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Ryan spent the flight to New York on
his phone. Airplane design had advanced
since the days of his ancestors, who would have had to deal with annoying
interruptions in their ability to access the internet. Ryan did not face the same inconvenience but
felt like he was wasting that privilege.
He’d much rather watch a fucking movie, but he hadn’t been following the
professional Breach season, and if he
showed up to New York not knowing precisely who his opponents were, Jay would
either be mad, or, worse, begin an exhaustive explanation of each and every one
of them. So here he was, about to spend
two hours looking up information on professional Breach teams, wading through a lot of information he already knew
from being a professional player to get to the parts Jay might quiz him about.
Reigning Fire had won last year and
was the favorite to win this year. They
played the Gray Fungus faction, which, in the lore, was an infectious hive-mind
which had invaded the Milky Way through an interdimensional portal. They now traveled the galaxy assimilating all
life they encountered. It was their evil
that inspired the Terran Naval Marines to the extremes which sparked Red
Arachnia to rebel against them.
Unrelatedly, their Captain, Joss
Turner, was the son of Thunderware’s CEO.
Reigning Fire was an old team, and
one Ryan already knew a good deal about.
Joss played as Huel-drark, an eight-foot monster whose right arm was a laser
cannon. He fought alongside an Avaggdon
which was a spiky mushroom barnacle with the power to manipulate the terrain
around it, a Xig’zah which was a spindly ball of arm-knives that set explosive
traps, and an Ichaboth which was an amorphous cloud of fungal spores. There was a link to some footage of them in
action. It was them picking on an enemy
they’d isolated. Ichaboth descended on
the area, buffing the three of them with beneficent spores while they passed
their poor foe back and forth like a rag-doll.
Oh, by the way, they were probably
cheaters. At least, that’s what Maximillian
Turner, who they’d fought against in last year’s final match had accused them
of. The footage of their battle, where Joss
unexpectedly pulled out the perfect counter to one of Max’s items, had been
torn apart and scrutinized by the internet.
No one had found a smoking gun, nor had anyone, including Joss, been
able to explain why he happened to make such an odd item choice at the start of
the match. He claimed he was following a
hunch. Others thought it more likely that
he’d used malicious software to smuggle in one or more “generic items,” which
he could turn into whatever he needed when he discovered he needed it. Breach-bot had detected nothing to indicate
cheating at the time, but it wouldn’t be the first time the bot had been
fooled. One of only a handful, but not
the first. The fact that Joss was the
CEO’s son made it seem just a teensy bit more likely for him to get away with
this sort of thing
But then again Maximillian, his
accuser, was the CEO’s son too, so maybe that cancelled out. He was the Captain of Ours is the Glory,
who’d gone undefeated last year until their possibly illegitimate loss in the
finals. They played as the Legion of the
Iron Star, who had invaded the galaxy through yet another interdimensional
portal, one which led to a universe so old that all that remained within it
were black holes and stars which had turned to spheres of iron over the course
of a trillion trillion years. Their
society had long ago advanced past having needs of their own, so they dedicated
their existence to traveling from dimension to dimension, distributing helpful
technologies, destroying evil empires and rescuing galaxies from pernicious
races like the Gray Fungus.
Ours is the Glory had an odd team
loadout. Max played Occilo who was the
second-biggest member of Iron Star, but had the biggest sword. They also had a Terraemotus, who was a big
magic user. That was orthodox enough. The other team members, though, were a
Nullum, which was a strange bull-like thing on which other members, in this
case Max, could ride, and an Armigeri, another support character, who would
enhance Occilo’s fighting power. It’s
odd to have multiple support characters when you only have one real
fighter. Most teams had either three
fighters and one support or two fighters, one support, and one utility
character. Then again, Nullum was a
fighter in his own regard. Mount or not,
he did have the ability to breathe fire.
Probably the third most discussed
team was Pheonix. They played Iron Star
too, with a more orthodox team setup.
The notable thing about them, in the eyes of the public, was that they
were assembled from a cancer support group.
Some friends who met at the group started gaming, and then entered a
tournament, and things evolved from there.
They went up against Ours is the Glory and lost, but Max stayed in touch
with them, and wound up using family money to pay for their treatments. Intricate medical testing had since confirmed
that they were cancer-free. Their Captain
could be seen praising Max to high heaven in interviews. One piece written by an oncologist claimed
all four of them would have been very unlikely to survive without the
high-quality treatment they received, though a disclaimer at the bottom made it
clear that this was native advertising.
