Project Alpha

by R. A. Mejia

  There’s a bright flash of light, and I find myself standing next to Lillian and John in the corner of a large square field about 100 yards long. It reminds me of a football field except the field is surrounded by tall stone boulders. At the opposite corner of the field, three men stand around. One is dressed in a long red and white robe and carries a tall staff with intricately carved symbols on it. Next to him is a short, squat man wearing black leather. He has two sharp-looking knives at his hips. A black leather hood shadows his face. Lastly, a tall blonde man is wearing a purple robe. Oddly, he seems to have a golden slice of pizza on a chain around his neck.

  Our groups, separated by a large force field, keeps us from attacking each other. After eyeballing each other for a moment, the announcer's voice says, “In our first match of the day, we have Monster Squashers Inc versus the Randos. The Randos only seemed to have formed a team yesterday. Regardless, we wish them luck. Teams, are you ready?” But without waiting for a response, the voice continues, “Go!”

  The force field separating us from our opponents disappears. The man in the black leather disappears in a puff of smoke, and the man with the staff begins to chant. The guy in with the pizza necklace just stands there examining his nails.

  Our team doesn’t need to say much. We’ve been fighting for the last couple months regularly while getting me leveled up enough to qualify for these competitions. Lillian opens her inventory and taps a button that changes into her mechanized battle suit with a flash of light. She stands in front of us, our tank, in a black battle suit with glowing purple tech inscriptions. She turns, winks at me, and then pulls a large two-handed sword from the inventory. With a whisper, the blade ignites, and I recognize it from our fight with Krampus. She uses some boost feature of her armor and bursts forward with a whoosh. Beside me, John pulls a drone with an attached gun out of his inventory and throws into the air. It speeds ahead and above the fight, likely looking for a place to attack. Then he too runs forward to join the fight. I watch the two of them in amazement, then remember that I’m also in this fight.

  With Lillian taking point, I run up on her left and begin shelling the chanting man and his seemingly bored pizza companion. John, on the right of Lillian, starts to shoot at them from above. Just as my first explosive grenade is about to hit the chanting man, a shimmering blue shield forms around the two, and both my explosive grenade and the shots from the drone are absorbed. At the same time, the man with the staff flings out his hand, and massive fireball flies towards John.

  John, being the sensible man that he is, yells and dives to his left to hide behind our well-armored tank. As he does, I catch a shimmer out of the corner of my eye, and the leather-clad man appears just where John was just standing. He’s thrusting his daggers exactly where John was just standing, and his eyes are wide open in surprise and anger at having missed his chance to backstab John. He’s even more surprised when the fireball his teammate threw explodes in front of him.

  When the smoke from the fireball clears, the rogue is still standing but is missing his hood, his eyebrows, and about a third of his health. Now, here’s where professionalism comes into play. Our team, even if we made a mistake like that, wouldn’t bat an eyelid. We’d just continue to fight and use the surprise of the situation to catch our opponents off guard. Instead, these guys start to fight amongst themselves. The short rogue starts to call the mage that threw the fireball an arrogant ass that doesn’t know how to use his magic effectively. The mage points out that he said that he was going to kill the stupid-looking one. The rogue points to me with his knife and says that he thought the mage meant me. The mage slaps his head and points at John and says that he’s obviously the stupid-looking one. The two get into a big argument over who looks the stupidest, John or me. Eventually, the two walk right up to each other and start to yell chest to chest. Their companion inserts himself between the two and reminds them that they should save their energy for their enemies.

  But it’s too late. While the two argued, I very handily activated my new Camouflage ability and ran right up to the edge of the magical shield protecting the mage and the purple pizza man. All around the area I planted explosives with a remote trigger. The moment the guy with the golden pizza necklace points at us and reminds his teammates who the enemy is, I press the remote trigger setting off all the explosives. There’s a massive blast of heat and energy all around the trio. The magical shield glows brightly as it tries to absorb all the energy, then pops as it fails. The shield down, John begins to blast the area with his drone, and I launch more grenades into the area.

  Together, we kill the mage and the pizza guy. But the rogue escapes the area of attack. He’s met by Lillian in her mechanized battle suit. The poor man tries to go on the offensive, but his daggers can’t penetrate her armor. Instead, Lillian whirls around with her massive sword held out and sliced the rogue in two.

  With the last member of the team defeated, the bodies disappear and the announcer says loudly, “The winners are Monsters Squashers Inc.”

  There’s another flash of light, and our team transports immediately to another location. This one is a field of lava with thick pillars made of some black stone dotting the space between ourselves and our opponents. These opponents I recognize. They’re some of the guys from Ludas Inc. I’m worried until I see that they’re all geared for close combat. Yup, as long as we can keep them away from us, we have the advantage since John, and I are ranged fighters.

