Read slower.

They are amazing ideas. I need a chapter from you.

Chapter 29

 

I’m not ignoring you. I’m just saying. There is still a lot of story to come. There are some of you who should be mentioned and some of you who should no longer be here at all. It’s safe to say that there are going to have to be some changes to get it all to work. We’ve worked through it before and it’s all worked out. It’s time to clean up some loose ends though. The notes for where everyone is for starters. Well they are in a bit of a mess. Lists of names, scored out. Placed into sections and then rewritten and then added to different sections. I know where the edges of the story should be. It’s similar to finding clear jelly in a bowl of water.  It’s circling around me, right now and I just need to reach out and grasp which bits are going to push things forward now. It’s important I remember who to mention because some of them play an essential part in how we came together and united. Where was I though?

You have everyone heading out to try to find their own fortune and glory. Outlaw had spent some of her time travelling from station to station visiting the remaining Animal Crossing mayors and asking them to lend a hand. It was more difficult than she first thought because many of them didn’t want to leave the wonderful little villages they had created. On her last stop, she went as far as setting fire to one of Cindemon’s houses to get his attention. She was surprised he had even gone back after he had found out the truth. He was the completest though.  He didn’t like seeing his world being flambéed , and he went into a considerable huff until spambots started to scale over the walls and trample down his apple trees. At this point he was in a place of rage and tears, opening up his 3DS and accessing his Link inventory. Outlaw had to pull him backwards towards the station door as he swung back and forward with his powered up Master Sword taking out as many of the chattering spambots as he could. The other Animal Crossing Mayors were waiting on the platform to head out. Outlaw slammed the station doors shut and for a second she thought she saw one of the animal residents approach the crowd of spambots. She feared the worst. It was only later when she played the image through her head several times that it appeared the Dog Villager seemed to be actually talking to the spambot.

She boarded the train with the rest of the Animal Crossing Mayors and headed back to her own village. She checked through her memory to see if she had left anyone behind. BibidyBobidyBoo, Cindemon, Malowner, Btrnutlet, Dogfingers, ZMM, Retrogamer, B0r1s and Hands of Blue all looked at her wondering why she was making a weird face as she looked at them one by one. Cindemon suggested that they forgot about their villages and concentrated on the task at hand. (though this was because he didn’t want anyone gaining the upper hand while he was away from his ) This was met with a mixed response, but soon they were all carrying weaponry from either Fire Emblem or Zelda and riled up enough to go kick some spambot butt.

With recent events and the creation of the bottle bridge, it didn’t look like they would have to wait too long.

 

Chapter 30

 

Tin Robot covered up what was left of Metagonzo’s body once it had been dragged from the handmade miniature volcano he had been standing in. He had been babbling about a high priestess and a tropical beach and how he had to find it and wait for further instructions from her. He had stood in the miniature volcano and burst into flames, putting on a pair of sunglasses and grinning inanely. No one even knew where the volcano appeared from though Goober suggested it was maybe had something to do with him being infected. The volcano was put out with a bucket of water. It was far too late for metagonzo. They buried what was left of him on the beach. After they chased Revel away..

 

 

Chapter 31

 

Nexx finished off his third slice of Madeira cake, sipped his cup of tea and smiled at Acemuzzy.

Ace breathed a sigh of relief and made a small note on his clipboard.

‘Fairy Cake?’ Ace asked.

‘No, I mean, no thank you, I couldn’t eat another bite.’ replied Nexx.

‘I was kind of hoping to have a look at the control floor, you know, see if we can maybe clear a path through?’ Nexx asked.

‘Oh. I am not sure about that at all Nexx because it took some doing to get the door shut up in the first place and if you even listen to the door then you will hear the noise of them is still there. There are a lot of them now and some of them are speaking Chinese which is funny but I don’t speak Chinese but I could teach them English if they asked because I am fully qualified as a teacher of English as a second language. I know it is difficult to think that I could do something like that now that I am not myself but I reckon I could have most them confident in purchasing things like milk or a train ticket within a matter of a few weeks if we were in a controlled classroom environment. I do not however have the proper classroom materials here so it would be better if we forgot that idea.’ said Yossarian.