The last team that attracted a lot
of public discussion was Sad Cake Binge Gaming, who Ryan and most others knew,
first and foremost, as a group of comedy streamers. They played the Pickciez, the creatures who
emerged from the third and final inter-dimensional portal in the game’s
universe. The Pickciez were a comic
relief faction conducive to the kind of performance Sad Cake Binge Gaming
normally engaged in. The fact that they
could go out of their way to prank their enemies in matchmaking and still
consistently win attested to their skill.
Of course, when it came time for tournament play, they got more serious,
hence why they were also the current European Regional Champions.
The rest of the teams were less
notable. We Rise as One played as the
Terran Naval Marines and had the worst win record of any team in the
championship despite marketing themselves on the fact that three of them were
real soldiers. Of course, having the
worst win record of the eight teams in the world championship still meant
having one of the ten best win records worldwide. About twice as good as Ryan’s team had back
when he was on it. Dying Gravity were
the South African regional champions.
They played the Pickciez and had a reputation for unconventional and
inventive strategies. Epidemic played
Gray Fungus and had been the world champions of Breach’s junior league last year.
This was their first season in the senior league, and they were doing
better than anyone had expected of them.
Last, and probably also least, was
Ryan’s team, the ironically named Unbroken.
They played Red Arachnia, and according to most of the coverage Ryan
saw, consisted of Jayden Reece, a Dash, Sophia Jones, a Boost, Mitch Atkins, a
Spark, and Lisa Dodson, a Zap. There was
only one article on the car crash, posted a few hours ago. It ended by saying that “what this tragedy
means for Unbroken’s championship bid is also unknown at this time.” ‘Also’
because the article had just explained that no one knew if Lisa would ever wake
up from her coma.
//////////
Ryan’s plane would be landing
soon. Jayden looked through his
phone. Prior to such an important event,
he spent almost all his time researching, mostly combing through footage of the
enemy teams at work. He wanted to know
their style, how they’d react to his choices, and how he could best react to
theirs. None of the teams in this
tournament were new to him. Most of
them, he’d played before. He’d lost
matches against Reigning Fire, Ours is the Glory and Sad Cake Binge Gaming
earlier this season. The others he’d
faced at some point in the past, except Epidemic. He’d never looked into them that much until now
but had been making up for that in the last few days. Their style was polished, but with vestiges
of what you might expect from a group of children. They had a bias toward flashier tactics and
over-relied on infection and other debuffs to prevent their enemies from
countering bold moves.
An announcer told Jayden that Ryan’s
flight had landed. A few minutes later,
people spilled from the appropriate terminal, Ryan among them. Jayden had started to forget what it was that
drew him to Ryan, back when he felt drawn to him, but the sight of him was
enough to remind him. Ryan was tall,
lean and tan-skinned, with adorable curly brown hair. His eyes were green, and always alert, as if
afraid to miss something important.
Jayden wished Mitch and Ryan weren’t the sort of men you had to choose
between. Ryan was a lot of fun.
Jayden stood, and Ryan saw him. They walked to each other. “Hey,” Jayden said, waving, trying to sound
cheerful.
“Hey,” Ryan said, not bothering to
sound anything but bored.
“You said you wanted to go straight
to the hospital?”
“I’m glad you remembered.”
Jayden was already working hard to
hold in his irritation at Ryan. At least
he had the decency to hold it in. “Alright.” Jay had already ordered an auto to arrive a
few minutes after Ryan was due to land, so by the time they got to the parking
lot, it was waiting to pick them up.
//////////
It suited Ryan that he didn’t speak
with Jay on the way to the hospital. Ryan
just listened to music and looked out at the city while Jay watched endless
footage of either Epidemic or Reigning Fire matches, staring at the phone with
intensity that should have summoned lasers from his eyes to melt it. Ryan tried to recall what he’d seen in Jay,
years ago. Where it concerned literal sight,
that was an easy question. Jay was
diligent about his health and had the muscles to prove it. But Ryan had met plenty of men with delicious
muscles and none of them had kept his attention for long. Jay had been so nice at first, so quick to
quip back and forth with him, so interested in everything that caught his
interest. He’d been a furnace of
passion, but now he seemed to have frozen over.
