Chapter 1: Muskets and Marble

Sandra was nearly blinded when she loaded onto the stage. White marble buildings, a pearl-hued sky, glowing purple crystals... Yep, it was the Sacred Ground stage.

Not good, not terrible. 

There was no time to admire the view, however. The guide compass told her where her opponent was, but the opponent also had one and would soon be on top of her. Turning tail, she immediately began to sprint in the opposite direction.

 

“Oh, it’s Sandy.” A harsh masculine voice rang out from high up on the rooftops - a spectator. “Can’t stand these rat tactics. Brain Burst is a fighting game, so fight!”

“Nothing wrong with playing to your avatar’s strengths.” Another, somewhat nerdy voice answered. “Sand’s base avatar has almost no combat potential - she’s entirely focused on her summons.”

 

A pretty accurate analysis, Sandra acknowledged quietly. Her duel avatar, Sand Tactician, had no offensive or defensive abilities of note. All she had was a weak pistol, which could barely even break the crystals that littered the stage as she took passing potshots at them to fill her energy meter.

Even as she ran, Sandra couldn’t help marveling at her virtual body. The sleek robotic body moved with such grace she felt she could never achieve in reality. It wasn’t as strong, fast, or flashy as other avatars, but it was hers.

Besides, there was more to games than just having the strongest commander unit.

“Deploy: Scout!” She declared. Besides her, a crackling electric portal opened and a humanoid figure emerged. It had a tan-colored robotic body similar to hers, but the head was wide and wedge-shaped with small camera eyes. It carried a short rifle and was clad in a cloak that constantly changed color to match the terrain behind it. 

“Delaying action, target: Cerulean Musketeer.” She ordered, and the drone immediately turned to engage the opponent.

“Deploy: Gunslinger!” Another drone emerged from a portal, this one wearing a tattered plain cloak and carrying a revolver.

“Move: 300 meters southeast. Fire at will, target: crystals.” The gunslinger drone ran off diagonally to her own course. 

 

“This is the standard pattern for her.” The nerdy-sounding spectator commented from above. “The scout drone gives her breathing room while the gunslinger attacks the environment to replenish the special meter. Everything depends on how much time she’s given to prepare.”

 

Sure enough, a moment later the sounds of gunfire could be heard from two different directions. At the top of her HUD, Sandra saw her special meter filling up gradually with each shot from the gunslinger. Abruptly, Cerulean Musketeer’s special meter jumped up by more than a third. A message popped up in the corner of her vision: “UNIT LOST”.

That’s the scout gone, She mused. Didn’t buy me much time at all. She quickly hid behind a large marble pillar and a small tablet-like device materialized in her hand. It had been an expensive piece of gear, but it was vitally important for her strategy: A map pad. The screen displayed a birds-eye view of every part of the stage that she or her drones had explored thus far. It didn’t take her long to find what she was looking for - a medium-sized temple with only one entrance. 

“Deploy: Engineer!” Sand’s special meter almost completely depleted, and another drone materialized. The engineer drone had four arms each ending in a cluster of tools. She marked the temple on the map. “Fortify location.” she ordered, and the engineer ran off. Not a moment too soon, as almost immediately after a deafening bang rang out. The pillar she had been hiding behind shattered, sending marble fragments flying everywhere. A few of them hit Sandra, and her health bar dropped slightly.

“Finally caught you, eh mademoiselle?” Her opponent challenged in the most atrocious fake French accent she had ever heard. Cerulean Musketeer was about the same height as Sand Tactician, lightly armored and lithe. She was clad in a billowing cloak and a wide-brimmed hat with a feather in it. She brandished a smoking wide-barreled pistol in one hand. The other held a rapier pointed towards the sky.

“Faster than I expected, I’ll admit I didn’t expect a Blue to have a gun.” Sandra called back, though in hindsight the name musketeer should have been a dead giveaway despite the melee-focused color. Her special meter was still very low, not enough to summon anything other than a scout drone; and that would just feed Cerulean Musketeer’s own special meter without accomplishing a thing.

She needed to stall. She dashed out of cover, leaping towards the adjacent building while firing potshots at her opponent. She wasn’t fast enough: A shot from the pistol slammed into Sandra’s stomach, pain jolting across her body as she crashed to the ground. Her health bar plummeted more than 60% from that one hit.

“Your own fault for assuming. I am quite fast, as you can see.” Cerulean gloated as Sandra clutched the gaping hole in her stomach. Jagged metal, no blood (thankfully that was not a standard feature of Brain Burst).

A zapping noise from afar, and Sand Tactician’s special meter ticked up a slight amount. Just a few more moments...

“You know that’s not really a musket, right?” She challenged, slowly standing up but stowing her pistol to avoid seeming threatening. “Muskets are long guns, that’s just a breech-loading pistol.”

“And I’m not shooting with gunpowder either, that’s just details mon ami.” Cerulean chuckled, advancing at a leisurely pace towards Sandra.

The special meter filled out some more. 

“A cape is also not particularly useful in a VR game.” Sandra added bitterly, pretending to just be a salty loser.

“But it’s stylish.” Her opponent shrugged off the accusation. “Practicality is not everything, mon cherie.”

Another tick on the meter.

“Your accent is also atrocious.” She declared, which did cause Cerulean to pause. 

“Now that’s going too far, mademoiselle.” She answered coldly, aiming her pistol again. “Goodbye.”

“Wait, wait, you’re right I’m sorry-” Sandra waved her arms, interrupted by another tick of the special meter. “DeployGuardian!” she yelled as fast as she could.

