Flag Race

by Felipe Valente

  In the afternoon, Pedro and his friends were chatting on their tablets while they played a match of one of their favorite online games.

  “Oh, boy, that physics teacher must really like us, huh?” Daniel remarked. “Man, can’t believe I’m gonna spend the next weeks with Amanda! That body! That was all I needed for her to get to know me better and fall in love with me.”

  “Nice, man, I’m happy for you...” Luiz kept his lack of enthusiasm. Daniel ignored him.

  “Pedro also won the jackpot, huh? But say, Pedro, after all, do you like her or not? Why don’t you say something to her?”

  Pedro tightened his lips before answering.

  “Oh, I don’t know, man. I don’t want to lose her friendship. If it’s meant to be, it will work out sometime. Let’s see what happens in the following days while we prepare that presentation... Today was really cool, but... I don’t know.”

  “You’re goofing around too much, Pedro,” Luiz replied, changing his stance a bit. “Of course you like her! Look at the chance you’re wasting. Meanwhile, I’m too ugly, fat, and nerdy to make any move because I’ve got, like, zero chances with girls...”

  “Yeah, you should make a move on her already!” Daniel added. “If she’s really your girl, everything will work out OK.”

  “Well, while you two are too busy bugging me, I’m kicking your asses.” A satisfied Pedro looked at the screen, which read “You win!”

  After what seemed like forever, night had finally fallen. Pedro soon was Ace again as he entered the court with his friends. Everyone was inline. He looked around.

  Kerah was fit as usual, keeping her sniper rifle always handy. Dante stretched himself, excited for the practice. Asuka merrily hopped around as she said hello to everybody. Ace could only recognize Bobby because he’d gotten his profile recorded on his own Neurolink. The minotaur from before was now a dwarf with a long red beard and a huge battle hammer in his hand. Still going smooth! thought Ace. Mary smiled at her friends. Her hair struggled to keep a greenish hue, but her excitement caused it to constantly change its color.

  It was an intense practice session. On the red team, together they fought the AI’s six hard-level mannequins on the blue team. Ace now realized that he and Mary had only actually beat the easy level last time.

  In the first minutes of the game, Asuka and Mary had both been disintegrated, pierced by metal spears tossed from the other side of the court. Without their Molders, Pedro and his mates were unable to stop two swift mannequins riding flying horses from stealing two flags from their team. The “2-0” reverberating on the scoreboard inspired fear in Pedro and despair in Dante. If they couldn’t even beat the CPU, how could they expect one day to join the official league?

  Shortly after, however, they started fighting back. Bobby took advantage of Ace and Dante’s efforts in distracting the enemies to tear three of them asunder with accurate hammer blows. The reduced dummy team couldn’t keep up with Dante’s acrobatics or Ace’s fast magnetized roller blades, even though several holes had been opened in the game line to set them back.

  “2-2.”

  Mary and Asuka were back at last. While they were still being put together, new spears were tossed at them again. Kerah accurately shot and destroyed both in mid-air, only to target the head of one of the spear-tossing mannequins soon after, blasting it into pieces.

  Back in action, the two Molders made a real effort to protect the final remaining flag. A huge space-time bubble made by Mary drastically slowed down anyone who passed the game line’s threshold, while an electrical storm made by Asuka would destroy the poor bastard.

  Dante and Ace were speeding up as fast as they could toward their opponents’ final flag. They wanted to take advantage of the time they had before those four disintegrated team members were back in the game.

  As expected, the remaining mannequins had fortified their defenses: a hail of stones fell constantly over the twisted lane they were defending. The team’s other spearman struck Bobby hard while he dodged the huge falling rocks.

  “Ace! Go back to the center of the court!” Dante yelled through his Neurolink.

  “What?” Ace was baffled. They had to make good of the time they had. “No way, I’m coming with you!”

  “Trust me! You’ll understand! Kerah, I need you to keep me covered!”

  “No prob!”

