by Noah Barnett
Beginning at the loading bench a small Italian street materialized ahead of him. The cobblestone alley was barely more than two meters wide. In the distance, the melancholic sound of a violin floated on the hot Sicilian wind. Charlie licked his lips and started down the alley. Drying laundry fluttered on sagging lines strung between a half dozen windows. Doors on either side were propped open in the oppressive heat.
Charlie slowly walked with Elva in his hands as he scanned the alley ahead of him. He sidestepped a vegetable cart keeping his eyes on a swivel. A man wearing a photographer's vest over a garish Hawaiian shirt stepped from an open door nearby. The tourist raised a pistol in his direction and fired. Charlie dodged, slamming into the cart, then placed it between him and the AI controlled tourist. He lined up Elva’s glowing night sights on the brightly colored shirt and returned fire. The man fell apart disintegrating into a dazzling sparkle of lights.
The attack heralded several more NPCs appearing. Bullets ricocheted off the cobblestones around Charlie and he returned fire instinctively. A figure fell from the window and exploded in a shower of light as it hit the ground. Then a woman rolled into the middle of the street and came up shooting. She wore nothing but an apron covered in pasta flour. Charlie fired wildly, but his shots struck only cobblestones. A head of lettuce exploded next to Charlie, and the sight picture his pistol continued to jump erratically as he pulled the trigger. Elva's slide locked back on an empty chamber, and he dropped the magazine. His fingers retrieved a spare with a practiced ease, and slammed it into the pistol.
As he reloaded the woman rolled to a nearby doorway. Her apron was askew, showing off a thick patch of dark hair. Charlie thumbed the slide release loading the gun and pushed it out ahead of him. He continued to exchange fire with the flour covered matron. A second and third vegetable exploded nearby before a round hit him. Charlie crumpled to the paving stones as a 115-grain bullet struck his chest. The range simulation froze. Pieces of lettuce and tomato hung suspended in the air as if time had stopped.
"Dammit," he muttered sitting up. A transparent red dot hovered over his heart, which quickly began to fade as he rubbed his chest. Charlie had let the stress get to him, and his aim had gone to shit. He picked up the dropped magazine, and walked back to the beginning, while the Italian street disappeared.
The naked woman had been a dirty trick, and Charlie felt cheated. He stopped at the loading bench to gather his things, and reload Elva to full capacity. The empty boxes he tossed into the trash.
"You can change to your human form," he said touching Elva's frame. The gun flashed, and she appeared next to him wearing her pinstripe business attire. Firearms didn't sweat, but Elva did reek of gunsmoke.
"How did it go?" She asked with a satisfied sigh.
He made a ‘so-so' gesture. Charlie still needed to work on his marksmanship. He was usually good at putting one or two rounds on target, but once someone started shooting back his aim faltered. A female player carrying a sniper rifle walked into the training room. She nodded to him and set her weapon on the bench.
Charlie left the range and headed to a set of stairs. Halfway up he withdrew the piece of paper the SVD had given him. The tall redhead had been cute, and her husky Russian accent had tickled him pink. Despite needing a full-auto weapon, he was thinking of contracting with her. The lobby was strangely empty, but it was after midnight. There was a long bus ride back to the beach house, and cleaning to be done before he logged out. Elva had run through five hundred rounds and she sorely needed it. His night however, drastically changed as Charlie passed near the match elevators.
A man wearing digital-camo stepped out ahead of him. On his back was a bolt-action scout rifle and he carried a highly modified assault weapon. Both were painted in a pattern of brown and green pixels. Near his waistband, a Kydex holster held a black blocky handgun. Charlie caught sight of the man's face, which was filled with a dark rage as he stared down at the assault weapon in his trembling hands. He pulled the sling off and lifted the firearm over his head.
"Fuck!" He screamed hurling the rifle to the floor. Plastic and metal snapped in an awful clatter as the modular stock broke off. For a fraction of a second regret crossed the man’s face, but quickly vanished. Elva gasped in shock while Charlie stared in astonishment. The game was tough, but to do that to your own weapon? Slowly the broken butt-stock slid across the ground and reconnected to the gun as it began to glow. A teenager appeared in a flash of light clutching her swollen ankle.
With sullen tear-filled eyes she said, "I told you I needed a cleaning after going through the swamp in the last match."
"If you weren't such a finicky piece of shit, I would have won." He said stomping towards her. Elva stepped closer to Charlie taking his arm to support herself.
"Any weapon won't chamber when it's breach is filled with slime." The girl said in a bitter tone.
He slapped her across the face knocking the girl to the tiles. Fingernails dug into Charlie’s bicep, and blood trickled down his arm. Elva glared over his shoulder at the player with unmitigated fury.
"What the hell are you doing?" Charlie barked grabbing the player by his shoulder. He spun, drawing a pistol, and leveled it in Charlie’s face. The other man had sharp green eyes like broken beer bottles, and his cold gaze scrolled over Charlie taking inventory of his weapons.
"Fuck off, Squib." He said spitting the words like shot from a cannon.
"Not gonna watch you wail on a girl," Charlie replied as icy fire filled his veins.
