Given the fact we only have a few minutes till our next shooting match, I spend that time preparing as much as I can. Not only am I walking to the kitchen to prepare another cup of jasmine tea, but I am also studying technical data of “Bullet Hell” as much as I can. After all, I may not care much for the game itself, but I care for some of the people within it.

Among the things I study is statistical data of the components of the game. For example, the exact rate of fire, range, accuracy, and bullets per clip of individual guns in the game. I want to know all of this information to perfection so that I can accurately evaluate everything else in the game. It doesn't even matter if it's accurate to real life or not. It only matters how these things function within the game itself.

I need to know this because, for the next few hours, that world is my world! It's my life on the line while I play within it, and I'm going to fight like hell to defend it! Not only that, but I am determined to make my new enemies suffer! They hurt Shimmy! They crossed the line, and now they are going to PAY!

I somewhat absently listen to my other guildmates discuss strategy among themselves as I make my way to the kitchen. My augmented reality glasses are still linked to my computer, so it's transferring the sound data to my glasses which vibrate my eardrums so I can hear them.

I don't entirely understand every word they are saying. Some of it seems like some kind of gaming lingo, particularly first-person shooter lingo. I think I gather the gist at least. For the moment, it's just comforting to know that they are all fired up about this.

I’m a leader when I need to be, so I just give them some encouragement. That should have been Sunny's job, but her soul got wounded tonight. I guess we're living in bizarro land where I, of all people, a supervillain, have to play the goddamn hero.

Well fine! If that's what it takes to stick up for Sunset Shimmer's honor, then I’m game!

I am in the middle of opening the refrigerator when I hear them start discussing war plans to invade their own base. It is at that point when I finally interject.

But first, I unmute my microphone on my glasses.

“No! Don't!” I object. “Leave the base to me. I'll take care of it. I want all of you to focus on drawing their fire away from the base.”

“What are you talking about?” Sunset asks in a tone of objection. “You can't handle that entire base by yourself! You'll need backup.”

“You are the backup!” I argue back to her. “Trust me, Sun Blaze, I can do this! I won't need all of your backup within the base itself if I'm the only one in there.”

“That's crazy!” Button rejects. “You can't handle that entire place by yourself!”

“I helped to design and build it, remember?” I remind the guild. “I know that place inside and out. I know where its strengths and weaknesses are. These jerks may have our base for now, but they don't know it like we do. Not yet. I'll use that ignorance against them!

“Trust me on this, I know strategy. This is my bread and butter in real life. I just need you all to-”

“Cozy? Who are you talking to?” my mother asks behind me.

OH SHIT! Did my guildies overhear that?

“Ah . . . I have to go for a minute,” I tell my guildmates. “Don't worry. I'll be there at the start of the match.”

I mute my end of the conversation as I turn to face my mother. I am now holding a plastic jar full of more of my tea as well, and I close the refrigerator door with a gentle backwards kick to it.

“I was talking to others on the phone,” I explain to my mom as I briefly point at my glasses. “Or rather some people I know online.”

“Oh!” My mother blinks and smiles at me. “Talking to a new group of friends? How wonderful! I'm so happy for you, Cozy! Look at you! Making new friends already.”

“Um, actually . . .” I trail off for a moment as I focus on pouring my tea into my cup. I resume speaking when I cap the bottle again and set it down on the kitchen table. While I speak, I also lift the cup near my lips. “. . . some of those I'm talking to I know from school. We're all working on a project together. A very important project.”

“Oh.” My mother looks a bit disappointed, but still very happy overall. “Well, that's good too, I guess.

“Just remember, lights out at ten.”

My mother is about to leave until I call out to her. “Wait, mother! Um,” she pauses and looks back at me. “That might not be enough time. I'm working on something very important with them and it has to be done tonight. Can I please stay up a little longer and help them finish it?”

My mother looks reluctant to accept that. “Honey, you stay awake too long as it is. You burn yourself out with all that extra work you do. You need your rest! It's very important to a growing girl. Do you want me to recite all the medical reasons for it?”

“No! I don't need a lecture tonight. What I need is your understanding and approval. Those friends of mine online are counting on me for something very important. Something that means so much to them. I can't let them down, Mother! They need me to support them on this!

“Please, just for tonight, I need more time!”

Please, Mother! For once, I'm not doing this for myself.

My mother sighs as she looks down, then smiles up at me a bit. “Okay. If it's that important to you and them, you may have one more hour, but I mean it this time! Lights out at eleven. Okay? You have school tomorrow so this is as far as I'll negotiate.”

“Eleven?” I look cornerwise up as I do some mental calculations. A full match in “Bullet Hell” is only an hour longer than that. I should be able to finish my mission objectives within that time, so I look back and nod in agreement. “Sure, Mom. I think I can do that. Lights out at eleven. I promise.”

My mother smiles at me more widely, then approaches me in order to kiss me on the forehead. When she finishes, her head backs up enough to tell me while she gently strokes one of my cheeks with a thumb, “I love you so much. You know that, don't you Honey?”

“How can I forget? You remind me very often.” I lean forward and embrace my mother in a warm hug. “Thanks, Mom. I need to hear this as much as you need to tell me. I love you too.”

She hugs me in return, then pats my back seconds before pulling away. As she walks away, she says to me, “Goodnight, Honey. Sleep tight. Don't let the bed bugs bite. I wish you pleasant dreams, same as always.”

“Thanks, Mom. You too.”

I wait till I hear the door to her bedroom shut before I unmute my end of the conversation.

“Okay, I'm back. Listen to me very carefully, because here's what's going down.”