‘So you want us to sit here and do nothing?’ asked Nexx

‘Well, as I said Nexx I don’t think I have the correct resources to teach.’ said Yoss, smiling slightly.

‘You seem to have the resources to fight though Yoss. I saw first-hand what you were able to do when you attacked Rudolph and the spambots don’t seem to be interested in going near you either. All I’m asking you to do is to help clear a path, just to let me see the damage? Maybe it’s something even I can fix. Please? For Dubs?’ said Nexx.

‘No. I do not think I would like to do that. I am sorry. It was not nice to see Dubs die. I do not want to see the same thing happen to you.’ said Yoss.

‘We can’t just sit here and do nothing Yoss.’ said Nexx.

‘Well you could always give me your opinion on these, Fondant Fancy?’ said Ace, thrusting a plate under Nexx’s nose.

Nexx pushed the plate away and shook his head, getting up from his chair in the kitchen and slowly walked towards the hallway, where at the end, the door to the control floor lay.

They waited until he had disappeared further down the hall.

‘Pity’ said Acemuzzy. ‘I thought he said these were his favourite. I’ll not be happy if he lets them into the kitchen. You know the spambots are bastards for a Victoria Sponge and I’ve not had chance to stock up after the last visit.’

‘I should go and keep him out of trouble. He is a good lad but he is getting it all wrong.’ said Yoss. He got up from his chair, opened the nearest cupboard and pulled out a gun. He walked towards the hall.

Ace waited for a couple of minutes until he was sure Nexx and Yoss were far enough away.

‘It’s ok. He has gone now. You can come out.’ He said.

A pantry door next to the hall entrance opened and several spambots walked out, but without a word from any of them.

One of them was carrying a cake board that had a few crumbs on it. There was jam and butter icing on its chin.

Ace looked completely disappointed.

‘You couldn’t wait ten minutes until we had got rid of him could you? Come here!’ scorned Acemuzzy.

The Spambot walked up to Ace, who proceeded to produce a hankie from his pocket, lick it and wipe the mess from its face.

‘Don’t think for one minute that the rest of you are innocent. What did I say? Bastards for a Victoria Sponge.’

‘Sorry Mister Muzzy’ they replied in slightly metallic voices.

‘If you do it again, I’ll let him know you’re here.’ Replied Ace.[font=Calibri, sans-serif][/font]

Ha ha. You.

Youuuuuuu...

