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Chapter 13

Lynn’s discovery of the substations was a game changer for their team. Coupled with their swift graduation to Level 10 and two-handed weapons, they were back on track to reach Level 20 by the end of August. The four afternoons a week they hunted as a team went from tedious walks searching for targets, to non-stop battles where they had to take breaks to hydrate and catch their breath.

The change in pace was brutal at first—at least for Lynn’s teammates. She was already used to pushing herself to the limit every day with extra simulation training and morning hunts. To their credit, though, not one of the guys complained or slacked off. Or at least, nobody seriously complained. There was plenty of good-natured grumbling and moaning from Dan and Mack. Edgar and Ronnie were more the silent types when it came to how they felt. Ronnie probably realized complaining would make him lose face—a surprisingly mature call on his part. Edgar was harder to read but his easygoing and positive attitude made Lynn think he was enjoying pushing himself just as much as she was. He always had a word of encouragement at the ready and not even Ronnie’s militant criticism seemed to dampen his mood.

It took Lynn a few weeks to get used to the new “private channel” arrangement with Ronnie. But slowly, painstakingly, with many hair-pulling incidents along the way, they settled into a cautious truce. She did her best to advise him without letting her exasperation show and he took credit for every bit of strategy she fed to him. As long as he took her advice, though, she could live with it. Their team’s cohesion and performance made a marked improvement and that was enough of a reward for her.

New levels and TDMs came in quick succession over the weeks. At Level 11 they discovered a new unknown that the game dubbed Lectors, an upgrade of the non-aggressive Lecta. Like their weaker version, Lectors hid well and had a tough ranged defense when disturbed but yielded a goldmine of ichor and experience. And also like with the Lectas, Lynn and her teammates only ever found one at a time. That made Lynn scratch her head, considering the hordes of imps and flocks of rocs that regularly congregated around nodes. Maybe Lectas and Lectors were territorial? At least the bug she’d complained about from beta—the sparkling mist “ghost” that sometimes appeared in the corner of her vision—had been fixed.

Level 12 brought death worms, a bigger and even more massively armored version of the crusher worms. Dan sniped those with his Disruptor Rifle, since he was their best shot and could usually hit the kill spot in one go.

At Level 13, the rest of the team finally started encountering Spithra and Phasmas and none of them were thrilled about it. Edgar especially hated the Spithra. He frequently muttered about wanting a flamethrower as he blasted them with his Blunderbuss, the bulky, two-handed version of the Dragon Scattergun Pistol. If it had been a real weapon it would have had a kick like an enraged zebra. Its close-quarters stopping power made Lynn glad that friendly fire was impossible. Normally it would have been one of the weapons they could select at the Level 15 upgrade but it was rated for Level 10+, so when a higher-class TDM had dropped it she’d immediately handed it off to Edgar. She’d finally decided to slow down her extra hunting to let the others catch up with her level, even though it cut into her item farming revenue. She’d committed herself to the team, though, and didn’t hold anything back.

Level 14 brought all sorts of fun and games when they first encountered the Penagal, a vaguely humanoid creature with grotesquely long neck and limbs. It wasn’t that strong or fast and tended to hover out of reach instead of charging in aggressively. But the moment you looked away, it would split into two slightly smaller versions of itself and jump you from opposite directions. The split reduced its power but that wasn’t much consolation when you were trying to fight four long limbs tipped in wicked claws instead of two. Even worse, if you killed one of its halves, the other would run away, only to come back later and split again. You had to dispatch both parts quickly or the thing would wear you down to nothing. Mack usually dealt with Penagals, filling them with bolts from his twin Plasma Pistols as soon as anyone spotted one. And in the rare case that one got away, Dan thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of sniping it before it fled out of visible range.

As the days wore on, they settled into their team roles nicely. Dan was a hilarious sniper, constantly smack talking the enemy while wielding a rifle almost as long as he was tall. Edgar had entirely too much fun as their heavy weapons guy and often bemoaned the fact that TDMs didn’t have physical heads he could bash together. Mack made for excellent tactical support with good all around skills and the most unassuming and helpful nature Lynn had ever seen. She and Ronnie, in the meantime, led the charge as assault elements. That arrangement was the result of another private conversation, in which Ronnie had asininely tried to argue that she didn’t have the ruthless aggression needed for assault because she was a girl.

She’d almost blurted out then and there that she’d been fragging him for years in WarMonger and how was that for ruthless aggression? Somehow, though, she’d managed to hold herself back. Instead she’d simply stated she was going to be assault whether he liked it or not and he could complain about it after he’d managed to pass her on the leaderboard.

Okay, so it hadn’t been the most respectful way to deal with it. But seriously? Not ruthless enough because she was a girl? Clearly he hadn’t been paying attention to the pop-girl cliques at school for his entire life.

And yet, despite her constant frustration with Ronnie, she had to admit he did pull his weight. She didn’t like his assault style that relied on brute force and overwhelming fire while ignoring surgical finesse—he favored twin Plasma Pistols, then usually switched to the two-handed Nano Sword for melee. But he got the job done, even if he did drop health and energy faster than Niagara Falls dropped water. If Lynn hadn’t been so good at conserving her own resources, Ronnie would have been out of luck. As it was, every time they took a break she was always transferring her extra Oneg over to him.

More importantly, though, for all his faults, Ronnie wasn’t a coward. He wasn’t afraid to take on a challenge. And as their team matured, his tendency to go after the biggest, baddest monster to the detriment of everyone else grew less and less. Lynn also saw improvement in his technique, so he clearly wasn’t skimping on simulation training. The fact that he was doing as well as he was with the Nano Sword was impressive—though she’d never tell him so. She practiced regularly with the two-handed sword but wielding it never felt as natural to her as fighting with Skadi’s Blade in one hand and her Dragon in the other. Fortunately, Skadi’s Blade did almost as much damage per hit as a Nano Sword and she could strike much faster with it, so she had no reason to switch.

It took Lynn endless hours of training and exhausting focus during hunts but she was able to more-or-less maintain her kill to damage ratio despite the team setting. She checked the leaderboard obsessively multiple times a day. She and a player named DeathShot13 were consistently vying for top place in kill to damage ratings. She didn’t know much about him, besides that he was Canadian—go figure. Much like her, he seemed to prefer staying out of the public eye. There wasn’t even a way to tell if he was on a team, since groups couldn’t become officially registered teams until everyone in them reached Level 20. She also noticed that, like her, he never posted on the tactical forums. Lower tier players tended to go on and on about their conquests and escapades but Lynn didn’t need to tell others about her successes to feel validated, especially when such loose lips would let others in on her trade secrets. She knew Tactical Support encouraged players to share their tips and tricks and she was happy to update Steve on her discoveries whenever they had a chat. But she couldn’t bring herself to post directly in the forums.

One name she did see show up constantly on the forums and in the streams was, of course, QueenElena01. Lynn was one hundred percent sure that the pop-girl’s posts were either written, or heavily edited, by one of her teammates, probably Connor. They contained way too much legitimately useful advice and authentic understanding of the game to be coming from that lying poser. And, predictably, as soon as the TD Hunter Lens app had come out, Elena’s stream had exploded with obviously staged vids of her and her “Cedar Rapids Champions” heroically slaughtering TDMs.

It had taken all of Lynn’s persuasive power to convince Ronnie and the other guys to not do something similar. She argued it would lose them a tactical advantage if rival teams could study their methods on the stream. Ronnie had reluctantly agreed and so far Lynn had managed to avoid getting recorded herself by random bystanders or other players they ran into. There usually weren’t many people around the power substations and other industrial places their team hunted.

As for Elena’s antics, Lynn couldn’t help but use her anonymous stream account to leave snarky comments pointing out the fact that Elena did nothing in any of the vids but stand back and pose while her teammates did all the work. The pop-girl probably didn’t dare engage TDMs for fear of making a fool of herself.

What really annoyed Lynn, though, was the fact that Connor and his three ARS teammates seemed to know what they were doing—and were actually good at it. Yet they still danced to Elena’s tune. Why were they following her around like whipped dogs when they could have a competent teammate in her place helping them win the championship?