  The moment the force field comes down, the three guys from Ludas Inc. sprint and leap across the stone pillars, trying to close the gap between our two teams. It takes me a moment, but I switch out my explosive ammo for the freeze grenades. I launch six grenades at the pillars between our teams. The grenades don’t do any damage, but when they explode, they coat the top of the pillar with a thin layer of ice. Too late does the other team realize what I’m doing. One of them lands on an ice-covered pillar and loses his balance and slides right off the edge into the lava below. Another of their team members slips, but can catch himself at the last minute and is hanging on by his forearms. John’s armed drone buzzes right over to him and shoots him in the face until he loses concentration and falls off too.

  The last member of the Ludas Inc. group can avoid the iced over pillars and actually makes it near us. Lillian, no longer in her mechanized battle suit, but still wielding her two-handed flaming sword meets him in melee combat. The two move quicker than I can see and I only catch blurs of steel as they leap from pillar to pillar and strike out at each other. Blood flies everywhere, and in the end, it’s the blood that determines the winner. The other swordsman slips on some of the blood, and his balance is momentarily thrown off. But that’s enough to give Lillian the advantage, and the next moment her blade skewers the man through the gut. He smiles and nods respectfully at her before the light in his eyes dies, and his body disappears.

  Chapter 48

  With another flash of light, our group finds itself in the middle of a large warehouse. Between the dim lighting and the force field that distorts the view, I’m not able to see who our next opponents are. Instead, I check my character sheet briefly to see how I’m doing.

  Anthony Tinoco

  Level 10

  Unspent stat points: 0

  Unspent skill points: 1

  XP to next level: 49820

  Health 240/250

  Mana300/300

  TP50/350

  Abilities

  Roll

  Flying Kick

  Smash

  Stab

  Fireball

  Bite

  Iron Grip

  Spider Climb

  Naughty Children

  Ice Needle

  Camouflage

  Inventory

  Hammer

  Grenade Ammo - Smoke

  Grenade Ammo - Fire

  Grenade Ammo - Ice

  Grenade Ammo - Electric

  Trap - Electric

  Trap - Rope

  Heal
th and mana wise I’m doing well. I only took a few hits during the last couple of fights. My TP is looking sad though. I used up most of it when I activated Camouflage and planted those explosives. Speaking of explosives, I’m out. I used up both my explosive grenades and my proximity mines to take out that magical shield in that first fight today. Still, I have more options.

  I close my inventory space as a large screen appears in the middle of the room and the announcer’s starts to speak. “Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the final, deciding fight in the System Games!”

  A spotlight highlights our corner of the room and I see my team on the screen. The announcer continues, “In this corner we have the underdogs. The newly minted company that’s exceeded all expectations by making it to the final round. The team with the most teens, Monster Squashers Inc!” Shots of the cheering crowds are played over the screen and there are several people that wear t-shirts proclaiming, ‘Team Monster Squashers.’

  The spotlight disappears from us and reappears on the other team. When the opposing team appears on the screen in the middle of the room, my heart begins to race. The announcer calls out, “And in this corner, we have the troublesome trio, the team with the most accusations of cheating this tournament, representatives of one of the most powerful corporations, The Arschloch Corporation!” The screen again shifts to the audience for their reaction. While there are still many people that cheer, there are also a lot of people that boo with enthusiasm. However, all those reactions only register in my periphery.

  My mind instead focuses one of the revealed opponents. Auden Arschloch III, that rich, blond, smug bastard that beat me up during the Halloween party. That same jerk that stole my ability Hammer Time. Auden’s ability to steal any power used against him is going to be a pain in the ass during the fight. Thankfully it has a seven-day cool down period between uses or it would be super over-powered.

  Now that teams have been announced the force field around us have become clear and I use Inspect to check out the Arschloch team.

  Auden Arschloch III

  Level 15

  Jeremy Dolton

  Level 14

  Cortney Wakesfield

  Level 13

  I recognize Jeremy as the brown haired guy who’s always following Auden around. I think he’s a professional lackey or something. The brunette girl, I vaguely remember being at the convenience store with Auden once. I’m not sure if she’s the one that vomited all over the floor though. Still, the two aren’t here for moral support. They must be decent Users to have made it this far.

  My time inspecting the other team ends when the announcers voice breaks through my contemplation, “Let’s get ready to rumble! The match will begin in 5...4...3...2...1...Go!”

  The forcefield around our team disappears and we run across the room towards our opponents. However, the other team stays where they are. Courtney, dressed in a white, cloth robe, embroidered with holy symbols, begins to glow as she chants, then Auden and Jeremy start to glow red. I realize she must be giving them some kind of buff that makes them stronger.

  As soon as Auden gets the buff, he taps the air in front of him and he’s suddenly dressed in a set of golden power armor. The technologically powered armor encases him in a suit of armor that enhances his strength and protects him from damage. It also makes the guy look like a giant since it adds four feet to his height and doubles his mass. If the gold color didn’t make him look so douchey, he’d actually look impressive.

