After the 'incident' at the zoo two days ago, everyone had been a little worried that something was going to break up the vacation and send them all back into being enemies. But after the Major had fallen asleep and hadn't woken up for over thirty six hours, they all doubted that they were going anywhere soon. And so, they all had proceeded to laze about for the past day, doing virtually nothing as they tried to think of something to do. Who knew that someone could get bored on a vacation?
Schrodinger sat on the floor and stared at the ceiling, silently letting Hansa and Seras both paint his toenails. Hansa had absolutely no inkling as to why Schrodinger was letting them do this, or why she even wanted to help Seras paint his toenails. But, seeing as there was this strange urge in the back of her mind telling her to do so, she had sat down and helped. She glanced up at Schrodinger's face, and saw that he had a blank stare in his eyes. Before long, a mass of black shadow appeared on the far wall and deposited a boxers-clothed Alucard onto the couch. He had his arms folded across his chest and an annoyed look on his face.
"Master?" Seras asked, almost surprised by his presence. Alucard simply grunted.
"Vhat happened?" Hansa questioned. Alucard thought briefly before replying coldly.
"Integra kicked me out, all because I peeped while she was taking a shower." Seras flushed bright red and Hansa shrugged. Typical Alucard to go overboard on a joke and get kicked out of his room. It wasn't one of the oddities that Hansa had seen on this vacation, not like that crazy animal fight back at the zoo. But still, Hansa liked this vacation. It wasn't all the boring, much unlike most of the things in her life, such as the Millennium South American headquarters, the army, plans, things of that nature. Sometimes it was just more pleasing to sit around and do what you wanted for a time. She liked it right now, relaxing, nothing to do…peaceful.
"VIDEO GAMES!" Schrodinger roared at the top of his teenage lungs. Everyone stared at him until he sat up, eyes wide with wonder, and looked back at Alucard.
"What?" the ancient vampire asked.
"We need video games!" the cat boy said, disappearing into nothingness. The remaining three looked at each other awkwardly until Schrodinger returned with four Xboxes and sixteen controllers. He disappeared once again, and then reappeared with five black boxes for Xbox Live. He then disappeared for a third time and returned with four copies of Halo3 and several two hundred ft. LAN cables. And after a few moments of staring at his unwired masterpiece, he turned to the other occupants of the room, a glint of insanity in his eyes that would have made the Major as proud as a real father. The cat boy disappeared for a fourth and final time, only to bring Dok back with him. He pointed at the pile of electronics and grinned like a madman. Dok looked at said pile of gaming material, and grinned much in the same way.
The next day, everything was set up in four adjacent rooms. Hansa and Seras's room was the base room and the internet router was duct taped to the ceiling, lights blinking and flashing as the four LAN cables ran from its cable ports to the Xboxes. Said white game boxes hummed in various low tones as electricity powered their cores. Various pieces and components whirred at set intervals as discs of Halo3 were read, currents lined up, visions displayed on the TV screens. The black boxes flashed tiny green lights and transmission frequencies were set for the same network. Controller lights flashed as they were set to their respective Xboxes. Truly, it was a masterpiece orchestrated by some genius…or by two madmen. Either way, it was a sight to behold.
"Vow, I can't believe Dok really just got us all free Xbox Live, all ze new Halo3 maps, und fully customizable Xbox Live icons. Und on top of all zat, you edited Bungie's game cap to thirty two. Vhat in ze hell are you?" Hansa asked, feeling a chill go up her spine. Dok smirked.
"A genius, now ve play Halo!" he announced, plopping down on the couch. Schrodinger and Seras picked up their own controllers. Hansa hesitated before picking up hers, knowing that once the game started, she was going to be hooked until she had won a hundred million times in a row. It had happened before…twice actually. Arms and fingers had been bitten off trying to get her (in her original male form) away from the Xbox.
