[Sarah6258: My Ultra augment is at 72%!]
[Nintendo Femicom: Not enough, then. We’ll have to wait until the next team fight for our strategy.]
[Wr4th: Then come up with something else! I’m almost back on point.]
Deacon and Owen were running back from spawn after the previous fight with Team A resulted in the both of them dying to Steven’s Ultra augment. He had landed both shots of his [Infectious Comradery] on Owen and Deacon. Each shot of [Infectious Comradery] spreads 50% of the damage to any nearby allies, and with both shots landing squarely in the chests of the oncoming attackers, the spread damage killed the two before Sarah could heal the damage.
[Witchofthew3st: Do you ever come up with plans of your own? Or do you just tell everyone else to “figure it out” all game long?”]
[Wr4th: Do you ever use that account in public? Or have you been masquerading in the comfort of your mom’s basement until now?”]
Owen's shoulders tensed as she flicked herself around a corner with a well placed [Gravplaz] shot to speed up her runback from the spawn room. Aside from evoking a flicker of anger in Owen’s chest, Deacon’s comment made it clear that their bickering would never end if Owen continued to fuel the flames.
Opting instead to focus on the match, Owen turned her attention to Aoife as she reunited with the other half of her team.
[Nintendo Femicom: Focus up for fuck’s sake. Skybridge can easily end the match here if we don’t find a way to push forward now.]
Owen surveilled the long spacious hallway of the skybridge that made up the majority of [Terminal Velocity]. Once inside the bridge, it wasn’t too difficult to push the payload. The trick was entering and exiting the bridge. Something which Aoife was attempting to solve before Deacon had even made it back to the rest of the team by taking potshots at the enemy team. It wasn’t likely to result in a kill, but she had been firing away while the other half of her team respawned on the off chance Team A got sloppy.
[Wr4th: I’m back. Are we ready to push?]
[Nintendo Femicom: Hold on. I’ve got an Ultra augment and an idea.]
While taking scant shots at the team on the skybridge she managed to land a few shots on Richie. The damage didn’t matter, it was healed away before she had the chance to make anything of the successful sniper shots. But she had gotten exactly what she needed out of the interaction. The healing that Richie received had come from behind a metal barrier on the left side of the skybridge. One of the supports, Castle or Malik, had to have been hiding behind that barrier.
With a smirk and a plan, Aoife activated her [Tracking Shot] augment and fired it behind a tipped cardboard box that lay near the center of the bridge. The scattered boxes and produce that were always present next to one of the market stalls made for a good hiding spot for the tracking shot. If all had gone according to the plan, Team A would have heard the shot and assumed it was a normal miss. With the pulsing wave of detection from the [Tracking Shot] near the barrier, Aoife was given an outline of the healer hiding in cover. Aoife braced herself against the floor as she lined up a shot and activated her Ultra augment. [Heaven Piercer] was a single powerful sniper shot that could travel through any surface on any map in the game, allowing for certain disgusting plays to kill backline players that believed themselves safe in the cover of their choke point. Its long wind up and recovery made it hard to execute during a fight, but Aoife had all the time in the world to prepare for the shot as the rest of her team prepared for the inevitable team fight.
KYOOOM
Aoife found endless amounts of satisfaction in the unique sound of the [Heaven Piercer] finding its target behind a piece of cover. The moment her kill flashed in the kill feed, she ordered the rest of her team to rush in.
[Nintendo Femicom ===> Malfeasance]
[Nintendo Femicom: GO! NOW!]
It was the catalyst for a cacophony of chaos on the skybridge of [Terminal Velocity]. Owen rushed in immediately alongside Deacon with the confidence that a 3v4 would be fairly simple to accomplish.
Richie did his best to prevent Team 1 from pushing up past the choke point by using his augments in combination with the environment. He triggered [Voracious Grasp] as he stepped out from behind a directory wall constructed from a thin opaque glass. The smattering of advertisements scattered across the directory covered every inch of the glass that wasn’t already displaying the map for the two skyscraper’s 130th floor where the skybridge was located. An aggravating amount of commercialization that Owen thought helped to build up the futuristic setting of UMDK. She found the scenery somewhat less amusing when it completely concealed the large form of Richie’s avatar hiding behind it.
Owen could do nothing as she was dragged across the bridge to be thrown violently through the glass on the left side of the skybridge. She was fortunate enough that the glass didn’t count as a “wall” by the game’s standards, or else she would have suffered a momentary stun as she was launched out of the map’s boundaries and towards her death.
[Sarah6258: Owen!]
[NintendoFemicom: Shit!]
Aoife flicked her aim towards the left side of the skybridge to fire a shot directly into Richie’s shoulder. It wouldn’t do much to fix Owen’s physical position, but Aoife knew there was nothing in her kit that could help. She instead opted to make the most out of Richie’s exposed position after finishing his [Voracious Grasp] to attempt to even the odds and keep the fight in their advantage.
Richie’s throw had plenty of force behind it. Force that Owen was gleefully putting to use upon activating [Momentum Redirect] to launch herself back into the fight. Owen sailed back towards the same segment of glass that she was thrown out of, doing her best to shift her movement in the air to aim herself towards Richie who was currently occupied by Aoife.
