SkyWake Invasion

by Jamie Russell

  “What’s going on?” Fish demanded.

  “Later,” Casey said firmly. “Right now, we’ve got a match to win. Brain, you’re my decoy.”

  She glanced over at Brain. The white tinge around the edge of his screen was disappearing and his game screen was returning to normal. Xander was losing his psychic control over Brain’s avatar.

  “What are you on about?” he asked, his eyes widening behind his lenses.

  “Just get a psi grenade ready,” she told him.

  Casey, now controlling Pete’s Red Eye soldier, dived into cover and blasted at the Squids with her plasma rifle. Unlike Pete, she was a great shot. The enemy aliens slithered away, surprised. Casey hammered the bunker’s keypad lock so her team could retreat back outside.

  “What are you doing?” Fish shouted.

  “We’re going to mind-melt them,” Casey said.

  “What do you know about mind-melting?” Brain asked in surprise.

  “Just do what I say!” Casey yelled in a tone that shut them all up.

  His shield up, Fish moved sideways to protect her. Brain fell in behind him. The Squids’ fire was absorbed by the shield. Behind them, the keypad bleeped and the heavy steel outer doors opened up. Sunlight from the beach streamed into the bunker.

  “On me!” Casey ordered. “Pull back to the crater.”

  She slammed through the doors, vanishing into the sand.

  Fish slowly followed her, walking backwards, his shield still up. It crackled as the Squids concentrated their fire on him. Brain stared along the beach and saw a crater in the sand where an artillery shell had exploded. It would be deep enough to hide them, but not for long.

  Back in the bunker, the Squids slithered towards the door, still firing. Xander’s team moved confidently, convinced they had them trapped.

  “My shield’s almost down,” Fish called as he reached the rim of the crater, his combat boots sending an avalanche of purple sand tumbling into it. Brain, next to him, pulled a psi grenade off his belt and searched for Casey in the crater. But it was empty.

  “Casey? Where are you?” he shouted into his headset.

  “On the roof.”

  Fish and Brain looked up and saw Casey’s avatar standing on top of the bunker, high above the Squids. The enemy team hadn’t seen her. If any of them used their telepathic abilities, though, she’d be toast.

  “I’ve got the grenade ready,” Brain whispered, excited by Casey’s daring.

  “We’ve got a choice,” Casey told the boys. “I can try and take them all out from up here…”

  “That’s a big risk,” Brain said. “Odds must be a hundred to one, at least.”

  “… or we can decoy,” Casey continued. “But that’ll mean you both die.”

  On the stage, in real life, Fish and Brain exchanged a glance.

  “Decoy,” they confirmed in unison.

  “You’re sure?”

  “Do it,” Brain said firmly. “No way you can take them all, even with the height advantage.”

  “Just don’t mess it up,” Fish warned.

  “Trust me,” Casey said. “I’ve got this.”

  As the Squids slithered towards the bunker, Brain threw his psi grenade.

  “Fire in the hole!” he yelled as he hit his keyboard.

  Before the grenade even touched the ground, Casey had jumped off the far side of the bunker roof. She hit the sprint button and thundered along the beach, dodging fire from the automated sentry turrets that lined her path.

  Back at the crater, the psi grenade exploded in a flash of green light. It would scramble the Squids’ telepathic powers for a good thirty seconds. Without their special abilities, they wouldn’t know where Casey was on the map.

  It wasn’t long. But it was all the edge she needed.

  “They got me!” Brain cried. Casey glanced over at his screen. Xander had slithered into the crater and wrapped a tentacle around him. Even without their psi powers, the Squids were deadly.

  Fish was still fighting but he was almost out of power. “Shield down!” he shouted in panic as it went offline. He was dead in seconds.

  It was all on Casey now.

  She sprinted along the beach towards the control room. Behind her, the Squids slithered left and right, searching the sand for her. She could hear Xander on the other side of the stage shouting at his teammates angrily. He realized they’d been had.

