City of the Falling Sky (22 page)

“
You could at least have
wished your son good luck.”

Kolda Kod stared at him, taken aback.

“
He might never be as good
as you,” Seckry said, “but he’s trying, and you should give him
some encouragement.”

“
But . . . he never takes my
advice!” Kolda raged bitterly. “I try to give him practise at home,
but he’s got no interest. All he thinks about is that Thumbsuckle
girl. He’s like a wet rag.”

“
Have you ever considered
that Friction might not be where Kimmy’s future lies? Do you even
know that he won the Skyfall Maths Standout of the Year
award?”

Kolda Kod was silent, staring at Seckry
unflinchingly.

As Seckry dried his hands, Kolda Kod said, “I
. . . didn’t know that,” and looked at the ground.

Seckry returned to the stadium, feeling like
he was walking on jelly. Had he really just raised his voice at
Kimmy’s dad, the greatest Friction player to have ever lived? And
did he say that all Kimmy thinks about is Loca Thumbsuckle? Did
Kimmy fancy Loca? Seckry didn’t have any more time to think about
it, as the game was about to start.

“
Seck! Come on,” Loca
shouted.

“
Good luck!” Eiya said, and
gave him a quick hug before running off to join Seckry’s mum and
sister in the VIP seats.

Seckry paused for a moment and watched her
meander through the crowd. He suddenly felt at ease.

“
Seck! Get over here!” Loca
screamed.

“
You can give her a kiss
later!” said Tenk.

“
What?” Seckry said,
blushing, before joining the team and huddling close as Loca went
over their basic strategy again.

When the music started playing, they all
climbed into their pods and switched on their intercoms.

“
Okay, this is it, guys. You
ready?” said Loca

“
Yeah!” everyone shouted
enthusiastically.

“
I didn’t hear Tippian then.
You ready, Tippian?”

“
Yeah I’m ready, for Gedin’s
sake!” shouted Tippian.

“
Good. Now get ready to kick
some north, south and west butt.”

“
Good luck Anikam,” Seckry
said to his avatar, and Anikam gave him a firm nod before Seckry
placed him into the slot.

At that moment the commentators burst into
life. They were being broadcast around the stadium, and the sound
of their voices was entering the pods.

“
Hi, I’m Mick Mannerim and
we are here once again at the sold out Skyfall Stadium for the
twenty seventh annual Friction Mega Meltdown! I’m here tonight with
fellow commentator Jowe Kingsfoller. What a night we’ve got lined
up, hey Jowe?”

“
Yeah, a fantastic night
ahead of us, Mick. And some interesting new talent too.”

The commentators talked about a couple of the
Western Warriors’ new players for a moment, and then Seckry heard,
“. . . for the Eastern Eidolons, Seckraman Sevenstars.”

Seckry felt a buzz of excitement as he heard
his own name echo around the massive stadium.

“
Not much is known about
Sevenstars,” Jowe Kingsfoller continued, “but I’ve been told he’s
got heaps of raw talent. Let’s just hope his lack of experience
doesn’t get the better of him tonight.”

“
And of course,” said Mick
Mannerim, “Sevenstars will be joining the Eidolon regulars Tenk
Binko, Lessana Lubworth, Tippian Furst, the ever energetic Loca
Thumbsuckle, and the veteran’s son, Kimmy Kod.”

“
Yeah, a great team, Mick,
and Thumbsuckle’s always been a good team leader. She gets them
close to the win, and many think she’s the one that can topple the
Nightmare’s reign.”

“
And what about Kimmy Kod,
Jowe? Do you think he will ever live up to his father’s
expectations?”

“
It’s a tough one, Mick.
We’ve yet to see the kind of skill from Kimmy that his father
possesses. It must be hard for him, with all that pressure. But I
hear he trains hard. Who knows? We’ll find out tonight.”

“
Okay, I’ve just been told
we’re about to begin . . . and . . . here we go! The twenty seventh
Annual Friction Mega Meltdown is underway!”

Seckry braced himself.

