"Kendall, Kendall....."

The Classics had never had a winning streak in all their sad and cursed history, but the voice rang out over the din of the celebrating players.

Team Captain Kendall Reyes slowly put down the keg of Bugmans XXXXXX he had been pouring down himself and turned his head towards the source of the interruption, the tension of anticipated violence rose in the dressing room, before dissipating as quickly as it had arisen.

Reyes inclined his head and nodded a greeting to one of the new Classics, lineman Mike Dikta.

Dikta had been hired by the Classics following the brutal deaths of several lineman vs the Altdorf Thunderbolts.

Dikta, a lifelong Middenheimer had been in the crowd as the Classics had honoured Reman Andre Waters, local favourite, Ed O' Bradovich and of course fallen star, Michael "Snowflake" Floyd. Inspired, he had tried out for the Classics and had earned a place on his home town team.

No-one in the DLE loves one of their own more than the Classics fans and they had taken Dikta to their heart and awarded him two MVP's in just 5 games, his hard work and industry loved by the Middenheim faithfull.

Dikta, stared up at the giant Reyes, it was now or never for him...

"Kendall, I need some advice man.....", he paused trying to think of how he was going to phrase delicately his question.

"Mike.. Need.. Help?" asked the Captain. "Why? Fans like Mike. Mike, play good. Kendall likes how he hit men who can not fight back".

Dikta, blushed with pride, " Thanks Kendall. You've been my favourite player since we drafted you and this season, you've been on fire man, I mean, you helped win us the last two games and you even scored a TD against the fins. I want to do more, more for the team and myself, like you do".

"Kendall now strong, Kendall likes to hit things" the Captain offered up.

This was it.... this was his opening, thought Dikta.

"About that Kendall, as someone who used to sit in the stands, I cant help but notice you seemed to have 'bulked up' this season, I mean by Ulric man, you carried "Snowflake's coffin to Moorspark by yourself, I've never seen such strength."

"Kendall like green sweets," came the simple response, as if no other explanation was needed.

"Come, Kendall show Mike".

Reyes went to his locker and beckoned Dikta over with a wave of his ham-like fist.

Dikta looked at Reyes, he was holding open a box that suffused with a faint green glow, its was beautiful he thought, in an eerie kind of way, like a chunk a warpstone he had once seen at a visiting wizards circus he had once gone too.

"Coach F say he like Kendall very much. Like him even more if he eats his gift of sweeties"

"Kendall like Coach, eat sweeties for him. Sweeties taste good. Mike eat"

Was this a question, a team order, Dikta was confused. He looked at the box again, he was having second thoughts, the glowing sweets looked beautiful, but now in a risky, maybe dangerous way.

There was writing on the box too that he had not at first seen. The box was post marked from San Luis and the sender was one Coach Neubau, a former DLE coach who was rumoured to have a unique a successful strength and conditioning regime.

Reyes friendly laughter boomed out... "Now Mike eat, get strong like Middenheim Mountain"

Dikta watched as Kendall Reyes wandered away and picked up his Keg of Bugmans like it was no weight at all and begin to guzzle once again from it. Reyes looked contented.

The rest of the locker room was still celebrating still, Dikta looked around and took it all in. Coach F talking to Coach C98. and handing him an envelope. The assistant GM and star Blitzer John Doe leading some of the Sluggers Elven Cheerleaders into the private section of the looker room. There was Theo Riddick, laughing with relief as his retold the story of how he had needed his catch skill to make sure that he scored the last minute winning TD. Even the normally taciturn Bronko Nagurski was celebrating and not just because he found the name and address of the referee for the next game ahead of time.

The Draft was coming soon and Dikta knew the Classics had a lot of picks and the rumours in Die Fauschlag Nachtrichten were that all the rookies were going to be replaced.

Dikta loved the Classics, he was once a fan and now it was a dream to be a player. He wanted to stay a part of this and he was going to show Coach that he had earned his spot on the team for next season.

Without further hesitation he swallowed the sweets. By the gods, Reyes was right, they did taste good. As he walked over to celebrate with a group of players, he was sure he was imagining it, but he felt +ST already...