“Move between them as quickly as you can. Grab the powerups when you have a moment, and try to pack most of your boosts into stamina,” Rick advised.
R3D_Button was wide-eyed. “We’re really gonna do this?” He gulped. “Your friend said he was the game. Where the hell did he go?”
“No time to talk now!” Rick said as the first of the bots approached. It would be no use to wait for it to begin the battle. He tried his typical fakeout: initiating a Flying Knee, then used Roamin’ Cancel to reset, then switched to Ga Family Style and launched a hard front kick to the male bot’s unprotected groin.
“That is ten tons of crystal skull. We are all permanently the machine!” R3D_Button called out.
“What? Obviously we’re permanently the machine. Why would you think you have to say that?”
The first bot came within range, but it grew and receded six inches in height with each step, as though it were made of springs. Rick tried to make his own body undulate in the same rhythm. He shook his head. Keep your mind clear. He focused on the yellow light in his solar plexus and it looked more like a miniature sun before he broke through to empty mind.
The bot—a medium build Caucasian man with tribal tattoos—threw a jab. The punch made a strange sound in the air, like bent candy or toe missiles, that made it easier for Rick to track it. He dodged left, like a planet in orbit, then launched a Flying Knee at the bot’s exposed flank. It brutally dropped an elbow to block him, but momentum carried Rick forward. A hand from behind gripped him, and in a flash decision, he pushed himself into the momentum of that hand as it dragged him backward. The bots always braced for resistance; denying them the pull they expected was an easy way to push them off balance. It worked. Rick swiveled his head and got a look at the bot who’d grabbed him, a wrestling type with enormous, dark-skinned arms. He barreled forward, knocking the bot off balance, then using his legs to drive through and tumble over the enormous man, though there were more bots on the other side. He sprang to his feet, leapt straight up, then Air Dashed back toward the original bot, twisting in the air as he did.
As Rick came down, he activated Jammin’ into Flying Knee and came down on the bot’s face, smashing it backward as he regained his footing. A flash of movement in the corner of his eye warned him of an impending grab that he dodged. He juked back toward the bot he’d smashed in the face which had hit the ground. He kicked the bot’s unprotected head like a football.
Victory!
He couldn’t collect the boxes—a blue, yellow, and orange—yet, as the bots came nearer in a swarm. A yelp of pain rose from somewhere to his right. Red? Rick changed position and headed in the direction of the sound, then rolled backward into a hole created by the four bots that had pressed him, tumbling into the icons.
Active Skill Acquired!
Gravity Bomb: Reach down and yank a player off his or her feet. Five second cooldown.
Boost Points +1
Cosmetic Item Acquired!
Sunglasses: Look stylish while pummeling your opponents.
A vision of the form for Gravity Bomb played in the upper right corner of his vision as Rick threw the boost point into stamina and dismissed the sunglasses.
A bot stood before him as he tried to get back toward R3D_Button’s continuing screams. He ducked the bot’s incoming fist and grabbed the man’s legs, then fired off Gravity Bomb to swiftly toss the bot on its ass as he leapt forward, pressed from behind by more bots in the swarm. He jumped again, then Air Dashed, landing near where the screams, which had become continual, had been. Without pausing, he switched his stance to Ga Family Style and belted the bot that had R3D_Button’s right arm in a painful lock. He followed up with another hard right straight, and since the bot’s arms were both occupied in the hold, there was no defense except its pitiful attempts to angle its head out of the way.
R3D_Button pulled away as soon as Rick’s bludgeoning loosened the bot’s arms. The dark-haired fighter rolled to his feet as Rick moved to the next bot in the group, pushing it aside, then leaping over it, performing an Air Dash. Because they were on the very edge of the dream state, Rick had more control of his body, and using his will, he an extra second in the air. The bot below him, a woman with short blonde hair and a leather biker jacket, having anticipated his impending drop, prematurely tried to kick him, so when he did come down, he did so over her leg, landing a Flying Knee into her chest and riding her collapsing body to the ground. He quickly smashed her face and rolled over her.
