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Chapter 12

Lynn considered not saying anything to her teammates the next day about Elena’s threat. But they needed to be on their guard in case Elena’s goons tried anything, so she decided she had to tell them. She didn’t mention the attempted assault, though. She didn’t want Edgar to freak out.

Predictably, Ronnie found some way to blame it on her.

“If you hadn’t confronted her and escalated things, we wouldn’t have to worry about this,” he said when she told them about it. “Now you’ve put us in danger and we have to worry about a stupid team rivalry that’s going to impede our training!”

She almost punched him then and there.

Fortunately for Ronnie, she managed to resist the urge. Instead, she turned and walked away. And kept walking. They’d met at their old haunt at the cemetery, as if Ronnie thought they could reach Level 20 in time by hunting mediocre locations while Elena’s team claimed the hotspots. But Lynn knew that wouldn’t work and Ronnie wasn’t listening to her. So, she walked away.

Edgar tried to follow her, calling out but she ignored him. She was too mad and he didn’t deserve for her to take it out on him. She just waved a mute goodbye over her shoulder and headed for the airbus platform the next street over.

Maybe this team thing had been a mistake. All she could think about was Elena’s stupid, sneering face and Ronnie’s unjust, pigheaded words.

She couldn’t go on like this. She couldn’t cope with this much unmitigated stupidity.

But she couldn’t crawl back into her hole, either…

Was TD Hunter to blame? Or had it simply come along at the right time? Regardless, she’d realized she wasn’t content hiding anymore. Of course she still felt self-conscious. Of course she still hated dealing with people. But mostly she just felt mad. The simmering frustration burned away the hesitation that had always held her back. It drowned out the voices of doubt that told her she wasn’t fit to show her face in public.

So, instead of going home to mope around in her room, she caught an airbus heading north toward the St. Andrews Golf Course. The stop on Blairs Ferry Road was the closest she was going to get, so she hopped off there and started walking.

She needed to kill something. Her muscles were twitchy from the tension and her mind yearned for something to focus on. She looked up and down the sidewalk, noting the scattering of pedestrians. She even spotted a trio of teens wielding electric blue Nano Blades in a green space next to a coffee shop across the road.

“Hugo, take me into combat mode.”

“Right here, Miss Lynn? The sidewalk is not exactly the ideal combat zone.”

“Do it, Hugo.”

“At once, Miss Lynn.”

Her overhead map, stats and targeting selector materialized before her and right away she heard them. Even though she was on a fairly busy street in the middle of the day, they were there. Lurking behind businesses and in alleyways. Hovering overhead.

“Hugo, empty my stealth slots.”

“Are you certain, Miss Lynn? That will wave quite the red flag.”

“Exactly.” She felt a wolfish grin spread across her face.

“Very well.”

Lynn felt a surge of adrenaline as her stealth bar emptied completely. “Heeeere monsters, monsters, monsters,” she murmured as she fast-walked along the sidewalk.

From her experience, most aggressive TDMs that attacked unprovoked lost interest once you moved outside their detection range. That wasn’t hard to do for slower, weaker monsters like the worms and gremlins. But some particularly aggressive ones, like Ghasts, Vargs, Orculls and Spithra would stalk you indefinitely as long as you moved slowly enough to stay in their sights. She didn’t think she could outrun a Stalker if she came across one but fortunately they seemed to be rare.

By the time she was halfway to her destination, she’d attracted quite a few “admirers.” She broke into a jog to pull ahead of the gaggle of Ghasts that were tailing her. Behind them a group of much slower Orculls lumbered along. Overhead, an occasional roc would take a dive at her but she dodged them and they quickly lost interest. They mostly hovered like grotesque vultures “gathering” the EM particles being beamed back and forth between various power nodes and only came after you if you stuck around. Lynn rarely went after any nonaggressive monster these days if they weren’t directly in her path. It was a waste of time to track down the stationary gatherers when she could kill many more monsters by baiting the aggressive ones.

By the time she spotted the power substation at the end of a dead-end street, she had a crowd at her back.

She grinned.

It was the kind of smile she always got when a bunch of cocky Tier Two schmucks took the bait and accepted a challenge match, her against however many of them had the balls to face her. Those matches were always glorious, pushing her to new levels of crafty ruthlessness that made her “life” as Larry Coughlin worth living. Well, now it was time to do the same for Lynn Raven.

It was time to dance.

Lynn veered off the sidewalk into the empty field by the road, not wanting to rush headlong into a potential hotspot by the substation when she already had a hungry mob on her tail.

“Hugo, fire up my monster hunting playlist, thirty percent volume, left ear.”

Thumping guitar and drums began a melodious counterpoint to the hisses, growls, clicks and roars coming from the growing crowd behind her.

“It’s over, it’s over, it’s over, it’s time to burn it down,” she sang along as she found a good spot, then whirled around and crouched, “…all right, come and get some, you bastards.”

The Ghasts got there first but they stopped a good dozen feet out and started circling to get behind her, as they always did. She let them, tracking them on her overhead as the Orculls finally caught up with a few demon and Grumblin stragglers. They converged with no apparent strategy, just compelled forward by blind hunger. Or rage. Or instinct. Or whatever you wanted to call the game algorithms. At the last minute, though, the four Orculls that had followed her slowed and formed two ranks of two, giving the other TDMs time to catch up and form a wall of enemies. Well, well, well. Lynn grinned. It was good to see the algorithms evolving, giving her a real challenge.

She was about to charge forward when a gale of malevolent whispers crescendoed behind her.

About time.

Leaping to the side, Lynn spun and slashed out to cut through the first Ghast, then stabbed the second in the face and lunged forward to take out the third before it could retreat and circle again. Then the other monsters arrived and things finally got interesting.

Lynn’s blood thrummed through her veins and she felt like her feet had wings. She grunted quietly as she lunged and spun, “Gonna burn it down, burn it down, burn it down!”

The weaker demons and Grumblins died first as she rolled through or dodged around them. The Orculls were a wall of swinging fists and claws and she had to carefully time her attacks. Because the monsters had such long arms, they spread out when they attacked and she could slip between them. Feint. Pause while they took their swipes at her. Lunge forward and strike, strike, strike. Turn and repeat.

Though their grunts and howls were loud in her right ear, the sounds were rhythmic, like they were on a looping playlist, rather than calls of a creature that cried out in rage or aggression as it attacked. She’d never paid attention to it before but it was rather odd that the sounds didn’t sync with the creatures’ movements. Nor did they ever have any facial expressions beyond opening their jaws to bare dripping teeth. It was like they were unthinking automatons controlled by a detached intelligence. Which, of course, they were. But Lynn wondered why Mr. Krator and the other developers hadn’t made them more individualistic and varied in their behavior. Their algorithms certainly had the computing capacity for it.

Such thoughts passed idly through her head as she mopped up the Orculls, while protecting her back against the last few Ghasts that kept trying to ambush her. She took a few hits here and there but overall thought she’d done a tidy bit of work.

Just then, her “leveling imminent” alarm beeped in her ear.

“Hugo, bring me up to full stealth, now!”

The world around her dimmed ever-so-slightly and the two remaining Orculls now on their last legs seemed to pause. Lynn took advantage of their momentary confusion and leapt between them to slash at each with two quick movements.

