Hell yeah the time had come! For weeks the elusive but highly fawned over Bullet Break was the talk of many a social circle. Everyone wanted a piece of the action, be it on the frontlines or getting a first-class seat for the online violence and bloodfare. Well, everyone who was still interested in virtual reality games. And for those up and coming celebrities of other mediums. Because Bullet Break wasn’t just a chance to prove one’s self in the game, but an opportunity for the world to recognize a name.

And that name was going to be the prize Gudako sought. “Not some dumb trophy I can’t even touch IRL,” she scoffed to herself, logging into the game quickly and waiting for her Avatar to be rendered. “Who cares about bragging rights when you can make some real money. Like my eye on the prize baby!” she said, materializing into the world of Gun Burst Online with the haughtiest grin imaginable painted on her face.

With the almighty power of RNG to determine her fate, Gudako half-expected the game itself to just recognize she was the clear winner already and dump her in the Control Station. Indeed, she didn’t bother raising her guns on standby, merely crossing her arms with all the confidence in the world. Perhaps it was cosmic irony then, that she had been placed in the furthest position away from the Control Station. “The Scrap Yard? What is this, some kind of joke!?!?”

Gudako took in her grimy surroundings with the natural disdain of one shunned, grumbling that no one would see firsthand her dramatic and badass entrance. Well, no one but her teammates but they didn’t matter. “They should be here soon anyway,” she said with deflation, going through the task of checking her equipment. “Check…Check…whoah, they really do let you keep all your items. But now what….”

There had been no blaring buzzer or even a robotic voice to announce the beginning of the tournament. True, reality would give her no such luxuries, but it’d be nice to know if she could start. “Whatever,” she said, already equipping her camera and beginning her livestream of the rundown area, sweeping the landscape in one wide shot. “Hey, hey, it’s the future winner of Bullet Break, Gudako here!” she forced out cheerfully for her fans watching.

---

Roche declared as she took to the battlefield, her gauntlet raised before her face as her other hand tugged it snugly into place as one would any glove. That this one shot a combustible gel in a long cone was just an added perk in that regard. An eye flickered from the comforting embrace of metal and leather to affix itself upon the cackling orangette and shared none of the wild enthusiasm which was now coursing through Gudako.

"Hmph. I was hoping for the chemical plant." She hung her head and sighed with a hand on her hip, clearly disappointed with her starting location on top of Ryuko's overwhelming exuberance getting the better of her common sense. Roche just knew that girl had spent all week binging Black Bullet montages and getting herself psyched up to some truly unreasonable standards.

And it was going to come down to her team mates to make sure she reaches those goals as stepping stones for her double jumps, if nothing else.

"Well it doesn't matter now. Just keep your head in the game. Style points mean nothing if you can't make it to the end." The dark skinned girl chastised over her shoulder before arming herself with her usual compliment of grenades. After all, what better time to break out the consumables then in a public tourney?

---

'Waah! I almost didn't make it in time!' Now that she was actually logged into the tournament, she had time to freak out about how lucky she was to make it in at the last second. Rei had spent the past week visiting forums and messaging players in game to see if they were at least interested in fighting the tourney together. One of the perks of not having a social life, is that you don't meet the minimum requirement for team based games. But everything worked out in the end; supposedly.

Looking around, she was the first to load in. The game had started her off in The Assembly without so much indication that the match had actually started, though she guessed that was fair all things considered. Until now, she hadn't even seen or talked to her team, and she was admittedly a bit nervous. It was a toss up if their fighting styles even worked remotely well, and she didn't even know if she'd be able to tell them apart from the other teams once the fighting turned chaotic.

Kiss❤Shot reviewed her weaponry, making sure her rockets were loaded and her grenades were at the ready. Her sword resting comfortably in her left hand. Today was her chance to dominate yet another game.

Finally, it has begun, the moment everyone waited for was announced with a fireworks display just as the System Announcer read the names of the teams and their participants while drawing cheers from the crowd.