ooooooohhhhhhh

Chapter 32

The warehouse side door slams open and Paul the Sparky drags in the semi unconscious body of Plan M, who appears to have some kind of wound in his stomach. Paul points his gun out of the door, sweeping from side to side. Trevor is already standing inside the warehouse and points his gun at Paul for a second before realising who it is. He places the gun to one side on top of a wooden crate before he moves to the other side of Plan M to help him be moved inside.
Paul and Trevor drag Plan M into the centre of the room and slowly drop him to the ground. Paul keeps an eye on the doorway at all times, just in case anyone has followed them.
Plan M shouts out as the pain of his wound causes a spasm in his body. He looks at this hand in a dazed manner, noticing the blood on his hand for the first time.
Trevor and Paul move through to the back room to be out of earshot.
Paul leans up against the frame of a door next to a sink. His breathing is fast and shallow and he is making an effort to calm himself down. Trevor looks on at him, uncharacteristically troubled.
In a moment of exasperation, Paul the Sparky turns around and punches the red woodwork of the door.
He looks at Trevor and utters an inaudible apology.
‘What the hell happened?’ Paul asks of Trevor
Trevor reaches into his inside pocket, produces a comb and begins to slowly sweep it through his hair, pushing it behind his ears.
Paul starts to pace backwards and forwards.
‘You need to calm down Paul. You getting flustered ain’t doing too much for my nerves and let me tell you this, I’m jittery like a jitterbug at the annual jitterbug dance contest. The only way I’m gonna stop being jittery is if you calm the hell down and start acting like a professional. Or I’ll shoot you in the face. You know I will.’
Paul looked at Trevor and stopped pacing.
‘I just didn’t think it was real. You know? I thought that we could just play the game like we normally did and you could just jump out if things got too serious. I didn’t think that bullets would actually kill. I mean how many times was Nick_MD shot? It must have been about seventeen times if it was twice, I, I never seen so much blood in my life. The whole of his face came off. The whole of his face…’
There was another scream from the next room.
‘I don’t even know what we are going to about him, if he keeps screaming like that then it might be better if we just we do the… humane thing.’  said Trevor.
‘No chance. The only reason you or I got away from that almighty mess is because that man in there took a bullet in the stomach for the both of us. I’m not about to put a bullet in him while there is a chance we can save him! Do you understand me?’ said Paul.
At this point he was standing face to face with Trevor but neither of them were going to back off.
Trevor looked away.
‘Someone must have changed the settings or alerted the cops or something’ said Trevor.
‘What makes you say that?’ said Paul.
‘Go through the events in your mind again Paul. We started off at Heavy Voodoo’s place. We jack two random cars. Two empty random cars. There is no way the wanted rating is going to warrant any interest from any passing Blues and Twos. We head to the Jewellery store, keeping things quiet as mice until we get a chance to park around the corner. We send Liveinadive in through the door to do his best Grumpy cat routine to check the place out. He comes out two minutes later with his tummy well tickled and we know the place is ripe for the picking.’ said Trevor.
There was a noise from the front room at the door.
Paul reached inside his jacket and produced his gun. He signalled to Trevor who waved his hands to show they were empty and they pointed in the direction of the crates in the next room. Paul rolled his eyes and ducked his head very slightly around the corner to see who was coming in.
The door was slowly opened and Adored sneaked in, gun at the ready. Liveinadive trotted in at his feet.
( for those that have forgotten, Liveinadive was changed into a cat after he was infected)
Paul breathed a sigh of relief and stepped out into the open.
Adored reacted in his nervous state and shot at Paul, missing him by at least three feet. Which wasn’t bad for Adored, considering.
Liveinadive went to investigate Plan M. Adored put his gun away and walked over to meet Paul and Trevor in the middle of the room.
‘How did you manage to get out?’ asked Paul
‘We shot our way out. Well I shot my way out.’ said Adored looking down at Liveinadive.
Liveinadive looked up at Adored and did a semi weird cat shrug.
‘You kill anyone?’ asked Trevor.
‘Just some cops, no actual people.’ replied Adored.
‘How the hell did the cops arrived so quickly? asked Adored
‘Me and Paul think that someone alerted the cops to make things fun.’ said Trevor.
‘Who the hell would do that? Did anyone see what happened to Nick? You call that fun?’ said Adored.
‘What happened to Voodoo? His gun didn’t seem to want to reload, and I saw him put at least two clips in it before the cops took him down.’ said Paul.
‘All I know is I was pointing my gun at the manager, then I looked away for a second, and he had raised at gun at me from nowhere and then the alarm goes off and the cops appear.’ said Adored.
‘No, no, that’s not how it happened. I was sitting at the window on look out and the cops must have been waiting. Yeah, two or three cars pulled up, but there was at least fifteen cops out there. They came in on foot. They knew we were coming.’ said Live.
‘Where’s Gurt?’ asked Paul
‘Who cares about Gurt. He went off on a rampage as soon as the cops turned up. I almost turned the gun on him myself.  Shooting left, right and centre. He took out the some of the cops and the staff and the Manager. That’s what brought the helicopter in. That’s what got Plan M shot.’ said Trevor.
‘Of course none of this would have happened if the cat hadn’t tipped them off when he went in to case the place. You really think no one thought that looked strange when a cat walked into a jewellery store?’ said Trevor.
‘What? It wasn’t me! Plan was sitting out the front in the car while we were inside, how do you know he didn’t decide to up the difficulty? How do we know you haven’t got anything to do with it? You’re not even real’ said Liveinadive.
Trevor picked up Live by the scruff of his neck roughly and produced a knife from his belt. Plan M, while he was in pain was reaching for his gun to also point it at Live.
Paul on seeing what plan was doing, took his own gun out and pointed it at Trevor.
‘Maybe he’s right. I don’t know who the hell you are at all.  Put the cat down now.’ Said Paul.
Adored looked on in disbelief at the scene playing out before his eyes. He didn’t know who to point the gun at so he held it against his own head.
There was a brief silence and the tension covered everyone like a fear fog.
There was a voice from the direction of the door.
‘Ladies, You really want to calm that nonsense. You’re acting like you’re in the next gen thread. You ever dealt with people in the Next gen thread? It’s all misunderstandings and people getting all over angry over nothing. Let’s all put everything down. Even the cat. I mean, put the cat down Trevor and let’s talk this through.’ said Gurt.

