Breach World Championship 2081 Part 3: The Spore

In contrast to the last one, this entry is after my self imposed deadline. Hopefully I don't make a habit out of this. Mid-terms fucked me up while I was writing the first draft of this. The good news is, I'm about to finish an online class I've been doing this semester, so my schedule will soon have some extra breathing room. I hope everyone enjoys the entry. If you do, please consider becoming a patron. There are numerous benefits, including deleted content, information from my personal notes, and the right to have me critique your story, or write one for you according to your specifications.

            Ryan and Sophia were still catching up—Ryan could have kept talking with her all night—when they heard a faint whirring by the door.  In flew a fist-sized red and white drone carrying a camera.  Following behind it, looking straight into the camera, was Marvin Blackwood, the captain of Sad Cake Binge Gaming.  Two more members of his team entered behind him.  They both had their own mini-drone: one blue and gold, one dark purple and black.  The drones were AI piloted and programmed to follow them around.  Presumably, they were using them to live-stream their entrance to the party.  “And here we are!” Marvin said into his camera.  He kept talking, but Ryan didn’t keep paying attention to what he was saying.  Max walked off the stage, where he had been dancing, and over to greet the entering team.  Sophia stared at them.

            “You’re thinking of pulling something?” Ryan said to Sophia.

            “More like daydreaming,” Sophia said.  “They’re good sports.  They can handle it.”

            Marvin went to the dance floor.  The other two headed toward the swimming pool.  Ryan wished he could use the pool himself, but he hadn’t thought to pack swim trunks.

            Ten minutes later, the music by the dance floor stopped, and Max’s voice rang out in its place.  “Hey, everyone, the annual Battle Royale game will begin in about twenty minutes.  Everyone should find their teammates and prepare to meet me in the lobby.”

            Ryan sighed.  “Do you think I can get away with not seeing Mitch until we’re in-game.”

            “No.”

            “You’re probably right.”  Ryan had agreed to come here.  He needed to think about Lisa.  He filled up his punch glass and packed some thickly sweet chocolate pastries onto a paper plate, and then he and Sophia made their way over to the corner where Jay and Mitch each had an arm around the other’s shoulder.  They adopted a chaster posture when they saw Ryan and Sophia approaching.  Ryan had expected some kind of glare from Mitch, but instead, the look on his face reeked of awkwardness.  He was shorter than any of them, including Sophia, and had neither a chin nor cheekbones.  He wore a gaudy light blue shirt under his jacket.

            “Hey, guys,” Sophia said, sitting down on the couch next to Jay.

            “Hi,” Mitch said.  Ryan took a seat on the chair next to the three of them.

            “Glad you guys came right over,” Jay said.  “We should spend a moment discussing strategy before the match starts.”

            “I guess,” Ryan said.

            Some things went unspoken.  They were playing Red Arachnia, which, in a Battle Royale match, was a very good thing.  Battle Royale matches differed from standard ones.  All eight teams would be set loose in one giant map, and they would go around trying to kill each other, with each player’s death eliminating them from the match.  Eventually, only one team would still have living members, and that team would be the winner.

            In this kind of match, it was normally a good idea to try not go get into too many fights, and of all the factions, Red Arachnia was the best at stealth.  They would have been even better off if they didn’t have Zap among them.  However, Zap could be stealthier than his size would lead one to expect.  He was immune to radar tools and wasn’t loud.

            Breach-bot would have designed the map so that hunkering down and hiding in one place would be unlikely to work, but that didn’t mean a stealth-oriented strategy couldn’t be effective.  If they played well, Unbroken could avoid fights, set a lot of traps, and wait around while the other teams killed each other off.  Of course, then they’d have to take on whoever was left, which would probably be one of the strongest teams in the match.  However, they’d go into that fight fresh, unlike their enemy.

            “Reigning Fire is obviously the biggest threat,” Mitch said.  “And since there’ll be another Gray Fungus in the arena along with them, we need to be very concerned about infection.”

            The other three agreed.