Lynn could think of a few reasons, none of them repeatable in polite company.

The only saving grace of the situation was that Elena seemed too busy performing for her stream audience to bother Lynn and her team. They ran into each other occasionally while out hunting. But every time, Elena just gave them a fake smile that didn’t reach her eyes and headed off somewhere else. Lynn was convinced the conniving harpy was planning something. But she knew it wouldn’t come while they were in a group with their game equipment live, ready to document her cheating ways. No, it would come in some dark alley when they were alone and least expecting it. The thought constantly worried Lynn but all she could do was remind the guys to stay alert and stick together. Ronnie brushed her off but the other guys promised to be careful. As for her, she was always on high alert whenever she went out and always carried her pocketknife and pepper spray with her.

By the very end of July, one month away from the qualifiers, they were all nearing Level 15 and Lynn was nervously checking the score boards multiple times an hour. She had to maintain her lead on DeathShot13 until she leveled. She resisted the urge to daydream about what special Skadi item she would get next and kept her mind on their next battle.

“Remember,” Ronnie said as they checked their levels and prepared for their next attack, “keep an eye on your experience and get ready to retreat and switch to a defensive circle as soon as we level. According to the TDM Index we’ll be up against Namahags next. They’re demon upgrades and pack a nasty punch. There’s no tactical chatter about any special abilities but they’ll absorb a lot more ranged damage, so be ready for some hand-to-hand.”

Lynn smiled to herself, hearing Ronnie talk. She already knew everything he was saying but the others might not. Even if they did, it was good to be reminded. She’d only recently convinced Ronnie that such tactical rundowns were helpful. It was all a part of ensuring they were fighting as an informed, cohesive unit instead of relying on everyone’s individual level of readiness, which was what most gamers were used to.

They were at Substation 29, as they’d dubbed the power station on 29th Street NE near the electric rail. It was the same substation where Elena and her team had jumped Lynn. But they were nowhere in sight now. The hot July sun beat down on Lynn and the others where they stood on the corner. Once they were ready, they would proceed in patrol formation around the side of the substation’s brick walls to the corner opposite the streets. It was bordered by a large open field and was a perfect spot to catch some intense action while keeping a good point of retreat at their back. The busy streets bordering two sides of the substation ensured they had somewhere to recoup without being overwhelmed.

“Ready everyone?” Ronnie called.

Lynn joined the chorus of “Roger that,” and “Locked and loaded.”

“I am here to kick butt and chew gum,” Dan said, pumping a fist. “And I am all out of gum!”

Edgar reached into his vest pocket and pulled out a pack of gum.

“It keeps my mouth from getting dry,” he said, holding it out while chewing placidly.

“I’ll take some of that,” Mack said, holding out a hand.

“Will you for the love of…” Ronnie shouted. “All right. Move out!”

At Ronnie’s command, they fell into their usual formation and headed off. They were all at full stealth since this was a leveling run. No need to pull more bogies than necessary. Even so, they’d hardly rounded the first corner and made it to the edge of the field before Mack and Dan guarding their flanks had to start picking off Phasmas. Their whole group made a wide arc, sticking to the far edge of the field instead of hugging close to the substation wall. They didn’t want to stumble into any monster rings by accident.

Despite the success Lynn had found with her “blink maneuver,” she’d advised Ronnie not to adopt it as a regular team tactic after she’d received an “off the record” tip from Steve through her WarMonger messages.

Apparently, her creative use of jumping in and out of combat mode had prompted the competition board to add a rule: exiting combat mode during the competition was to be treated the same as player death and would be scored as such. Fortunately, the technique didn’t have any negative effect on their ratings during normal hunting, so Lynn and the guys still used it sometimes to crack tough groups of TDMs, or to avoid dying if they got mobbed. It was a useful loophole that Lynn felt no guilt using to her advantage.

By the time they’d reached their chosen starting point and were ready to get in the thick of things, they’d already taken out over two dozen TDMs, from Phasmas to Penagals. They wouldn’t start pulling in Delta Class TDMs like rocs, Orculls and Grumblins until there was a constant enough stream of Charlie Class monsters engaging them to put them on the lower TDMs’ radar. They usually didn’t attract the lowest class monsters like grinder worms and gremlins unless they abandoned stealth entirely. Even then, the monsters were little more than an annoyance. Lynn could scythe through them, killing an entire group with a single swipe of her blade. It was almost funny to remember how she used to be frightened of grinder worms and their rattlesnake sound.

At Ronnie’s command, they switched from patrol formation to an attack V. Mack and Dan swung out to anchor their flanks where their lines of fire were clearest while Lynn and Ronnie took up positions in the middle, on either side of Edgar. As the tip of the spear, Edgar led their steady march, blasting away and drawing all the TDMs’ attention. While the monsters were busy with Edgar, Lynn and Ronnie darted out as needed to catch them in a pincer attack at their vulnerable sides and rear. Mack and Dan kept watch on their backs and dealt with most of the Phasmas and Ghasts who circled behind to attack. If things dropped in the pot and they needed to retreat, either because Edgar had soaked all the damage he could take or they were getting overwhelmed, they simply switched the direction of the V. Edgar would lead the retreat, clearing the way with his Blunderbuss while Lynn and Ronnie covered their rear and Mack and Dan kept the flanks clear. It was a simple and straightforward formation that played to everyone’s strength and was easy to remember.

Their team’s biggest challenge was keeping in position when things got hot, since it was hard to pay attention to your enemy, your health and armor levels and your position at the same time. Balls were frequently dropped. Occasionally they would all get wiped out. They were a work in progress, for sure.

But they were getting better.

Lynn kept on the balls of her feet as she advanced, with Edgar forward to her right and Mack behind to her left. Despite the fact that she was now at the same experience level as the guys, the algorithm had not forgotten her. She still attracted bigger, harder and more monsters than anyone else. On the bright side, the higher-class TDMs couldn’t engage anyone but her but it still kept poor Mack and Edgar on their toes. Edgar joked that it built their character while Mack grumbled about gray hairs and premature aging. But hey, no pain no gain, right?

“Three Spithra forward left,” Lynn said into their group channel. “Mack, soften them up for me, I’ll assault and engage once they’re in Dragon range.”

“Roger that, Lynn.”

The response made Lynn smile. All the guys were picking up more “strategic” language after she’d sent a helpful list of military jargon to Ronnie. She hadn’t said anything about it, just sent him the link, hoping he would take the initiative and have their team start using it so her instinctive Larry-esque way of communicating didn’t make her stick out so much.

The pew-pew-pew of Mack’s Plasma Pistols cut through the clicks and growls of approaching TDMs all around them. Lynn kept her focus split between her overhead and the Spithra that were now angling for Mack. She counted down silently, carefully gauging the closing distance to her targets. She couldn’t attack too early or she’d lose the element of surprise. Ronnie’s voice crackled in her right ear, assigning a pair of death worms ahead to Dan to take out while he started picking off the gaggle of Penagals that had noticed them. Edgar was out front, shooting everything he could see with many a colorful insult and exultant choo-hoo-HOO. Lynn was vastly amused to see her calm, reserved friend morph into a bloodthirsty warrior on the battlefield. His skills and confidence had grown by leaps and bounds. He was even picking up some smack talk from Dan.

At just the right moment, Lynn sprang forward. Three rapid-fire shots from her Dragon momentarily stunned the three Spithra and then she dove into a roll, dodging the first clawed swipe at her chest and coming up beneath the closest Spithra to stab it in the underbelly. It exploded into sparks and she was off again, dodging to the side and rolling to come up under the second Spithra. More sparks. Then she leaped back to escape the third Spithra that had reared up to plunge down at her with its front four clawed legs. She shot it in the face, then lunged in to stab it right in one of its bulbous eyes.

With the Spithra dispatched, Lynn took a quick look around, then leapt to attack the Phasma aiming a swipe at Mack’s back while he was distracted with two other Phasmas that had circled behind their group. Fortunately, Phasmas were as fragile as they were sneaky and she took out her target easily.

“Thanks!” Mack gasped, jumping back to avoid one Phasma’s skeletal hand before it exploded into sparks under his barrage of bolts.