  Ace returned against his will back to the center of the court, to a patch that was still free from the falling rocks. He felt useless waiting while his friends were busy doing all the work. He’d come to practice, not to stand idly around! He decided he’d give Dante only a few more seconds before giving up on his plan.

  “Come on, Dante! They’re reappearing here!” Mary screamed. “They’re trying to destroy our defenses with bombs! Our stability won’t hold much longer!”

  Ace looked back. He could see the places from which the mannequins were bombarding his team’s fortifications. Should he go back to help? Why did Dante tell him to wait?

  As he watched him return to the center of the court, with the flag strapped to his back, Ace finally started to understand. Kerah managed to protect him from several spears, wrecking them mid-air like she’d done to protect the Molders. Besides, with her accurate shots she was splitting the rocks in half as they were about to fall over the white-haired Runner, but she wouldn’t be able to cover Dante for much longer. More and more, the opponents were increasing the intensity of their effects, trying to overwhelm them.

  If Ace had advanced with Dante, surely one of them would end up defeated. Kerah couldn’t protect both of them at the same time. With his green trench coat flapping behind him, Dante was gaining more and more ground, faster and faster. Using his sword, he cut some of the rocks in half as they stood in his way, while dodging others with acrobatic leaps.

  “Ace! Now! Over here!” Dante took the banner from his back and was stretching out his arm, holding it toward Ace.

  Ace sped up as fast as he could. Dante must be at almost zero stability! I’ve got to get the flag from him before he disintegrates! No more than a few feet’s stretch kept them apart. Behind the flag-holding Runner came two mannequins, still tossing spears at them.

  Ace managed to grab the flag from Dante’s hands just before his friend was struck by one of the projectiles on his back.

  “Run... kid... run!” Dante whispered, before disintegrating.

  Ace didn’t even blink. He started as fast as he could toward their base. There was nothing in his mind but his goal. He didn’t even hear the explosions caused by the clash between the mannequins and Mary and Asuka, nor did he hear Kerah’s shots, directly targeting the opponents that had vanquished Dante. In his mind there was only enough room for his mission. He held the flag firmly in his hands as he saw the distance between him and the pedestal getting shorter and shorter.

  “They’re coming through! They’re going to get our flag!” Asuka screamed.

  “Don’t worry!” Ace cheerfully answered.

  “What do you mean, don’t worry!?”

  He allowed the scoreboard to speak for him: “3-2!” All indicators of their victory started appearing: the cheerful fanfare, fireworks and an exciting “Red team wins!” plastered over all the big screens.

  All of them gathered around Ace, including Dante and Bobby, who had been put back together.

  “Nice one, Ace! Do you get it now why I asked you to wait?” Dante smiled. “I wanted them to spend all of their stability on me, so you’d have more of a chance to score. And it worked, didn’t it?”

  Mary hugged him.

  “I thought we were going to lose! You have no idea how hard it was to hold back those bots! Thank you so much, Ace!” She kissed him on the cheek. He blushed at the same time her hair took on a reddish hue. They quickly drew back, and Ace looked around, while she kept a puzzling stare on him.

  “May this be the first victory of many!” Kerah celebrated.

  Dante opened his arms, expecting a hug from her which nev
er came. Then he turned to Asuka, waiting for an answer of some kind.

  “Oh, geez! You’re not gonna celebrate with me either?” he complained with smile on his face. “Where’s my hug and kiss, babes?”

  The girls looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Acting in perfect unison then, they gave him a low kick, which was followed by Asuka quickly freezing the inconvenient young man inside a large block of ice, leaving only his head exposed.

  “Damn, girls! Talk about giving me a cold shoulder!” he laughed. “And I didn’t even—” Asuka added some extra ice to the block, until it covered his mouth. A thankful Kerah gave her a wave of her hand.

  Minutes later, they were again gathered at a table in the Flag Race server. They talked about the tactics they’d used, recalled how they had freaked out early in the game and grew excited as they mentioned that the next amateur Flag Race championship was drawing near. There was only one month left! Between talks, Ace decided to ask, “Dante, can you tell me something? Couldn’t you have tossed the flag at me?”