One of such participants was an avatar known as ICEY, who had partnered up with a duo of quirky, online celebrity wannabes that ICEY's real-world self had some interest in. It all began when Kanna watched one of Ryuko's ill-fated streams a while ago. Ever since then, she has been following her and, finally had a chance for an online meeting.

Everything sounded well on paper, but the fact that they got shoved all the way to the worst starting position possible was a huge pain in the ass. Even so, if it meant that they could be a little more relaxed while plotting their moves, then it was alright, perhaps...

"So, all that we gotta do is not lose our way, right? I guess that'll be easy," Kanna said while calmly resting against an old jet engine. "Since you are the Boss here, where do you think we should be going?" she asked in a nonchalant tone, eyeing Ryuko while checking her equipment idly.

"Oh, by the way, did you guys hear of the latest news?"

---

While a team enjoyed a moment of reprieve, mostly because of their bad luck, other wouldn't be graced with even that.

Beginning the match at a disputed place such as the Assembly ensured that Kiss❤Shot's team would be targeted almost instantly. And so they were. A stray bullet, perhaps a warning shot, clashing against a conveyor belt, missing the sword-wielding avatar for just an inch or two.

Whoever did it was nearby, and had a suppressed weapon, who knew what their next move was going to be?

Grave Trench
@Oni chan@Kuroyomihime

Grave Trench took a brief breath as the system transitioned him to the combat zone. He hadn't met any of his teammates in person or online before but he knew a couple of their usernames and had looked up a little background on them. After all, this was a pick-up team of people who didn't meet before the event. There was a good chance of friendly fire unless somebody could identify who was who.

The Assembly was a dark maze of deep shadows, industrial robotics, an extensive conveyer system and ample warehouse machinery. He grinned for a moment in the shadow that hid him from view. It was so half-assed, just like every other game. No industrial area like this would have escaped being picked clean, inhabited, or destroyed in a real post-apocalyptic environment. Still, par for the course. This was his battlefield and he wasn't against simple AI mobs this time. These were other players. The smile faded quickly. He needed to find his teammates.

Just as he was trying to figure out where to begin his search the sound of a bullet splatting against metal pulled his attention. It had been less than ten meters away, just on the other side of the conveyor belt behind him.

He moved quietly, lowering himself to the floor and peering into the dark from deep within the conveyor belt's shadow, his black attire helping to conceal him and the unusual outline of his P-Bolter disrupting the shape of his body. A single impact like that probably meant a concealed shooter with a suppressor. The shot hit the far side of the belt. The target was there and the shooter was somewhere beyond them in the shadows, probably close. Grave lined up his rifle and spotted a subtle movement, it was no more than the movement of a deep breath or perhaps the shifting of a boot in preparation for another shot. It was enough. He was about to fire. Then he saw the boots that were even closer, much closer.

This set of boots belonged to the target of the first shot, they had to. Once he focused on them, he caught a glimpse of what was in the player's hand. Well, that made his search easier. The only notable player he could find information on who wielded a sword was also his team leader. He shifted his attention back to that brief moment and whispered, barely a breath past his lips, but the acoustics in a place like this would carry it far enough.

"Grave Trench, Kiss Shot, possible target 1 O'clock low."

Then he fired, three shots aimed at the feet and a shadow that might be an exposed elbow. He couldn't see the head of the shooter from his position, his angle was too low. But, then again, the shooter probably couldn't see him at all.

@Haeo@Oni chan

"--sible target 1 O'clock low."

Clementine had just finished loading into a secluded spawn-point as the begining phases of a spawn-on-spawn firefight was begining to unfold. The person nearest her was bellowing out a possible sighting of their opponent, so she would at least know the location of one hostile, and one friendly... problem was she couldn't tell which to shoot.

She pulled-back deeper into the shadows to double-check chatlogs appearing in the lower left of her periphrial:

_{Grave Trench, Kiss Shot, possible target 1 O'clock low}

Well, that answered that... the elderly gentleman was on their side... team KiGrCle? ... They needed to work on their name...