AzuraKeres has done it. My guild mate has taken out the last guard tower with a rocket launcher.

“Dang it!” AzuraKeres curses in our guild comm channel as we all race swiftly to the mining camp. “It doesn't feel right to blow up our own guard towers just to permit us to approach our mining camp.”

“Some pawns are necessary to sacrifice in order to get to the enemy’s king,” I tell my guild grimly. Meanwhile I am engaging the game with my full VR headset and gloves. I'm not holding back this time. For the next hour and a half (at most, then bedtime), I am completely immersed in this game.

“Let's hope they take the bait,” another one of my guildmates, Sniper 49'er, said with worry.

“They'll come,” I assure my guildmates. “ETA eighteen minutes before they show up. Make this time count, people.”

“Well the good news is we know where the patrol routes of our own battle droids,” Sun Blaze put in. “Let's take 'em out, people, but first . . . Kitty, you got the gate?”

“Actually, I got the gate,” AzuraKeres assures before tossing a couple of EMP bombs at one section of our hovering lightning gate which is normally designed to keep wild monsters out. When the bombs go off, a certain section of the camp is temporarily vulnerable to penetration until that section resets on the next game.

“They'll notice that, too,” Button Mash promises on his YouTube channel. He has a focused look on his face as he's working his video game controller. “When they see that this section of the gate is down, they'll know we've penetrated it.”

“That's the point,” I tell him back as I activate a holographic screen from the computer gauntlet on my right arm. “According to my drone high above, all of our patrol droids are in their standard positions. As I suspected, they didn't have time to reprogram their routes. I figured they wouldn't since this area is a low priority target compared to our base.

“Now that we've gained their attention, however, they might pilot a few remotely.”

“Can you jam their signal from here?” Sun Blaze checks.

I shake my head. “Negative. Not from here.

“However, there is a communications bunker within this camp where I can set up a jamming signal. Once it's in place, they won't be able to communicate to their comrades back at our base, if any, nor will they be able to assume direct control of our droids. Instead, the droids will be stuck on their default programming, which keeps them predictable.

“I'm sending you all the coordinates to the bunker right now.”

“That communications bunker should be our first target,” came the low growled, grim tone of our munitions officer, Bad Dragon. “That bunker will be very defensible. I say we take it first and set up from there.”

“Agreed,” Sun Blaze concurred. “Let's move, people!”

“While you all do that, I'll set up cameras around the perimeter,” I tell my guildmates.

“You got enough on your hands to worry about,” Button says. “Go ahead and set up those cameras then get into position for the iron claw. It should show up in five minutes, and you can't miss it!

“Meanwhile, leave the rest of it to us!”

“In fact, I want you to hang back entirely until we clear some of the patrol droids and make our way to the communications bunker,” Sun Blaze orders. “Keep giving us a tactical report on their position by monitoring them with your hover drone. With that birds-eye view, we can monitor the whole battlefield. We don't want any unexpected surprises just in case they have reprogrammed them or assume direct control. Until we set up that jamming signal, we're vulnerable on that front.”

“Roger,” I agree.

I wait as the rest of my guildmates proceed in. I grin to myself as I notice their focused and highly motivated attitude.

As I expect, they make short work of our own droids. They shoot the droids up one by one as they strategically make their way into the mining camp. They use every cover and trick at their disposal to take out these pawns.

Privately, I am aware that this part of the mission is the easy part, but I feel satisfaction to note that we suffer no casualties or waste no resources during this phase of our operation.

Meanwhile I kept reporting to them the positions of the patrol droids.

As I anticipate, the droids start to gather at the last known position where any of the other droids spot a hostile target. Since this behavior is predictable, my guild uses it to their advantage to bait our droids into various traps, such as landmines.

After all, we know how far those droids can shoot, what they shoot with, how fast they can travel, and how much damage they can sustain before they cease to function in this round of the game.

I do not hesitate to make my way into the camp the moment my guildmates arrive at the communications bunker, not to mention the fact that there are no threats left to attack me anymore unless I get into range of one of the auto-turrets at each of the remaining three guard towers left within the mining camp.

To navigate my way through camp more swiftly, I activate my hover skates in my shoes. With them, I swiftly skate my way through the camp. While I do so, I use my modified grenade launcher to shoot a bunch of bombs with cameras on them at a total of eighteen strategic locations throughout the camp.

Once they are in place, I skate my way to the communications bunker. I deactivate my skates the moment I cross the threshold into the bunker.

“Two minutes until the iron claw shows up!” Button reports with worry when I show up. “Do you still have time to set up the jamming device?”

“I have about twenty seconds to spare,” I tell him casually as I pass my guildmates. I waste no time heading to the communications workstation. I start setting up some gadgets there that will help me modify them.

“I'll soon send you all a specialized signal that you can use to cut through the jamming interference,” I tell my guildmates.

“Wait!” I see Button Mash grin on his YouTube screen. “Are you telling me that, when we activate this, we'll be able to use com signals with each other but they can't?”

“Precisely,” I confirm.

“All RIGHT!” Button cheers. “Man, I have really underestimated the engineer archetype. The way you play it, you make the class look awesome!”

“I make everything look awesome when I put in a serious effort,” I return to him.

Button blinks. “Wait. You didn't before?”

“Not really. This game is not my cup of tea, but I do care for some of the players in this game,” I tell him.

“Huh.” Button shifts his head back. “Which of us do you mean?”

“And . . . done!” I report. “Jamming signal ready. Now all I have to do is push this button.”

“Wait!” Sun Blaze commands. I look at her live YouTube channel. I see Sunny wearing a devious grin. “They don't know that we have this set up, do they? Then let's wait until they get here so they can't plan on it.”