Her leveling notification played a triumphant little jingle in her ear as sparks exploded and faded around her. She saw the achievement notification pop in the corner of her screen but she resisted the impulse to expand it because an ominous rushing sound like a high wind whistling through a broken window was gathering all around her. It grew louder and louder, making her spin about, searching for the source.

“What the freak, where is it, Hugo?”

“I’m sorry, Miss Lynn, your detection is at one-hundred percent. It is most likely a Charlie Class TDM with high stealth.”

“Great, just great—come on, you ugly wheeze bag, where are you?”

That’s when it struck. Or rather, they.

The hair-raising whistling had already made her suspect the monster was the upgrade from a Ghast, so she was expecting it to pop up behind her. Instead, the six-foot, floating phantom flickered into sight not five feet in front of her, looking for all the world like one of those hooded, soul-sucking terrors from that wands-and-wizards kids series. Mack was always trying to get her to watch it. Two skeletal appendages shot out from the billowing cloak, striking at her head. She dropped straight down and rolled, knowing from the sound that there was a second one behind her. When she came up, the pair were still there, moving to keep her between them.

What the heck? Since when did TDMs work in teams?

She was so busy dodging and trying to keep them both in her sights that she didn’t notice the telltale clicking from her earbud until the swarm of Spithra coming up behind her spit a rain of acid onto her back. The attack sent a furious storm of red damage flashing across her display and her armor dropped to dangerous levels.

Lynn let out a string of Larry’s favorite curses and ducked, taking her attention totally off her attackers to swipe desperately at the exit icon on her display. The overlay in her vision disappeared as she abruptly left combat mode and she collapsed on the grass, panting.

“A bit winded, are we, Miss Lynn?”

“Don’t sound so concerned, Hugo. It’s not like I almost died or anything.”

“Nonsense. You would have prevailed, eventually. I have faith in you.”

“Uh-huh. Maybe. My combat ratings would have taken a serious hit, though. I don’t mind a challenge but what’s the point of getting slaughtered? Nothing on the tactical page mentioned Phasmas working in tandem. I swear those two were tag-teaming me.” To be fair, the higher class the TDMs went, the more sparse their tactical info was in the TDM Index. Some of them only had a single line of description. Some only a name, not even a picture. Phasmas, a Charlie Class-3 monster, did have an image but their text only said they were an upgrade from Ghasts and so most likely operated on the same tactics. She hadn’t honestly given them much thought, since she hadn’t expected to encounter them until she hit Level 13 at the earliest.

But now she was Level 10 and they were jumping her in pairs. What the actual heck, algorithms? She loved a good challenge but it still felt a little unfair.

With a grunt of effort, she levered herself up from the grass and bent to pick up her baton, now back in its base form. Then she shaded her eyes to look around. The field was completely empty and there were no cars on the dead end street.

She let out a mental sigh of relief. Nice to know that no one had witnessed—or worse, recorded—her ungainly dive for the ground. Despite the guys’ generally positive reaction to her new getup, she still had to fight the occasional flash of panic at the thought that everybody around her could see her and there was nowhere to hide. Stupid brain. She was determined to conquer her fears, though. They were nothing more than the toxic lies of low-life bullies. Besides, her new clothes were amazing. Even though her forehead dripped with sweat, she felt absolutely great sheathed in the ultra-wicking smartcloth that easily warded off the sticky, itchy feeling of sweating in tight clothing.

Lynn brushed the stray bits of grass off her, then set off at a slow jog for the main street. Hopefully it would be enough of a deterrent against the higher-class monsters that she would have time to go over her achievement award and her new weapon selection without getting pummeled. Finding a coffee shop or other building to go into would work as well but she would feel weird loitering around in her current get-up with an electric blue sword. Two streets over there was decent traffic, so she found an ornamental tree that provided a bit of shade and privacy from the street. She stayed standing, in case anything jumped her while she was distracted, then went back into combat mode and expanded her leveling screen, keeping half an ear on the distant sounds of TDMs around her. When she selected the Level 10 announcement, her display darkened and started playing a cut scene vid.

“Congratulations on reaching Level 10, Hunter,” said First Sergeant Bryce. The vid only showed from his shoulders up, so Lynn got an eyeful of his stern expression. He looked straight at the camera and when she met his eyes she felt a shiver go through her. Those dark orbs were as hard as adamant, yet what made them truly intimidating was the spark of predatory watchfulness in them. Lynn wondered what actor played the first sergeant and where he’d learned to mimic that expression. It was convincing as all get out.

“That you’ve made it this far as a civilian volunteer is truly commendable. Thank you for sticking out the fight for humanity’s survival. But don’t get cocky. It only gets harder from here.

“Now that you’re an expert at taking out Delta Class TDMs, you’ll start facing Charlie Class bogies that are faster and tougher than ever. Based on data collected by our volunteers, we’ve found that Charlie Class TDMs start to show more tactical awareness. Be ready for anything. Your training simulations will be essential, so take advantage of them. Don’t hesitate to contact our tactical support team to report any unusual TDM behavior or to ask for help. We are here to support you in this fight.

“Together is the only way we’re going to make it out of this alive, Hunter. Good luck and keep up the good work. First Sergeant Bryce, out.”

Lynn shivered again as her eyes met the first sergeant’s and then his face disappeared and her combat system came back online.

Well, that was delightful. The first sergeant’s warning made sense of the Phasmas’ actions, though it was creepy to think about the TDMs around her formulating actual plans of attack to get at her.

Enough doom and gloom, though. She dismissed her leveling screen and swept her eyes over her achievement list with her experience and rewards. A grin crept across her face.

“Hey, baby, I missed you,” she crooned at the image of Skadi’s Wrath—or just “Wrath,” as she’d dubbed it—and the accompanying congratulations about her score achievement. A bit of tension left her shoulders and she rolled them in a stretch. She’d been worried she wouldn’t be able to keep up her scores once she’d joined a team but this gave her hope. Maybe she could still collect the whole set.

Lynn got busy equipping her unique blade and making her standard weapon selection for Level 10—the two-handed Disruptor Rifle. Then she got her second baton out of her backpack and equipped her one-handed Dragon Scattergun, the one Edgar usually used. Back when she’d reached Level 5, she’d picked a Plasma Pistol instead of the Dragon for her standard weapon choice. But monsters sometimes dropped weapons and both she and Dan had picked up Dragons from monster loot since then. Both the Dragon and the Plasma Pistol had their advantages but she wanted to try out the short-range power of the Dragon with her close-up melee tactics she would use with Wrath.

After that she shuffled around her augments, loading up all her best ones in Wrath and the Dragon—increased damage for both, increased accuracy and range augments for the Dragon, a reduced energy use augment for the blade as well as a sweet little augment that increased the chance of loot dropped by monsters she killed with it. For her personal augment slots, she had one that increased the amount of health she regenerated per second, as well as one that boosted her armor’s effectiveness. And, of course, Skadi’s Glory.

Finally, she held up her weapons and admired them in her AR sight. Despite the bright light of day, the runes along Wrath’s blade glowed fiercely against the obsidian black of its blade.

