Another Rocket. Another Zombie blown to pieces. Largo looked around, eyes and ears alert for signs of the enemy. Nothing in the vicinity. A Ph34rbot moved past him further down the alley Largo was walking through. The L33t Master was careful with his trigger finger - he didn't want to blast his own forces. But the Ph34rbot was soon coming straight back at him in pieces after meeting with the 3v1l 0n3's Energy Blasts. Spotting a glimpse of his arch-nemesis, Largo was running now, ignoring the remnants of his 'robot'.

He ducked the first blue ball of destruction and plastered himself to the wall to avoid the next, all the while closing the distance to his target. Largo began loading up the numerous barrels of his Rocket Launcher, focussing on jumping at the right moment. He was close now, too close for the 3v1l 0n3 to safely continue attacking him without the risk of catching herself in the explosions. When the decisive moment came, he leapt and turned his weapon towards the direction where it would fire to hit the 3v1l 0n3 as soon as the 6th rocket entered its chamber. As he had calculated, the barrage of rockets were auto-released at the exact moment he had anticipated, heading slightly downward so that they couldn't be ducked nor jumped easily without any injury. But all that the warheads hit was the ground, with a striking lack of 3v1l presense getting in their way.

The L33t Master barely had time to ponder over how the 3v1l 0n3 had disappeared from sight when she had been in a branching, narrow alleyway when he felt a searing pain in his back. Too late! Largo's body crumpled after taking too much punishment for even his high tolerance for physical damage. Miho stood over his corpse. A slight grin emerged on her face. With satisfaction, she picked up the Rocket Launcher and walked past the scorch marks where her arch-nemesis had erroneously unleashed his rockets.

But what was this? Miho whirled as she heard footsteps behind her. Yet there was no-one. The footsteps grew louder and realisation came to her at the same time Largo leapt down from the rooftops and fired a maximum-charged Biosludge glob. Miho jumped back to avoid the deadly green goo that splashed everywhere, but this meant she put distance between herself and Largo - using the Minigun's secondary fire-mode would be inefficient. By this time, Largo had pulled out a Sniper Rifle and put a bullet through Miho's head before she could react non-instinctively. Though not unscathed, Largo could still move and he retrieved the 3v1l 0n3's Minigun.

"Hah! I told you you'd be dead once I respawned!" Largo said with a smug tone in his voice.

"Very nice use of the Translocator," Miho conceded, "collecting those 2 weapons and getting to my position so quickly from that respawn point."

"Not bad yourself translocating to the other alleyway of that T-junction, just waiting for me to leap in showing my back."

Largo came across a group of "Zombie" bots on Miho's side standing guard over one of the Control Points of the Domination Map they were in, made to resemble the streets of MegaTokyo.

The messages flashed across Largo's screen as he took care of each Bot in turn with his Sniper Rifle whilst dodging whatever they could throw at him.

Control Point [Anna Miller's] is now controlled by Blue Team

"W00T!" Largo shouted in triumph.

Miho frowned. "You know we shouldn't be in here at this time. Keep it down!"

"You're just annoyed your zombie defenders were 0wnzed so easily!" Largo taunted, though much quieter.

"Say what?" Miho asked amused. Largo did not respond verbally.

The 2 hardcore gamers were separated by a pair of monitors placed back to back. Their faces illuminated by their screens in the dark, large computer labs of Shiritsu Daitou High School. The curtainless windows let in the little light there was of the late evening outside. Equipped with headphones, keyboards and mice, the pair were fragging it out in the Domination map they had worked together on. It was a condensed version of various parts of Megatokyo with 4 Control Points. Both had had a chance beforehand to familiarise themselves with the map thoroughly. Now they were playing against each other with relatively incompetent bots as teammates. They kept the volume at a reasonable level, so that they could hear the in-game footsteps clearly yet could talk quietly with each other - chatting was inefficient when you could talk, even for hardcore gamers.

Largo's "Ph34rbot" bots were assaulting a Control Point, meeting strong resistance from the 3v1l 0n3's "Zombies". The 2 PCs were too busy locked in another 1-on-1 duel with ASMD Shock Rifles and Pulse Guns. Trading deadly green and blue energy, the pair dodged the incoming projectiles and tried to move unpredictably. Neither moved close enough to use the "Lightning Gun" mode of the Pulse Gun; nor were they risking to shoot the ASMD secondary fire, knowing that the other could shoot it and kill them with the purple shockwave if they shot early enough - certainly they couldn't hope for the shots to reach the other at the distances they were at and the marksmenship they possessed.

Conrol Point [1 Yen Arcade] is now controlled by Blue Team

"This fight isn't worthy of my attention on this map. Bye now!" Miho said as she activated her translocator.

Largo knew this was true, though he suspected it was also to do with him landing an ASMD ray on target whilst she couldn't. Now was not the time for such thoughts though, he had to recapture those other Control Points to catch up on points.

Largo jumped back into the alleyway as he dodged the spray of bullets a Zombie shot on seeing him emerge into the main street. Switching to his favourite - the Rocket Launcher, the L33t Master fired 2 grenades and sidestepped back into cover before Miho's bot could react. As the explosions went off, Largo ran into the fray with a further 2 rockets shooting forward. He brought out his Flak Cannon as he saw the Zombie had been dispatched of, allowing him free entry into the building that was a simplification of MegaGamers. The lone zombie inside was soon dispatched of.

