The Games Villains Play (9 page)

“I guess it’s like I’m losing a part of myself, but
I feel like it’s still there.”

Donny simply nodded.  Michael took off his backpack, but remained slumped over.  With a sigh, Michael turned around and went back into his room.

IT WAS TWO
weeks before Donny called another practice for the simulation games team.  It had been a tough two weeks; Donny missed having Jay around, and he was getting frustrated by the lack of communication from the arena visitor.  The visitor had said they would keep in touch, but Donny had heard nothing from them since then.
 

The visitor’s instructions proved easier to accomplish than Donny had imagined, however.  Donny was told to keep learning, which was a natural thing for Donny to do, as engrossing himself in his studies was one of the few things that got his mind off of the situation at hand.  Now, two weeks later, his studies were losing their power to hold him, as he had somehow managed to catch up completely in his classes.  The simulation games training should be able to d
istract him better, he decided.

Arriving at the arena, Donny almost smiled to see Lenny standing next to the door, waiting.  He looked almost like a computer who had powered down; his eyes were aimed at the ground, but held little evidence of actually looking at it, and his head was slumped slightly forward.  Donny wondered what he could be thinking about.  Lenny was the one friend who had truly been a comfort throughout the past two weeks.  Donny could tell that Lenny was sad about Jay, but Lenny never tried to comfort Donny, or talk down to him as if he were a child who had just become an orphan.  When the topic came up, Lenny looked troubled just like everyone else, but as soon as the topic changed Lenny quickly moved on.  Sometimes Donny wondered if Lenny
were actually not dumb as everyone thought, but rather too brilliant to be understood.  He did
not
actually believe t
his, but it was fun to imagine.

The next to arrive were Michael and
Zahrah
.  Donny had actually seen very little of them recently; they sat together twice early on, while they happened to be the dining hall at the same time, but the meals were each just one long awkward silence, and after the second time they just started eating apart.  Donny was glad to see them nevertheless.
 

Others came interspersed.  The practice was scheduled to begin at 1600 hours, and Donny waited until 1610, despite his reservations about allowing people to show up late.  The problem was that many of his top players never showed up.  Duke was the last to arrive, getting there right at 1600.  At 1610 it was Duke who chose to end the wait.  “Donny, I think we c
an get started.”

“Where is everyone else?”  He asked.
 

“I don’t think they’re coming.  Some of the other captains reoffered spots to some of your players, and many accepted.  I’m sorry Donny, I vouched for them, but I guess they were following Decathlon
all along.”

“It’s not your fault, you didn’t desert us.  How were the other captains able to offer spots?  I thought they
had full teams chosen already?”

“Most did.  A few had a spot they were still figuring out, but most just told their youngest players tough lu
ck, and gave their spots away.”

“That’s terrible.  Do you think the players who
were rejected can be trusted?”

“I think so, but I haven’t really looked into it, so I can’t say for su
re.  You want to recruit them?”

“Of course I do.  Look around, most of the people here are young and inexperienced.  They also lack the enthusiasm they used to have.  The drive to win is lost on them, and I can only imagine the drive those who were kicked off of their teams would have to beat the team that rejected
them.”

“Well, as far as this team being young and inexperienced, I’m sorry to say that those we would be recruiting would not improve that situation by much.  But you’re right, they would be some good players to have, and with the way we look now, I’d say we need some more decent players.  I’ll look into it, and get
back to you as soon as I can.”

“No, I don’t want to waste the time on our talking it over.  Look into it, and if you think they would be good for the team, you have permission to offer for them to jo
in us.  I trust your judgment.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t, after the
last set I gave my opinion on…”

“Nevertheless I still do.  Besides, many stuck around.  Had I chosen the team by myself I’m sure I would h
ave nobody left at this point.”

Duke gave a half smile and said no more. 
It’s a whole new game now.
  Donny thought.  He moved to stand in front of the door to the arena, and addre
ssed the crowd in front of him.

“Look around.  This is your team now.  You all knew we would be going on without my brother, but now you can see that we have lost many more.  Anyone who does not wish to compete with this team, you are free to leave.  When we walk into the arena, just turn around and walk back to the school.  There will be no hurt feelings.  For those who wish to stay, I want you to know that I still plan to win these games.  Our strategy will need to change, but we can still show this school something new, and show the other teams that we are a force to be reckoned with.  We, as a team, can do this.”

