“Always play carefully and with caution,” the teacher lectured to the class, "but at the crucial moment you must not hesitate. Always go for it and rely on your intuition and the skills you have acquired so far. If you hesitate at the crucial moment, you will lose."
It was actually unnecessary to point this out to the students. No one at RxW ever seemed to hesitate. Rather, the warning to play with caution should probably have been reinforced, but that was difficult in a faction where everyone involved only shared a single brain cell. It was a bit like the Borgs: everyone seemed to think alike, act at the same time and indulge in the same degenerate follies.
Easter had proved to be a very effective time. By Holy Saturday, a relentless pincer had already closed around the 641. Approaching the control points from two sides, RxW ate through the Z2 like a power scythe. By the morning of Easter Sunday, the players from the other cities had left Z2 and retreated to their respective Z1s. And the 652 took the 641 in a deadly embrace.
Underground Zero, the new rising star in the sky of raid leaders, burned the Synergetics' bases, and only Maximilian held his ground as always and fought resolutely against it. The fact that he ended up burning was regretted by no one more intensely than Lipsyte, who harbored a secret crush on Maximilian - in all discretion, of course, because his name was usually not allowed to be mentioned officially, otherwise some RxW members would need masses of raspberry cream cake to cope with it.
“Imagine being in a faction that fills every raid you open!” Neigh yelled over to the Church of Synergy.
“Even worse, imagine being in a faction where you don't even have time to fill it before it's already full!” added Fluffy with a laugh.
“Imagine, you can kiss our asses!” shouted back from the Church of Synergy.
Easter passed with this kind of talk.
Meanwhile, Lady Evelyne ran after the burning Maximilian with her notebook under her arm. "Stop, stop! Wait! I waited until your raids were over so you wouldn't be distracted,“ she beamed at him, ”but I still need an interview!"
“Now?” Maximilian asked, slightly overwhelmed, trying to blow out the flames on a shirt, his sleeves and his trousers.
"Yes, now is a great time, isn't it? All the raids are over, you need to rest anyway, but the impressions are still fresh enough and not blurred! So...“ she pulled out her pen, ”please describe your feelings about the current situation in five words."
“Five words are too many,” protested Maximilian, “that's too much for me right now!”
"Hey, we're the ones who only have one brain cell! Don't tell me it's the same for you! - Okay - three terms are enough."
“Three words about the current situation - how do I feel - adrenaline-filled, blissful and humble.” Maximilian eagerly continued to blow on himself.
"Oh, a successful mix, congratulations! Three spontaneous associations about RxW?"
“Powerhouse, mad, vengeful.” Maximilian tries to punch out the flames on his sleeve.
"Very fitting there too, somehow... you can't deny it. - Is the rumor true that you have a whole harem of fangirls in the city of 641? Especially for my female readers, this is very important to know."
"No, that's not true at all! That's just a rumor."
"But no one will believe you. According to Lippy, you are a pure soul... but at some point, the dark undertow will take hold of you too and pull you into the depths. I can promise you that today. - Next question: Who does the cropped blonde hair in your profile picture belong to? The girls here are puzzling over that too."
"That's just my sister! We took a sibling photo on vacation."
Lady Evelyne laughed heartily: "No one will believe that. Absolutely no one. But I'll include it anyway. Can the interview go in the next chapter?"
Maximilian also laughed: "Yes, of course. Oh, those were all interview questions? Oh crap. I didn't even realize that."
"You're still on fire. You should really go and put that out. Otherwise Lippy will scold me. But it's an obsessive-compulsive disorder here at RxW: we have to burn everything pure and beautiful and good. The Church of Synergy, the idea of family and, of course, every pure soul we meet. This is the black plan of hell. In that respect: it's not personal!"
___________________________________________
“We have to hurry!” scolded Mr. Trump and tried to break through the undergrowth as quickly as possible. cCc Alican ran after him with his notepad and struggled to keep up. His boss had actually had a good time in the church asylum in city 641, but he had become restless after a very short time and had wanted to go back to his own city to see what had become of the White House. So that night, just in time for the start of MD, they had left Miss Laura alone in the Church of Synergy and secretly returned across the city limits.
They had just broken through the last hedge and arrived within sight of the White House. “Those barbarians!” cursed Mr. Trump and could hardly believe it. The traces of cAS and especially TTH's party were everywhere. The garden and house were in a terrible state.
“I'm going to burn them all!” Mr. Trump gritted between his teeth, "where's TTH? We're going there now!" And he continued running towards TTH's camp.
“Chief, I don't think this is a good idea,” whined Alican, running after his president, "Miss Laura will be very scolding, and you know Miss Secretary is very dominant. We're both going to be in tremendous trouble!"
"TTH must be burned! Make a note of that! It's MD, and this is the only thing that matters!"
“But boss... you're still very weak, you should rest...” Alican hesitated.