Still, the lack of explosions meant nobody had a good shot on anybody, and the rest of the opposition hadn't quite consolidated tehmselves yet, either, so now was the time to pick them off... She couldn't lay traps though... since she couldn't be sure to inform her team before a late-spawn tripped over it... if they picked up a 4th person.

To top things off, she couldn't even lurk properly if she identified herself to her own team-mates, and those boosts would be sorely needed to find a good place to set her machine-guns undetected... at least that was her plan.

While flanking the sniper from the right, she had run across the rest of the sniper's team trying likewise to work Kiss❤Shot's flank, here, she whipped her dual RPDs up and ready and sprayed from the hip, driving the group scrambling for cover as she managed to get more than a few good limb-hits with her 7.62x39 machine-guns. "Clem" She grunted in an uncharacteristicly gruff tone as she tossed a hand-grenade behind a scrap pile and retreated to evade any counter-nades.

---

The crisp ping of metal piercing metal started the match loud and clear. Kiss❤Shot nearly jumped out of her virtual body as she quickly readied her sword. She had no idea where the shot came from, but it was at least her turn to act. A crappy position of starting indoors as she couldn't immediately pull out her rocket launcher; but if they were going to give her the courtesy by missing their first shot, then they had already lost.

One by one, the rest of her team had spawned in. It was actually good of them to announce themselves, or Kiss❤Shot might have just blown the whole building apart out of fear of being vastly outnumbered. However, her explosion wasn't the first of their fight. Her teammate Clem had unloaded on someone. An explosion not to far from her teammate marking where there might be more enemies. Likewise, her new partner Grave Trench gave her all the direction she needed for her first assailant.

Kiss❤Shot readied a bundle of grenades, throwing three concussive just on the other side of where Clem's grenade landed. Then immediately she charged at her shooter; following the three rounds to their target and jumping over the scrap that separated them, raising her sword to skewer the poor fellow. A fragmentation grenade in her right hand ready to explode as soon as she was able to plant it.

“Hey, hey! Don’t you think I know that already?” Gudako said, spinning on her heels to glare at her first team member to arrive. Coming from anyone else, the pointed stare might have meant something but both girls knew it amounted to hot eyes coming from Gudako. “You’re the one who’s supposed to run strategy, Roach. Honestly, I bet we could win this in just a few rounds. But that’d be boring for my audience so we need to drag this out as much as we can!”

Gudako neither had the time nor the patience to see Roche’s reaction, nor ponder the absurdity of her own words. That was because she was already looking at their third teammate. Once again Gudako glared, this time with an added puff to her cheeks and an accusatory finger point. “And you, newbie, listen up! Just cause you have the chance to fight with I, the great Gudako, doesn’t mean I’ll allow you to slack off-”

A distant roaring of bullets exchanged and gunshots taken interrupted her speech. Gudako slowly cycled to the direction of the noise with a raised eye. So, the fighting had already begun, huh? And were those…explosions she was hearing too? “Yikes! That sounds like other teams! They must be packing some heavy heat and….and…this is perfect for the camera!” She smirked, an action meant for both Roche and ICEY. “We’re going straight to the action. That’s my order so hurry it up Team Logan Paul!”

Without caring for their protest or their confusion at the team name-because neither of them had actually bothered to officially name their group-Gudako charged forth. Not like she actually took time to research who Logan Paul was, or if anyone remembered him after so long anyway. In any case, there was certainly an excited spring in her step. Each leap through the mangled structures of machinery were punctuated by a “Whee!” and a “Yahoo!” Never once did she think she might be attracting enemies. Nor did she remember they actually had a fourth teammate waiting to spawn in.

"We're up against that girl? Oh, great."

Leadslinger mumbled to herself after she logged in and was put onto her team when she loaded the game up. Her character was immediately thrust into the tournament she had been unwittingly Shanghaied into at the last minute when some of KissShot's team members flaked out at the last second. She still had no idea how it happened, but here she was facing down the famous, or infamous depending on your perspective, Gudako. Well, she wasn't about to be another clip for her highlight reel, that was for damn sure.

