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Chapter 13


Despite her best efforts, Lynn was not paying attention to the teacher.

There was only so much talk of molecules, chemical bonds, and catalysts she could take before her brain checked out. Besides, the topics were a review of what they’d learned in the fall, in preparation to dive into their new subject matter for spring semester. She planned to spend her life dominating the professional gaming arena and maybe even developing games herself one day, so chemistry was very low on her list of things to spend brain energy on.

TD Hunter on the other hand . . . 

The hard work and many cold hours of hunting Skadi’s Wolves had put in over Christmas break had paid off. They’d finally reached Level 32, and Lynn felt for the first time since TD Hunter had launched last June that they were functioning as a professional team instead of a disjointed gaggle of teenagers. Not that they had all their problems ironed out. Ronnie was still grumpy, rude, and argumentative more often than not, and she still had to fight anxiety and vicious imposter syndrome on a regular basis. The other guys still had work to do to bring their accuracy scores up to snuff and keep their forms solid in the heat of battle.

But they were getting there.

Best of all, they hadn’t seen hide nor hair of the Cedar Rapids Champions. It was almost as if Elena and Connor were avoiding them on purpose, which was about the nicest thing they’d ever done in their lives. It made Lynn intensely suspicious, but she’d decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth and had capitalized on a bit of mental breathing room to focus solely on her team.

Now, though, school had started back up and Lynn faced a conundrum: Not only were they back to restricted hunting time, but the higher they went in levels, the slower the leveling became. They had a little over five months to make eight levels, and she wasn’t entirely sure they could.

It was the same problem Connor had tried, and failed, to solve.

But she wasn’t Connor—she wasn’t an athlete. She was a gamer, and gamers always found a way.

She already had several plans in place involving various team bonuses and tracking down rare items on the auction mart to boost experience rates. What would really do the trick, though, was tackling bosses.

That unknown boss in the woods north of the school? Its days were numbered. She just had to figure out how to defeat it—safely.

She wasn’t even sure what “safely” meant, and disliked thinking too deeply about it. Something was definitely weird and different about TD Hunter. But whether that weirdness was a glitch the company wanted to keep under wraps lest it sink their whole enterprise, or a function of the game’s cutting-edge nature that TD Hunter’s engineers didn’t themselves entirely understand, she wasn’t sure. All she knew was that she really, really hoped it didn’t wreck everything she’d worked so hard for. A few times she’d considered bringing it up to Steve, but even that felt risky. What if she was jumping at shadows and put a target on her back for complaining? There were any number of ways her team could be quietly sidelined or disqualified, and there would be nothing she could do about it.

All she could do was take the safety rules in the game seriously instead of actively ignoring them. That meant, if she wanted to take down a boss, she needed more teams.

A lot more.

“Class dismissed!”

Lynn started and looked up, but the teacher was busy packing his bag and hadn’t seemed to notice her complete inattention. Edgar had, though, and shot her a grin as they grabbed their things and headed for the door.

“What’s cookin’, Cap? You had your Hunter face on, all glaring and scrunched like you’re thinking big thoughts—”

“Oh, shut up,” Lynn grumbled. “What did I miss? Anything important?”

“Nah. Just review stuff. So, what big plan you working on?”

“Nothing. At least, nothing yet. I’ve got to think about it more first.”

“Look at you, being all responsible like a true Toa Tama’ita’i.” Edgar slapped her on the back, nearly making her stumble forward.

Lynn tried to glare at him but her lips twitched upward anyway.

“Are you implying I’m not usually responsible?”

“Nah, you’re the most responsible person I know. But it takes true bravery to accept responsibility for other people and not just yourself. You used to be afraid of it. Now you’re not.” He shrugged as if it was the most obvious thing in the world and walked on.

For a second Lynn stood frozen to the spot, the press of other students parting to flow around her. Then she lurched forward and ran to catch up, falling into step beside her friend as she savored the warm glow in her chest and tried not to grin too stupidly.

“Hola-la ami-agos!”

Dan’s cheerful and brutal butchering of the Spanish language rang out behind them, and they slowed to let him, Mack, and Ronnie catch up to their group.

“Don’t let your Spanish teacher hear you,” Lynn said, “or she’ll fail you on mere principle.”

“What? I thought I did pretty good on my last test.”

Mack snorted, and Lynn shot him a look.

