“I think that’s a bit of a stretch, but I see your point. I guess I just feel like the location advantage was skewed considerably in their advantage.”
“Yeah, by our method it would have been, but they might think the same thing about our location. They clearly didn’t think the orb could be in the very first spot, or they would have tried there. In a way, the location gave us the advantage, because it fooled them.”
Donny could see that, despite his belief in a flagrant disadvantage that his team was given, Duke was right that it ended up giving them an advantage. Donny decided to drop that issue. “There is something else Duke. The map that I was given that was supposed to tell me where our orb was located said that it was in the center of the arena. It clearly was not.”
Duke scrunched up his face in thought, then after a moment shrugged. “You must have read the map wrong Donny. The school has never made a mistake in their set up of the games before.”
Although Donny could see he had not convinced Duke of a conspiracy against their team, he had still heard enough to be convinced he was right. The school has never made a mistake in their set up of the games.
“Duke, I think I need to do a little more research before next week’s game.”
DONNY WAS SURPRISED to see so many people in the computer room. The last time he had gone it was completely empty, but then again, the last time he had gone was in the middle of the night, when everyone else would have been asleep. He found an open computer, and began cycling through past battles once more.
That game was designed perfectly for the brown team. I just need to find the situation that would be perfect for the yellow team, and I’ll know what we’ll face. Donny figured, as he poured through the databases. He found the battle which must have been the design for their last simulation game. Good, they are still sticking with their old games.
Donny remembered speaking a while back with the group set to research the yellow team. Their best area of expertise was clear. Their captain was a Prometheus nicknamed Hunter, due to his joy of sharpshooting. He was a firm believer that people who could shoot were necessary to war, despite the fact that guns had not been used by either the heroes or the villains for quite some time, with very few exceptions. Nevertheless, many of the yellow team members were also in sharpshooter classes, and it was well known that Hunter would have his team play paintball for at least one practice each week.
With this in mind, Donny made a mental note of the battles which would best suit a team of sharpshooters. There were many of them. He narrowed the list first by removing those games which he heard had been done in the past few years, then with the realization that the school would not pick a game they knew Donny was ready for, he narrowed out all the situations that he already had his team run during a practice. Twelve battles remained.
Just to make sure he would not be discovered if they were watching him, he went back to an irrelevant battle, and stared at the screen for a while, as if studying that battle intently. His thoughts, however, were in those other twelve battles, planning on how he could win each of them.
CHAPTER 1 3
“I AM BEGINNING to wonder if you two are really aligned with those brothers, and are just here to sabotage this school.”
“No sir, we are not…”
“Relax soldier, I realize it is merely incompetence.”
“Sir, the brown team…”
“The brown team lost. Yes, I know they got cocky, and I am perfectly aware that they ignored the metal detectors. It is clear that their aim was to humiliate the other team, and that goal came at the cost of the game. The loss is not the problem. It is a problem, but not the problem.”
“Sir?”
“The big problem here is how flagrantly you had cheated.”
“Our apologies sir, we misunderstood our orders. We thought manipulating the game was desired.”
“You misunderstand once again. I have no quarrels with the cheating. This is a war; to cheat is to gain the advantage. I have a problem with how obvious your cheating had been. Giving the Jade team an incorrect map is not something we can claim ignorance of.”
“He threw the map away though sir, and we retrieved it. The evidence is back with us, there is no longer any proof.”
“I am not afraid of proof, I can handle proof. The issue is that the boy was practically told straight out that he is being conspired against, and the fact that he never came forward to inform the school of the mistake is evidence the he got that message.”
“Yes, sir.”
“We were forced to get rid of Jay because he got wise to our situation, and his strength was something others would follow. There is a good chance Donny has figured us out as well, and I do not want to see people lining up to follow his intelligence.”
“I KNOW WHAT our next simulation is going to be.”
It was nearing time for their first practice of the week. Donny had found someone from his team who had been on the group originally designated to study the yellow team, and asked them where Hunter had originally been from. Learning that he grew up in the mountains of Norway was all Donny needed to narrow his simulation list down to one. He had waited by the door of the main school building for Duke to arrive, and was now walking with him towards the arena.
“How could you know what the simulation will be? They don’t announce that information.”
Donny could not tell Duke the truth, because Duke had no reason to believe the school was against them. He had to stretch the truth. “I figured out how they were choosing the games.”
“Really? I always thought it was done randomly, like drawn from a hat or something. Actually, I think I remember them telling us it was random.”
“It’s not completely random, a few factors are taken into effect, and in this case, those factors are enough to narrow it down to one situation.”
Duke nodded slowly. Then with a look of resignation, he decided to accept it. “Alright, if you are so sure that it will be the situation you think it will, I guess we can plan for such. So what is the situation?”