I have my character stand up straight as I say, “My thoughts exactly. I was just about to suggest that myself.”

“Get going!” Sun Blaze orders me. “You got about forty-five seconds until the iron claw shows up.”

“Right. I'm going.” I head for the door.

“Good luck, Kitty Sparks!” Sniper 49'er cheers for me. “We're all counting on you.”

“It is a very unorthodox plan,” the grim tone of Bad Dragon says while he sharpens his hunting knife as he sits on a barstool.

“Which means that they won't count on it either,” I tell him in return as I swiftly make my way outside on hover skates. “A good strategist is all about making unexpected moves to outmaneuver our opponents.”

“I'll take your word for it,” Bad Dragon says dismissively. “In the meantime, leave the rest of them to us. When they show up, it's time for a little payback!”

“HURRAH!” almost all of my guildmates agree simultaneously.

I skate sideways in order to slide to a stop, then deactivate my hover skates. I suddenly pull out my sniper rifle which inwardly causes me to roll my eyes because of this video game’s logic. I aim it northwest from my position in an attempt to locate my target. When I find it, I zoom the digital camera on my gun up to it in order to measure its exact distance.

In my tiny screen on my gun, I see a giant hovering iron claw approaching my position rapidly.

Right on cue, like clockwork.

I know this droid isn't a threat to me. It has no guns, but it does have quite a bit of armor instead. I know that its only purpose is to gather mining ore in this camp and deliver it back to our base. This time, however, I know it's going to deliver something extra.

I put away my gun which vanishes back into intangible, video game code. In the process, the whole gun gets surrounded by a green grid pattern just before it vanishes. In its place, I pull out my modified grenade launcher and wait.

As expected, the iron claw flies down a reddish hole which glows with the heat of lava down below. There is no way I'd survive down there, but the claw can temporarily as long as it does not fly too close to the heat source. It's not programmed for that anyway. Instead, it pinches the iron bowl on a mining cart then takes off with it.

When it passes me on its way up out of the hole, I aim my grenade launcher at it and shoot a magnetic grapple at the iron claw. When it connects, I press another button on my gun to hoist me up to it.

“Good luck out there!” Sniper 49'er calls to me as he peeks out one of the bunker windows, watching me take off with the claw. “Give 'em Hell, Kitty!”

A bunch of my other guildmates join in a similar chant.

As I fly off, I pass Sniper 49'er a two-finger salute while I cling on to my magnetic cable gun with my other hand.

Hoisting myself up to the claw itself, I plant my feet on it and do the reverse of the hover function of my shoes which is a magnetic lock. Between that and my gun, my position on this thing is pretty secure.

I just hope these thieves don't think to check the iron claw delivering ore to their recently ill-gotten base and/or shoot me out of the sky. That would indeed put a severe damper on my plans.

Thanks to the fully interactive VR headset I am wearing, I can actually feel the wind on my face as the claw I ride rapidly flies off to our base. It accelerates to the maximum speed of two-hundred and forty miles per hour. The landscape around me passes quickly at that speed.

I barely have time to notice an iron transport shoot by me. I whip my head back to see it vanish over the horizon in about twenty seconds.

“Guys, I just passed an iron shuttle transporter,” I report to my guildmates. “They'll arrive at the camp in about three minutes.”

“Roger. We're still setting up over here,” Sun Blaze reports. “We're a little behind schedule. We might need to make a few adjustments to our plan.”

“You say that as if it's unusual,” Button says with an amused snicker.

“What's your ETA to the base, Kitty?” Sun Blaze asks, ignoring Button's comment for the moment.

“I can tell you the exact time of arrival,” I say as I look where I am going again. “The extra passenger on this claw won't affect its velocity. I should arrive at the base in exactly two minutes and twenty-eight seconds.”

“Then she'll arrive at our base before the enemy gets to this camp,” another of our guildmates, Destiny Wind, said. “Does that affect our plans?”

“Not by much,” I say back to Destiny. “I'll need a little time anyway to sneak into position, but I won't do too much until I know they’re distracted. I estimate a sixty-seven percent chance that the majority of them are heading to the camp right now. If true, you guys will have to deal with the bulk of them.”

“Which is exactly the plan!” Sun Blaze says. “As long as they are here dealing with us, there is that much fewer for you to deal with.

“Don't worry, Kitty. We'll hold their attention and the line.”

“Roger,” I acknowledge. “I think I see our base cresting on the horizon right now.”

There is not much I can do for my guildmates from here other than monitor the eighteen key positions around the mining camp unless either my cameras get spotted and shot or I blow them up myself. I had already scattered eighteen smaller windows spread around my head with sixty percent transparency. Using them, I can quickly monitor all eighteen cameras.

To my relief, I am met with no opposition to my arrival at the base. A hatch opens on the roof. The iron claw descends from above with its cargo.

Just before I reverse my position so I face outwardly on top of the very slanted iron claw, I shoot a camera bomb onto the iron claw. As I pass through the opening of the roof, I quickly detach my magnetic grapple on the claw itself then aim it at a horizontal I beam along the roof. When my grapple connects, I have my shoes detach themselves from the iron claw while simultaneously having my cable in my gun wind itself back up. That pulls me along. This eventually allows me to meet the I-beam along the ceiling.

Upon arrival, I aim my magnetic/hover shoes at the I-beam from the underside. When my shoes lock onto the bottom side of the I-beam, I detach my magnetic grapple. It coils all the way into my gun.