She spawned in at The Mill. Perfect. Separated already. Not to mention being in an urban environment did not suit her at all. She lived to run through jungles, and get into ambushes at night. She checked her gear first and foremost. M16A1, M1911A1, M7 bayonet, grenades. All good. She knocked one of her 20-round magazines on her helmet a few times and then slammed it into the magwell. A quick pull of the charging bolt once she thumbed the selector to semi-automatic and she was locked and loaded.

But they'd be going up against a lot of people and right now, she needed to make her way to the rest of her team. Well, that was the price she paid for loading in late. Leadslinger took off and worked her way onto the radio chat with the translator.

"Leadslinger. I've been separated. Moving to nearest friendly."

She stepped off quick, but didn't run. She had to keep her ear out for any footsteps beyond her own. Last thing she wanted to do was run into one of those parkour spray-and-pray types alone. She periodically brought up her map every so often just to make sure that yes, she was in fact the only one in the Mill at this moment.

"Everyone from here on until I get out is gonna be hostile. Great. Guess I better be ready to ruin someone's day."

Loading into the Bullet Break tournament Lemon Soda adjusted his sunglasses and looking out of place in this world of guns and mayhem. Dressed like he just walked off a concert stage the two Guardian assault drones fell in line hovering behind his shoulders.

“Come now people let’s make this an action-packed music video, shall we? The song is going to have a heavy industrial bass to it, so I want to some powerful impacts. Chop, chop!” the clanks of environmental sounds were like the cartoonish sounds of crickets to Lemon’s ears. Frowning and checking the time he let out a muffled curse. He was late and was unaware that his entire team had already run off to engage the opponents.

“Well, I can just get some lovely establishing shots of the battle then” adjusting his glasses and splaying his fingers out the Guardian Drones dashed out. His left hand gliding on an imaginary keyboard, the drones themselves danced along the battlefield ahead of him, weaving low to the ground as Lemon raced behind them. To Lemon’s maxed out Parkour skill the uneven terrain of the Scrap Yard was like an open field, letting him swiftly catch up to the rest of his team that had dashed ahead

“You could have waited, little miss internet celebrity! Surely it makes better viewing if you make a dramatic entrance midway through anyway! OH! You two, hurry up Ryuko will make a dogs breakfast of the battlefield by announcing her entrance or something!” Soaring over ICEY and Roache’s heads, running along the scrap iron freeway that Lemon and his drones had trail blazed.

“I need footage too you crazy ginger! Don’t ruin the scene before I get there!” Lemon followed Ryuko’s path through, although his drones occasionally appeared under his feet to give the extra step needed to cut some corners to come up alongside the try hard youtube star.

“I’ll make you a deal, if I go ahead of you and get some dynamic angles of you for your whatever videos then you share isolated audio of the explosions and some more candid on the ground footage with me… unless you don’t want cool wide shots of the battlefield of course.” Regardless of Ryuko's answer Lemon sent one drone ahead to at least get something before their group rushed in.

@Devol@Kuroyomihime@Lonewolf685

---

The chaos of battle erupted in earnest without prompting on their part from the periphery, for before the group's collective eyes was the percussive ringing of metal striking metal and explosives tossed with liberal abandon. Truly a spectacular sight with which to see emerge out of the blue, and given the intensity of it, likely to be short lived as well with how much lead was being thrown around.

Roche didn't have much time for words when there third and fourth members joined, for Ryuko was already off in a dead sprint to the middle, eager to enter the mosh pit of violence and see if fortune would remain on her side when enemies could be coming from all angles. She knew without a second thought that any video they make is going to be substantially less viewed if the star of the show goes down to a stray bullet without even attempting her fancy gunkata.

"Slow down you speed freaks!" Roche took off in a dead sprint behind the pack, maintaining a good speed thanks to her lack of heavy weaponry but still hindered by the lack of speed related Specs others had adopted. "If you die without a single kill I'll make you sleep on the porch!"

"I'll take that as a 'no but don't care either way'," Kanna said to no one in particular after her attempt at small talk fell on uninterested ears. She didn't matter it since it didn't take long for their whole squad to gather up as well, with their dauntless leader spewing her words of command, before giving them the go-ahead signal.