“
Section 52,” said a deep
voice. “Only one item in the game – the Meltdown Trophy. Find it to
win.”

A deafening horn reverberated through the
entire stadium. The atmosphere in Seckry’s pod suddenly changed,
and his body was wrenched into the air, floating in invisible
liquid.

Water.

He wasn’t expecting to spawn underwater and
neither was anybody else, but he had no time to be surprised. He
had to find his way to the surface. If he didn’t, his avatar would
run out of oxygen and he’d be out of the game in the first few
minutes.

But something was wrong. Seckry was choking.
He tried coughing, but he couldn’t. It was as though his lungs had
shut down.

How long did he have? He glanced up to check
his oxygen bar, but to Seckry’s surprise, he couldn’t see one. It
was only when Seckry saw the faces of the other players writhing in
pain and clutching their throats, that Seckry realised what was
happening.

They were suffocating.

There was no oxygen bar because the game
makers must have taken the underwater simulation one step further.
They were drowning.

Seckry could hear the
binging
sound of
players’ pods locking down, deactivating, and sending them out of
the game. One, two, three . . . four . . . five. They were dropping
like flies.

In front of him was mayhem. Amidst the
bubbles was one green avatar, a spindly mecha, flailing around and
sinking from its own weight, and another avatar, a red anima,
squirming violently until it stopped abruptly and Seckry heard
another
bing.

If Seckry didn’t move he was going to go
unconscious himself. Where was the surface? Above them was what
seemed to be a giant steel plate, and swarms of avatars were
pounding on it to get through to some air.

Seckry could feel his lungs in pain now, and
he was panicking, which was losing him oxygen.

He looked around frantically for his team
mates, but he couldn’t see them, until he heard a gargled scream
of, “Down!”

Below him was Loca’s avatar, viciously
motioning him downwards, before swimming into some kind of
underwater tunnel.

Seckry didn’t waste another moment. He
propelled himself after her, down into the depths of the water, and
into the dark hole.

Just as he thought he was going to lose
consciousness, he was ripped out of the water and oxygen flooded
into his lungs.

It took him a moment to realise what had
happened.

“
You were nearly out,
there!” said Tenk, his avatar, Basher, standing over him with a
huge, toothless grin.

They were standing on a metal, grated
platform in a futuristic underground chamber.

“
What was happening?” Seckry
asked, drenched.

“
The overseers,” Tenk said.
“You know, the people who design the Meltdown events? I should have
realised they’d pull a stunt like that. I’d heard rumours about
more realistic water simulation being designed, but I didn’t know
they were gonna physically drown us.”

“
Looks like you guessed
right about the location,” Seckry said. “Section 52 it is.” He had
gotten familiar with each of the areas of Atoria by now, and
Section 52 was Friction’s futuristic, science fiction style land,
in which many of the levels were designed.

“
Yep,” said Tenk. “As
expected, and you know what that means? The gravity gun. It’s here
somewhere. It always is in 52 Meltdown events. It’s epic, I’m
telling you. Just gotta make sure it’s one of us that’s holding it.
Preferably me,” he added.

Now that Seckry’s ears had been drained of
all water, he could hear the roaring of the crowd again, and the
excitement of the commentators.

“
Sevenstars is up!” yelled
Mick Mannerim. “That’s all six members of the Eidolons successfully
out of the water. What of a turn of events, Jowe?”

“
Very surprising, Mick. What
a vicious start to the game! We’ve lost almost half the players!
Gindling, Ubblepots, Hibbins . . . Ironstamp, all of them out of
the game in the first few minutes. I mean, who would have expected
it? A completely new form of atmospheric simulation, throwing the
players straight into the deep end. Literally.”

“
And for the ones that
have
survived, Jowe, it’s got to be a blessing,
right?”

“
Yeah, there’s a lot less
competition now, but there are still some super tough players in
there.”

“
And just to remind our
viewers at home, the safety of the players is always first and
foremost at the official Friction events, our medics are at hand
and are working with the eliminated players to make sure they
regain consciousness and are not injured in any way.”

