Gundam SEED Fan Fiction / Mobile Suit Gundam Fan Fiction / Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Mobile Suit Gundam: Virtual Battlefield ❯ Chapter 2: Rematch ( Chapter 2 )

Chapter 2: Rematch

 

With a large crash, Sam burst into the Gamer's Retreat. Mr Kanin, surprised at the sudden noise, spilt his mug of hot tea onto himself. Screaming loudly, he rushed into the back of the shop to find tissues. Sam slammed a £50 note onto the counter. It was the money that he had saved up for when he got a Mobile Avatar.

 

“What can you give me for fifty?” He fumed, ignoring Mr Kanin's soft cursing.

 

“How about you let me clean myself off first? I'll only be-did you say fifty?” Mr Kanin suddenly peered from behind the doorframe, “Why?”

 

“Because…” Sam hesitated. He didn't want to recount to humiliating defeat at the hands of Jack's Proto-Chaos, “…I need new cards.”

 

Mr Kanin stepped out wearing a new Transformers decorated t-shirt with a new mug of tea, “You lost your first match, didn't you?”

 

“How…?”

 

“I heard the Hendrix boy boasting about it when he passed by a minute ago. He was saying something about kicking your ass in less than two minutes.”

 

Sam lowered his head. He knew what he did was stupid. How on earth could a Phase One avatar beat a Phase Three avatar? The world's elite players could have done it but he was just a newbie.

 

No, I'm a noob. He cursed to himself in his head.

 

“Listen,” Mr Kanin pushed the £50 note back towards Sam, “I'm glad that you are willing to spend fifty pounds here, but you need to think about why you lost and how you can win in the future. I don't want you to waste your hard earned money, Sam.”

 

“I know how I lost. My avatar was just inferior.” Sam blurted out.

 

Mr Kanin smiled like he always did, “Every avatar are inferior to another, all we have to do now is find a way to overcome that weakness without resorting to you shelling out fifty pounds; not that I wouldn't welcome that fifty pounds.”

 

“But how can I beat someone with a Phase three avatar? I tried diversionary tactics, shot him with different types of weapons, nothing worked.” Sam moaned.

 

“Hm…” Mr Kanin leaned onto his glass table display and eyed the item cards in them, “You have an RX-72, right?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“You said all your long range attacks just practically bounced off him, right?” To which Sam nodded, “I bet he had attached beam coatings and is using a sniper sensor to aim his beams. He's relying on finding you with his weapons rather than letting you find him. Isn't the Proto-Chaos supposed to be rather unmanoeuvrable due to it's size?”

 

Sam's eyes suddenly lit up.

 

“He's using his close-range unit as a long-range unit. Oh my god, Mr Kanin, I think I know how to beat him. I think I might have to use that fifty pound note…”

 

-----

 

School was dull for Sam. He considered himself one of the horde, a person who didn't excel in any subject and thus did not distinguish himself from everyone else. Of the subjects that he were taught, he enjoyed none and yet he did not hate them either. To him, studying was just another way to fill up his time, another way to fill the void between the times that he was awake.

 

Sitting several rows in front of him was Jack and one of his cronies, laughing their ass off over some trivial thing as usual. Making sure that the teacher was writing on the white-board, the pair tore a page from their exercise books into little pieces and began launching them around the room. Soon, the entire room erupted into a full-scale paper fight behind the teacher's back.

 

Taking this chance, Sam took the small note he wrote earlier and threw it at Jack. The paper hit him squarely on the back of the head, prompting a loud roar of anger. Finally, the teacher writing up math equations on the board turned around but only to see everyone being completely still.

 

-----

 

“What the hell…?” Jack whispered when he saw the piece of paper that hit him had writing on it. Smoothing it out, he found that it was addressed to him.

 

Jack,

 

I demand a rematch. Today, after school, 4pm. Same place.

 

Sam

 

Scrunching up the piece of paper, Jack slotted it into his pocket. He wore a sinister grin on his face all day.

 

-----

 

“You sure you want to do this? He will humiliate you again.”

 

“How do you know?” Sam rebuffed Julie's comment.

 

“Because you have a Phase one avatar and he had a Phase three.”

 

“Uh huh,” He said glancing at his watch, “So what? I have a strategy this time.”

 

Sophie laughed, “How do you plan on doing that? You've been playing for only three days. Even the world's best player can't win against these odds.”

 

Without saying anything, Sam picked up the pace towards the park. Julia, slightly annoyed, stopped. She was trying to look out for him, but he was being stubborn as usual. Sam always valued her opinion, but recently, his personality had seemed to change. He began to avoid her and wasn't really listening to her any more. Maybe it was just him growing up, but Julia felt that they were moving apart.

 

She snapped out of her daydream and saw that Sam had already turned around the corner of the street.

 

“WAIT! SAM!” She shouted and sprinted after him.

 

-----

 

Jack, with his usual confident smile, stood on the opposite side of the virtual arena. His two goons were standing behind him, both folding their arms when Sam approached the large dish. The number of spectators to this match was even larger than the previous time, it took Sam only a moment to realise it was Jack who brought them here, to witness Sam's humiliating defeat.

 

“How about we raise the stakes, Sam.” Jack said, holding out his Proto-Chaos card, “Whoever wins gets to destroy the loser's avatar.”

 

“What?!” The group of spectators' reactions was the same as Sam's.

 

“If you want to fight with me, you'll have to give me something in return. I think this is a good prize.”