"Team what?" Kanna replied to Gudako's order with an expression of such utter shock on her face that ICEY's features almost glitched. Who in the world would think of naming their team after some random internet person? "Well, it doesn't matter. You are the leader, whatever you say goes!" she added while pocketing one the last of the IEDs that she assembled with the components she could find around her and some of her own materials.

"Anyway, I guess that the action caught up with us before we expected," Kanna said in a deadpan voice as their team was caught in a hail of machine gun fire. It was only thanks to her improved reaction time that she was able to roll behind a pile of scrap and avoid being torn to pieces by the hail of lead. "At least they are making it easy for us to find their position," she commented in a witty tone, barely being able to listen to her own voice over the hellish symphony of the enemy's attack, along with their curses and provocations which seemed to—and probably did— come from the mouth of a gang of twelve-years-old children playing with burly-looking avatars who had the gall to stand in the open, atop a crane and nearby crap heap as they opened fire in turns; two of them shooting their guns while a third reloaded his.

The fourth member of their team, if there was any, was yet to be seen. Maybe there were plotting an ambush. Who knows? The only thing Kanna was sure of is that advancing through a low-maneuverability place while their enemies held the high ground with automatic weaponry wasn't going to be an easy task.

---

What else would prove to not be as easy as it first seemed to be was the situation of Team GSRT. While Leadsinger would find her journey out of the Mill an easy one, thanks to the lack of nearby opposition, her allies would have a much rougher time than they thought.

The satisfactory sound of an enemy's death cry, followed by a second one in quick succession, would come right after Kiss❤Shot and Clementine unloaded their grenades, downing both the opposing team's sniper and spotter in one fell swoop.

The problem would come right after when a completely silent attack targeted Clementine. It would become quickly apparent that they weren't fighting just one team of enemies but that they had spawned in the middle of an ongoing fight between two other teams, one of which had an archer named GRDaze quickly pop out of the darkness of the catwalks above their head, fire a three armor-penetrating arrows multishot at Clementine and then retreat back to the shadows. The second member of the second team to attack them, named SHOUSUKE, came equally out of the blue, throwing a stun grenade at Grave Trench before springing from behind a nearby robotic arm with a knife in hand, lunging right for his neck.

Meanwhile, the third and fourth members of the second team, named AmyLee and MESH, held the remaining members of the first team in a fight at the Assembly's second floor, keeping them away from the access to the catwalks where GRDaze could snipe the whole bottom floor with impunity.

Grave Trench
@Kuroyomihime

Grave Trench watched as the target he marked was finished off with grand flare by his team leader a moment after a flurry of explosions and gunfire announced that another member of their team had arrived in style. It seemed that he was the only one interested in trying to keep a low profile... or at least a lower one. As flashy as the show was, he turned his eyes away from the blasts and fought to not pay attention to the concussion or the resonating echoes off the machinery. This was the only reason why he saw the movement of the incoming grenade. It was painfully obvious that there were multiple teams involved in this fight. Though, Grave Trench didn't have such polite and complex thoughts as he coiled his body and kicked off the conveyor's support in a rolling forward slide that carried him out of the full intensity radius of the blast. Still, he had been more than close enough for the shock to leave his ears ringing and the area spinning around him. That grenade was aimed for him.

He didn't have time to recover. He hadn't remembered to pull grenades from his inventory.

The sheen of an incoming blade gave him a moment of clarity, something to focus on. He dove toward the attacker, but lower, swinging the stock blade of his rifle in an attempt to catch the middle of his opponent's body. If he failed, he would be turned around by momentum and land on his back where he could hopefully pull his rifle into line for a shot.

“Wahoo! Yoweee!” Gudako’s manic screeches of battle-or whatever the hell they were-would not be impaired or stopped. Not by the blistering sound of gunfire nor the shouts of her own teammates. What was that? Was that the sound of someone criticizing her? By now Gudako had mastered the delicate art of ignoring people when it didn’t matter and such was the case for Lemon Soda’s complaints and Roche’s calls. It was probably for the best. Answering either of them would have just made her give an insane order for the sake of their latest video.