Ryan was dwelling on Jay too
much. Just because he was right there
didn’t mean there was any need to think about him. Was this what Jay wanted? Did he take pleasure in Ryan’s annoyance with
him? No, that couldn’t be. He’d want Ryan in tip-top psychological shape
for the competition tomorrow. Maybe Ryan
should have shared that goal. Maybe he
should have taken this seriously. This
was the championship, after all. Didn’t
the prospect of being the champion have at least some appeal?
Eh, not really. Ryan was looking forward to playing with
Sophia again, though, and he had missed some of the trappings of tournament
events. Audiences were fun, even when
they were against you. Unbroken had a
few fans. This must be terribly exciting
for them. An old favorite was stepping
up to stand in for his fallen comrade. It
would be a shame to disappoint them.
Outside the window, it was just
starting to get dark, and some of the city’s lights had come on. In the distance, there was a giant arch, tall
and skinny and sticking up over the skyline.
The lights covering it were blue at the peak, green near the middle, and
faded toward red as they disappeared behind the closer buildings.
They passed a giant Christmas
display. The tree was something
spectacular: big enough to rival the city’s smaller skyscrapers. On its tip, an eight-pointed golden star. The tree was covered trunk to tip with bands
of lights that shifted hues gradually and independently of one another. Occasionally, two adjacent band’s colors would
happen to match for an instant, and they would merge into a single band of
color twice as thick as the others.
Ryan changed songs. Jay was still watching footage. It was Epidemic. There was a Mog’Inub onscreen, and Reigning
Fire didn’t have one of those.
The auto arrived at the hospital. Ryan and Jay got out and hurried toward the
entrance. It was freezing.
//////////
The hospital lobby was gargantuan
and ornate, dominated by a central fountain where water trickled over a
twelve-foot formation of sharp black rocks.
Jay knew the way to Lisa’s room from having visited her once
before. He led Ryan to the elevator, which
they rode to the sixth floor.
Lisa’s room wasn’t far once they got
off the elevator. It was whiter than
white, and brightly lit. On the far side
of the room, a large square window overlooked the city. Ryan could see the same Christmas tree they’d
passed on the way here.
Lisa was on a metallic bed. An apparatus of six robotic arms hung above
her, ready to respond to any sudden medical needs with swiftness and skill no
human surgeon could have ever achieved.
Behind her bed, an apparatus of monitors beeped and buzzed.
Lisa herself was clothed in casts. A thick white brace held her neck in place,
and a larger brace which reminded Ryan of a strait jacket seemed to be doing
the same for her spine. Purple casts
covered her limbs from base to tip. A
bandage covered the right side of her face.
A bruise ringed her left eye.
“Her spinal cord is severed in two
places,” Jay said. “They don’t know if
they’ll be able to fix it.”
Ryan approached the bed, not
acknowledging him.
“I’ll step outside, if you’d like,”
Jay said, in an unusual moment of consideration.
“I would. Thank you,” Ryan said. Jay left.
It’d been Lisa that first learned
what Mitch and Jay were doing. With the
benefit of hindsight, the signs were obvious.
Mitch was spending a lot of time around the team, and Jay was spending a
lot of time alone with Mitch. The
possibility of what turned out to be true had occurred to Ryan, but Lisa had
found it more difficult than Ryan had to suppress her suspicions. After Mitch and Jay had been behaving
suspiciously for a few months, she did some investigation. Once she was convinced there could be no
innocent explanation, she decided to confront Jay to hear his side of things.
“I won’t deny it,” Jay had later
admitted to saying. “You know how things
have been between me and Ryan. Do you
honestly think he’d even be that upset?”
“Then why don’t you tell him?” Lisa
asked.
“I will, after the tournament,” Jay
said, meaning that year’s U. S. regional championship qualifier.
“Is that really what’s important to
you?”
“I thought it was important to all
of us,” Jay said. “Do you really think
it’s a good idea to break up with him right now? If Christmas or Valentine’s day were coming
up, I’d wait until after those events to break up with him. This is definitely more important than that.”
Lisa pretended to be convinced by
that line of reasoning but relayed the situation to Ryan later that day. Ryan’s confrontation with Jay wasn’t as calm
as Lisa’s had been and led to him leaving the team. The others had been on his side. If he had asked them to kick Jay off, they
would have, but at that point, he’d already started having doubts about whether
competitive Breach was something he
really enjoyed. Part of him welcomed the
excuse to leave behind the stress, the scheduling, the intense practicing, and
Jay’s constant nagging.