Unfortunately, Mr. Trump interpreted this as an unimportant weakness: “Enough for TTH!”
“But what if RxW comes?”
"They're not coming! They're busy with 641! And I'm going to zero Voodoo now."
Mr. Trump looked for a good position slightly above THH's camp and started sending fireballs at all the houses that were standing free. Within a very short time, half of TTH was on fire.
Alican tugged desperately at his president's sleeve. “ Boss...”
"Not now, my friend! You can see I'm busy!"
“Uh, boss...”
“Not now, I said, damn it!”
“ Boss... RxW is here.”
_______________________________________
On the 652 they had been keeping an eye on the map.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“The whole map looks like bubble wrap!” grumbled Offline, "No way through, nowhere! It should be banned!"
“Something will pop somewhere,” Neigh consoled, “and someone somewhere will want to score points for MD.”
“Mr. Trump stands completely enraged alone in the landscape,” reported DmenAce, who had just walked in the door. “Which one of you dumbasses wants an internship at the White House?”
“Hell yeah!” everyone shouted at the same time, and in no time at all the raid was full.
“Ninety-nine cunts here,” Lipsyte cursed, "and not a single pure soul. We urgently need this Maximilian to even out the ratio."
Various Thunder brothers at the end of the queue were already starting another brawl to somehow get into the raid after all.
"We'll do a second one! All right!" Underground Zero tried to calm the angry crowd.
“Internship at the White House!” roared the Thunder brothers, “Under the table, Mr. Trump!”
Mr. Trump and Alican saw the disaster coming, but could no longer avoid it. The first raid hit, the second was launched, and Mr. Trump ran off towards the edge of the map. “Boss, that's the wrong direction!” Alican shouted desperately and ran after his president, "to 641 it's in the opposite direction! Our backs are against the wall at the edge of the map, Sloth had to experience the same thing!"
“This is all your fault!” shouted Mr. Trump, “why didn't you warn me in time or stop me from having this stupid idea in the first place?”
Alican gasped: “Well that's unfair, boss, I told you that...”
"You didn't say anything! At least nothing sensible! Because you never understand anything! I'll report all this to Miss Laura!"
The chants of the approaching Thunder Brothers raid team approached inexorably from behind: “Put him under the table, put him under the table!”
The President and his assistant reached the edge of the map, and with nowhere else to go, Mr. Trump was zeroed for the second time in GW history that day.
Alican put the small notepad away and threw his unconscious president over his shoulder. Grumbling loudly to himself, he made his way back to the safety of the church asylum on 641.
___________________________________
In the kitchen of 652, Black, Mamydona and Scappy were crouching together waiting for the next raids to start when suddenly YüceEA7 leaned in the open doorway and posed elegantly. As always, the guy looked outrageously good and he knew it.
“For you baby,” he said with a charming look and handed Black a report.
Black looked at the report for a moment and squealed happily. "Samuel L. Catson? You zeroed Samuel L. Catson? That's the second account of Kir Bear!"
Yüce grinned and winked at Black. "I know. That's why I did it. Directly and without hesitation. A little gift for you, baby, for the MD. I knew that would make you happy."
“Oooooh,” sighed Scappy, "this is really soooo romantic again. Black, you have little hearts in your eyes. Make sure Bio doesn't see that or he'll get jealous." She giggled.
“Oh, it's all good,” Black laughed, "Bio knows that he's the one and only for me. But this...“ she waved a kiss at Yüce, ”it's really sweet. I'm so happy! And you figured out all by yourself that this gift would make me happy?"
“Sure,” laughed Yüce, "so, I'll be back on the battlefield. See you later!"
“He looks so outrageously good!” whispered Mamydona, "And really, I have to say: our men are starting to do well. They're starting to know how to win our hearts and how to bring a little romance into this game."
“Yeah, they're really cute now!” Scappy agreed, "and they get all jealous when the guys from the other cities want to talk to us or throw themselves at us. Did you hear about this morning? - Marzzzz zeroed Vind Tr?uble Turf because he dared to flirt a little with Evelyne last week. It was only a little bit, but Marzzzz said straight away that he would teach Vind to behave. That's soooo cute!"
Black was still staring excitedly at the report in front of him. "I also have to say: Wow, our guys are cool! I really like them! If they carry on like this for a while, I'll fall in love with them all!"
“Hey!” protested Mamydona, “didn't we say that only we girls were all in love with each other and the boys weren't allowed to join in?”
“That was yesterday,” sighed Black, “I think we'll rethink that today!”
__________________________________
The day passed with the usual revelry: Burning opponents, burning towers, and all the buildings went to RxW. At least Synergy managed to successfully defend an arsenal against RXD, which didn't come without wounds as RxW hung over the fence drunk and throwing popcorn as usual, shouting stupid remarks and raiding anyone careless enough to get caught.
