44 Chapter 44:

"Let's go guys! We got this!", Harris' voice torrented through the mic, they were about to start their third match, and as a team, were pretty confident of their win. The team they would now be facing was one of better teams - only they would be left, however, they were a bit different. While most teams at this point had a few players that outshone the competition, theirs was a team that was quite well rounded. All their players were pretty good, none were amazing, but the fact that they had no weak links had clearly taken them far, and had they not met Ace's team, probably even further.

The problem for them was that Ace's team did not really have any weak links either, but every single one of their players was simply better. Even S1k, who was probably the worst, still had a very good redeeming quality, and that was his varied operator use. He could use pretty much any operator at a good level, ingeniously using their gadgets to carry out plays and strategies that had won them more than a few rounds. He might be weaker in regards to skill, but when it came to the interactions within the game, he was one of the best in the team and within the tournament. He allowed them to carry out unpredictable tactics, making it harder for an opponent to defend.

They were playing in Kafe, and were defending at first, they picked the best place to defend, the rooms adjoining trains. They would have one anchor in trains and another in fireplace hall. Then, S1k would try and rotate close to the bomb, depending on where they came from. Abby and Ace would roam around the third floor, each taking one side and their respective stairway. This was a basic tactic that should allow them to be quite flexible when defending, but also aggressive if need be.

For this match, Ace would be playing Pulse, with the UMP45 as a primary, and the M45 as a secondary. He was playing on the side with the skylight, so he had to be able to kill rappels from afar after spotting them with his sensor. The match began in a basic way, they killed three of the enemy drones, and then began to move to their positions. S1k and Juan were on cameras and spotted the team coming out of their spawn points but nothing else, cameras were shot soon after.

They were all waiting, Ace with his sensor out, when Abby gave the call, "3 on me, pushing through outside of coal room".

Ace stayed where he was, but S1k went to help, when they had spotted them on the cameras, they were in two groups, one of three and the other as a duo, so the other two people would attempt to come in through another way, most likely the opposite side, believing it would be clear, all the defenders distracted.

Alas, Ace was there, he spotted one of the players and waited for him to rappel down through skylight, as he was coming down, Ace shot him down with a burst to the chest. He then went back to his sensor, but could not post the other, he had most likely backed up and would come in through a different way. Ace then retreated and went over the objectives, where he used his sensor to spot the enemies and feed information to his team. The last one had quickly run back to his team, so they knew where all four were. At this point, it was clear that they had two choices, either commit and try their luck pushing through or attempting a roundabout way.

Regardless of that, each player kept to his position, protecting the required angle, without making a sound. Then, they heard the distinct sound of a Fuze charge, they were all away from the site, so they did not even come close to the grenades. Most would believe this to be a sign of a push, but it could easily be a feint, so they kept their positions and waited.

They had moved further back so Ace could not see them with his scanner, so he began to scan other windows, as luck or deduction would have it, he spotted two of them coming in through another window, so he quickly called out to his team, and began to make his way down to the second floor. He had no doubt that his team would deal with them, but with only 30 seconds on the clock, they would commit to a full assault, and if Ace could catch them from behind, it would negate their attempts and reduce their morale. There was simply something satisfying about committing to a rush and managing to kill an enemy or two, it would not win them the round, but it would show to them that they still had a chance. This was what Ace wished to avoid, he wanted them to begin to feel down from Round 1, which would make it easier for them to commit mistakes and would let them finish the game faster - he was getting hungry dammit.

As expected, they rushed, but faster than Ace could anticipate, they had not even droned beforehand. They managed to kill a mispositioned Harris, but a preemptive Ace killed both from behind a few seconds later.

Ace was not sad about this, for Harris, dying and winning the round was one of his proudest honours, he would feel as if he had defended the site with all he could - even if in this case he had done nothing, but he would not feel down at all, while Juan may feel hesitant to propose strategies or plays if he died without doing anything. In summary, Harris was thick-skinned and Juan shy.

They won the round, and eventually the game, however, it was not as easy as the others. In their previous games, as long as they killed one or two people, the rest of their team would quickly fall, however, with this team, it was all balanced and they knew it, so even if one died, the round was not over. This mindset allowed them to win two rounds, one in defence when they managed to kill the whole team, and another in attack where they played for time after only Ace remained.

They were a strong team as far as the competition went, and they could have probably made it to the top 5 if they had not faced Ace's team.

After this game, the matches for the day were over, which meant that Ace was free to fill his stomach. He went to the kitchen, and made some food, to the displeasure of the poor maids, he then sat back on the couch and watched a movie. At about 5 pm, Amy called him, saying that she was having a get together in her house and that if he wanted to come, there would be people that did not go to their school, but Sophie was still going as well.

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Ace dressed in some skinny black jeans, a plain white short-sleeved t-shirt and a white hoodie with black patterns that ran throughout it. He finished it off with some black and white Vans and some cologne. He had no romantic interest in either Amy or Sophie - at least for now, but he wasn't a dumbass either. At some point, they would grow up, and Ace was not planning on staying a virgin, furthermore, there would be more people there, and making a good impression would be good.