Ryan decided it was better that he forfeit
his spot to Mitch than to usurp Jay as team captain.
Lisa approached him later, offering
to give up her spot to Mitch instead, or leave along with him in protest, but
Ryan told her not to do either of those things unless she really wanted to. It seemed she didn’t. Maybe she didn’t want to abandon Jay and
Sophia. In either case, their team was
shuffled around to allow Mitch on, and the resulting version of Unbroken was
creamed in the qualifier. Ryan believed
it was due to the switch, and that he would have won it for them if he’d been
there. He did have to admit, though,
that this new team had found their stride since he left. Never had his version of Unbroken made it to
the World Championship. Maybe Ryan was
in over his head.
Ryan reached out to hold Lisa’s
casted hand.
A loud buzz made him jump. “Do not touch this patient,” said a speaker
above the surgeon-bot. “She has sustained
injuries throughout her skeleton and moving any part of her body could
exacerbate those injuries or cause internal bleeding.”
“Sorry,” Ryan said.
//////////
It was somehow already six before
Ryan decided to leave the hospital. He
and Jay took another auto to the hotel. All
of the tournament’s competitors were given free boarding, and it was simple
enough for Ryan to move into the hotel room that had been reserved for Lisa. It was twice the size of a bedroom, with a
queen-sized bed against one wall, a forty-inch flat-screen against the other, a
mini-bar in one corner and a trio of chairs around a table in the other. Ryan plopped his bags on one side of the bed
and lay down. He took out his phone.
According to the internet, the party
he was about to attend had been a thing for the past four years. It was held at the Turner mansion. It wouldn’t just be the competitors
there. There would be several members of
Breach’s development team, some other
VIPs from around the industry, executives from all of the companies sponsoring
the tournament, a handful of players who came close to making it into the
tournament, some fans who won a sweepstakes, and some fans rich enough to
donate large sums to this year’s charity.
(“Habitat for Humanity,” who had been hard at work for decades trying to
deal with the countless people who’d been displaced from coastal cities all
around the world due to rising sea levels.)
The party was Maximillian Turner’s idea. He held the first one the first year he
qualified for the championship. Max was
apparently no stranger to parties. There
was a detailed article about Max and his near-weekly gatherings on a website
for rich New Yorkers. At least for the
sorts of people reading this site, it wasn’t hard to get oneself invited. Charitable contributions were often solicited
from guests. Breach related imagery wasn’t uncommon, but the article assured its
readers that the mansion was exquisite, and the parties not so unsophisticated
that only a young adult could enjoy them.
The article did a good job of
maintaining the balance between seeming like a real rich person and seeming
like a human being with a soul, but this might have been a front. There were debates in the comments about
whether it was okay that Max’s family had only been rich for a single
generation. You see, Max’s father had
come from a family so lowly that it could almost be considered upper middle
class. The man had only became extremely
wealthy when Thunderware found unexpected success in virtual reality gaming. This apparently caused Max’s parties, and
everything else about his public behavior, to be far less sophisticated and
upright. Also Max wasn’t white, but that
had nothing to do with these people’s objections.
Ryan didn’t even really want to go
to the party, except it would be his earliest chance to see Sophia. Also, there was a tradition where the eight
teams that had qualified for the tournament entered a battle-royale match. Ryan wasn’t going to make his team miss out
on that just because these sorts of social events bored him.
Ryan decided he was bored of the
internet and switched to watching television, but after just ten minutes of
some old Christmas special it was already time to go. Ryan changed into some less casual clothes,
used the bathroom, and went outside. He
met up with Jay in the hallway, and they left for the mansion.
//////////
To Ryan’s Shock, Jay put down his
phone to speak. “When we get to the
mansion,” he said, “they’ll want invitations.”
He seemed to think this would be news to Ryan. “Max knows about our situation, so we should
be fine, but you might have to wait outside for a minute if there’s a
misunderstanding with whoever is checking them at the door.”
“You’re on a first name basis with
him?” Ryan asked.
“Yeah,” Jay said. “I’ve hung out with him some at events. I think he’d been trying to make nice with me
for some reason.”
“Weird.”
“He is, kind of, yeah.”