  “I’m almost there,” Casey whispered into her headset as she leaned in towards her monitor. “Almost, almost, almost…”

  She was operating on pure instinct. Pete clung on to the back of her chair, willing her on. The rest of the team, all out of the match now, watched her progress on their own screens, rapt.

  Casey’s Red Eye soldier ran up the stairs to the control room and pulled out a standard-issue hacking tool. As an assault player, her hacking skill was low, which meant it would take a few seconds longer than if Cheeze had been doing it. While she was crouched at the doors, she’d be vulnerable. She watched as her hacking tool shot out an infrared beam and started to unscramble the door lock.

  Behind her, a Squid slithered into view. Xander had guessed her plan.

  “Move!” shouted Pete.

  “Get out of there!” hollered Elite.

  Xander reached a tentacle towards Casey’s crouched avatar. His psi powers were still out of action after Brain’s grenade, but that wouldn’t stop him from launching a melee attack on her with his tentacles.

  Casey looked from Xander to the hack.

  It was at 96 per cent.

  If she broke off now, she’d have to restart from scratch. Could she make it?

  The tentacle slithered along the ground towards her. Casey felt her body, her real body in real life, tense up. The tentacle got closer and closer and …

  Bleep! The control room doors unlocked. Casey swapped the hacking tool for her Red Eye energy sword. The game’s animation took half a second to complete and then the weapon was in her hands. The energy sword fired up in a plume of curved blue light.

  FWWWWWOM! She slashed the tentacle just as it wrapped around her leg. It fell to the floor, seared off the Squid’s body in a flash of heat.

  “You did it!” shouted Brain.

  “Ya belter!” Fish yelled.

  Xander, behind his monitor, screamed in fury.

  Casey’s soldier dived into the control room and the doors slid shut behind her. VICTORY! flashed up on her screen.

  “We did it!” she screamed, jumping out of her seat and punching the air. The Ghost Reapers did the same, hugging one another as if they’d just scored the winning goal in the Champions League final.

  The rest of the tournament zone erupted. They’d just seen the most dramatic SkyWake match of the day.

  As the applause echoed around the arena, Casey pulled off her headset. Her body was shaking, pumped full of adrenaline. She felt ready to take on the whole world. She looked around at her team in excitement, preparing to run over and hug them all.

  But the boys were all staring at her in shock.

  “You’ve got a lot of explaining to do, Casey Flow,” Brain said. And for the first time that day he was talking to her, not Pete.

  6

  CHEATS NEVER PROSPER

  “You used a voice changer?” Brain said angrily as the team regrouped on the edge of the tournament zone.

  “I can’t believe you lied to us,” Fish chipped in. “We’ve been playing together for over six months.”

  “It just ain’t right,” agreed Elite. “I thought we were fam.”

  Casey saw their anger and realized that saving the match had come at a big cost.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered, unable to meet their gaze. “I thought it would help me fit in. I never dreamed we’d meet in real life…”

  “So you’re saying you would have kept on pretending if we hadn’t busted you?” Fish spat out the words, his face flushing a deep shade of crimson.

  “Yes,” said Casey. “I mean, no… Well, m
aybe.”

  She felt like she was drowning. A trickle of sweat ran down her back. She saw Cheeze looking up at her.

  “Did you really think we’d stop playing with you if we found out you were a girl?” he asked, in a disappointed voice. “I wouldn’t have cared…” He looked at the others. Elite and Brain shrugged and nodded in agreement.

  “Well, I would have done,” Fish said, crossing his arms over his chest.

  “Why?” Brain asked in surprise. “Because she’s a girl?”

  “Because she’s a liar. I hate liars.”

  “But you don’t like girls much either, do you?” Cheeze said.

  Fish reddened even more. “She could have told us the truth when she met us today,” he complained, unable to let it go. “But she kept on lying. She even got her little brother to lie for her.”

  Casey looked down at Pete. He was standing on the edge of the group, biting his lip like he might cry.

  Xander strutted over, interrupting them.