“You speak it better than anybody else, Mack. Are you really gonna let him fail class without lifting a finger?”

“Hey, don’t look at me! I’m done trying to correct him. He’s worse at languages than he is at martial arts.”

Lynn winced sympathetically. She was about to suggest some helpful stream channels on pronunciation when she noticed the gaggles of students lining the halls around them were starting to stare and whisper among themselves.

“Great,” Ronnie growled. “What is it this time?”

Sick apprehension gripped the pit of Lynn’s stomach, but she swallowed and held her head high.

“Probably nothing. Ignore them. Everybody will be heading home soon anyway, and we’ve got an airbus to catch to get to this new hunting ground I want to try out. Has everybody got their stuff already?”

They chorused replies, but Lynn was distracted by a call alert from her LINC.

It was from Mrs. Pearson.

She wasn’t technically supposed to take calls on school grounds, but school was out for the day so she waved a hand at her team and ducked into the nearest girls’ bathroom. Thankfully, it was empty.

“Hello, Mrs. Pearson?”

“Good afternoon, Miss Raven. I’m glad I caught you. There’s been a . . . development on the streams regarding Skadi’s Wolves. I wasn’t sure if you had seen it yet or not, but whether you have or not it is very, very important that you do not respond in any way, shape, or form until we have met and agreed upon a plan to manage it.”

The pit in Lynn’s stomach dropped like a fifty-pound weight.

“Uhhhh, manage what?”

“I’ll ping you a link. You’ll need to be aware of everything said in any case. But promise me, Miss Raven, you will not make any statement in public or post any sort of response until we are on the same page?”

“Y-yeah, sure. I promise.”

“Good. Please pass on the warning to your team and ensure they hold their counsel as well. I need to speak to Mr. Swain directly about this and get in touch with TD Hunter’s legal department before we will know how to proceed. I will call you back as soon as I have more information, but I will certainly call you this evening at the very latest to give you an update. Until then, not a word. Understood?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Lynn said, through numb lips.

“Now, please tell your team right away. Goodbye.”

The call ended before she even had a chance to respond, which was fine with her. She slipped back out of the bathroom to find her team waiting for her.

“What was that?”

“And why is everybody staring?”

A pinging sound in Lynn’s ear alerted her to the arrival of the link Mrs. Pearson had promised.

“We need to talk, but not here,” Lynn said, and headed back the way they’d come. As soon as she’d found an empty classroom and dragged them all in after her, she sent the link to everyone and they descended into silence, each watching the stream on their own AR glasses.

The stream was from HotGamingCelebs, which only made Lynn’s apprehension worse.

“Today we have a special, special treat for all you hungry viewers,” said the show’s host, a disgustingly smarmy middle-aged guy whose bleached pompadour had seen better days. “This is so juicy I couldn’t even wait for our usual scoop hour. You won’t believe this exclusive vid we just acquired from an anonymous source. It’s been a quiet holiday season on the TD Hunter front, but this stuff is going to put Tsunami Entertainment’s latest and greatest release back in the headlines—and this stream is the only place you can see it. We’ll get right to that vid as soon as we thank our sponsors—”

Lynn groaned internally and fiddled with her controls to skip past the host’s trying-too-hard endorsements. Paying a premium cut out the official ads attached to every stream, but there was nothing you could do about the in-stream ads by the stream celebrities themselves, which, of course, was exactly why they were so lucrative to do and why gaining enough of a following to be worth sponsoring was so competitive.

“Okay, let’s take a look at this bad baby. Hold onto your socks, because they’re about to get blown off when you see this craaazy vid.”

The scene switched from the host in front of a green screen backdrop to smooth, floating footage from a drone a little above head height, looking down on—

“No,” Lynn whispered, fists clenching.

It was them, standing in that little park near St. Sebastian’s, facing off against Connor and his friend. But as the scene unfolded, Lynn’s brow furrowed and the sick feeling in her stomach turned to icy anger.

The vid was taken from behind and a little to the left of Connor so that his entire front was hidden, but you could see some of her face and body, and most of Edgar and Dan behind her. She and Connor appeared to be having an argument—which they had been—and the audio backed that up, though some of the words were lost in the wind that had been quite strong that day. But what happened next didn’t match up to what Lynn remembered. Connor appeared to lurch back as if Lynn had punched him, and the expression on what the viewer could see of Lynn’s face was full of cruelty and hate. The things she shouted were definitely in her voice, but they weren’t what she remembered saying, as if they’d been clipped from somewhere else and inserted there.