“No worries. Just remember to always keep moving. I know it makes aiming harder but don’t plant your feet, or they’ll get you.”

“Yeah, yeah. I know. I just get focused and forget.” Mack paused to shoot a Ghast in the face with a quick triple tap. It only took two bolts to kill them with the increased damage augments Mack had collected for his precious pistols but three was safer in case one of the shots missed.

Lynn turned to catch up with Edgar, scooping up the ichor and plates from the Spithra as she passed. They couldn’t afford to stop to loot while they were executing an attack formation—they usually cleared an area in plenty of time to circle back before anything despawned. But Lynn liked to pick things up if they were in easy reach and no enemies were in range. Back in formation, she scanned her overhead for more incoming bogies. “Mack, Dan, swarm of rocs headed our way from the front.”

“Mack, I got ’em,” Dan said, waving his hand at his partner. “Better put on your hard hats, ladies, cuz it’s about to start raining rocs.” Dan chortled at his own lame joke as he started picking off the leaders of the flock.

Ronnie’s sharp voice cut over Dan’s amusement. “Quit joking around and focus. Lynn, you’re with me. As soon as this group of Grumblins and Orculls converge on Edgar, execute a pincer, roger?”

“Roger that, Ronnie.”

Lynn pulled forward and away from Edgar, beginning her arc toward where he would converge with the TDMs currently lumbering toward him. She jumped over the foolhardy attack of a grinder worm in her path, then ended the TDM with a well-aimed stab behind its head. She’d learned they could only strike laterally, not vertically, so it was easier to jump over them than try to dodge around them.

Keeping a close eye on Ronnie’s progress, Lynn slowed her pace to match his. Twenty feet. Ten feet. Edgar engaged the lead Orculls with a roar of challenge and blast after blast of fire. The monsters converged on him and Ronnie shouted “Execute!”

Like twin angels of death, Lynn and Ronnie sprang forward and hit the group from either side, blades slashing. The first rank of monsters exploded into sparks before they could even turn to the new threat. The next rank turned and were summarily blasted by Edgar. Then Lynn and Ronnie waded in with abandon.

In Lynn’s augmented vision, Ronnie’s Nano Sword glinted in the sun as it swept across to slice through a Grumblin, dispatching it in a single blow. Ronnie pivoted and moved with the momentum of his blade, swinging it in a graceful arc to slash through an advancing Orcull. Lynn shot her own Orcull in the face and helped it along with a stab in the side behind its front armor plates. As it exploded and she turned to her next target, she couldn’t hold back a manic grin. Maybe being caught “on camera” by some bystander wouldn’t be so bad, because she really wished she could watch a vid of their team fighting. It would probably be epic. Or not. Maybe they would look ridiculous.

She was finishing off the last Orcull in the group when Hugo’s voice sounded in her ear.

“You have reached ninety-five percent experience for this level, Miss Lynn. I estimate another twenty to thirty TDMs will do the trick.”

“Right, thanks, Hugo,” she subvocalized, then spoke on the team channel. “I’m in the red zone, guys, anyone else close to leveling?”

The rest of the team replied with varying degrees of agreement and Ronnie had them circle in place for a breather and sip of water, letting the next wave of monsters come to them. They also grabbed all the loot in easy reach. Lynn noticed a handful of items the Orculls had dropped but they would have to wait until later to examine their spoils.

“Looks like the next group is heavy on Spithra and Penagals,” Ronnie grumbled, shading his eyes to better see the approaching CGI monsters under the bright afternoon sun. They were his least favorite opponents, since bulkier, more lumbering targets were easier to hit with his “wade in swinging” technique. “Mack, Dan, I want those Penagals wiped out by the time the Spithra reach us, got it?” The two guys acknowledged the command, though Mack’s response was significantly less confident than Dan’s. There were almost a dozen Penagals scattered among the Spithra headed their way.

“Right, prepare to advance!” Ronnie barked.

Lynn switched to her private channel with Ronnie.

“Hey, don’t you think it might be better to stay here for now? We’re not in any hurry and I can see no less than three TDM rings up there by the substation wall that we’ll be within detection range of if we assault forward. If we level that close to them we’ll get mobbed for sure and have to make a break for it.”

“So?” Ronnie said. “We’ll just blink out and regroup. No big deal.”

“But I thought we’d agreed it was better not to rely on blinking unless absolutely necessary? We don’t want to become reliant on it. We could just stay here and shed a few globes to draw in more targets. It won’t take much longer.”

“Time is money, Lynn,” Ronnie shot back, then spoke on the team channel. “All right, let’s move out!”

Jaw clenched, Lynn took up her position and started forward with the rest of the team. There were times when she felt like she was making progress with Ronnie and then there were times like these.

Things got tricky when they met the next wave. Mack and Dan kept getting distracted by Phasmas harrying their rear while their team advanced, so there were still half a dozen Penagals on their feet when the Spithra rushed Edgar. Worse, the Penagals didn’t take Edgar’s bait but split up and spread out.

Lynn muttered some choice maledictions as her eyes darted back and forth, trying to choose between several bad options. The Penagals weren’t as aggressive as the other attack TDMs, which seemed to indicate an ounce of sense in whatever pea-brain they’d been programmed with.

“Ronnie, you cover Edgar while I go after these Penagals. Dan, Mack, back me up as soon as you kill those Phasmas!”

“Got, it Lynn!” Dan shouted. Ronnie was too busy trying to keep five Spithra from gutting Edgar and Lynn didn’t need a team readout to know they were taking heavy damage. But she put it from her mind as she took off at a sprint, heading for the Penagal about to jump Mack.

Shoot. Slash. Spin. Duck. Stab, stab, stab.

One down, five to go.

Unfortunately, the delay had given the other five—no, four, Dan had got one—time to split. Lynn gritted her teeth and pushed her muscles harder, spinning under and around the grotesquely elongated monsters that tried to grab her from every side. It only took two swipes apiece to take out the split Penagals but their long reach and small target area made it difficult to land the strikes. She took a few hits before she’d killed enough that the rest turned tail to run.

“Mack, get those buggers before they get away,” she panted, taking out one of them with a blast from her Dragon before they were out of its limited range.

“A—little—busy.”

Lynn barely heard Mack over Ronnie’s yells at Dan for backup with the Spithra. She turned to see Mack spinning in a circle, trying to fight off two Phasmas and a split Penagal all by himself. She paused long enough to swig a pack of Oneg and refill her armor plates, then dashed in to help. To her dismay, the monsters fled from her assault, then turned and spread out, trying to circle behind them again. That was new. Stupid algorithm.

Several tactical options flashed through Lynn’s mind but she decided that simple was best.

“Back to back with me, Mack. They don’t have ranged attacks, so we’ll pick them off while they dance around like scared bunnies.”

“Got it, Lynn.”

Backs pressed together, they made short work of the sneaky bastards.

“Thanks, Lynn. I hate those Penagals.”

“No problem. I know it’s confusing in the heat of battle but make sure you prioritize your targets. Sometimes it’s better to take out the weaker ones first to get them out of the way. Don’t let them spin you around like that and get you all flustered—”

“Stop goofing off and get your butts over here!” Ronnie roared over the channel. “There’s another wave coming and we’re almost out of health.”

“No rest for the wicked,” Lynn said with a grin.

They hurried over to the rest of their team but no sooner had they dispatched the last Spithra that something huge, red and howling appeared out of nowhere and rushed Lynn.

“Holy—” She backpedaled, shooting and slashing to try to get the thing to back off. But it kept coming, so tall that its swings were hitting her at face level instead of chest—

Wait. Duh.

Lynn’s brain bounced back into gear and she dove forward into a roll, barely avoiding the Namahag’s downward grab with massive curved claws. The demon upgrade had the same weakness as its predecessor and Lynn spun on her knee to give it a stab-slash-stab in the back before it could turn and come at her again. Unfortunately, the Namahag was also a lot stronger than a demon and it seemed undaunted by her attack. Her focus tunneled to the new enemy bearing down on her and the com chatter and monster noises faded away. For a brief eternity, she didn’t even notice the burn in her limbs or thrum of adrenaline in her veins as she danced with death, finally dispatching it with one last rolling attack.