            “At the same time,” Jay said, “we don’t want to do anything that will slow the spread of infection in the arena.”  Infection was a status effect, meant to represent the Gray Fungus assimilating you into their hive mind.  Several of their abilities could affect you with it, and if they did, you would lose some control of your avatar.  If you tried to harm Gray Fungi, or help your teammates, there’d be a chance you’d seize up for several seconds.  If untreated, infection grew worse over time, and once it reached its final stage, you’d turn into an NPC drone, controlled by Breach-bot and allied with the Gray Fungus.  In a normal match, you’d then respawn as though you’d died.  Indeed, the infected often killed themselves to begin the respawn counter early rather than put up with the status effect.  In a Battle Royale, there was no respawning, so infection was all the more powerful.  As a robot, Zap didn’t have to worry about it, and Dash’s cybernetic components meant that he couldn’t be taken over completely, but for Mitch and Sophia it was a very serious hazard.

            However, Jay argued, if they made sure they were properly prepared to resist infection and then forged an alliance with one of the Gray Fungus teams, where they would help spread infection in exchange for being left alone, they would seriously harm the other teams.

            “I don’t feel like Reigning Fire would be up for an alliance like that,” Ryan said.

            “I see where you’re coming from,” Jay said, “but I think you’re wrong.  I take it you met Joss?”

            “Yep,” Ryan said.  “Would it be bad form to talk to Epidemic, or Reigning Fire I guess, out of game and coordinate this?” Ryan asked.

            “Probably,” Sophia said.

            “I’m not so sure,” Jay said.

            “Maybe you should ask Max,” Ryan said.

            “That would mean letting him know we’re doing it,” Sophia said.

            “If it’s allowed, most teams are probably doing it,” Jay said.

            “Fair point,” Sophia said.

            Jay rose from his couch.  “I’ll go find him.”

            He walked off.

            Mitch scooted away from the chair Ryan was sitting on and crossed his arms.  “Objectively, the second biggest threat is Ours is the Glory,” he said.  “But for us specifically, I think to us it’s a toss-up between Dying Gravity and Sad Cake Binge Gaming.”

            “Agreed,” Ryan said.  Sophia scooted closer to Mitch, as if to provide him moral support, and only then did Ryan realize what was going on.  He tried to think of something mildly encouraging but non-awkward he could say.  “Where Ours is the Glory and Pheonix are concerned, I think we just need to be careful to lay enough traps to keep them from fighting us at full strength.  That’s your job, of course.”

            “Right,” Mitch said.  “But back to the Pickciez teams.  Hiding from them is going to be a problem.  Do we have any particular strategies in mind.”  Pickciez were harder to hide from, because they were fast-moving and could search and area efficiently.

            “Be lucky, so they don’t happen across us” said Sophia.

            “That’s always plan A,” said Mitch.  “Failing that, though…”

            “Our best answer is probably raw power,” Ryan said.  “Especially if we have an alliance.”

            “And if we don’t?” Mitch said.

            “We can still probably take them in a straight fight, so long as they don’t catch us by surprise.  We just have to be wary enough not to let them sneak up on us.”

            “Stealthy approaches are sort of Sad Cake Binge’s whole thing.”

            “I’ll have my all-around vision.  Depending on the map, that’ll be enough on its own.”

            “I guess.”

            The conversation paused when they saw Jay coming back over to the couches.  “He said no,” Jay said as he sat down next to Mitch and grabbed his hand.

            “Drat,” Mitch said.

            Sophia told Jay what they’d said while he was gone, and by the time she was done it had been fifteen minutes or so since Max’s announcement.

            “Do we know where the bathroom is?” Ryan asked.

            “No,” Sophia said.

            Ryan stood up.  “Alright, I’ll see if I can find it.  I’ll meet you in the lobby.”

            “We’re cheering for you,” Sophia said.

//////////

            When he was finished in the bathroom, Ryan headed back to the ballroom.  He didn’t make it back to the couches before Max got back on the microphone and told everyone to gather in the lobby.  Ryan got together with his team.  All eight teams, save Ours is the Glory, gathered outside the door to the ballroom.  Ryan could identify the Epidemic kids by their age.  Only one of them had to be eighteen to force the team into the senior league, and it was easy to tell which one that was.

            We Rise as One stood next to them.  The youngest member of that team was middle aged.  They were also the best dressed.  Actual suits.  The only other people wearing those were the business executives and investors.  Dying gravity were dressed the most casually.

