Chapter 4: Complications

This was insane. How on earth did we ever get in this mess? I just couldn't believe what was going on. Rodrick had a look on his face that seemed vaguely familiar. I think it was the other time when he was getting crushed by one of his enemy bands, "Stuffed Underwear". Or was that "Dirty Doo Doo" or something like that.

I've told and he has heard and saw enough facts about Rodrigo, so having communication should be no problem. I'm sure that's what he wanted anyways.

"Hey, Rodrigo!" Rodrick exclaimed towards him. Rodrigo looked towards us and from the look on his face; he didn't look quite pleased to see us.

"Well what do you know?" Rodrigo said.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him.

"Took a short break from counseling. Never thought I'd see both you two once again."

"Well guess what? Face reality." Rodrick grumbled.

"Alright everyone! Get ready in three!" The blond hair guy exclaimed.

"Two!"

"One!"

"Battleboat!"

The red hair guy gripped the wheel and started steering fairly slow, which I had assumed the ships might have been controlled by the two guys down the hut below.

Luckily all 5 water cannons already were housed by someone, so I and Rodrick were doing our part by either blocking some water streams with our swords, or telling the red hair guy a couple directions at steering. Though he ignored us anyways.

There was a stream of water that managed to hit me in the chest just seconds into the game, which made me realize why we had this 3 minute grace period. This was making us wet so it would slightly slow our movement. Then it would be easier to hit people when we arrive on the island.

The other team was doing fairly well with shooting the people who were housing our Water Cannons, but I noticed that no one was actually using the Water Blasters.

I headed down into the Captain's Cabin, took one of the three buckets that were remaining, scooped up some water from the well, and headed over to one of the Water Blasters.

I quickly emptied out the bucket into the Water Blaster and clicked on the button. Unfortunately, I forgot to monitor where the arrow was pointed. Somehow it squirted all the way on the Red Haired kid.

"Dude, what the heck?!" the Red Haired Kid stopped steering and headed over to me.

"Whoa, I'm sorry! I forgot to move the Water Blaster's aim to the other ship!"

"Look, just because you call yourself the Leader or Captain of this thing, doesn't mean that you can act like a complete moron!"

I thought he was going to make another move at me, when luckily a premium member guy that was housing a Water Cannon shouted,

"Somebody take the wheel!"

The Red Head kid narrowed his eyes before he went over to the steering wheel.

He gripped it again started steering towards the island. A few seconds of observing everything, I went on top of the Captain's Cabin to observe things better.

I'd say about four out of our five members that were housing the Water Cannons were completely soaked. The Red Hair kid was cursing under his breath as he bumped our ship with their ship. Rodrick and a few other teens were near the front.

Having not got soaked that much, I figured that would be very good when it was time to get down to the beach. When you get confronted by a pack, you know you need to use that speed.

We got down to the island in the middle of the fenced in watery arena, and I decided to be one of the first people to head down the ladder, but unfortunately, that stupid red head kid's foot kicked me straight in the face, pressing against my nose. I tried resisting it as hard as I can, which did work, but when I got back down, the stinging pain got back on me.

The Red Head ran off with the rest of the other teenagers, completely not synced with my Master Plan.

I looked around, but I did manage to find Rodrick and two Premium Members all quietly making their way into the beach, which had plenty of trees all around it.

"I might as well join them." I said to myself out loud as I went over just as they were about to disappear beneath the trees.

"You guys aren't doing the plan!" I urgently whispered as I caught up to them. One of the premium member kids, a guy with freckles and blond hair sneered at me.

"Well guess what? Should we really listen to the plan of a kid who isn't even a Premium?" he asked.

That got me on to something. Just because I'm not a premium doesn't mean he gets to boss me around like heck!

The other premium kid with brown hair wearing glasses just smirked. "He does have a point." He replied back, before both of them turned around facing the make-believe dense jungle. Some dense jungle it was anyway. We could literally see the enemy team arrive from the other side of the island; with just a bit of straining and squinting, you could make out the shapes of them as they climbed down from the ship.