  Lillian, already wearing her own mechanized battle suit, rushes Auden, determined to go toe to toe with him. Auden gladly accepts the challenge and it’s two-handed hammer versus two-handed sword. Jeremy dashes to his left and aims his strange looking gun at me. There’s the sound of compressed air, and an object comes streaking out towards me. I instinctively use Roll, and the ability tosses me to the left. When I’m back on my feet, I see that there’s a tranquilizer dart sticking out of the floor where I was just standing. The dart triggers a memory of being tied down and drugged. I’m frozen momentarily by the traumatic thought. A gunshot from my right brings me back to the present, and I turn to see John shooting his handgun while running and as Jeremy fires more tranquilizer darts. John hits Jeremy center mass once, causing a red 15 to float away from the man. However, in that same moment, a single dart hits John in his thigh. John stumbles immediately and falls to his knees. He shakes his head, but I can tell that the drugs in the tranquilizer are already taking effect as he wobbles. Jeremy giggles and the sound tickles something in my mind.

  Still, I can’t let the man take advantage of John’s vulnerability. I raise my grenade launcher and fire off my load. Jeremy must have heard the sound of my weapons because his gaze snaps to me, and for a moment his face is filled with hate. The next instant, he’s running away from me as fast as he can. My grenade lands and explodes, causing a ring of fire. Unfortunately, Jeremy is already out of the damage radius of the grenade. He turns as soon as the grenade goes off and aims his strange weapon with the green vials hanging off it at me. Now it’s my turn to move. I use Roll again, and body speeds forward. I feel the tranquilizer pass by, and as I come to my feet, I fire off another grenade. Jeremy again runs just out of range, and I find myself in a game of cat and mouse. The two of us seem not to be able to make any progress towards harming each other.

  A glance to my left reveals Lillian in the same situation. She and Auden’s fighting styles are too similar. Each is armored too well. Their health bars have barely moved as they exchange blows.

  The glance away from my opponent almost costs me my consciousness as a dart hits the ground an inch from my right foot. I can see the only reason he missed was that he was shooting from the other side of a pool of fire and heat likely blocked his vision partially. I have to run while trying to reload my grenade launcher, and I’m only able to drop two grenades before I have to Roll again to avoid another tranquilizer. I shoot off my next grenade, and again Jeremy runs just outside its range. But that’s ok this time. As the grenade explodes, it spews a thick dark cloud of smoke. Jeremy, on the other side of the smoke grenade, is now completely obscured, which means he can’t see me either.

  I use the visual distraction to call out to my blonde teammate. “Lillian, let’s switch dance partners.”

  It only takes a moment for her to recognize what I’m saying, and with a frustrated growl she disengages from Auden and uses her suits boost ability to speed towards Jeremy, leaving me to face Auden. He’s stunned that Lillian left the fight, but as he realizes that he’s supposed to fight me now, he laughs and points at me. “Am I supposed to fight you now? I’ve already kicked your ass once with my bare hands. Now I’m all decked out in my best armor and weapon. You don’t stand a chance. Why don’t you just surrender now and I’ll make your death only slightly painful?”

  The mocking tone of his laugh grates on my nerves, but instead of answering I fire another grenade at him. He’s such a big target it’s almost impossible to miss. The rich idiot looks down at the object that pings off his metal armor. His eyes widen as the grenade explodes and unleashes a blast of electricity. As the electric energy travels through Auden’s metal armor, his muscles involuntarily contract and expand. His facial muscles twitch and spasm, forcing his face to take on a strange assortment of expressions.

  When the electricity from the grenade runs out, Auden stands there stunned, and I make my move. I climb up his power armor using Spider Climb. The same ability allows me to cling to his armor long enough to activate Iron Grip and latch onto the edge of his armor even while Auden tries to grab me. My hands full holding on for dear life, I use the only offensive ability I have that doesn’t require the use of my hands. I activate Bite. I feel a gnawing hunger come over me and I feel the skin on my face stretch out. I have an incredible urge to eat living flesh, and the closest source is Auden. My jaws open wide, and I lean forward and begin devouring the flesh of my enemy. His screams of pain are drowned out by the pleasure I feel as the life energy of my opponen
t becomes my own. There are a series of green and red numbers that float by, but I ignore them, the instinct to feast overwhelming any other impulse.

  Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, my TP runs out, and I immediately transform back into my normal self. My grip on the power suit loosens, and I’m thrown from Auden with the next swipe of his powered arm.

  As I hit the ground, I expect to be stomped or beaten by Auden. Instead, he wobbles around and falls on his armored butt. As I get to my feet, I see that he’s holding one gauntleted hand to his face and neck trying to stem the flow of blood from his disfigured face. A glance above his head shows his health bar is down to the halfway point and pulling up my own information shows that my health is now back to 100%.

  Auden angrily yells out, “Heal!”

  A faint glow surrounds him, but his wounds barely heal and his health only goes up a fraction. He turns to yell at his teammate, and I can see the extent of the damage I caused him. The right side of his face and neck are shredded, and whole chunks of flesh are missing from his neck.

  “I said ‘Heal.' Why haven’t you healed me, Courtney?”

  Courtney, the poor girl, marked in her team as a healer, walks forward, shoulders hunched, hands wringing nervously in front of her. “I did heal you.”