Metal Deep: Infinite - Metal Wing: Episode 5 by GX Knight

ONE LAST WIN
    The crowd’s roar and board-thumping could out-ruckus a herd of angry bansheebeast. The fans had never been that loud, which is saying something considering our last five winning seasons. Electronic banners flashed my name, people flew the black and blue colors of The Boom, and mocking effigies of the Brawlers waved using stuffed dogs hung from nooses. Of course there were the trash talking signs I loved that read: “Sniff This” or “Bad Dog… Bad.” There didn’t seem to be a visiting fan in the entire arena. I’m sure they were there, but I missed them because the only red I was looking for was up beyond the Crag where the Brawler goal waited for me to score the winning goal. Nearly one-hundred-thousand people chanted my name. I felt like I could fly. Appropriate, considering that’s what needed to happen for us to pull out a win. The fans had faith in me. I did too. It was time to rock.

    With less than a minute, and moving fast, the holoclock hovered over our head. Today it was being a more brutal nemesis than the other team. Snaps, Checker, and Paste had my back, Feline had the ball, and I had no idea where Brat and Cider where. Knowing them, they were probably getting respawned… again . Between us and the goal all seven Brawlers drooled to be the first to vaporize me. All they needed was to get the ball back and then sit on it until the clock ran down. I was not going to let that happen.

    We moved to make our final pass, I yelled to my Boomers, “Alright guys, alley-oop with a twist. Let’s hit it.” The team jumped toward the Brawlers without question. A lot of us had been doing this for five seasons as a team. When we were in sync, we were unbeatable. I could almost feel their pulses and hear their thoughts. I knew we were in the zone, and that we were going to win. As their captain, it was my job to know.
     
    Checker and Paste rolled to their bellies and used laser pistols to lay down cover fire from behind a gapped barrier. Blue beams zipped off two deflection grids and scattered one of the Brawlers from play immediately. Snaps, our shield man, ran to the base of the Brawler Crag and took a knee while allowing what remained of his shield to take the brunt of the laser hits. Feline tossed the ball wildly at the goal and jumped on Snaps’ shoulders in a balancing act that only her cat-like reflexes, for which she was named, could perform. I ran behind her with both laser pistols firing. I took down two guys, while Checker and Paste took out yet another.

    There were only two Brawlers left. They retreated for the goal like a couple flailing pigeons. Their fear should have been unwarranted because the ball’s trajectory was not anywhere close to a striking arc, but they knew us. We did things with a laserball that could only be described as “unnatural.” We could do anything we wanted, whenever we wanted. They were right to be afraid.

    Feline spun around and cupped her hands to throw me. With every last ounce of strength left in me, I jumped using the ever-stable Snaps to guide me up as he braced to maintain the balancing act Feline did on his broad shoulders. Between her boost that she gave me, and Snaps’ jump that tossed Feline, and thusly me as well, I was thrown as if having been sent sailing from a slingshot up to a dangerous height. I was near the top of the Crag.

    At the pinnacle of my ascent, it was now or never. I brought my pistols to bear on the remaining Brawlers. They were so mesmerized by the move the three of us had just pulled off that earning a point for an entire team kill was easy as I blasted them into glittering electro-bits. Just before the clock ticked to zero, I double fired a series of blue beams at the still-flying ball, and after the fourth blast, I pummeled it through the goal having used nothing but laser fire. In a shooting range, no wind or distraction, it was a trick shot nobody could pull off. But moving? It was impossible for anyone besides