Victory!
Two orange and one blue box rose from the defeated blond woman as her body faded.
R3D_Button rushed to his side. All around, a horde of bots surrounded them. Hector’s taller avatar stood at the rear of the mass, and Alex stood next to him, though she wouldn’t hold Rick’s gaze.
Not looking at him, R3D_Button asked, “How did you hang in the air like that? I haven’t seen an ability like that.”
Rick kept his gaze on Hector as he answered the dark-haired player. “We’re at the edge of the lucid dream simulation. We have more control here. That’s why we came.”
“Wait, I can—”
The bots moved in, throwing themselves at Rick and the dark-haired player. He could only hope R3D_Button grasped the implications of what he’d said. It had taken Rick quite some time to grasp them, himself, though he’d had more time, and despite that, he hadn’t gotten the really interesting movements.
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He took himself to the edge of the line in Ga Family stance, then performed a Flying Knee into a Roamin’ Cancel—his timeworn fake-out move—before launching into the initial left jab of Try Harder, his Ga Family Style Skill. The skill’s hard right hook followed, as did the leading front kick. The timing of his moves, as well as their unexpected origins, threw off the lead bot. Every one of Rick’s strikes landed to devastating effect, which was good, as he didn’t have time to get bound up in counters or have his movement unexpectedly blocked or redirected. There was too little room for error, as the rest of the bots crowded close. He leapt away, Air Dashed back toward R3D_Button, then used the flexibility at the edge of the lucid dream simulation to imagine the air was solid enough to leap again. He flipped mid-air to avoid a kick from an unseen assailant, then came down like a javelin, driving both feet into the female bot that had snuck up behind R3D_Button. So intent on its target, the bot didn’t notice as Rick landed on its head with all his weight, driving its neck back and breaking it on the way down.
Victory!
There was enough space around him to allow Rick to pick up the icons that proceeded from the downed bot—three blues in total.
Active Skill Acquired!
Over Their Shoulder: Grasps opponent’s neck and swings your body over their shoulder. When you land, you throw them by their neck. Fifteen second cooldown.
Active Skill Acquired!
Forward and Back: Trailing low kick to chambered leg, to hard high kick. Five second cooldown.
Active Skill Acquired!
Not Your Angel: Leading hand downward slap followed by mid kick. Five second cooldown.
Rick dodged and weaved, avoiding a deluge of hand and foot strikes, as well as attempts to grab or lock him, while the animations for each of the new moves played in the corner of his vision.
An enormous, dark-haired, bearded man appeared before him and he launched Not Your Angel, but after the completed downward slap had connected, he used Roamin’ Cancel to launch into a flying knee, knocking back the powerfully built bot before he launched into Over Their Shoulder, though when he landed and tried to throw, his fingers slipped. Rick turned the sudden forward momentum into a roll, then a leap, then imagined the air beneath him was solid enough and performed a double jump away from the bearded bot’s pursuing hands.
In short glimpses, Rick had witnessed R3D_Button in trouble, then free of it, then engaged with another bot. There was no way to tell if his partner had understood what Rick had tried to tell him about being at the edge of the simulation, but the fact he still fought made it likely he did.
There was no way to defeat the endless waves of enemy bots, but Rick searched for a way to prevail. Hector’s smug face rose above the fray, the picture of it burned in his mind like the afterimage of a sparkler. He leapt again, Air Dashed again, then leapt once more and double jumped over the fray. He landed on a blonde female bot’s shoulders and jumped again, then used Flying Knee to knock away a shorter male bot’s grasping hands. When his feet touched the ground again, he slowly weaved away from an incoming bot, letting his stamina rise above half again so he’d have enough juice to make the final sprint. When it did, he blasted right toward Hector, then past his erstwhile boss, placing the man between Rick and the surge of bots. The AI combatants slowed as they approached, as if loath to attack the other man.