I raised my hands in the air in frustration, as well as defeat. What was the point of arguing with these two? And why would Rodrick even bother.

"Guess I'll just have to go with the flow." I muttered to myself. It was the only option, I figured.

Then I noticed Rodrick pointed towards another direction, the east way around the Dense Jungle, and to my surprise and horror, the two premium kids nodded! They quickly followed Rodrick as he led them, with a somewhat different kind of flanking strategy, I figured. But I was still at dread to find out that the premium kids decided to have Rodrick as their new leader.

I decided that maybe Rodrick might have a better strategy than mine. I mean, definitely I'm sure I have a better strategy overall, but when it comes to the in-game, I'm sure it would be Rodrick's time this time around.

I trailed them a couple meters behind, and noticed someone with a wooden play sword run up towards Rodrick.

Before I even realized that he was in the enemy team, the glasses dude quickly shot the enemy kid in the eyes with his water gun, the enemy kid in surprise flailing his sword around like a maniac. Guess that was his only decision to make with his limited vision.

Rodrick ducked a couple slay slashes and then did a smooth slash, hitting the kid straight in the suit's square around the chest and stomach. I could hear a small vibration as the sound as the kid nearly fell backwards, but held his hands up in defeat as he headed over towards the outer part of the beach. The three teenagers chuckled before walking on.

"I think I might actually have a better chance with these three." I said to myself as I continued pacing myself to follow them on the trail.

I only had to just wait maybe forty seconds or so before I could start to hear some chaos inside of the jungle, and I was pretty sure that a bunch of people were now definitely cheating. I'm sure they'd have some surveillance, but the chances were pretty slim.

I definitely could only hold my breath as I trailed them faster now, slowly feeling my adrenaline rise when they all of a sudden out of their mind decided to head inside the dense forest.

I could hear them talking to each other for a few seconds while running, all three of them nodding, and proceeded even deeper into the forest.

If I were to suggest, maybe they were trying to shake me off their trail secretly. It's a team game however, so I wouldn't see how they could gain anything from doing that sort of action, so I could feel a bit relieved at how they wouldn't do that.

I could already remember myself trailing them just a few meters behind now, but for some reason, they rounded a random bend somewhere in the jungle and the next thing I knew, I was just speed walking around random places that I didn't even know where I was headed too.

Now that was when I slightly started to panic. I know, that's kinda funny huh, considering how it was just a game.

A shudder went up my shoulder all of a sudden when I could hear a bunch of footsteps running from the right of me, getting closer each time. When I turned, my heart leaped a beat when some brown hair guy ran and tried to slash toward downwards in a vertical stroke across my vest. The good thing was that on an impulse I managed to deflect the attack off with a sideways slash, canceling both of our swings out, but the sword from the knockback had a recoil, and nearly touched my own vest. I quickly bolted a couple feet, hearing the wind of the sword just barely getting close to skimming me in the back.

I quickly turned around and made a swift slash to the chest, hoping I could've put enough force into it to resist the basics of what he could've done to defend himself. It worked. The kid stumbled backwards in surprise, before raising his hands in his air in utter defeat, before heading back over towards the coast.

I quickly leaned my back against a tree to catch my breath.

I thought to myself what just happened in a few short seconds, finally accepting the reality as I took a deep breath. I might actually have a win condition at this.

I headed forward over a bit deeper around the forest, cautiously looking around just in case no one would be sneaking up on me.

Now that was when I did remember a little tactic while playing Twisted Wizard. When you are alone, it's easier to be able to make your own decisions silently. So by taking advantage of that, I'd first already know not to run into packs. They'd be too devastating against you. A safe route would be to either join up on allied packs, if you were too much of a scaredy-cat or man up or pick up other individual enemies. Most of the time they'd tend to be alone for the same reason you'd be, making them a good matchup.

I decided to do both. Hey, no one said I couldn't do both couldn't they?

I headed even more deeper into the jungle, a bit of confidence surging inside of me.

You know that kind of feeling where you want to go with your instincts but at the same time, you feel like going with only half of your instincts because at the same time you feel like your instincts aren't correct at the time?