That said, she couldn’t ignore her teammate for long. Or pretend she had no ears. Not when Lemon Soda had actually caught up to her, stride for stride. “I don’t know what you just said but go and make me proud!” she called out to the other player, watching him speed on ahead of her. In her mind, it was all just justification for cooler footage to put in her kill montage. Because clearly, everyone else was just a stepping stone for the real star, yeah!

Unfortunately, it was only a matter of time before Roche’s warning words had become full reality. The ping of bullets grazing metal was a bit too close to home, Gudako skidding to a dead halt that kicked up dust and dirt from how fast she was running. It served as a hefty enough shield because Team Logan Paul was soon coming under heavy fire. “Eeep!” said Gudako in a not so brave fashion, ducking for whatever cover she could find, a jutted out slab of earth.

Lemon Soda would be closer to the enemy thanks to his distance but there was little concern there; he could handle himself. The same couldn’t be said for the rest of his teammates, who were now pinned down by the heavy gunfire. “Holy shit, these guys are serious! They must be other streamers trying to make a quick buck with my winnings!” Gudako immediately furrowed her gaze and peeked out from her hiding spot.

Quick on the trigger her favorite pistols had been equipped and were beginning to return bullets in a deadlock of guns. “Hey newbie, quit hiding and help me out here!” she called out to ICEY, despite her Avatar not moving an inch from her spot. “And Roach, I better see you rolling the cameras! The people love a good BBQ and I want every last single spark recorded in quality HD!” she proclaimed, shooting with reckless abandon.

---

She'd be lying if she didn't feel quite full of herself. Nevermind the fact that the fight quickly became noticeably worse, and there could be any number of enemies. She still only counted three friendlies, so she hopped she wasn't accidentally going to mow down someone she wasn't supposed to. That, or she didn't actually care as she contemplated whipping out her rocket launcher just because. War was, in fact, just a numbers game. If there was only two of her team members, and, say, six enemies; taking down the building would've been a 3 to 1 victory. But she supposed that wouldn't have been super sportsman like this early in the fight. But then again....

The stun grenade exploding behind her told her all she needed to know. Quickly scrolling her inventory and equipping her gas mask to offset any fancy tricks they might have. Secondly, her free hand soon equipped her rocket launcher she loved so dear. The M202 FLASH spawned resting on her shoulder, aiming at the catwalks above. She wasn't sure if Grave had things under control, but a guy with a knife didn't seem like anything that would be too much trouble. Kiss❤Shot was more concerned at the ghost running around above her. And, even if she missed; she at least hopped it would bring them down to her level.

The four cluster rockets ejected from the launcher at high velocity. Crashing into the corner of the room where she thought the archer might be. Upon impact, each of the rockets exploded; spreading out multiple grenades in every direction. Carpet bombing the inside of the building in that area.

Clementine's first surprise was when there was a second [stun] grenade going off behind her, porbably giving Trench a bit of a hard time providing any support for the near-future, followed by another one going off between where she'd thrown her's and herself... in what could have nearly been a friendly-fire incident had she not been seeking cover already... she'd have to make a note with Kiss-Shot about using explosives near allies without their permission...

The team's automatic-rifleman was busy trying to regain control of her breathing so she could continue laying good suppressive fire, taking a concious effort to breath to the rythmn of a song, which she picked because she liked it for various reasons [heavy bass, simple, faster tempo than others] which also served to help calm her down and focus on moving faster.

In hindisght, it still probably wouldn't have done her much good even had Kiss-Shot yelled at her to seek cover... being hard of hearing for a large chunk of her life caused her to seek out subtler cues than audiable reprimands... it was then she finally noticed a series of rapid twitches of movement from above and her eyes went wide in horror as her feet dug into the ground to get a bit more speed, her gun went up, but just a little too slow...

Nearly out from between the two frying pans, only to end up in the grease-firefight, she caught an arrow in the leg and went down in short-order as she sprayed a few rounds to keep anyone from getting gutsy enough to make a follow-up shot. The pain had completely messed up the rythmn in her breathing, wich was now considerably more erratic... couldn't be helped, she just had to roll with it.