The moment it exploded into sparks, all her senses came rushing back. Panting, she stumbled to her feet and blinked hard, trying to get the sweat out of her eyes. Grass clippings and dirt clung to her clothes and her limbs felt suddenly heavy with weariness. But there was no time to rest.

The triumphant trill of leveling music sounded in her ears, followed closely by the bellowing roar of more Namahags.

Crap.

She’d told Ronnie. She’d told him.

Lynn dashed back to her team, having drifted away in her fight with the Namahag. They formed a loose circle, fighting monsters on every side and taking hit after hit with no room to maneuver.

“Ronnie, get us out of here, now!” Lynn subvocalized over her private channel. But Ronnie was either too distracted to reply, or just didn’t care.

Double crap. She was down to fifty percent health and armor and falling fast. The others couldn’t be doing any better and any second they took to refill made a gap for a monster to land another hit. Should they blink out? But they needed to practice dealing with a situation like this if they ever wanted a hope of qualifying. Or was the situation already too far gone?

An idea hit her.

“Hugo, did I get any Skadi stuff when I leveled?”

“Why yes, you—”

“Equip it, now!”

“Are you sure—.”

“DO IT!”

“Done.”

Lynn turned, holding back the Namahag attacking her with only her blade as her Dragon baton took a few seconds to reform into whatever-it-was that she’d gotten. It didn’t matter what it was, anything from the Skadi set would be better than a standard weapon.

She didn’t even bother looking at it. She could feel a grip and a trigger in her hand, so she simply pointed it at the Namahag’s face and pulled the trigger. Something vibrated through her hand and up her arm, like a weird ghost of a recoil. But this was an AR game. Recoil wasn’t a thing, was it?

The monster exploded.

Whoa.

Lynn’s face split into a grin as she aimed at the Spithra that loomed over her in the space the Namahag had just vacated. Pull. Boom. Bye bye, Spithra.

“Okay—everybody—get ready to blink!” Ronnie’s voice was tight and out of breath. Lynn wanted to protest but knew it was pointless. They hadn’t properly planned or prepared, despite her advice, so this was what they got. But the TDMs were so thick, Lynn worried that they’d never be able to fight their way back to collect their loot before it disappeared. And she’d seen several valuable items glinting in the grass during their assault. They needed all the items they could get, not only to augment their own weapons but to sell and buy better augments. She couldn’t let them lose it all.

“Ronnie,” Lynn subvocalized, making her decision. “I’m going to stay and draw these guys away. You all get out, armor up and get back here to collect our loot before it’s gone. Just do it fast, I don’t have much energy left!”

“Don’t be—stupid. You’ll get—killed.”

“No, I won’t. Trust me.” Lynn couldn’t help grinning a little. She loved a challenge.

He didn’t respond to her, which Lynn took as grudging permission.

“Miss Lynn, are you sure this is advisable?” Hugo’s voice chimed in her ear. “Standard tactical recommendations agree that sticking together as a team statistically results in the most advantageous outcome.”

Lynn ignored the AI as Ronnie shouted on the open channel.

“Count of three—team. Keep it—together! One. Two. Three.”

And they were gone.

As usual, the TDMs froze, as if the sudden change in their environment momentarily confused them. Or the algorithm had to take a second to recalibrate. Or something. But Lynn needed no such moment. She took the opportunity to dart between a Spithra and a Namahag, aiming north parallel to the substation wall toward more open field where she’d have plenty of room to lead the TDMs on a merry chase while Ronnie and the rest collected their loot.

And merry it was. Lynn had enough of a head start to refill all her levels before the Spithra—the swiftest of the monsters—caught up. It was dicey here and there, especially when Phasmas popped out of nowhere and tried to cheap-shot her while she was engaged with several other monsters all at once. But Lynn had more fun in the next ten minutes than she’d ever had playing TD Hunter. Alone, with no need to stay in a formation, she could dodge wherever she wanted and sprint this way and that. It wasn’t the most effective strategy but she had fun harrying the TDMs and seeing how many she could kill without getting hit herself. Plus, she could keep circling and picking up loot she’d left behind in brief moments between attacks. She kept half an ear on their team channel, listening with satisfaction as Ronnie regrouped the others and did a clean sweep of the battlefield, picking off a few straggler monsters while they collected loot. They had to be quick near the substation wall because those TDM rings were still there and as soon as the guys got in range, more monsters started amassing.

Lynn had winnowed her mob down to about half their numbers before Ronnie finally called her in. It was only when she heard his voice that she realized how utterly, mortally, exhausted she was. Instead of trying to break away from her target, she simply blinked out, then collapsed onto her butt and lay back in the grass, arms and legs splayed.

“Lynn! Are you okay?” Edgar’s voice carried over the field and within moments he appeared in her vision, his dark eyes full of worry. The others soon joined him.

Too busy gasping for breath to reply, Lynn gave a double thumbs-up. The grass felt comfy. So soft. Maybe she could take a quick nap?

“Come on, stop being dramatic,” Ronnie said sarcastically. “We all leveled and we found a bunch of items, so we need to go find a coffee shop or something and review our weapons and stats.”

Good grief, was a little gratitude too much to ask? If she hadn’t been so completely spent, Lynn would have flipped Ronnie the bird. Probably.

“Lay off, Ronnie,” Edgar said. It was closer to a growl. “She’s exhausted. Give her a minute to rest.”

“Fine, whatever,” Ronnie said with crossed arms and a scowl. “Dan, Mack, come on. There’s a pizza place down the street. We’ll meet you two there as soon as Lynn is rested.”

Lynn could see Edgar roll his eyes from where she lay. She appreciated it. The voices of the other guys faded as they headed off and Lynn closed her eyes. This really wasn’t that bad of a place for a nap. She was all sweaty and hot but thanks to her smart clothes she didn’t feel itchy. Her AR glasses had darkened, shielding her eyes from the sun above and the buzz of grasshoppers melded with the familiar whirr of a drone passing overhead.

She felt, rather than saw Edgar sit down on the grass beside her. Should she dredge up enough energy to say something? Nah. He had never been one who needed conversation to fill the silence. It was one of the things she liked most about him.

Now, about that nap…

“Uh, hey, Lynn? You awake?” Edgar asked.

Edgar’s question made her start. Ooooh her muscles hurt. She groaned.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Edgar said, blowing small bubbles with his gum. “I think you fell asleep though. You were really still for a bit there.”

Grunt.

“You know, we should probably get going. Ronnie is going nuts in the group chat.”

Grunt.

“Do you need help up?”

Lynn cracked her eyes open and mumbled something she was pretty sure was “yes.” A shadow fell over her and she lifted one weary hand. Edgar took it and hauled her to her feet. Her legs did not approve. Not at all.

“Uggh. I hurt all over.”

“I mean, no wonder,” Edgar said. “You were like a machine out there. Thanks for taking one for the team. I was absolutely slammed when we blinked. Down to my last percentage of health and everything.”

Lynn shrugged, embarrassed by the note of awe in Edgar’s voice.

“You’re my team,” she said. “It’s what I do. Besides, I enjoy the challenge.”

“Course you do, cuz you’re a Toa Tama’ita’i, remember?” He grinned and punched her shoulder, then grabbed frantically to steady her when she almost fell over. “Oops! Sorry! I forgot you’re still kinda unsteady.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Lynn said, flapping her hand at him and pulling away from his strong, steady grip and the weird things it was doing to her insides. “Just don’t call me that in front of Ronnie, got it?”

“Roger that, Lynn. I promise I’ll keep your superhero name a secret.”

She rolled her eyes, trying and failing to hide her grin.

“Come on, you big goofball. I could eat an entire taco pizza. Probably two.” She started across the field toward 29th Street NE and Edgar followed.

“You know, after that battle, I’d say you deserve a whole boat of pizzas.”

“Nah, that’d weigh me down. Gotta keep this fighting machine in tip-top shape,” Lynn said, patting her stomach.