After that, I carefully make my way through the base by walking upside down under the I-beam. I detach one magnetic shoe at a time as I take a step. I have to have that step lock in place before taking another step.

Rinse, and repeat.

It's a slow pace, but steady and sneaky.

From the ceiling, I look “above” me which is actually the rest of the base below. From there, I do a visual scan of the base.

I notice two other enemy player characters patrolling around here, but I know that there are a bunch of positions I can't monitor from up here.

Still, it gives me a general layout.

To get a better one, I activate my holographic computer gauntlet and activate my drone. For the next five minutes, I carefully and stealthily scan the rest of our stolen base.

During that time, I hear that my guildmates are met with opposition at the mining camp.

So far, so good.

My guildmates apparently had enough time to set up a decent defensive perimeter. The enemy players, I know, cut into our base with almost military-like precision but, at the time, I figure that came after a while of reconnaissance. This time the enemy players are heading in more blindly.

I calculate that it will take them at least twenty minutes before they start getting serious with their attacks against my guildmates. Until then, I think they'll test my allies’ defenses and do everything they can to gather information, but good luck doing that while they can't use their comm channels with each other.

Thanks to the jam signal I set up at the base, the enemy will have to physically shout at each other face to face, resort to sign language, or Morse code flashes. If these guys are as professional as I think they are, they might be capable of that.

While I keep scanning the base with my drone, I occasionally have it pause and hover somewhere as I update my guildmates about the enemies’ position back at the camp, according to the visual images I receive from my eighteen cameras set up there. Normally I can only monitor one screen at a time using the interface of “Bullet Hell” itself, but I'm working with additional hardware that's capable of other functions the game does not provide on its own, like the ability to monitor as many virtual windows as I want.

Sometimes my guildmates even probe me about that, wondering themselves how I am able to expertly monitor so many positions simultaneously. In response, I merely grin. I'll keep that secret to myself.

After five minutes, I've done a thorough scan of the base. Enough to determine that there are only four enemy players here. That means the other twelve are probably at the mining camp.

As time goes on, I gradually confirm that as I spot them on one of my many cameras at the camp.

Of them, the one that worries me the most is the stealth enemy.

After I think that, I finally spot the stealth guy approaching my allies’ position. In particular, he is approaching the forward line which is guarded by three of my guildmates; AzuraKeres, Sniper 49'er, and Bad Dragon.

I studied the specs of the game before playing this session. Because of that, I know for a fact that the stealth generator has a maximum output of fifteen seconds of stealth time unless it's interrupted by an attack. Once it discharges, that player will need a minute and a half for the generator to recharge, and that's assuming that player put maximum talent points to upgrade that ability. There are other related abilities such as causing more damage upon striking from stealth. I can assume this player is no noob, so he probably put his talent points in the most optimal settings.

I have to help my team!

“Azura, Sniper, Dragon, listen to me very carefully!” I say to those players. “When I say go, I need you to drop a shield grenade and a stun grenade at the same time! After that, I need you to retreat to the north behind you as fast as you can.”

“What? A shield and stun grenade? Won't those cancel each other out?” Sniper asks.

“Also, the alley to the north of us is a dead end,” Azura reports. “If we retreat that way-”

“There is no time to argue!” I tell them insistently without making too much noise from where I am. “Trust me on this. Do this when I say go.”

Sniper sighs then looks at his companions while he keeps up occasional cover fire towards the enemy across the street. “Think we should trust the noob?”

“She hasn't let us down so far,” Dragon notes. “I'm in.”

“Me too,” Azura agrees.

“I hope she knows what she's doing,” Sniper says nervously. “Otherwise it's game over for us, man. Game over!”

Meanwhile I am counting down the seconds.

I watched as the stealth guy activated his stealth field generator earlier and I know he has fifteen seconds to use it at most. Most likely he's sneaking close to my companions to drop a grenade of his own at them, but two can play the hot potato game!

“Alright . . . now! Go!” I command my companions.

Fortunately, they obey.

I observe them through one of my cameras as they drop both grenades on their former position. The shield grenade activates the moment it hits the ground. It creates a temporary fifteen-foot radius hemisphere of force that repels most bullets, but it will only be active for ten seconds.

The stun grenade, on the other hand, I know has about a six second delay before setting off.

When the shield grenade is in place, my allies book it hard to the north as I previously instructed. I grin in satisfaction when I see the stealth enemy suddenly appear where they took off from, bewildered at what might have tipped his enemies off to his approach.

But things get worse for him. Now that my allies have retreated and the rest of our enemies can't fire upon them because the energy shield is in the way, they abandon their own cover in order to chase after my allies. They know, just as I do, the only way they can continue to fire upon my allies is to physically charge right through the energy barrier.

The stealth guy had only a moment to notice that there was not one, but two grenades dropped to the ground. He then looks at his own companions and widens his eyes in shock. He raises his hand to object to their approach, but it's too late. They leap through the bullet shield and land at my companions’ former position.

Which ends up catching all three of them in the blast radius of the stun grenade.

“Okay, turn about and blast them now!” I command my companions.

Bewildered but cooperative, my allies turn about and start shooting at our three enemy players. For six seconds, they are completely unable to move, and their current position offers them no cover at all.

The energy shield would have offered them cover, but that got fried by the stun grenade as well, just as I had planned.

Which makes them easy pickings for my allies. Before the duration of the stun is up, my allies manage to mow down all three enemy players.

“Oh WOW! That was awesome!” Sniper 49'er exclaims wildly.

“Well done, Kitty,” Dragon compliments me far more calmly than his excited companion.

I release a sigh of relief.

