Gaming for Love

"Go home," he snorted.

"Who keeps the official rulebook?" Michael asked the rest of the members. After several seconds of tense silence, one member reached into his backpack and handed a pamphlet to Michael. Turning to a page near the back, he read aloud, "The President of the League may not refuse a challenge to his leadership from any member in good standing with the League, but as the challenged, he may determine the terms of the match."

"Sounds pretty clear to me," Ashley smirked.

Eric's face twisted in rage at this. At last he replied, "Fine. One six on six single battle... AG rules."

There was an audible gasp among the rest of the members. AG, also known as "anything goes," was a style of play not common in competitive Pokémon. Not only did it allow the most overpowered Pokémon in the game to be used, known as "ubers" or "legendary Pokémon," but it also did not ban the cheap tactics that were not allowed in most competitive matches. From this, Michael could tell exactly what Eric's play was: he was betting that Michael wouldn't have a team available that could compete at such a high level. Unfortunately for the Almighty President, Michael was well prepared for this scenario.

"Done. Set it up."

They took a seat in the middle of the room and connected their game systems. The rest of the members gathered around, eagerly anticipating a heated battle between these two. All the while, Ashley stood by Michael's side, confident that he would come out on top. In the past, she would have taken his stepping in as an insult, but she now saw he only wished to preserve her dignity. Though she would have gladly flashed Eric for the chance to beat his ass, Michael saw no reason for it to come to that. Across from them sat Sophia, again hanging on Eric's every move, almost as if she felt her existence would come to an end should he lose. Ashley decided to keep a close eye on her throughout the game. Though Michael didn't think much of it, Ashley then stood to stand behind him as a part of the crowd and reached into her pocket for something.

At the pregame screen, Michael began to inspect Eric's team. There were the two usual suspects, Groudon and Kyogre, both of which were so powerful and versatile that any uber team was sure to include them. Michael also had them on his team, though their remaining four combatants differed. Eric's remaining team consisted of a pair of frail offensive hitters, Darkrai and Pheromosa, the jack-of-all-trades Arceus, which could be any of the eighteen Pokémon types, and a Dragon Pokémon, Rayquaza. Michael was certain that Rayquaza would be Eric's Mega for the match, as it's normally banned in every other battle format. As for Michael, the rest of his team contained a couple of bulky supporters in Skarmory and Umbreon, an unpredictable wild card in Kartana, and his ace, Mega Mewtwo Y.

"Let's do this," Eric growled. "And when I win, you're banned for life."

"Same to you when I win," Michael shot back.

With that, their battle began. Michael led off with his Skarmory, intending to set up traps on Eric's side of the field to slowly damage his Pokémon throughout the match. Eric led off with his Darkrai, which immediately worried Michael. Darkrai was a Pokémon known for using sleep-inducing techniques, which would render one of his combatants useless for a few turns. Normally, only one Pokémon was allowed to be asleep at a time, but the AG rules they now played under made it legal to put any number of Pokémon to sleep. With some skillful maneuvering, Michael managed to switch Skarmory out in favor of his Mewtwo, but he was not able to set his traps yet. While Mewtwo would have been at a disadvantage against Darkrai, its Mega Evolution made it immune to sleep-inducing moves, forcing Eric to switch out.

Both of them played rather cautiously from there, trying to feel each other's strategy out. While Michael's team was slower and bulkier, allowing them to take a few hits, Eric's team was much more "hyper-offensive," containing only one or two bulky Pokémon. The rest were powerful attackers that would be easy to take down if Michael could land a strong hit. As Michael looked for an opening, he began switching his Pokémon at confusing times, throwing Eric off his game a bit. This led Eric to make an uncharacteristic mistake with his Pheromosa, leaving it severely wounded. It did manage to survive and fight back, hurting Michael's Mega Mewtwo Y in the process, but Pheromosa soon fell. Michael then surprised Eric by pulling out his Umbreon. While not a strong attacker, Umbreon functioned as a powerful healer on Michael's team, soon bringing his Mega Mewtwo back to full health with its Wish technique.

"You cheap fucker..." Eric seethed.

"You're the one that wanted to play AG rules," Michael smirked.