            “Thank you all for coming,” Max said from the top of the balcony that overlooked the lobby.  “And thank you for indulging this little tradition of mine.  I’m sure you know better than I do how much the fans love this.”  For just a moment, he looked directly into one of Sad Cake Binge Gaming’s camera drones.  “Please, follow me upstairs to the theater.  The helmets are in there.”

            The theater was large and dark, with eight rows of luxurious dark-grey leather reclining chairs.  They faced a large projector screen, like an old movie theater, but each one also had a holo-helmet built into its headrest.  Even all eight world championship teams would only take up half the seats.  Why did every chair have to have its own helmet?  When did Max use all of these at once?

            “Take your seats,” Max said, himself walking down to the front row and sitting on the rightmost seat.  Ryan took the closest seat to the entrance.  The rest of his team funneled in next to him.  Ryan reclined his seat all the way, then lowered the helmet over himself.  It fit over his head snugly, making physical contact with his neck and, microscopically, his spine, through which it would affect his brain.  He switched it on and closed his eyes.  The world around him faded all at once, like he was falling asleep, and a dream was beginning.  For a moment, he was weightless and blind.  Then, in an instant, the full proprioception of Zap’s body kicked in.  The sudden perception of weight made him stumble.  Once he’d gotten his balance, the black interior of a ship popped into existence around him, along with hum of electronics and the sound of working metal pipes.  The room was caked with rust, though the metal pipes in the corner seemed to have had recent maintenance.  Below Ryan, there was a red-brown metal floor.  Above him, bright strips of light on metal planks.  To his right and left, his teammates, each half his height: Sophia as Boost, Jay as Dash and Mitch as Spark.  Behind him, another wall with a manually-operated sliding door.  In front of him, a holo-terminal.  A hologram of Blast appeared in the center of the cabin.

            “Greetings, Comrades!” she said.

            “Hey,” Ryan said, in Zap’s robotic voice.

            “Greetings, Comrade Zap.  I hope you’ve all been enjoying your leisure time, but I’m afraid I must end it.  There’s a resort planet called Ju-Tai 2, and there’s a Terran general on it.  This is a particularly nasty one.  He once glassed a mining colony, killing about a thousand families, because he believed I was being harbored there.  I wasn’t, but I still took the gesture a bit personally.  The scumbag is allowing himself some R&R, because he doesn’t think we can figure out where he is.  We did.  He’s in a little cabin in a lovely valley.  Beautiful forests, and the most spectacular waterfall you’ve ever seen.  Shame to visit it with violence, but I think we’ll be doing the place a favor by scrubbing it free of this odious lump.  He’ll have a few guards, but I trust you can take care of that.  I’m sorry to send you on a mission with such little notice, but we only just discovered this opportunity, and we need to act now.  We don’t know when his vacation will end.  You will arrive there in a few hours.  Equip yourselves for the fight ahead, Comrades.  I’ll be in contact with you once you’re on the planet.”  Her hologram went away, and the four equipment selection terminals lit up.

            Ryan walked up to one.  As he chose his items, the main factor in his decision making was longevity.  This was going to be a long match, and he might get into several fights.  He would prefer to avoid choosing items he could only use a limited number of times.  His minigun would never run out of ammo.  He selected that.  His grenade launcher wouldn’t run out of its standard grenades, but it would run out of special grenades, including stun grenades, which were one of its main benefits.  “I’m going mini-gun and rocket launcher,” Ryan said.  Rockets were more accurate and did more damage than grenades.  With special grenades out of the picture, that made the rocket launcher a better choice.

            Ryan took two packets of healing potions hoping that would last him multiple combats.  The expandable shield was so broadly useful it was a must-have in any scenario, even though it was single-use.  Ryan also got a grappling hook.  “I have a grappler,” he told the others.  Him selecting that meant they didn’t need to.  He was large enough that they could all ride him while he climbed something.  Not needing their own grappling hooks meant they could use that slot for air filters that would prevent infection, or for the potion that healed it.

            When he was done selecting his tools, Jay had everyone list their choices.  Everyone agreed with Ryan’s decisions.  Mitch and Sophia made a few adjustments based on Jay’s advice.  Everyone but Ryan had an air filter and at least one anti-fungal potion.  Sophia had taken the spell that suppressed de-buffs.