Now she was ready to get back in there and kick some monster butt.

This time she took it slow and cautious, staying fully stealthed to avoid getting mobbed by lower-class TDMs. When she approached her previous spot, the Phasmas’ eerie whistle began again in her ear, like they were hiding just out of sight, stalking the spot where their prey had vanished. Soon enough, the sound grew and Lynn crouched, ready for their attack. She felt fully prepared now that she had two weapons instead of one.

The monsters flashed out of nowhere and pounced, one from the front and one from the back. Lynn ducked and rolled, blasting away even as she regained her feet.

How she had ever survived with only one weapon, Lynn had no idea.

Soon, the Phasmas were nothing but a shower of sparks. Yes, she’d taken a few hits but being able to blast one Phasma in the chest while slicing the other to ribbons meant they couldn’t keep her spinning uselessly on the defensive. Even the lone Spithra that attacked right after seemed easier to kill. She got rid of it in half the time it normally took.

Lynn planted a theatrical kiss on Wrath’s blade. Could a sword be your new best friend? She hoped Vera in WarMonger wouldn’t get too jealous, poor thing.

With three enemies down and her not even out of breath, Lynn took stock of her little battlefield, relieved to see the glitter of ichor and other loot still shimmering in the grass. It really sucked when you were distracted by more monsters and weren’t able to collect your loot in time. Fortunately, the ten minute despawn countdown was pretty forgiving unless you died and didn’t dare go back into combat mode on half stats. Then you could kiss your loot goodbye.

Lynn collected her spoils and topped off her health and other resources. She was delighted to find an armor piercing augment for melee weapons, probably dropped by one of the Orculls. It went straight into one of Wrath’s augment slots.

Feeling ready to take on the world, she finally turned toward the power substation and began a cautious approach. All her stealth slots were full in the hope that she could get a look at what was ahead before it spotted her. She knew by now that TDMs couldn’t “hear” you but she still found herself placing her feet just so, Dragon muzzle to the sky, blade at the ready.

Soon enough, red dots began populating the upper edge of her overhead map until it looked like the area had caught a bad case of the measles. And the dots weren’t all scattered about, either. She saw a handful of those mysterious rings of monsters along the nearest fence line and as she crept closer…

“Whoa,” Lynn muttered to herself. “Is that what I think it is?”

“Apologies, Miss Lynn but my programming does not extend to mind reading just yet.”

“Har-de-har, Hugo…wait, yet?”

“Why, yes. Computer to brain neural link implants were only just approved by the FDA for trial runs a few months ago, so it will be some time yet before I will be able to receive mental input.”

“Wow, cool…but completely off topic. I meant that huge swarm of red dots on my map.” She couldn’t see the TDMs yet herself, since the app’s battle systems populated the overhead map much farther out than it could resolve the CGI visuals of the monsters. But according to her overhead, it looked like the biggest ring of TDMs she’d ever seen was parked directly on top of the power substation. Biggest as in, hundreds of monsters in a ring half the size of a football field. And if those dots were just the TDMs she could see at her level, she didn’t even want to imagine how many more there were that she couldn’t see.

Maybe going over there wasn’t the best idea after all.

Or maybe, this was the opportunity she’d been searching for. After all, every time she’d gone near a circle in the past, the monsters hadn’t broken rank and come after her. They’d held their formation as if they were guarding something. So, maybe the giant ring within the substation fence would stay put, leaving her free to pick off the monsters in the smaller rings around the edges. In fact…

A brilliant, reckless, completely insane idea popped into her head and she couldn’t help grinning. Now if only Mr. Krator and his game developers had fixed those annoying glitches she kept encountering in beta, her crazy plan might actually work.

Only one way to find out.

She didn’t say anything to Hugo as she crept even closer, trying to get within visual range of the closest circle. He would probably tell her it was too risky. But then, who ever achieved great things without taking a few risks?

Her progress forward was interrupted by an eerie whistling and she whirled to meet the Phasma trying to sneak up on her. Oddly, it was only one this time and she dispatched it with three well-placed slashes and a belch of fire from her scattergun. Maybe prancing around without any stealth was what had attracted the extra Phasma to her before. Whatever the case, she kept her ears cocked and her music playlist off. Things were about to get complicated.

Finally, the ring of monsters in front of her resolved and she could see what she was up against: an outer ring made up of grinder worms, crusher worms and gremlins and an inner ring of demons, Grumblins and Orculls. Ghosts and Ghasts patrolled around the area, always on the move, and there was a healthy scattering of imps and other low-level gather types sitting there, no doubt doing whatever it was they did to gather the energy all the TDM monsters seemed to feed on.

Lynn wondered for the zillionth time what was inside those circles. Loot? Monster eggs? A “queen” monster spawning more monsters? Maybe even one of those mysterious bosses listed in the TDM Index? Whatever it was, she couldn’t see it, so it didn’t matter just then. For all intents and purposes, the center of the circle was empty. But not for long…

“Here goes nothing,” Lynn muttered, checking and rechecking that she was fully armored and stealthed. “Hey, Hugo, I’m going to try something new. For right now, instead of saying ‘exit combat mode,’ can I just say ‘out’ to go out of combat mode and ‘in’ to go back in?”

“Yes, I can make that adjustment for now, though it will be less than efficient on a permanent basis as there is ample room for confusion in such vague commands.”

“Yeah, I get that. Just for now.”

“Very well, Miss Lynn. Now, what, exactly are you going to do?”

“You’ll find out,” Lynn said, grinning again as she stared hard at the circle of monsters fifty yards ahead of her. She gave herself a good thirty seconds to memorize their formation and compare their location to the fence behind them and the ground at their feet. Then she took a few long sips of water from her hydration tube, stretched out her neck and crouched, ready to go.

“Out!”

Her combat display disappeared and she lunged forward in a sprint, eyes still locked on the point she was making for. While her body wasn’t exactly built for sprinting, she made better time than she would have even a few weeks ago and as soon as she arrived at her pre-selected point, she put her back to the fence and shouted again.

“In!”

Monsters appeared all around her. Yes! She’d calculated correctly and had ended up smack dab inside the mysterious circle. For one eternal breath, nothing moved. Whether it was from shock—if TDMs were even programmed to simulate shock—or because there was a lag in the monster’s detection, Lynn had no idea. But that tiny delay was all the time she needed for her batons to re-form back into her deadly, monster-killing weapons.

“Miss Lynn! I do not think—”

“Hi-yah!” Lynn yelled, ignoring the AI as she lunged forward toward an Orcull that was just starting to turn its bulky form around. She dispatched it with a single stab of her blade and shot from her Dragon into its unarmored back, waiting only long enough to confirm its sparkling demise. Then—

“Out!”

The combat readout disappeared again and her weapons shrank back into their baton shape.

“Miss Lynn, this is truly unorthodox, I would not advise—”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s reckless,” Lynn said, taking four steps to the side and repositioning herself. “But if it works, who cares?”

“But—”

“In!”

Another Orcull, this one half turned to the spot where she’d been five seconds before, appeared in front of her. She ignored the mass of other monsters stirring around her with aggressive roars, clicks and screeches, as none of them were close enough to matter. Once again, she took out the Orcull in front of her with a quick double strike from her two weapons, then slipped out of combat mode, vanishing once more.