Well, that's kind of what I was dealing with here.

In fact, I was just about ready to just move onto the next part of the two-part plan, which was to join and gang up with a group, when I could all of a sudden hear some footsteps diagonally to the right of me.

It was as if my body had all of a sudden experienced an Adrenaline Pulse explosion throughout my entire self. I immediately bolted in the direction of the sound instinctively quickly.

Now, I am sure that there may be any security cameras around here, but you know how some memories can just get stuck up in your mind like for many, many, many years? For me, the first time of something that may become big can be like a memory. I'm sure this game is growing faster and faster as we speak, despite how new it might've been.

I decided to take my chances.

Yelling a battle cry may be good and bad. I decided to focus on controlling the bad part of it by keeping quiet, trying to maintain as much stealth as I could. That was when I noticed it was a premium member! I couldn't believe my luck.

I quietly cracked my neck slowly before wielding up my wooden sword, and rushed up from behind the person.

The person was actually armed with a water gun, but I'm not so sure that it would prove useful against someone that would come up from behind them. Just when I was about to land a slash from behind, my back foot all of a sudden scraped against the ground.

I guess that just comes to show that no matter how fast you want things done, you are always going to mess things up at the last second.

When the person turned around, I noticed how she exclaimed in surprise, managing to deflect off my slash as the last second. But unfortunately, I wasn't done yet.

I landed a flurry of slashes, left to right, left to right, but of course, you can't always do the same pattern over and over again, and it wouldn't take a nerd to figure out how to read it.

It wasn't long before she all of a sudden quickly dropped her water gun and with one sword skillfully deflected another attempted slash, and grabbed my hand with another. Gee, didn't even know how unexpected that was, considering how the texture felt… very soft.

"Greg!" she exclaimed urgently.

It took a moment to figure out who that was, and my inner self could smack itself in the face over and over again when I realized who it was.

"Cara?" I said in disbelief, before regaining my composure. "Okay, maybe my strategy didn't go straight to plan that time."

Cara picked up her Water Machine Thingy nearby. "It's fine." She replied back. "Everyone had their own plans, including me."

I scratched the back of my head with my free hand sheepishly.

"Yeah… I guess so. Say, you were pretty good with that defensive technique! I couldn't remember if you were just reading my moves or interpreting my reactions or predicting my main target." I was actually pretty amazed how, judging by her first time here, I never expected a newcomer like her to be that skilled with defending against someone who has been valuing strategy and tactics for quite some time.

She let out a small grin. "There are a lot of things you don't know about me Greg. It may surprise you to know that I've learned most of that from a book."

"You are telling me that a book taught you all of that? The defensive technique with blowing off my sword and everything?" I said as I started forward. It seemed as if I just predicted Cara's path, because she was following right beside me. Either that or she has one of those free-style plans where it's any "anything goes" kind of technique.

She merely nodded. "Since I was… probably about eight, maybe." That was when she giggled slightly, making me titter for some reason.

"It was one of those books that were laid out on the table by the time I had arrived home from school. This was the only book that managed to stand out to me."

That was when I figured out that I realized that I was actually interested.

"It was one of those 'I may not be interested in it but I will give it a chance anyways' type of book," Cara continued. "So the second I saw the first chapter, which immediately got to the point of things, I knew it would be the type of book that would be the one I'd sleep with every night."

"You sleep with that book?" I was now very interested. "You didn't worry if you might roll on it or anything?"

She shook her head. "It usually comes to the Nightstand."

"Oh." I nodded. "Now that makes a lot more sense."

To me, it would kind of seem like a personal matter to keep all of those thoughts in, sleeping with a book at night and everything like that, but it seemed as if she wasn't the reticent type of person.

The silence that followed after that didn't last long, for we then all of a sudden stumbled upon three more combatants from ship number two.

If I had to sum it all up, I would say that I was one of the last few remaining players in the first round of Battleboats. I made it all the way to the part where we'd head over to the island for the second time, unfortunately, where someone attacked me from behind after squirting me in the back of my air with a water gun.