With those three enemy players down, I recalculate our success in my head. Chess pieces move frantically across the board with three crucial enemy pieces knocked out for the rest of the game.

The stealth guy used to be my most worrisome opponent because he was a wild card. He could have been a game-changer at any moment without us seeing it coming. Unless they have another player with the stealth archetype, that keeps the rest of our opponents more observable and manageable.

Even if they can be seen, the other enemy players can be difficult to take down for other reasons, but at least this reduces the chances of unwelcome surprises. It's very hard to calculate around totally unknown variables.

“I believe you guys can take it from here. I need to concentrate on my own mission now,” I tell my allies. “But if I see anything else worthy to report, I'll let you all know.”

“You've given us a solid lead,” Bad Dragon says as he and his companions return to their original positions. He also kicks one of the enemy corpses hard once. “Remember, we're just a distraction. You are our winning play.”

“Copy that. Over and out,” I tell them then focus back on my local mission.

Good! I'm in place. From this high perch, I pull out my sniper rifle and zoom up to the main control console of the base.

This is where I encounter the first true hitch of my mission.

Unexpectedly, nobody is at the control console of this base! I had calculated a less than eighteen percent chance of that happening, and it fucking happened!

Damn it! This is not good. I need someone to operate it and show me the new password.

For a brief moment I contemplate how I could use the turret I secretly dropped in one of the rooms of the base, but quickly dismiss it. For it to be of maximum effectiveness, I need to operate this control console. They surely changed the password, so I need a way around it.

Then I recall something.

Setting my rifle down for now, I activate my holographic display screen on my computer gauntlet and recall the camera I set up on the iron claw. To my relief, I discover that it's still in the base, but it's about to be deployed again to retrieve more ore.

This also plays to my advantage.

I do some quick mathematical equations in my head with an emphasis in geometry. I got one bomb on that iron claw and it's not going to take it out. That claw is too well fortified. In fact, it's meant to be unbeatable by the players under most circumstances, barring unusual and overwhelming ingenuity.

However, that's not necessarily the case with other things the claw flies past which might happen to be in the blast radius of my bomb, and I also happen to know the trajectory the iron claw will take when it leaves the base. Does it pass anything important along its way out?

I smile deviously.

Yes. There is one target that might get their attention.

I look back at the screen showing the view of the camera I have equipped on the iron claw. This affords me a limited perspective, but it's enough to get the general layout of where it's at. Since I also know where it's programmed to go (because I designed that program), I know what it will pass along its way out and I also know when it will pass those things. The visual feedback I am getting is actually just to double-check.

I wait for the right moment, then detonate the bomb on the iron claw. Doing so also destroys my hidden camera on it.

As I anticipate, the bomb barely does anything to the iron claw itself. It just wobbles it for a moment but then it continues on its merry way.

However, the support beams nearby are not so lucky. It collapses which starts a cascade effect. Ultimately two rooms collapse because of the damage.

That's more of a mess for me to clean up later, obviously, but it brings me a few steps closer to checkmate in this game.

After this is done, I pick up my sniper rifle again and wait.

And wait.

And wait.

While I wait, I absently listen to the comm reports of my comrades. Because of that, I learn that six of my companions are now down, and only five of theirs. Our own damn reprogrammed droids are what is giving our opponents the edge in this fight, but I plan to alleviate that little problem soon.

Morale of my comrades is holding, but clearly being tested. They are not letting their losses distract them from their duties. They notice their problems, and it does frazzle them some but, for the most part, they remain focused and determined, at least for the moment.

Meanwhile I keep my silence so I don't give away my position. I don't even glance at my cameras I have posted at the camp, which is reduced to eleven. The enemy spotted some of them and shot them from a distance.

Come on you dumb motherfucker! Where are you?

Finally my prize arrives, the enemy engineer.

It's about damn time! I just blew up two rooms in this base almost three minutes ago, thereby proving that some threat has infiltrated the base itself. Did he just casually stroll his way to the very room where he could have checked on the video footage of what happened all along?

Balls of steel, that guy! Remind me not to play chicken with him!

Even now, he's only casually strolling up to the computer console. It's as if he does not have a care in the world, which comes off as douche and arrogant to me.

But whatever! At least he's finally doing what I want him to do.

I zoom carefully to the keyboard he's about to use. As his fingers reach for it, I press “record” on another program I have that is monitoring what I see in the game. He enters the password as planned.

After he enters the password, I wait for one more thing. I have a hidden walkie-talkie taped under the keyboard. I both listen and record his conversation with some of his other guildmates.

While that is going on, I have a voice synthesizer program on my computer analyze his vocal patterns so it can mimic him later. This is definitely not a standard feature of the game but rather a separate program I have running to the side.

As a cracker, there are many tools that I require for my profession, after all.

I have to wait until the program has analyzed his voice enough to fake it. I figure I need to wait until it has at least an eighty percent match.

While he operates the control console, I double-check the video footage I just recorded. After replaying it three times, I think I have the new password memorized.

It feels like a long time but I manage to succeed with that mission in only thirty-nine seconds. After that time, my voice synthesizer program figures it can match his voice with eighty-nine percent accuracy.

Great! And now you are no longer of use to me.

Bleed, motherfucker!

I shoot this guy twice in the back. I could have done a headshot and taken him out immediately, but there is a strategic reason I want him to suffer a little longer.

Those weren't ordinary bullets I fired into him. Those are toxic, radioactive bullets. For up to five minutes, he'd be constantly taking damage over time as long as those bullets are in him. Individually the damage from each bullet is not too severe, but the problem is that they stack with each other.