Eric's Arceus was the next to fall, but not before it managed to take out both Michael's Kyogre and Umbreon in the process. Now without his healer, Michael switched back to his Skarmory, taking the opportunity to set up the traps he had tried to use back at the start of the match. Darkrai returned to the field at this and rocked Skarmory with a powerful hit, but not before Skarmory had laid its traps. As it fell, Mega Mewtwo returned for the revenge knockout on Darkrai, leaving just three Pokémon on each side. Mewtwo continued its streak by taking down Eric's Kyogre, but took heavy damage in the process, and was unable to survive even a single hit from Eric's Groudon. Still, it was child's play for Michael to finish it off with his own Groudon, thanks to a well-timed critical hit.

"Now, you're dead," Eric said, eying Michael with hatred.

"We'll see."

Now down to his last Pokémon to face Michael's final two, Eric sent out his Mega Rayquaza, arguably one of the most unfairly overpowered Pokémon in the entire game. It had few natural weaknesses, and those weaknesses were still difficult to exploit due to its Delta Stream ability, which increased Rayquaza's defenses to ridiculous levels. But Michael knew of Rayquaza's one crippling weakness that it had no counter for: field traps. He had set up a trap on Eric's side of the field known as Stealth Rock, which did a small bit of damage to each Pokémon upon switching in. If a particular combatant had a weakness to Rock Type attacks, as Rayquaza did, it would take even more damage from the trap. Thus, the very act of bringing Rayquaza in reduced its health by one fourth, which was a godsend considering how strong it was. Still, its natural strength was more than enough to take out Michael's Groudon with little effort.

Now one on one against Rayquaza with his Kartana, Michael took a few moments to analyze his situation. He had equipped his Kartana with a special item called the Choice Band. This increased its already strong attacking power by an additional 50%, but also forced it into using only one of its four potential moves, hence the choice. There were a couple of good options that he could use against Rayquaza, but Michael had a suspicion that there was some strategy Eric was using that he hadn't revealed yet. Even though Kartana had one attack that would have done more damage overall, Michael locked into a move that would do a bit less damage but was guaranteed never to miss.

On the next turn, Michael smiled at realizing that he had correctly predicted that Eric was up to something. Instead of attacking, Rayquaza began using a move known as Double Team. This progressively increased its evasion capabilities, making it more likely that Michael's Pokémon would miss in their attacks altogether. This was considered the cheapest strategy in the game, resulting in widespread bans to Double Team in all competitive rules except Anything Goes. But as Michael had picked an attack with perfect accuracy that would not be affected by Double Team, he now knew that victory was all but assured. The smug look on Eric's face soon disappeared as he realized that his strategy was useless against Kartana's Smart Strike attack, guaranteed never to miss.

"You've gotta be shittin' me!" Eric gasped at seeing how much damage the attack did to his Rayquaza. "How the hell is a Smart Strike so powerful?!"

"Choice Band, ya bastard," Michael retorted.

Murmurs began to be heard from the onlookers. Each one of them knew what that meant: Michael had won. Only a single hit more, and Eric would officially be known as the former Almighty President of the AU Pokémon League. Michael tapped the screen on his 3DS and waited for the final turn to begin, but Eric just sat there in disbelief. His facial expressions went from dumbfounded, to pain, to pure rage. As he was about to select his move for what everyone knew would be the final turn, he moved his hand to the bottom of his 3DS and hit the power button, turning the system off.

"What the hell?! You rage quit?!" Michael yelled, unable to believe what had just happened.

"Yeah, whatcha gonna do about it, pussy?" Eric laughed.

"You cheated! You still lose!" Ashley agreed.

"Nope. That was my first rage quit ever, so I get a warning. But the battle itself is null and void, since it couldn't be finished before connection was lost," Eric replied with smug confidence. "You still wanna challenge me? We'll go again."

"No way! I had you beat, fair and square!" Michael shot back, standing at his chair in anger.

"I doubt the rest of the League sees it that way. What say you?" Eric asked the room.

Every last onlooker fell silent at this. Due to his supreme arrogance, Eric was blind to how much everyone in the League hated him and his leadership. Still, most had been afraid to stand up to him, and the few that did had always been soundly defeated. But today, he had been beaten, and everyone knew it. Sure, the official scoreboard said otherwise, but everyone knew what had really happened. One by one, the members of the League moved to stand behind Michael's chair, showing their support to the man they wanted as the new president. Eric soon began to lose it, seeing the only power he possessed in his life being stripped from him.