Donny paused in his speech.  There were no smiles in the crowd, and he doubted than many of them believed him.  One of the first year students who had previously been on the practice team raised her hand.  Donny nodded to her t
hat she could ask her question.

“I was wondering, have you already decided who would be moving onto the main team to fill the open spots?”  The other practice team members looked around at each other, nodding in agreement over t
heir desire to know the answer.

“Yes, all of you are filling t
he open spots
,”
Donny replied.

A few of the students looked at him excitedly, but most just looked around at the group.  He knew what they were thinking,
how can we all fill the spots?  Teams can only have 21 people?
  Donny responded before the questio
ns surfaced.

“I realize teams normally are only 21 heroes strong, and that I can only bring 21
total
into any one of the simulation games, but that doesn’t mean we are not allowed to have more than 21.  We lost our old advantages, so we need something new.  We are going to break up into groups, and the groups that compete in the games will change depending on who we face.  For example, some of you may be designated to orange and black.  That means your team needs to research the orange and black teams, and be ready to counter anything they could throw at us.  Be creative, and think of general strategies of how we could attack them, and how we can defend from them.  We won’t know the situation of the game, but we know we will be pit up against the other team in some fashion, and so we c
an at least be ready for that.”

Donny could not tell if they were in favor of this plan or not.  He could not blame them if they thought the plan was poorly thought up, because in fact he had made the whole idea up on the spot.  He had not given any thought at all to who would fill the empty spots, because up until
a few moments ago he thought there would only be one spot to fill.  Nevertheless, he liked the plan that had fallen so suddenly out of his mouth, and he would stick
with it.

They went into the arena, and to Donny’s relief he did not lose any more players.  None of them had taken up his offer for them to leave.  Once inside, Donny divided them into groups and gave them the teams they each would research.  He decided to keep the groups small, and gave each group just one team to follow.  It would be much more reasonable for them to find out about 21 players than 42, and allowing them to focus on just one team would make sure no team got overlooked in the pursuit of the other.  Once the groups were formed, Duke gave a quick talk describing different strategies of how to gain information, and how to distinguish truth from rumors.
 

Donny could see that Duke’s talk excited many of them, so he built on that excitement, by allowing them to immediately get together with their groups and begin making plans.  Donny walked around from group to group, and told each group of their specific importance.  “The blue team is strong this year, and it is up to you to make sure we are ready for them.  They have weaknesses, so find them.”  Once he felt convinced one group understood the importance of their job to the whole team, he would go on to the next group.  “The brown team is strong this year, and it is up to you to make sure we are re
ady for them…”

Once Donny had made his rounds and spoken with all the groups, he knew it was time they did something physical.  The last thing he wanted was for the games to come around and his team to be out of shape.  Donny started out by sending them all out to run around the perimeter of the arena.  In order to slow down the Hermes, he made them carry heavy backpacks full of supplies from the supply closet.  When the Hermes’ still finished far ahead of the rest, he made them take the supplies out of the backpack, and carry them all in their hands while everyone ran
a second lap.  This proved more effective; the supplies may not have been heavy enough to inhibit them, but the need to awkwardly carry a pile of supplies without dropping them caused the grou
p to run at a more normal pace.

By the end of the run, practice had already been going on for quite some time, with most of the time having been spent on their early discussions.  With a reminder to begin their investigations, he dismissed the team for the night.

CHAPTER 8

IT WAS A
while before Donny could be alone in the arena.  Despite having dismissed his team, many of them stuck around to chat with each other.  Even though Donny was looking forward to having the arena to
himself
, he could not be upset at his team for this, especially since most of the talk involved plans or jokes about how they would get information on the other teams.  Finally the room cleared
out, and Donny could be alone.

The arena had become the only place where Donny could have any degree of comfort.  With his knowledge of the school’s real purpose, accompanied by his lack of knowledge of the whereabouts of his brother, everywhere he went he was reminded of how little power he had to do anything.  The arena was the only exception, as he had thus far only spent time in the arena in a position of control, where he was in charge of a large group of children who wished to become soldiers.  It was a false power, he knew, as it was a power given to him by his enemy the school, but he still felt like he could use that power to his advantage somehow.
 

Donny lay on his back and looked up at the domed ceiling above
himself
.  He allowed his thoughts to wander for a while, thinking about Jay, about the school, wondering how it had started in the first place, and if it was begun with good intentions, or was evil from the start.  He thought about the curvature of the ceiling, about the lights shining down from under the catwalk.  He realized the catwalk ran in columns from one door of the arena to the other, with connections every few dozen feet (he would have to remember this, as it would allow them to maintain orientation by simply looking up).
 