A second shot from Aoife’s sniper shattered across Castle’s [Prismatic Aegis], blocking the damage that would have certainly killed Richie. While briefly immune to damage, Richie popped his [Resurgent Pulse] to restore the health he lost from Aoife’s first shot. Owen just barely made it back to the skybridge as her momentum slowed, giving her just a split second of fear where she worried she had miscalculated her [Momentum Redirect]. With Richie pincered between Aoife and Owen he was overexposed in all directions. This chapter is updated first at novelping . com.
[Witchofthew3st: Sarah, Deacon, go for Castle and Steven! We’ll handle Richie!]
Owen quickly glanced over towards Aoife as if to get some kind of confirmation. It was neither needed or given as Aoife’s eyes remained locked on her monitor as she fired a [Concussive Shot] directly into Richie’s chest. The augment disrupted his field of view, as well as the accuracy of his weapon for a short time. The perfect way to initiate the fight against the tank of Team A. Owen followed up with another shot from the [Gravplaz], splattering a good portion of Richie’s back with thin plasma beams. A small white flash around Richie’s body indicated to both Aoife and Owen that he had used [Clear Mind] to rid himself of the concussion status effect. It was a cheap cost augment that was almost always a good choice for a tank. Not only did it clear all status effects (with a few ULTRA augment exceptions), but it awarded a generous 40 health per status effect cleared. It wasn’t a large sum of health for Richie, but it was just enough to keep him in the fight longer than any other Team A member could manage in the same position.
[Witchofthew3st: Aoife? You ready for the Ulrich?]
[NintendoFemicom: Make em’ scream.]
Owen smiled at the response. The two of them had constructed certain key phrases to use in order to clue each other in on what combos they wanted to use. It wasn’t practical in any way. It would be far simpler to call out what tactic they wanted to use instead of saying cryptic phrases to one another. But the practicality wasn’t the point. The point was that it made them both smile.
[Witchofthew3st: PULL!!!]
Owen playfully yelped into the microphone as if she was an actual skeet shooter and not just some girl slapping keys on a keyboard and sliding a mouse around a desk. Owen activated [Sweep Kick] as she ran towards Richie, a low cost augment just like [Clear Mind] due to the fact its use was minimal by itself. All it did was sweep the legs out from underneath an enemy to get them to fall to the ground. Just like with her combo callouts, though, Owen was not a fan of simplicity. She used the move in combination with her [Gravplaz] alternate fire to fire up at Richie while he was falling to the ground. If positioned underneath him as Owen currently was due to her slide, she could fire her alternate fire up at Richie to launch him up into the air further discombobulating her enemy while Aoife lined up her “skeet shot”.
CRACK!
Aoife’s bullet pierced Richie’s head as he reached the apex of his [Gravplaz] induced flight. The damage from both shots consecutively was more than enough to eliminate Team A’s tank.
Deacon and Sarah were having a very different time dealing with their own set of threats in Steven and Castle. It was a surprisingly even matchup due to the roles of both duos. One damage dealer and one support each.
[Wr4th: I’m going for Steven first, babe]
[Sarah6258: I got you covered.]
Deacon recklessly advanced towards Steven by leaping over a half-collapsed directory screen that was propped up against a few supply crates, creating a ramp-like path for him to jump into the fray with. The second his eyes laid on Steven, he began to fire away. Due to his penchant for precise plays, he instinctively aimed for Steven’s head, missing all but a single shot of his first volley.
[Wr4th: Change of plans.]
Deacon recognized his approach wouldn’t work as well against the small target of Steven. Ditching his habit of stacking [Rancor] damage, he began to aim more for center mass. For every bullet that sunk into Steven, another was sent right back from Steven’s faster firing rifle. The damage dealers were fortunate to have two dedicated supports that were working on healing away the damage that the two were taking. The fight unfolded into a steady stalemate until a recommendation was made by Sarah.
[Sarah6258: Use a big move, Deacon! I need to see where Castle is hiding.]
Deacon placed his trust in Sarah’s unspoken plan. Despite not knowing where it was headed, he popped his [Inevitable Luck] augment. With a flair, Deacon spun the chamber of his revolver to activate the revolver's exclusive augment and pointed it towards Steven with a jibing smirk.
With [Inevitable Luck] activated, Deacon’s next six shots would gain an escalating crit chance, starting with 15%, and gaining another 15% chance for every shot that doesn’t trigger the critical hit. If none of the first 5 shots trigger the crit, the 6th shot will always crit. Critical hits in UMDK give the same 2x damage modifier that a headshot gives. Under normal circumstances, these multipliers can’t be applied at the same time as one another. [Inevitable Luck] is one of the very few exceptions to this rule, allowing an ULTRA crit in the instance that the critical shot is also a headshot. It made [Inevitable Luck] a very intimidating augment to go up against. Of course, none of this matters if the critical hit proc’d on a shot that misses.