Over Hugo’s protests, she did it again and again, each time repositioning herself behind a new Orcull based on her brief glimpse of their formation during her previous attack. After five successful kills with a perfect attack to damage ratio and not a single scratch on her, she felt positively giddy with excitement. Or…maybe that wasn’t giddiness.

“Whoa,” Lynn said, stumbling a little as what had felt like excitement turned to dizziness. She planted her feet and put out her arms for balance, taking a moment to let her head stop spinning. Maybe all that whirling around and jumping in and out of the game was getting to her.

“Are you all right, Miss Lynn? As I have been trying to tell you, this strategy is extremely unadvisable and I highly recommend you retreat to a safer distance.”

“What do you mean ‘safer distance’? I’m not in combat mode right now. I’m perfectly safe.” She straightened and shook her head but no remnant of the dizziness remained, so she shrugged and took another long swig of water. She was probably just dehydrated. No biggie.

“Yes, right now, perhaps. But you yourself have noted the increasing difficulty of the game beyond the normal levels one might expect. I cannot predict what new threat might be thrown at you. And completely aside from that unknown, this rapid entry and exit from combat mode is not in line with the battle system’s programmed function. There is no way to predict what might happen as a result.”

Lynn snorted.

“So, what you’re saying is, I’m being unorthodox and you don’t want players discovering hacks and exploiting game features in a way the designers didn’t expect?”

“Not at all, Miss Lynn. I am primarily concerned for your welfare and would recommend you utilize TD Hunter software and equipment in the manner it was programmed for to avoid any unexpected malfunctions.”

“Uh-huh. I’ll take my chances, thanks. If I could do this all day, just think how fast I could level! I’d probably miss out on some sweet loot, though, unless I can figure out a way to nab it before I get nailed. Or, maybe I could whittle the group down enough to take on the lower-class TDMs all at once and make a clean sweep of the circle?”

“I have no doubt of your skill and bravery, Miss Lynn but I really must insist that you reconsider your tactics.”

“Hey, don’t worry about me, Hugo. I know you’re just doing your job. Of course the game designers can’t endorse any experimenting with their product, or they’d open themselves up to lawsuits. I get it. Consider your warning duly noted, okay and get ready to take me back in.”

“…very well, Miss Lynn. I await your command.”

“Awesome,” Lynn said, then double checked her position. As long as the circle itself hadn’t shifted, she should still be somewhere in the center. She’d do a quick jump in to pick her next target. “In!”

Monsters materialized around her and her eyes searched for an Orcull with its back to her—

Her entire TD Hunter display vanished and with it the augmented reality.

Lynn swore loudly and threw her hands in the air.

“Seriously? You have to glitch right now? Right when things were starting to get good? I can’t believe this stupid, worthless piece of—” She devolved into dark muttering as she turned and stomped off across the green field, putting some distance between her and the power substation. When she calculated she was far enough away, she restarted the TD Hunter app.

“Greetings, Miss Lynn. What did I miss?”

“This stupid thing glitched again. I thought you all had fixed that?”

“I am terribly sorry, Miss Lynn. I shall submit a full error report at once.”

“Yeah, you do that,” she muttered and started back toward the power substation.

“Uh, pardon me, Miss Lynn but what are you doing?”

“I’ve got an hour or so left before I need to head home, I can’t waste a whole afternoon of hunting because of one glitch.”

“But—I—very well, Miss Lynn. Same strategy as before, I assume?”

“Yup.”

This time she only managed three “jumps” and sneak attacks before the app shut down again. Her killing streak was still perfect but at this rate, all the tromping back and forth to restart the app would make her new tactic pointless. Even so, she was stubborn enough to try a third time. As soon as she appeared inside the circle, though, everything crashed and she finally gave up in disgust. There was nothing she could do about it then and there, though as soon as she got home she would be calling TD Hunter’s support team to report the bug and complain.

In the meantime, she had daylight left that she couldn’t afford to waste. She tried using her “in and out” technique on the TDMs patrolling the area around the power substation—Ghasts and Spithra, mostly. But they moved around too much in between jumps for it to be useful. The monsters in the circles mostly held their ground, though, so Lynn tried another tactic. She edged close enough to have a visual on the ring, then started picking off the less armored TDMs with headshots from her Disruptor Rifle. It worked great…for about ten seconds. Then she was mobbed by four Phasmas all at once. That confirmed her suspicion that the rings of monsters had the ability to call in reinforcements if they were under attack.

Despite her failed experiments, the afternoon wasn’t a total bust. She’d gathered some valuable intel and had had fun pushing boundaries—her own as well as the game’s. Lynn decided the “blink maneuver,” as she’d dubbed it, would be a viable last resort escape from sudden death, even if it wasn’t very useful during normal battle. She knew that probably wasn’t what the game designers had intended it for but too bad. It was better than dying. She wasn’t sure if she could get away with using it in any of the competitions, though. It might mess with their scores. Maybe the guys over at tactical support could shed some light on it.

By the time the sun started sinking, she’d made good progress toward Level 11. On the way home, she thought about, and tried not to think about, her team and what she was going to do about Ronnie. She wasn’t a quitter but the whole situation was a stinking pile of crap and she didn’t know what to do. She needed some advice…


“TD Hunter technical support. This is James, how can I help you?”

“Oh, hey James!” Lynn said, smiling. “It’s Lynn Raven. You helped me last time too, right?”

“I sure did, Lynn. Nice to hear from you.”

Lynn, freshly showered and wearing comfy lounge clothes, turned over on her bed and propped her head up on her hands as she stared at her desk. She was on a voice only call, so she wasn’t wearing her AR glasses, just her TD Counterforce issue earbuds.

“Is there anyone else who takes support calls? Or just you?”

“Oh, we have a good-sized team here. Your call was routed to me because we’ve spoken before. It’s all part of the maximizing customer satisfaction algorithms.”

“Huh, cool.”

“Well, how can I help you today, Lynn? I see your app went offline abruptly several times this afternoon. Was there an issue?”

“Yeah,” Lynn said and heaved a sigh. “You know those circles of TDMs I found a couple times during beta that made my app glitch and crash when I got close? Well, it started happening again today.”

“Hmmm, I see,” James said, sounding distracted. “I’ve got your feed data in front of me but walk me through it so I know what I’m looking at.”

Lynn started describing her experiment jumping in and out of combat mode to get inside the monster circles but before she got very far, James cut her off.

“Wait, Lynn, are you telling me you fired up your battle system while directly in the center of one of those circles?”

“Uh, yeah? Is that a problem?”

“Nooo,” James said slowly, “It’s just very, well, unorthodox, let’s say. Can I put you on hold for a moment, Lynn? I need to check something.”

“Um, sure. Go for it.”

“Thanks. Be right back,” James said and his voice was replaced by the muted sound of TD Hunter’s intro music.

Lynn’s brow scrunched in thought as she waited, wondering what was up.

“Okay, thanks for waiting, Lynn,” said James, sounding as cheery as usual.

“No problem. So, what was that all about?”

