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Chapter 16

“Lynn! Lynn! Are you okay? Wake up!”

A sharp sting on her cheek roused her and she jerked into consciousness. She threw her arms up automatically, fighting to ward off whatever was attacking her face.

“Ow! Lynn, stop it, it’s Edgar.”

“Whassit?” Lynn mumbled. A hard, rough surface pressed against the back of her throbbing head. She squinted her eyes open a slit but the bright sunlight sent a stab of pain through her skull and right down her spine to her toes. “Owowow,” she moaned.

“Don’t move, Lynn. You collapsed and hit your head on the concrete. There’s a paramedic on the way.”

“Ugggnnn,” was about all she could dredge up. Mostly she concentrated on deep, slow breaths to battle the dizziness that made her wonder if she were going to throw up all over Edgar.

“Lynn, that was amazing! You did it! You killed Mishipeshu!”

Wait, was that Ronnie’s voice? Was he…praising her? Who abducted Mr. Jerkitude and replaced him with this imposter?

“She most certainly did not. We killed it and don’t you dare think you can steal all the glory—”

“Oh, shut up, Elena,” came Dan’s voice and Lynn was proud of how positively unimpressed he sounded, considering the years he’d spent terrified of the pop-girl. “You’re a moron and too stupid to realize it. The game monitors have all the data. They’ll decide who gets what points and your ranting isn’t going to change that.”

“Well, I—”

“Shut up, Dan,” Edgar said. “And you too Elena. We all killed it. So, you get the credit, too.”

“It’s called teamwork, Elena,” Connor said, wearily. “It’s a term you might, you know, want to learn the definition of? If you’re going to keep doing this stuff.”

“Out of the way, miss! Stretcher coming through.”

Professional-sounding voices surrounded Lynn and she let the strong hands lift her up, help her unclip her backpack, then lay her on their stretcher as she mumbled answers to the paramedic’s questions. She kept her eyes closed until he asked her to open them and perform a series of diagnostic exercises. Besides the massive knot on the back of her head, a splitting headache and a persistent feeling of dizziness, she felt fine and was inclined to be grumpy at the paramedic’s continued poking and prodding.

“I’m fine,” she tried to tell him after he made her take a long, long drink from her hydration pack. “Just give me some pain pills and get me back to HQ.”

“I don’t think so, Ms. Raven,” the paramedic said, tapping at the diagnostic display only he could see in his AR vision. “My scans are showing you had a Grade 1, possibly a Grade 2 concussion. We really ought to get you to the nearest hospital for some more thorough brain scans—”

“No! Absolutely not. I’m not leaving until the tournament ends. I’m not disoriented or anything, I just have a headache. Give me some pain pills and I’ll be fine until they announce the results.”

The paramedic pursed his lips but then his eyes flicked up to someone behind her.

“That was some crazy stunt you pulled, Hunter.”

Lynn’s eyes shifted to bring Steve’s upside-down face into focus. He was leaning over her, expression grave.

“Oh, hey Fallu—uh, Steve. Yeah but it worked, didn’t it?” She couldn’t help her goofy grin. She felt giddy, despite the nausea. “If it’s crazy and it works it ain’t crazy.”

The upside-down mouth curved into a smile, though it didn’t touch the grave look in his eyes.

“That it did, kid. That it did. And it was also crazy. Now, the paramedic tells me you need some scans at the hospital.”

“If they try to take me away before the game wraps up, I swear I’ll fight them just as hard as I fought the TDMs. And I’ll probably win, too, concussion or not.”

Steve’s brows rose.

“Feeling a little cocky, are we? Well, don’t get your panties in a wad just yet. You’re a minor, so it’ll be up to your mother.” He looked up at the paramedic. “Come on, let’s get this stretcher back to HQ.”

“I can walk,” Lynn grumbled, attempting to sit up.

“Oh, no you don’t, Ms. Raven.” The paramedic put a firm hand on her shoulder and held her down.