Blimey Rev. Been on the caffeine much?
Good work.

Loving this Rev!  Keep em coming.

Finally had time to sit down and read this properly.  I knew it would be worth it - great stuff.

no time for paws rev, keep 'em coming!

Fuckin' hell, Rev! Awesome, stupendous couple of chapters, but fuckin' hell...

Blimey.

The Fightmen finally crest Stereotype Mountain to arrive at the Secret Laboratory. Which is more like a visitors' centre, really, but, like, at the end of a really long path. Discarded takeaway cartons drift through the open doors, bidding for freedom down the dangerous streets beyond. The Fightmen enter.

To the north is a winding road. It leads down a mountain. To the south is a large room with two rows of in-line arcade cabinets, each facing its adjacent number, separated by the busiest carpet some of the Men had dared tread. Perhaps the carpet's spewistic rhythm presents a riddle, Reader? Perhaps the conundrum of missing chairs signals, indeed inspires, a challenge? Or, perhaps, as Roujin points to the foremost cab...



Nick: 'Avoid the spambot's lasers and press the button!'
Roujin: 'Right! We press the button!'

'That's a one-framer; I don't fancy it', says Pez, sweeping his right hand out in resigned motion, shaking his head.

Roujin: 'I don't suppose - no homo, like - that any of you have brought some oil?'
Pez: 'Happens I have.'
Roujin: 'Yardley Lavender Oil...? There's not much in it.'
Pez: 'It's a full bottle!'
Roujin: 'But not enough for a full oil-up. Tsh, maybe, just maybe...'
Pez: 'Maybe?'
Nick: 'Get on with it!'
Roujin: 'I can cover my knees! If I cover my knees - and I dunno, it sounds dumb - but if I cover my knees, maybe the Machines won't be ready for me?'
Speedhaak: 'You mean, like, some sort of game. A game of... minds?'
Nick: 'Right, go for it.'

Roujin's hands begin to shake as he grapples his belt buckle - 'I ain't got no grip!' - his trousers tumbling apace afront the onlookers. 'Don't be filmin' this', pleads a stricken-faced Olsen. Pez continues hammering his "T" key.

The casino lights commence their macabre dance on his glimmering, unsheathed glory, as Roujin runs...

< clappity-clappity-clap >

Le Bello's shoes are hardly the tools for the job, as the brave fightman sweeps to his knees, hair whipping without mercy to the beck of the cold night's draught, his brow glistening with effort, barely a flicker of fear in eyes prepared - nay, destined - for victory...

< sliiide >

Pez: 'One bar... two bars...'
Tiger: 'Jiminy turnsoles - he's going to make it!'
Nick, tilting his head towards Pez: 'How long you had that oil, Pezzy?'
Pez: '1930s, I reckon.'

< squee, squeeeee >

Nick: 'It's... drying? He's gonna crack!'
Pez: 'Nah - tons of moisture!'
Roujin: 'Piss and vinegar, son!'

< ZZZAP! pfzzz >

'OOH!', cry the Fightmen in unison, turning away.

Pez: 'Funny how he taunted, though, wannit.'
Nick: 'I think he was more, just like, lifting his arms up and going "Ugh!".'

'I reckon...' begins Escape, 'it's only a theory and I haven't counted the frames...'
Fightmen: 'Hmmmm...'
Escape: 'We could try dam-bustering this oversized Wagon Wheel.'
Nick: 'You've had that the whole time and said nothing?!'
Tiger: 'What a jolly rotten show!'
Escape: 'I said plenty, it just didn't catch on. We talked about nerfed Clubs for a bit. Someone had a Jammie Dodger in his pocket. Anyway, we can bounce it.'