Upon seeing the mansion, it was
immediately clear to Ryan why the CEO’s son held so many parties. He had to do something to keep all that space
from going to waste. Three people lived
in this mansion, yet it was three stories tall and twice as wide. Its outer walls looked like they were made
entirely of glass, held in place by a grid of steel window frames. One could see the interior of every room in
the front of the mansion. One room
appeared to be a dining room, with a long brown table and giant gold
chandelier. Another might have been a
library, though there were so many shelves that some of them must have been
holding something else. No one could
read that much. There was a giant
fountain outside. It was shut off for
the winter but decorated with Christmas lights.
Lights also covered the mansion itself, framing each of its giant
windows and circling its roof. The
lights were brightly colored, red, green, blue, deep yellow and white, and they
were all constantly fading and relighting themselves in different colors.
Ryan and Jay’s auto made it two
car-lengths in to a massive horse-shoe before the other cars present forced it
to stop. Jay got out of the car, and
Ryan followed him. Any other time of the
year, during an event like this, there might have been a crowd on the lawn, but
no one wanted to be outside in this cold, Ryan least of all, so he went
straight up to the door and knocked. A
well-dressed butler was camped by the door to answer it. He recognized Jay’s face, and so didn’t feel
the need to ask for their invitations.
The walls of the entryway were
painted blue. The floor was tiled with
marble, marred with blue veins. A curly
staircase with a golden handrail led to a brown door. On the ground, a scarlet rug led to a gold
double-door twice the size of the mansion’s entrance. These doors were held open, and behind them
was a ballroom. There were more brown
doors to the right and left. There were
couches in each corner of the room.
People Ryan didn’t recognize, but who were the right age to be
developers or businessmen, mingled on some of them.
Ryan walked across the carpet. The doors were flanked by statues: one of Breach’s most iconic character, James of
the Terran Naval Marines, and one of the character Max happened to main, Occilo.
The glass windows on the far end of
the ballroom revealed that it was as deep as the whole rest of the house. A few dozen people mingled and danced to 40s
techno beats matching the style of Breach’s
soundtrack. Ryan scanned the room and
saw Sophia. She was speaking to someone
next to a table on which food had been laid out. Ryan walked toward her. Jay went off on his own, probably toward
Mitch, but Ryan didn’t care.
“Hey!” Sophia said when she noticed
Ryan.
“Hey,” Ryan said. The person she’d been talking to turned
around. It was, in fact, Maximilian
Turner. He stepped back allowing the two
to greet one another with a brief hug.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Ryan
said. Turner was in a light blue shirt
and dark blue jacket and pants. His face
was smooth and flawless, his eyes soft blue and gentle, his mouth curved in an
eternal smile.
“Oh, no, it’s fine,” he said. He extended his hand, which Ryan shook. “I’m Max Turner.”
“I recognized you,” Ryan said. “I’m Ryan Jonson.”
“Nice to meet you, Ryan,” Max said.” So, you’re Unbroken’s new Zap? Sophie says you’re pretty good.” He gestured toward Sophia.
“Well I’m definitely not going to go
and deny that,” Ryan said.
“Ha ha. Well, it’s nice to meet you, and thanks for
coming at the last minute. It would have
sucked for your team to have to step out because of what happened.”
“Well that’s for sure,” Ryan said.
“Ooh, Sorry,” Max said. “I shouldn’t have mentioned it.”
“No, no, it’s fine. You’re fine.”
“Max and I had just been talking
about the ’79 regionals,” Sophia said.
“Yeah,” Max said. “You guys did really well there.”
“Think so?” Ryan asked.
“Of course. I mean, sure, I could have done better, but
you got third place. That’s pretty
impressive.”
“You know, it’s not nice to tell
people you’re better than them.”
“Right, sorry about that!”
“Don’t worry. I’ll have my revenge once we start playing.”
“Ha ha. I’m going to hold you to that. You’ll get a good chance in an hour when the
match starts. It’ll be fun no matter how
it goes.”
“Yeah. It will.”
Ryan would need to consider hitting on this man later.
“You four really did have a great
dynamic, though,” Max said. “Some of the
best teamwork I’ve ever seen.”
“Thanks.”
“There’s no need to thank me for
telling the truth. Anyways, you two must
have a lot to talk about. I think I
should let you two catch up. There are
still some people who are going to arrive, and I should greet them.”
“No problem,” Sophia said.