She was glad he did, because she honestly didn’t think she could walk, not with the pain pounding in her head and radiating down her neck. But she hadn’t wanted to admit that in front of her teammates.

The journey back was quick and the guys chatted excitedly about the fight, exuberantly recounting their last stand for her benefit. Elena and her team were silent, though the one time the girl came into Lynn’s view, the stewing look of outrage on her face promised an unpleasant time for Connor and his teammates once they were in private.

They didn’t go back to the low, green building but took her all the way through the fence to TD Hunter HQ. Elena’s team was taken back to the conference room where the families were spectating, while Steve and the paramedic carried her to a small office off the hall. When they tried to get the rest of her team to go back to the conference room as well, they refused, to a man.

If Lynn hadn’t been so distracted by the insistent throb of pain in her skull, she would have smiled at the sight of the four of them in a row, arms crossed, giving Steve and the paramedic looks that only stubborn teenage boys could pull off. Steve didn’t push the issue, though, and left, returning a minute later with Lynn’s mom.

Matilda did the expected amount of motherly fussing followed by her own examination after she explained to the paramedic that she was an ER nurse. She thoroughly questioned Lynn about the symptoms leading up to her collapse and concluded heat stroke was the likely culprit of Lynn’s fainting spell. And, unfortunately for Lynn, she heartily agreed that they needed to take a trip to the nearest hospital.

Lynn threatened mutiny.

Matilda, being an experienced mother, didn’t try to berate or argue Lynn into submission. She just gave her daughter a long, silent, concerned look, until Lynn’s stubbornness melted into squirming guilt. Still, Lynn didn’t give up. Somehow she managed to convince her mother to let her stay until they announced the results, which Steve assured them wouldn’t take more than twenty minutes.

The paramedic gave her some pills for the pain, then slowly and carefully helped her to stand. When she proved she wasn’t unsteady, he let her walk with her friends back to the conference room under strict orders to lie down on one of the couches and stay there until he came for her. With a smile as pure as the driven snow, she promised to obey.

With Edgar supporting her on one side and her mom on the other, their little parade returned to the conference room. A rash of whispers and sidelong looks greeted them when their group entered. But they ignored the spectators and got Lynn settled on one of the couches where she could see the big screen at the end of the room. Then the guys collapsed onto various surfaces around her and returned to discussing their epic battle, albeit in more subdued voices.

Lynn tuned out the conversation, her interest turning to the tournament replay on the big screen. A commentator on the TD Hunter sub-stream for the Iowa competition was analyzing the replay of the last ten minutes or so of the fight. Mostly it was clips of Skadi’s Wolves and the CRC’s assault on Mishipeshu, though a few clips of the other surviving teams got shown too. Lynn gathered that about half the other teams had died, either through incompetence, or through stubbornly advancing through the thick of things until they simply ran out of health—the same fate Skadi’s Wolves had almost suffered. The surviving teams had stayed at the fringes and picked off as many TDMs as they could before the hour was up.

As she watched, the euphoria of their victory started to wear off and worry niggled at her. Yeah, they had killed the big bad Mishipeshu, in the end. But they’d taken sooo much damage, their kill to damage ratio was going to be absolute crap. She only hoped the evaluators took into account their extreme ingenuity and determination in the execution of the mission. Surely, they could see evidence of her team’s skill in the fight and knew the bad scores came from daring to sacrifice it all for ultimate victory?

Lynn’s brow furrowed when the vid replay got to the part where she dashed straight into Mishipeshu. Right before she disappeared into it, the scene cut to a different angle and the commentator changed focus to the remainder of their embattled team. His theatrical commentary as their combined forces fell one by one distracted her, though, and she enjoyed getting to clearly see everyone’s last stand. Her memory of it from before was very hazy.

She poked Edgar in the side and got him to look up in time to see the death of the three stooges protecting Elena, then a few moments of her flailing at the advancing Namahags before they pretty much ate her for breakfast. To Lynn’s delight, the camera stayed on her long enough to show her stomp off screen in a huff after she’d died.