“Oh, nothing to worry about. Just checking recent history logs of similar glitches in and around Cedar Rapids. I was looking for any kind of pattern to indicate what might be causing the glitch and it looks like it’s pretty common around power substations like the one you hunted at today.”

“Oh. Okay.” Lynn frowned. “I thought you guys fixed the glitches from beta, though?”

“Ah, yes, we did. But when you spend time around something like a power substation where high levels of energy are being beamed back and forth, we really can’t make any kind of app performance guarantee. There’s just too much interference.”

“Okay. That’s fair, I guess. It’s just weird, because I didn’t have trouble with any other apps on my LINC. Plus, the app didn’t glitch until I started jumping in and out of that circle. It was fine the rest of the time I was near the substation.”

“I see. Well, I can’t speak for any other app’s function. But I do know that when you have really big groups of TDMs all together the app is calculating millions of lines of data and commands all at once, so it’s possible the tiny amounts of interference from the substation were all it took to make the app shut down.”

The explanation seemed reasonable but Lynn continued to frown. Something still seemed off. She just didn’t know what.

“Don’t worry, our software engineers will definitely look into the crash data to figure out how we can make our app even more reliable in any circumstance. But if it keeps crashing in the future, I would say it’s best to avoid the sorts of places and situations that make it crash. Every new game has its quirks, as I’m sure you understand.”

“I guess. Well, thanks for the explanation. It’s still super frustrating. Any idea how it will affect my scores? Like if it cuts off right in the middle of a big fight?”

“That’s a great question. I do know that with the app’s live connection, you won’t lose any data. Thus, any app-caused glitches won’t result in experience penalties. Unfortunately, it will still wipe out any damage you’ve done to TDMs, just like any other time you exit combat mode.”

“Dang. That’s annoying.”

“I completely understand. But it’s a pretty standard design for games like this.”

“Yeah…” Lynn said and trailed off in thought. There was something else she’d been meaning to ask technical support…“Oh, hey, James, do you have any idea how one player might track another player through the app? Like, track their location?” She didn’t mention Elena’s illegal activities. She wasn’t one to complain and since she didn’t have proof, there was no point making accusations.

“Well, there’s a group function where you can designate yourself and others as a hunting group and in that case your icons will show on each other’s overhead in combat and out so you can keep track of your teammates. Is that what you mean?”

Lynn slapped her forehead. Of course! That underhanded, devious little—“Uh, yeah, thanks James. That’s what I needed to know. Oh, could you transfer me to Tactical? I need to ask them some questions.”

“What a coincidence,” James laughed. “I think they want to ask you some questions, too. Somebody over there is grumbling about ‘FUBAR tactics.’ I think whatever you’ve been up to has gotten them all excited.”

“Really?” Lynn asked, suddenly feeling nervous. “I mean, did I do something wrong?”

“Oh no, not at all! Our tactical team just likes things nice and neat and, well, gamers are about as far from nice and neat as you can get.”

This time it was Lynn’s turn to laugh.

“Pretty much. Well, I guess I should go see what they want. Thanks for the help, James.”

“Anytime, Lynn. Stay safe and keep up the good work! I’m transferring you now…”

There was a brief silence, then a familiar growl came on.

“Should’a known it would be the crazy teenage girl who would be giving me gray hairs.”

“Hey to you, too, Fallu,” Lyn said, unable to hold back her grin. “And don’t blame me, blame your CEO. It was Mr. Krator who roped me into this in the first place.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be having a word with him, too. And it’s Steve, for now. I haven’t been back in the soup for weeks. Things’ve been crazy since launch.”

“Yeah, me too. I can’t even remember the last time I logged into WarMonger. Think they’ve forgotten about me yet?”

“You joking? Nobody will ever forget Larry Coughlin. He’ll be whispered about for generations of gamers to come.”

Lynn laughed.

“I doubt it. But hopefully I’ll still be able to get a few jobs when I find the time to get back into it. This team competition stuff in TD Hunter has not been kind to my monetization.”

“Sacrifices made in the line of duty. It’s a commendable choice.”

“Yeah, well, tell that to my savings account.”

“Just keep your nose to the grindstone, kid. It’ll pay off. Speaking of, what’s with the stunt you pulled this afternoon? Didn’t you listen to the safety briefing in the tutorial?”

“What?” Lynn protested. “I didn’t get anywhere near any Bravo or Alpha Class monsters, not to mention a boss.”

“What do you think are in those circles, Hunter? Little green fairies?”

“Well…if I can’t see them they can’t see me, right?”

“Sure, in theory. But you willing to bet your life on whatever crazy sh—crazy stuff the algorithm comes up with? It’s a dynamic, self-learning artificial intelligence with one job: to kill you. It’s only held back by the world-building parameters of the game’s backstory and mechanics. So, sure, go ahead and give it the finger. Just don’t be surprised when it bites your hand off.”

A little shiver ran down Lynn’s spine at Steve’s words. He made the game AI sound so…malevolent.

“Okay but if I die I just have to twiddle my thumbs for an hour and drop a few in the rankings. What’s the big deal? It’s not like the game is dangerous…is it?”

There was a short pause and Lynn’s heart skipped a beat.

“Let me put it this way, kid. We might have created artificial intelligence but half the AIs out there don’t need us anymore. They exist in the mesh. They’re self-taught. The only way to ever get rid of them now would be to shoot down every satellite in orbit, tear up every mesh hub and basically go back to the telegram. And even then they’d probably survive in some self-contained doomsday server underground somewhere.

“But yeah, sure, the game is safe. We wouldn’t put millions of players in danger just to make a buck, right? Just remember that any time you interact with an AI, there’s an element of risk. Maybe it does what it’s programmed to do. Or maybe it reinterprets its programming in a way we didn’t intend. Better not to take the risk. Roger that?”

“Roger,” Lynn said, faintly. She was busy considering the implications and a dozen other questions were already crowding her head. But she doubted Steve would answer them. NDA and all that. His words made sense, though. She just needed to reevaluate how she thought about the game.

She’d spent most of her gaming career fighting human players, not AI. So far, the experience seemed simultaneously more structured and more unpredictable. Or maybe it only seemed that way. Maybe the AI wanted her to think it was structured, so it could “break” its own rules at a critical moment? But how could she tell the difference between the immutable rules and the breakable rules? Because, all games had to have immutable rules, otherwise it was no game at all.

“Besides,” Steve said, interrupting her thoughts. “Those power substations aren’t exactly a safe place to hang around. Lots of radiation.”

Lynn shook her head and refocused.

“Yeah but that’s where the TDMs are. They feed off the EM particles, right? You all set a pretty high bar to reach by the beginning of September for the qualifier. We’ve got to kill as many TDMs as efficiently as possible. No pain, no gain, right?”

“Typical teenager. Throwing my words back at me,” Steve said grumpily, but Lynn could hear the grin in his voice. “Just be careful, roger? Last thing I need is a bunch of angry mother bears after me because their kids’ brains got fried.”

“I’ll be careful. It’s not like I’m breaking into the substations or anything. I’m not stupid.”

“The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success, kid.”

Lynn scrunched her brows together.

“What does that mean?”

“If you live, you’re a genius. If you die, you’re insane. Guess times like these call for a little of both…How’s the team coming along?” he asked, abruptly changing the topic.