 

Sam looked at his RX-78 card and its digitally etched image. It had only been three days since his birthday and now he could lose the thing that he held so dear. He knew that his strategy could work but it hinged on a single factor. If Jack reacts differently, the entire plan would be worthless and he doubts that his parents would be very understanding about him losing his birthday gift.

 

“Fine.” He replied hesitantly. The crowd suddenly roared excitedly, they were going to get a good match.

 

“Then let's begin this ass-kicking.” Jack said and plugged his Mobile Unit into the interface.

 

Ignoring the crowd's chatter, Sam put on the virtual glasses and headphones and everything went silent. Having uploaded the necessary option and item cards earlier, Sam pressed the start button and his view changed from the menu to one behind his white Mobile Avatar in the same asteroid field as before. The words “MATCH START!” flashed before him and Sam boosted away immediately.

 

-----

 

Where is that piece of junk? Jack wondered as he dived his Proto-Chaos between pieces of rock. Checking his sensors he saw Sam's RX-78 hiding behind one of the larger asteroids. Slowly, he moved his Proto-Chaos closer to the asteroid. He switched on the sniper sensor that he mounted on the Proto-Chaos' gunpods and sent them flying at their target in opposite directions around the asteroid. As they closed on the target, Jack realised something was wrong. There were suddenly two red enemy blips on his radar. Before he could stop the gunpods, he heard a sudden pop and his entire screen was filled with a blinding light. Whatever was behind the asteroid had a flash-bang attached to it and was now gone.

 

Spinning the Proto-Chaos around in the general direction of the other enemy dot, he flung the gunpods forwards and fired indiscriminately, launching the mounted missiles too. As his vision cleared, he saw that the area in front of him was now filled with rubble and the enemy dot was gone.

 

Oh thank god for that…wait, why isn't the game over?

 

There was a loud clunk and Jack's Mobile Unit controller shook violently. He was used to having the cockpit view, he forgot to look behind him. Switching to third-person view, he saw Sam's RX-78 clinging onto the back of his Proto-Chaos with it's beam sabre stabbed into the armour.

 

HP at 52% and falling?! What the hell?!

 

-----

 

Sam had to use all of his concentration to stay on the bucking Proto-Chaos as it tried to shake the RX-78 off it's back. His diversionary tactic had worked. The Hyper Jammer option part that he bought from Mr Kanin worked perfectly as well as the Dummy Balloon. He knew Jack would be overconfident and would go for a quick kill, so by planting a dummy with a flash-bang would blind the Sniper Sensor long enough for him to plant his beam sabre into the back of the Proto-Chaos.

 

He watched the Proto-Chaos' HP suddenly plunge to 50% and smiled like a maniac. He saw the short claws trying to reach behind to grab the RX-78, but they couldn't reach it.

 

I'll show you what I can- Before he could finish that thought, the Proto-Chaos reversed itself into a nearby asteroid, sending huge vibrations into Sam's Mobile Unit controller and causing the RX-78 to lose it's grip. Still stuck to the asteroid, Sam found the four gunpods pointed directly at him.

 

-----

 

“Now, you die.” Jack said to himself. Pulling on the trigger, he expected to see a flurry of beams slicing the RX-78 to bits but nothing happened. He pushed the trigger again and nothing happened. He tried to move the Proto-Chaos and again, nothing. He had lost control over his unit. Then, from the corner of his eye, a yellow Mobile Avatar suddenly appeared. It was round and monoeyed, with what looked like a real eye painted in the middle. It held what looked like a chainless flail in it's right hand and began to advance on the Proto-Chaos. As soon as the first appeared, another materialised in front of the Proto-Chaos, and another, and another. Jack counted at least 20 as they began to surround the Proto-Chaos.

 

-----

 

Sam watched helplessly at the unfolding scene since the RX-78 was embedded into the rock-face of the asteroid. Unable to move, he saw the yellow units each grab hold of the Proto-Chaos and began dragging it towards the edge of the map. Thinking why Jack hadn't fought back, Sam pushed the RX-78's engines to max in order to melt and loosen the rock but the avatar refused to budge. He could only watch as the Proto-Chaos was dragged off the map and the game ended with Sam being declared the winner.

 

Before he could take off his VR glasses, Jack ripped it from his head. He looked as if he was about to kill Sam.

 

“WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO MY PROTO-CHAOS?!” Jack screamed, shoving his Proto-Chaos card into Sam's face. The beautiful image of the Proto-Chaos on the card had been digitally scratched beyond recognition, “JUST BECAUSE YOU COULDN'T WIN, YOU CHEAT?!”

 

“No…” Sam protested, trying to push Jack off him.

 

“Where did you get those Devil Army? Where is my Proto-Chaos?!”

 

“Devil Army? What are they?” Sam asked in confusion.

 

“Those yellow things. I've seen them before online. Vultures use them to hack systems and cheat the game system. You're working with them, aren't you?!”

 

“No…get off!”

 

“Come on, Jack,” Sam realised that it was one of Jack's goons speaking, “You know Sam wouldn't do this. He only got that thing three days ago.”

 

Jack turned around and looked at him in pain. Deep down, he knew Sam wasn't the kind of person who would do this kind of thing. Letting go of Sam, Jack quickly packed away his Mobile Unit and cards. Before leaving, he pointed accusingly at Sam.

 

“Don't you dare come near me at school.” With that, left with his two friends.

 

Sam was utterly bewildered at what happened. He had no idea what was going on. When he turned around at the spectators, they were all looking at him worryingly and suspiciously. He wanted to get out of there quickly. Stuffing his things into his backpack, Sam searched the dispersing crowd for Julia; she was gone.

 

When did she wonder off to…?