Edgar looked over at her, eyes drawn to the movement of her hand. They rose to her face rather more slowly than necessary and Lynn felt her cheeks heat.

“Uh…yeah…sure. Tip-top shape. Only two pizzas for you,” Edgar agreed, clearly distracted.

Lynn sped up, mind fixed firmly on the thought of piping hot, greasy, delicious pizza and absolutely nothing else.


For barely an hour of hunting at Substation 29, they’d made out like bandits. They’d found not one, not two but three top-level augments, two of them something they’d never seen before: special ammunition. While their weapons used energy instead of individual bullets that needed to be reloaded, the massive energy expended by a special ammo augment effectively limited its use in the same way. You could go through your entire reserve of energy within minutes if you weren’t careful and then you had to switch to a non-energy using weapon like a Nano Blade or Nano Sword until you picked up some ichor. The armor piercing ammo went to Dan, while the flechette rounds went to Edgar. Even cooler, both types of special ammo had an element of “stopping power” because of their huge energy usage. According to their descriptions, both would stun their targets, though heavier, bulkier monsters would be able to throw off the effects faster.

The third augment was even cooler, the first named item they’d found apart from Lynn’s Skadi set. It was a personal augment called the Romulan Shroud, which both Dan and Mack found immensely amusing, though they wouldn’t say why. According to its description, it disrupted the bearer’s radiation signature, making it harder for TDMs to maintain a target lock and so lowered the accuracy of their attacks. The vote was unanimous to give the augment to Edgar, who needed all the help he could get surviving as their tank.

On top of the three excellent augments, they also found some average items they could sell and enough plates, globes and Oneg to set them up for a while. Ronnie finally got to upgrade from Nano Sword to Plasma Sword and Dan from Disruptor Rifle to Plasma Rifle. Both would be doing much heavier damage now, though they would use proportionally more energy as well. Fortunately, Dan was a crack shot and both he and Mack were good at energy conservation. That meant the only resupply they had to worry about was for Ronnie and Edgar. Lynn was glad she’d been able to confirm through forum gossip that once you hit Level 20, you got special team-only items and abilities, one of which was being able to share resources while in combat mode. Fighting as a hunting group got them the usual group experience bonus but there weren’t many perks beyond that.

Oohing and ahhing over their new loot lasted them through the first two and a half pizzas and Lynn was dusting off the third when Dan turned to her and asked.

“Hey, so what new Skadi item did you get? It’s been every five levels, right?”

“Oh, uh, yeah,” Lynn said, taken aback. She hadn’t realized Dan had been keeping track. Then again, he was the one to obsess over details, plus he and the other guys saw her Skadi skin and blade for hours a day while they hunted, so it would make sense that he wanted to know what came next. “It’s a gun. I actually haven’t looked at it yet, I was kinda busy trying to stay alive when I leveled.”

“Pull it up,” Mack said, pulling at a few growing whiskers. “I wanna see if the stats are as sick as they are on your Skadi sword.”

“Wrath,” Lynn said.

“Huh?” Mack looked confused.

“The item is named Skadi’s Wrath, so I just, um, call it Wrath for short.” Lynn glanced around, relieved that only Ronnie had an incredulous look on his face. The others were grinning. She refocused on her display and pulled up her item index, selecting the new weapon and then projecting her screen for the guys to see.

All of them leaned in—well, except Ronnie, who was doing his best to look bored but the intensity of his gaze gave him away. Edgar whistled and Dan rubbed his hands together eagerly as if he was about to reach out and pick up the gun.

Skadi’s Abomination was a bigger version of the standard one-handed Scattergun. It was so hefty-looking, it would have been a real struggle to wield one-handed if the batons were realistically weighted. What was truly unique about it, though, was that the stock and barrel were covered in a pattern of metal plating that looked much like her Skadi armor. Even more impressive, the tip of the muzzle where it flared out was molded into a dragon’s head, mouth open and teeth bared in a ferocious display.

“Is it a flamethrower?” Edgar asked in a reverent tone, looking at the gun like it was his firstborn child.

“Sorry to break it to you but no. It shoots like a regular Dragon but it packs a lot more punch.”

Dan waved a hand impatiently. “Yeah, yeah, enough drooling, Edgar. Pull up the stats, already, will you, Lynn?”

She did, then sat back to let the guys dissect and compare them while she looked on in amusement. All the while she tried not to think about how close she’d come to never getting “Abomination” at all. If that first Namahag she’d killed hadn’t pushed her over the edge into Level 15 before she’d circled up with her team and they’d gotten mobbed, she might not have had a high enough kill to damage ratio to qualify. Thanks to Ronnie’s pig-headedness, that fight had been a complete train wreck. She’d been too busy surviving to worry about finesse or ratings. She’d checked the leaderboard on the way to the pizza place and found she’d slipped to third place in kill to damage ratings. She was going to have to work her butt off to claw back up to first and make sure she achieved the entire Skadi set. She could only hope Ronnie’s incompetence didn’t ruin it.

Glancing at Abomination, though, she knew all the hard work would be worth it.

While Dan and Mack were still arguing over her new gun’s stats, she checked to see if Ronnie had his TD Hunter app open, then subvocalized to him.

“We can’t do that again, you know.”

Ronnie’s eyes cut to her but he didn’t give any other indication of having heard.

“We can’t blink out in the qualifiers and you can bet we’ll have to face mobs like that again. We need to come up with SOPs to deal with that and other critical situations, then we need to practice them. A lot.”

Ronnie glared at the table but finally grunted. None of the other guys noticed the byplay. They’d convinced Edgar to project his Blunderbuss and line it up next to Abomination so they could compare the two. Lynn sighed internally and went back to finishing her taco pizza. Ronnie would wait a while to bring the topic up, just to make sure Lynn knew he was doing exactly what he wanted to do, when he wanted to do it. Heaven forbid Lynn think he was taking orders from her.

The pizza trays had been picked clean and handed off to the server bot by the time Ronnie finally corralled the conversation.

“All right, you all. We still have plenty of work to do today. We only have four weeks left to get to Level 20. Today was good but you all really dropped the ball at the end there—”

Lynn worked so hard not to roll her eyes. Then she spotted Dan across the table give the biggest eye roll she’d ever seen. She met his eyes and grinned.

“—So, we need to come up with some SOPs to deal with situations like that.”

There was a beat of silence, then Edgar raised his hand.

“Uh, what are SOPs?”

“Standard operating procedures, genius,” Ronnie said. “Didn’t you memorize that list of terms I sent you?”

“Thought I did,” Edgar said and shrugged. “Guess I’ll look at it again.”

“Yeah, you do that. Anyway,” Ronnie continued, “here’s what I’m thinking…”


The next four weeks were a hot, sweaty blur as July moved into August and Lynn and her team were out hunting five to six days a week. Lynn held to a strict daily schedule to keep herself on track and barely saw her mom except on weekends. She was up by six thirty for a run, then a shower and breakfast by eight. She worked on simulation training for two hours after that out behind her apartment complex near the greenway, since her room wasn’t big enough for most of the exercises.

Since she was no longer doing extra hunting, she spent ten to eleven researching monsters, catching up on tactical forum threads and chatting with various other players from all over the world. She was starting to get to know some of the other top tier hunters. Many were from the U.S. or Canada but all the other top gaming countries were represented as well, from China, Taiwan and South Korea to a slew of Eurasian countries like Russia, Sweden, Germany and Ukraine, as well as Malaysia, India and Brazil.

Eleven to noon was for lunch and chores, then she had a little downtime before she needed to head out to meet the team by one o’clock. They usually hunted until six when Mack and Dan had to go home. Mack’s mom was a stickler about family dinner and Dan’s parents thought he was attending robotics camp, so he didn’t want to stay late and risk any inconvenient questions. Ronnie always left with Dan. Edgar usually left then too but sometimes he and Lynn hung out and chatted before they parted ways to head home.

Lynn’s mom was always gone by the time she got home but she usually left something warm in the oven, or a note about leftovers in the fridge. Sometimes if Lynn finished up the leftovers she’d cook something simple so her mom would have food to eat the next day. She wasn’t a fan of cooking but she felt guilty about how much of her life TD Hunter was taking up.