"You fucking TRAITORS!" he screamed.

"It's over. You've lost, Eric," Michael replied quietly. "As the new Almighty President of the AU Pokémon League, I hereby ban you for life and nullify your sexist girls only rule effective immediately. Leave. You're not welcome here."

"And why should I do that?" he spat.

"Because you don't want the video of your battle with Michael to end up all over the Internet," Ashley said with a grin.

"Nice try, bitch. The battle ended before it could be completed, so the 3DS couldn't make a video of the battle," Eric replied.

"Maybe. But that doesn't mean I wasn't secretly filming the whole thing with my cell phone. Including your pussy move at the end," said Ashley. "So, you have two options: leave now, or become a viral laughing stock in gaming communities the world over. Your choice."

Eric's mouth moved, but no words would come. He was beyond incensed, disbelieving that Ashley and Michael could get the better of him so completely. Still, the logical part of his brain managed to kick in, reminding Eric that any further insults would result in his embarrassment being posted all over the Internet for the world to see. Left with no other choice, he slowly rose to his feet and walked to the door. As he was about to leave, he turned to see Sophia still seated at the table.

"Hey! Let's go!" Eric snapped at her.

With a look of panic in her eyes, Sophia stood to follow, but Ashley placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"You don't have to go with him," she assured Sophia.

Gulping, Sophia replied in a mousy voice, "But... he let me join? He g-gave me a social circle, right?"

"Sophia, you don't owe him anything. He's been controlling you this entire time; we all see it," Ashley insisted. "Trust me, you can stay of your own free will. You have friends here, better friends than Eric is capable of being."

"You belong with me! Now, let's GO!" Eric shouted from the door.

Sophia was torn. In truth, she had never enjoyed being Eric's girlfriend, but felt it was her only way to actually have friends. Now, she didn't know what to think. Ashley seemed so certain that she would still be welcome here without Eric, which was such a tempting offer for Sophia. As she looked up at Eric's face and saw the rage in his eyes, she made her decision.

"I... I'm n-not going... anywhere with you," Sophia stuttered.

"What did you say to me?" Eric growled.

"I'm staying... right here. You could not... pay me enough... to touch your dirty... disgusting body even ONE MORE TIME!" Sophia finally shouted. "We're through, Eric."

"You bitch..."

"Temper, temper, Eric," Ashley taunted him, waving her phone in the air. "We wouldn't want you to lose your cool and become a viral sensation, would we?"

Stopping dead in his tracks, Eric fumed for several seconds before storming out.

"FUCK YOU ALL!!!"

The members erupted into cheers as Eric finally left, finally rid of his tyranny for good. Ashley leapt into Michael's arms, planting a steamy kiss on him in front of everyone, eliciting a few catcalls and whistles. After a moment, Ashley noticed several of the guys flocking to Sophia and trying to chat her up. Seeing the poor girl's discomfort, Ashley made her way over to her.

"Sophia, you wanna grab some food with me and my boyfriend?"

"Huh? You... actually want to hang out with me?" she replied with surprise.

"Of course! Us gamer girls have to stick together, after all," Ashley smiled.

"That... that would be nice," Sophia said with a soft grin.

"Great! I think my roommate is making tacos tonight. Sound good?"

"I do enjoy tacos..."

*****

Over the course of the next year, the AU Pokémon League skyrocketed in popularity under Michael's leadership. His first order of business was to get rid of Eric's sexist rules, along with the ridiculous title of Almighty President. His second act was to ask Antonio to join the group and assist as a Vice President. With Michael in charge, Antonio was only too happy to oblige, and helped launch a publicity campaign on campus to help draw in new members for the League. Little did they know how successful they would be.

To everyone's surprise, Antonio and Allison avoided becoming a flash in the pan and instead turned into a serious power couple around campus. With Antonio now involved with the League once again, Allison began to take an interest in her boyfriend's favorite club. After watching a few meetings, she decided she wanted to try it for herself and borrowed Antonio's 3DS. She was hooked right away, and suggested using her popularity to promote the League and help bring in more members.