A portal opened. A shot rang out. Pain flared in Sand’s shoulder, and her health meter dropped to 5%

Between Sand Tactician and Cerulean Musketeer now stood a bulky drone carrying a large shield. It hadn’t been fast enough to completely block the attack, but it had at least managed to deflect it and make it only a glancing blow.

“Hey, no fair!” Cerulean objected, while Sandra turned tail and ran away once more. Behind her, she could hear the sounds of metal clashing as the guardian drone blocked her opponent from following after her for now. “Tricheuse! Cheater!” The blue fighter’s protest was gradually muffled by distance.

 

“That was cheap.” A spectator remarked. 

“It’s Cerulean Musketeer’s fault for not paying attention to the special gauge.” another argued.

 

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Sandra ran towards where she had sent her engineer. Despite her pain, she chuckled when she arrived there. If she remembered correctly, in real life this was a kebab restaurant. The small temple now had a glowing energy fence blocking the front entrance, but it was deactivated automatically for Sandra to pass through. Inside there were further fortifications, and the engineer was building a miniature gun turret in the corner.

“Cancel construction.” She gasped. “Build a flame turret instead.” The turret that had been in progress shattered, and the engineer began to pump energy from its arms into a new one that slowly grew from the bottom up.

“UNIT LOST”

That was the guardian gone. It only did a small amount of damage, but its intervention was the difference between a win and a loss. She needed to win.

Unfortunately defeating the guardian drone had maxed out Cerulean Musketeer’s special meter, so Sandra now had to worry about an ultimate move. Judging from the overall theme of her opponent she had a rough idea of what to expect, and it didn’t bode well.

“Gunslinger: come to me.” She ordered, and while the drone was definitely out of earshot she knew it would immediately obey. The flow of energy for the special meter ceased, but Sandra figured at the moment she would either be able to gather it more directly or just flat out lose. She needed the extra firepower of the gunslinger drone to even stand a chance once Cerulean caught up.

Speaking of the devil, Sandra heard a rush of footsteps outside, and then a cry of “One for all and all for one!” Cerulean Musketeer’s special meter was entirely used up, and immediately after the blue duelist charged into the building.

Several things happened in rapid sequence. First, Sandra noticed that her opponent’s avatar was distorted, almost as if there were multiple copies of her sharing the same space. Second, the laser fence scorched Cerulean as she passed through it, but dealt negligible damage. Finally, the two mines on either side of the door detonated right in Cerulean’s face. Even this close-range explosion only damaged about a third of Cerulean’s health.

“Now who’s cheating.” Sandra grumbled, hiding behind a marble counter. “What’s with that ridiculous damage resistance?”

“Musketeers are always together, and they always protect each other!” Cerulean declared smugly. “Each takes an equal portion of the damage.”

“So three musketeers, huh? That seemed a bit more than two-thirds reduction though.” Sandra observed.

“There are four.” her rival gloated. “Don’t you read your classics? Porthos, Aramis, Athos, and D’Artagnian. Only the book is titled ‘three’.”

“Must have missed that one.” Sandra shrugged, dashing for the back room while ordering “Engineer: Attack!”

The engineer drone leaped at Cerulean Musketeer, slashing and stabbing with all four of its arms. It barely scratched her, and Cerulean dispatched it with a single thrust of her rapier.

“Did I not mention, we attack together as well?”

“Try it!” Sandra challenged, to which Cerulean responded “Let’s see if you can take out all of us before I get you!”

The musketeer rushed forward into the back room, and Sandra dived out of the way as the stout turret hidden just to the left spewed bright orange flames at her opponent. 

The flamethrower turret was the highest DPS unit Sand Tactician had, and even with the huge damage reduction of that ultimate skill it still managed to scorch another third of Cerulean Musketeer’s health before she sliced it apart with her rapier. She still had over 20% of her health intact.

“You put up a good fight, très bien.” The musketeer advanced on Sandra. 

“Behind you!” Sandra yelled, firing her pistol even though that did barely any damage at all.

“Like I’d fall for-” Cerulean was interrupted by an energy blast to the back of her head. The gunslinger drone stood in the remains of the foyer, firing shot after shot with deadly accuracy and dealing not insignificant damage with its precision even through the damage reduction. Cerulean returned fire with her own gun, blowing the gunslinger drone apart.

But now Sand Tactician’s energy bar was full, and she could use one of her own ultimates.

“Deploy: Commando!” 

Beside Sandra an armored drone emerged, wielding a short-barreled rifle with a large bayonet. “Attack!” The drone charged at Cerulean Musketeer, firing two shotgun-like blasts of energy from its rifle as it did. The shots did some damage, and now the drone was on top of her. Unlike the others, the commando drone was an all-purpose fighter that was strong enough to even go toe-to-toe with some low-level players all by itself. It was still no match for an experienced player, which Cerulean Musketeer definitely was, but it could still put up a fight. 

Cerulean didn’t seem to take it too seriously at first, taking glancing thrusts from the bayonet which chipped small amounts off of her remaining health. She gave better than she took, and the commando drone itself was gradually being cut apart as it fought.

19% health.

16% health.

In the middle of the skirmish Cerulean Musketeer’s ultimate ability expired, and now she was taking full damage again to her noticeable alarm.

10% health.

4%!

The commando drone went down. 

“You realize that completely filled my meter back up-”

Sandra did not let her finish, stepping right up to her opponent and pressing her pistol to her head. “Dodge this!” She declared excitedly and fired point-blank to finish the game.

 

...

 

In a small park, a girl in an oversized yellow hoodie stumbled mid-step as she found herself back in the real world. Slowly, Sandra put her hands to her face and groaned.

“Dodge this? What kind of lame finish was that??” She whined into her sleeves. “She was tanking, not dodging in the first place! It doesn’t make any sense! Aargh...”