The second round wasn't even all of that an improvement.

I was a bit more soaked after the first round of moving around with the ships, and by the time I headed down towards the island, I could barely even move. Then that was when I decided to just head straight into the jungle straight from there. Of course, I got overpowered by a gang of four other combatants. I partially blamed my wetness having it slowed my momentum.

But then there was the third round.

Alright, so this time I was following Rodrick this time around. According to the game, each team was each tied 1-1. This would be the big decider.

I think since Rodrick had headed with the same two other premium members the round before, he figured it wasn't smart to keep on relying on the same people over and over again. Although I think that was just for temporary reasons.

I think Rodrick was reluctant having he noticed me trailing him a few feet behind, but I didn't think he was all that on the edge this time around. Guess my luck struck gold.

I could hear yelling from the forest, while me, Rodrick, and a random other kid that wasn't a premium member was circling around the island. I actually think this is a great way to just pick off any stray combatants.

It was really tempting to just head straight into the forest, but then I think Rodrick made up his mind. I felt very nervous after the second go with the steering of the ships, because then at our second go at the island on the third round, Rodrick just headed straight into the jungle.

Of course he made up his mind. And of course, the other kid followed him.

I looked around the ship at the last second before climbing down to gather a note of who was left standing.

I was slightly alarmed when I couldn't see Cara around, so I guess the rest of the team wouldn't be gaining an upper-hand in battle since she got out the first time on the island in the third round.

And yes… I was alarmed I couldn't see Cara around, because if she were still in the game, she'd help out the team a lot.

I mean, why else would I be alarmed and maybe annoyed she wasn't around?

I thought this was a risky idea of Rodrick, as he bolted straight into the jungle, but just seconds straight in, Rodrick lurched backwards and immediately tackled us backwards behind this artificial log that was made out of plastic. Something that could've been reasonably found around those little kid play areas that are scattered around the mall.

"Hey!" I exclaimed, before Rodrick pointed the wooden sword towards my mouth. Somehow I interpreted that as a signal to just shut up.

I then could notice two people just meters away, on the opposite side of the team. I wasn't sure if Rodrick was planning the three of us to attack them… actually made that the two of us.

The kid that joined us immediately shouted, hoping to build some kind of surge in him. All of a sudden, one of the persons, which were a male, quickly turned around and squirted a small portion of water from a very small pistol looking water gun. But even so, the small portion of water hit the kid accurately in the eye, so we ended up having to hear an obvious scream that followed.

The kid cursed as he started to wipe his eyes, when all of a sudden, the other person turned around and delivered a speedy strike, nearly hitting the edge of the vest's buzzer like plastic plate.

"Aoh!" the kid said as he actually stumbled backwards and fell down on the ground, before just lying there for a few seconds. Something told me that apparently this game might've meant something, or he's just couldn't believe he'd made it this far for nothing. Or maybe he was a try-hard. I could tell by his voice before. I mean, you have to think he was actually trying, so I guess I could give him a little credit.

Because quite frankly I didn't think he'd ever land a hit on anyone before. There are many more reasons I could think off from my mind for why he'd be showing this attitude of his. Of course, it's not like it's rare for me to see it or anything, I've seen it many times before, when someone just lays on the ground probably with their eyes closed probably processing what just happened in the past couple of seconds.

After the kid slowly trudged away, the male chuckled.

"The average newbie." He said.

Then he and the other person started to walk away, having not seen us… then again; Rodrick was forcing my head even downwards towards the ground at the same time, so I guess this works.

Just before they turned around, it wouldn't take a detective to realize who both of the persons were.

Rodrigo and his girlfriend.

I was pretty sure Rodrick knew that, because he kept on looking towards them before they finally disappeared. He was breathing so hard, I thought he would erupt into a funny looking creature from those mythological movies.

"Let's go." He said with an urgent tone in his voice, getting up and starting to follow them.

"Wait!" I quickly said as I caught up to him. "Don't you think we should bring reinforcements?"