Then the camera zoomed in, not on her but on Edgar standing behind her, so that she and Connor were no longer visible. In those critical few seconds, Edgar’s calm exterior cracked and fire blazed in his eyes as his entire body tensed up. The murderous growl in his voice was clearly audible as he threatened Connor, and then he lurched forward out of the camera frame. The camera zoomed out in leisurely fashion and the next few seconds of audio was obscured by a gust of wind that rocked the drone. By the time the camera had fully expanded and stabilized, Edgar was attacking Connor as Lynn rolled out of the way. The rest of the fight followed what Lynn remembered, with Edgar and Connor both trading punishing blows. In the background, though, Lynn could hear her own voice, screaming obscenities at Connor, when all she’d remembered doing was screaming at Edgar to calm down and stop.

Then came the moment when Edgar tackled Connor to the ground, and the drone moved, getting a close-up of Connor’s bloody face as Edgar’s furious punches rained down on him and Connor started screaming in real terror. What the camera didn’t show was Lynn, yanking uselessly at Edgar from behind, trying to pull him off before he did real damage. Predictably, when Paul finally intervened, the camera zoomed out enough to show him as the savior of the hour, pushing Lynn back as if she’d been attacking too and hauling Edgar off Connor. The camera stayed on them just long enough to show Lynn shoving Paul back, which she’d done to make sure Paul wasn’t about to slug the already-bleeding Edgar in the face. Then it swung over to an unsteady Connor, picking himself up as he bled from multiple wounds in his face. The audio became suspiciously clear again as Connor yelled his accusations of assault at Edgar, but the vid cut off before anyone could hear Lynn’s reply.

The stream view switched back to the host of HotGamingCelebs, whose hand was over his mouth as he mimed a thoroughly unconvincing look of shock and horror.

“Did—did you see that? I still can’t believe it even though I’ve seen it a dozen times. That’s right, people, you just witnessed a full out assault with murderous intent from the now infamous Skadi’s Wolves on their rival team’s captain, Connor Bancroft. Connor leads the Cedar Rapids Champions, who have been the victim of Skadi’s Wolves bullying tactics in the past. You might remember this isn’t the first time Skadi’s Wolves have shown the unstable, rage-driven nature of their members. Months ago in the fall they had a huge confrontation where the then team captain, Ronnie Payne, threw Lynn Raven off the team entirely for her lack of discipline. I guess it’s no surprise now that she instigated this vicious and despicable attack on a rival team. And now, despite her clear lack of decency or self-control, she’s somehow inserted her sneaky little self into the team captain position of Skadi’s Wolves! Can you believe that? I bet I can guess what kind of shameless favors she’s been doling out to get her teammates’ vote of confidence,” the host said, wiggling his eyebrows in obvious glee.

A strange ringing had started in Lynn’s ears, and she realized she was gripping the back of the chair she’d been leaning on so tightly that her bones were creaking. She forced her fingers to relax one by one, barely able to think straight through her anger. But the stream wasn’t done yet . . . 

“Obviously this vixen has plenty of tricks up her sleeve. But don’t take our word for it! In addition to this exclusive vid, we were able to get in touch with Mr. Bancroft himself and he agreed to a tell-all interview that is truly jaw-dropping. But before we get to that, our sponsors—”

Lynn skipped through more in-stream ads as sick dread mixed with her anger until she was ready to throw up.

When Connor’s face appeared on the stream, obviously connecting in from somewhere else with his real location obscured by a virtual background, Lynn stopped skipping and listened.

“—only concern is to get the truth out,” Connor was saying, his face composed and disgustingly earnest with his vibrant blue eyes and perfectly styled blond hair. “I’m really not here to sling mud or cause gossip, just make sure that Raven is held accountable so that she can’t hurt anyone else with her violence and bullying.”

“And how will you do that?” asked the host.

“I’ve already contacted the legal team of TD Hunter, providing the facts and voicing my concerns. I’m confident they’ll make the right choice and disqualify Skadi’s Wolves from the competition. Hopefully they’ll ban them from the game entirely, since that would be the safest and most fair thing to do for the sake of the rest of their players.”