Plus, her mom always left a fun note with the food she left, so Lynn had started leaving reply notes herself. It was weird to write out a note to her mom when she could message her any time. And they did voice chat during her mom’s first break in the evening before Lynn went to bed. But the physical act of writing a note felt special and Lynn found she enjoyed it.

Dinner and cleanup were done by eight, or nine if she also cooked a meal. If there was enough time after that, she allowed herself thirty minutes of WarMonger a few times a week. She had a reputation to maintain and the familiar rhythms of battle gave her mind a chance to relax. Not that she only picked easy gigs. She sifted through the pileup of invites by looking for jobs with high visibility and reputation rather than whatever would pay the most. After she’d fragged her enemies into nonexistence and convinced everyone in virtual she was still a force to be reckoned with, she was usually longing for bed.

But before turning in, she still had to ping Ronnie to solidify their plans for hunting the next day. Sometimes they also talked about some tactic or issue that had come up. Those “talks” were mostly her laying out her advice and getting crickets in response, or maybe a one-word acknowledgement if she was lucky. She considered using video chat instead of messaging—at least then it would be harder for Ronnie to ignore her. But that late in the day she was usually tired and cranky and didn’t have the mental energy to deal with Ronnie’s jerkitude.

She complained about it to her mom one Sunday evening when they were vegging out together on the couch watching a news stream.

“I’m sorry, honey, that sounds frustrating,” Matilda said, giving her a sympathetic pat on the arm. “It’s best to focus on setting a good example yourself, though. You’ll drive yourself crazy worrying about what other people are doing. You can’t control them. You can control you. So, focus on you.”

Lynn was inclined to grumble but her mom’s words struck home just the same. It made her remember what Mr. Thomas had said about a code of honor and that made her start analyzing her recent conversations with Ronnie in her head. Was she setting a good example? Or coming across as bossy and critical?

Ugh. People were so complicated. Give her a game to beat and she would gladly spend days doing nothing else. But a single civil conversation with Ronnie? That was pure torture.

A sudden thought made Lynn’s brow crease in consideration.

Maybe she’d been going about this all wrong. She was good at gaming, so why not treat Ronnie like a game? A stubborn, annoying game with no user manual or pause button but still, a game.

What did she do when she wanted to beat a game?

She studied it, researched it and explored it to find what worked and then practiced that over and over again. So, what did she know about Ronnie? She’d been putting hundreds of hours into becoming a master TD Hunter player but she’d been actively avoiding interacting with Ronnie. She had a good excuse, of course: Ronnie acted like she had the bubonic plague most of the time. But still…if she was being honest and focusing on her actions and her example, then maybe she should be making more of an effort…


Levels 16 and 17 came and went with plenty of sweat and swearing and a little bit of sunburn—Ronnie must have forgotten to put sunscreen on one day because by the evening he was red as a tomato. He’d been unusually quiet all day so Lynn wondered if something was going on but the sunburn made him so snappish there was no point trying to ask.

It took the team a few levels to get the hang of taking out Namahags with Lynn’s roll technique. The monsters were so big and tough that it was virtually the only way to defeat them without getting mired down in an endless slugfest. Just when they started to feel cocky again, though, they reached Level 18 and discovered how easy they’d had it all this time.

Rocs, the only flying monster up to that point, were gatherers so they focused on collecting energy. They usually didn’t bother you unless you got close to where they were feeding.

Tengus, on the other hand, weren’t so accommodating. They looked like giant, mangy vultures but instead of a beak they had a long snout full of sharp teeth. And they could breathe fire. Well, plasma bolt, anyway. Unlike rocs, they were patrol TDMs and would slowly glide back and forth, searching for blissfully unaware hunters below. When they spotted you, they’d roll into a dive like a feathered missile and go straight for your head. They moved so fast it was almost impossible to dodge them.

Your only hope was to hear them coming, a high-pitched tone that grew louder and louder, almost like the old-style falling bomb sound effect in movies and games. Of course, since they had high stealth, you couldn’t see them until they were almost on you, so hearing them still didn’t guarantee you could dodge them. After their first attack the app’s battle system could target and track them but once their cover was blown they would also start belching plasma bolts in between dive bombs, so you were more or less screwed unless you had a ranged weapon and were a very good shot.

The only silver lining was that Tengus patrolled alone, so after you’d killed one it was unlikely you’d see another until you moved to a new location—or you’d hung around long enough for another to spawn.

Dan got real popular, real fast, once they hit Level 18. He was their one-man anti-Tengu-missile defense system, though Mack was coming along nicely with his pistols. Lynn was often tempted to switch to Plasma Rifle herself and help out. But the few times she’d tried Ronnie yelled at her, saying they all had to stick to their roles. As annoying as it was, she knew he was right.

They braced for something even worse than Tengus when they hit Level 19. To their surprise there didn’t seem to be a new monster for that level, even though there were several high Charlie Class TDMs in the Index they still hadn’t encountered. It made them even more nervous about Level 20.

Worse, their time was running out. Ronnie wanted them to hunt longer hours but Edgar couldn’t hunt in the morning and Mack and Dan couldn’t hunt in the evening. If even one of them didn’t make it to Level 20, they couldn’t qualify as a team, so Lynn managed to convince Ronnie that they should stick together and keep working as a team instead of breaking up to each try to get to Level 20 as fast as possible.

Tensions were high the week before qualifiers, especially because they kept running into Elena and her crew in their favorite hunting spots. The rival team didn’t do anything overtly threatening but they did argue over who got to hunt where and rather than waste precious time, Ronnie usually had their team go somewhere else.

The Saturday before qualifiers finally arrived and they were close, so close to Level 20. Everyone was a little jumpy—with excitement and nerves both, Lynn suspected. The qualifying matches were the next day in Des Moines and the whole thing was super hush hush. Wild theories flew back and forth on the forums but nobody really knew what the competition would look like. All Lynn and the team had was an address and a time to be there. There weren’t even rules to review beforehand, so Lynn assumed there would be some sort of briefing on arrival.

Still, they had to reach Level 20 first.

“Watch it, Mack, there’s three Penagals headed your way,” Lynn said, then targeted the fourth Penagal that had split off to circle her instead. It didn’t go well for the Penagal. She’d been delighted to find that Abomination’s range was greater than the normal Dragon pistol. Long enough, in fact, to reach what the Penagals obviously thought was a safe distance to lurk.

Mack acknowledged and Lynn was faintly aware of the pew-pew-pew of his fire while she kept her eyes peeled for more attacks on their left flank. Their team was patrolling along the electric rail where they were more likely to encounter TDMs in small groups rather than the big mobs that gathered around substations.

Lynn had convinced Ronnie to go for the rail rather than a substation just in case some big bad monster popped out of nowhere and tried to massacre them right before they hit Level 20. They couldn’t afford the hour debuff that dying would inflict. Plus, it enabled her to keep her attacks clean and her damage close to nothing, to ensure she’d get whatever Skadi item awaited her at the next level.

A faint high-pitched tone brought her eyes up and she scanned the skies, though she knew the effort was futile. “Dan?”

“I hear it,” Dan said, clenching his free hand nervously. “Ronnie?”

“Cover in place, team!” Ronnie said, taking up a position halfway between the rail and the safety fence where they would have plenty of room to maneuver. The rest of the team formed a loose circle with Dan in the middle. Mack spotted and picked off a few rocs that had taken an interest in them and Lynn dispatched a Phasma that tried to sneak between her and Edgar to get at their backs.

“Almost there…” Dan muttered, rifle pointed at the sky. At Level 19, he could spot the Tengu a little farther out than at Level 18 but it was still almost impossible to get off a shot at it while it was in its attack dive. As soon as it made its first attack, though, the fight would be on.

“There!” Edgar yelled and dove to the side.

The massive creature screeched as it whooshed past, pulling out of its dive. Lynn could almost imagine the wind of its great wings, if it had been real.

Lynn’s ears filled with the sound of plasma fire as Dan and Mack opened up on the Tengu while Lynn and the others fended off a handful of other TDMs. She kept track of the Tengu as best she could, just in case, though it usually only attacked whoever was targeting it.

