Story [Issue 35] Between Tabs - Part III

[Shedinja 1,488]

Part III

 

* * *

Read Part I Here

Read Part II Here

 

 

The thud of my worn backpack hitting the floor beside my faded indigo recliner dully echoed through the empty house. Wearily, I followed suit and flopped onto the seat. 2:51, my mind registered as I glanced at my wind-beaten watch. Not bad. Shaved off a good fifteen minutes by jogging.

 

Now, onto business. I slid my trusty ASUS out of its cozy slot within a wall of pillows, followed by a half-eaten bag of Sharp Cheddar Lays. As I waited for my custom Gastrodon screen saver to flash to life, I mentally recalled the events of yesterday. I hope Medic got the message about the clan war. I should check Skype; he should be on by now. I wonder if those headphones he was talking about ordering finally came in...

 

A white number one hovering adjacent to the sky blue 'S' icon confirmed that TankiMedic had received my message. Once Skype had fully initialized, I switched into a Chrome tab and sifted through my bookmarks until I found the clan forum page. Aside from Jabinatorisawesome sending in a repaired banner code, all was quiet in my PM box. Shrugging, I returned to Skype just as the message from TankiMedic popped to life in the upper right corner of my screen.

 

[TankiMedic: Ok who is it from?]

 

Confused, I was about to type in a snarky comment about TankiMedic's memory when I remembered: I forgot to add him to the PM. Shaking my head to myself in disbelief, I shot TankiMedic another message.

 

[shedinja: Hang on, I'll connect you to the PM, hang tight for a sec.]

 

[TankiMedic: Lemme know when you're set up.]

 

Sliding back between tabs, I reopened my PM box and located the message. Clan War Request. A tap on the mouse pad began the loading process.

 

 

 

[T3chio:]

 

Clan War Request

 

Tanki Brethren [TB] vs Polyatomic [Pc]

 

Map: Sandbox CTF

Members: 4 vs 4

Time: 12:30 a.m GMT +0 on Saturday, January 26th

Format: XP/BP

 

Members:

 

[TB]

1.) T3chio

2.) LIlsims

3.) MHSxc1

4.) fake02

 

[Pc]

1.) ???

2.) ???

3.) ???

4.) ???

 

We hope to hear back from you as soon as possible.

 

 

 

T3chio. It's been a looong time since I've heard from that guy. Seems like he's just as organized and punctual as usual. Scrolling back up to the top of the page, I located the 'Add Member' box and whimsically input TankiMedic's name. Once complete, I popped between tabs to Skype and sent him a message confirming that he had been added to the conversation. He replied with an 'ok hang tight' several seconds later.

 

As I took advantage of the lull in chat to mine for the remaining cheese crumbs nestled in the bottom of the bag, a mechanical ping broke the silence that had settled over the house. Wiping the oil off of my hands, I scanned the new message and prepared to reply.

 

[TankiMedic: Ah, Tanki Brethren. I've heard of them before. Hey, you said you used to run with them once, right?]

 

[shedinja: Yeah. I did more than run with 'em, though; they were the start of my career as a clan member in Tanki.]

 

[TankiMedic: Really? TB was your first clan? I thought Target Locked was.]

 

[shedinja: Nahh. TL was the just the first one I led. TB was where it all started for me.]

 

[TankiMedic: I know Target Locked was shut down after a bit, but what about Tanki Brethren? What's the history on that?]

 

A wave of nostalgia suddenly hit me like a tidal wave. Tanki Brethren. Good Lord, it's been almost a year and a half since I've ran with them, but I remember it all like it happened a week ago. Stretching my palms towards the ceiling to loosen up, I began to clack away on the worn keyboard.

 

[shedinja: Well, like I said, Tanki Brethren [TB] was where my career as a clan worker began. I was playin' as Sigma_Ctu-s1_V3 back then. It wasn't the strongest clan out there, but we made it along well. They had a neat little axiom, to boot. Went somethin' like, "We may not look like much, but we're...

 

 

 

*     *     *

 

 

 

"...a good group of people; we are brothers, until death do we part," AllTimeGerman99 said. " I like it, how about y'all?"

 

"Kinda sounds like something you'd hear in a wedding ceremony," T3chio replied. My headset crackled as several people chuckled.

 

"Yeah, but it has a nice ring to it," I chime in. "I think it'd stick well."

 

"I think so too. Every clan needs a good motto!" takumi12 chirped.

 

"Well, then, I guess that's what we're sticking with," AllTimeGerman99 said. "Lemme get 'er up on the forum page, and we'll have that set."

 

"Hey, guys, you all online? We could have a little get-together of some sort," I suggested.

 

"I'm not set yet, Sig, but I'll be on in a shake and a half," Potatoe10937 grunted.

 

"I'm on. Let's make a Chernobyl!" T3chio cheered.

 

I chuckled. "T3, the only reason you like Cher so much is so you can fall through the little hole on top."

 

"Hey! That's not true! ...okay, so it is, but c'mon, you can do SO much parkour up there!" 

