The Games Villains Play (14 page)

Donny remembered speaking a while back with the group set to research the yellow team.  Their best area of expertise was clear.  Their captain was a Prometheus nicknamed Hunter, due to his joy of sharpshooting.  He was a firm believer that people who could shoot were necessary to war, despite the fact that guns had not been used by either the heroes or the villains for quite some time, with very few exceptions.  Nevertheless, many of the yellow team members were also in sharpshooter classes, and it was well known that Hunter would have his team play paintball for a
t least one practice each week.

With this in mind, Donny made a mental note of the battles which would best suit a team of sharpshooters.  There were many of them.  He narrowed the list first by removing those games which he heard had been done in the past few years, then with the realization that the school would not pick a game they knew Donny was ready for, he narrowed out all the situations that he already had his team run during a practice.  Twelve battles remained.
 

Just to make sure he would not be discovered if they were watching him, he went back to an irrelevant battle, and stared at the screen for a while, as if studying that battle intently.  His thoughts, however, were in those other twelve battles, planning on how he could win each of them.

CHAPTER 1
3

“
I AM BEGINNING
to wonder if you two are really aligned with those brothers, and
are
just
here to sabotage this school.”

“No sir, we are not…”

“Relax soldier, I rea
lize
it is
merely incompetence.”

“Sir, the
brown team…”

“The brown team lost.  Yes, I know they got cocky, and I am perfectly aware that they ignored the metal detectors. 
It is
clear that their aim was to humiliate the other team, and that goal came at the cost of the game.  The loss is not the problem.  It is
a
problem, but not
the
problem.”

“Sir?”

“The big problem here is h
ow flagrantly you had cheated.”

“Our apologies sir, we misunderstood our orders.  We thought mani
pulating the game was desired.”

“You misunderstand once again.  I have no quarrels with the cheating.  This is a war; to cheat is to gain the advantage.  I have a problem with how obvious your cheating had been.  Giving the Jade team an incorrect map is not someth
ing we can claim ignorance of.”

“He threw the map away though
sir,
and we retrieved it.  The evidence is back with us,
there is no longer any proof.”

“I am not afraid of proof, I can handle proof.  The issue is that the boy was practically told straight out that he is being conspired against, and the fact that he never came forward to inform the school of the mistake is evidence the he got that message.”

“Yes, sir.”

“We were forced to get rid of Jay because he got wise to our situation, and his strength was something others would follow.  There is a good chance Donny has figured us out as well, and I do
not
want to see people lining up to follow his intelligence.”

“
I KNOW WHAT
our n
ext simulation is going to be.”

It was nearing time for their first practice of the week.  Donny had found someone from his team who had been on the group originally designated to study the yellow team, and asked them where Hunter had originally been from.  Learning that he grew up in the mountains of Norway was all Donny needed to narrow his simulation list down to one.  He had waited by the door of the main school building for Duke to arrive, and was now walk
ing with him towards the arena.

“How could you know what the simulation will be?  They do
n’t announce that information.”

Donny
could not
tell Duke the truth, because Duke had no reason to believe the school was against them.  He had to stretch the truth.  “I figured out how
they were choosing the games.”

“Really?
  I always thought it was done randomly, like drawn from a hat or something.  Actually, I think I remember them telling us it
was random.”

“It’s not completely random, a few factors are taken into effect, and in this case, those factors are enough to na
rrow it down to one situation.”

Duke nodded slowly.  Then with a look of resignation, he decided to accept it.  “Alright, if you are so sure that it will be the situation you think it will, I guess we can plan for su
ch.  So what is the situation?”

“It will be based
on the battle for
Kebnekaise
.”

“Hmmm, not sure I recall that one.  Was
it one of the earlier battles?”

“Yes it was.  It was a shootout that took place on the mountain
Kebnekaise
, in Sweden.  I don’t know what the situation will entail completely, but it will involve some sharp shooting, and the terrain will be snowy and mountainous if they can make the arena as such.
”

“They can.  They are able to do a lot with the arena for these games.  That’s certainly not good for us though, as the yellow team has many sharpshooters on their team.  They will have the advantage in that area.  We might have the advantage in the snow though, since we can be ready for it.  We’ll just have to tell
the team to be ready for this.”

“Actually, I’d rather we remain the only two that know ahead of time.  I don’t want the school changing the situation due to our having figured it out.  I intend to ke
ep this advantage, and use it.”

“But what good is this information if we aren’t using it ahead of time to get ready?”  Duke had stopped walking and was looking at Donny with genuine curiosity.  He was right; it does no good at all if they are
not
able to do
something with the information.

“I suppose we’ll have to get them ready, without letting them know what we’re getting them ready for.”  They were now arriving at the arena, where a few of their players were already waiting, so the conversation was forced to end.  Donny nodded in greeting to his players, and then left Duke to make small talk with them while he walked right by, and did not stop until he
reached the supply room.  He gathered as many paintball guns as he could carry, and finding the temperature controls for the arena, turned it down a few degrees.
 

Once the rest of the team arrived, Donny led them into the arena to begin.  “This practice will be fairly simple.  The yellow team has been doing substantial practice on their shooting ability, and I want us to be ready just in case we need to do any shooting.  Today we will start with a little target practice, then we will spli
t up and do a paintball match.”

Donny set the team up in lines, and pointed out spots on the wall for them to shoot at.  He gave different color paintballs to each person in each line, so it could be distinguished who was hitting near the target, and who was far off.  They next moved on to moving targets, where a few students would go out and run around a certain area, and others would fire at them.  Donny was disappointed at how few were able to hit the moving targets, but there was positive information to be gained here as well.  It was clearly more difficult to hit a target t
hat was weaving back and forth.