  “GG, good game, you guys. Shame the only way you could beat me was by cheating,” he added cockily. He was shadowed by one of his teammates, a lanky teenager holding a video camera. It was one of those fancy 4K models that pro YouTubers use.

  “We didn’t cheat,” Cheeze snapped, eager to defend the team’s honour.

  “OMG. So, like, changing a player in the middle of a match isn’t cheating?” Xander mugged to the camera, pulling a shocked face. “Who knew?”

  “It was just a mistake in our team line-up,” Brain explained, although he clearly didn’t think it was a very convincing argument.

  “Hey, bruv, get out of my face,” Elite said as the video kid moved in for a close-up.

  “He’s just shooting footage for my stream,” Xander explained breezily. “You know, I thought today was gonna be real boring. But you morons have done me a favour. My subscriber numbers will go way up when people see how I was cheated out of a legit win.”

  “Our pleasure,” Cheeze said, sarcastically.

  “So you’re the real Casey Flow?” Xander asked Casey, pushing his fringe out of his eyes. He extended a hand. “I’m Xander Kane.”

  “I know. I’ve seen you on YouTube.”

  “You and a million other people.”

  “One million, two hundred and seventy-four,” corrected the video kid, checking his phone. “According to the live view count.”

  Casey didn’t like Xander much, but she shook the hand he offered her. Her dad had taught her that a firm handshake was a sign you could be trusted. Xander’s grip was as limp as a dead fish.

  “Those were some pretty amazing moves back there,” he said. “How did you do it?”

  “I don’t really know,” Casey said. “Sometimes, when I’m playing, it’s like something takes over and I stop thinking about what I’m doing. It just sort of … happens. My dad used to call it the ‘flow’. That feeling you get when you’re totally at one with the game.”

  She realized they didn’t have a clue what she was talking about. She fell silent, feeling like an idiot.

  “So what happens now?” Brain asked, breaking the awkward silence.

  “That’s for them to decide,” Xander said, nodding towards Lee and the eSports officials, who were huddled together on the stage. “But if you ask me, you should get ready to go home. Try not to take it personally.” He crossed his fingers together into another X-sign and headed off to rejoin his clan.

  As the YouTuber walked away, Cheeze flicked an angry V-sign behind his back in response.

  “I’ve always hated that guy,” he muttered to nobody in particular.

  * * *

  Lee and the eSports officials took for ever to confer. They bent their heads together as they discussed the situation. After a few minutes, Lee glanced over at the Ghost Reapers. He stared hard at Casey. Her heart sank. It didn’t look good.

  She felt a hand tug on her sleeve. It was Pete. She hadn’t spoken to him since the match ended.

  “Casey?”

  “Not now,” she said.

  “I was only trying to help…”

  “By pretending to be me?”

  “You told me not to give you away,” he replied, hurt.

  He was right; she had.

  “Just leave me alone,” Casey said sharply. A replay of her victory looped over and over on the giant monitor. She stared at it, numb. Her amazing win now felt like a crushing loss. Deep in thought, she didn’t see Pete pushing his way into the crowd.

  Ten minutes later, the officials reached a decision. A burst of static crackled around the tournament zone, silencing the audience. Lee stepped back onstage, microphone in hand, his suit shimmering under the bright lights.

  “What a round!” he exclaimed. “Drama. Suspense. Unexpected twists and turns. We were on the edge of our seats.” He paused a moment and cleared his throat. “Now, as you all saw, the last match was a little unusual. But the judges have conferred and, after consulting the tournament rules, they have reached a final decision…”

  He paused theatrically. The crowd held its breath. Casey shut her eyes. She couldn’t bear the anticipation any longer.

  “It is with regret that I have to announce that the Ghost Reapers have been disqualified.”

  The tournament zone erupted into chaos. There were boos and shouts from the audience who were clearly now keen for the Ghost Reapers to win. Xander and the rest of Strike Force didn’t care. They leaped into the air, hugging one another in celebration.