Once he could not keep his thoughts away any longer, he thought about the stranger, who had told him Jay was alright.  He had spent many hours already pouring over all possibilities of
who it could have been, and finally he had reached the only conclusion that made any sense at all; he did
not
know them.  Everyone he knew had their own ideas of what the most important thing at the time was, and Donny
could not
believe that any of them were hiding the knowledge of the school’s truth while still pursuing the goals they made so evident to cherish. 
But I know, and I continue.
Donny thought. 
But still, even I could not stay interested in my own practice.  I called a practice only to make up what to do on the spot.
  Donny hated to admit it, but it was true, he really cared very little about the games now.  He held a practice because that's what he was supposed to do, and it was all he could do.  He did not lie to his team, he really did plan to win, but he planned to do so because it was the only t
hing he had any influence over.

After a while of lying on the arena floor, he felt himself beginning to fall asleep, and decided it better that he head back to his dorm room.  As he neared the exit door, he noticed a letter taped to the door, with a small packet of matches.  He snatched the letter off the door and quickly began to read.

             
Donny,

             
DO
NOT
MOVE.  I could not contact you sooner.  You were being watched, and even still they have cameras on you.  Right here at the door the cameras do not pick you up.  Read the letter right here, then burn it thoroughly in the hole to your left before burying the ashes.  Do NOT attempt to find your brother, or to contact me.  I am working on a plan to help your brother, but he is heavily guarded right now.  You have been wondering what you should
do,
and I will tell you.  Learn as much as you can while the resources are available to you. 
Leave your brother to me – I will contact you if there is anything I need you to do.  My one request, if you are able, would be to win the simulation games.  It just might be the distraction I need.

There was no signature, but Donny did not expect one.  He looked to his left, and sure enough a shallow hole had been dug next to the door.  He knelt down, lit a match, and set the letter on fire.  He held it as long as he could, until the flames began licking his fingers and he was forced to let go.  After the letter burned, he decided to do away with the rest of the evidence, so he lit a second match, and with it lit the whole pack of matches before throwing that as well into the hole.  The dirt lay in a pile nearby, and it was no trouble at all for him to push the dirt into the hole with his foot and stomp it flat.
 

For the first time in two weeks, Donny felt good.  His position changed very little, but at least he was now included.  He knew something was being done.  From this short letter, he now knew he had someone on his side, and they were in a position to know the working of the Academy.  They must be a reader, as they knew what Donny had been wondering silently, and stated this knowledge as fact, instead of speculation.  For better or worse, Donny would follow the lead of this mystery helper.  Donny would learn as much as he could as quickly as he could.

And with everything he had, Donny would make sure he won the simulation games.

THE MORNING CAME
faster than Donny had expected.  He did not return to his dorm room the night before, but instead veered off to the computer room, in order to search through old battle videos between heroes and villains.  He did this in the hopes of coming up with battle strategies that he could use in the games, but in this regard the videos proved quite useless.  It was amazing to Donny that he had never realized how fake the villains were before.  In all the videos, the villains were shown attacking without any sort of plan at all, just rushing at the heroes in
a frenzy
.  The heroes were the ones with a strategy, but it was only the younger, newer heroes that were worth watching.  As the heroes got older, they always seemed to realize that simple sidestepping and minor distractions would work every time.  The new heroes were the more zealous, and would have complex plans to throw o
ff their enemies and trap them.

Despite the inability to find good strategies, he still gained valuable information from what he saw.  The battles tended to be very similar, except that the environments in which they battled changed drastically.  Surprisingly few were held in public places; instead they tended to take place in deserted fields, or forests, or in the desert.  One even took place in the ocean, where a group of villains apparently became pirates, and were intercepted by a boat full of heroes.  The battles almost looked staged, all except for the fighting itself.
 

Donny remembered seeing some of those videos when he was younger on the news, but they had seemed so much more real back then.  Now these videos looked more like they should be videos of simulation games, not genuine battles.  When that thought arrived to Donny, he grabbed some paper and began taking note of the si
tuations of each battle he saw.

Once Donny had a long list made, and noticed that the sun was beginning to stream in through the window, he logged off the computer and walked quickly down to the dining hall.  He had to talk to Duke, and he did not want to wait any longer than he had to, so he positioned
himself so he could see every person who walked in, and waited for Duke to arrive.  The wait was longer than Donny had hoped, but at long last Duke walked through the door.
 

