May 15th, Stamford Bridge: Serbia v. Latveria

[Victor von Doom]

Doom hurried into the locker room, and removed a few items from the locker. He drew a circle on the floor with a piece of chalk and then sat down in the center of the circle. He arranged the items carefully, so that a soccer ball was sitting on his lap, with two jersey's, one Serbian, the other Latverian, in front of him. He started to chant, occasionally tapping out a staccato beat on the soccer ball.

[Narrator]

Tap. Tap tap. Tap. Tap. Taptaptap.

Whatever he was doing was probably invisible to anyone in the room, but the ripples would have been readily apparent to anyone with a magical sense, coating the room.

[Veronica Freud]

Ronnie carefully climbed up the back of Doom's armour, moving very slowly as she made her way toward his shoulder, peeking out from under his cape.

[Narrator]

A lackey moved into the room "My Lord, My lord! Its time! Its time!"

[Victor von Doom]

"Fool! Why do you disturb Doom!?!"

[Narrator]

"Forgive me, Lord Doom." the lackey replied "But the signs are all in readiness! The ley lines."

[Victor von Doom]

"Doom will forgive you." Doom replied "The matter you told me of is more important." he stood up, the ball and jersey's laying forgotten as he followed the lackey out of the building.

[Narrator]

Half an hour after it stopped, the game started again, as the teams took the field and stretched and whatnot.

[Victor von Doom]

Doom walked into the stadium, leaning on his staff a little, but looking unmistakably pleased with himself. "Doom would like some of those sausages." he said to a waiter "Where is Ms. Freud?" he asked, looking around.

[Narrator]

The opening kickoff of the second half featured a remarkably resilient Latverian team, all of a sudden passing and running much more effectively than they had just thirty minutes earlier. Probably because of the tactical sub.

[Veronica Freud]

Ronnie allowed herself to drop from Doom's back when he neared his seat, landing in a roll that took her out of sight under a chair should he heard the very soft thud. She hustled toward the washroom, returning to her full size once she was out of sight and flushing the toilet for good measure. After washing her hands she returned, wrapping her scarf back around her neck. She tried to subtly signal to one of her teammates that they needed to talk. In private.

[Narrator]

While on the pitch, the Serbians were getting CRUSHED. A goal for Latveria, for Fane Vladan! All hail Latveria!

[Victor von Doom]

Doom laughed approvingly. And sinisterly.

[Ryan Gabriel]

"She's right there, Lord Doom," Ryan said. "I'm sorry, if you could excuse me for a moment? Kevin, you're in charge for a minute, eyes open," he added as he slipped back to slip out with Ronnie for a minute.

[Veronica Freud]

As soon as she was relatively certain that they were out of earshot, Ronnie spilled the beans.

"Doom's faking his weakness. As soon as he was out of eyesight he ditched the cane. Then he did some black magic voodoo mumbo jumbo involvin' jerseys and stuff that I think is cheatin' and puttin' a curse on the other team. I mean, there was a pentagram thing on the floor and everythin'. I dunno if he got to finish it though, one of his footmen came in and said somethin' about ley lines, that the signs were ready. I dunno what that means, but I think we'd better call it in."

Ronnie's face was red now and she had to suck in a deep breath. How did Lucy manage this?

[Narrator]

And then ANOTHER goal for Latveria! Pouring it on! Serbia looks like an ENTIRELY different team out there!

[Victor von Doom]

"Now, you must enjoy some champagne with Doom, as we toast Latveria's victory."

[Ryan Gabriel]

"Yeah, I barely understand any of that," he whispered back to Ronnie. "Just remember what you heard. Make a note and shrink it down if you need to. We'll run it by everyone when we get home." He considered it. "Serbia did start to win once he was gone, though," he admitted.

[Veronica Freud]

"I... can't actually do that." Ronnie admitted. "Oh, wait! Do you have a pen?" She asked, rolling up the sleeve of her suit. Once she had gotten hold of the writing implement she quickly scribbled the note down upon her flesh and pulled the sleeve back down over it.

"Alright, good to go. We'd better get back before he becomes suspicious. Er. Suspiciouser."