He gave the directions to his chauffeur after informing his grandmother that he was going to a friend's house, and once again, Ace marvelled at her parenting strategy, her message read like this: [If you are going to get drunk, make sure no one takes a video, if you are going to do drugs, make sure you know what you are taking, and if you are going to have sex, use protection and make sure she is pretty].

Not for the first time, Ace wondered what his father's childhood must have been like, for Samantha to be so desensitized, and after some consideration, Ace decided he did not want to know.

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They arrived at the front gate, where Ace got out of the car and a butler quickly took him in into what he assumed was the game room. There, he switched his brain on, and analysed each of the people there. Six others were there, 4 girls and 2 boys, Sophie, Amy and the other four people he did not know, they appeared older than him, but Ace knew to not trust appearances. However, they at least seemed to have a modicum of wealth if what they were wearing was any indication.

The girl had black hair with dyed stripes through it, in neon pink and shades of purple, she was wearing a short skirt and a black t-shirt with the brand's logo on the front, in the same pink as her hair. The first boy was tall, and he had brown hair and brown eyes, he was ok-looking, but if he had to toot his own horn, he was plain-looking compared to Ace. The other boy had sandy blonde hair and blue eyes, his tanned skin and get-up made him look like a future surfer dude. He was wearing flip-flops, a shirt with a floral pattern and khaki shorts.

As Amy saw him, she smiled and waved, catching everyone's attention, and Ace looked at each individual emotion that displayed across their face, the brown-haired boy frowned but quickly resumed his normal face, while the surfer guy smiled even wider, an honest smile as far as Ace could see. What interested him, however, was the girl's reaction, she widened her eyes after looking at him, then blushed and quickly turned around. Sophie seemed to tease her and laugh at which the girl nodded.

Ace made his way acting as if he had not seen anything and hugged Amy, then Sophie.

"Ok guys, so this is Ace", he smiled, "And these are Bea", the girl waved, clearly flustered, "Randy", the brown hair kid nodded, "and finally, John", the surfer dude, well, John, smiled wider and came up for a spud, and Ace reciprocated, already getting a favourable sense from him.

"Ok so Ace, this is the game room, we have food on those tables there, and if you want anything, ask the maids, toilets are the first doors to the right."

With that A she assumed her hostess duties were done and went back to the game of cards, they seemed to be playing Poker and Ace smiled, this was one of his favourites. He had played countless online poker games in his bed, it did not require a lot of movements since he played on a tablet. He had never played face to face, but combined with his knowledge in psychology, it should be pretty easy to read them.

However, before they began, Ace had a question: "Hey Amy, is your sister home, I have not seen her in a while."

Amy nodded absentmindedly and said, "Yeah, her room is up the stairs to the left, but you can get a maid to guide you. Although I recommend you knock first."

"Cool thanks", he then made his way to her room, he was looking forward to seeing Allison as she had not been in the gym in some time.

He knocked and a female voice answered, "Who is it!?"

"Room Serrrvice", Ace answered in a whacky voice

"What the f*ck?", he heard the voice whisper and Ace smirked at her foul mouth.

As the room opened, Ace did his best impression of puppy eyes - which was pretty good, and said: "I'm sowwy, I thought it was the toilet"

Allison saw him, pinched her arm, then looked back at him, and began laughing, laughing so hard tears came out of her eyes.

"Goddammit Ace, you brilliant actor, if I did not know of your cold heart, mine would have melted", this was a long-running joke between them, Allison found the way Ace fought, analysing everything coldly interesting and began pestering him about it, calling him a robot and such things.

She hugged him and Ace returned the hug, she was honest to God beautiful, but Ace only saw her as a sister, she had beaten him black and blue too much for him to have a semblance of attraction to her.

She let him come in, and she then sat down on her bed while Ace took the chair in front of her desk.

"So, how come you are here?"

"Well, I and your sister are classmates and she invited me to come to a friendly gathering, and I had not seen you in a while so I thought to come by."

Ace saw her sigh, "Awww fuck, every time I see you and remember you are only 14 I almost lose it. Yeah sorry for that, I have not had much time, I have been busy with work." Allison was a painter, but also did modelling as a way to secure some capital. She went to an art school, which was the reason Ace had not seen her around the school. "Come on Ace, grow up quick so you can be 16 and I can have someone to take around to modelling galas and whatnot, all the guys there are all douchebags." This was her problem in life, which Ace found funny, most guys she met through modelling were good looking but mostly assholes, so when she had to take someone, she had to pick between the lesser of two evils. She wanted Ace to grow up so she could actually take him to those parties, and not have to worry about any pervert coming on to her.

"Well, I am sure that by the time I am 16, you will have probably had a career in painting, and you will be able to stop modelling."

"Man I wish, for now, I am just concentrating on improving my skills, I hope I can do something worthy of selling soon."

Ace smiled gently and squeezed her shoulder, this was another worry of hers, her parents did not exactly approve of their firstborn pursuing such a career, and Allison wished to prove them wrong if he could. "Well, don't worry about it, the stuff you make is probably amazing.", she had never actually let him see her work, regardless of his incessant knackering, but Ace assumed it was probably super good, these people were not stupid, if they wanted to do something, it was because they were talented and they like it, not just one of those.

Ace stood up and headed back to the game room after wishing Allison a good night, it was time to win some money from the suckers…