Chapter 2: A Grave Mistake
[I can't say I have,] said Shizuma—or rather Y4m1. [Sorry I interrupted your little conversation.]
[Shizuma,] I said, [you don't have to apologize to me; apologize to the person you just knocked out of the server.]
[Oh yeah, right. I might as well. Anyway, it was nice seeing you again, Sasuke. Yukari told me to say hi to you for her.]
[Tell her I said hi as well.]
[I will. You should contact her sometime. See you later.]
[Goodbye.]
With that, Y4m1 left the server, leaving me with nothing to do.
"Well, I suppose that's enough action for me today," I thought. "I'll just leave some for tomorrow."
Without saying another word, I left the server and logged out for the rest of the day.
…
A few days later, I was challenged to a 2-minute time match with a blue palette Ike player. The stage we fought on was Pirate Ship: a cartoon style sailing ship in the middle of a vast ocean.
We took our starting positions at opposite ends of the ship. Knowing that Ike is much slower than Marth but has superior range, I moved in cautiously but aggressively, striking the player with a midair Dancing Blade. He came back at me with a forward air attack, but missed as I landed and sidestepped. I hit with another Dancing Blade, this time knocking him skyward, and followed up with a tipped up air attack, propelling him further. He tried to dive bomb me with Aether, but again missed as I rolled behind him and smote him with a tipped side smash. He flew to the other end of the stage, where I met his Quick Draw recovery with Counter. I then delivered a tipped down air attack, sending him deep into the water, where he sank beneath the bow of the ship and was KO'd.
The Ike player respawned and hit me with a vicious down air attack, driving me down to the deck. I quickly got up as he landed and rather foolishly tried to hit him with a side smash, but he sidestepped and countered with two jabs followed by a partially charged up smash that I failed to nullify with Counter. I sailed high into the air and disappeared over the horizon as a star.
I respawned and charged at the Ike player, hitting him with a neutral air attack that he failed to sidestep. He hit me with a standard combo, knocking me back, but as he tried to follow up with a Quick Draw, I invoked Counter and catapulted him away. I rushed towards him and struck him with two forward air attacks and a down air attack.
"5…" blared the video game announcer's voice.
The Ike player recovered with Aether, knocking me out of the air.
"4…"
He got back on the stage as I hopped back towards him.
"3…"
He tried to invoke his own Counter as I prepared to impale him with Shield Breaker.
"2…"
Just as his Counter ended, I unleashed my attack and stabbed him, sending him careening out of the stage.
"1…"
He sailed out of the border and was blasted away in a pillar of white light.
"Time!"
In the end, the score was close, but…
"The winner is…Marth," said the video game announcer.
"Well played," I said.
The Ike player said nothing as he left the server. I wondered what Y4m1 had been up to since I had seen him a few days before and debated whether or not I should send him an invite. No sooner had I decided not to after checking his online status—offline—than a green palette Lucario player dropped in.
[Oh, hello,] I said in my native Japanese.
The player said nothing.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I have a habit of doing that," I said in English. "Hello."
Again, the player said nothing.
"Excuse me, but do you have a microphone?"
The player sent me a message, saying "No."
"I see. I am Senshi. What is your name?"
The player sent me another message, this one with the word, grave.
"Why are you here?"
The player sent me another message. "I challenge u."
"I accept. 3 stock, Final Destination, no items."
I set the rules and changed the stage on the server to Final Destination, a massive platform suspended in the middle of deep space.
We took our starting positions on each side of the platform and prepared for battle. Seeing grave's player card, I guessed she—yes, you do have to show your gender—was a highly experienced player like myself, so I approached cautiously as she charged her Aura Sphere. Once I was close enough, I used a forward air attack to swat her away. She rolled behind me and countered with a standard combo. I came back around with a Dancing Blade, catching her off guard. Suddenly, hordes of Bob-ombs started appearing out of nowhere and wandering around, trying to blow the two of us up.
"What's going on? I thought u said no items," said a message from grave.
"I did," I replied. "I didn't do this, honestly."
At that moment, a Bob-omb walked into me and exploded, catapulting me into the air. Another Bob-omb did the same to grave, and a third appeared right over her head, landing on her and blasting her out of the stage.
"What's going on?" I thought as a fourth Bob-omb blew me out of the stage. "Who could be doing this?"
We both respawned and tried to resume fighting each other, all the while dodging Bob-ombs left and right, but it was all in vain. Eventually, there were so many Bob-ombs on the stage that the server crashed. Needless to say, grave wasn't happy.
"I'm leaving," she said in a final message.
And leave she did. I decided to report this mishap to the server admins, hoping that they would eventually rectify the problem.