Lynn paused as her brain switched gears—and the new gear was not one she wanted to dwell on. The silence must have grown too long, because Steve spoke again.

“That bad, huh?”

“No—I mean, sort of,” Lynn said. She really didn’t want to talk about it. But if she were going to get advice from anyone on how to deal with team drama during a major gaming competition, Steve seemed like a good start.

“It’s…well it’s the captain, Ronnie. He is such a jerk, I don’t know how to deal with it. He blames me for everything that goes wrong and he won’t take any advice, even though I consistently prove I’m the most skilled player on the team.”

“Why aren’t you the team captain?” Steve asked, sounding surprised.

Lynn felt her cheeks warm. She was glad the call was voice only.

“Oh, um, the group I’m playing with—well, just Ronnie, really—doesn’t think girls make good gamers—which is stupid, I know, but that’s Ronnie for you. Besides, Ronnie has always been the captain for all their other gaming teams, like in WarMonger. He’s a good gamer, just a complete jerk. I didn’t think I’d have as good of a chance trying to recruit a team of my own. Besides, I don’t want to be a team captain. I just want to kill stuff and make money.”

“Hmm.” Steve sounded pensive and there was a moment of silence before he continued. “You know anything about this Ronnie? Background? Family? Parents?”

“Huh? Not really,” Lynn said, wondering where this line of questioning was going. “I’ve heard him mention his dad once or twice. Never heard him talk about his mom or any siblings. I think he’s an only child.”

“Figures.”

“What?”

“Two things,” Steve said. He paused, as if considering his words. “First, jerks are usually jerks because that’s what they’ve been taught. I saw it all the time in new recruits. Doesn’t excuse it. Just reality. We straightened them out pretty quick. Set a better example. They shaped up, or they got the boot. You can’t do that, of course. But what you can do is cut through the bull. Cut through the posturing. Leave your ego behind and communicate like a mature adult. You’ve got to stop treating this like a game and get real serious, real quick. Otherwise, better to give up now and go back to making grown men cry like little girls in WarMonger. More money and less stress.”

Lynn thought that over. She did miss WarMonger. But she knew she would miss TD Hunter just as much if she “threw in the baton.” She’d made too much progress, discovered a whole new version of herself.

“Okay…So, I need to get serious. But how? You said there were two things?”

“Correct. Second thing is, you ever heard of a butter bar?”

“Um butter bar? No. What is it?”

“Second lieutenant. The most junior, larval, useless officer God ever created by and large.

“Officers technically outrank all enlisted, even a sergeant major with decades under his belt. But these butter bars fresh out of training think they’re God’s gift to us lowly enlisted, a real General Patton reincarnate. They think they know everything there is to know from their books and field exercises.” Steve snorted.

“Most of them couldn’t lead the way out of their own backside with a map and a flashlight. A couple years and plenty of knocks later, most of them have figured out that PT studliness doesn’t make them a good leader and they promote to First LT. Until then, an NCO has to handle his Second LT. carefully. Takes subtle manipulation and lots of ‘professional development’ talks. Always in private, of course. You got a private channel set up with your team captain?”

“Not a chance. He pretty much pretends I don’t exist.”

“Not good. Tough situation, I’ll give you that. First off, I think you’d make a great team captain if you ever decide to strike out on your own.”

Lynn shrugged internally. It was nice to hear. Mr. Krator had said the same thing. But no way no how did she want to be in the spotlight with the weight of everyone’s expectations on her.

“Barring that,” Steve continued, “I’d say start with a private meet. There’s no room for hurt feelings or resentment. This competition is the undertaking of your life, not a friendship circle. If you start throwing around accusations it’ll just make him defensive and people on the defensive don’t think straight. Lay things out, calm and mature. Offer support without compromising his authority but require respect in return. If that doesn’t work, you’re pretty much screwed.”

“Gee, thanks, Fallu,” Lynn said, rolling her eyes. “This was so much more simple when I could just headshot him and give him a good teabagging in WarMonger.”

An explosive guffaw sounded in her ear and for a moment she thought she could hear other voices laughing in the background. But she’d probably just imagined it, because Steve was back on right away, still chuckling through his words.

“I’d expect no less from Larry Coughlin. He know it was you?”

“Heck no,” Lynn said, grinning. “He might try to murder me in the real if he did.”

“Right on. Well, good luck, then. Remember, calm and mature. Competence without insubordination. Give respect and require it in return. In fact, there’s something called the Staff NCO Handbook you might want to look up. Each military branch has their own but all NCOs use some version of it when they go through their Staff Academy. It’ll have more tips and tricks to managing ‘inferior superiors,’ you might say, that could be useful.”

“Okay. I’ll check it out. Thanks, Steve, really.”

“Roger that, kid. Keep at it and stay safe.”

“I will.”

“Tactical Support, out.”

Lynn grinned.

“RavenStriker, out.”


Lynn took a deep breath. She sat on a bench in a little green space beside the airbus platform she’d used yesterday to get to the power substation by St. Andrews Golf Course. She’d convinced the guys to come there to hunt today and then had pinged Ronnie and asked him to come a half hour early so they could talk. Her entire body thrummed with nerves and she rubbed her sweaty palms on her legs. Would he even show up?

If he did, she was ready. Sort of.

She’d looked for that handbook Steve had mentioned and had found the U.S. Army’s version of it in the opensource cloud. It had been a quick and fascinating read. Steve had pretty much summed up the important bits when they’d talked yesterday but reading about them in context had helped her understand the principles behind them a lot better.

After reading it, she’d lain awake most of the night thinking about what to say to Ronnie and how to say it. In the brief period that she had fallen asleep, she’d had a creepy nightmare about Ronnie following her around, criticizing her and calling her a failure. Then Ronnie morphed into a ghostly, sparkling mist that was always there in the corner of her eye no matter how fast she ran away. When she finally thought she’d escaped it, she found herself in a ring of TDMs all closing in on her, teeth dripping and red hunger shining in their eyes. She’d tried to blink out but suddenly realized that her app wasn’t even on and the ring of monsters was real…

So, yeah, a real restful night of sleep. It reminded her of that bad dream she’d had back when she’d been beta testing. Maybe she needed to start some sort of calming meditation before bed if all this stress kept giving her nightmares.

Or maybe Ronnie would get his head out of his butt and things would start to improve.

She still didn’t really know what to say to him. But she knew what the end result needed to be and hoped she could figure out how to get there. While she waited, she repeated Steve’s words to herself over and over again: Calm and mature. Competence without insubordination. Give respect and require it in return—not that she thought Ronnie deserved an ounce of respect. But Steve was right. This wasn’t the time to demand an apology, no matter how much she deserved it. Maybe that would come later. Some day. If Ronnie grew up. Right now she just needed to get him to work with her instead of against her.

Since she was watching the airbus platform like a hawk, she spotted Ronnie right away when he stepped off onto the sidewalk and turned his head back and forth, no doubt looking for her. She took one last deep breath, then got up and waved him over.

The look that came over his face when he spotted her wasn’t promising but he did follow her away from the sidewalk into the middle of the little green space where they could talk in private.