"This is between me and my weapon, so bugger off Bronze." The player hissed.
"It’s your fault, not hers." Charlie retorted searching the player's bitter expression. His shallow green eyes turned dangerous, and the pistol continued to twitch in Charlie's face, but it was little more than a rude gesture. The guy wouldn't fire, not in the city. That would earn him a quick twenty-four hour ban.
"You think you can teach me a lesson?" He asked in a dark, angry voice. Charlie glanced past him to the teenage girl. She hadn't attempted to gain her feet, not with that ankle. "How about we duel then?" He hissed lowering his pistol.
"You win… you get the Mattel garbage. I win and get that big titted slut behind you. I like the way she's glaring at me."
"Or are you too afraid," the angry man taunted.
Charlie wanted to teach the guy a lesson, but that was a losing proposition. The asshole was at least gold, maybe even platinum. Night vision goggles hung around his neck, and a bandolier of grenades circled his green chest armor. Charlie felt sorry for the girl, but he wasn't about to risk Elva.
"He accepts," Elva snarled from behind him. Charlie spun in astonishment. Her eyes were like blazing blue diamonds in the lobby lights.
"Hah! She speaks for you too, huh." The guy barked while shouldering passed Charlie.
Elva gave him a small predatory smile, and pushed Charlie forward. She whispered in his ear, "You can set the rules since he challenged you."
"This is crazy," he hissed back.
"It’s not."
The man turned away putting his hand on a nearby screen and activated it. He selected ‘Duel Challenge' from the menu. On the screen, there was a checkbox for a prize. He slammed his finger onto the console selecting the limping girl's ID.
Then he stepped aside with a belittling smirk and said, "Your turn, pussy."
On the screen, an empty hand-print was waiting, and Charlie slid his palm into place. A new screen appeared, and he selected pistols only, no armor, no grenades, and a tiny map. Charlie had far less battle experience than the man, so his only hope was a small engagement. With considerable trepidation he selected Elva, his only weapon, as the prize. It then asked for a confirmation from both players. The other man swaggered forward putting his palm on the second half of the screen.
"Please enter lobby 49," the terminal said as it confirmed the match. He followed the high level player to the elevators. As they entered Charlie slapped the screen and the door closed. The match bega
n as they entered the private lounge.
[1 vs 1 - Duel Started]
A hot wind whipped past Charlie so fast his shirt fluttered. He was standing on the top floor of an unfinished high rise. Nearby flapping blue ribbons were all that was left of a plastic tarp. The sky was a summer painting, and two distant clouds drifted past on the fast moving wind. The sun was high overhead, and he could see the distinctive towers of Shanghai spread before him in a ruin of bombed out structures. Around him, pillars of concrete and hardened rebar stretched to the heavens like claws.
A laser crossed over the support pillar he was standing next to. Charlie noticed the glowing green dot just before it settled on his chest, and he threw himself sideways as bullets slapped against the concrete in a spray. Sharp chips of stone and bullet shrapnel filled the air as he ducked around the side. God damn it. He'd been caught lollygagging—again. Why did he always have to examine his surroundings like a gawking tourist? He dodged behind the concrete block and put his back against it. Charlie kicked himself as he withdrew Elva from her holster, and glanced around the corner. About sixty feet away a shadow revealed his opponent was standing behind a concrete pillar.
The snake eyed man stepped around the pillar already aiming at Charlie with, what he suspected, was a fully automatic Glock 18. He was still learning about the myriad of weapons, but the pistol’s boxy design was distinctive. The green laser danced over Charlie's cover as the man moved forward. Desperately he scanned the area searching for something useful. The urban warrior moved forward in a straight line, and ahead of him, hidden by a pillar was an industrial welding rig. Two massive canisters of oxy-acetylene were strapped to a fading orange dolly.
He needed to give the enemy a reason to keep confidently walking forward, so he purposely fired blindly around the corner. 9mm bullets zipped past him like angry bees and Charlie yelped loudly. He quickly slid a new mag into the well, and racked the slide. The guy laughed enjoying himself, and paused to reload next to the welding rig.
Now was his chance, and Charlie only exposed himself enough to get a shot on the tall green canisters. He fired and a bullet struck the stone pillar, and the man laughed at his aim.
"You are the worst player I’ve ever seen," the player said leveling his pistol.
Charlie fired again and his second bullet pinged off the edge of a canister. Sparks flew, but the round only left a furrowed dent. A dozen 9mm rounds struck the corner of his pillar, and concrete chips slapped against Charlie's cheek as he concentrated on the glowing dots in his vision. He focused his entire attention on lining the sights on the orange dolly. Elva bucked in his hands as he fired. A hole appeared in the side of one green canister, and for an agonizing second, Charlie feared the welding rig was empty. Then a fireball lit up the pillar and one toxic player. From within the expanding inferno, a man screamed and danced in the flames. Darkness settled over him like a welcome hug, and in the black, words floated.
[Duel Won]
The door to the private lobby opened. On the other side, another opened admitting the second player. He stalked forward still mimicking a burned marshmallow. His face was beet red as he reached behind him, grabbed a wrist, and practically threw the athletic teen at Charlie.
