Sinner's Run

From out of the darkness of the far corners of the galaxy come the newest Primes to drop into Sinner's Run to seek what they desire. Iago, Quirrel, and Experiment 32 have arrived to kill all who stand in their way - and will show no mercy.

Noah crossed a leg over his knee, a tricky thing to do in the confines of the bar booth. Top Forty tunes swirled around him, undercut by the easy chatter of a Friday night at the Benz. He'd lost track of Milo twenty minutes ago, but wasn't worried. He'd figured out after his first couple tail-chasing expeditions that, if he lost track of his roommate, all he had to do was park himself in a single spot and wait, and Milo would find him eventually. He had plenty to keep him occupied after all, what with the new game update.

He scrolled down the page, cursing whoever had formatted the site's mobile page. You'd think a multi-million dollar gaming studio could afford to hire a programmer for viewing the site on phones, but not Naspa Software apparently. After resizing the page with a few pinching motions of his fingers, he was able to read the ant-sized text better. He could see the character icons by their portraits and sighed. "Another two offense characters, really?" It wasn't like

Sinner's Run

didn't already have a roster that was two-thirds offense characters, with tanks and specialists left in the dust. At least Experiment 32 was a specialist. Noah was tempted to just skip over the other two and look directly at her.

A clatter at the bar drew his attention up away from his phone, just in time to see droplets of some liquid or another rain down. A slender girl with black hair picked up the glass and knocked it back all in one go, eliciting cheers from the people around her. Noah watched for a moment, then went back to his phone.

Experiment 32 only knows two things - her parents are dead, and the people who did it are the ones who gave her her powers through rigorous and painful experimentation. Now she seeks glory on Sinner's Run, and to get revenge on the other Primes there who had a hand in her fate.

Noah thumbed down further, but that was all there was to her lore before the explanation of her abilities began. He scowled, then thumbed over to his messenger app. The last message from Garthex was the link to the announcement page.

Barely any backstory at all, same as the last couple,

he typed out.

No love for the lore anymore?

"Noah!"

He glanced up to see Milo saunter over to his side, a half-empty beer bottle in his hand. He had his arm around a pretty redhead with green eyes and a smattering of freckles across her face and arms. "Meet Colleen," he said, voice only slightly slurred as he tapped the girl on the shoulder.

Noah put on his best smile - which, if he was being honest, wasn't even a podium placer in the "winning smiles" category. "Nice to meet you," he said.

"This is my friend Noah," Milo said, gesturing to him. "Fantastic roommate, great cook, bit of a wet noodle, but hey, he's still coming out of his shell."

Aaaaaaaand there it went. Noah fought hard to keep from scowling. He didn't appreciate the comment, but knew enough about social ettiquette to not cockblock Milo by acting like it fazed him. Colleen

was

cute, and Noah wondered idly for a moment how far down her chest her freckles went before snapping his gaze back up from where it had wandered. "I lost track of you, figured waiting was the best option," he said.

"Ya thought right," Milo said with a tipsy cackle. "You still good to drive right? Colleen and I wanted to get back."

Noah checked the time. "It's not even midnight, dude."

"I already found what I wanted!" Milo said, giving a blushing Colleen a kiss on the cheek. "A lovely lovely to spend the night with. Ain't that right, babe?"

Colleen giggled and pawed at Milo's chest. "Flatterer," she said in a smoky voice with an Irish lilt.

Noah nodded and pushed the one empty beer bottle away from him. The bar music was really starting to annoy him anyway, and besides, this meant that he could get back and play the new Primes when they launched at midnight. Win-win. "Alright, let's get a move on."

They piled into Noah's beat-up old Jeep, Milo and Colleen taking the backseat so they could be close to one another. Noah heard his phone ding with a few message notifications, but kept his eyes on the road. Texting while driving wasn't a risk he was willing to take. Distracted driving was lethal, after all.

He rolled his eyes as exaggerated makeout sounds came from the backseat.

Wonder if 'roommate and his weekly fling sucking face' counts as distracted driving.

Noah and Milo's apartment was one half of a small duplex by a retention pond in the suburbs. He pulled into the long driveway and opened the door, given that Milo and Colleen were still busy getting all touchy feely with one another. The pair of them scampered into Milo's bedroom with nary a word to him. Noah grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge and meandered to his room. Judging from Milo's past conquests, they'd be in there for a while.

