his eyes locked with the bully's. At that point, Ulrich felt like a cornered wild animal. The instinct to become aggressive to save himself was throttling into his mind. His heart was pounding and his testosterone was flowing. In this situation of fight or flight, fighting was his only option. He tried doing everything he could to avoid a brawl, but he ended up saying too much.

His apology did the opposite of what he thought it would. Instead of relieving the situation, it set Richard off. Ulrich was painfully pushed into the lockers behind him where a couple of the locks there brutally bashed against him. His hands reached around frantically for something, anything he could grab onto for support, but he found nothing. And before he could react, one of Richard's fists smashed into the side of his face near his left eye. There was no doubting that it would be blackened in the morning.

Ulrich gritted his teeth firmly in order to stop himself from crying out in agony. His face was searing with pain, but he was not going to give Richard the satisfaction of knowing that it hurt. He decided that he would give the older boy one chance to back off. Hopefully, Richard got all his anger and frustration out because Ulrich was ready to retaliate. "Leave... me... alone..." he threatened as his one of his hands slid behind his back and took hold of the silver metal lock that belonged to his locker.

It was time to fight back.

[Richard McAuliffe]

The feeling of the impact of his fist with Ulrich's face was glorious. He hadn't punched hard enough to seriously injure him, but hard enough so that it would hurt quite badly and he'd definitely have a black eye soon.

Richard could hear from behind him self that somebody had noticed what was happening and rallied the boys, who were by now standing nearby and enthusiastically watching the show. One hand still holding Ulrich up against the lockers and another clenched in a fist ready to punch him again, he chuckled when the smaller boy asked him to leave him alone.

"Leave you alone?" Anger swelled up in him, but perhaps he could use this chance and try to get Ulrich into the showers. If he truly wanted to do something to him right now, it was to throw Ulrich into the showers, beat the crap out of him and just leave him there. One hand still clenched in a first ready to punch Ulrich, he decided to step to the side and pull the smaller boy towards him in an attempt to toss him across the floor. Specifically, closer to the showering area.

With a grin, he called out to the other boys. "Make sure he doesn't get away!" Whether they would comply or not, he did not know. They didn't know him all that well yet, but he hoped that the sheer excitement of somebody being picked on in the locker room would be the right motivation for them. "Common! Fight back!" he yelled at Ulrich.

[Ulrich Schneider]

Ulrich's body flung across the room. "Damn he's strong," he thought as he slid across the wet tile floors of the shower area. He made sure to keep a firm hold of the lock from his locker despite being thrown around like a rag-doll. He knew that the chance of being able to properly defend himself in a fight against Richard with his hands alone was slim. The older boy was much bigger and stronger, so Ulrich felt he needed some sort of weapon to even the odds that were stacked against him. A lock may not seem like much, but in Ulrich's hands, anything that can be thrown can become quite an effective weapon.

He hissed in pain a moment before standing up. Richard had called for some of his classmates to prevent him from escaping, but Ulrich didn't plan on leaving anyway. He shot his classmates an angry glare, daring them to join the fray at their own risk, but none of them did. They had no reason to prevent him from leaving since he wasn't moving from where he stood.

"You don't know what you're getting yourself into," he said just loud enough to be heard over the running water coming from the shower-heads. By then, Ulrich was soaking wet and a few bruises were forming on his skin from when he was thrown around. His eye was also starting to bruise and swell from being punched.

He tossed the lock in his hand up in the air a few times, making it easy for everyone to see. "Take another step and you will regret it," he threatened angrily. His eyes scanned over Richard's body, searching for the most vulnerable spots to target. He had only one shot, so he would make sure that wherever he threw it, it would be extremely painful. The face, the neck, the groin... all were fair game in his mind. If the older boy did continue his assault, Ulrich silently promised himself that he would make it the worst decision Richard ever made.

[Richard McAuliffe]

Had Richard been amused by his bullying up to this point, it was nothing compared to the thrill and fun of throwing Ulrich across the locker room like a rag doll. He had thrown him a little bit farther than he intended, but it wasn't like that upset him at all. He found the whole thing hilarious, how he some times completely underestimated how much stronger he was in comparison to most people. Ulrich's body felt like hardly nothing in his hand!

Richard didn't miss Ulrich's angry glare towards his class mates at all. About time! He was finally angry, which would make the whole thing a lot more enjoyable. "What? Is the Kraut finally loosing his temper?" Slowly, Richard walked closer to where Ulrich had landed, laughing in the process when his victim warned him that he didn't know what he was getting into. Oh, quite the contrary, he was fairly sure of what he was doing. He was going to absolutely fuck him up for even daring to say that.

He finally stopped his approach when he noticed that Ulrich had something in his hand, tossing it a few times in the air. A lock? Was he going to throw this at him if he tried something? He resisted the temptation to throw back at him that he wouldn't dare, but he didn't because he knew how well Ulrich could throw. Well enough so that he knew he actually would dare.

Well, that was not something he had counted on. While his super-strength also granted him some what considerably better durability, making it harder to hurt him, it wasn't impossible. A well aimed shot at an extremely sensitive spot would probably hurt him quite badly. Usually he didn't feel like that could be much of a problem, but unfortunately he was attacking just about the only person he knew that genuinely would be able to make that sort of a shot.

Maybe he could talk him self out of this one? Sure, why not? If all else failed he'd just simply rush towards him like a mindless brute. "Well, well... so let's say i'm absolutely terrified of you and don't dare to come closer. What are you going to do?" he said, in a slightly mocking tone.

[Ulrich Schneider]

Ulrich figured that Richard finally understood what he was capable of, and he hoped that it was all he needed in order to dissolve the situation as quickly as possible. But in order to maintain his threat, he knew he had to continue to look dangerous. If he lowered his guard, he thought that Richard would most likely see it as an opportunity to move in and assault him once more.

"I'm going to send you to the hospital," Ulrich threatened. "I kid you not. Everyone will see you crying."

With his lock still in hand, he moved his arm back in a ready throwing postion. From there he began slowly stepping to the side so he could start making his way out of the showers and eventually out of the locker room. His eyes were locked on to Richard like a hawk glaring down at its prey. He was ready to strike and he was ready to make it hurt.

"Let me leave and I will not hurt you."

[Richard McAuliffe]

As much as Richard hated to admit it, the situation had taken a completely unexpected turn. Soon enough he realized that Ulrich would not be tricked into lowering his guard and he had to accept the fact that Ulrich suddenly had an unwanted advantage in this situation. The the only way he'd be be able to end this without getting hurt as well was to let him go.

He absolutely hated this. Getting that lock flying into a soft spot was one of the last things he wanted to happen, although nothing about his body language indicated that he was scared. Even if he was forced to let Ulrich win this round, he'd still keep his cool and do his best to make sure everyone thought he was still in control.

Seeing Ulrich starting to back out he faked a chuckle and shook his head. "What ever freak. Get the fuck out of my face," he said and turned around walking towards his own locker. He was going to let Ulrich go and do what ever he wanted for now. But he would have his revenge on Ulrich for standing up against him. This meant war!