[Libertas Omnium Maximus]

Chapter 1: Genesis

Athlete's Village, Eastfield Lodge
10-hours to Quarter Finals

Tom Levi, though the center of an enormous scandal, The "sedate-gate," couldn't have felt any more relaxed as he walked into the Team's private gym. Tom was a very laid back guy to begin with. He wasn't as uptight and professional as Vanderbilt, nor was he authoritative or aggressive by nature, like Brookshire or Mueller. Tom Levi was a very laid back man indeed. It was, perhaps, his greatest strength. He was a brilliant player, not because of his raw talent, of which he did have copious amounts of, but because of his ability to take a huge step back and see the big picture. It gave him the ability to not get to drawn up in the heat of the moment.

He slowly took a seat one of the gym's treadmills, methodically took off his bedroom slippers, and put on his running shoes. No need to go to hard today, he thought to himself, The risk of pulling a muscle outweighs the possibility of a strategic advantage on the pitch. He set his watch for 45 minutes, hoped up onto the treadmill, began to jog lightly, and slowly fell into the methodical rhythm of putting one foot in front of the other. The was no real reason he had to bore himself by thinking of nothing so he let his mind slowly wander.

His first instinct, as he was only hours away from the match of his career, was to take a nice morning stroll down memory lane. He had always been a nostalgic man. It seemed that he was becoming more and more sentimental by the hour. He had even brought his first pair of cleats for good luck. He had dragged them all over the world just for their sentimental value.

Just as simply as it came, his sentimental wonderings vanished and he increased his pace one step. Was I sedated in order to give my opponents an advantage he asked himself. More importantly, by whom?

Levi was a smart man, it hadn't taken him long to figure out that this had to have been an inside job. It couldn't have been a fellow player. He was at bare minimum certain of that. No player, even a reserve, would have had the opportunity to drug the drinks. He also figured out that the person who was behind the event didn't know all too much about the inter-workings of the team since it seems that they only drugged the largest cooler.

There was a team superstition that only Darkas and Levi didn't follow: "Never drink out of the 5 gallon cooler." It was, in Tom's opinion, the stupidest thing he had heard of so he ignored it. He happily filled his bottle up from it every time. If the perpetrator knew the team, he would have known not to drug the % gallon cooler but instead drug the 3 gallon ones. This meant that he could rule out Alfonsi and Berkley, they had been with the team since 2018. They knew all about the superstition.

This actually narrowed the search down to about 10 people. Levi was about to step of the treadmill to explain his findings to Alfonsi when an idea came into his head. Suppose I conduct my own investigation. People will have a far looser tongue with me than with Coach.

In the most elevated state of contentment, Levi let his mind wander onto the game ahead.

[Libertas Omnium Maximus]

Chapter 2: Opportunities

Athlete’s Village, Eastfield Lodge
9 hours until Quarter Finals

Tom stepped from the steaming shower onto the warm tiles of his bathroom in a contemplative state. He wrapped a towel around his waist and walked out into his room. Gingerly, he sat down on his bed and lofted his phone from the night stand. It was a brand new Andromeda 8 made by the tech company his girlfriend worked with. He turned it on and taped his way onto the GroupYou app. It displayed the message he had been hoping for.

Vincent: Y’all Ned not worry yourself with a full blown practice or a scheduled meet up until 5:00 AM. More info to follow.


Tom smiled. He was going to enjoy having the next couple hours to do his investigation. He stood, dressed quickly, pocketed his phone and left his room after snagging a note pad and pen off of the nightstand.

5 minutes later
Tom nearly bumped into his first suspect, Steven Ruggiero. Tom knew that Steve was actually spearheading the official investigation. He could care less. The doctor knew medications and dosages better than anyone else and fidn’t know about the superstition. He was suspect #1, Tom decided.

[Libertas Omnium Maximus]

Chapter 3: What's up Doc?

Athlete’s Village, Eastfield Lodge
30 seconds later

“Doc, I have a question for you.” began Levi confidently.

