The Games Villains Play (11 page)

“
Zahrah
is not feeling up to practice today.  I hope you don’t mind, I told her it would be alright if she took the day off.  I’ll get her up to spe
ed later with what she misses.”

Donny wished he had known about this just a few moments earlier, but he was too relieved to be angry.  “Yeah, that’s perfectly understandable.  She’s a fast learner; she’ll be able to
catch up.”

Donny and Duke ran another simulation, splitting the teams up in different combinations.  Donny wanted the small research groups to get used to playing together, but he wanted them to be flexible with who else would accompany them on a team, so he varied the team compositions by moving around the small groups.  Today’s simulation ran much smoother, however many mistakes were still made, and a long discussion was needed to review what co
uld have been done differently.

Practices continued in this manner for the next few weeks. 
Zahrah
rejoined the team the following day, and never took another day to herself.  Her heart was not in it at first, but then her sadness turned to anger, and Donny found himself having to ask her to tone down a little, to make sure she did
not
harm herself or her teammates.
 

Michael was never found.  Donny was unsure how long the school spent looking for him, but if they found any evidence of his whereabouts, the student body was never told.  Rumors flew around, some saying he went off to hunt down the villains, some saying he had given up being a hero and was trying to get home, and still others were under the impression that he had gone crazy over the loss of his friend, and ran off into the desert to die.  Donny hated to hear any of these rumors, and would tell anyone who repeated one in his earshot to shut their mouths.  The other students quickly learned to keep their opinions on the subject away from Donny.
 

With Donny spending every waking hour engrossed in planning for the simulation games or in studying up on his classes or other topics he deemed useful, and spending the little time he slept dreaming about such things, the last week before the simulation games quickly arrived.  Donny soon found himself studying the matchup sheet, with just four days until the start of the games.
 

He could not decide if they had made out well or not in their placement on the bracket.  They had received a bye in the first round, which meant that they would not play on the first day, and would therefore only need to worry about one team that first weekend.  The first and third ranked teams were also on the opposite side of the bracket, meaning that they
could not
face either of those teams any earlier than the finals.  It would not be an easy climb however.  Their first match would be against either the brown team or the white team, depending on which of them won their first game against each other.  They are ranked fourth and fifth respectively.  If they win, they will face either the yellow team, which is ranked second, or the gold team, which is ranked ninth.  If they won that as well, they would be in the finals, most likely against either the blue team, ranked first, or the orange team, ranked third.  As expected, Donny’s team was ranked last, which meant that he needed to be ready for any of them.

Donny decided to divide his remaining practices up in order to focus on defeating the brown team for two of them, and on defeating the white team for the other two.  He had already contacted the group who had been studying the brown team and told them to be ready to lead the practice that evening, so that would be where he would start.  Donny felt like his team had improved tremendously, and despite being comprised mostly of younger students, they were working as a team now, and had many tricks waiting.  Despite their progress, he still saw many flaws.  They were ready for the games, but he knew the other teams would be ready as well.  It would come down to who could think on their feet, and use their resources most effectively.  In short, it would come down to Donny himself.

CHAPTER 10

“
ALRIGHT, YOU’VE BEEN
studying the brown team for weeks, what can we expect if
we find ourselves facing them?”

Donny
was not
kidding when he said the group researching the brown team would lead that evening’s practice.  Donny had called the team together, then immediately handed the reigns over to the small group.  After a staggering start, Donny realized he needed to ask them questions in order to ge
t the discussions flowing.

“The brown team focuses mainly on Prometheus and Hermes power.  They’re three best players are all Prometheus, so we think they will try to make this as m
uch a mental game as possible.”

“What
do you mean by a mental game?”

“I guess we were thinking they would try to get readings on us as soon as they could, and try to stay one step ahead of us.  Maybe use our own plans against us.”
 

“Ok, you said it focuses on Prometheus and Hermes power
, where
do
the Hermes come in?”

“Their strongest players are Prometheus, but looking at the composition of the team as a whole, they are about even between Prometheus and Hermes.  They actually only have 2 Titans on the team, while they have 10 Prometheus and 9 Hermes.  We expect that they would try to read our minds, and then do whatever needs to be done faster th
an we could with their Hermes.”

“What if the game
required strength in some way?”