However, I happen to know that there is a potential gadget that engineers could build that might not only heal them over time, but cure them of a condition like this. It is called “Medical Injector”. In its basic form, it's just a medical syringe, but this class can invent an injection gun to fire these medical “bullets” up to eighty yards. Since over seventy-seven percent of all players with this class tend to favor that gadget (not my statistic this time, I looked that one up online), I thought it was likely that this player has this as well, and I just gave him an incentive to use it.

As I predict, he frantically summons his Medical Injector gun and aims it at himself. Before he pulls the trigger, however, I pull mine first. I ended his miserable life with a clean headshot this time, even though he attempts to scramble away fast.

However, since I know from experience players can still view anything around their corpse, or view from the perspective of surviving ally players, I know it's not safe to approach him just yet. If I do, he can report that to his allies on his own guild com channel.

Fortunately for me, I have prepared for this in advance.

I de-summon my sniper rifle and call up my holographic screen again. I use it to navigate my drone that I had hidden within the room. The camera on the drone is useless right now because it is covered up with a blanket, but I can remotely pilot it from here since I can see it with my own eyes.

Doing so, I drape the blanket over my enemy’s corpse. Now, if he looks around, he'll see nothing but the darkness of the blanket. Maybe he saw my drone for a split second as well.

Now the situation is safer to approach without handing over additional information to my opponents. They will likely know that somebody is here because the engineer got shot a few moments ago then got covered by a blanket, but they’ll know little else.

The more I blind my opponents to further information, the better.

I summon my grappling/grenade launcher, aim it at the ceiling, and fire. Once the magnetic grapple is in place, I swing across the room Tarzan style except I adjust my height in mid-swing to make sure I land safely in front of the control console. From here, I skate over to his corpse after I peel the walkie-talkie from under the keyboard. I place the walkie-talkie next to his head while also proceeding to steal his Medical Injection gun.

This is no substitute for a true Medic class, but it helps keep us on our feet. I figure I’ll hold on to this just in case I need it later.

I don't say a word to him. I just turn on the walkie-talkie. On it, I have it blare a digital screech just like those ancient dial-up modems used to make, and I deliberately have the volume set to maximum. My intent is to blow out his ear canal, thereby forcing him to either take off his headset or mute the volume of the game in order to protect himself.

Either way, I don't want him to eavesdrop on what I'm about to do.

I skate back to the control console and slide to a stop in front of it.

black queen advances to g-five

Okay! Time to start the next phase of my operation.

I hum happily to myself as I type up the new password to the computer system, and voilà. I'm in.

I lean forward and speak into a microphone on the computer console except, instead of my own voice, I play a voice synthesized message I typed up which my computer translates to mimic this guy's voice.

“Intruder in room I-9. Repeat, intruder in room I-9. Get your lazy buns in order and get rid of this annoying pest before she wrecks up the place and gives me more work.”

After that, I call up the many monitors within the base to see if anyone takes the bait. I know there are three more enemy players in here who can.

I am delighted to notice that two took the bait. By the looks of them, they are a standard gunner archetype and a medic.

I lean forward and practically salivate over the controls.

Oh, this is perfect! The stealth guy is down and so is the engineer. Once the medic goes down, the rest of these guys will have nowhere to go but down in resources over the course of this particular game session. Any structural or personal injuries they rack up will be much harder to recover from.

That's it! Into my web, you stupid hicks!

As I have anticipated, the gunner charges into the room first. The medic pauses a moment until his companion gives him the all clear. Once he does, the medic enters as well.

“Welcome to your doom!” I say with grandiosity. I lift a finger above a button on the console while they explore the apparently empty room in confusion. “From Hell's Heart, I stab at thee!”

I stab my finger down on the button.

The door to the room they are in closes and locks.

“Night-night,” I bid then press another button. The lights in the room go out.

Next, I redirect my attention back to the holographic panel on my computer gauntlet. I use it to activate my hidden turret in the room with them.

Unlike them, however, my turret is equipped with an infrared camera.

The turret locks on to the two heat signatures within the room. I program the turret to prioritize the medic first. He'd go down faster anyway, and I don't wish to give them an opportunity to recover later.

I enable the microphone equipped in the room just so I can savor their screams of pain and panic. While that happens, I also enable more classical music on my own computer. I sway fingers in the air as if I am a musical conductor while the slaughter starts and continues.

They can't even see the turret. They don't know what is firing at them. All they can see is occasional flashes in the dark. Even if they fired back, the turret is equipped with a forward-facing shield. Only an extremely precise shot at the right spot would disable my machine in one shot. Good luck with that in the dark!

Sigh.

Too bad it's over so soon.

Oh well. Time for me to reprogram the targeting parameters of some droids out at the mining camp.

This is it. Only two chess pieces are left on the board, which automatically upgrades both of us to Kings. My guildmates had to blow themselves up just to get to the rest of this guy’s team, but at least they were successful. As soon as either me or Barbossa4188 goes down, the game is over.

Since my guildmates could do nothing else, they are watching my match through my character's eyes.

“You got this, Kitty!” Sun Blaze encourages me. “One last opponent. Give him hell!”

“An opponent that is wearing a T-16 Assault Annihilator Mech-Suit,” Bad Dragon observes. “Do you know how much those things cost in-game? Over forty billion credits! That thing is a raid gear mech suit.”

Because he said that, I start looking up the stats of the T-16 Assault Annihilator Mech-Suit online.

“Standard bullets aren't going to cut it through those shields,” Bad Dragon warns me. “You either need lots of explosives, or continuous auto-fire from multiple sources.”

“Sounds to me like that's as close to an end game boss as a player can get,” noted Destiny Wind.