She stumbled part of the way before crying out. The black collar flashed, and in that instant, the slutty dress she wore blew apart in a sparkle of light. For a second she was naked in the glowing corona before it coalesced into a black bikini. As she landed on the floor, her back arched. Her pupils went white and gun parts started to materialize in the air. The broken stock appeared first, falling to the lobby floor and shattered against the ground. An ACOG scope, flash hider, trigger group, and quad rail also burst apart in a second shower of glowing light. With a final shuddering convulsion, the blond was reset to factory default.
"Hope you learned your lesson," Charlie sneered with a belittling smirk. He was going to report the player for abuse, but for now, Charlie would settle with seeing his seething face.
"I lost to a fucking squib?!?," he roared.
"That's silver squib to you, Marshmallow." Charlie replied.
The man couldn't resist giving the unnamed blonde a final spiteful shot. He lashed out with a black combat boot attempting to kick her one last time. Still sitting on the ground the girl's head snapped up. Her eyes filled with a blazing, brilliant blue light as her decision processing went into overdrive. She tracked his foot like a turret with her glowing eyes. Her left hand raised in slow motion blocking the boot sailing toward her face, and guided it past her head. As the unbalanced man fell forward, she brought her right fist up in a devastating uppercut, and connected with his unarmored crotch.
In a feat of superhuman strength, he was sent flying six feet into the air. Only at the apex of his ascent did the pain receptors in his balls catch up with his tiny lizard brain. He screamed a full-throated, blood-curdling cry which made the paltry noises Charlie had inflicted pale in comparison. The man slammed into a group of console screens, but he barely noticed. Screaming like a pig, he clutched his groin and fell to the floor. Quickly his cries petered off.
"Holy shit," Charlie thought.
Elva covered her mouth with a hand. The teenager’s pupils slowly dimmed before she too looked away. Charlie moved to check on the man, but his eyes, when Charlie rolled him over, were cloudy in death. She had nut punched him so hard his balls had burst like an overfilled water balloon, and blood covered the crotch of his pants.
"You killed him," Charlie said standing. He had exceedingly little pity left for the man. After what he had done, it was the least he deserved. However, Charlie had a new appreciation for how strong weapons were.
"I'm Charlie," he added coming closer.
A new black collar with his ID circled her delicate throat. She raised her head glaring at him with angry, sullen eyes. Despite the murderous glare, she was good looking. Her face was almost a twin of Elva's with the same blonde hair and blue eyes. On second thought, it was more like she was a younger sister rather than a twin. She lacked Elva's substantial bust and hips. The girl was just entering adulthood, but he could see the youthful appeal.
"Not going to tell me?" He asked.
"A new name then," Charlie said turning away. He circled the room several times before his eyes caught sight of the dead body. Yes, the girl was dangerous.
"How about Fara?"
"Fine," she answered, which wasn't a very enthusiastic reply, but things had gotten off on a strange note. Charlie reached down to help pick her up, but she slapped his hand away.
"Don't touch me," she hissed.
Charlie hopped back faster than if he'd been shot. He had no intention of being the second body on the floor. Fara's return to factory settings had at least fixed her swollen ankle, but she slowly walked a perimeter around the room testing the damage.
This was the second time he'd rescued a girl and been spurned for his trouble. Charlie was getting tired of playing the white knight, and he hoped it didn't become a trend. Anger continued to build, not just at the situation, but also the fact he was thrust into it. Elva approached and tried to pull his arm between her cleavage, but he backed away.
"Whatever happened to not affecting my weapon selection? For that matter, you took a considerable risk on my part." He said not bothering to conceal his irritation. Elva looked down toeing the carpet with her high-heel shoes.
"Care to explain?" Charlie asked impatiently.
The girls looked to one another across the lounge, but it was Elva that said, "Remember I told you firearms are made in waves. We are batch sisters." There was another small pause before she said, "We start off with basic, almost childish personalities. During those first few hours, several of us became close. We remained friends even after being registered."
Charlie turned to examine his new weapon. "I didn't get a good look, but what are you anyway?" He asked Fara.
"I am a Colt M16A1," she said moving to put a screen between herself and Charlie. Fara, at least, was an as
sault rifle, so he could be happy about that. The skin of the corpse started to bubble, giving off a fetid odor, and Charlie grimaced at the rapidly decaying clone.
"Well, I am sorry to have met you under such circumstances," he said moving toward the elevator. Elva followed him in and meekly stood in the back. Fara paused looking at him from behind the screen.
"Well?" he asked impatiently.
"I'm not going to reregister with you," she said at last. Well didn't that just beat all? It meant she wasn't going to fuck him.
"Fine," he said in a very un-enthusiastic voice. At least he'd have an assault rifle for a month before she left, so he could work with that. His sexy game time was getting slapped with a cold dose of reality, and he didn't care for it. The lobby was even more desolate as he exited the elevator. Charlie walked out of the competition center and got onto the metro. Elva sat next to him but Fara purposely picked a seat out of arm's reach.