'I suppose, as Mayor of Mordor, it's my duty?', enquires a hesitant Nick (please inject desired hesitancy in the reading). The Fightmen just sort-of nod. A lone hand briefly appears to rise in token comradeship, waning to t'thought of t'bother and reentering its crisp packet.

Nick doesn't have to wait for an answer, he knows - Nick knows, it's up to him. Striking from farther down the foul-carpeted foyer (Pez opines something about tying everything together; possibly carpets, possibly Kayo; possibly carpets over Kayo), Nick launches into a curiously ferocious, some might say camp, sprint.

< forward! >

Crouching but karaless, his right arm windmills like a stubby propeller in vain, the Wheel on fire, rolling down the 'cade. Best notify its next of kin, this Wagon shall explode.

'Over the line!', shouts Pez.
'Huh?', queries Nick.
'I'm sorry, Nick.', comes his reply. 'You crossed-up the line; that's a foul. Mark it a loss, Jase. Next round.'

In slow-motion, the bust Wheel enters its bin-lid spin a couple of wee squares short from the Big Button. The veteran assemblage have already wound up their wires and left the building.

< BAM!!! >

From behind a rock out of nowhere (the rock was already there - not the rock), Chopper appears (he could've feasibly been behind this rock; it's a human-sized rock).

Chopper: 'Are ya right dere on the adventure, is it, lads? Come to Cannes wid us, so you won't?'
Nick: 'Um, no, not this time, mate - bit of bad business up in here.'
'Bulldozing gypsies, man!', exclaims Tiger, 'We can slipper on home in a ditsy if we make passage to Cannes. Not to wiggle a gent's ball-top.'
Pez: 'Yeah.'
Uni: 'N'eah!'
'OOH!', cry the Fightmen in unison, turning away. Curtis applauds.

And so the Fightmen turn to agree, but Chopper's vanished. So they all just head back down Stereotype Mountain.

'Well, there were some good bits, but it was disappointing overall', commented Escape, as he took out his notepad and pen and began his critique. Over his shoulder, g.man nodded. 'Nae Scotsmen', he grumbled.

Chapter 34

Of course, when g.man  was told of Blu and Lonely’s intentions, the first reaction of many of the badgers that shouldn’t have been listening, but did anyway was to decide to join them. This was no matter how many times Blu protested. So what started off as a small quiet infiltration group looked like it was going to end up like a family picnic into the island’s interior.
So there was G.man, Goober, Elmlea, Mod, Beano, Likely, Wookie, Lazygunn, Gav, Tin Robot, Gonzo, Petey, KRS, ADKM, Dark Soldier and Kow.
It almost became embarrassing. There was simply no way they could go anywhere without there being a daft amount of noise. KRS was obviously quite small, so she didn’t take up that much room. Petey was keeping himself to himself. Mod and Beano started bickering with each other before they left the confines of the village. They managed to get two miles into the island when Blu stopped suddenly, leaning on a tree for support.
Lonely looked worried. He grabbed for her to give her some support and winced in pain himself as she passed on her thoughts before she shut down the share.
There were shared glances in the group.
‘Is everything ok?’ asked g.man.
‘I don’t know. I’m more sensitive here than I thought I would be. I seem to be picking up any kind of intense energy on the island. It was almost as if millions of voices cried out and were suddenly silenced.’ said Blu.
‘That’s Star Wars.’ said Mod.
‘It’s from A New Hope, actually.’ said Beano.
‘Really?’ replied Mod.
‘You two give it a rest will you?’ said G.man.
Blu looked at Mod and Beano. They both apologised immediately.
‘It came from the city.’ said Blu
‘We should go there then, it would be a good place to start.’ said Lonely.
‘No, the last place we should go is there. It’s not my city. I didn’t build it. It’s not even close to the other control room though. I’m sure of it.’ replied Blu.
‘Who else is building here Blu?’ asked g.man.
Blu looked at Lonely, he nodded his head slowly.
Blu took a slow inhale of breath and started to tell them about the Trolls.
They reacted calmer than she expected them to. She had after all kept them in the dark about the potential threat out there. There were some guffaws when Pranky was mentioned and to be honest, there was a moment where some of the older crew joked about Player 1 and Contrarose and their contribution to the old place.
They fell silent when the discussion came around to Rudolph. He was an unknown commodity.
‘I hate him.’ said Kow. Nobody disagreed with him. I was a massive understatement of the truth.
They continued walking on in silence for the next five minutes, there wasn’t a path but that did not seem to deter Blu one bit. She seemed to be heading on a set direction to her destination.  
‘Hey, what’s this?’ said Elm, picking up a card from the ground.
‘It says BWA HA HA HA HA!!!! Things are looking up!!!’ said Goober, looking over Elm’s shoulder.
Nothing much happened next except for an awkward shuffling of feet before the group continued on their way.
The card was dropped to the ground.
Seconds later a shape in a top hat landed in the clearing, punching the air and holding up a ‘DUN DA DUN DUN!!’ sign.    
Ram then looked around above the trees to see that the trap had not been set off.  He gingerly approached the extremely well camouflaged net on the ground.
He threw a rock on it.
Nothing happened.
He threw a bigger rock on it.
Nothing happened.
He threw a rock as big as him on it.
Still nothing.
Ram did what hundreds of mysterious men in top hats and moustaches had done times before.
He leapt into the middle of the clearing and proceeded to jump up and down.
The trap designed to trap ten propelled him high into the air.
A piece of card floated down to ground.
It said ‘BWA HA HA OH SHIII!!!’.
 