He retreated into his room, shutting the door behind him and turning off the overhead light on the ceiling fan. One of the first things Noah had done upon moving in was string up orange Christmas lights around the ceiling mouldings that could be turned on by a toggle switch by his bed. He clicked it on, bathing the room in a soft, yellow glow that cut down on his monitor glare.

The power indicator on his computer clicked as he tapped it, the five fans inside whirring to life. It wasn't the quietest of machines, but since Noah spent ninety-five percent of his time in his chair with padded headphones in that killed most incoming noise, it didn't have to be. So long as it stayed cool and let him go for hours.

As the desktop woke up, it automatically signed him back into all his essential softwares - messenger, internet, game client. The moment his status changed from 'Away' to 'Online,' the messenger client dinged with an incoming call from Garthex. Noah answered it with a click. "Another couple of fucking Offense Primes. What are they thinking?"

"Beats me," Garthex said. Noah had never met Garthex in person, nor did he know his real name. However, the two had taken to chatting in a Sinner's Run forum in the early days of the game, and a fast friendship had formed soon after. "What does this make, thirty?"

"At least that," Noah said, taking a swig from his water bottle to try to get some of the alcohol taste out of his mouth. "And they've stopped giving a damn about the lore too it seems."

"Yeah, I was disappointed in that," Garthex said. His messenger indicator changed to show he was in-game. "But, you know, maybe they hid a couple things in the game like last time. I'm so close to a full theory I can almost taste it."

Noah smiled as he signed in himself. One of the things that had brought him and Garthex together in the first place was a fanatical devotion to video game lore. Their early interactions had been talks that went into the wee hours of the morning about obscure Japanese game franchises with head-scratching, complicated lore. Sinner's Run had started with some of the same, bits and pieces of the actual story of the game hidden in character bios and a few early events. Now, however, in the game's third year on the market, it seemed like the design team had put storytelling on the backburner, which irked Noah to no end.

Despite that, he'd much rather spend a Friday night seeking glory on the Run than sitting on his own in bar while Milo chased tail. Noah turned up his volume as the game audio kicked in. He jiggled his mouse a few times to loosen up his wrist. "Now I did have a beer, so my aim

might

be a bit off for a bit," he said.

Garthex laughed. "Shake out the cobwebs, N, we've got work to do."

"When do the new Primes drop?"

"Midnight Pacific, so we've got a few hours." Garthex pinged him with a party request. "Let's get some W's beforehand, because all the lobbies are going to be is the new Primes and it'll be a shitshow."

"You think they'll be overpowered?"

Garthex sucked his teeth. "Dude, did you

see

the numbers on them?"

"I was interrupted," Noah said, glancing towards his door. Across the hall Milo was probably having a fantastic time. "I'll look later," he said, clicking the large button to enter the game queue.

Sinner's Run was a battle royale game, the latest popular competitive game genre to take the world by storm. Though many takes on the game type existed, the core premise remained the same. In each game, an extra-large sized lobby of players is dropped into a large, expansive map. Using weapons and equipment they find randomly spawned across the map, all players then battled until only one person or team was left standing at the end.

Noah had resisted the genre at first, finding the random nature of most rounds too off-putting. It was entirely possible that an opponent would reach the ground before you, pick up a firearm, and gun you down before you found anything to defend yourself with. However, Sinner's Run pulled from other influences to create a unique experience. Where other battle royales had taken a character based approach, SInner's Run took the approach further by introducing character-specific stats in addition to their unique abilities. The starting roster had been well-balanced and fun to play.

As time passed and more characters - known in-game as Primes - were added, things changed. The focus of the game shifted, becoming more aggressive and fast-paced. The vast majority of the characters in the game were now Offensive class, meaning they were geared towards direct, in-your-face combat. The abundance of such characters had led to the alternative Defensive and Specialist Primes being overshadowed in the metagame. It had become a dilemma of "why bother using Larka or Archangel when Nala, Pontiff, and Lienzo were faster and smaller, therefore harder to hit?" True, gunfights still decided the majority of games, but in Noah's experience, dealing with slender Offense characters at range was a pain, especially to a Defensive main like him.