  Casey opened her eyes again. It felt as if the room was swimming around her. The boys stared at one another in shock. Despite their dramatic win, they were being thrown out! Their dream was crumbling in front of them.

  “Better luck next time, guys,” Lee said as he hopped off the stage.

  “What? You mean that’s it?” Elite asked, looking like he could cry. “It’s over, just like that?”

  “We’ve got complimentary merch bags waiting for you outside,” Lee told them.

  “There must be someone we can appeal to,” Brain said, glancing around. “Perhaps if we explain the situation…”

  Fish shouldered his way through his teammates to get to Casey. His face shone bright red with anger. “This is your fault,” he said, jabbing a finger in her face. “You and your little brother stuffed it up for all of us.”

  “Leave him out of this,” Casey said, springing to Pete’s defence. She turned around to reassure her brother. Maybe she could still make this right with him.

  It was then that Casey realized Pete had vanished.

  7

  NEVER BRING A SANDWICH TO A GUNFIGHT

  As Pete ran through the tournament zone, hot, angry tears filled his eyes. He barged through the gamers, wriggling into the crowd until he couldn’t see Casey any more. He hadn’t meant to ruin everything for his sister – he’d only been trying to help. But she blamed him, just like she always did. He was fed up of her pushing him around. Casey Flow, the big sister. Casey Flow, the great gamer. Casey Flow, the favourite daughter. She thought she was so cool with her bubblegum-blue streaks. Well, she’d lose her cool when she realized he’d gone.

  He hurried towards a fire exit and shoved it open, not even stopping to think if it was alarmed. No bells rang out. The doors swung shut behind him.

  The exit led into a windowless corridor. He jogged along it for a minute or two, turning corners at random. Finally, out of breath, he stopped and leaned against the wall next to a noticeboard covered in staff rotas. He guessed he must be in a service area that ran behind the shops.

  Casey would never find him now. He imagined how badly Mum would freak out when she heard that Casey had lost him. She’d go nuts.

  It was very still and silent in the service corridor, especially after the hustle and bustle of the tournament zone. As Pete walked on, looking for a door that would take him back to the shops, he began to feel on edge. There was something eerie about the empty corridors and their cold, breeze-block walls. He wondered what would happen if he
bumped into a security guard. He sped up, keen not to find out.

  The next corridor was even gloomier. The electric strip light on the ceiling was on the blink. It hummed and buzzed like an angry insect, flickering on and off and casting everything in intermittent shadows as if there was some nearby interference.

  He shivered, feeling cold and slightly anxious.

  “Are you with the tournament?” demanded a gruff voice.

  Pete froze. He was about to apologize and make up a story about being lost when he realized that the voice wasn’t talking to him. It was coming from around the next corner. He crept forwards and peered around the wall … and stopped in his tracks.

  A security guard stood in the middle of the corridor, facing off a group of five cosplayers in Red Eye outfits. The guard held a chunky marinara meatball sub. The Red Eyes held chunky plasma rifles.

  “This is a restricted area,” the guard said, hiding the sandwich behind his back and wiping his mouth guiltily. “You need to go back the way you came.”

  The cosplayers stared at him, their red eyes burning. They were at least two metres tall and towered over him.

  The guard cleared his throat. “Come on now, lads. I know you’re supposed to be ‘aliens-from-another-planet’ but there’s no need to be silly about this. Rules are rules, whatever galaxy you’re from.”

  No one moved.

  The guard’s face formed into a scowl. He was out of patience. “I’m giving you five seconds to head back the way you came,” he said firmly. In the silence that followed, Pete counted to five in his head. Still none of them had moved.

  “Fine,” the guard said, reaching for the radio on his belt with his free hand. “You’ve only got yourselves to blame.” He spoke into the radio. “Control. I need back-up. Got a couple of trespassers here.”

  As he finished speaking, the radio released a burst of high-pitched static. Surprised, the Red Eyes raised their plasma rifles in a rattle of hardware. The guard stepped backwards. His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” he asked, his voice cracking with fear.