“Uh…hey,” Lynn said. Brilliant. Just brilliant.

“What do you want?” Ronnie said without preamble, crossing his arms.

Deep breath. No emotion. Be professional.

“We need to talk. About the team.”

“What about it?” Ronnie said, eyes narrowing.

“It’s not working. But I want it to work and to make it work we need to clear the air between us.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ronnie said. But he hunched his shoulders as he said it, as if fending off a blow.

Okay, not the best start. Lynn forged on, trying to “cut the bull” without insulting Ronnie nine ways to Saturday, which was what she really wanted to do.

“Look, let’s be honest, okay? I get the impression you don’t like me and you don’t want me on this team. I understand being hurt that I didn’t mention beta testing for TD Hunter. But we’ve already been over that and I don’t think that’s the real problem. So, what is the real problem? I can’t fix something I don’t even know about.” Yeah, like it was her that needed to fix something. Right. But if he would just tell her what his problem was…

There was a long silence. Ronnie glared at her as if he expected her to spring some sort of trap.

Lynn silently gritted her teeth. Keep it calm. Keep it mature.

“We’re both good players, Ronnie,” she said quietly, not because she wanted to but because if she didn’t force her voice to be quiet, she would be screaming at him. “I think if we work together, we have a real shot at winning this competition. Talk to me. What’s going on?”

Still, the silence dragged on. But Lynn forced herself to stay absolutely still, expression smooth, waiting. She’d learned in WarMonger how powerful silence was.

“I don’t trust you!” Ronnie exploded, as if he couldn’t hold the words back any longer. “You’re not a team player, you keep secrets, you don’t listen to me and you go off to do your own thing instead of backing me up. All you care about are your stupid scores and you lord them over everybody like you think that makes you a good player!”

The hot, angry rush of words hit Lynn like a ton of bricks.

Was he serious? He didn’t trust her? She was the one obsessed with scores and prestige? She was the one who went off to do her own thing? What utter, ludicrous, drivel. She opened her mouth, ready to shout back and defend herself from his ridiculous accusations.

“…people on the defensive don’t think straight.”

Steve’s words smacked her right in the face, dousing her outrage. Lynn closed her mouth and took a deep breath in through her nose. Then she looked at Ronnie and what she saw in his face brought her up short. There was anger there but under it plain as day was something else: Fear.

Prejudice is a human condition, Miz Raven, an unfortunate reality of our flawed natures. But we fear most what we don’t know.

Mr. Thomas’ words echoed in her head and she began to re-evaluate the situation. Ronnie didn’t trust her and he was afraid of something. Her? That would be ridiculous. It must be something else, some insecurity she didn’t know about. How could she change that? Should she tell him about Larry? She only considered it for a split second before rejecting the idea. That would make things worse.

“You know, I don’t really play Kim’s Diva Princess.”

Ronnie’s face opened for a moment in genuine surprise, then his eyes narrowed.

“What do you mean?”

“My grandparents bought me the subscription as a gift once but I only made it about two minutes in before I wanted to nuke the entire thing. It’s the most gawdawful game in existence. I don’t think it ever made money anyway, it was just one of those things they put out for brand promotion, you know?”

“Yeah,” Ronnie said, then snorted. “Disgrace to the name of gaming.”

“Pretty much…so, um, what was the first game you ever played?” she asked, trying to keep the conversation going.

The question seemed to take Ronnie off guard but the scowl lines on his forehead eased as he considered.

“Fortnite, I think. But it was so long ago I don’t really remember.”

“Seriously? Fortnite? I didn’t even know that was still a thing.”

“Not anymore but it was still pretty popular when I was six.”

“You’ve been gaming since you were six?” Lynn said, eyes wide.

“Yeah.” Ronnie shrugged. “Dad wanted me to do soccer, or baseball, but…” He trailed off, then shrugged awkwardly, his shoulders hunching again.

“But…you were made to game,” Lynn said in a quiet voice. She understood completely.

“Yeah,” he said again, giving her an odd look. Not exactly friendly. But not hostile either.

“You know…I feel that way too.”

Ronnie didn’t reply. He just looked at her, his brows drawn together but not in anger. More like confusion.

“It’s the only thing I’ve ever done that I’m really good at,” she continued, “and all I want to do is win this competition, get a gaming degree, then a gaming job and keep gaming for the rest of my life.”

He was silent a long time, staring like he didn’t know what to make of her. Finally, he said, “Yeah. Me too.”

Lynn grinned. “All right then. We’re on the same page. I think if we work together, we have a shot at this.”

“That’s what I’ve been saying all along,” Ronnie huffed. “If you would just listen to me, we wouldn’t need to have this conversation in the first place.”

Aaand, there was the jerkitude again. Lynn sighed. How did you tell someone they were a complete idiot without calling them a complete idiot? Was this what being a gunnery sergeant felt like? If so, she felt bad for gunnery sergeants everywhere.

“Look, Ronnie, do you want me off the team? If so, just say it.” She hadn’t meant to put it so bluntly but there it was.

To her surprise, Ronnie looked annoyed. After a long silence, he finally shrugged and grumbled, “No.”

“Really? Why not? Because you really don’t seem to want me here.”

“You’re…good at what you do,” he said so reluctantly it made Lynn want to roll her eyes.

“Okay, so if I’m good at what I do, isn’t it logical that my tactical suggestions and insight into the game might be useful to you?”

“Yeah. I guess. But I’m the captain. When you go around spouting off about tactical this and strategy that, it makes me—” he stopped abruptly and Lynn’s eyes physically hurt from the effort of not rolling them.

Makes you look bad, huh? she thought. No duh.

“—makes the others confused,” he finished, defensive once again. “I’m the leader, so I should be saying that stuff.”

Lynn wanted to massage her temples. Instead, she clasped her hands behind her back and tried to remind herself that this would all be worth it when they won.

“You’re right. You’re the team captain. But it’s normal for leaders to delegate, especially things like training. Plus, any good leader has advisors, right? So, let me be your advisor. When I give suggestions, I promise I’m not trying to—” she paused, delicately “—confuse the others. I’m trying to help us do better so we can win this thing. That’s all.”

Ronnie seemed to think about it, which was better than him accusing her of more things that weren’t her fault.

“So,” she continued into the silence, “let’s set up a private channel, just you and me and if I have any suggestions I can let you know.”

His mouth scrunched to the side in thought as he eyed her. Then he shrugged.

“Fine.”

“Good. But Ronnie,” she said, voice turning hard as she caught his eye. “If you want me to stay on this team, you have to take my suggestions seriously. You don’t always have to agree with them but if you blow me off then this whole thing is pointless and we probably won’t even qualify, much less win any competitions. I’ll respect you as captain if you’ll respect me as a competent teammate who has skills and experience. Do we have a deal?”

“Are you threatening me?” he asked, eyes narrowing again.

Lynn threw her hands in the air.

“No! Good grief, Ronnie, I’m not threatening you. I’m saying that we’ll never succeed as a team if we don’t trust each other. So, I’ll do my best to trust you if you’ll try to do the same and trust me, okay? Can you do that? Please?”

He snorted, mouth turned down but finally, finally, nodded.