He selected Archangel, leaning back in his chair as the animated character swooped in on bio-mechanical wings. Archangel was one of the early Primes, meaning he had a fully fleshed out backstory and a simpler kit. He also just looked backass, a hooded, scarred mutant with wings and a kit that gave temporary buffs to allies. Unfortunately, the numbers hadn't been buffed in some time.

Garthex selected Nala, a Thundercats-esque Offensive character with damage-dealing abilities. "You just love that skin, don't you?" Noah teased as the character stretched in her portrait box. Nala's normal outfit was a conservative armored jumpsuit, but Garthex had sprung for the limited-time Halloween witch outfit for her that showed a lot of thigh skin. And had thigh-highs. And a boob window on her top.

"I won't apologize for anything," Garthex deadpanned. Then he laughed, and Noah did the same. Noah couldn't talk shit about anything - he owned several of the more stripperrific cosmetic skins for his favorite ladies in the game.

They loaded into the lobby as a duo. Sinner's Run could be entered solo, or with partners in teams of two, three, or four. Noah and Garthex had found they worked well as a duo, though occasionally they braved the world of randoms for extra teammates when they were feeling up to the task. The ambiance of the game began. The characters were transported to the Sinner's Run battlefield on a large dropship, swelling music playing over the roar of it's engines.

Noah was assigned Dropmaster, the big E key prompt flashing"Where do we start tonight?" Garthex asked. "Pillars?"

"You always want to go Pillars," Noah said.

"Hey, it almost always works in our favor."

"Key word there being almost." Noah twisted the camera. "Tonight we're going Maritime."

"Really?"

Noah stabbed down on his E key with authority. "Yes, really."

"Gonna punch somebody into the drink," Garthex said, sounding like he was taking a swig of something. Likely Monster.

The two of them coasted into Maritime, an industrial harbor area of the map on the west side. Just as they landed, Noah spotted another duo drop in, though he couldn't pick out their Primes at distance. "Saw a couple friends," he said.

"Yeah, I did too," Garthex answered. The two of them split up into two different buildings, hurriedly running through to try to find a gun. "Found a Heartseeker, good shit."

The Heartseeker rifle was Garthex's favorite gun, so at least he'd gotten what he wanted. "I have an N-33," Noah announced, full of false bravado. The dinky auto pistol was one of the lowest damaging weapons in the game. "Fuck it, we'll make it work."

"Let's go get 'em." Both of them ran out the back sides of their buildings. Garthex's character Nala was faster than Noah's Archangel, due to her passive ability that turned her sprint into an all-fours sprint after a few seconds. He zipped around the corner. "'Sup nerds!" Garthex said. Two loud bangs followed as he fired the Heartseeker. In the busy early-game kill feed up in the corner of Noah's screen, he saw Garthex's name followed by a head with crosshairs on it, then the name of who he'd downed. "Where's the other one?"

Noah's screen lit up with a red triangle as his health dropped. "Right on me!" he yelped. He spun around and clicked wildly, trying to get his crosshairs over the enemy Nala that had snuck around behind him. Damage numbers ticked up as a few shots landed.

Then Garthex was there to back him up. His first Heartseeker shot went wide, but the second cracked the enemy Nala in the face, dropping her to zero health. Since her teammate was already downed, this eliminated both of them from the game, both their characters disappearing in a wave of white, sparkly light. "Easy," Garthex said, hurrying over to loot the death crate that had spawned.

A quick looting session of their defeated foes turned up body armor for Noah, as well as a gun he actually could use. The Hyperion energy rifle was a single shot, medium range gun that Noah felt most people slept on. It dealt very good damage, you just had to hit your shots. Preferably to the face. Further looting of the nearby area turned up a better sidearm for him, as well as some healing items.

As they were finishing up, Noah heard shots in the distance. He spun around, using the sound in his headphones to determine where to go. "North," he said. "Sounds like Nursery."

"Let's go say hello," Garthex said. Both he and Noah holstered their weapons to run faster, though as before, Garthex's lithe catgirl character sped ahead of his slower Defensive Prime.