Bad Dragon sighs, then said, “Pretty much, yeah.”

I notice something interesting while I read up on the suit.

“Wait a second!” I say in a tone of objection. “It says that the T-16 Assault Annihilator Mech-Suit can't be used in standard player vs player matches, nor tournament matches. This thing is designed exclusively for raid content.”

“What?!” Bad Dragon exclaims. “Let me see the URL link for that info.”

“Here you go.” I send the info to all of my guildmates. I wait a few minutes as they look it up.

“What the hell?” Sniper 49'er asks in confusion. “If that's true then . . . how can this thing possibly be here?”

“He's cheating, that's what!” Button Mash declares. “Damn it! That bastard is a dirty rotten cheater!”

“What?! How can he get away with that?” Sun Blaze wonders.

Hearing that gives me an idea. I start looking up more information on Barbossa4188. While I do, I ask, “Sun Blaze, Awesome Lord, didn't you say that both of you record these fights on live YouTube channels?”

“Yeah,” Button concurs.

“What of it?” Sun Blaze asks.

“I still think you two should have asked our permission before recording our matches and posting them online,” Destiny Wind complains a bit.

“Nothing is stopping you from doing the same to me, dude,” Button said back to Destiny Wind with a smirk.

“Good!” I say. “I want you both to record what I'm about to do. I'll do the same from my own end here.”

“Why? What are you about to do?” Sun Blaze inquires with worry.

“Just record it. I got a plan,” I say back.

“You haven't let us down so far,” Bad Dragon remarks.

“Brains vs brawn,” AzuraKeres notes with interest. “How fitting.”

“Okay. Everyone ready? Here goes,” I say. I get multiple affirmations from several of my guildmates.

I shoot my magnetic grapple onto the ceiling then swing down from my high perch. Along my way down, I drop my turret, which I retrieved earlier, on the ground which is unfolded from a suitcase. Once it unfolds, it locks onto the man wearing a ten-foot-tall mech suit and fires continuously.

While that happens, I summon my uzi machine gun on auto-fire as I swing by the man. I'm not too proficient with this gun, but it does the job. I study the guy's shield rating carefully as I pass it. Between both my gun and my turrets constant fire, I notice that my tactics barely scratch those shields. It also regenerates far too fast to be threatened by anything I am doing right now, which is precisely why this suit is illegal in regular player matches.

It's scary to think that the kinds of challenges this suit is designed for can dish out enough punishment to challenge players despite this level of preparation, although it is still supposed to give those players a decent edge. After all, a forty billion credit war-mech isn't meant to be some pushover. It's meant to be the key to help raid players prepare for endgame content.

The right arm of this player's war mech suit is, in fact, a giant gun. He fires an auto barrage of shots that explode with every single shot. A trail of explosions races after me as I swing across the room. It would take only one of those shots to blow out most of my life bar, perhaps even only a single well placed shot.

As I meet up with the ground, I skate around this sucker as fast as I can. To make it faster, I retract my magnetic cable from above.

I was planning on aiming it at another object ahead of me, but Barbarossa changes his tactics. He aims his gun ahead of my path so that I meet up with the barrage of explosions.

Widening my eyes, I deactivate my hover skates but, since I have built up too much momentum, my feet trip on the ground the moment they touch the floor. I tumble my way painfully to safe cover, but a few of the explosions outer blast radius still damages me.

“KITTY, ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!” Sun Blaze screeches with worry.

“I will be,” I answer as I inject myself with my stolen Medical Injection gun. When it enters my system, my health bar starts to climb back up over time.

Since I have too much cover, Barbarossa redirects his fire at my turret with casual impunity and blows it up in seconds.

“Slippery little cat, ain’tcha?” my opponent taunts me. “Here, kitty-kitty-kitty-kitty! I got some nice treats for ya!”

“Guys, did you get that footage? Did you record it?” I ask my guildmates, and two in particular.

“I did,” Button confirms, “but what exactly do you want me to do with it?”

“Send it to the following address,” I command then send them an e-mail link.

“Ah . . . what's this?” Button asks in confusion.

“That is an inbox for the development team of this game,” I tell him. “If you send the footage you gained to that box, it will prove to them that this player is cheating.”

“And thereby get this player banned permanently!” Sunset exclaims on her YouTube channel. “Kitty, you're a genius!”

“However,” Bad Dragon brings up a note of caution, “that's not going to take effect during this particular match.”

“Win or lose, this player is going down for good!” Sunset promises. “Even if we lose our base, these guys are going to lose a whole lot more. That one suit costs more than everything we ever built up in our base.”

“An eye for an eye,” Bad Dragon realizes. “I like it.”

“Guys, there is one way I can take him down during this match,” I inform them. “However, it's going to cause a lot of damage to our base. Whatever is left, however, will be ours to keep.”

My guild debates this for a moment among themselves, then they give me a general consensus of approval.

Accepting the majority vote, I launch my grapple to a curved hallway leading out of this room. As the cable retracts, I activate my hover skates again.

As I predict, a trail of explosions follows my wake.

When I near my own grapple, I detach it and retract it the rest of the way to my launcher. I use my momentum to carry me up and along the curved wall. I skate along the wall for a few seconds then curve back down to the ground. By then my enemy no longer has line of sight to me. Also, his bulky machine means he can't chase after me effectively.

Once I am out of sight, I summon my drone again. While it hovers beside me, I tape the walkie-talkie I got earlier to it. Once that is done, I skate away while I creep my drone back the way I came from but never within sight of my opponent.