 

After killing the headset and shutting off Skype, I crammed Tanki's URL into the dinosaur Toshiba. As I traveled to the third EN server, I opened a new tab and googled 'tanki forums'. Instantly, the forum page appeared as the first option. Now, let's see if I can figure my way around this place, I thought as I began scrolling through the dull charcoal webpage. In the lower recesses of the page, I spied a section labeled eSports. Luckily, the most recent post was made by AllTimeGerman99. How convenient. Lazily clicking the clan name adjacent to my clan leader's, my screen burst into a pixelated wall of grey, purple and orange. Sure enough, the clan motto was up there, as clear as day and written in bright orange. Eesh. A little too hard on the eyes. After searching for a few minutes, I found the PM section and began to send AllTimeGerman99 another small advisory message:

 

[sigma_Ctu-s1_V3: Howdy AllTimeGerman99, just making a few more suggestions. For the members, we should probably have an easier to read list. Y'know, make all of the names purple, instead of different colors for each one. Somethin' a bit more uniform, 'ya follow? The logo I'm making for the clan is comin' out swell, just need to draw in the minor details. Also, I found you a few more members I want to add to the list: keithsciguy and someoneuno. Lemme know what you think about 'em, please? And by the way, let's not use BRIGHT orange for the clan motto. You'll make us go blind. -Sigma]

 

 

 

I was using M0 Railgun, M0 Hunter, and Forester when I first met AllTimeGerman as a representative of the clan. Though he was merely a Sergeant-major, he was armed with Dirty, M1 Isida, and M1 Wasp. Hm. He must've bought some sort of kit to get Dirty so early on. Probably that new Starter's Kit... 

 

[AllTimeGerman99: alright now that we have everyone together lets have a small practice]

 

Echoing my current thoughts, Potatoe10937 spoke up.

 

[Potatoe10937: again, what are we supposed to do?]

 

[AllTimeGerman99: let's try target practice. everyone get wasp and hornet or railgun no protection paints]

 

[sigma_Ctu-s1_V3: But I don't have M1...]

 

[AllTimeGerman99: ok get it with forester]

 

It wasn't long before we had all returned to the bright, icy Sepurhov with our equipment in place. The moment our new leader gave the signal, we let loose and lashed our shots all over the place. Frankly, it was a mess. Little more than 25% of our shots hit each other, and our ability to shoot was mitigated even further by our poor driving skills. It was almost a standard to have our shots interrupted by propelling ourselves headlong into the side of a building. Often times, the buildings themselves would wind up with a black mark due to miscalculating the distance between their tank and the wall. One time, AllTimeGerman99 attempted to crawl along the wall to take a shot at T3chio, only to find himself looking directly into his barrel after turning the corner. Our clan leader wasn't too happy about being caught up in such a simple manner. I was no exception to mistakes: the maximum number of shots I planted on an opposing hull during the fifteen minute practice measured up to a measly six.

 

However, despite how messy of a practice it was, I still understand that it was merely practice. I'm having a great time with my new-found friends, and if we keep practicing, we might have a future with Tanki Brethren. I can believe the fact that we're not the best now, but there's a chance we can become great someday...

 

 

 

*     *     *

 

 

 

[shedinja: ...and eventually, we'll be good enough to play with the best clans out there. You could say we had some ambitions for the future.]

 

[TankiMedic: Sounds like. So, T3's leading it all now? What happened to Germ?]

 

[shedinja: He quit a while ago. But that's a different story.]

 

[TankiMedic: Uh huh. Hey, you wanna see if there's a Poly CP open?]

 

[shedinja: Sure, I could game. Lemme get my Dictator on and we'll get rolling.]

 

With minor dexterity, I shunted aside the Skype tab to open up Tanki Online. I happened to chance a glance at my watch as I tossed my empty Lays bag into a nearby wastebin. 3:29, 16th of January. We've been chatting for a long time; practice is gonna start soon. Maybe we'll do a live field practice today; nobody's ever online on Fridays anyways.

 

So, T3 wants a war with us. If he's repaired the clan to the point where he's prepared to take on other clans, then he must be packing some serious heat. If there's one thing I know about him, it's that he's meticulous. He wouldn't attempt to take on a fully organized clan unless he KNEW he was set. I shook my head. This isn't the time to worry about this. You're online right now to collect a few golds, so enjoy yourself for a bit.

 

However, as the initial loading bar made way for the plethora of battles, I couldn't get my mind off of what T3 could have lying in wait ahead...

 

 

 

 

 

Read Part IV Here

 

 

 

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Edited July 30, 2017 by Hexed

[deadtoyou 2,502]

Awesome! You guys are so fond of cliffhangers....

[Shedinja 1,488]

Awesome! You guys are so fond of cliffhangers....

Hey, 'tis my job. I need to find some sort of motivation to keep y'all reading these...

[deadtoyou 2,502]

Hey, 'tis my job. I need to find some sort of motivation to keep y'all reading these...

Works very well. Keep up the good work! ;)

[Darren4Turbo 4,913]

Good Job @Shedinja, I'll read it later.

 

Nice Story!  ^_^ 

Edited May 29, 2015 by Darren4Turbo

[liverpoolaum 811]

nice

[depredatorshark 3]

good

[BlazingCoder 108]

ehhhhhhhh 

[Potatoe10937 165]

ugh, i miss the old day... wheres collin? 

sry i quit for a yr sig 

 

how did collin and germ quit? i still don't know the details.

 

I quit tanki and got drawn to this other game which got deleted so my 150$ i spent on it... :P