So much for the pop-girl’s plan to stand in the background and look good for the cameras. Lynn only hoped the clip stuck around to bite Elena in the butt over and over. After all, nothing in the mesh ever died or went away. Ever. It was sweet justice, to say the least.

Finally, Connor and Ronnie, the last to die, disappeared from the fight and the camera turned to Mishipeshu. Lynn waited in anticipation, wondering what the commentator would say about her crazy gamble. But instead, the stream vid started flickering with static and the commentator apologized for the malfunction, saying they would move to a different drone to get a better view of the other side of Mishipeshu where “Ms. Raven” was making her brave last stand.

Whaaat?

By the time they got the camera switched, Mishipeshu exploded into a fire-works worthy display of sparks and then the stream vid abruptly cut to a different scene entirely, showing some of the other teams as they lowered their batons and celebrated successfully surviving the hour of battle.

“Edgar,” Lynn whispered. “Did you see that? They acted like I never went inside Mishipeshu. They didn’t show me collapsing! What the heck?”

“Yeah, that is weird. Maybe they didn’t want to embarrass you by showing when you fainted? I thought you were epic, a true Toa Tama’ita’i going out in a blaze of glory!”

“Maybe,” Lynn muttered, not quite amused enough at Edgar’s enthusiasm to smile. She didn’t say anything else as the commentary for the competition wrapped up but she had her theories—namely that the developers didn’t want anyone else trying to replicate her crazy stunt.

Going inside a monster to avoid its attacks would only work if it was stationary and had a big enough bulk but it was definitely an exploitable weakness inherent to the AR mechanics of the game. The developers were probably hoping no other players caught on to the hack.

Ha. Fat chance.

It was too bad she’d gotten so dehydrated at the end. It was a really intense battle, with tons of noise and light and exertion. She should have insisted all the guys brought their own water instead of sharing her hydration pack. She obviously hadn’t drunk enough. Next time she would be more careful. Hitting her head when she’d fainted had just been bad luck.

Lynn didn’t have a single shred of regret, though. Considering that she’d been a lifelong couch potato up until three months ago, it was amazing she lasted as long as she had. She resolved to train even harder going forward so her body wouldn’t give out on her next time. Well, if there was a next time…

“Aaaalll right, contestants! Thank you for your patience as our evaluators reviewed the last of the footage and technical scores,” said Trinity, back up on stage with no less bounce in her step than before.

Nervous anticipation curled in Lynn’s gut.

“Now, before we announce the results, on behalf of the TD Hunter game developers and staff, we want to thank each and every one of you for taking part in this competition. Your energy and devotion to the game have truly inspired us and we are proud to do everything we can to make TD Hunter the best and biggest game of the century! All across the world, qualification tournaments are ongoing and hardworking teams just like you are being awarded Hunter Strike Team status and an official place in TD Hunter’s first ever international championship. For those who didn’t meet the minimum standards, thank you so much for participating! Train hard and we look forward to seeing you again for next year’s qualifiers.”

A fancy “Thank you for playing” graphic played across the big screen as Trinity talked but Lynn barely looked at it. Her eyes were locked on Trinity, mentally begging the woman to hurry up. The anticipation was killing her.

“Aaand, for the lucky teams whose exceptional performance today has guaranteed them placement in the first annual TD Hunter international championship, we want to say congratulations and thank you for your devotion to the game! We wouldn’t be here today without the support of our millions of fans around the globe but it is your dedication and skill in particular that will make this revolutionary game go down in history.

“Sooo—” Trinity said, drawing the word out unnecessarily long.

“Ugh, hurry up, woman!” Dan groaned, leaning forward in his seat.

“—if everyone would please join me in a big round of applause foooor—”

“I swear I’m going to kill that woman if the next words out of her mouth aren’t the team names,” growled Ronnie.

“—the Cedar Rapids Champions and Skadi’s Wolves!”