“And what about criminal charges?” the host asked, his tone eager. “It would be pure negligence to let such violent criminals roam the street where they could assault just anybody. I mean, if your friend hadn’t been there to intervene, they likely would have beat you to death.”

“Unfortunately, I can’t comment on any kind of ongoing criminal investigation. All I can say is that the safety and well-being of my team and all other TD Hunter players is my top priority. I will absolutely be taking whatever action I can to ensure the TD Hunter community stays safe.”

“Of course, of course. So tell me, then, did you have any inkling of Ms. Raven’s true nature before this horrific assault occurred? After all, you two were dating at one time and seemed quite, shall we say, close.” The host winked at Connor.

“I suppose I might have seen flashes of concerning behavior here and there. It’s hard, you know, when you care about someone so much. There’s all sorts of things you tend to overlook or write off.” Connor adopted a sad expression, and at that moment Lynn could have wrapped her hands around his neck and literally strangled him if he’d been there in front of her. “She is very, very good at manipulating everybody around her to see what she wants them to see. I definitely got the impression she was willing to use all her considerable assets to achieve her goals, if you know what I mean.”

The host grinned and nodded, tapping the side of his nose with a disgusting level of glee as Connor continued.

“I admit I was pulled into her web just as much as anyone else, and for that I hold a lot of regret. If I’d seen through her act, maybe I could have done something sooner.”

The host made sympathetic noises and went on about how Connor couldn’t have known. At that point Lynn couldn’t take any more.

“Come on, we’re going,” she said, barely aware of how flat and hard her voice was. Her team all looked up at the pronouncement, but she didn’t meet any of their gazes. She didn’t want to know what they were thinking.

“What are we going to do?” Edgar said, his deep voice rough with tension.

“Nothing,” Lynn ground out. “Not about this. PR at GIC is strategizing a response. Nobody say a thing. No posting. No comments. No response. Got it?” She did look at them then, and there must have been murder in her eyes because she saw Dan and Mack visibly swallow as they nodded vigorously. Ronnie’s face was dark and unreadable, but he nodded too. Edgar’s jaw was clenched and his usually genial expression looked as angry as Lynn felt. Lynn lifted a questioning eyebrow. Finally, Edgar nodded.

Lynn attempted to take a deep, calming breath. It didn’t calm her in the slightest.

“Right now we’re going to go kill monsters. Lots of them. With extreme prejudice. We have a competition to win, and this changes nothing.” She spun and headed for the door, willing her words to be true through sheer determination and spite.

But deep down, she was afraid.

* * *

The drones were worse that day. A lot worse.

When she finally arrived back at her apartment, there was a literal swarm of them hovering and doing looping patrols outside her building’s entrance. They converged on her as soon as she came within view and hovered around her head like gnats. Disembodied voices shouted from tiny speakers, their stream-vulture pilots asking a barrage of intrusive questions from the safety of whatever dark basement served as their worthless lairs.

The temptation to start swatting them out of the air was overwhelming. But Lynn maintained a stone-cold expression and ignored all of them as she strode quickly through her building’s doors. They shut on the swarm, muffling the voices, and Lynn breathed a sigh of relief.

The relief didn’t last long.

She knew the vultures would be there, waiting for her next time she left.

When she finally reached the safety of her own apartment, she was startled to see her mother jump up from the couch. Matilda hurried over and wrapped her in a bone-crushing hug.

“Mom, what are you doing here? You should be at work.”

Her mother stepped back and looked her over, as if searching for injury.

“I took a sick day, honey. I wasn’t going to leave you alone to brood by yourself tonight. What kind of mother do you think I am?” She sounded indignant, and Lynn grinned a little, despite herself. But the expression was fleeting.

“So . . . I guess you’ve heard.”

Matilda sighed sympathetically.

“Everyone with any connection to the gaming world has likely heard by now, dear.”

Lynn winced.

“But, I’ve been on the phone with Mrs. Pearson and GIC is taking care of things.”

“They are? She said she would call me—”

“They called me first because they know how important your hunting time is and she didn’t want to interrupt you. But she said she’d be happy to chat this evening if you wanted to call her and clarify anything.” Matilda took a deep breath. “Come on, let me warm you up some dinner and we can talk about it.”

Once Lynn was chewing on leftover steak, potatoes, and some squash casserole, Matilda elaborated.