“Yeah, do what you need to do,” Ryan
said. “I hope we bump into each other
later.”
“Me too. Oh, and a word of advice. My brother isn’t as friendly as I am. If you see him, don’t introduce
yourself. And if you do, don’t say I
didn’t warn you.”
“Uh, okay,” Ryan said.
“Maybe you’ll see what I mean,” Max
said, and he walked off.
Sophia picked up a bit of bread from
the table next to them. “So, what the
hell have you been up to for a year and a half?”
“Not much. Basically just gaming.”
“I’m surprised you’ve not found
yourself another team. It’s not like
there aren’t a million teams that would kill for a competent Zap.”
“Eh, maybe someday.” Ryan scooped a ladel-full of punch into a paper
cup. “No offense, but I haven’t been
missing competitive play much.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. I hope Jay didn’t strongarm you—”
“No, no, it’s fine. I’m happy to be here under the circumstances,
and I’m psyched to play with you again.
It’s just not my favorite playing environment.” Ryan took a sip of his punch. It was good; pinkish orange and pretty darn
sour. It didn’t taste or smell
alcoholic. “How did Mitch react to
learning that I was coming?” Ryan asked.
Sophia had to think about that. “He understood. He’d definitely rather have you come than
forfeit the tournament.”
“He wasn’t happy about it though?”
“Don’t worry about it. Jayden gave him the chance to say no and he
didn’t take it. I won’t let him get away
with going back on that.”
“Oh, I can take care of that myself
if the situation calls for it. I’m
curious, though. What would you do?”
“I dunno. I’ve never had to answer that question
before. I get along with them fine. It’s you the two of them annoy.”
“Heh.” How someone could possibly stand Mitch, Ryan
didn’t understand. The same would be
true for Jay, if Ryan hadn’t dated him for so long. “By the way, how is it you guys managed to
get yourselves into the championship? I
leave and all of the sudden you’re championship material? I have to admit, I’m a little wounded.”
“I’m sure we’d have done it last
year if you’d still been on the team.”
“Thanks for saying so.” The two continued catching up for quite a
while, until another team entered the ballroom.
//////////
Mitch was in the corner, on a couch,
dutifully studying, bobbing his head to the ambient music. Jayden walked over and sat next to him,
wrapping an arm around him.
“Hey,” Mitch said.
“Hey,” Jayden said. “Anything to share?”
“Not that you probably don’t know,”
Mitch said. “I’ve mostly been looking
into Reigning Fire. Their item selection
patterns are pretty wonky.”
“That much I know,” Jayden
said. The weak teams warranted some
study, but at the end of the day you probably wouldn’t face them, so they
didn’t warrant the bulk of your attention.
Reigning Fire were the ones to obsess over. The only way you wouldn’t face them
eventually was if they lost to someone else, and the odds of that were low. The odds of them losing to Unbroken were low
too, but that didn’t bear thinking about.
If Unbroken was going to win the championship, they were probably going
to have to beat Reigning Fire. “If
you’ve got them down, though, I’ll do Ours is the Glory.”
“Sounds good.” Ryan would be shocked to hear it, but Jayden did
get bored watching hours of footage and pouring over game data. Jayden just had the ability to power through
it with this little thing called dedication.
Jayden searched for and pulled up
some footage of Ours is the Glory playing against Unbroken earlier this
year. Ours is the Glory had an odd
battle dynamic. Everyone else was
dedicated to supporting Max’s Occilo. He
rode the Nullum. The Armigiri existed
mostly to buff him. Terraemotus put a
lot of work into aiding him as well, and forcing enemies to fight him
alone. All three of those players
weren’t people Max had known before he started competitive play. They were hired by Max’s father. That didn’t mean Max was some upstart whose
daddy had bought him a team. A team that
made it into the world championship multiple times in a row had to have four
good players. Still, Jayden wished his
dad were rich enough to buy him the best teammates in the world.
Jayden studied Max’s movements in
the piece of footage he was watching. Max
was massive as Occilo, and he moved with power, riding his Nullum toward Zap,
played by Lisa. His sword glowed with
Armigeri’s magic as he slammed it into her chest. Sparks flew.