“We suspect that’s why the two Titans were put on the team, in order to have some strength if it’s needed.  That leads to the first strategy we thought of, that if the game required strength, we should find a way to immobilize their Titans.”

“That sounds like a good starting point; we would just need to think of ways to do that.  What if the game did n
ot require strength?”

“If no strength is needed, the advantage would be theirs.  We would need to find a way of
keeping them out of our heads.”

“Ok, how many here have decent training i
n mental distortion or blocks?”

As Donny expected, very few of his team members raised their hands. 
Here’s one big disadvantage with having such a young team, their training on special techniques is limited.
  Donny thought.  “It looks like keeping them out of our heads won’t work.  What o
ther possibilities do we have?”

The small group looked at each other.  One of them decided to hazard an answer.  “I guess we’ll just have to implement our plans quicker than them.  We have some
quick Hermes on our team too.”

Donny was hoping for a stronger plan of action than that, but they would begin there.  They spent most of the practice working on quick communication and execution.  Donny quickly realized that
Zahrah
was a strong player to have at this point – she
was not
just the fastest Hermes around, she was also quick with understanding directions, and could think well on her feet.  Donny felt confident that they had the advantage if it did come down to a single Hermes footrace.  Nevertheless, he would have to think of a way to avoid it getting that far.

“
YOU WANTED TO
see us sir?”

“Yes.  You have not checked in for quite some time, I
take it all is under control?”

“Yes sir.  The older brother crumbled even better than we expected, and the younger brother i
s showing no suspicious signs.”

“I have been watching some of the videos myself; I hardly agree that there have been no suspicious signs.  Tell me, how long would you say little Donny mourned his brother’s death
before being able to move on?”

“W
ell…not very long at all, sir.”

“Not very long indeed.
  From the first videos, he seemed already over what had happened.  When exactly would you
say he decided it was alright?”

“It took maybe a day sir.  He was mostly angry after hearing the news, and remained angry for a few weeks, but after the first day his stray emotions were most
ly gone.”

“And that is not suspicious?  His older brother was his idol, and he was informed that his brother and idol was just killed by a group of villains, and it took less than
a day for him to get over it?”

“He
was not
over it. 
He is
still not over it; he
just accepted it after a day.”

“Must be quite the kid.
  And what about the day he rested on the arena floor, before suddenly getting the idea to search through old wa
r videos?  What happened then?”

“Nothing happened then, sir.  He must have been thinking about the simulation games, and decided it would be beneficial to fin
d information on real battles.”

“What you mean is
,
you saw nothing happen.  He spent far too long standing at the door before the cameras outside had picked him up.  I checked over the two cameras as well, and the recordings from the outside camera had been tampered with.  The recorded times show a part of
the recording that was deleted and filled in by a duplicate of a time when nothing was going on.  The films had been tampered wi
th.”

“You th
ink someone contacted the boy?”

“I’m fairly certain of it.  There are a few faculty members I wou
ld like you to keep an eye on.”

“Yes, sir.”

“I also want you to set the games against the younger brother’s team.  If he has been contacted, he may yet be a threat.  Make sure he suffers a crushing defeat.  We need
him to feel out of his league.”

“Yes, sir.”

“One more thing.
 
The friend, was he ever found?”

“No, sir.
  There is considerable evidence showing that he went off into the desert, but we lost his trail after a short time.  We flew over a wider area then he possibly could have traveled, and found nothing. 
It is
likely that he perished in the desert somewhere, and even if he has not, there is noth
ing for him to find out there.”

“Good.”

SATURDAY CAME, AND
the simulation games began.  Donny had told his team to be ready for a practice that evening, so they could begin final preparations as soon as they got word as to who their opponent would be.  Since they could no longer practice in the arena, Donny had
reserved a practice room for that night and the next afternoon.  The white versus brown game was taking place that afternoon, and they would be facing
the winner the following night.

Black versus orange had faced off already that morning, with the outcome as expected.  The orange team was ranked third, and they had beaten the black team, who had been ranked sixth.  The white and brown teams were competing right now, and Donny was just waiting to receive word as to who the victor would be.  After two practices focusing on each of the two teams, they had some ideas for each one, but Donny felt much better about his chances for the white team.  The white team was ranked fifth and the brown team fourth, so they were close in rankings, however the way the white team was composed just seemed to open up more options for Donny.  They had found many good strategies to use against white team, but he felt their brown team strategies were a little lacking.
 