When it came time to play a match, Donny decided to mix it up a little.  He split the team into six groups instead of two, and told them that the last team standing would win.  As usual, Donny and Duke went up onto the catwalk to get a bird’s eye view of the proceedings.  The match began as a free for all, with each team shooting at anyone who came near.  One team had the strategy of running off and hiding, waiting for the other groups to whittle each other down.  Donny was relieved when he saw that strategy was beginning to form, and fewer shots began to correspond with more successful hits.  Two teams called a truce, and began to take the advantage over the rest.  Three others formed up to combat those two, and it quickly became a two way battle, with the hiding team still remaining on the sidelines.  The two who had aligned early had picked off too many of the others for them to respond with sufficient force, and the two way
alliance was able to hold the upper hand.  As the last member from the three-way alliance was hit, the shooter found
himself
receiving a paintball in his back.  The alliance had been broken, and the two teams were firing quickly at each other.  As their numbers got low, the hiding team stepped out, and with a few quick shots, finished off the former alliance.  Donny and Duke made their way back down to talk a
bout what had just taken place.

“Ok, what did we learn from this?”  Donny asked.  He had seen many things to note, but he want
ed to know what they saw first.

“Hiding is a good strategy,” o
ne of the members of the h
iding team declared with pride.

“I hope that’s not what you learned
,”
Donny responded.  “Instead, I think it would be better to say that hiding can be a good strategy in the right situation.  If your enemies are fighting amongst themselves, then yes, waiting for them to beat each other is a fantastic strategy.  I think it would always be better to beat your enemies without fighting if tha
t’s a possibility.  What else?”

“The alliances worked well,” s
upplied a girl from the tw
o way alliance.

“Mostly,” a
dded the boy who had been the first betraye
d with a paintball to the back.

“I agree; I feel like the alliance gave a solid advantage.  The timing also played a role, as the two team alliance was able to hold the advantage even after the other three formed together, since
they were too slow in forming.”

“I think it’s also good to note that it’s worth taking the time to aim.  Firing rapidly at a moving target doesn’t seem to work as well as taking a moment and hitting them with your first or second shot.  And less reloads ar
e needed with this method too.”

Donny had
not
noticed this, but it made sense, and when he remembered what he had seen, he did recall seeing more success come from those who paused before each shot.  “Good, I think that’s a great observation.
  Now let’s try something new.”

Donny kept the same teams, but this time he paired them up to face each other.  In this way, each team had one team who they were facing, and the rest
of the teams could be ignored.

This match began slower than the previous one, as the teams were beginning to plan and try out different methods of attack.  The match remained as three individual battles, until the boy who had been betrayed in the previous match caught sight of the one who had betrayed him.  Despite being in two different pairings, he could not resist a little payback.  In this way, two new teams began to fire at each other.  The grudge match ended with large losses to each team.  The match split off into three games again, but then alliances began to form once more, and surprise attacks began to take place, where teams would find themselves under fire by a group that should have nothing to do with them, unaware that the team attacking them had become allies with their foe.  When the match ended, Donny found it interesting that the three who had come out on top the previous time were the t
hree who had been beaten first.

“Interesting match, but one quick question that I must ask; who won the matchup between groups five and six?”
  Donny
asked as he reached the groups.

“We did, team five,” r
esponded one student, who had a bi
g yellow paint spot on his arm.

“Where are your survivors?”

“Well, we don’t have any survivors any more, but team six was beaten first.  We lost the rest duri
ng an unrelated battle.”

Donny found it humorous how it was being referred to as an ‘unrelated battle’, but he kept his expression serious.  “Your battle was over, but the match continued.  If neither team sur
vives, then neither team wins.”

Donny could see they were not happy with this idea, but he needed them to remember the point of their situation.  They need to remember the end goal when they are in the games, and so h
e has to keep them focused now.

“Another thing that I have to bring attention to is which two groups were eliminated first.  They’re the same two groups who got into a grudge match.  This is not a coincidence.  There should have only been one team to fight, but you each elected to give yourselves two, leaving each of you with a huge disadvantage.  As for positive elements from the match, everyone seems to be getting better with their aim, and the alliances once
again proved a valuable plan.”

Donny and Duke ran a few more situations, now splitting the team into two groups, and facing them off against each other, in order to better resemble a real match.  After several hours, Donny realized his team did not have the endurance he had.  Donny wanted to go all night, because every match showed him something new, but he realized his teams were getting tired, and he
could not
afford for them to hurt themselves.  He called them in for
one last piece of information.

“Ok, great practice today team.  One last thing before we go.  Whenever you all talk about this practice, or say anything about each other’s sharpshooting ability, I want it understood that everything said has the opposite meaning.  Therefore, if you think someone was particularly good, I want you to say they stunk, and if you think someone needs a lot of work, praise them as one of the better on the team.  Also, I don’t want any of you talking directly to another team member about how each other did.  I don’t want any of you walking up to each other and telling
each other they did terrible jobs at practice.  Only discuss other team members.  Let’s have an example.  Duke, how
would you say Flash did today?”

“Well, I’d say her aim was one of the worst on the team, an
d she was clearly easy to hit.”

The team began to chuckle at this, and Flash crossed her arms in mock anger.  “Well we all know you are the worst one here, Duke.  Honestly, you’re probably
as likely to shoot yourself than
anyone else.”  Smiles and low lau
ghs were circling all over now.