Rick studied Hector, using the time to let his stamina refill again. He hoped beyond hope that Ditto had been able to get the information to Dokutan and that he’d made the techs aware of Rick’s immediate need of help. The bots would outlast him, and without the laughter effect overriding the pain sensations… He shuddered.
Hector appeared to notice Rick’s apprehension, and he nodded slowly. “Alex has taught me a few tricks. Wanna see?”
Rick dashed forward and threw a jab Hector knocked aside with a powerful block. “You cheating on your player avatar, too?”
Hector shrugged. “Suckers play the game. It’s the one’s running the game who win.”
Rick grunted. “Funny you should mention them.”
Hector shot him a quizzical look, but Rick said nothing more. The bots began to creep around Hector, avoiding him, but keeping their attention on Rick.
Oh boy.
The first of the bots froze, as though some internal hitch had prevented it from moving. In a cascade of hitches, the rest of the bots froze as well, and some fell without moving, toppling like garden statues, arms and legs remaining in the same poses they’d been in when they froze.
Hector took on an alarmed posture and glanced around. In the background, R3D_Button swore and got up from where he’d been tackled before the bots froze. He brushed himself off and swore again.
Rick raced forward, determined to take advantage of the confusion. His hard right straight caught Hector in the jaw, and the man listed like a ship caught sideways by an enormous sea swell.
Though the man’s knees buckled, he didn’t go down. Rick launched Flying Knee and caught him in the middle of his chest, but Hector got a leg behind him and absorbed the momentum, then grabbed Rick’s leg and threw him back.
Rick landed on his back and rolled backward, rising into Ga Family Switch Stance just in time, as Hector had advanced, a furious look on his face.
“Little fucker!” Hector spat on the ground after Rick deflected both his strikes and dashed backward out of his ex-boss’s range. The older man hiked up the sleeves of his starched white business shirt and edged forward.
Rick tried Forward and Back, kicking low, then chambering his leg at waist level before shooting it high at Hector’s face. The other man absorbed the the low kick and deflected the high one.
“You can’t beat me. Not here. Not out there.”
In the corner of Rick’s eye, Alex and R3D_Button were engaged in a dance of battle, ebbing and flowing like waves striking the beach, back and forth. The dark-haired player held his own, which was impressive considering Alex’s considerable experience.
Rick jumped then Air Dashed straight up. Using the flexible physics of the edge of the dream, Hector followed him up. Rick double jumped, tumbling over the other man and twisting as he did. When he came down behind Hector, he latched on to the man’s neck and shoulders, dragging him to the eath like a child catching a wayward balloon.
Hector roared, yet untethered from any anchor but Rick, the only other thing he could do was flail. Rick smiled as they dropped. The outcome wasn’t important anymore. He’d gone beyond begging, beyond feeling sorry for wanting what he wanted. Like a child who knew his heart’s desire without shame, he grinned as the purity of his will bloomed within him like a gas lamp. He wouldn’t lie anymore, and he would never ask for less than what he wanted.
He twisted as he neared the ground, laughing as he realized his mastery of the liquid physics of the edge of the dream was far superior to Hector’s. When they hit, he was on top, and the force of him piling into Hector’s ribcage blasted the air out of the man’s body like a burst tire. Hector’s jaws undulated as he tried to work his diaphragm, to force a breath, though none came.
Rick had taken the landing hard, too, but falling onto Hector had softened the blow enough to allow him to grasp Hector’s neck. “They know about the den, the one where you tried to strangle me. You won’t be able to clean up your tracks quickly enough.”
Hector jerked his head as if trying to say something, but Rick snapped his neck before he ever got back his breath.
He stood, ready to take on Alex, but an alarm rang out overhead, as did a voice.
“Illegal activity detected. Prepare for extraction.”