"I'm going to Pip's room with Integra and Rip. Alhambra, Luke, Jan, and Yumie are in the next room. And across the hall are Anderson, Enrico, Heinkel, and Zorin. I suppose our teams are already set then," Alucard said, slipping beneath the floor and reappearing in the next room. And after everyone's profile had been customized, and everyone had joined Schrodinger's hosted game, they chose the map and set the rules for the game. Schrodinger chose Valhalla, and set the score to one hundred kills with no time limits and no switching teams. The four rooms divided into Red, Blue, Green, and Brown teams and the game started.
Hansa's vision focused entirely on her corner of the large screen as her Spartan appeared. Schrodinger's Brown Team spawned near the pelican and Hansa made a mad dash to the hill in the middle of the map, switching from her magnum to the battle rifle in secondary. Seras followed her, oddly experienced at the game to know where the man-cannons were going to let off their users. Hansa aimed and fired her battle rifle at Enrico, who had used the cliff-base's man-cannon. By the time he hit the ground, Seras had picked him off with her magnum. Gained the lead! was stated on the TV. Hansa took her position on the top of the hill and fired down on Integra, who had used the sea-base's man-cannon with Alucard as backup.
Hansa got Integra's shield down and was then fired upon by both Integra and Alucard at the same time. She ducked behind a nearby boulder and tossed a frag. Integra's red corpse flew through the air and Alucard quickly backed away. Nearby, Schrodinger was in close-quarters combat with Anderson, who had picked up the shotgun near his base. Hansa saw blue plasma streaks tear up the dirt in front of her and switched out her magnum for a Spartan laser on the round. She aimed, waited, and downed Alhambra's batshee. She heard the card man curse from the other room.
The werewolf's shield went down in a second flat and she ducked. Someone was using the turret to her left.
"Kill ze fucker on ze turret, Schrodinger," Hansa barked. The cat boy growled back.
"I'm just now respawning. Anderson blew my brains out vit ze fucking shotgun."
"Got him, and his shotgun," Dok announced.
"Seras, can you get him?"
"Yeah, sur- WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?! I SO FUCKING DODGED!" the draculina roared back. Hansa turned to see the white vapor trail of a sniper that had apparently killed her comrade. Hansa turned and fired at the sniper. She heard Heinkel curse from her room and a grin spread across the werewolf's face as Schrodinger picked up the attack, closing in on the base. Dok, meanwhile, was creeping up on the base as well with his shotgun. Hansa was now getting annoyed that this idiot on the turret was still shooting at her. She crept over to her right and was immediately faced off by Pip and Alucard. A sniper trail whizzed by her head, signaling that Integra had taken the weapon from the sea-base.
Hansa fell back to the opposite side of the hill and tossed a plasma grenade, injuring both Pip and Alucard. She threw a frag and killed Pip, only to be taken out by Alucard a second later. She growled as the timer counted down to her respawn. When she returned to the battle, however, not even a second had passed before she was killed by a sniper shell to the temple. From the other room, she heard Integra yell.
"Booyah! Double headshot!" The werewolf growled again until she respawned, and then found herself and the cliff-base with Dok and a freshly killed Schrodinger. Zorin was Tee-bagging his corpse, apparently pissed off at her two deaths because of him. Hansa smacked her in the back with a magnum and dropped the green character. Hansa picked up her dual SMGs and moved onto the base's main platform. Dok killed Anderson in the lower level of the base, and Hansa quickly dropped Heinkel, who was trying to snipe someone across the map.
She traded out the SMGs for the sniper, reloaded, and scoped in. On the hilltop in the middle, she found Alucard and Seras doing battle, with Alhambra and Luke going for cleanup kills. She sniped Alucard and Luke with two headshots and Alhambra killed Seras. The Draculina growled and waited to respawn. Hansa missed the other two shots at Alhambra and the card man retreated over the crest of the hill, only to fly back over as a corpse when Enrico rammed him with a wraith tank. Hansa reloaded and sniped Anderson out of the wraith turret and Seras man-cannoned to the mid-center and lobbed her grenades. Enrico was soon boarded by Yumie, who killed him in his tank and was subsequently sniped by Hansa.