The guys all around Lynn erupted, jumping to their feet, whooping, hugging and high-fiving as everyone else in the room gave them warm applause. Lynn, of course, stayed where she was—she had promised, after all. She saw plenty of disappointed faces as many in the seats lined up in front of the stage turned to look at her noisy teammates. She also saw a lot of blatant curiosity and shameless stares pointed her way.

She looked away.

“Would the Cedar Rapids Champions and Skadi’s Wolves please come join me on the stage?” Trinity said over the noise.

“Lynn,” Edgar said, looking at Matilda pleadingly.

“I’ll stay,” Lynn said tiredly. “You go. You deserve it. All of you,” she added, looking at Ronnie.

“Mrs. Raven,” Ronnie said carefully.

“Get up off your butt, girlie,” Matilda said, standing up and holding out her hand.

“Mom?”

“I may be a nurse and agree with the medics,” Matilda said, her eyes shiny with tears. “But I’m also a mother. No mother would keep her child lying down for this. Take my hand.”

Held up by Mack on one side and Edgar on the other, Lynn made her way slowly to the stage.

“Lynn Raven, Team Second for Skadi’s Wolves, was slightly injured in the final battle against Mishipeshu,” Trinity said, with annoying cheerfulness. “So, a round of applause for our wounded warrior!”

Lynn blushed pure scarlet at her words and wished the woman hadn’t pointed her out. But she made her way up to the stage, still a bit woozy and waved to the crowd. There was more applause and, to her absolute mortification, a few wolf whistles.

Trinity launched into a long speech about saving humanity, yada, yada, as Lynn tried not to collapse or throw up. The nausea was back and she wished they’d just get around to it. Whatever “it” was.

As the woman spoke, Lynn inspected the CRCs lined up on the opposite side of the stage from her team. Elena looked perfect, as always, her expression and demeanor back to the stylish, confident mask that she maintained for the public. Of course, anyone who watched that clip of her defeat would know the truth. Lynn looked forward to bringing it up every time she saw Elena again for the rest of their lives.

Connor and the rest of the team looked an appropriate mix of proud and gracious, listening attentively to Trinity’s words. Lynn reminded herself they all had plenty of experience being on camera from their ARS competitions. She could only hope they remembered Elena’s behavior and had the guts to do something about it. Maybe they couldn’t oust her as team captain—her daddy was funding their team. But maybe Connor would at least take her in hand and stop letting her boss them around like they were her mindless minions.

Lynn squinted at the pretty boy up there on stage, wondering what he thought of Elena’s cheating. Did he know his teammates had assaulted Mack in the bathroom and broken his equipment? Probably. Connor didn’t strike her as a complete idiot. Just a spineless one.

But his actions at the end of the competition had shown he was willing to shut Elena up if it was necessary to win. That, of course, made him even more dangerous as an opponent, not less. Only time would tell if his influence would curb Elena’s unscrupulous ambition, or if he would go along with her schemes as long as it got him what he wanted.

Well, if the CRCs tried anything again, they would be in for a rude surprise. Lynn had plans where they were concerned.

Eventually, Trinity wound down and they got around to the prizes.

Each of the team members were given a gold medal on a lanyard signifying they were official TD Hunter Strike Team members. There was a smaller “challenge coin,” more or less identical, with the TD Counterforce emblem on the front and a scroll with a “battle streamer” on the back. Theirs was already inscribed with “Boss: Mishipeshu” and the date/location.

Then came the real SWAG, already packed in a sturdy plastic box, with, yes, the TD Counterforce symbol on it. Of course.

Each box included pretty much everything she’d been supplied in Beta, plus. There were TD Counterforce backpacks—no more water supply problems—as well as the T-shirts and golf shirts, coffee mugs and so on. In addition, there were gray NTL Counterforce uniforms using the same high-performance nanofabric as Lynn’s purchased set as well as coupons redeemable for boots, tactical gloves, LINCs, AR glasses or contacts and more.