            Jay told Breach-bot that they were ready.  Blast led them on a short walk through the ship to a hanger bay, where they boarded a landing craft.  Once the craft took off, they had nothing but a display screen through which to see the outside world.  Their ship had stopped at the edge of Ju-Tai 2’s solar system.  They traveled swiftly toward its center, passing a bright blue gas giant surrounded by three concentric rings.  Their destination came into view.  It was a tiny green dot.  They approached.  The planet looked like the earth, but with the blue and green switched.  They made contact with the planet’s atmosphere.  “You should be down there in just a few min—” Blast began, before being cut off by a burst of static.

            “Ma’am, you cut off,” Jay said.

            Another burst of static.

            A glob of Gray Fungal biomass came into view from the corner of the viewscreen, careened toward the ship and slammed into the hull, making the viewscreen go to static, and sending the lander tumbling end over end.  An alarm sounded.  Ryan grabbed Sophia, Jay and Mitch and held them to his person to keep them from tumbling around the ship and taking damage.

            “Warning, impact imminent,” said the ship’s computer.  Everything shook.  The lander roared down toward the planet’s surface.  A shield similar to Zap’s invincibility shield appeared around the four of them as their ship crashed into the valley.  The ship disintegrated around them, exploding, throwing their bubble off into the distance.  It hit the ground and popped, the four falling out onto a still clearing.  They were surrounded by the strange and varied chirping of alien crickets and the cawing and hooting of alien birds.  Ryan let go of his teammates.  All four of them stood.  Below Ryan was bright-green curly grass.  Above him was an open sky in the midst of a radiant pink and orange sunset.  Forest stretched off into the distance all around them.  The horizon was dominated to the left by a giant, black metal dam which seemed to seal off the bowl-like valley.  Blast’s voice echoed through Ryan’s head, fizzy and quiet.

            “…hostiles surrounding you, and we cannot retrieve you any time soon…” and with one last burst of static, she disappeared.

            Other than the forest, the main feature of their surroundings was a small dusty cabin, the size of a single room.  “Do you think the General is going to be important?” Mitch said into his helmet’s communicator.  His helmet was sealed, so if there were any enemies around, they wouldn’t overhear him.

            “Probably, or he wouldn’t have been mentioned,” Jay said.

            “Maybe We Rise as One is protecting him,” Ryan said.

            “Yeah, probably,” Sophia said.

            The others looked around to get their bearings.  “I’m not seeing anything notable about our surroundings besides that cabin, the woods, and that dam,” Jay said.  “Anyone disagree?”

            “The sunset is pretty,” Ryan said.  “That’s about it.”

            “Our first order of business is to find a good hiding place,” Jay said.  “From there, we can figure out how to contact one of the Gray Fungus teams.”  The valley seemed to be big enough that, if the teams were distributed equally, they had a decent amount of time before anyone stumbled across them.

            Sophia conjured a blue-gray ball and tossed it at Ryan.  This was a buff that would make him quieter and lighter on his feet so he wouldn’t leave tracks.  “Thanks,” he said, but as they went into the forest proper in search of a suitable hiding place, Ryan still had trouble not leaving evidence of his passing.  Zap was agile for his size, but moving through the forest required some tight squeezes, and he occasionally knocked over a rock or crushed a bush or bent a pair of trees away from each other while trying to squeeze between them.

            After about ten minutes, they hadn’t seen any sign of other players or of an obvious hiding spot.  “We need to figure out a direction to head toward,” Mitch said.  “Wandering aimlessly is just making metal-head over here leave more tracks for the other teams to find us with.”  Ryan held in his offense.

            “You’re right,” Jay said.  “Does anyone remember which way the canyon wall was closest?”

            “West,” Ryan said.

            “We’ll start heading that way, then.  There might be caves in the valley wall to hide in.”

            They changed direction.  “Do you think it’s possible break the dam?” Sophia asked a few minutes later.

            “What makes you ask?” Jay asked.

            “I mean, if I were Breach-bot, and I was going to design a set-piece for this big important showcase match, I might make a giant destructible dam.  Plus, if we can break it without hurting ourselves, we might kill off everyone else.