Control Point [MegaGamers] is now controlled by Blue Team

3v1l 0n3 ripped a piece of meat out of L33t Master with the Ripper

Control Point [MegaGamers] is now controlled by Red Team

"Wh4t the..." Largo breathed.

Miho's trap had worked. She had awaited in prone position by Feinting Death on top of the building. When she saw that Zombie Ranger (whom she had assigned to defend inside) had been killed, she got up and leapt down to spray the building inside with rebounding razors. One of them hit the L33t Master on the neck, allowing her to recapture the Control Point with ease.

Miho made way towards her school on the DOM map. She kept to the shady paths, cautiously making the most out of cover whilst seeking out MediPacks. Largo had managed to hit her with most of the shrapnel from the one Flak Cannon shot he could make before he died. It had hurt her health badly and rebuilding the arsenal she now had would take precious time.

The dumb, unsuspecting bots went down easily to the fatal Ripper Headshots Miho pulled off. Zombie Trooper had been covering her - that meant Largo was nearby. She hid and feinted death. Sure enough, the L33t Master ran past a second later. She saw him fire his Translocator beacon up high to where it would be hard to spot. She waited for him to move away before making her move. Taking her own Translocator, she teleported to the top of the ledge and grabbed her Pulse Gun. With the 2nd mode, she maintained the green ray on the blue beacon until it no longer gave off a healthy glow.

Miho changed course and followed Largo to where she expected him to go - the 1 Yen Arcade. She stalked him as he started walking when he got near the building. She heard him loading up his Rocket Launcher as he approached a corner. But instead of firing ahead at her Zombies, 6 grenades bounced off the wall in front of him and headed straight back to her as Largo ran forward towards her defenders.

You killed 3v1l 0n3

Control Point [1 Yen Arcade] is now controlled by Blue Team

The messages flashed across Largo's screen. He only took note of the first one with satisfaction.

"What? How did you know I was there?" Miho exclaimed.

"I heard your Pulse Gun behind me. So I turned around a bit more around one of those corners and sure enough, saw your ribboned avatar briefly at the corner of my screen."

3v1l 0n3 telefragged L33t Master!

"Too bad you didn't realise what I was shooting at." Miho smirked. "Look behind you next time!"

The game eventually ended with Miho winning by a slight margin: 300 vs 294. Too close for any real bragging rights. After playing against each other so many times, such matters didn't matter anyway.

"It's getting late." Miho commented.

"Running away with your victory?" Largo mockingly said. He knew she was right and he had learnt to acknowledge that they would both need to do work for school tomorrow - homework for her (no matter how easy it was she still had to do it) and lesson preparation for him (again, no matter how 'flexible' he was, he needed to get things ready).

"We'll carry this on tomorrow, perhaps you might want to invite Piro over this time?"

"I'll talk to him about it."

During that conversation, they started removing all traces of their activity. From uninstalling the games to editing the logs. Suddenly they heard voices - it would be... awkward to have to explain anything if they happened to look inside.

"Quick! Hide whilst I deal with them!" Miho said as she snapped her head towards the source.

"I will leave through d4 w1nd0w. See j00 at d4 3ntranc3!" Largo said in response as he finished his side of post-gaming clean up and switched off the computer. Before she could stop him, he had jumped out of the 1st floor window and managed to land without breaking any bones after the 3 metre drop. All Miho could do was to shut the window and get back to her chair to finish with the LAN log.

Miho found Largo waiting for her as she walked out of Shiritsu Daitou High School's front gate.

"So who were those people we heard outside the computer labs?" Largo asked.

"A couple of students who were picking up some books they forgot to take home. Nothing spectacular."

They walked the familiar path towards the junction where they would have to separate.

"So how's your 'drinking partner' doing these days?" Miho started light conversation as they went down the road.

"Erika? She's her usual self. The other day, she gave me a severe beating after our dinner at the Sea of Illumination." Largo casually said.

"Again? I'm surprised you were fit enough to play so well today." She didn't sound that surprised.

"Ah, she hasn't given me any broken bones lately. Just a set of bruises." Largo was beginning to learn what Erika didn't want to hear/see. It was an unusually slow learning process for his otherwise brilliant mind. But he was making progress (though even slower than Piro and Kimiko) and he was growing onto her. He was a refreshing break from all the other people she dealt with stoically.

"That and your uncanny ability to forget and heal."

"Where's that PS2 Accessory? She's always with you."

"She does have a name you know." Miho said with the slightest hint of annoyance. That was one area Largo still had to learn. "Ping-chan is with your Erika-san today, getting some of her good advice." Miho knew it was good. She'd benefited from many a talk with Erika herself. "She's growing more like a real girl by the day. You really should try to see her as a person instead of a machine."

"What do you suggest I do?"

"Why not let her join our gaming session tomorrow?"

"I can accept that."

"Ok, you just bring Piro-kun over to my place whilst Ping-chan and I set everything up."

"Not the school?"

"Too risky for 4. Don't worry, so long as Piro-kun brings his laptop, we can all play together."

"J00're on! 2v2 Deathmatch!"

"My place at 6. Don't forget to remind Piro-kun to check his appointments first!"

"I will. Need to drag his w33py a55 back to some good old gaming now and then. I will purge your 3v1l tomorrow!"

"You think you can beat me that easily?"

"We shall see after our cl4ss!"

"See you at school then, Largo-'sensei'."

With that, they parted ways at the junction, both scheming of how they would beat the other's team...

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