Chapter 10: Freeze

Fletch walked to his battle station, which appeared to be a much different arena than the one he had last used. His opponent, Dean, was already there, waiting patiently. " Bout time!" He said as Fletch approached. The Venture Commanders team had a reputation for having good sportsmanship, so Dean held his hand out to shake Fletch's, "I'm Dean"

Fletch shook his hand, "Fletch"

"All right. Let's do this, then." They both dove into the holoseum, and the battle commenced.

Fletch knew that the Venture Commanders were known for using Metal Grappler models, so Dean would be much harder to damage than Tyler had, as well as difficult to knock down. On top of that, the battle would be even more difficult without Kip and Jay there to help him. He decided on a more damaging and defensive customization. He shifted through his very limited weapon options, wishing he had a Dragon gun or at least a Sniper. His bombs left something to be desired, too, and his list of available pods was even smaller. He was at a complete loss for powerful weapons, so the strategy he was initially planning couldn't possibly be executed.

His thoughts then came to rest on a weapon he had only recently acquired, but had never used: his Freeze bomb. Even with the stability ratings of all the Metal Grapplers, they couldn't prevent the effects of freezing. He was about to select it as left-hand weapon, but reconsidered and put it in his right. He chose a Vertical gun for his left hand, being well known for its knockdown power. He had a Diving pod, which was a pretty strong weapon, so he chose it for his pod. He deeply wished he had one of the two existing freeze pods, but he had neither, so he had to work with limited options. He confirmed his customization and entered the holoseum.

This time, Fletch's cube was the first to activate, but Dean's still-cubed Robo wasn't in plain sight. Still, Fletch knew the properties of his Vertical gun, so he shakily raised it in his left hand and fired it straight up on the air. The blasts' homing abilities took over and arched downward over a very small wall to his right and hit Dean's cube, activating it in a disabled state. Dean recovered extremely quickly, though, and stood up, seeming undamaged and unfazed. Fletch took note that Dean used a dark blue Metal Bear model. Before Fletch could react, Dean had raised his arm and Fletch was hit by a super-speedy Sniper blast.

The shot was quicker than any other weapon he had seen before. He was knocked back and down with a single shot, and was hit by another as he was busy reactivating. The second his computer was reactivated, he made a quick jump behind the cover of another wall, barely avoiding being hit by another sniper shot. From there, he deployed his two Diving pods over the wall. He heard Dean snipe one out of the air, and Fletch immediately stood up and fired a freeze bomb across the arena. Dean had already fired another Sniper shot at the second pod, so he couldn't stop Fletch's bomb with another because his gun took so long to reload. His Robo was too slow to dodge, so he could do nothing but get hit. The bomb did barely any damage, but froze Dean where he stood temporarily.

Fletch rested his left arm on the wall he was behind so as to make it easier to control his aim. He fired several vertical shots across the holoseum, all of which hit Dean dead on. He fired another volley of verticals, but before they hit, Dean unfroze and sniped Fletch in the face, causing his computers to overload and his second wave of vertical shots to vanish.

Fletch fell back behind the wall, only a third of his original energy left. However, his energy decreased even more as a Standard-X bomb arched over the wall and exploded near Fletch's downed Robo. Fletch reactivated and came to a ducking position behind the wall. The size of Dean's Robo gave him away as he walked heavily across the holoseum. Fletch heard his every step, and just as Dean was about to turn the corner around the wall, Fletch fired a Freeze bomb at his opponent's feet, freezing him again. Quickly, Fletch stood and dashed towards Dean. He slammed into him as hard as he could, but Dean's Robo was built like a tank. He couldn't knock him away, but Fletch was a little bit stunned by the recoil.

As a last attack while Dean was still frozen, Fletch jumped straight up and thrust both of his feet forward for a kick while at the same time activating the descent augmentation feature on his standard legs. The powerful blast-kick knocked Dean over, disabled again, and Fletch recovered by backflipping off of the impact. Before Dean could get up again, Fletch fired his Vertical gun again, shaky as always with his left hand, but still somewhat accurate, which finished off the last of Dean's energy.

They both came back to reality, and Dean was still maintaining his sportsman-like mood. He congratulated Fletch, but seemed somewhat disturbed. He said, "That was weird. I've never had a battle go by so quickly with my high defense."

Fletch hadn't realized it until then, but the battle i had /i gone by really fast.

Dean shrugged, "Maybe time just seems to fly when you're battling," and walked back to his team. Fletch did the same.

Jay was again dozing on the sofa, but opened one eye as Fletch approached and said, "Good job again." He then closed his eye back and resumed his subconsciousness.

"Thanks," Fletch said, unsure if Jay had heard him before falling back to sleep.

Tyson and Kip congratulated him as well, but sounding like they had expected him to win.

Kip smiled at him again, looking at him, but seemed a bit more cheery than usual. Fletch expected her to say something as a remark to her good mood, but when she was silent, he inquired, "What?"

She kept smiling, and indicated the tournament bracket, "We're up next."

Fletch looked at the data for his next opponent:

Name: Kip

Age: 17

Team: Spearhand

Kip was hysterically exited all over, "I get to test how well you've learned!"

Fletch said, "No matter what happens, though, we're still friends."

"Right! And no holding back either."

"I won't if you won't."

"I promise."

They were both quiet for a while. Jay was dozing silently, as always, and Tyson seemed to be doing the same. The tournament bracket neared their battle, and Fletch noticed that the only remaining commander on the board from Darclaw was Ronnie. Ronnie had beaten Wade in the second round, who had beaten Otto in the first, and Fletch knew that if he was going to win the chip, he would have to face Ronnie. And according to the board, that wouldn't happen until the final battle of the tournament.

Fletch sighed upon realization, and looked around. He tried to start a conversation, "Jay sure sleeps a lot, doesn't he?"

Kip eyed him in question, "Sleep?"

Jay opened his eyes, looked at Fletch, and echoed Kip's question, "Yeah, 'Sleep?'"

"Well, you do," Fletch said.

Jay closed his eyes and resumed his dozing position, "I don't sleep."

"Then what's that you're doing now?"

Kip said, "He's not sleeping when he does that. He's using his power. He's looking at battles, seeing who's winning, and reading people's thoughts."

"Oh," Fletch said.

"Like I said," Jay said, "I don't sleep"

"This just keeps getting weirder and weirder," Fletch sighed. The silence retook the scene, and Kip and Fletch continued waiting for their battle to be announced. They were sure it would be fun for the both of them, but it only seemed that way beforehand.