  Bobby laughed behind his long beard. Dante threw his hair back before he answered.

  “It’d be too easy if I could, Ace. When they’re not being touched by one of the players, the flags fall extremely fast down to the ground. As if they weighed a thousand tons or were being drawn by a huge magnet. That’s why you can’t, for instance, craft a little robot to grab the flag for you. Only players can move them.”

  “It was so funny the first time I tried to do that,” Asuka remarked. “I made a plush doll try to grab the flag for me. He pushed and strained as if it was Excalibur stuck on the rock. The flag didn’t budge a single inch. Then, when I got there, I lifted it with two fingers! You should see the bummed face the poor little doll made. I laughed so hard!”

  For the remainder of the conversation, Ace constantly caught himself gazing at Mary. Whenever he realized it, he always tried to bring his attention back to all his teammates equally, but it was inevitable. The girl drew him like a magnet. Though she pretended not to notice when she was being admired, Mary’s hair color every once in a while switched to pinker hues, and her enticing eyes every now and then fell on Ace.

  Chapter 06

  The days were passing by, and Pedro’s routine was beginning to change. He was going on the Neuralnet almost every night, while his family slept. His excitement in practicing with his friends slowly dissolved the old fear of being caught. It didn’t matter whether they were practicing against the CPU, other teams, or just with his own team. It was always fun.

  Ace’s stability was dropping ever slower now during matches. Forging his roller blades, for instance, didn’t make it drop a single percentage point. He didn’t need to breathe anymore. Creating monsters, robots, swords, grenades—everything was becoming easier and easier.

  His speed increased as well. As he slowly overcame his fears and the limits of his own mind, he could now accelerate and brake much more intensely than before. Even when he was wounded or disintegrated, his stability didn’t really suffer much. He managed to fly through the court on some occasions and even risked teleporting in one of the matches, though he couldn’t make himself reappear where he wanted to.

  Life offline was different too. His lack of sleep was beginning to take its toll during classes and this was affecting his performance on the exams. One day, at break time, his friends once again asked him if he was OK, and he realized it was time to tell them what was going on.

  “All right, guys. I have something to tell you, but you’re not supposed to freak out or tell anyone else.”

  He described what was happening. He told them he’d gotten a Neurolink for his birthday, but he was afraid of its dangers, and that was why he didn’t want to tell them before. Daniel and Luiz listened in amazement at what Pedro told them, and they could only imagine how exciting it would be to access the Neuralnet. Their eyes opened wide when he described his first access to the HUB and how nice it was of Kerah to help him out and how he’d discovered Flag Race. Then he began getting excited, wildly flailing his arms around as he gestured, talking loudly, and imitating his actions during the matches, while he explained the rules of the game to eager eyes and ears.

  “Aaaaaaaaawesome, dude!” Daniel couldn’t take his smile off his face while his friend went on.

  “Glad you’re enjoying it, man... My mother would never get me one of those.” Luiz kept his usual mood. “By the way, who gave you this thingamabob?”

  Pedro hesitated before answering.

  “Well, guys, it... It was Letícia and—”

  Daniel cut him short, his voice getting higher as his emotions intensified.

  “Marry her! Marry her, dude! Seriously, why on earth haven’t you made out with her already? She gives you the most wonderful gift you could get and you don’t even make a move on her? Dude, she must love you to give you a Neurolink!”

  “Uh, I don’t know... She’s nice like that, and I’m loving doing this physics research with her. In fact, I think she’s the coolest girl I know, but I don’t know... It’s like she’s always after that douchebag Thiago...”

  The three stared at each other sullenly for some time, as they remembered Daniel’s tablet, still cracked. Luiz broke the silence. “Just take care, man. Remember that Neuralnet is just like the Internet. There’s tons of websites you shouldn’t visit, mean people and all...”

  “I don’t worry about that, man. Most of my time inline I spend on Flag Race anyways. I still haven’t seen any locus other than the HUB and the game’s server, so there’s no beef.”