Being impaled by the sword locked Lisa in place. Nullum hit her with a breath of blue-white fire. Her rusty armor plating melted, bits of them
dripping onto the horned beast, but doing him no harm. Max wrenched his sword out of her and rode
off to the right. Lisa’s body fell
forward. Jayden studied the clip for
over ten minutes but couldn’t find any flaw with the technique. He scooted toward Mitch, who reciprocated,
and rested his head against Jayden’s shoulder.
Across the ballroom, another team
entered.
//////////
Ryan turned to see who was
entering. He recognized the first person
to enter: Joss Turner, Captain of Reigning Fire. As much as Max probably wouldn’t want to hear
it, they looked a lot alike: both olive-skinned with puffy ridged cheeks. Joss, though, had a wiry beard, redder than
his head-hair. He was wearing a shirt
and jeans. The rest of his team entered
behind him, only one of them dressed up.
“Should I go introduce myself to
him?” Ryan asked.
“Like Max told you not to?” Sophia
asked.
“Right, exactly,” Ryan said. “I’m really curious.” Reigning Fire split up. One member headed toward the stage to
dance. Two others walked over to the
couches where Jay and Mitch were. These
were championship players. Some of the
best in the league and the most dedicated.
Maybe Jay would leave Mitch for one
of them.
“Have you met Reigning Fire before?”
Ryan asked Sophia. Ryan was pretty sure
Unbroken had played them once back when he was on it, but he didn’t remember
interacting with them himself. They
weren’t quite as big of a team a few years ago.
“We’ve played against them,” Sophia
said. “I’ve not had any extended
conversations with them or anything.”
“Do you think he’s as bad as his
brother let on?”
“Probably.”
Joss was walking over to them. Toward the punch, Ryan realized. He gave Ryan a look that told him he’d
noticed Ryan’s staring. That was rude of
Ryan. Still, the look sort of sealed the
deal. “I’m going in,” Ryan said.
“I’ll be here to cheer you on,”
Sophia said.
Ryan waited for Joss to arrive at
the punch bowl. Once Joss was in front
of the bowl, Ryan walked up to and stood behind him, as if waiting in line to
refill his glass, which was long-empty.
“Hi,” Ryan said.
“Hi,” Joss said. He scooped punch into his cup, and, without moving
out of the way, pulled a flask out of his coat and poured its contents in.
“I’m Ryan,” Ryan said. “You’re Joss Turner?”
“Yes.” He moved over, and got a plate, which he
began to fill with artificial meat.
“It’s nice to meet you,” Ryan said.
“Nice to meet you,” Joss said,
focused on his task. Ryan got his own
punch.
“Can I borrow some of what’s in the
flask?” Ryan said.
“If only I had enough to share.”
“Yikes. I’m here if you want to talk about it.”
“Believe me, there’s nothing you
could say. Now please leave me alone.”
“Sorry,” Ryan said.
“I didn’t ask you to apologize. I asked you to go away.”
“Sorry,” Ryan said again.
“And what was it I just said?”
“Alright, alright, I’m going.”
“You say that.”
Ryan took his full punch glass back
over to Sophia.
“Looks like that went well,” she
said.
“We’re best friends now,” Ryan said.
“Cool beans. Anything worth sharing?”
“He has more foresight than me. He brought a flask to mix into his punch.”
“I’m wounded. Are you saying you’re not enjoying yourself?”
“Oh no. I am.
For now. While I’ve not seen
Mitch.”
“It’d be as simple as looking right
over there.” She gestured toward the two
of them, half snuggling, half studying on the couch.
“Bleck,” Ryan said.
“Fair enough. I can’t blame Joss for needing some help
getting through this, though. There must
be a lot of baggage between he and his brother after the accusations.”
“I was reading about that on the way here. You’ve been more hooked into things than I have. Do you think he did it?”
“I was reading about that on the way here. You’ve been more hooked into things than I have. Do you think he did it?”
“There’s not really any
evidence. The whole point of having an
AI govern the game is that it allows the rules to be a bit adaptable and the
game still be fair. Max had a second
Purifying Light in that match because Breach-bot allowed him to, and Joss knew
that that kind of thing could happen, so he prepared for it.”
“I guess. I can’t help but see him as the cheating
type, though.”
“I’m sure he is. People who play fair don’t become world
champions.”
“What does that say about us?”
“That we’ll get third place, like we
did at regionals. At least that’s as
high as I’m letting my hopes get.”
“Wise. And now I feel sorry for Jay and Mitch.”
“Softie.”
Kevin
Mom
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