The Olympic Village

Shadows eyed the crowd, Kelly and Peace walking on either side of her. She smiled and waved excitedly to the crowd with one hand, holding the flag in the other. So far so good, no broken Olympic torches. The crowd was certainly giving them odd stares, but it wasn't every day an entire country was represented in the olympics. She pumped her fist a few times and highfived each of the people beside her.

"This is incredible," Kitty whispered, eyeing the crowds, the flags, the beautiful light displays. "We've been on the floor an entire minute and NOTHING is broken beyond repair." She smiled brightly. "We're improving!"

Peace high fived Shadows back as he looked up at the people above. He then looked at the highest part, squinting to see his dad in his Navy uniform, smiling. He waved at the spot and his dad waved back. Peace pumped his fist into the air with a smile on his face.

Shadows did notice, however, the stern expression of the Queen, which lasted even through her own country's arrival through the games.

She whispered back to Kitty, "you're right! I knew thos etraining sessions were a good idea."

Soul walked along beside the others, staring around at the crowd and waving.

"No disasters so far! But we still have a bit left to walk. We can do this!"

"So... aren't we supposed to perform our national anthem or something?" Snickie asked, her clarinet in one hand and the Snick at her feet.

"I think so." Peace said.

"I can't sing. I'll just mouth along and you can all do the music and stuff." Soul shrugged. "Or I could do the dancing portion of our national anthem."

"I didn't realize we were," Shadows said, "but if we all want to, then by all intentions we go for it. But I can't sing either," Shadows said happily.

Just then, she realized that by talking the XL team had walked right into the team of the country in front him. She tripped and fell down.

"Sorry, Sorry," Kitty said, smiling brightly to the team from Vietnam as she helped her friend to her feet. Behind them Yugoslavia stumbled to a halt as the XL team fumbled to get it back together. "Oh dear," Kitty said glancing over her shoulder. "Great Brittan's massive team will be here any second," she whispered. "This...might be a problem."

Shadows smiled as Kitty helped her and looked back at the angry team's behind them. She then turned her attention to the spot in front of her, where there was a large gap. She smiled for the cameras and started walking ahead, but she wasn't fast enough.

A comotion from behind had the XL'ers cringing. Huddling closer to their flag they shared mutters of "just keep smiling" and "don't look back" and "oh no, not again" as they did their best to look innocent.

Instead they were the only team still smiling and waving, all others had fallen silent as they turned to watch the pile-up taking place at the back of the procession.

Shadows risked a glance back at the teams behind them, arms crossed and scowls on their faces. Except a few of them had become emassed in the pile up and were nursing woulnds. She walked up to a particular one who seemed to have injured his arm.

She turned to someone and whispered, "He doesn't really need his arm, does he?"

"He throws."

Well, darn.

"There are doctors." Kelly waved her hand. "And besides, he's at the Olympics with XLers participating. He can't actually expect to win, can he?"

She did, however, join the the others in cringing. She threw a nervous glance back. Well, this was definitely one way of getting publicity.

"At least they'll remember who we are," Kitty said, grinning and continuing to wave.

"I'm wondering if I shouldn't have come at all. I'm a terrible athlete in all forms," Snickie chuckled. "Unless marching band happens to be a part of the summe olympics."

"That's what we have Rae for," Shadows said, waving her hand. "Just let's all do some cool stunts, look super excited, and endear the whole world. They'll forget about this who incedent in no time!"

Of course, that would only work if they kept the Olympic Torch in tact.

"At least I can fix the torch if it goes out. Somebody just has to extinguish the walls leading to the torch. And...." she leaned in to whisper to Shadows as she dragged her along, "I can nerf the competition's abilities to an extent. But I'll only do that in the ones Eil's not participating in." She nodded and shouted much more loudly, "Go XLers!"

"Hmm, maybe we can all sort of crowd around Shadows? You know, keep her away from the walls." Kelly frowned. "It would kind of suck if we lit this place on fire, oops."

"Oh no," Shadows said, "I don't have the fire, I'm just afraid that this will be like a few years ago, when we accidentally tripped the guy. Or the year before that when we thought the building was on fire and we extringuished it." She smiled happily. "I miss those days."

Rae jogged up behind the other teams, and someone advoided knocking down the other competitors. When the tunnel finally opened up she saw where the rest of the team was. She wasn't going to catch up by running, then she smacked herself on the head. Jumping up Rae pumped her powerful wings and soar in the stadium. She quickly reached the rest of the team and flipped over to her back. Then spitting a stream of water into the air, it froze in midair to show the symbol of Xana's Lair. Then the water turned into a fine mist that fell down over the team. "Sorry I'm late."

Shadows grinned widely. "No problem, Rae. And can I say, that was quite an entrance, I can only hope it but that...embarrassing incedent out of everyone's minds."

She looked at the crowd and other teams. They seemed astounded and confused, all traces of anger gone. But they probably wouldn't stay that way for long, so she motioned for her team to hurry up.

"No, no, it's fine." Kelly shook her head. "That was amazing, Rae, and with any luck, it'll be the only thing the media reports."

"Do I want to know what you guys did?" Rae asked as she flipped back over and just glided over the team. She stayed in a circular pattern over the group.

"Don't ask questions you don't want to know the answers to." Kelly said. "We may have, um, walked into the team in front of us, tripped, made a big commotion, you know, all things XL-like. One of the other teams is also one hammer thrower short." She coughed and turned away from Rae, waving brightly at the crowd (who, to their credit, still looked bewildered at Rae's entrance).