Speaking of rolling, she took cover by rolling into a supine position under a large control panel just as everything around her started to explode, courtessy of Kiss-Shot apparently leaving her for dead already as she jabbed a medical-stim into her affected thigh.

"WaRn me nExt timE yoU puLl a stUnt like tHat...." She stammered, still not quite settled as she tried at least maintaining a good firing position from her point before continuing, "I'm hit." She added, this time forgetting to stress any of her syllables to hide her accent... although that could just have been the in-game morphine.

Recording his gameplay Lemon Soda was in what was basically a kill zone. They hurled abuse like children, but even a child knew that spraying gunfire from a high vantage point was a half decent strategy. Unable to retreat back to where Gudako was, Lemon was left with little option but to brave the no man’s land the rain of hot lead made.

"Shit! I've seen that movie about Gallipoli! This is bullshit! How'd they get to the high ground so fast?!" thrusting his left hand forward Lemon's drones swept back and forth in front of him. Making a crude defence and as long as the 12-year-olds on the high ground didn't focus their fire on him the drones' armour would withstand the barrage for some moments at least.

"Stupid ass kids! Hey! Why is no one backing me up?!” as Lemon got closer and into denser weapons fire one of his drones started sparking forcing him into more solid and permanent cover of what looked like a burnt-out husk of a car. Stuck halfway between the enemies and Gudako’s cover, Lemon called his drones to him and hunched over them. Activating his repair skill, he was hoping to heal his drones enough to make a break for the base of their cover and then scale the crane to ambush them.

“Can anyone see the fourth team member?! There are only three up there, right? I don’t want to be shot in the back! Umm… ICEY, yes ICEY! You! Can you see anyone?! What about you… Roache?! Shit! I can’t get footage if I die instantly!” cursing his low skill level in repair, Lemon considered using one of the smoke grenades equipped to his drones and make a break for it that way, but he didn’t want to use one of his only two so early in the match. Lifting his MAC-11 over the cover he sent bursts of machine pistol fire towards the cranes.

---

A rush of Schadenfreude had a smirk tug at Roche's lips when their sprint into conflict was curtailed by an ambush that as inaccurate as it was obnoxious. A hailstorm of high caliber rounds pinged off the metalwork around them and Roche was quick to dive forward and roll into cover, her shoulder roughly crashing against it and sticking close to minimize her profile. Casting her eyes around she was quick to notice Kanna doing the same, while Ryuko took to cover with significantly less...poise

"And there goes Lemon Soda. He's going...going....and safe. Must have the devil's luck about him." She opined before ducking back behind cover as bullets pinged off rusted metal with renewed vigor. Roche shook her head to clear the faint ringing, only to realize that was actually Gudako's screams for help, bastardization of Roche's handle included. "You know damn well it's not Roach."

Regardless of the appropriate time for chewing out her friends stubborn habits of annoyance this really was a situation well suited for her particular weapon. From the shores of Normandy to the jungles of Vietnam, there were few incentives as effective as a horrible burning death via jellied fuel to get an enemy to flee their fortifications straight into gunfire.

"Alright, the shooting is about to stop in five seconds. Get ready for a shooting gallery." Roche shouted over the gunfire before judging the attack and making a break for the next closest piece. In truth she didn't care for the position but the movement itself made her a slightly harder target without affecting her own ability to attack. The advantage of a one handed weapon shown as her gauntlet aimed just overhead of the machine gun nest. Clenching her fist triggered a pressure plate which unleashed a torrent of flame upon the crane. Having very little time to saturate the area she slashed her arm diagonally upwards before releasing the trigger and barreling into safety, covering the crane from the base upwards in raging fire.

"That's your cue to start shooting everyone."

"I don't know, but it looks more like they are the type who doesn't tolerate your face. I mean, you look like the kind of person who drags a crowd of haters behind you whenever you go. If you know what I mean," ICEY said in a somewhat sarcastic voice. She didn't mean to actually berate Gudako, but having some fun wasn't going to kill them, was it?