To ensure Deacon didn’t waste the critical shot, he needed to be extra careful in his next six shots. Just as Sarah had hoped, the activation of [Inevitable Luck] led to Castle revealing themselves.
[Wr4th: The fuck are they doing?]
[Sarah6258: Castle knows they need Steven to win this fight, so they’re giving you more targets to aim at in hopes you waste the crit on the wrong one. Think it through before you shoot.]
[Wr4th: Yeah, yeah. They picked the wrong guy to trick.]
Deacon fired off a quick shot towards Steven, hitting him firmly in the chest. No golden blast emitted from [Rancor]. It hadn’t been the crit. Deacon aimed once more towards Steven, stopping just before his finger pulled the trigger. A rapid expansion of smoke and loud noises had emitted from Steven.
[Wr4th: Fuckin’ [Smoke Scream] user.]
The disorienting augment of [Smoke Scream] didn’t last for long, but it was enough to buy Team A precious time. As soon as the smoke cleared, Deacon as Sarah made out the forms of their two foes.
Four. Four foes. The smoke cleared to reveal two Castle’s and two Steven’s standing in the open area in the center of the skybridge.
[Wr4th: Are you fucking kidding me? Two [Holographic Mirage] users?]
Deacon slowly shifted his view between the four threats, all of whom had weapons raised and began to fire. Deacon didn’t move a muscle. He knew that [Holographic Mirage] was unable to actually cause damage. The holograms were programmed to shoot and nearly miss a target to create the illusion of a slightly inaccurate foe. The real Steven and real Castle were also deliberately missing their shots to perpetuate the phantasm. Deacon raised his revolver towards the Castle on the left side of the bridge to shoot at their head.
[Sarah6258: Deacon, wait!]
Her words came too late to stop Deacon from firing another shot from his revolver. The bullet came out mundane as it passed through the illusory Castle, pushing the chance for the next shot up to 45%. Since the Castle on the left was the illusion, Deacon turned his focus back to the other Castle who was… gone. [Camouflaging Strafe] to allow them to escape as soon as Deacon made the wrong choice.
[Sarah6258: Stop shooting! They want you to waste that crit! It’s the whole point of this confusion.]
[Wr4th: Well I didn’t waste it. Now it’s a coin flip for the crit, and a coin flip for the real Steven.]
Deacon stared down the two shooting Stevens and prepared to make his choice.
[Sarah6258: No it’s not! Castle will just throw a [Prismatic Aegis] on the real Steven when you shoot. You have to think it through first. I have a plan for the real Steven if you can follow through.]
[Wr4th: How would you know which one is real?]
[Sarah6258: The holograms don’t reload.]
Only a few seconds after Sarah spoke, she was proven right. The Steven on the right side of the bridge had stopped shooting, revealing himself as the true Steven. Acting on pure impulse, Deacon activated two augments almost simultaneously for one of his favorite combos. [Penitent Chains] and [Supersonic Sprint], the former to keep Steven planted for a moment while the latter augment let Deacon practically teleport a short distance towards Steven. Deacon’s combo allowed him to "guarantee" a headshot by getting him in point blank range of a target to shoot before they could move away.
Deacon planted his revolver against Steven’s forehead with yet another cocky grin.
[Wr4th: Found you.]
Just as Deacon was pulling the trigger of his [Rancor], a glimmering sheen appeared around Steven. Castle still had [Prismatic Aegis] off cooldown.
[Sarah6258: Read like a book.]
Sarah giggled to herself as she cast [Desecrated Soul] on Steven, dispelling all beneficial status effects and preventing him from being healed for 2 seconds. Without a [Prismatic Aegis] to save him, Deacon’s headshot triggered the 45% chance causing an ULTRA crit and doing enough damage to kill him from full health instantly.
[Wr4th: That was some crazy reaction time, babe.]
[Sarah6258: It wasn’t a reaction, Deke. I knew Castle would try to aegis Steven there since there was a high chance of you getting an ULTRA crit.]
[Wr4th: Either way… it was pretty cool.]
Owen and Aoife caught up with the other half of their team just as Steven was killed, leaving a single Castle remaining on Team A, with Malik and Richie almost certainly respawned and running back to the bridge.
[Witchofthew3st: Hey good shit you two! We just have that final choke point and we’re golden!]
[NintendoFemicom: 3 minutes on the clock as well, it’s looking pretty good for us!]
[Wr4th: No jinxing please. We can celebrate if we win.]
Owen wondered just how true those words were. A “celebration” could be anything from a simple “good job” to Aoife and Owen’s excursion to Frisky Frogs. Owen highly doubted that Deacon would want to spend any time with this team once the match was over aside from Sarah.
[Witchofthew3st: Then let’s win.]
Just as she finished speaking, an odd sensation started to distract Owen. A vibration, as if she had accidentally left a controller plugged into her computer. But this wasn’t her computer, and there certainly weren’t any controllers nearby as they were confined to the SMASH N’ DASH N’ BASH computers. She quickly moved her character behind the nearest bit of cover before moving her hands towards the source of the vibration. Her pocket. She slipped her phone out to see an incoming call from [Mom].