They came in groups of five or six. Rick shot a concerned look at R3D_Button who appeared equally baffled as first one cluster of bots descended from higher ground on their right followed by a second cluster of bots from the left. At least one of the bots on the left was a Wild One, and it towered over the other combatants.

“Uh…” R3D_Button said, which summed up Rick’s feelings as well.

Ditto? Rick asked silently in his mind.

The anti-cheat broke containment a moment ago. I think think this is…

Rick took up Ga Family Style switch stance and waited for Ditto to finish, but the pause extended.

This isn’t coming from the anti-cheat, Ditto said.

If it’s not coming from the anti-cheat, then what the—

But then he saw her. Alex?

She tarried behind the bots, not coming to the front, but they ignored her as if she weren’t a player character at all.

Rick nudged R3D_Button. “Get ready.”

The other player got into a fighting stance. “You’re fuckin’ kidding, right? There are ten, and one is some sort of giant beaver or something.”

He was right; the Wild One had enormous upper front teeth and a flat tail, though it stood a foot or more taller than the tallest other bot. Its arms and chest looked distinctly human. Nonetheless, it was the sheer number of onrushing bots that would do them in. The only question was how long they’d last. Rick’s heart sank.

Won’t it seem obvious to anyone watching the game that this is some sort of exploit or coordinated attack? he asked.

Someone is diverting attention away from our location, and the few who were trained on you were knocked offline,Ditto said.

“They’re coming,” R3D_Button said. “This is bonkers, man. Ten bots, and whoever that chick up there is.” He pointed. “Why are the bots ignoring her?”

Rick winced. “Because she’s part of it, probably.”

“You know here?”

He nodded slowly. “My old trainer. Works for my old boss. Kinda surprised to see her here.” And disappointed.

“You had a trainer?”

“I had to get up to speed quickly,” Rick said. To Ditto, he said, Can you record this? Pretty sure it might come in handy. Worst case, we can prove something happened in the game that shouldn’t have. Best case, we can show how Hector’s got control of the game.

I’ve been recording since they appeared, Ditto said.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Good.” Rick nodded.

“Good what?” R3D_Button asked.

“Nothing, just—”

There’s no way you can defeat them without help, Ditto said. I can sense their attack patterns ahead of time. Listen closely and I’ll try to guide you through.

You don’t have to—

Listen closely, Ditto insisted. The tall one coming in first from the right is aiming to tackle you. Dodge at the last moment and if you deliver a knee at chest height, it should smash his head as he ducks for the takedown. Feint a high punch first.

Rick did as his bot friend advised, telegraphing in a slightly more exaggerated way that he was about deliver a hard right straight to the tall bot’s head, then dodged and threw a hard knee that flattened the bot.

Ditto was back in Rick’s head. Duck! Then turn ninety degrees left, uppercut through the next bot’s guard.

Rick complied, and his attack threw the bot back.

Directly behind, use Dispelled.

Rick whipped around, delivered the middle height kick, then whipped a circle with a hard punch. As he spun, it gave him a quick glance at another bot who would be within striking distance soon.

Roll!

Which way?

Any way! Ditto said.

Rick dove to the ground and rolled out of the fracas. As he stood, he caught a glimpse of R3D_Button getting tackled and dove back into the fray.

What are you doing? Ditto yelled inside his head.

Saving Red!

You can’t save him!

I’m going to—

Rick had been grasped from behind and thrown to the ground. He rolled as soon as he landed, which meant his attacker came down on Rick’s side and couldn’t dominate or get a hold on him. Rick thrashed and dislodged the bot, then crawled quickly a few steps away and stood.

When he came to his feet, Alex’s avatar stood before him. Her sudden appearance took him by surprise, but he recovered in time to block her hard right knee, though his block was an awkward one that staggered him to the side.

Alex tried to capitalize on his imbalance, but he used Hard Angles to step to the side, then cancelled the follow up trip, as Alex was in the wrong position for it to work. She turned to face him and he blasted out Roamin’ Cancel, which reset him to her other side where he’d started. Next he switched into Ga Family Style switch stance, which she seemed to read as a mistake in his positioning. If Ditto was still barking orders, Rick was so thoroughly engaged in his fight with his former trainer that he couldn’t decypher them.

Alex came at him hard with a flurry of jabs and straights, then a hook he barely dodged before returning a knee strike that hit her just beneath her breast. It knocked her off her attack line. Rick performed Try Harder, one of the Ga Family moves he’d gotten as a permanent. He jabbed with his trailing rear hand, which Alex blocked, but Rick’s subsequent hard right hook landed solidly with no guard or block to deter it. His leading leg right kick had come faster than she’d expected, and the whites of her wide eyes showed as it knocked her back into a roll.

A sound behind Rick alerted him to a bot who’d come up behind him. He turned in time to capture the short female bot’s kick, grasping the leg and throwing it over across the bot’s own body, which twisted it. Forward momentum delivered its unguarded head toward Rick’s, and he used his own forehead to butt it away before he turned to meet Alex’s incoming high kick.

He stopped her kick, then leapt into the air and dashed sideways out of her immediate range, but he used Jammin’ to launch yet another attack before she could adjust.

He came in from behind her with a hold, but she broke it.

She shouldn’t have been able to do that so easily.

Ditto’s voice finally got through to him. She’s using a cheat. You won’t be able to choke her out.

Rick winced as an unseen assailant punched him in the head and he fell forward. Alex’s incoming knee was there to catch him by the face.

Everything went black before Rick found himself standing in front of the server board.

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”

Furious, he conjured the red balloon and floated out of the simulation, but when he came to in his chair, a hand pulled his head back so he looked up.

Right into Hector’s malevolent eyes.