“What can I do for you, Tom?” The doctor replied after moving one step closer to Tom.

“I have a question about Acedemetrexol.”

“That isn’t really how you pronounce it but, none the less, I would be happy to answer your question.”

“Where would one, hypothetically, get their hands on Acedema-Acedemi-the sedative?”

“Good question, Acedematrexol, as you call it is a fairly uncommon sedative and pain killer. It is a narcotic actually. It was originally designed for someone who was in immense pain. In low doses, it is sometimes used as a normal sedative. The type of dose you would have been exposed to, in example, couldn’t have been more than a few mL. Anything more than that and you would have collapsed.”

Tom led Steve from the hallway where they had met to the lounge. Tom took a seat in a comfy, synthetic leather armchair. Steve sat across from him in a similar chair.

“Please continue.” Tom said in a relaxed voice.

“Ok, to directly answer your question, it would be very easy to get Acedematrexol. That is assuming you had some sort of a medical background. It can also be prescribed to you. Mind you, to get this stuff prescribed for you, you essentially need to get run over or stabbed. I wouldn’t ever prescribe it for anything less than a cracked rib cage in you guys. It, in any form, would impede your game play for at least 24 hours. You should be totally fine now.”

“Oh yeah, I feel fine and wasn’t concerned with that. I was just trying to figure out what type of person could get the drugs in the first place.”

Steve plastered a fatherly grin across his face. “We are doing everything in our power to find the culprit. You need not be worried.” At that, Steve stood and walked from the room.

Tom made notes in his note pad discreetly and set out after his next subject.

[Libertas Omnium Maximus]

Chapter 4: Target Acquired

Athlete’s Village, Eastfield Lodge
Lunch time

Tom spotted suspect #2 out of the corner of his eye. Robert Bridgeman. He was one of the team’s assistant coaches. He was Tom’s least favorite and, more importantly, he was a very skittish person by nature. Tom plated his sandwich from the food court and walked towards Bridgeman’s table.

“Do you mind if I join you, Bob?” Tom asked confidently.

“Why not? Please... take a seat. What can I do for you, Tom?” He responded hesitantly.

“Nothing. I was just growing tired of Brookshire showing off.” He chucked at his own lie.

“Ok, well, I am happy to have your company. Last night I thought of a new defensive position for you guys if a striker comes down one of the sides.”

Play the game. Tom thought to himself. For the next 5 minutes, Tom sat through what was actually an extraordinarily well thought out strategy. He quickly moved it to his mental archives.

“How is life for you back in LOM?” Tom ventured.

“Not so good. Obviously, my team Portland FC, is great. The issue is that my wife just got into a car accident. Not good.”

“I am so sorry to hear that! Is she ok?” The wheels in Tom’s head were already turning.

“She is alright, just in pain sometimes. A lot of pain. It is really unfortunate.”

Tom was pretty sure he had peiced things together sufficiently. He concluded his conversation and went to seek out the remaining 8 people on his list. This was more for due diligence than anything though. He was pretty sure he had cracked the case. All he needed was a little more evidence.

[Libertas Omnium Maximus]

Chapter 5: The Trap

Athlete' Village, Eastfield Lodge
4 hours after BoF Quarter Final Round

Most people hadn't thought much of Tom slipping out of the team dinner to run to the nearby rod-and-gun shop. He had always been a fisherman and had told them earlier that he wanted to get a Eastfieldite River Bass lure since he had arrived. What he had actually picked up was a small motion camera (along with that Eastfieldite fishing lure).

One hour and 20 minutes later
Tom Levi had successfully laid a trap. Under the pretext of attempting to determine who was stealing all of the pizza from the Compound Cafe in the night, Tom had managed to convince Luke Brookshire, who's room was both across from Bridgman's and closest to the cafe, to let him hook the camera ha bought up to Luke's room's peephole. He would ideally be able to identify both who was stealing the pizza, and if Bridgman was attempting to dispose of the remainder of the Acedematroxol.