“It will be based on the battle for Kebnekaise.”
“Hmmm, not sure I recall that one. Was it one of the earlier battles?”
“Yes it was. It was a shootout that took place on the mountain Kebnekaise, in Sweden. I don’t know what the situation will entail completely, but it will involve some sharp shooting, and the terrain will be snowy and mountainous if they can make the arena as such.”
“They can. They are able to do a lot with the arena for these games. That’s certainly not good for us though, as the yellow team has many sharpshooters on their team. They will have the advantage in that area. We might have the advantage in the snow though, since we can be ready for it. We’ll just have to tell the team to be ready for this.”
“Actually, I’d rather we remain the only two that know ahead of time. I don’t want the school changing the situation due to our having figured it out. I intend to keep this advantage, and use it.”
“But what good is this information if we aren’t using it ahead of time to get ready?” Duke had stopped walking and was looking at Donny with genuine curiosity. He was right; it does no good at all if they are not able to do something with the information.
“I suppose we’ll have to get them ready, without letting them know what we’re getting them ready for.” They were now arriving at the arena, where a few of their players were already waiting, so the conversation was forced to end. Donny nodded in greeting to his players, and then left Duke to make small talk with them while he walked right by, and did not stop until he reached the supply room. He gathered as many paintball guns as he could carry, and finding the temperature controls for the arena, turned it down a few degrees.
Once the rest of the team arrived, Donny led them into the arena to begin. “This practice will be fairly simple. The yellow team has been doing substantial practice on their shooting ability, and I want us to be ready just in case we need to do any shooting. Today w
e will start with a little target practice, then we will split up and do a paintball match.”
Donny set the team up in lines, and pointed out spots on the wall for them to shoot at. He gave different color paintballs to each person in each line, so it could be distinguished who was hitting near the target, and who was far off. They next moved on to moving targets, where a few students would go out and run around a certain area, and others would fire at them. Donny was disappointed at how few were able to hit the moving targets, but there was positive information to be gained here as well. It was clearly more difficult to hit a target that was weaving back and forth.
When it came time to play a match, Donny decided to mix it up a little. He split the team into six groups instead of two, and told them that the last team standing would win. As usual, Donny and Duke went up onto the catwalk to get a bird’s eye view of the proceedings. The match began as a free for all, with each team shooting at anyone who came near. One team had the strategy of running off and hiding, waiting for the other groups to whittle each other down. Donny was relieved when he saw that strategy was beginning to form, and fewer shots began to correspond with more successful hits. Two teams called a truce, and began to take the advantage over the rest. Three others formed up to combat those two, and it quickly became a two way battle, with the hiding team still remaining on the sidelines. The two who had aligned early had picked off too many of the others for them to respond with sufficient force, and the two way alliance was able to hold the upper hand. As the last member from the three-way alliance was hit, the shooter found himself receiving a paintball in his back. The alliance had been broken, and the two teams were firing quickly at each other. As their numbers got low, the hiding team stepped out, and with a few quick shots, finished off the former alliance. Donny and Duke made their way back down to talk about what had just taken place.
“Ok, what did we learn from this?” Donny asked. He had seen many things to note, but he wanted to know what they saw first.
“Hiding is a good strategy,” one of the members of the hiding team declared with pride.
“I hope that’s not what you learned,” Donny responded. “Instead, I think it would be better to say that hiding can be a good strategy in the right situation. If your enemies are fighting amongst themselves, then yes, waiting for them to beat each other is a fantastic strategy. I think it would always be better to beat your enemies without fighting if that’s a possibility. What else?”
“The alliances worked well,” supplied a girl from the two way alliance.
“Mostly,” added the boy who had been the first betrayed with a paintball to the back.
“I agree; I feel like the alliance gave a solid advantage. The timing also played a role, as the two team alliance was able to hold the advantage even after the other three formed together, since they were too slow in forming.”
“I think it’s also good to note that it’s worth taking the time to aim. Firing rapidly at a moving target doesn’t seem to work as well as taking a moment and hitting them with your first or second shot. And less reloads are needed with this method too.”
Donny had not noticed this, but it made sense, and when he remembered what he had seen, he did recall seeing more success come from those who paused before each shot. “Good, I think that’s a great observation. Now let’s try something new.”
Donny kept the same teams, but this time he paired them up to face each other. In this way, each team had one team who they were facing, and the rest of the teams could be ignored.