“Duke!”
  Donny called out, with no regard to the attention this gave him, and without allowing Duke to get his food first.  Duke turned, and upon seeing Donny, came over and sat down across from him.
 

“What’s wrong?”  Duke asked, clearly a little worr
ied by Donny’s rushed attitude.

“Nothing, sorry to worry you, I just need to go over somet
hing with you about the games.”

“Ok, would you mind if I got my breakfast first?  Then we can talk while we eat, and
kill two birds with one stone?”

“No problem, but one question before you go.  What were the situations of the simula
tion games last year?”

Duke gave a quizzical look, because Donny should already know what the games had been.  Still, he obliged with an answer.  “Well, for us we started with a game where we were in a forest, and needed to capture an orb from the opponent.  Then we were in a deserted city, firing paintballs at each other, until we could either eliminate
all the
enemy or capture all the buildings.  The third was in the dark, with storage bins all around.  We needed to find something in there, and keep it from the other team for a set amount of time.  The last was in the desert, where we had to catch and im
mobilize all of the opponents.”

Donny circled things on the paper in front of himself as Duke
spoke
, then he turned the sheet around and pushed it over for Duke to see.
 

“What’s this?”  Duke asked.

“It’s a listing of major real world battles between heroes and villains.”
 

Duke was silent for a moment.  He looked down the list, and Donny saw his eyes begin to go wide.  “Does this mean what I think it m
eans?”

“I don’
t know Duke, I’m not a reader.”

“Does this mean…the simulation ga
mes are based on real battles?”

“Yes, I think it does.  Your first battle was a replica of ‘The Rock-Bomb Hunt’, where a group of villains tried to blow up a forest with a small bomb that the heroes had to capture from them and deactivate.  Your second was an early battle, back when they still used guns.  I would guess your battle was copying ‘The Shootout at Old Mill’.  The third would be when the villains tried to trap some heroes in an old warehouse, called ‘The Entrapment in the Warehouse’.  The last was clearly a rem
ake of ‘Battle of the Sahara’.”

“That’s incredible.  I had no idea the Academy was simulating past battles, I always assumed they were making up new situations.  How do you
plan to use this information?”

“Well, I was thinking we could begin our own simulation games, where we set up similar situations and run through what we should do in each case.  We can divide our team in half, and face them against each other.  Maybe we can get lucky during the real games and end up with
a situation we’d already done.”

“We don’t need to get lucky.  We need to find the events that are most likely to be used, and run those with our team.  Come on, I want to see these battles
for myself.”

“Don’t yo
u want to get breakfast first?”

“Forget breakfast, we have planning to do.”

DONNY ARRIVED AT
his classes without having slept for about 28 hours, and without having eaten since lunch the previous day.  It had
not
occurred to him that he had actually missed dinner the night before until he realized how hungry he was getting, but he knew he could eat soon enough.  He kicked himself silently for not getting some food while he wait
ed for Duke at the dining hall.

Donny dove into his studies with a new fervor.  He had started the year with great ambition, but had quickly been grounded by the formidable task of catching up on the early material that he missed.  His ambition had now returned, but this time he understood enough of the early concepts to keep himself afloat.  Advanced Mind Distortion began a topic that particularly caught his attention.  They had begun learning how to “burn” a reader who tried to enter their heads.  Thus far they had learned different techniques for making a Prometheus think they are somewhere they are not, or to mask their thoughts behind other thoughts.  This concept, where they would convince themselves they were burning in order to send those thoughts to the reader, was a new concept, and Donny was thrilled
by the prospect.

With this new technique still fresh in his mind, Donny walked over to the arena to meet Duke.  They had picked out a simulation to try, and they needed to set up for it.  To their distress, they could not figure out how the school managed to set up for the games so fast.  The arena was huge, and somehow the school was able to turn it into a city, a desert, a forest, or any other environment that they needed.  With their time too limited to fill the arena accurately, they decided it was necessary to improvise.
 

The game they chose was something of a scavenger hunt.  Both sides would be trying to locate a certain item.  There would be clues around, but most of the clues would be useless
without other clues to help decipher them.  Each team would need to find the clues for themselves, as well as obtain missing clues from the opponent.  Duke and Donny took anything they could carry out of the storage rooms and scattered them about the arena, placing the clues in as creative of spots as they could think of.  Once they were satisfied, with most clues hidden and a few placed just inside each door to start each team off, the two of them went outside to
wait for the rest of the team.