Tom had done the math, he knew that an average prescription bottle had about 30 Acedematrexol capsules, that was about 6x more than enough to kill an elephant. By Tom's math, there was a bottle with at least 22 capsules in one of two places: The trash or the bedroom of Robert Bridgman.

Tom had to suspect that it wasn't the former since all of the trash cans in the Village had been checked immediately after the scandal. Additionally, Bridgman didn't have many opportunities to dispose of it somewhere else. The team was very busy.

No, Tom had decided that the sedatives were still in Bridgman's room, he would be getting desperate, a man couldn't make it too long with that sort of a psychological burden. Tom just had to catch him in the act. That, was the true purpose for his camera.

Pleased with his work, Levi returned to his room and slept soundly.

The Next Morning

The camera had been tripped a grand total of 3 times. The first time was by Tom when he was leaving Luke's room after setting the trap, he had expected it to go off for him. The second and third time was by Andrew Posvak, he tripped it at 3:47 AM when he was leaving his room, and re-tripped it when he returned 5 minutes later, his face had a suspicious amount of spaghetti sauce on it.

Well, Tom thought to himself, at least I know who has been eating my Pizza. At that he turned the camera off, left Luke's room, and went off to train for a tough match. I will catch him eventually, he nearly said aloud as he worked his way towards the gym.

[Libertas Omnium Maximus]

Chapter 6: Endgame

Athlete's Village, Eastfield Lodge
Hours after Semi-Finals

Tom woke with a start as his phone buzzed on his chest. He didn't need to read the text, he knew what it would be saying. Methodically, he pulled a sweater on over his t-shirt and slowly ventured out into the hallway.

Eventually, he had had no choice but to let Luke in on the true nature of his plan. Luke wasn't a nosey guy by nature but anyone would want to know why their room was being used as a surveillance room. Tom had explained it all to him and also realized, since this was the teams final night before the team went back to Ethane. This night would be the one where, if he ever did, Rob would get rid of the remaining sedate tablets.

Tom had fixed up the camera so that its shutter would be loud enough to wake Luke up. He could then notify Tom via text and they would both move in for the "kill," phone cameras at the ready.

Tom met Luke already out the door. They both looked to the end of the hallway where they saw Rob Bridgman round a corner out of view. They took up pursuit very stealthily. They tailed him for about two minutes before he reached the cafe and went to the nearest trash receptacle. Slowly, his to tales to refuge behind a half wall, turned their phone cameras on, and began to watch Rob's proceedings.

Bridgman retrieved a large orange vial from his sweater pocket, opened it, and proceeded to dump its contents into the trash.

*CLICK!*

The noise of Luke's cell phone camera broke the silence. He had forgotten to turn the noise off. Luke said quietly a word one shouldn't ever repeat.

"Who goes there?" said Bridgman out loud. "I am armed, reveal yourself or I will shoot"

Before Tom had a chance to motion for Luke to re-consider, Luke had jumped up and approached Rob.

"Rob, I don't believe you are armed, what I can say is that you are about to go to prison for a long while!"

Bridgman retrieved a revolver from his sweater pocket and smiled nastily. "Oh... I really doubt that. You are going to hand over your phone or I will shoot you dead."

Tom realized with a start that Rob didn't know that he was there, just Luke. Tom immediately began to army crawl past the half wall and to the hallway. He meant to take the cafe's back exit.

"You wouldn't shoot me. I know that. You are a softy who wouldn't kill a fly."

"Don't try me. Just give me the damn phone or I will blow you to hell."

"I don't think you will" Every time Luke said it, he sounded less sure of himself. Tom had to act now or Luke was going to die.

"AHHH!" Tom charged through the back door. Rob rounded on him only to be kicked in the back of the head by Luke. He was out cold immediately.

Luke and Tom stepped back and viewed the carnage. Poor Rob was bleeding a bit and would have a master head ache when he awoke but would clearly be fine. Neither player was scathed.

Luke embraced Tom in the most "Luke-like" of Bro-hugs, nearly breaking all of Tom's ribs.

"Mission Accomplished." Tom said aloud.