This match began slower than the previous one, as the teams were beginning to plan and try out different methods of attack. The match remained as three individual battles, until the boy who had been betrayed in the previous match caught sight of the one who had betrayed him. Despite being in two different pairings, he could not resist a little payback. In this way, two new teams began to fire at each other. The grudge match ended with large losses to each team. The match split off into three games again, but then alliances began to form once more, and surprise attacks began to take place, where teams would find themselves under fire by a group that should have nothing to do with them, unaware that the team attacking them had become allies with their foe. When the match ended, Donny found it interesting that the three who had come out on top the previous time were the three who had been beaten first.
“Interesting match, but one quick question that I must ask; who won the matchup between groups five and six?” Donny asked as he reached the groups.
“We did, team five,” responded one student, who had a big yellow paint spot on his arm.
“Where are your survivors?”
“Well, we don’t have any survivors any more, but team six was beaten first. We lost the rest during an unrelated battle.”
Donny found it humorous how it was being referred to as an ‘unrelated battle’, but he kept his expression serious. “Your battle was over, but the match continued. If neither team survives, then neither team wins.”
Donny could see they were not happy with this idea, but he needed them to remember the point of their situation. They need to remember the end goal when they are in the games, and so he has to keep them focused now.
“Another thing that I have to bring attention to is which two groups were eliminated first. They’re the same two groups who got into a grudge match. This is not a coincidence. There should have only been one team to fight, but you each elected to give yourselves two, leaving each of you with a huge disadvantage. As for positive elements from the match, everyone seems to be getting better with their aim, and the alliances once again proved a valuable plan.”
Donny and Duke ran a few more situations, now splitting the team into two groups, and facing them off against each other, in order to better resemble a real match. After several hours, Donny realized his team did not have the endurance he had. Donny wanted to go all night, because every match showed him something new, but he realized his teams were getting tired, and he could not afford for them to hurt themselves. He called them in for one last piece of information.
“Ok, great practice today team. One last thing before we go. Whenever you all talk about this practice, or say anything about each other’s sharpshooting ability, I want it understood that everything said has the opposite meaning. Therefore, if you think someone was particularly good, I want you to say they stunk, and if you think someone needs a lot of work, praise them as one of the better on the team. Also, I don’t want any of you talking directly to another team member about how each other did. I don’t want any of you walking up to each other and telling each other they did terrible jobs at practice. Only discuss other team members. Let’s have an example. Duke, how would you say Flash did today?”
“Well, I’d say her aim was one of the worst on the team, and she was clearly easy to hit.”
The team began to chuckle at this, and Flash crossed her arms in mock anger. “Well we all know you are the worst one here, Duke. Honestly, you’re probably as likely to shoot yourself than anyone else.” Smiles and low laughs were circling all over now.
“Good, except remember not to direct your comments directly at someone,” Donny reminded her.
“Oh right, sorry. Hey Lenny, don’t you think Duke is a terrible shot?”
Lenny nodded feverishly as he laughed. Donny laughed along with his team, and then dismissed them until practice the next day.
DONNY AND DUKE waited for the rest of the team to leave. As soon as the last players walked out of the arena and the door shut behind them, Duke opened the conversation. “They still have the advantage Donny. Even if you are correct about the situation, and they had no idea, we are still far lacking in firepower. If we played the game tonight, it would be a massacre.”
“Even if we trained openly for the exact situation we will be facing, Saturday’s match would be a massacre. We can’t teach them to shoot well enough in a single week.”
Duke seemed almost surprised by Donny’s remark. “You know kid,
with most people, hearing them make a statement like that I would assume they had given up. But somehow from you it makes me wonder if you have something up your sleeves.”
“Not yet,” Donny replied. “But I know this; we need to win the match before Saturday, or we won’t be able to win at all.”
“Before Saturday? How can we win before the match even starts?”
“This is where the ‘not yet’ comes in. I haven’t quite figured that part out yet.” Donny could tell that Duke was confused by this remark, but that could not be helped. “Tell me Duke, how can we win before the match even starts?”
Donny knew Duke could not seriously give an answer to this question. His hope was not for a correct answer, but just some comment to help them think of a plan together. If they kept talking, kept thinking out loud, there was a chance that one thought could trigger a plan.
Duke did not answer for a while, but finally in his frustration he let his thoughts out. “I’m sorry Donny, but it can’t be done. It’s not possible to beat a team that you aren’t facing, and we won’t face them until Saturday. Short of sabotage, I don’t know what we can really do, and I know you don’t want to injure any of their players.”
“No, I don’t want to injure anyone, but there has to be another way to sabotage them without doing anything dirty.”
“We can’t injure them, or kidnap any players. We can’t trick them into coming at the wrong time, or pull their strategy out of their heads. Reading their minds isn’t against the rules, but the only one who would know their plans ahead of time would be Hunter, and he is trained well enough to keep his thoughts hidden.”
The Games Villains Play (The Academy Trilogy) Page 13