At the same time, Michael had the idea of starting a rental service, reasoning that it would be a way to attract people that had never played the game before. In this way, they offered a means for new members to be competitive and have fun without needing to make outlandish monetary or time investments along the way. A few longtime members offered up their spare 3DS systems for the club to use, and Michael decided to invest in a few new copies of the most recent Pokémon games. Even better, he and Antonio made sure to have a large amount of battle-ready competitive Pokémon available to loan to the less experienced members when they came to the meetings. As a result, the League began attracting casual gamers and complete newbies in addition to the more serious gamers that already attended. Before long, their numbers had ballooned to the point that they had to move into one of the auditorium classrooms on campus for their meetings.

A few months after Eric's departure, people stopped seeing him around campus altogether. Many rumors persisted as to what happened to him. Some said he flunked out and moved into his mother's basement, others think he had hired a hooker that turned out to be an undercover cop. Regardless, nobody missed him at all, least of all, Sophia.

Ashley's offer for Sophia to join them for dinner turned out to be just what the poor girl needed and more. She formed a genuine friendship with Ashley and Michael, and especially with Ashley's roommate, Liz. Sophia eventually began a romantic relationship with Liz, though the latter suspected rightly that Sophia wasn't actually a lesbian. Rather, she found her time with Liz enjoyable because there were no controlling tendencies, as had been in her relationship with Eric. After a few months, their passion fizzled as Sophia developed the confidence and self-esteem to begin dating men again. Liz would miss the fun they had together, but Sophia was a whole new person, which couldn't have made her friends happier.

As Michael and Ashley neared their graduation the following spring, Michael began to take a hard look at what he wanted his life to be like after the end of school. He decided that he had a serious question to ask Ashley, but first, he had to meet her family. Of course, he had met her dad and sisters over the previous Thanksgiving, but there was still one more person left...

*****

"You're sure you wanna do this?" Ashley asked.

"Of course! He's such a huge part of your life, why wouldn't I?" Michael replied.

"Just be prepared; he can be pretty off-putting."

"No sweat."

Entering her uncle's house with a knock, she called out, "Hey, it's Ashley!"

"In here," a voice said.

Ashley led the way into a comfortable den with easy chairs and a sofa. A few watercolor paintings adorned the walls, giving it a very homey feeling. On the sofa sat a red-haired young man of about nineteen.

"Hey, Sam," Ashley said.

"Hello," he replied in a somewhat monotone voice. "You have a guest."

"Yeah. Sam, I wanted you to meet my boyfriend, Michael. Michael, this is my cousin, Sam."

"Good to meet you," Michael said, refraining from reaching out to shake Sam's hand; Ashley had warned that Sam didn't like that.

"Boyfriend. Interesting," Sam remarked without looking up from his 3DS. "Ashley, Mother and Father left some money on the counter for the pizza place at the end of the block. You should order and go pick it up."

Ashley cocked her eyebrow at this; Sam hadn't made a request, he'd given an instruction. Still, she knew better than to protest. Sam was trying to get this boyfriend of hers alone so he could figure him out. In spite of his Asperger's, Sam was remarkably good at reading facial expressions and tone of voice.

"Pizza sounds good. Michael, you wanna relax here? I'll be back in a bit," Ashley said before leaving with the money.

"Sure," Michael replied. Ashley had expected something like this would happen, and had prepared him as such. Sitting across from Sam, Michael asked, "Playing Pokémon there, eh?"

"Yes."

"Cool. That's actually how I met Ashley. We play in a League together at college."

"I'm not surprised," Sam said, seeming disinterested. "You must excuse my demeanor. It's due to my condition."

"Don't worry, Ashley filled me in," Michael reassured him.

"So... boyfriend. Tell me how long you have been dating my cousin."

Again, it wasn't a question, but an instruction. Michael replied, "A little over a year now. We met just before Valentine's Day last year."

"I take it you're having intercourse with her, then?"

Michael was getting used to Sam's bluntness, but decided to push back this time, saying, "To be honest, that's between her and me. Besides, I respect Ashley too much to kiss and tell without her permission. But I recognize that you're simply looking out for your cousin's best interests, so I'll say that anything we may have done has been mutually agreed upon with no coercion whatsoever."

Sam paused a moment before giving a slight nod. "Correct answer."

At this, Michael realized Sam was testing him, feeling him out. Not that he was surprised, but it suddenly made sense. Ashley had looked out for Sam growing up, and he wanted to do the same for her now, especially with her past luck with men.