  Some days later, it was time to present their research. Pedro and Letícia were one of the first groups selected by the teacher. They went through their material beforehand, all the videos and examples they were going to use. Everything was ready, but still Pedro could feel a certain restlessness about Letícia.

  The girl had gotten it all prepared without any issues, but now she was dreading having to present it to the whole class. She didn’t want to lose her friendship with Amanda over something like this.

  She knew it was ridiculous. She also thought that if Amanda really abandoned her then she had never been a real friend and was undeserving of her attention. But Letícia had spent her whole childhood among the less popular, the excluded, and the bullied. Only now in her teens, with her new body and new friendships, did she manage to become at least a little bit more popular, noticed and valued. She didn’t want to lose her new status.

  “Are you all right, Le? Do you want a glass of water or something?” Pedro smiled at her while they got everything prepared.

  She refused it, gesturing with her head. She had to make it. Her part wasn’t that big; all she had to do was not to go overboard with exposition, or the lack of it, for that matter.

  Pedro started the presentation, while Letícia waited behind. Most students weren’t paying attention. Only Luiz took notes on his tablet, while Daniel explained it all to Amanda, whispering. Much to Pedro’s surprise, she seemed to be following what his friend was saying. Everybody else was either covertly playing games on their tablets, texting, or asleep. Pedro didn’t care. He liked the subject and so he excitedly spoke of all the themes he had to go through.

  Bracing herself, afraid that her voice would waver, Letícia soon began her part. Pedro watched her with concern, unable to understand why she was so nervous. She had a better grasp on the subject than he had, and she’d also seemed to have had fun while they planned everything. There was no reason for her to be so anxious.

  After the first few sentences, Letícia felt her confidence increase, and it all went smoothly. She was totally focused until she saw Thiago from across the room, pointing at her and laughing, making some remarks to a friend sitting next to him.

  What could he possibly be talking about? Maybe I said something wrong? Is my hair messy? Did he really point at me? Of course he did, I’m the only one standing here! What did I do wrong now?

  Her train of thought was interrupted by these reflect
ions. She stammered. Where was she again? She had just started talking about uniform linear motion, then... There came the cold sweat. She grew pale when she saw Amanda’s eyes staring at her. She was being judged. She opened her mouth to continue, but nothing came out. She felt her throat dry.

  “And, finally, we have also non-uniform linear motion with variable velocity!” said Pedro, now by her side. “I’m sorry! I forgot the last subject was my part also,” he lied, then went on with the presentation.

  Letícia smiled, trying to show how grateful she was, while taking a few steps back. She had never imagined Pedro would do that for her. He’d been always caring and thoughtful, but she couldn’t believe he would come to her rescue like that.

  He was such a good friend... Letícia was annoyed at herself. Why was it that now she’d begun to fall for Pedro? Forget it, Letícia! she thought. You’re only feeling like this because he was super thoughtful with you, but don’t get things mixed up, he’s your friend! Your best friend...

  Pedro masterfully finished the presentation and was showered with praise from the teacher, who explained he expected the same amount of dedication from all the other teams. He didn’t seem to mind that Letícia had frozen.

  Going back to their desks, Pedro waited a while before he turned to Letícia. “Is everything all right?” he asked, in a friendly voice.

  She put a lock of her brown hair behind her ear before answering, “Pedro, I’m so thankful to you for saving me. You have no idea how important that was to me. You’re really a great friend.” He nodded, a bit self-consciously. “In fact”—Letícia had thought about it all the while he wrapped up the presentation—“if you could, I wish you’d come to see my technosamba performance... It’s a small event, it’s supposed to be just for the people at the gym and I know it’s probably not the coolest thing in the world, but I wanted an outside opinion, from a sincere friend, to see how well I’m doing...” She looked down at the ground, waiting for his answer.

  Pedro was excited. He’d never seen a technosamba performance, he didn’t know whether it was fun or not, but the mere fact that Letícia had invited him to something that was so important in her life filled him with enthusiasm.