“Yeah!” Dan yelled. “I leveled, guys!”

“Good job, Dan!” Mack said, grinning. “One down, four to go.”

“Cool…looks like there’s a cut scene vid.”

“Everybody stay focused,” Ronnie snapped. “We’ve still got work to do. We can all watch whatever it is later.”

“Dan,” Lynn said, “you see any big baddies popping out?”

“Huh, nope. Weird. You think it’s ’cause of the graduated level cap in place?”

“Maybe,” Lynn said, looking around carefully, ensuring there were no TDMs within line of sight. Then she subvocalized to Hugo. “Got any ideas, Hugo? I don’t suppose you’ve got an inside line on the details of the competition?”

“Unfortunately, I have no additional information that I can provide, Miss Lynn. If you have any pressing questions, of course, you can always contact Tactical Support.”

“Uh-huh. So, you do know what’s going on, you’re just not going to tell me?”

“Are you implying that I would assist you in accessing classified data, Miss Lynn? Tut, tut, such impertinence.”

Lynn grinned. She missed their little tête-à-têtes. She didn’t talk much to Hugo these days since she had few questions about the game and most of her in-game time was spent interacting with her team.

“Who? Me? Naw, you’ve got the wrong idea. I just thought, since I’m your very favorite player in the game, you might have some special words of advice for me.”

“You do realize there are over half a billion hunters registered world-wide, do you not, Miss Lynn? That is a rather impressive presumption you are making.”

“Only because I know it’s true. So?”

“Since I am a service AI, I cannot speak about such an abstract notion as ‘favorite,’ but if we are speaking of most troublesome…”

“No! You did not just tease me, Hugo. Tell me you didn’t.”

“Certainly not, Miss Lynn. Merely imparting objective data.”

“Well, you need to get your ‘objective data’ checked, because there’s no way I’m the most troublesome player in TD Hunter. Not yet, anyway. You haven’t even seen the beginning of how much trouble I can be.”

“I was not extending a challenge, Miss Lynn.”

“Then tell me what’s going on with these Level 20 monsters. Where are they?”

“I cannot begin to guess. Perhaps you should refocus your attention on the battle? There is a particularly bloodthirsty-looking Spithra heading in your direction…”

Lynn shook her head and got back to killing things. Hugo knew more than he was letting on, no doubt about it. She hadn’t thought he would spill anything but it had been worth a try.

The Spithra was no match against Abomination, which gave Lynn some time to consider the mystery of the missing TDMs. Graduated level caps were standard in leveling games. It ensured players were kept on an even playing field for a set period of time until a game released the next expansion.

In the case of TD Hunter, there was a twenty level cap in place until after the qualifying competition, ensuring no one went into it with an unfair advantage. Lynn had assumed the cap would kick in at the end of Level 20, not the beginning. The only logical reason for this lack of new TDMs was if the game developers were using the Level 20 monsters in the qualifiers and didn’t want people to have extra practice killing them. That didn’t make sense to her, considering Lynn and the others could, and already had, put in hours of simulation practice for the known Level 20 monsters in the TDM Index. Plus, most games released special mini expansions or mini maps for competitions. But that was all in virtual. Maybe things had to be different for an AR competition? Lynn marked it up to the ongoing weirdness of TD Hunter in general and decided not to worry about it.

“Keep it moving, guys. We’re burning daylight.”

Lynn shook her head and started off again after Ronnie and Edgar. For a moment she was distracted by the sight of them, side by side. Though Edgar was almost a head taller than Ronnie, the two of them were looking more similar than Lynn could have ever imagined they would.

Ronnie’s gangly form was filling out like he finally had some meat on his bones, while Edgar’s bulk had smoothed down, emphasizing his broad shoulders. She glanced sideways at Mack, noticing how much straighter and more confidently he carried himself. And Dan? She squinted, examining him. He seemed calmer, less manic. And his joking had become more natural and genuine. She hid a smile. This TD Hunter game had been good for all of them, in their different ways.

“Contact!” Ronnie called and Lynn’s attention snapped forward.

It only took another hour or so. Ronnie was next to level, then Edgar. She and Mack leveled at the same time after they killed a bellowing Namahag together. Lynn kept it spinning uselessly trying to track her while Mack filled it with plasma bolts.

As soon as Hugo’s voice cut in, congratulating her on reaching Level 20, Lynn signaled the others and they made a final sweep for loot before they all exited combat mode.

They left the rail behind and headed for the nearest street. Ronnie didn’t bother looking for a store or restaurant to sit in, though they were the most reliably TDM-free type of space. He just stopped at the first busy intersection and plopped down on a bench, clearly already engrossed in checking out the new level. While the others found their own surfaces to sit on Lynn scanned her surroundings for trouble—out of habit more than anything else—then went and leaned on the back of the bench, keeping her batons in hand.

“Okay, Hugo, play it,” she subvocalized.

The vid screen came up and the TD Counterforce theme music began playing in her ear. General Carville appeared, sitting behind his sleek desk surrounded by tactical readouts. Two flags hung in the background, the American flag on one side and a black flag with the red-rimmed TD Counterforce emblem on the other. A subordinate of some kind wearing a headset was leaning in and talking to him. The subordinate gave him a handheld display, saluted and left the frame. The general glanced over the handheld, then laid it down and looked at the camera as if he had just noticed it was there.

“Ah. Good to see you again, Hunter. I’ve just been informed that you’ve reached a real milestone in your combat development. It’s been a long battle up to this point but the fact that you’re standing here today is a testament to your dedication and skill. Congratulations and thank you for your service.” The general rotated his chair to fully face the camera and leaned forward over his desk, placing his clasped hands on its gray surface.

“We’ve all come a long way but this war is far from over. I can see from your battle system reports that you’ve already faced down thousands of these TransDimensional Monsters bent on destroying life as we know it. But I’m sorry to say, they have just been the tip of the iceberg. Far worse creatures lurk in the shadows, threatening global infrastructure and even human life. We need you to help us find them and destroy them. The next stage of this war will be a critical one and we’re relying on your courage and relentless efforts to gather the intel we need and hold back the alien tide threatening to destroy our civilization.”

The general leaned back again as another headset-wearing subordinate appeared in the frame and leaned in to whisper in his ear, then saluted and left.

“Excellent! It looks like you’ve volunteered for a special team-based seek and destroy mission. First Sergeant Bryce will be briefing you tomorrow on the particulars, so for now go home, get some rest and be ready to move out bright and early in the morning. You are truly our planet’s last hope, Hunter,” General Carville said, leaning forward once more and pointing at the camera. “If you fall, then we all fall. Good luck tomorrow and fight with pride.”

The cut scene faded to be replaced by the time and location of the qualifiers the next day in big red letters. Then her display cleared and her combat icons returned.

Lynn puffed out a breath and looked around. Sights, sounds and smells flooded back in, as if she’d been transported to another place while she’d been engrossed in General Carville’s message. Crazy. She shook her head and checked her overhead for monsters. Nothing. Weird. She’d expected that at least some enterprising Phasmas would have made a nuisance of themselves. But maybe the busy street surrounding them was enough of a deterrent. Well, no reason to waste the temporary calm. She pulled up her leveling report and glanced over her bonus experience numbers and extra resources she’d earned. Her heart beat quickened as her eyes dropped to where her additional achievements were listed.

Yes!

Her kill to damage ratio had held. She eagerly selected her achievement listing to see her new item. To her surprise, it wasn’t one item but five. Or maybe it was one item with five parts? Rotating slowly in her display was a large silver medallion. On one side was a relief of a crossed sword and gun, near replicas of Wrath and Abomination. On the other side was the image of a howling wolf. Hovering around the medallion on the four points of the compass were four miniature sculptures of wolves with shaggy coats, powerful shoulders and long teeth bared in challenge. Each was frozen in a dynamic pose, as if caught in the middle of a furious battle.

The name of the item was Skadi’s Horde.

Lynn’s brows drew down in confusion as she read the description. One eyebrow lifted. Then the other. By the time she was done, her eyes were wide as saucers and excitement buzzed along her nerves.