Chapter 36

The Spambots hit the beach after crossing the glass bottle bridge. They slowed down as they were able to spread out across the broken and miss matched beach. It was as almost for a second as if they forgot what they were there to do. One or two of them spotted the village further up on the beach and as though acting like a flock of migratory birds, headed to where there were people.  
There were not just people in the village. The RPG team were waiting for them, fully armed and ready for interesting times.

Chapter 37

Brooks drags Paul to the back of the cave. Paul’s chest is stained bright red, though it is no longer spreading. He refuses help from anyone else and at one point points the gun at Rudolph and swears at him to back off. Well, the second word is off. He leaves him facing the wall, as though trying to stop him from seeing what else might happen.
Rudolph’s attitude towards Brooks has changed slightly. He doesn’t stay more than a couple of feet away from him, following him around like a puppy. This annoys Brooks intently, who is more interested in talking to Player One to find out what else he can do and where everyone else is on the island. He smiles when told the spambots are now on Bear Island. He smiles again when it seems a group is heading in the proper direction to find them.
‘I think it is time to consider our options don’t you? We need to start to consider which imminent considered threat needs to be tackled first? How do we go about considering what needs to be considered? Once we have considered which direction to go, how do we then decide which option requires our immediate attention? This all needs to be considered.’ said Scorpio.
Brooks looks at Scorpio with complete disdain.
‘You say nothing of any importance what so ever don’t you? I mean, in a discussion, when there is a chance to derail and interrupt, you were the worst kind of Troll to have in the old place. You came out with riddles and nonsense and drove people to frustration. Just now though, you are just a speaker of the house of rubbish. Pranky at least seems to have some kind of direction. I’m sorry. You were a mistake.’ said Brooks
Brooks hands the gun to Rudolph and nods.
‘I’m sorry Scorpio.’ said Brooks
‘But there are so many things to consi…’ Scorpio started to say, pleading, holding his hands up in front of him.
There is a loud noise.
Scorpio dropped to the ground.
Rudolph gave the gun back to Brooks without hesitation.
‘Thank you Ruddy.’ said Brooks.
‘Now, who would like to kill next?’ asked Brooks.
‘It’s long overdue, but I don’t suppose I could kill g.man?’ asked Rudolph.
Brooks thought for a minute.
‘Go on then.’
Rudolph walked slowly to the Red Door.
‘Play Time.’ He said and walked through, almost skipping..
Brooks stared at the door for a second before he went back to see what Player 1 was doing.

