2 The Beginning Part 1
1 year earlier~
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"I'm not letting two 10-year-olds go down to a bar"
"Mom it's not a bar…."
"Then what is it?"
"....a pub?"
"Which is?"
"A place where they serve drinks but more professionally?"
"....no is no"
"Ah come on Mom! They serve coffee too!"
"No is no! When your father gets home he can take you"
"But it will be too late then!"
"Why?"
"You have to register for the contest before 3 pm or you can't play"
"....fine, I'll call Aunt Julie and she is she can cover for me at the store"
James and John did a double high-five and jumped on their mom.
"Ok ok" Mary laughed "give me 15 mins and we can head over"
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Hopping out of their Jeep James and John walk up to the front of Geeksboro, grinning at the sign on the door
'Conquest Arena Tournament'
They push open the door and stroll inside with their mom close behind. They had seen the sign the other week while walking over from their favorite comic shop. They stopped to read the details and were sold. A $100 grand prize, how could they pass it up?
The barkeep/barista watched the twins walk in. It wasn't odd for kids to show up for these events, but kids this young?
"Excuse me, we'd like to enter the contest!"
"How old are you?"
"We're 10"
"You need to be 13 or up"
The boys' faces fell. That wasn't on the sign.
"Excuse me sir" Mary butted in "how old are you?"
"Uh….24"
"And you're a barkeep at a local nerd coffee bar, good for you young man, now you're going to let my boys play cause I'm going to sign whatever waivers you have for your other preteens and that'll solve that or would you like to call your manager over?"
"Uh…"
"No? Alright, is that the manager? He looks like he's directing people around"
"No, no it's fine! Here are the waivers, just make sure you sign below their names."
"Thank you young man, now, could you get me a pen and one of those cold brew drinks please?"
Mary looked down and winked while James and John slowly closed their mouths. Mom never acted like that! Well, she made sure they knew who was in charge, they just had never seen someone else in their shoes. It felt quite good.
"Here's your drink ma'am" The barista flinched a little when Mary turned back around. "Y'all can go over there, we'll start in about 20 mins."
The twins ran over to the makeshift stage. Finding three seats and they plopped down to read the rules for the event.
'Geeksboro's Third Citywide 'Conquest' Arena Tourney'
- Participants are able to compete in either or both of the events below
Singles
Doubles
- The winners of the above categories will be awarded $100 cash
- Second and Third place will receive credits for Conquest amounting to $50 and $25
- Participants must use their personal accounts
- Pro-Level accounts are excluded
Have fun and good luck
James and John grinned at each and immediately started strategizing.
Before they knew it a man walked up on stage and welcomed everyone, the clapping drowned out his greeting. The shop might not have been big but it was full to the brim with at least 200 people sitting or standing. The main stage had a large projector display on the main wall and four smaller TVs, two on either side of the projection screen, allowing for a viewing of five games at once.
"Now then, let's get started! We had a large number of participants this year. So we are going to get straight to it! As you can see behind me on stage we have ten computers set up and ready. We will be doing five games at a time, all single elimination rounds"
Some booing erupted.
"If you don't like it you can leave right now…." The booing subsided quickly. James and John shared a glance, one chance to make it through.
"Just play well and you'll be fine" the MC laughed and went on. "Once we have the final matches of the two groups we will only be displaying one game at a time. The main screen being on the projector, with the other four screens providing varying views of the match. Good luck!"
The MC jumped down and immediately the screens lit up with the login screen of Conquest, with the crossed Sword and Gun image spinning in the background. A surprise screen was projected on the left sidewall with a list of the current matchups. The ten players scrambled forward after seeing their names and sat behind the appropriate computer, the seat number corresponding to the slot their Player Tag was displayed in. James and John cheered with the crowd as the players entered the fixed field* and the countdown timer began.
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
Conquer!
"Let the games begin!" The MC screamed and the crowd screamed with him.
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All too soon the Singles matches were over with two champions waiting to face off in the finals. The two finalists shook hands and took seats on the stage to watch the rest of the matches or participating if their partner rose to play a match. James and John were sixth in line to play in the Doubles matches. They had done decently well in the Singles. Out of sixty-eight participants James had taken 26th place and John had taken 31st, but that was expected. They had been playing for a little over a year now and knew their strength, Doubles Arena.
Finally, they walked up for their first Doubles match. Although the crowd had murmured when they each had played in the Singles, they were quite young after all, there was now mainly silence or the casual low chatting among friends. Their performances in the Singles had been surprising but not amazing, nothing people hadn't seen better videos of on online forums.
10
9
8
7
6
5
The twins did a high-five and limbered up their hands.
4
3
2
John laughed and James grinned.
1
Conquer!
Fallen Flower moved quickly under James' control, sprinting forward toward their opponents. Shaking Barrel ran left to a rocky formation, nimbly hopping to the top and gaining a birdseye view of the field below. The two bladesmen below were also sprinting forward, ready to meet James head on. Right as James was nearing them the ground in front of him erupted with gunfire, just short of the opposing bladesmen's feet. Dust kicked up temporarily blinding the three bladesmen's field of view, but unlike his opponents, James dashed through the dust, sliding between them to their backs and quick-recovered to spin around behind them. With James at their backs and John above them the two bladesmen were pinched between the boys. James immediately threw out three basic attacks at the man on the left, who by this time had his vision restored and was floundering to find James' Fallen Flower. The blade sliced into his back three quick times before he rolled forward and quick-recovered into a guard. His partner, with a huge broadsword, was rearing back to swing into James with a charged swing when it was interrupted. His character stumbled forward as bullets hit him one after the other in the head, forcing him to dodge and run to a near overhang for cover.
It had only been six seconds.
Six seconds and the twins already had their opponents on the ropes, one pinned down and the other locked in a guard under James' attacks. This whole time James' hadn't let up once and with John's bladesmen behind a rock he had quickly shifted his shots to hit James' opponent. With shots from above and a sword from the front the bladesman was having a hard time hiding. His partner charged out to help him but as soon as he did John peppered him with fire. The bladesmen decide to take the hits though and kept charging for James. John again fired into the ground just behind James and as he did, James used the cover to flip behind his opponent, thus putting the two bladesmen between the twins again and bocking his back.
The first bladesman finally fell and his partner with the broadsword saw he was alone. Desperately he bolted for the overhang to at least block John's view. Surprisingly though no shots came from above, they came from the left. John had sprinted down from rocks and made his way over to where James was fighting. They swiftly closed in and finished off the bladesman.
Congratulations Fallen Flower and Shaking Barrel, You are victorious!
The twins high-fived once and emptied their seats for the next pair. Behind them, the crowd was stunned silent. The whole fight had been forty-two seconds, the other Doubles match still had two-thirds of their health and were locked in a stalemate.
James and John grinned and did a double high five. Mary leaped up.
"THAT'S MY BOYS!"
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*Fixed Field is an arena that is set up before had and unable to modified except by the creator. Often used in tournaments to create a stable and fair playing field.