Well, maybe it would on Lemon's case. But his idea of fun seemed to be pretty extreme already, putting his head on the block might just add to it. That said, ICEY took the opportunity created by Roche to zip towards another cover where she could get a better view of the opposing team using a mirror, taking note of how they scattered around, breaking their suppression fire, thanks to the flames forcing them out of their defensive position. "If I were a trigger-happy brat that's totally not trying to compensate for something else, what kind of gun would I use in a team such as this one?" ICEY said to herself as she tried to think of the possibilities until something obvious came to her.

"I can't be sure about it, but I guess that the last of them isn't up there because they may be using something even heavier that's impractical to wield on higher ground. In that case, they may as well be buying time for their friend to— Called it!" ICEY shouted, interrupting her brief explanation to throw a smoke grenade behind Gudako. "Get out of there if you don't want to become Swiss cheese," she yelled before opening fire at a heavily armored avatar that was slowly rounding the corner of one of the many piles of scrap behind their team, while the minigun in their hands began to produce the characteristic whirl that preceded a hail of deadly lead, aimed at Gudako's back.

---

Meanwhile, the battle at the Assembly was getting more and more heated up with each passing second.

Grave Trench's disoriented attack would fail to connect to its target. Since SHOUSUKE expected some kind of reaction from his mark, be it a blind spray of bullets or physical retaliation, he was ready to avoid it, throwing himself on the floor to roll under the swing while taking the chance to deal a slash aimed at Grave Trench's side. Falling to the ground would prove to not be a wise move either as it opened the chance for SHOUSUKE to chain a second strike, this time a low, reverse roundhouse kick, converting the momentum from his roll into pure striking force, meant to hit Grave Trench like a hammer blow that would be much harder to avoid now that he was prone.

On another side of the room, AmyLee and MESH finished dispatching the remnants of the third team in the area, before turning to assist GRDaze and SHOUSUKE. The machine gun-wielding avatar positioned herself behind a pile of metal crates, opening suppressive fire at Clementine and Kiss❤Shot while her shotgun friend went to help GRDaze, after the later was knocked down to the ground by the exaggerated attack coming from Kiss❤Shot. MESH kept a couple of smoke grenades at standby, just in case the reckless girl had any thoughts to do it again. She judged that even people like the other team wouldn't be dumb enough to use explosive weapons while completely blind. At least if they were in this tournament to win, instead of just to create chaos.

Leadslinger had been taking her time as usual in her travels. She found the silence eerie, and made sure to take the less open routes on her way out. She checked the map periodically to ensure she was going the right way. Her teammates dots were always shown but the enemy dots only appeared when they fired. Which meant that anyone who was that smart knew to hold their fire if they were planning an ambush. She had to actually open the map from her menu in order to find her team's positions and move to them. It was a long haul, but better she got there late than not at all.

Leadslinger eventually heard the echoing gunfire from the firefight and knew she was getting close. The had to be really careful now, and made sure to check the map more and more. She waited until one dot kept appearing in the same position in sequence with the amount of fire she was hearing. Well, if they were going to stay in the same place, then she would teach them that she should have people either watching her back or she should have more situational awareness. From the sounds of it, the attacker had an LMG of some sort. She poked her head out and couldn't tell if anyone was watching her, so she moved around to get a better view.

In the time it took her to scout the machine-gunners position, the girl would need to reload soon. Leadslinger, satisfied that she couldn't see anyone around as they were dealing with her other three teammates, took her rifle and slung it over her shoulder before pulling one of her M67 fragmentation grenades off her belt. She pulled the pin, let the spoon fly off, and counted to two. From her position it wasn't a far throw, which allowed her to chuck the thing underhanded like a really small bowling ball and rolled it right under the girl's legs. Since green stuck out like a sore thumb, Leadslinger quickly ducked behind some pipes and took her rifle back out. She stayed crouched and thumbed the selector to full-auto, mentally preparing her to burst out and gun down anyone who came to look for her.