“Hey, guys, look at this!” she called.

Ronnie turned on the bench, grumbling, as the rest of the guys crowded around. Lynn projected her screen and pointed to the objects.

“Look at this, it’s a personal augment that has four, er, copies? Anyway, the player that has it equipped can select up to four other people in their group or team and designate them as ‘part of the horde.’ All five people get a five percent base increase of all their stats and a proximity bonus of up to fifteen percent.”

An awed silence followed her statement. What she hadn’t mentioned was that the medallion also granted its bearer an extra one percent increase on all stats for every “Skadi” named item they had equipped. She didn’t want to sound like she was bragging.

“That. Is. So. Cool,” Dan said, reaching out to poke at one of the wolves floating in front of him. It was reared up on its hind legs, one front paw slashing out with claws extended while its jaws stretched wide in a roar.

“So, how does the proximity thing work?” Edgar asked, leaning down to squint at the wolves too.

“Basically, the closer we are to each other as a group, the higher the bonus is,” Lynn replied, her brow furrowed. “Looks like the highest bonus extends out about twenty feet, so that covers most of our normal formations, though Dan might be outside that when we’re in our attack line. The lowest bonus above base is sixty feet distant and I can’t imagine many situations when we’d be more spread out than that.”

“Wow, cool,” Edgar said, popping his gum. “So, basically you’re our mascot and the closer we are to you the better we fight?”

“I guess?” Lynn said with a shrug.

“It’s like a pack of wolves?” Mack asked. “Stronger together, right?”

“You know, wolves are so stereotypical,” Dan said, waving his hand dismissively. “Why not a pack of African Wild Dogs? Or Spotted Hyenas? They’re both highly respected carnivores that—”

“Oh, shut up, Dan,” Ronnie interrupted. “Both are stupid. So, are wolves, for that matter.”

“I like wolves,” Mack piped up.

“So, you’re saying you don’t want to be one of the pack?” Lynn asked Ronnie, raising an eyebrow. “Okay, you don’t get the benefits.”

“No, I’m just saying the whole naming system is stupid,” Ronnie replied. “It makes it sound like we’re a bunch of middle schoolers in some lame role-playing game—”

“Hey,” Dan interrupted, “don’t start that again, Ronnie. You used to love role-playing games until your dad found out and said role-playing was for sissies and wimps.”

“He thinks all gaming is for sissies and wimps—” Mack muttered.

Lynn cut her eyes to Ronnie, trying to hide the shock she felt. Ronnie’s freckled face was especially pink but that could just as easily be from the hot August sun as from a flush of embarrassment.

“I like it,” Edgar butted in. “Sports teams and military units take on special names all the time. It’s good for team morale.”

“Whatever,” Ronnie said with a snort. “But if we’re going to have a team-based augment like that, I should be the one to equip it since I’m the captain.”

There was a beat of charged silence following his pronouncement in which Lynn met his eyes. She didn’t know what to feel. Pity? Anger? His mother had left him and his dad thought he was a wimp for enjoying gaming? That was rough. But the Skadi items were hers and Ronnie was in for a rude awakening if he thought he could bully her into giving up Skadi’s Horde. She held his stare firmly, not blinking, knowing how unnerving her hazel-gold “wolf eyes” were to some people.

“That’s not fair,” Edgar said before things could escalate. “Lynn is the one who achieved it by her own hard work. Besides, you’re in a mirror position to her, so there’s no tactical advantage to you having it over her.”

A nasty light flared in Ronnie’s eyes and for a moment Lynn thought he was going to push the matter. But then he blinked, gave up the staring contest and threw up his hands.

“Whatever. It doesn’t matter anyway,” he added bitterly.

Yeah, right, it didn’t matter. At least he wasn’t stupid enough to try to insist on his own way like a petulant two-year-old.

“Awesome,” Dan said, making a thumbs-up sign. “So, Lynn, can I have the rampant wolf?”

“The…what?” Edgar asked, popping gum.

“Rampant. Rearing up on its hind legs. It’s a heraldic term.”

“Sure, Dan, whatever you want,” Lynn said. She couldn’t quite hide her grin. Dan was such an adorable nerd.

She ignored the others as Mack and Edgar started arguing about who got which wolf statue and Ronnie sat on the bench with his arms crossed and stared out across the street. She opened up her inventory to equip her new augment and customize it. When she was finished, the guys checked their stats to see what difference it made.

“Sweet. We’re ready to rock and roll,” Dan declared, then lifted his fist into the air. “Come on, everybody together: For the Horde!”

Mack punched him in the shoulder.

“Don’t you dare start. The Alliance is way better.”

“Prettier, maybe. But better? Only in your dreams!”

Lynn shook her head as the two devolved into a heated argument over factions from a popular MMORPG. She didn’t have anything against role-playing, it just wasn’t her thing. She preferred straight up killing things, close and personal. No need for a storyline to go with it.

Ronnie corralled them with a few brusque commands, then they headed back to the electric rail, planning to finish their run all the way up to Collins Road where they could catch an airbus home. Lynn thought about objecting. After all, they’d reached the level cap and they could use some extra rest. But it should only take about another hour and a little extra practice never hurt, not to mention any unique items they might find.

By the time they reached Collins Road they were all hot and tired but the overall mood remained upbeat. They’d had an easier time than usual, thanks to Skadi’s Horde, and Dan had taught them all some new smack talk in the process of shooting down Mack and his Alliance sympathies.

“So, what’s the plan for tomorrow?” Lynn asked as they neared the airbus platform. “We going to catch an air taxi together? Or are we all going separately?”

“Oh, come on, Lynn,” Dan said, flapping his hands in dismissal of the concept of work and stuff. “Stop being responsible. We can worry about that later. We need to throw a party or something. Celebrate. Have some fun. I haven’t worked this hard in my entire life and I need some R and R.”

“I don’t know,” Edgar said, cracking his gum. “I need to save my money for the taxi fare tomorrow. The competition entry fee was pretty expensive.”

“What are you talking about, Edgar?” Ronnie asked. “You’ve got a job now, right? Aren’t you rolling in dough?”

“Nah, that money is for my mom.” Edgar shrugged, as if it was no big deal, but his face was carefully blank.

Lynn felt a stab of pity. She knew what that situation felt like.

“Well, I don’t know about you guys,” said Mack in an overly cheerful voice, “but I don’t have a penny to my name, so if we’re going out then somebody else is gonna have to buy me grub.”

“We don’t have to do something on the town,” Dan said, holding up his hands. “We could hang at someone’s house, get some pizza and drinks, play some games. Like, real games. Not ‘I’ve-got-to-get-ripped-like-Arnold-Swartznagger-to-play-this-game’ kind of games,” he finished, waving his batons dramatically for emphasis.

There was an awkward silence in which they all stared at each other. Then Mack, Edgar and Dan all spoke at once.

“Not my house, my mom would freak—”

“Yeeaaah, my house isn’t really visitor friendly—”

“I’m not allowed to invite people over—”

They all subsided and turned to Lynn and Ronnie.

Ronnie, predictably, crossed his arms and didn’t say a word, just glared at each of them as if daring them to ask why he wasn’t offering up his house.

Three pairs of puppy dog eyes slid to her.

Lynn swallowed. The last time she’d had a friend over to her house had been in sixth grade. Did she really want all these people in her private space? Her sanctum? She glanced at Ronnie, who looked away, a distinctly uncomfortable expression on his face.

What was it Mr. Thomas had said about fearing what you didn’t know? Maybe this would be a chance for them to all get to know each other better. And maybe she could make some headway on trying to figure out how to beat “Ronnie: The Game.”

What a terrifying thought.

“Uhh…I guess I could call my mom and ask if we can hang at my place. We don’t have a whole lot of room, but…”

“Sounds good to me,” Dan said.

“Why don’t we all go home and clean up,” Mack suggested, “and Lynn can let us know if we can meet up later at her house. Does that sound okay, Lynn?”

“Yeeeah. Sure. See you guys later, then?”

They all called their goodbyes and parted ways, heading for their homes and some much-needed showers.


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Framed