Quite the haul.

And they were done. And Lynn could lie down again. Horizontal was sounding better and better.

Dan had to carry her box stacked on his and struggled with getting both down to their seats.

Despite Edgar and Mack holding her up, she nearly fainted getting down the steps from the stage and was happy to be back reclined on her couch as the boys hooted and hollered over their SWAG boxes.

“This is an insane amount of SWAG for a regional competition,” Dan said, wonderingly. He was holding up his NTL pants and shaking his head. “Couple of thousand dollars at least. There must have been thousands of these all over the planet. Do. The. Maths. How much investment money did Krator raise?”

“Lots,” Lynn muttered. She was getting a bit loopy. Instead of getting better, she seemed to be getting worse if anything. “He said his backers were pretty serious.”

“What?” Mack asked. “Who said…what?”

“Shush,” Matilda said, worriedly, holding out both her hands. “Grip my hands.”

Lynn gripped them as tightly as she could.

“Even but weak both sides,” Matilda said. “Not extremely weak, but… Wish that ambulance would get here…”

As if on cue, the paramedic was back, quietly letting Matilda know that an ambulance aircar was waiting to take them to the nearest hospital. Matilda tried to arrange for an air taxi to take the guys and their siblings home but they wouldn’t hear of it.

“We’re officially a team, now,” Edgar said with a grin. “That means we stick together. We’ll catch a ride to the hospital.”

Everyone readily agreed, even Ronnie. Would wonders never cease?

Lynn grinned up at all of them. Her team. They’d come an awful long way and she could honestly say she was grateful that everyone, from Mr. Krator to her mom to Edgar, had kept at her. If they hadn’t encouraged her and pushed her to step outside her comfort zone, she never would have realized what she could achieve. And she definitely never would have felt this tingling warmth inside her chest that was making her eyes suspiciously moist.

Was this what it felt like to be a part of something bigger than yourself? To work alongside people you liked and trusted? Well, mostly trusted. Ronnie was, probably always would be, a work in progress.

Was this what it felt like to have real friends who depended on her and that she could depend upon in turn?

Lynn found she didn’t mind it at all, even if friends were loud and exhausting.

The analgesics did their work well, because by the time they had her loaded up and were headed out, she was floating comfortably in a dreamy state, completely unworried by the trials she knew they would face in the coming months.

A scheming, cheating rival team.

Senior year.

Twenty levels of monsters, all bigger and badder than ever before, not to mention the bosses after that.

Lynn smiled. No problem. She’d conquered everything in her path so far and she looked forward to the challenges ahead, especially if they involved cutting through ravening hordes of bloodthirsty monsters.

The life of a Hunter was a good life. To drive the TDMs before you. To loot their shattered corpses. To make them cower in fear of the Wolf Horde.

“How are you feeling, honey?” Matilda asked solicitously, doing another blood pressure check. As an ER nurse the medics had granted her “back of the ambulance” privilege.

Lynn smiled again then fumbled her AR glasses out of her pack and put them on.

“Future’s so bright, gotta wear shades…” she growled.


“The future’s not looking so bright,” Undersecretary Ernie Ashford said tightly. “This needed to go better, Mr. Krator.”

The Undersecretary for Special Research Projects was clearly unhappy with the results of the international game tests. Everyone in the world with the clearance to follow them was unhappy. While there had been no deaths this time, thank God, most of the civilian TD Hunter teams had been wiped out in game.

The things were just tough. Numbers on their feeder entities had to come down to have any chance against them.

“Secretary,” Krator replied, breathing deeply. “We are attempting to save the world using technology that was theory ten years ago, from creatures we didn’t even know existed until seven years ago, slapdashed onto a game developed one year ago, with groups of mostly teenagers, whilst trying to hide the fact civilization is about to end from the entire planet.”

Krator turned and looked the undersecretary in the eye, glaring.

“That any of this is working at all…is a freaking miracle.”



To be continued…


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