Out of sheer boredom, DmenAce zeroed the rest of the White House, including EvilKermit, and organized a small punitive expedition against JustACrew from City 654 for daring to tamper on RxG. From experience, it was always a very bad idea to go after the smaller Rx family factions, but some still didn't know any better.
In the end, 641 was hit the hardest again, simply because of past events. Underground Zero burned towers and bases by the dozen, and whoever tried to fight it didn't get far.
Insane Wayne was highly active and tried valiantly, but had to listen to taunts in addition to his damage.
“I hope you don't write in your faction application afterwards: ‘I'm insane because I constantly commit suicide and am permanently set to 0 because of incredible stupidity’!” the Thunder brothers shouted from the front.
“Just shut the fuck up!” the Synergetics shouted back.
“Where's Maximilian?” shouted Lipsyte hopefully.
“He's got an appointment!” yelled the Synergetics.
“He's been zeroed,” chuckled Thunder Boo, “I think that's what his ‘appointment’ is.”
That wasn't quite true. Maximilian did indeed have an appointment. He had secretly left through the back door and snuck off to the city limits of 656. There he met with Bunny Bunz to, as they both called it, “discuss different time zones”. Yes, yes, that's what they called it now...
But as they were both very discreet about their little Romeo and Juliet romance flaring up, it didn't go unnoticed in either city.
“There's so much love everywhere!” Lipsyte wrote happily in the SC, “We embrace Synergy with lots of love - and squeeze everything out of them.”
“Thanks to you,” DdayDaggie cursed, “the whole GW has become totally boring!”
“It was like this in the last GW,” Genny waved it off, “you're getting used to the fact that ALL GWs with 652 in the bracket are like this.”
“It's payday one day, even for you,” growled Lost Reaper, "have you even paid your bills yet? Isn't the debt collection agency at the door yet?"
Stabbyunicorn had withdrawn from the front line early on. The steady advance of the 652 was too frustrating to watch.
She had locked herself in her office and was thinking feverishly. Everything she had started recently had not worked. Repeating the 641's victory from GW1 in GW2. Punishing the bitch with the ugly toes and her guy. To at least hold the front and not just watch GW from the sidelines as a spectator. To enforce the vow of silence so that all members actually adhered to it. To curb the damn book and the war propaganda. There was really only one desperate step left now to put at least a few of these points back into perspective. At least to find satisfaction in one or two places.
Stabby reached for her cell phone and dialed a very specific number. Then she placed an order. Then she calmly placed the cell phone on the table in front of her, took a deep breath and waited.
____________________________________________
There is a famous motif in all fairy tales. It says that you should always take the direct route and stay on it. Without hesitating, without dawdling, without lingering. This motif can be found in Little Red Riding Hood, the Three Craftsmen and the Seven Ravens. It is bad if you leave the direct path and linger instead of reaching your destination quickly. Then disaster is very likely to happen.
Lady Evelyne fell into precisely this trap. She actually knew the fairy tales. Why she didn't stick to them that day will remain a mystery. She had been in Z2 to fill the towers, and because the weather was so nice and the sun was shining, she decided not to go straight back to her city's base in Z4 afterwards, but to take a short walk through the desert first.
So she relaxed as she walked along the lonely path between dunes and dried bushes, enjoying the warmth and the beautiful weather and paying far too little attention to her surroundings. The sun was setting, painting patterns in various shades of red in the sand. Attentive observers might have recognized this as a warning... but Lady Evelyne was not attentive that evening.
So she ran straight into her fate at a small bend in the path behind a sand dune. The attacker had been crouching behind a small bush and was so quick that she had no chance. In a flash, he had lifted her off her feet, snatched her weapon belt and thrown himself at her while she was still falling. Lady Evelyne couldn't even scream - only a horrified gasp came from her throat as she lay backwards on the ground, her attacker on top of her. She didn't know him. He was a stranger, dressed in black, an assassin from another city, it seemed.
What a fucking mess! She could have bitten herself in the backside out of anger at her own stupidity! Unfortunately, she barely had a chance to move, the attacker used his greater mass and strength to hold her down effortlessly.
“I've disarmed you,” he grinned. Then he pulled an advertising flyer out of his pocket. “Light, Love, Peace - Church of Synergy” it read. He carefully placed the flyer directly on the lady's heart. Then he pulled out a knife.
“And now,” he said simply, “you will die.”
Lady Evelyne almost lost her breath, swallowed and ran her free hand down her neckline.
The assassin saw the movement and hesitated. What was this woman up to, was she going to rip open her blouse now to convince him not to kill her? - His hesitation was his mistake.
Too late, he saw what she pulled out of her cleavage.
“You damn fool,” Lady Evelyne hissed, " I am an RxW. What do you think I always have with me?"
The assassin was still trying to scream. But in the very next moment, the credit card severed his throat, larynx and vocal cords with a clean cut.
And then silence fell over the desert.