By the time the others got there, Hugo had set up a private channel for Lynn and explained the easiest ways to switch back and forth between it and their group channel. He also told her that if either of them subvocalized instead of talking out loud, the recipient system would translate it into audible speech. That meant Ronnie had to learn how to subvocalize—which he was inclined to be grumpy about—but at least it gave them a way to speak privately around the others.

Lynn had also taken the time to explain to Ronnie what she’d discovered the previous day at the substation. They’d “discussed” what to do about it and the two of them had finally come to a unified strategy. Trying to work around Ronnie’s stubbornness and entrenched assumptions made Lynn want to pull out her hair. She was probably going to need tooth reconstruction with all the teeth grinding she was doing. But at least he was finally listening to her.

Progress.

Once Edgar, Mack and Dan arrived and gathered around, Ronnie put his hands on his hips and surveyed them all.

“Okay, team. We’re trying some new tactics today. Hopefully, if we fight hard and work together, most of us can reach Level 10 before it gets dark and we can finally start using two-handed weapons. That’s when things really start to get fun.” He smirked and they all responded enthusiastically. “Now, I’m going to have Lynn explain the mechanics of what we’re doing and then give a demo, so pay attention.”

All eyes flicked to her. She gave Ronnie a nod, then took a deep breath to calm her nerves and jumped right in.

“Before we go anywhere or do anything, I need you all to access your menu under ‘Game Options,’ then ‘Groups,’ and look to see if you’re a part of any hunter groups besides ours.”

The guys exchanged confused looks but those that hadn’t already slipped on their AR glasses did so and there was a moment of silence. They still hadn’t agreed on a team name and so they’d all labeled their group in the app as simply “Training Group.”

“Uh, I think I’ve got something,” Mack said, hesitantly raising his hand.

“What is it?” Lynn said.

“Well, I’ve got two groups listed. One is ours but the other is just labeled ‘Team.’ I can’t remember how it got there. I just assumed it was us.”

“Select it,” Lynn said grimly.

Silence. “Uhh. Guys…”

“The only other person in the group is Elena, right?”

“What?!” came several cries from the others.

“Hey! I’m sorry! I didn’t do it on purpose!” Mack said, practically pulling out his beard.

Before Ronnie could start throwing around baseless accusations, Lynn jumped in.

“It’s okay, Mack. She tricked you. She probably had one of her teammates with a generic gaming name tag you with a request to join a group and since it was just called ‘Team’ you probably assumed the request came from one of us, right?”

“Yeah, probably?” Mack said. He still looked confused.

“That’s how she’s been tracking us,” Lynn said grimly. “Delete the group, will you?”

“Yeah…done. I’m really sorry, guys.”

Dan gave a disgusted huff but slapped Mack on the shoulder.

“Don’t sweat it. It was a sneaky thing to do. I might’ve fallen for it, too.”

Ronnie looked like he wanted to say something—not something nice, Lynn was guessing—but she caught his eye and shook her head minutely. He glared at her but kept his mouth shut.

“Okay, now that we know Elena and her thugs won’t be interrupting us, let’s get going. I did some scouting yesterday for a better spot to hunt and I want to show you before I explain what we’ll be doing.”

They set off toward the substation, chatting as they went with Lynn in the lead. Edgar sidled up to her, leaving Ronnie to join Mack as they laughed over some ridiculous gaming prank Dan had cooked up.

“Hey, Lynn,” Edgar said.

“Hey, Edgar,” she replied, keeping her eyes ahead.

“Is, uh, everything okay? I was worried when you left yesterday.”

Choices flashed through Lynn’s head, a myriad of possible responses and their repercussions. She wanted to blow him off. After all, he hadn’t stood up to Ronnie yesterday when their captain was being a jerk to her. But then, she’d spent the last four years being just as silent, so who was she to talk?

She sighed.

“Yeah, everything’s okay. I talked to Ronnie about it. Hopefully we can all work together better in the future.”

“Oh, good,” Edgar said and the relief in his voice was palpable. Lynn thought that was the end of it but after a few moments of silence, he spoke again. “You know, Ronnie isn’t that bad of a guy, once you get to know him.”

“Is that so?” Lynn asked, trying and failing, to keep the sarcasm out of her voice.

“Hey, I’m serious. Yeah, he has his faults. But he’s been the glue keeping us together for years. Me and Mack, we don’t have that kind of…I dunno, charisma, I guess. Or just plain bossiness. And Dan is too distractible. But Ronnie, man, he has plans and he’s always taken us along with him. I don’t know where we’d be without Ronnie.”

“Golly, it’d be so nice to know what that’s like. You know, being part of a loyal group of friends. It must be really great.” Lynn didn’t mean to sound so cutting but her resentment got the better of her. She’d never felt like one of the gang. Just an outsider that the guys allowed to hang around out of pity.

Edgar, to his credit, didn’t deny anything. He was silent so long that Lynn glanced over at him. He was looking at the ground, hands in his pockets.

“I’m sorry, Lynn,” was all he said.

“What?” she said. She hadn’t been expecting that.

“You’re right,” Edgar said, shrugging. “We should have done more to include you. Ronnie’s always been weird around girls. But I shouldn’t have let that stop me from being a better friend to you. I’m sorry. Will you…forgive me?”

Lynn almost stumbled to a stop but managed to keep walking. She looked over at him and met his eyes.

“I—yes—yes, of course, I forgive you.” It felt weird, saying it. But once she did, a tension inside her eased. “I’m not saying you’re off the hook or anything,” she added, giving him a half smile. “But yeah. It’s all cool.”

Edgar smiled back, then nudged her playfully with an elbow.

“You were probably better off not spending too much time around us when we were younger, anyway,” Edgar said, cracking his gum. “I mean, I know all teenagers are pretty dumb, going through puberty and all that. But man, we were baaad. I’m glad we’re over that stage.”

“It’s cute that you think you’re over it,” Lynn said, pursing her lips so she didn’t grin.

“Uh-huh. Just you wait, I’ll show you. My manly maturity will blow your socks right off.”

“Riiight. Good luck with that,” Lynn said, trying to exude casual indifference and hoping the heat in her cheeks wasn’t showing.

To her relief, Edgar didn’t reply and Lynn finally saw the street up ahead that led to the substation. Behind her the other three guys were still chatting, now about in-game skins and whether or not wearing a “birthday suit” skin would get you banned in certain games. Lynn rolled her eyes. Boys.

“Hey,” Edgar said, catching her attention again. He leaned a little closer and lowered his voice. “I know this isn’t really my story to tell, but…Ronnie’s mom walked out on them when he was a kid. Just abandoned them. And his dad isn’t the easiest guy to be around either. So…maybe cut Ronnie a little slack.”

Lynn nodded mutely as things clicked into place. What a screwed-up band of misfits they were.

Well, now they were her screwed up band of misfits. And if she couldn’t win this competition by herself, then by golly she was going to win it with them whether they wanted to or not.

As she reached the field on the corner and gathered the guys around her, she reflected that, Larry Coughlin or Lynn Raven, it didn’t matter. She was a fighter and nobody—not Elena, not Ronnie, not even her own insecurities—was going to get in her way.

Time to get her fight on.


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Framed