A chime sounded in-game, signalling the first Zone closure. The Zone was the other defining feature of most battle royale games. In order to keep rounds from going forever, the play area was gradually shrunk down by means of a damaging environmental hazard to herd players into smaller and smaller areas to force confrontation. The Zone also did more damage the longer the game went, meaning that bad decisions could leave you stuck out there with your health being sapped away alarmingly quick. It was usually represented by a gas or neon-colored no-go zone. Sinner's Run used a dark purple color akin to grape powdered drink mix, which had led to he and Garthex affectionately referring to the Zone as 'the Kool-Aid.'

"Two teams running from the Kool-Aid over there," Garthex said, pinging a hillside to their right with an indicator. "And they're fighting. Third party?"

"For sure." They cut across the grass, ducking behind a structure and going into the tight, claustrophobic cluster of large trees that defined the Nursery area. After years of playing they knew the way through by heart, popping out behind the two battling duos just as one team got the better of another.

It took Noah a moment to realize the pair was running Pontiff and Abbess. "Shit, that Pontiff just got the kills!"

"I saw, I saw." Garthex was already shooting the Heartseeker at the Pontiff, scoring two good hits as the bigger character scurried into cover. Pontiff was one of the bigger Offensive characters, with a playstyle centered around long engagements. He grew buffed for a short time after eliminating another player, with the effects resetting and growing more pronounced per elimination. Two kills gave him a speed boost as well as threat vision, highlighting all enemies in bright yellow for a short time.

"Do we push?" Noah asked.

"Yeah, push push push! I think he's healing, get the Abbess!" Abbess, on the other hand, was a Specialist with the unique passive ability to boost the length of teammate buffs. She'd been added to the game alongside Pontiff, and was a perfect duo companion for the big bastard. However, her own stats were lacking, and it seemed like her player had drawn the short straw when it came to the early game loot. She only had the little N-33 auto pistol to defend herself with. Noah's accurate Hyperion fire cracked her armor, and Garthex downed her with a follow-up Heartseeker shot.

Then the Pontiff reappeared, bull-rushing out of hiding with glowing yellow eyes, the visual indicator of which buff level he was on. He had a Raimi shotgun, a devastating slug-firing weapon. One shot took Garthex down to a sliver of health. "Shit, that hurt!" Noah heard Garthex mashing his keyboard in an attempt to use Nala's active ability, a long-range pounce that could be used as an engage or escape. On-screen, Nala had just started the animation when a second Raimi shot downed him. "Fuck, you got him?"

Noah bit his lip as his Hyperion ran out of ammo. He switched to the N-33 and sprayed, hoping for the best. While his first few shots went wide, the next three in a row dinked against the Pontiff's head and obliterated his sliver of armor and health. Elimination notifications flashed in the kill feed as Noah let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "Hoooooo boy."

"Nice, dude!" Garthex whooped. "Pick me up, quick, somebody probably heard that."

Noah did, resuscitating Garthex from his downed state. They looted with speed, finding a bevy of useful healing items on the defeated Pontiff and Abbess that they hadn't gotten a chance to use. They hung out in the lee of a rock near the humming Zone while they healed and reloaded. Garthex had found a Rifled Barrel for his Heartseeker, buffing the damage, while Noah had found the N-99 submachine gun to replace the dinky pistol sidearm. "Doing good so far," he said.

"No kidding," Garthex said. "Look at the feed."

Noah did and blinked. This game had gone exceptionally quick. There were only four squads left, which meant eight or less players, including them. "Huh. Was there a big fight at Annex or something?"

"There's

always

a big fight at Annex," Garthex snickered. The Zone chime sounded again, signalling the second closure. Sinner's Run's Zone shrunk a total of five times, with the sixth engulfing the map in its entirety, making the last fight a nail-biter.

"Let's just hug the Kool-Aid and see what happens," Noah said. The pair of them holstered weapons and sprinted ahead, the Zone humming along behind them. When it stopped, so did they, the both of them climbing on top of a tank parked in the middle of a dirt road and crouching to present smaller targets. They scanned the horizon, looking for other teams.

"How much longer do you think this game has?" Garthex asked.

"Huh?"

"I mean, with all the Offensive characters being added, it's clear the devs want this game to go in a certain direction," Garthex said. In-game, Nala pivoted from side to side as he cast his gaze over the basin in front of them. Her crouching posture revealed that whoever animated her had quite the fondness for the female posterior. "And I'm sure that's going to annoy a lot of people. I know you're not that happy with it."