            “Maybe,” Jay said.  “Hmm.  We’ll head that direction if we don’t find a cave.”

            A few more minutes passed.

            “Get down!” Ryan said, falling flat against the path below them just slowly enough to make no noise.  The others followed suit.

            “What is it?” Jay asked.

            “We Rise as One,” Ryan said.  They had just come into view behind Ryan.

            Their travel was far less subtle than Unbroken’s had been.  They had their own giant robot: The nine-foot Heavy Dynamic Operations Unit.  He looked a lot like Zap, but more pristine: his armored plates were sleek white instead of rust brown.  His movements were less agile, but stronger.  His every step left an imprint in the earth beneath him.

            In front of him walked the sniper, Nealson, scanning his surroundings with his sniper scope.  That thing could see through cover.  If he looked in Unbroken’s direction, he’d see them.  We Rise as One also had a McCormick, and this one carried a flamethrower, with which he was trying to light the forest ablaze.  The trees weren’t taking to that strategy well.  They were burning, but the fire wasn’t spreading from tree to tree.  We Rise as One’s captain, a Morrison, was boosting the McCormick’s damage.

            “Will they see us?” Jay asked.

            “Nealson was looking around,” Ryan said.  “If he thinks to look down while checking this direction, yes.”  They were crouched, so he wouldn’t see them if he didn’t dip his gaze below his eye level.

            “Was he looking down?”

            “I didn’t see him look down, but I don’t know for sure.”

            They waited.  They could tell by the sound of H.D.O.U.’s footsteps that We Rise as One wasn’t heading directly toward them. 

            “I don’t think they know we’re here,” Ryan said.  “Should we use this opportunity to sneak attack them?”

            “That would kind of go against our stealth strategy,” Jay said.        

            “And a brawl would attract others,” Mitch said.

            “True,” Ryan said.

            “I’ll buff us just in case shit goes down,” Sophia said, and she threw balls at everyone, making Jay and Mitch faster, herself more robust, and Ryan’s damage output greater.

            Then, the H.D.O.U. stopped.  “I see something,” he said, in a booming mechanical voice.  “This tree is uprooted.”

            “It could just be a feature of the map,” the McCormick said.

            A moment passed.  “I don’t think so,” Morrison said.  “This dirt has been freshly moved.

            “Do we think it was another player, then?” McCormick asked.

            “I think it just might be,” Morrison said.  “Either a Huel-drark or the Zap.”

            “Prep for battle,” Jay said.

            Ryan pulled out his rocker launcher and pointed it in the other team’s direction.  If he was lucky, he’d be able to score a direct hit on Nealson.

            “Any idea when they might have been here?” McCormick asked.

            “No way of telling exactly,” Morrison said.

            “They’re over there!” Nealson shouted.

            The entirety of Unbroken sprang up.  Ryan fired a rocket at Nealson.  Jay drew his stun pistol and rushed toward We Rise as One’s flank.  Sophia summoned a sphere of crackling yellow energy and threw it at H.D.O.U.  Mitch strafed to the right and took cover behind a tree.  Perhaps he intended to hack H.D.O.U. from that position.

            The enemy’s Morrison shot a stream of red energy at H.D.O.U.  Now glowing and crackling with said energy, the robot fired his rail-gun at Ryan.  McCormick fired his flamethrower toward Jay, and Nealson rained sniper bullets at Sophia.

            But neither side managed to hit the other.  Instead, everyone’s projectiles struck an invisible wall, which shimmered with every impact.  McCormick’s flames blasted back toward him.  Nealson’s bullets flew straight back at the rifle that had fired them, phasing through it and hitting Nealson in the chest.  H.D.O.U.’s rail-gun slug reflected back into him and knocked him backward and onto his back.  Sophia’s flew shot back at her, freezing her in place.  Ryan’s rocket flew back at him doing a lot of damage and making him stumble.  Ryan used a healing potion.  Jay smacked into the invisible wall like a pigeon, stopping dead and falling backward.  Laughter echoed in the trees above them.  Ryan had heard the same laughter before.  It belonged to Marvin Blackwood of Sad Cake Binge Gaming.  Marvin’s character Cloun had the ability to summon a reflective wall like that one.