"Reinforcements?" Rodrick scoffed, before smirking just a tiny bit. "I'd like to see to them with a proper match-up."

Okay, this was really getting out of hand as he started walking on. I mean, I'm sure this would be a great memory to his mind filled mostly of garbage, but that would only be under the one condition: If you win.

I could actually understand his point of view at this, because I didn't feel any reluctant at all. I just thought it was something that had to be done and will be done.

They were heading out towards the small coast in the distance, and it was when I and Rodrick knew that we were being baited.

Or at least, we thought. At the very least, perhaps they were just going to the coast for some other reason, and there wasn't going to be an ally or two waiting to slash us to defeat.

My heart was pounding, and sweat was somehow trickling down my forehead, which I couldn't understand why. It was just a game, after all.

When we arrived at the coast shortly, we couldn't find them directly first-hand, so either they split-up when we weren't looking, or they knew we were trailing us and could possibly be hiding and sneaking behind some plastic object.

I and Rodrick had our backs pressed up to each other as I was facing the left side, and he was facing the right side, our swords wielded and ready for action. I felt like one of those heroes starring in those historical films depicting wars. Those movies that aren't as boring as documentaries of course, well most of them anyway.

Rodrick said that they were only for old people to watch for entertainment, and I think he might be right. I could imagine a little small TV playing a documentary in a nursing home, with maybe a group of elders of men and women crowding around a couch, sharing out their emotions of what the documentary showed.

But back to where I and Rodrick were. We were now starting to circle in place, me moving in the right, while Rodrick moved to the right, shifting our positions.

That was when I noticed something. There were plastic rocks and logs around the place, but I wasn't just ready to be what you call jump-scared just yet.

All of a sudden, Rodrick jerked around, and stared at something for a few seconds, probably might've notice a small flaw with their potential hiding.

Just when he was about to run towards the plastic rock, which seemed to be his target, a dark skinned kid with black hair popped out and pulled out an intimidating looking water gun that was very long and thin in length.

Rodrick quickly pivoted around in a three sixty and bolted towards me, the dark skinned kid following us.

But he wasn't the only one there. All of a sudden, five more teenagers popped out from a nearby log. I knew it would've been a great hiding place for them! And the amount of people the log could cover! Next time I'll perhaps use it as a future reference if I ever get on this ship's team.

Two of the teenagers I could immediately recognized, Rodrigo and his girlfriend.

I looked around behind us but didn't find any allies. At least, not any that would've stumbled upon the back of the island where we were.

Two against Six. Yes. This was really going to be a fair match.

I could see Rodrick's eyebrows furrowed ready to duel, but I could see a hint in regret in his eyes.

I could only take a deep breath, as I could only just walk backwards to stop myself from being overpowered.

The dark skinned kid grinned slightly, annoying the heck out of me, before suddenly adjusting a small plastic lever in the gun. He then pointed towards us and fired. A long stream of water shot out and just managed to hit my lower-part of our torso, which was dangerously close to the plastic square on my vest.

"Go." Rodrick quickly bolted, and I followed him straight after.

Now I wasn't sure if Rodrick was being a chicken or he didn't like to lose, or if he thought this was a battle that had to be won, no matter what. Either way, it didn't matter, it would afterwards.

But right now, I was already bracing myself to humiliate myself.

Things will be getting stable around here soon; very soon, I assure all of you! This is a major announcement for my Profile Page. I am announcing that I now included a "Story Zone" in my profile, which basically tells a bunch of stuff about my stories. So far it's starter, only with two updatable statistics that actually may be useful to some of you. First of all, I moved the most recent chapter section from the top, all the way to the Story Zone. And I added a new section which basically tells you what is the most likely chapter to be posted next, and the maximum deadline date it could possibly be. Keep in mind that it's just an educated estimate, and I like to be surprising, but most of the time, if you want to find out what may tune in next, you are probably going to see the answer located in the Likeliest Chapter section. I hope the Story Zone with some updates in the future, may prove useful to you when it comes to reading my stories, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter itself as well as the ones that are soon to follow… according what the Story Zone says!