“
Come on,” said Tenk. “The
others are ahead of us.” Basher jogged away into the darkness, his
hulking feet making the metal platform shake with every stomp.
Seckry ran after him, shaking the water out of Anikam’s fur as he
went.

As they turned a corner, Tenk shouted,
“Seckry! Duck!”

Seckry immediately dropped to the floor, as
Basher pulled out his default weapon, a plasma canon, and beamed a
ray of energy at a surprise pursuer, sending him flying back into
the water while shards of metal panged against the walls.

Bing.

Another player down.

“
Thanks!” muttered Seckry,
still shaken.

They emerged into a corridor with a set of
exits to find Loca, Kimmy, Lessana and Tippian.

“
This could be a trap,” said
Loca. “Some of these could be dead ends. We can’t afford to all get
stuck. What we’re gonna have to do is split up. Take a corridor
each. It’s our best chance of getting through. Even if only one of
us makes it, it’s better than none.”

Each of them entered a separate tunnel and
Seckry ran as fast as he could to make it through. It was longer
than he imagined it would be, but he eventually burst out into a
vast chamber.

Seckry drew back his arrow and almost fired
as another player burst out of a nearby doorway, but he stopped
himself just in time as he realised it was Loca’s avatar,
Kittya.

“
Seckry!” she said
exasperatedly. She glanced around her at some more noise and out of
another exit popped a wheezing Basher.

“
You okay, Tenk?”

“
I tell you what,” Tenk
said, strained. “I think Basher’s put on some weight in the last
year.”

Following Tenk came Tippian’s avatar
Apocalyptia, waving his gun around like a mad machine.

“
Where are the others?” said
Loca.

“
Oh my word!” yelled Jowe
Kingsfoller. “Benjabob Truskin has just climbed inside the head of
that beast!”

The four of them stopped and looked at each
other, and Seckry felt his stomach churn.

“
Beast?” said Loca, but
before they could even begin to worry, they were under fire.
Pellets were panging all around them and they scattered in
different directions.

Seckry launched himself behind some crates,
until he saw a sign printed on them labelled ‘Dangerous
Explosives.’ He flung himself away from them, across the room, and
behind some pipes.

Up on a ledge was one of the Southern Slayer
avatars, a thin anima with two pistols, raining bullets down at
Loca. Was Seckry close enough to take a shot?

He pulled back his arrow and aimed. He fired
and missed. The anima turned in Seckry’s direction, surprised by
the whizzing arrow, but before it could raise its pistol, Seckry
had let loose another, this time thudding straight into the
creature’s forehead and knocking it off the platform, out of the
competition.

“
Yes!” Seckry said to
himself, and Loca gave him an enthusiastic thumbs up from the other
side of the area as a
bing
sounded around them and echoed
into nothing.

At that moment, Lessana appeared out of an
air ventilation shaft and clambered down some pipes.

“
Where’ve you been?” said
Loca.

“
Climbing through vents
thanks to you,” Lessana said maliciously. “You gave me the short
straw on purpose.”

“
Have you seen Kimmy?” Loca
asked. “Is he okay?”

“
Kimmy? How would I have
seen him? Didn’t he get through his tunnel? I bet he gave up
halfway through and quit the game.”

“
Lessana, Kimmy wouldn’t
quit,” Loca said furiously.

“
Oh no!” yelled the
commentator Mick Mannerim, “Looks like that’s the end for Kimmy
Kod, Jowe. Very unfortunate. Very unfortunate.”

“
Kimmy . . .
” Loca
said, pained.

“
Come on, Loca,” Seckry said
reassuringly. “We can still do it. Let’s get your plan back in
action and win this thing.”

“
Yeah. You’re right. Let’s
station ourselves around the outer perimeter of this chamber and
pick off any players that enter, then when there’s a lull we can
move through that door over the far side and get our bearing in
that room.”

Seckry positioned himself behind a pipe that
had been burst by a bullet and which was billowing out steam,
providing good camouflage for him while he aimed his bow and arrow
at enemies. The others all dotted around the chamber and did an
equally good job of taking out intruders as soon as they
entered.