Chapter 38

Nexx put his hand on the door handle and tried to turn it. It was slightly stiff but it moved eventually. Yoss caught up with him and handed him the gun. Nexx opened the door slightly and kneeled, sticking his head a little bit through the gap so he could see out into the floor. He looked for over thirty seconds out into the floor then pulled his head back out and shut the door. He looked up at Yoss standing there, then looked back at the closed door. Nexx looked at Yoss again, stood up and got within two inches of Yoss.
‘Why are there a group of spambots sitting on the ground eating what appears to be various cake type items and not attacking anything at all?’ asked Nexx.
Yoss shuffled his feet.
‘Maybe you should come back into the kitchen and I’ll explain.’ replied Yoss.
‘Maybe I should just rush in and start tearing the place up Yoss. What would you do then? Huh? Where would your loyalties lie if that happened? Would you help me? Or would you step in to stand side by side with your spambot brothers? Because from what I can see going on out there. It’s obvious you are keeping things from me.’ replied Nexx.
‘It isn’t that simple. You got it wrong. We all got it wrong. We can fix it. Please just come back through to the kitchen and I promise I’ll explain everything. Please?’ said Yoss.
Nexx walked back down the hall with some reluctance.


Chapter 39

The spambots were gaining ground on the RPG team. They weren’t overwhelming with their skill, they were starting to swell in numbers as they crossed the bottle bridge and headed towards the Animal Crossing Village. Cindemon and the rest of the team joined in the rest of the RPG clan and with team Triple S&M stepping up and bringing their range of pain to the proceedings, the surge started to slow but it was no means enough by any rate.
Revel called in a strike to Stormy.  Pabloamigo, Workid, Ayns backed him up with some follow up firepower. The bridge exploded in a shower of spambots and molten glass and for a couple of minutes the flow of bots became a crawl. The teams started to enjoy themselves again. Muse whirred through the crowds like a hot knife through butter. The rest of triple S decided never to argue with her and always let her have her way. If you are going to cut something in half, you cut down the way. You cut from the head downwards. If you are sweeping up instead, with your sword starting its job between the spambot’s legs, then what is going to happen is that  the three male members of your team are going to wince at that every single time it happens. Every single time. Without fail.
The Animal Crossing team were using every part of their Link Inventory to bring down what remained of the last surge from the bottle bridge. Outlaw screamed a battle cry as she charged into a group of flailing spambots at the edge of the sea. She took down at least seven or eight in one motion. The Shmuppers screamed overhead destroying as much of the bottle bridge as they could, stopping any further advance in its tracks. On Stormy’s last pass, the shards stayed up in the air longer than normal.

Player 1 pressed a couple of buttons on the keyboard and focussed his attention on team at the edge of the beach. He sent the shards flying towards them like tiny needles of cut and pain.
Brooks shot him a glance as he realised what he was doing, but stood by and did nothing.
‘I don’t even think I know who this Outlaw is. Ah well.’ smiled Player1.

The shards tore through the spambot crowd and the heroes alike, and Outlaw caught the full brunt of the main attack. It was almost like someone had taken a person made of ice and run them under an extremely hot water tap. She pretty much disintegrated in front of the team, what was left of her fell forward to the ground and lay still. The rest of them had managed to shield the worst of the attack and many stood in complete shock at what had happened.
The bottles floating in the sea that were still whole, grouped together and the bridge slowly became whole again. The spambot surge recommenced. This time the there was no glorious attack from the team. They retreated as close to the village as they could, and used ranged shots to take out as many of the spambots as possible. The wind had been well and truly knocked from their sails. The tide has turned against them.

Player 1 laughed and looked around to Brooks for some kind of hint of endorsement.
‘You’re lucky g.man wasn’t down there. Ruddy would have killed you if you had wiped him out.’ said Brooks.
‘It would have got the job done either way.’ replied Player1
‘I’ll make sure he knows that when he comes back then, shall I?’ said Brooks
Player 1 looked at Brooks and just for a second there was a pleading look.
‘Just be more careful.’ said Brooks.

Thanks tin.