“GIC sent a takedown order for the footage of you as soon as they saw it had gone up. Naturally, that vile channel hemmed and hawed and delayed as much as possible. By the time they finally took it down, it had spread so far and wide that there’s no way they could erase it entirely. But they’ll keep their team at it. At the very least none of the major, respected channels will dare show it, mostly just gaming enthusiasts and minor gossip streams.

“Mrs. Pearson said their technicians were already analyzing the video. The original footage has absolutely been added to, so anybody who matters knows it’s all just a clickbait smear campaign.”

The tension in Lynn’s chest eased a fraction, but that didn’t help the sick lump in her stomach. She was only eating out of discipline and habit, knowing her body needed the nutrition. Even the steak was about as appetizing as shoe leather.

It wouldn’t matter if there were no criminal charges or repercussions from TD Hunter. Billions of easily manipulated people across the globe now thought she and her team were violent, abusive cheaters.

Her mother must have been able to read something from her stony face, because she laid a hand on Lynn’s arm and gave it a comforting squeeze.

“It’s going to be okay, honey. Mrs. Pearson said they’re already working with TD Hunter’s legal department to craft a suitable response. The plan is to release the first-person footage of the incident that you recorded, to show what really happened. With it they’d like you and the team to release a brief statement, though she understands if you don’t feel up to it. It would just be better coming directly from you rather than GIC’s spokesperson.”

Lynn nodded vaguely. Of course, she had to say something. She didn’t want to, but she knew she had to. Never show weakness. It only made your enemies stronger and bolder. She couldn’t hide from this, no matter how much she wanted to.

But she didn’t have to be happy about it.

“I think I’m going to go to bed early, Mom.”

“Okay, honey . . . is there anything I can do to help? Besides murdering that slimeball stream host and your despicable excuse for a former teammate, of course?”

Lynn gave her mom her best approximation of a smile.

“As much as I’d relish seeing you unleash the full measure of your maternal wrath on those two, a double homicide would definitely put a dent in my available hunting hours. Plus, you cook way better than me. I’d probably starve if they sent you to jail.”

“Oh, they wouldn’t catch me,” Matilda said with a sweet smile. “I’m a nurse, remember? I know more ways to kill people than you could ever fathom.”

Lynn shuddered. “Remind me to never get on your bad side, Mom.”

“Oh, I’d never kill you, sweetie. How would I get any grandchildren?”

“Ugg, not that again,” Lynn groaned, which only made her mother’s smile even broader.

“You can’t blame a mother for hoping. Now, go get some rest.” Matilda rose and kissed Lynn’s cheek, then moved to start cleaning the kitchen.

* * *

The next few days of school were as awful as Lynn had dreaded. What made it even worse was that the miserable Iowa weather dumped half a foot of snow and ice on them, which meant little to no hunting, which took away Lynn’s primary coping mechanism: killing things.

The only bright spot was that, when Lynn couldn’t stand any more form drills or TDM training exercises, she had a valid excuse for some quality Larry Coughlin time.

It was so nice to slip back into that familiar and comforting mindset, even though it took a little time to reacquaint herself with the controls. They were so different from the intense full-body experience of TD Hunter, she was surprised at how . . . well . . . wimpy WarMonger felt in comparison. But she still eagerly studied her wall of sticky note quips, mentally filing a few away she was determined to use as soon as possible.

Her first few sessions she took on easy jobs, just to make sure her skills were still up to snuff. Terrorizing Tier Eights and Nines was positively relaxing, and she actually giggled with glee a few times at the reactions her unexpected appearance elicited—both from her allies and opponents. “You’re going down, old man!” was a frequent, and very amusing, one.

Lynn had not only mastered the task of talking like an old mercenary, she’d mastered the even more difficult task of fighting like one.

The thing about fighting Larry Coughlin that so many found galling was he never seemed to be fighting hard. He didn’t rush all over the battlefield, making terrific acrobatic jumps from burnt-out building to burnt-out building. He rarely seemed to move very fast at all. He rarely took a shot.

But when you shot at him, you just . . . missed. He wasn’t where he’d been when you aimed, but a tad to the side. When he took his own shot, his opponents just . . . died. No muss, no fuss. And he rarely smack talked when he was killing someone.

He waited until they were dead.

Lynn casually threw a sticky grenade in what appeared to be a random direction and her mouthy opponent, a Tier Two who thought they were about to climb the ladder, promptly vanished in a cloud of red mist.

