Date: Mon, 02 Nov 1998 16:38:04 -0600
Subject: Commentary

Title: The Pre-Game Hoopla
Author: Luan D. Lascy
Rating: G
Classification: I'm not too sure on this one. It's a commentary, I'll
leave it at that. Vignette?
Spoilers: all of 'em, through and including The End
Keywords: none
Summary: It's the bottom of the ninth, and the tension is high here 
at the X-Files Championship League. . .
Disclaimers: Mulder & Co. aren't mine, they're Chris Carter's, yadda-
yadda-yadda.
*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&

"Welcome back, X-Philes. It's been a tense summer hiatus for all 
X-files fanatics. To recap what happened last quarter, the DC 
Syndicates had dealt a crushing blow to the Roswell Truth Crusaders. 
They've burned their locker room, which has all but destroyed the 
Crusaders' morale. The Syndicates have also abducted the Crusaders' best 
player of the quarter, an eleven-year-old telepathic chess player named 
Gibson Praise. Jim, this is not boding well for the Crusaders, is it?"

"No, Dan, it certainly isn't.  The Syndicates have already seriously
hurt the Crusaders' chief player, Fox Mulder, by having his sister
Samantha tell him not to follow her anymore."

"You believed she was real, Bob? I mean, there have been so many other
clones, couldn't this recent Sam have been another Syndicate plot to
throw Mulder off track?"

"It could be, Dan, but Mulder believes she was real enough, and as so
often happens in these playoff games for the Truth, belief is 
everything, and Mulder certainly wants to believe. Say, did that poster
burn down as well?"

"I think the edges were singed, but that's all, Bob."

"Great. I liked that poster. Anyway, getting back to Samantha, I think
that the plan was to get Mulder to give up the quest for the Truth, but
it backfired because now Mulder has lots more to fight for than his 
sister. Scully, for one, and also revenge against the Syndicates. So 
Samantha shook him up a little, but as we saw he was back on his feet
for the next round."

"So the bottom line, Bob: will the Crusaders pull through these 
obstacles on their quest?"

"I think they've got a good chance, Dan. If you'll remember the first
time they were shut down, they managed to re-open them."

"Yes, but only when Scully was abducted, because as Coach Walter Skinner
said, 'it's the only thing they fear'. And anyway, the X-files weren't
burned to a crisp in the second season. Jim, how about you? Will the 
Crusaders pull through, and if so, at what cost?"

"I don't think there will be much cost, Bob. I think the new player
Diana Fowley will pull through the bullet to the chest she took while
protecting Praise, and the Crusaders' agents the Lone Gunmen will have 
copies of the X-files on disks. I think that Praise will either lose his
telepathic abilities or he will be killed, and Mulder and Scully won't
be able to find their Truth this time around. They will, however, keep
looking."

"And what about this alleged relationship between new player Jeffrey
Spender and Cancerman?"

"Humph, I don't know about that, Dan. I think we'll be left to wonder 
about that for another season."

"Bob, there have been some rumors that the Lone Gunmen will die in this
season. Any input on that?"

"Well, if so, it will certainly fit the pattern. Just about every 
informer for the Crusaders has been killed; in comparison, the Lone Gun-
men have lasted far too long. X died off in two seasons, Marita barely 
made it through one, and we know Deep Throat was killed off before the
second season began."

"All right, thanks Bob. In exactly six days and  21 hours, we will know
exactly what came of all out speculations over the summer."

"Personally, Jim, I am counting the days."

"Aren't we all? In the meantime, try not to go insane from suspense, and
we'll see you on Sunday."

X-X-X-X-X

Please do not respond, I am not allowed to receive E-mail from people I
don't know. (I'm only 14.)

"If I quit now. . ."
"They win."
-Mulder and Scully, "Fight The Future"