            The wall went away after only a second or two, but neither team resumed firing on the other.  As Morrison healed him, Nealson pointed his rifle upward, and shot through the canopy at something Ryan couldn’t see.

            Ryan got an idea.  “Give me a speed buff,” he said, once Sophia was unfrozen.  Sophia did.  Ryan shifted into sphere mode and plowed into the weakest tree he could see.  It fell in one clattering piece.  The fallen tree’s contribution to the canopy was now gone, making a patch of starlit sky visible above them.  Ryan ran straight into another tree.  Mitch got a robotic drone out of his backpack, and threw it into the air, instructing it to seek out Pickceiz and destroy them.  Jay dashed over to the area Ryan had cleared, pointing his stun gun upward.

            The H.D.O.U. seemed to like Ryan’s idea of taking away the enemy’s cover.  He grabbed a nearby tree with both arms, and tore it out of the ground, its roots ripping, then dangling from its base as H.D.O.U. tossed the tree aside.  McCormick switched to his mini-gun and pointed it toward the new hole his ally had created.  As H.D.O.U. got to work on another tree, Mitch’s drone flew over the first gap H.D.O.U. created.  It fired at something still hidden behind the canopy.  Nealson snapped his aim over to it and started firing at a spot just past the canopy’s new edge.  Ryan took his humanoid form and pointed his rocket launcher in the same direction.  He fired a rocket into the canopy, but it harmlessly brushed through leaves and flew off into the sky.

            As the H.D.O.U. worked to uproot another tree the ground he stood on fissured then opened below him, revealing a pit lined with colorful stripes.  The robot fell in and crashed into the bottom with a clank.  A purple streak, which could only have been SCBG’s Spukee, moved into the pit, taking a bit of fire from McCormick on the way down, but managing to avoid a stunning shot from Jay.  The sounds of tearing metal and human screaming echoed from the pit.  Railgun slugs rained out of it.  A thin yellow beam shot into the pit from above.  Jay dashed to the side of the pit and fired his stunning pistol toward the source of the beam.  He hit its originator: Lyfe, the Pickceiz’ healer.  The creature fell to the ground, stunned.  Ryan took his sphere form and rolled over the creature, crushing it.

            There was an explosion in the pit, and Spukee flew out, cackling.  He was showered with gunfire as he flew back into the trees but most of it missed him.  Just before he faded from sight, he summoned an illusion, the image of a giant, sickly black, and rotting raven, crawling with maggots.  The creature spread its wings and cawed.  All of the humans ran away from it in terror.  Only Ryan was immune to the effect.  We Rise as One ran to Ryan’s left, and Unbroken ran to his right.  Ryan followed his team.

            Behind him, Sord, the Pickcei with a large magical blade, flew at the fleeing Nealson and buried its sword into him.  That broke the fear effect and allowed Nealson to turn around and retaliate.  Ryan pointed his rocket launcher backward and fired at the pair of them, hoping to hit the Sord dead-on and cause the Nealson splash damage.  The opposite happened.  Sord flew to the left, and the rocket blew Nealson to pieces.  Sord turned around and rushed toward Unbroken.  All at once, the fear effect on Unbroken wore off, and they turned back toward the battle.  Ryan shot at Sord with his minigun, but only managed to graze him.  Jay fired a stunning blast at the creature.  It swerved to avoid that shot, and then flew back above the trees.  Unbroken pointed their weapons upward, but Sord did not return to menace them.

            “We should leave, and let them fight each other,” Jay said.  “It’s very unlikely that all of them will follow us.”  Unbroken retreated, and, fortunately for them, were not pursued.  Once they were sure of this, they stopped, and Sophia made sure everyone was at full health.  They slowed down and resumed trying to move stealthily.  They were close enough to the cliff face to see it looming over them in the distance through occasional gaps in the trees.  The rock was light beige and filled with thick orange stripes.

            They came upon another clearing, lit by starlight.  Four moons loomed above them.  One giant, bright white and full of craters.  One was dark but gleamed like marble.  One was small and dark blue, and the final one was whitish blue, like a pale imitation of the third.  The sky was thick with stars, and the Milky Way streaked across it.  The ground was covered in tiny gray mushrooms.  Mitch and Sophia covered their faces.  “Spores!” Mitch said.  They were invisible, but no one could miss the scent of their wet, dusty, shroomy rot.  Everyone but Ryan activated their air filters, which would reduce their risk of infection.