“Never talk to people when yer killin’ ’em,” she growled to the rest of her team. “What’s the point?”

Lynn moved her avatar slowly from cover to cover, ducking at one point, apparently at random again, only to have a sniper bullet whiz overhead.

“How do you do that?” one of her kill team members demanded just before the same sniper took him out.

Larry’s slow bass chuckle sounded over the kill team channel.

“I have the heart of a little boy,” Lynn said into her mic. “Pickled. In a jar on my desk.”

Another post-it note into the trash. But it was worth it.

To Lynn’s utter delight, on the second evening of snow-restricted hunting, she ran into Steve on one of her WarMonger missions. It was a five-on-five match between Tier Twos and Ones, and FallujahSevenNiner was on the opposing team.

Lynn hunkered down in her body-mold chair and focused on utterly crushing her opponents. Fallu didn’t make it easy for her in the slightest. There were several points, in fact, when she was sure she was going to lose. In the end it was Fallu’s teammates that spelled his doom. Her side managed to whittle them down to just Fallu, while one of Lynn’s teammate mercs survived. Together they flanked Fallu and took him down.

By the time the victory display came up and Lynn straightened in a bone-popping stretch, she realized her armpits were damp from sweat and her throat burned with thirst. Her brain felt wrung out. It wasn’t quite the same victorious high of taking out hoards of TDMs, but it sure as heck paid better.

Lynn was just checking that the rest of her payment for the match had transferred successfully to her bank account when a voice-chat request came through from Fallu.

Lynn grinned. She left her voice modulator on, just to remind Steve who was boss.

“You’re getting slow in your old age, Fallu,” Lynn said.

“Good grief, kid, turn off that modulator. You’re making me feel ancient and decrepit hearing your sass in that crotchety old man’s voice.”

Lynn snickered but turned the modulator off anyway.

“Maybe you feel that way because you are decrepit, old man?”

“Try saying that to my face, kid. Just you try.”

“Hey, don’t be sore, we all gotta get old sometime.”

“Come out on the training mats with me sometime and I’ll show you old. I’m sure your mom wouldn’t mind if I tossed you around a bit. She probably gets tired of your sass at home anyway.”

“Oh, I’m not dumb enough to sass my mom.”

“Smart girl. So . . . how you doing, kid?”

Lynn sighed, her mood instantly dampened.

“I’m . . . fine.”

“Liar.”

“Yeah, whatever. I mean I’ll be fine, I guess. Eventually.”

Steve didn’t reply, letting the silence lengthen.

“It’s just so infuriating!” Lynn burst out, unable to stop herself. “I mean, there’s literally nothing I can do to punish those jerks for being lying, slimy, backstabbing dirtbags. There’s no justice!”

“Not nothing,” Steve said calmly. “Scuttlebutt says GIC has a statement in the works. That’s tomorrow, right?”

“Yeah,” Lynn said gloomily. She was not looking forward to it. The whole team was coming over to her apartment because Mrs. Pearson said it would look better if they spoke from an ordinary environment wearing ordinary clothes rather than a carefully controlled green-screen studio in all their impressive hunting gear.

“You’ve been staying away from the stream gossip, right?”

“Heck yeah.” Lynn’s skin crawled just thinking about it.

“Good, that’s smart. But also, I hope your PR people have told you that a lot of people are on your side. In fact, most people are on your side. They’ve been running your first-person footage nonstop on your channels with the announcement about your upcoming statement, and most of the comments are very supportive.”

“What are you doing reading the comments section?” Lynn asked, one side of her mouth twitching upward.

“It’s my job to stay informed, kid,” Steve said gruffly. “But also . . . Heck, Lynn, we’re all rooting for you over at TD Hunter. Every last one of us. You might say you’re a bit of a mascot over there.”

Lynn didn’t reply. She was too stunned.

“Don’t let it go to your head.”

“I—I won’t,” Lynn mumbled.

“I only told you to put things in perspective. This Connor kid, he can’t touch you. You are so far out of his league in both skill and popularity that this move he made will probably hurt him more in the long run than anything else. I mean, come on. It’s obvious he’s begging pitifully for attention, especially when you watch five seconds of anything that floozy Elena says. I know what he did hurts, and I know just refuting it calmly and then ignoring it doesn’t feel like justice. But really, kid, it is.”