"Hansa, I've got your back, und Dok is at ze pelican. Keep sniping," Schrodinger stated as he smacked Pip's face in with the butt of his SMG. The Frenchman cursed in his own language and Integra seemed to have gotten another headshot. Hansa picked up the new sniper that spawned in the base and reloaded her empty gun. She returned to sniping as Schrodinger watched the rear of the base and the other two fought in the center, with sniper cover of course.
Soon enough though, the scores began to show the gaps in team coordination and skill. In the lead, Schrodinger's team had eighty two with Integra's team in a close second with seventy four and Alhambra's with sixty one. Anderson's team fought for third with a score of sixty. Hansa had died a few more times and was currently locked in a battle with Integra and Enrico over by the radio tower. Enrico was hiding behind the mongoose and Integra had taken up a position at the turret nearby. Hansa was hiding behind a boulder with Seras and Dok in the middle, the draculina with a battle rifle and pumping shells into both Hansa's current opponents. The werewolf tossed a frag at Enrico and killed him with the combined grenade and vehicle explosions. Integra fired at her with the turret she had ripped off, and Seras took her down after a few more shots.
"BULLSHIT! I KILLED THE WOLF!" Integra roared from the adjacent room. Hansa reloaded and turned around, heading through the rock corridor towards the sea-base. She fired at Jan, who immediately turned back and launched all eight missiles from his missile pod at her. She got killed by the fifth, and the last three killed Pip, who had just spawned.
"Double kill, bitch!" Jack yelled. Hansa respawned next to Schrodinger, and helped him get an overkill as they overlooked a battle between half of the Green and Blue teams. The cat boy roared with delight as his kill count went up. The game ended in the next few kills, after Seras had gotten a kill frenzy with the shotgun and the sniper on the center hill. Seras wrapped Schrodinger up in a tight bear hug and the cat boy nearly fainted, more out of lack of oxygen than anything else. After the final scores left the screen, everyone piled into the room for an argument more heated than the game.
"REAMATCH!"
"I SO GOT THAT LAST KILL!"
"I DODGED YOUR GRENADE!"
"CHEAP FIRST KILL HANSA!"
"I KILLED YOU SERAS!"
"NO WAY!"
"I SO FUCKING DID, I SHOT YOU WITH THE MISSILE POD!"
"I DODGED THE FUCKING ROCKETS AND SHOT YOU WITH MY SMGS!"
"WHAT THE HELL GUYS! YOU FUCKING SUCK!"
"LOOK WHO'S TALKING ENRICO, MR. LOWEST SCORE ON OUR TEAM!"
"FUCK OFF BUTCH LESBIAN!"
"I'MA KILL YOU FOR THAT ONE ALTER BOY!"
"QUIT FIGHTING!"
"SHUT THE FUCK UP ANDERSON! NOBODY WANTS TO EHAR THAT PREACHER BULLSHIT RIGHT NOW!"
"VILE BLASPHEMY VAMPIRE! LET'S RUMBLE, AMEN!"
"BRING IT ON!"
"HEY, WATCH IT YOU TWO!"
"FUCK OFF YUMIKO!"
"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!"
"DIE YOU FUCKING BITCH!"
"TAKE THAT, FUCK YOU ZORIN!"
"JAN, WHAT THE FUCK! I'LL CUT YOUR DICK OFF WITH MY SCYTHE!"
"TRY IT! SHIT, GET OUT OF THE WAY DOK!"
"COME ON, YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE DOKTOR!"
"FUCK OFF, CRAZY BASTARD!"
And so ended the Halo3 LAN idea, at least for the time being. After everyone had gotten out all of their 'shits and giggles' they were back to Halo and yelling at each other with redoubled fury. And through all of the noisy racket and hubbub, the pudgy Major was fast asleep in his bed, weary from having to do all the work around this place. Hell, it had been his idea to do a vacation in the first place! He deserved a long-ass nap!