            “This is good,” Jay said, as he adjusted his mask to fit snugly over his nose.  “We were looking for a Gray Fungus team.  One of them has been this way.”

            “We should track them, then?” Mitch asked.

            “Yes,” Jay said, after a moment.  “We need to track them.”

            “And if they refuse our alliance, the plan is to run away?” Sophia asked.

            “Only from Reigning Fire,” Jay said.  “We can take Epidemic in a fight.”

            “This trail is from Reigning Fire,” Ryan said.  “Look around.  All the trees are in place.  There’s no way Epidemic’s Mog’Inub has been here.”  Mog’Inub was the largest playable character in the game: four stories tall and just as long, shaped like a giant L with spidery legs, covered in eyes, mouths and rupturing pustules from which she could summon horrible spawn.  There would be no mistaking the signs of that creature’s passing.

            “That’s the better party to make the alliance with, anyway,” Jay said.  Neither Mitch nor Sophia objected.  Ryan sighed.  He took note of all the mushrooms he could see.  They formed a line that bisected the clearing diagonally.

            “The trail goes like this,” Ryan said, pointing one arm ahead and to his right and the other behind and to his left.

            “So which way did they come from and which way did they go?” asked Mitch.

            “The right leads away from the center of the valley,” Jay said.  “That’s probably our best bet.”

            And that’s the way they went, following the trail of mushrooms.  They occasionally encountered more than a mushroom.  There were strands of fungal mass hanging from some of the trees.  Elsewhere, patches of ground were covered in thick, rough fungal growth.  Among those patches of ground was the whole surface of a small hill in the shape of a perfect half-circle.  Half-sticking out of was a fully infected Clypeus.  Clypeus was a member of the Legion of the Iron Star, who normally possessed a massive shield.  This one, however, had lost track of it.  The monster roared and raved at Unbroken as they passed.  Ryan put it out of its misery.

            Things like these grew more common as they advanced.  They were catching up to their enemy.  What would Jay do to try to get Reigning Fire’s attention?  What would they think Unbroken had to contribute to an alliance?  They had speed and stealth.  That was sort of the opposite of what Reigning Fire had going for them.  They were big and powerful but left this fungal growth everywhere they went.

            Eventually, there was stomping in the distance.  Unbroken stopped following the trail and headed directly toward it.  Jay picked up a rock and got out his laser gun.  He used the laser to carve ‘we want to talk’ on the rock.

            “I’m apprehensive about that plan,” Ryan said.

            “I am too,” Jay said, “but I think it’s our best shot.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to gauge their reaction to it without having to put myself in danger.  I’ll run back this way if anything goes wrong.  Jay dashed ahead.  After he was out of sight, the others heard Jay through their communicators.  “I see them,” Jay said.  “It’s Reigning Fire.”  Their footsteps came through as clearly as Jay’s voice.  Each one made a terrible squishy thromp.  “I’m throwing the rock.”  A pittering sound as the rock hit grass.  “They saw it,” Jay said.  “They’re stopping to examine it.  They’re talking about it.”  Half a minute passed.  “They’re looking around.  They’re raising their weapons.  Fuck!  Fuck!  Start running!  I’ll catch up with you!”  Unbroken turned around and started running.

            “How far away are they?” Ryan asked.

            “A few hundred feet behind you.”

            Jay caught up with the rest of the group and slowed down to keep pace with them.  Mitch pulled out another drone and ordered it to go back and hold off Reigning Fire.  About a minute later, they heard an explosion.  Not long after that, a member of Reigning Fire came into view.  It was the giant cloud of fungal spores, Ichaboth.  The creature was ten times Ryan’s size, spread out like a bank of fog across the ground.  Ryan held his minigun out and fired into the creature.  These bullets wouldn’t do much, but anything was helpful.  Jay ordered the team to spread out, forcing the creature to go after only one of them.  It chose to follow Mitch.  It approached and then surrounded him, causing him to disappear within its fog.  Jay ran over, pulling out a little hand-held flamethrower, and shot it at the monster.

