The Enforcers Code

(Bombay and the Quack Attack)

5:30 am on the dot Portman was outside stretching, the sun was only beginning to show any indication that it was rising by the slight orange burning into the deep purple of the dawn. The stars were slowly fading, and the half-moon was beginning to disappear, Dean was only now becoming used to the Californian heat this early in the day, though it still unsettled him on a fundamental level to be this hot so early.

"morning." Dean turned to greet Kenny, he was wearing his red white and blue shorts and vest as he met with Dean he began to go through his stretching.

"morning little dude." he said finished the last of his stretches "you ready for the new coach to arrive?" he asked, knowing that the small Asian American was upset about it.

"no." he answered, "honestly, I don't like the idea of him coming in and taking over." He stopped his stretches and looked up into Portman's eyes "what do you know about him?"

"not much." Dean answered, "he was some high price lawyer," he said to the smaller teen "he had to do community service for drunk driving, which is BS all by itself." He noticed Julie coming through the lobby in her running gear. "he turned a looser team into the state champions beating the Minnesota pee wee dynasty who were undefeated since 1975."

"1975?"

"Yeah, I'm still not sure if it was a fluke or not."

"what was a fluke?" asked Julie, Kenny had started stretching again

"Bombay and the Ducks"

"The new coach?" she asked as she began her stretches, Dean nodded "I heard about that."

"what you hear?" asked Kenny

"allot of people lost a lot of money on that playoff," she said as she shook her hands "still a bottom tear team beating the number one seed like that its impressive."

"what's impressive Julie is a winning streak from 1975 to 1991 that's a sixteen-year undefeated streak." Julie smiled at the large teen "name me one pro-franchise that can say that."

"Montreal Canadians." She answered immediately, Dean mouthing the same team name at the same time as her, she rolled her eyes before continuing "though not consecutively." She finished reluctantly.

"That Coach Riley had a formula for victory that was unmatched, and that's why it made national news." Said Dean to Kenny, the smaller teen nodding in understanding. "he went off for the minors playing for the Waves after that." He explained to both of his teammates. He had kept an eye on the aftermath of the Hawk loss on the Minnesota league because of the scandal that came out after it. "the league they were members of, was merged with another league that played only in the summer, so the Ducks haven't played since last year."

"why'd they merge." Asked Kenny.

"according to the Hockey tabloids, there was also a huge high stakes betting ring based around that league though it's just rumours and speculation at this point". He said as the two finished there stretching, "but, it's probably why Riley isn't our head coach."

"enough gossip ladies let's get this run started." Smiled Julie as she took off, the two boys were a second or two behind her, and although they were behind her, they could feel her smile as they caught up to her.

They had not elected to push their jog for too long as they were unsure of what type of training Bombay wanted them to do when he turned up with his team so as they made it back Kenny had one more question.

"what if Bombay doesn't want any of us on the team?"

"Tibbles picked the team, not Bombay." Dean answered the teen quickly "the worst he could do is bench us for the whole tournament." Julie nodded in agreement with Dean.

"we'll know at 10:00 when they get here," Julie said as Dean held the door for her and Kenny, "I'll catch you guys at breakfast." She said, turning left at the stairs heading for the women's dormitories.

(09:00am Rink Changing rooms)

After a substantial breakfast the boys all met in the changing rooms, they had all gotten into their gear. Dean in his old Morganpark Stallions jersey that he had cut the sleeves off of, it was old but still fit him well enough, he had removed the sleeves because he had burned them by accident at a team barbeque badly enough that they could not be repaired, so he kept it as a practice jersey after removing the sleeves.

Dean was applying tape to his stick as Louis in his garish, Oilers inspired, South Miami Cobra's uniform. He was doing some stretching loosening himself up for an unknown training session with an unfamiliar couch.

Dwain was playing with his lasso he hadn't put his skates on yet and was content to play with his rope, he wore the faded warm orange of the Crockett County Cougars, he was carefree and believed that "It doesn't pay no never mind thinking on could bees when what is, is happening now."

Kenny was so nervous; in Deans opinion he was about to work himself into a panic attack. He was still wearing his figure skating skates as he was still waiting on proper hockey skates from Mr Tibbles, and his jersey was a Hendrix Coke Cola white and red brand jersey.

Dean had already taped his stick for him and had just finished his own when the door flew open, and in walked Julie Gaffney wearing her Devils uniform, she had her helmet on for now. She was carrying her stick, a towel and a large green and orange bottle of Gatorade.

"Dwain, Skates on," she said as she made her way through the locker room to the ice the others following behind her, Dean had elected to wear his cassette player he was in the mood for some fun today.

Coach Morgan was waiting at centre ice as they came out, they all skated out to meet him.

"Coach Bombay will be here in an hour with the rest of the team." He said he was wearing his all red tracksuit with a white t-shirt. "they arrived in California yesterday evening, they stayed at a hotel before being bussed here."

"Why didn't they just come straight here?" asked Kenny

"they would have gotten here at midnight," he said to the younger teen, "Bombay thought that it would be better if they stayed overnight at a hotel then come here in the morning."

"when should they get here then?" asked Kenny

"half hour to an hour depending on traffic and how long it takes for them to put there stuff away" he answered. "we should have room assignments finished before the end of the day but for now I want some light scrimmage."