This thought was still lingering in Donny’s head when Duke came around the corner with t
he verdict.  “It’s brown team.”

Of course it is,
Donny thought.  He made no attempt
to hide this thought from Duke.

“I have a friend who was on the white team, and we’re going to the dining hall in a few minutes to get some food.  He’s agreed to tell me all about the match.  I should have good details ready
in an hour and a half or so.”

“Good, I’ll spread word that practice starts in two hours then.  I’ll go down to the practice rooms early to start making plans.  Meet me there as soon as you finish with your dinner meeting, so w
e can discuss how to progress.”

Duke nodded in confirmation, and the two of them went on their ways.  Donny
was not
hungry, so he decided to have his dinner after that evening’s practice.  Instead, he quickly spread word to his team, and then went directly to the practice room, and began to think. 
Brown team it
is then.  I suppose we’ll need to be ready for probing minds and fast feet.
  Donny continued to brainstorm different possibilities for their match, when he heard the door to the room open.  He was surprised that Duke’s meeting had been so short, but when he looked up, he realized it was not Duke who was coming in.  Instead, the whole Brown team was walking through the door, led by their lead
er, a Prometheus nicknamed Sly.

“Hey Sly, we have this room reserved tonight.  My team should be here soon.”  This
was not
completely true, as there was still over an hour until his practice was due to start.  Even so, Donny did have the room reserved already, so the br
own team had no business there.

“You must be mistaken little Napoleon, we have this room reserved tonight.
 
Tonight and all of tomorrow.”

It was clear to Donny that this was not just an accident, as there would be no reason for Sly to bring up a reservation for the next day if he did
not
already know that Donny had it reserved.  Donny wanted to argue, but there were 21 students facing him, and he knew
the odds were not in his favor.

“Ok, well I guess they double booked the room then.  We’ll have to share.”  Donny would have preferred a room of their own, but realistically, it would help them considerably to be able to see their oppon
ent in action before the match.

“Nice try, but there will be no sharing.  We have this room reserve
d, and you are going to leave.”

Donny tried to think fast of something he could do, but he knew there was no options available to him that involved staying in the practice room. 
I’ll have to go get the practice room manager, and prove that we have the
room reserved.

Donny left the room, with Sly walking slightly behind him the whole way out with a big smirk on his face. 
I’ll wipe that smirk off your face soon enough. 
Donny thought to himself.

When he got to the professor’s office who served as the practice room manager, Donny was surprised to find that this was not just a game t
hat Sly was playing on his own.

“I’m sorry Donny, but I have you down as reser
ving practice room 17, not 14.”

Strange,
Donny thought,
I was sure I had reserved 14.

Walking back down to the practice rooms, he found room 17, all the way down the end of the hallway.  On the door was a sign that read ‘Under Construction: Out of Order’.  The windows were covered, and the door was locked.  Donny had walked down this hall just the day before, and none of the
rooms were under construction.

“I can’t be scheduled for room 17, it’s under construction
,”
Donny told the professor when he arrived back at the office.
 

“I’m sorry, but I have you down for room 17, and none of the other roo
ms are available.”

“None?
  How can 16 rooms be booked, when there are only 10 simulation games teams this year?  The teams aren’t allowed to book more than one room, and I thought the rooms were set aside for team practices during the games.”  Donny was s
truggling to keep his cool.

“
It is
true that none of the other students can book the rooms during the games, but with the recent villain attack, the administration has decided to hold their own practices for faculty in those rooms.  They reserved seven of the rooms for faculty training, and the other nine are all reser
ved by simulation games teams.”

“When I came to reserve a room, you told me room 14 was open, and I saw on the reservation sheet that it was.  I a
m being cheated out of a room.”

The professor, who had seemed apologetic up until this point, now stood up.  “Are you
accusing me of something boy?”

Donny realized he needed to watch himself.  If he
was not
careful, he could lose more than his practice room.  “No sir, I am not accusing you.  I am just certain that I had signed up for room 14, and somebody, I’m sure not you but somebody, changed the sheet in order t
o take that room away from me.”