“That's one fancy suit you got there,” I tell my opponent through the walkie-talkie taped to my drone. “I didn't know those things were legal in player matches.”

“Where there is a will, there is a way,” my opponent tells me while I'm still busy tracking down more information on this guy in real life.

He fires a few shots in my drone's direction. As a result, I have it fly back a bit to avoid damage.

“Say, you really are a girl, ain’tcha?” my opponent notes, likely drawing that conclusion from the sound of my voice. Despite the fact that I am indeed using a voice synthesizer to disguise my voice in-game, he’s not wrong about my true gender in this particular case.

“Yer not just some dude wearing a chick's avatar, you truly are a girl in real life,” he goes on. “Don't get much of those out on these parts, and say . . . ya got a pur-ty little mouth on you, little missy. I can't wait to suck on it!” He makes a smacking sound for a moment.

“Gah!” Sunset says with a tight wince of disgust on her channel. “What a total sleazeball!”

However, instead of being disgusted, I am amused because I realize disgust was exactly the reaction my opponent was hoping for. He hoped that would provoke me into making a mistake, maybe charge straight at him in one last heroic blaze of glory.

He's trying to bait me, but I am too smart to fall for it.

Instead of taking the bait, I say nothing to prove how immune to his comments I am.

But inwardly I think, “So . . . you fancy yourself as an antagonist, eh? Maybe even a downright villain with your fancy suit that you cheated to get into this match, but guess what buster . . . you just met a supervillain today. If my pony counterpart can bring an entire world to its knees twice, imagine what I'll do to you!”

“So I guess it's a stalemate, then?” I ask back through my walkie-talkie. Right after saying that, I play an audio recording of my uzi going off. I also have my drone flash a strobe effect that simulates the flashes of gunfire.

This is another reason I used the uzi earlier even though I knew it wouldn’t be directly effective against his shields. In addition to proving that he is using a cheating device, I wanted him to be aware that I had an uzi so that, when I fake it later, he’d be convinced that it is real.

“Then I guess this match will end in a draw by waiting the timer out,” I seem to surmise. “I can't kill you, and you can't kill me while I hold my cover, and I'm not stupid enough to charge out and meet you in the open.”

“You won't, eh?” he says in amusement. “Well, you can run and hide all you want to, but there's no reason that I have to do the same.”

Rocket thrusters ignite behind him as he charges down the hallway to meet up with my drone, and he indeed catches up. He almost fires when he catches up but holds his fire when he notices that he's facing nothing more than a hover drone with a walkie-talkie taped on it.

Since it is my drone, I see him stop in front of it on my holographic screen.

“What's wrong?” I ask him in a taunting voice through my drone. “I thought you said you'd give me a kiss. Well, pucker up there, sleazeball!”

I activate the four explosives I strategically set up on the floor around him. They barely damage him directly, but the floor is another story. He falls right through the new opening on the floor and lands on the power generator for the whole base down below. Once there, he is assaulted by constant powerful jolts of electricity.

Despite the fact that his shield continues to hold (although they do not regenerate fast enough to keep up with constant damage like this), electricity nevertheless fries the systems of his suit. Because of that, he's a sitting duck.

I walk back to the hole on the floor then kneel down, gazing at his suit as it's being fried with several million volts of electricity per second. During this time, I secretly mute my microphone towards my guildmates so they do not hear what I'm about to say next.

“Having a little trouble down there?” I taunt him from above. “Well get used to it. Your metaphorical hole is a lot deeper than you think.

“From this day forth, every bank account you have that mysteriously goes to zero, every bad business deal and e-mails you get from your angry co-workers . . . If you ever wonder how or why in the world this is happening to you, think back on this day . . . Double Trouble!”

I see the face of my opponent's digital avatar widen in astonishment through the clear dome around his mech suit because I told him his name in real life.

“Pleased to meet you,” I resume as I lift up a grenade above my head, ready to drop it, “Hope you guess my name. I'll give you a big hint.” With my other hand, I shoot my magnetic grapple behind me without looking. I wait for it to attach before I finish my sentence, to which I say, “Welcome to Hell!”

I drop the grenade and retract the grapple cable at the same time. I pull away while the grenade falls. When the grenade meets up with the powerful electromagnetic aura of our generator, it sets it off which sets off a far more powerful explosion that rips apart most of the base and my opponent.

I know an explosion like this is severe enough to wipe out my opponent and me, but I only have to survive a split second longer because the two of us are the last ones in this match. The game will end the second he goes down first.

Which it does.

As my character is logged out of the match, I wince tightly as a screech of multiple cheers blares into my ear. I quickly turn down their volume by eighty percent to protect the rest of my hearing.

I wait a few minutes for my guildmates to calm down, then I somewhat timidly say, “Sun Blaze . . .”

“Yeah?” she asks back at me, her eyes still bright with great cheer.

“I just want you to know that . . . no matter what happens between us after this day . . . I will always regard you as my personal hero,” I tell her with solemn passion.

“Huh?” Sunny cocks her head to the side in confusion.

I log off the game then pull my VR headgear off my head. I drop it on my desk, pull my knees up to my chest, and hug them.

I just can't stand to look at her face right now. Not considering what will come next.

But, at least for tonight, I successfully managed to score her one last victory.

“That was for you, Sunny,” I tell her fondly and sadly under my breath.

Well, that is the conclusion to the first multi-part chapter of the story. The Horse-Land saga was quite connected too, but they deserved their own titles each. This one, however, is "Shadow Play" because Cozy kept working behind a virtual mask to conceal her identity, gather information, and manipulate others.

Just like a Queen in the Shadows.

So, what did you all think?