“How? I should have let Edgar keep pounding him back at the hospital. That’s what he deserves.”

“Of course, it is. But that wouldn’t have solved anything and probably gotten you all in deep shit. This is better. Far better.”

“Doesn’t feel like it,” Lynn said, and slumped down into her body-mold chair.

“Letting your feelings lead you around by the nose like a fu—I mean freaking lemming is a real good way to lose at just about everything in life. So, would you rather chase some feeling, or win?”

Lynn snorted.

“Win, obviously.”

“Good. Feelings aren’t bad, they’re just subjective and sometimes misleading and a generally stupid thing to base your actions on.”

That made Lynn frown, considering the years she’d spent hiding from the world because of the awful bullying she’d endured. She got what Steve meant and knew he wasn’t trying to belittle her. But still . . . ignoring your feelings was a heck of a lot harder than he made it out to be.

“If you want my advice, kid, keep your feelings out of this whole thing. You have the high ground. Letting this media circus distract you from training would be letting that little snot win. Be cool and calm. State the facts. No name calling, no accusations. Dismiss this Connor kid to the humiliating obscurity that he deserves, because that’s what he is to you. Nothing.”

“I’ll do my best, but . . . well, I was planning something to help Skadi’s Wolves level and I don’t know if it’ll work anymore after this.”

“What’d you have in mind?”

“We need to start taking out bosses, that’s where the experience is at. And the larger the group the better. I was gonna . . . well, put out a recruiting call for teams. I know people would have to travel, but I figure if I can get even a handful from the surrounding area, we might have a good shot at this one Bravo Boss I know about.”

“I . . . see.”

Steve sounded less than enthusiastic, and sudden uncertainty gripped Lynn.

“What is it? Is that a problem? I thought that was pretty much what the game tactical boards were suggesting—”

“Oh, uh, no, grouping up is a solid plan. Just . . . be careful, you know? It’s a big task to tackle, and remember what you did to yourself the last time you went up against a boss.”

“Oh yeah,” Lynn chuckled. “I’ll stay hydrated this time, I promise.”

“Good. So what’s the issue? Why don’t you think it will work?”

“Well, who would want to come fight with us after this scandal? I’m being painted as some kind of violent psychopath.”

“Are you kidding me? They’ll come flocking in droves just to see if the rumors are true.”

Lynn blanched. Steve must have guessed at her distaste because he chuckled.

“Welcome to celebrity status, kid. Now, obviously you should be careful how you put out the call. Don’t give out any date, time, or location information, just that you’re looking for teams to take down a boss. Even then, paparazzi will probably show up, but few enough that they shouldn’t interfere with your mission. And I’d wait at least a week to say anything. Give the frenzy a chance to die down.”

“Like it’ll ever die down,” Lynn said.

“Hey, don’t sound so gloomy. The real footage shows you standing up to a bully, and it sure as heck shows that Edgar is not a guy to provoke. I’ve known a few Samoans. It’s just building their general image. Lean into that. No point wasting hard-earned rep. You’re not Larry freaking Coughlin for nothing, kid.”

“I’ll . . . try.”

“All you can do, kid. Hey, I gotta break. But it was nice bumping into you.”

“And getting thrashed by me?” Lynn asked, a grin coming back to her face.

“Hey, I didn’t pick my teammates. You had a better lineup, no question. Just wait till we go one-on-one again and I’ll show you the advantages that come with age and wisdom.”

“Anytime, old man. Anytime.”

Steve snorted.

“The irony of you saying that while pretending to be an old geezer yourself is pretty rich.”

“Whatever makes me the big bucks.”

That drew a barking laugh from Steve.

“And I’d hate you for it if you weren’t so darn good at what you do. Catch ya later, kid.”

“See ya.”

* * *

“Everybody ready?” Matilda asked, holding up two thumbs.

The replies from the team ranged from calm to disgruntled to nervous. Since Lynn was the one who had to make the statement, she didn’t know why any of the guys would feel nervous.

Lucky bastards.

She hated this part of being team captain—or the monkey troop Alpha, as Mr. Swain would have said—though she wouldn’t have entrusted it to any of the guys. Whether she liked all her duties or not, she couldn’t deny how much her responsibilities had pushed her to grow, and she was grateful for that.

But she still hated public speaking.

