"Hey." A boy's voice made me jump a little because it had been so quiet while Lisa held me."Oh," Lisa put on a smile and we both looked to see boy sta...ding in the hallway looking at us. "Jay. Hi ... Um..." Lisa sorta untangled herself from me and I let her go reluctantly. "Oh! This is Ann, she's a ... friend of mine ... This is my brother, Jeremiah."At least he hadn't caught us making out, but it sorta felt like he had, if only because it had been a tender moment. I didn't like the intrusion. Where the soil wasn't frozen, it was churned up by the hooves of mammoth, rhinoceros and horse as they were funnelled rather too close for mutual comfort along narrow valleys where lions, hyenas and wolves gathered in their greatest numbers."This reminds me of my long journey northwards with Demure," said Glade as she scraped off as much as she could of the glutinous muck that coated her fur boots."I still don't understand why you stayed with the conniving bitch," said Ivory."Often, if nothing. And no one outside of the campaign services industry said they missed the national election cycle now that it was gone.The Emperor had been sincere about moving control over many local issues back much closer to the people who pay for, and benefit from, them. The apathy engendered by previous events where the people felt powerless to affect the juggernaut of their government running roughshod over its citizens finally started to lift. This brought about a resurgence of interest in local. That had to be pretty unnerving to any opponents!By then the entire team was known as the Goon Squad, not just the defense. We continued to dominate our games, both inside Region Three and outside. We’d show up at a game and our fans would all be wearing purple, either our shirts or something of their own, and they would just start screaming, ‘GOON SQUAD! GOON SQUAD!” over and over. Out on the field, the defense was kicking ass and taking names. That had to totally freak out whoever we were.