            Something beeped inside Ichaboth.  The monster started moving away from Jay at full speed.  Jay dashed in the opposite direction.  Mitch flew out of the top of Ichaboth, riding the blast of his jetpack.  He grabbed a high branch of a thick oak.  A fiery explosion engulfed more than half of the monster, making him dissipate.  He reformed a moment later but was smaller.

            The rest of Reigning Fire emerged from the trees behind them.  Joss’ own character was in front.  Huel-drark was a gray giant, covered in smooth, moist flesh.  One arm was a cannon.  The other was a shield.  Behind him, Xig’zah, a jagged creature shaped like a ten-pointed star with a spindly leg protruding from each point, skittered across the ground.  The titanic walking mushroom Avaggdon lumbered behind the two of them.  Joss pointed his cannon directly at Ryan, who took sphere form and rolled out of the way.  Ryan took his normal form, and shot a rocket at Joss, who was likewise able to dodge him.

            From the top of his tree, Mitch tossed a grenade at the approaching foes.  Xig’zah leapt onto the trunk of a different tree to avoid it.  Jay emerged from behind yet another tree and shot a paralyzing bolt at the spider, who fell back the ground, landing close to the grenade.  It exploded, throwing Xig’zah into the air and setting him aflame.  Joss jumped forward, allowing the blast of the grenade to push him toward Ryan.  He aimed at Ryan’s chest, then, when Ryan dodged, he took his actual shot, landing a hit.  Sophia tossed a healing orb into him, and Ryan used one of his own healing potions.

            The Avaggdon plugged itself into the ground.  It lit up, glowing bright blue.  It spun in place, and the ground shook.  Joss grabbed onto a tree to keep his balance.  Ryan had nothing to grab onto, so he fell backward.  Sophia managed to keep her balance for a few strides, but then tripped.  Joss charged up his cannon, aiming at Ryan’s prone form.  Ryan took his sphere form and barreled straight toward Joss.  The laser blast shot through him, knocking off a chunk of his health, and he crashed into into Joss, knocking him back and onto the ground.  Ryan took his normal form and shot a pair of rockets straight at Joss’s face. 

            Once Joss’ laser cannon recharged, he fired up at Ryan, but Ryan anticipated this and dodged to the right.  Before Joss could stand, he leapt into the air, took sphere form, and landed on his prone enemy.  Joss was half-crushed, but still alive.  He lifted Ryan and threw him backward, away from the rest of Unbroken.  Ryan took his main form.  Ichaboth flew over to Joss, and settled over him, healing him.  Xig’zah leapt toward Ryan.  Ryan jumped out of the way, and the spider landed on the ground near him.  With another spin, Avaggdon morphed the ground around them, raising a great wall that sealed Ryan and Reigning Fire off from the rest of Unbroken.  Xig’zah jumped Ryan again, this time managing to latch onto his face.  The monster made a noise like a deep but shrill chuckle and vomited a sticky viscous gray blob onto Ryan.  Ryan ripped the creature off his face and tossed it aside, but the glob stayed stuck to him.  Ryan knew from experience that there was no point trying to get it off.  At the same time, Ichaboth reshaped itself to surrounded him.  The fog penetrated him, moving between his rusty metal plates and leaking into his circuits.  He expected to take damage but didn’t.  Ichaboth was doing something else.  Ryan’s one-million eyes went wide at once.  Only one of Ichaboth’s debuffs would be useful in this situation.  Ichaboth could inflict frailty.  He was ensuring the bomb would kill him in one shot.  That only left one question left to be answered: Where was Joss?  He’d been down on the ground just a second ago.  Ryan listened for the creature’s squishy footsteps.

            They were to the left.  Ryan lunged toward them, tackling Joss as he tried to escape the fog.  Ryan pinned him to the ground.  Joss struggled, but Zap was bigger than Huel-drark, and Ryan kept the monster under him.  The blob on his face exploded, consuming the two of them in a flash of light and pelting them with sharp gray shrapnel.

//////////

            Once he had exited the game, Ryan took his helmet off and stood.  To the right of the theater, several seats away, Joss did the same thing.  Ryan waved politely at Joss, but Joss didn’t acknowledge him as he left the theater.

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