“Okay kids, live in three, two, one,” Matilda mouthed from where she stood by the Raven’s living room flex screen. Like all screens these days, it had its own built-in camera for streaming and face calls, and they used it now to broadcast from their humble abode. Not everybody could fit on the couch, so Edgar squeezed himself into the frame by sitting on a kitchen chair beside one cushioned arm, while Lynn, Mack, Dan, and Ronnie sat lined up on the sofa.

“Okay, Hugo,” Lynn subvocalized. “Roll it.”

“Of course, Miss Lynn. And good luck,” the AI offered as her prepared statement started scrolling across her untinted AR glasses. She and the rest of her team wore various polos or t-shirts with the TD Hunter logo on them. Other than those and their AR glasses, they looked like normal teenagers, sitting on an unimpressive brown couch in a cheap apartment.

“Hey everyone,” Lynn began, trying to sound natural instead of robotic. “I’m here with my team, Skadi’s Wolves, to directly respond to some recent allegations. These allegations were based on vid footage altered to show a fabricated version of events, and it has rightly been taken down since. In order to put any questions to rest, we’ve released the first-person view of events recorded directly through the TD Hunter app, and it has been verified by Tsunami Entertainment and independent sources as unaltered footage. There have been no criminal charges filed by either party, and both teams involved will continue to compete”—she cleared her throat to cover a sudden tightening of her jaw. The thought of Connor getting away with this stunt scot-free made her blood boil—“in the TD Hunter International Championship. The incident was a”—she cleared her throat again—“unfortunate misunderstanding, and . . . and . . . ”

Her words faltered, and she felt her team members shift uncomfortably on the couch, probably shooting her surreptitious glances while trying not to seem like they were doing so. Her mom gave her a questioning look from off screen and mouthed, “Are you okay?”

No. She wasn’t.

This was not her.

For a moment she wondered if her dad had ever been forced to say distasteful things in the line of duty. She wondered what he would tell her to say now.

Well, since he wasn’t there to help, she would have to muddle along as best she could on her own. One thing she did know was that he never would have lain down and let bullies walk all over him like a doormat. She’d spent too long only trying to survive, trying to ignore, trying to forget what people did to her and simply move on with life.

Yeah, to heck with that.

Slowly, deliberately, Lynn took off her AR glasses and folded them in her lap, then looked straight at the camera.

“The ‘incident’ was not an unfortunate misunderstanding,” she said in a calm, calm voice. “It was a deliberate provocation by a cowardly bully who has no problem at all cheating, lying, and hurting people to get his way. My team acted in self-defense, and we would do it again in a heartbeat if we had to.”

Lynn’s nostrils flared and she took a deep breath before continuing.

“There’s all sorts of things I’d love to do to get back at this cowardly bully, and all the bullies who’ve beaten me down over the years. I’m sure there’s a lot of people watching right now who feel the same way. Maybe you’re being bullied right now, and it hurts. A lot. But I’m not going to do any of those petty things, because making decisions based on how I feel is stupid and accomplishes nothing.”

Even as she said it, a part of her gnashed her teeth in denial, screaming about the injustice of it all. She’d been thinking about what Steve had said, though, and she knew which way to go. The Larry part of her wanted to put a bullet in Connor’s head. But this was real life, not WarMonger, and she was done wishing for the easy way out. Her enemies in the real might be more complicated to defeat, and the obstacles more amorphous and unseen.

But this was her life, and she was finally ready to take it seriously. Not just for herself, but for the people depending on her for leadership, for inspiration, and for a good example in a world full of bad ones.

“Instead, I’m going to stand up.”

And she did, right there in her living room, and pointed at the camera.

“I’m going to stand up for myself and do the right thing: live the heck out of my life, with dedication and honor, and not waste a single second thinking about any worthless mouth breathers who are so weak they have to attack other people to feel good about themselves. If you’re smart, you’ll do the same thing.”

Lynn put both hands on her hips and looked around at her team. Their eyes were alight and they were smiling, even Ronnie, which was a rare sight to see.

“Skadi’s Wolves has a championship to win. Unlike some teams, who will remain unnamed, we’re going to win it through hard work, skill, and dedication. Keep an eye on our channel, because we’re only just getting started.” She looked back at the camera and gave it her best wolfish smile, knowing the light would catch her amber eyes just so and make them glint with golden fire.

“RavenStriker, out.”


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