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Chapter 6


“What the frick, Hugo! What is that?” Lynn yelled, disengaging from the two Namahags.

“You appear to be taking damage, Miss Lynn.”

“No duh, genius! Did you figure that one out all by yourself?”

“As a matter of fact, I did. Are you proud of me?”

“Stop being sarcastic and figure out what the heck is killing me!”

How close was she to leveling? Had she taken too much damage?

She dove forward and stabbed upward at the closest Namahag, exploding it into a thousand sparks before surging to her feet and charging the second Namahag, taking it out too. But her display kept flashing red.

“Hugo, refill all my armor and globe slots! What the freaking hell is killing me and where is it?”

She spun around in a circle, searching for some stray Spithra or a Roc above her, but there was nothing in sight.

“Raven, what’s going on?” Connor called from down the line. He still had a few Penagal he was cleaning up but he’d clearly heard her yelling.

“Something’s shooting me but I can’t find it! It’s got to be an unknown or something new with crazy high stealth!”

Edgar had his cannon raised in readiness and was spinning too, eyes searching everywhere.

“I don’t see a thing, Lynn! We’ve killed everything within range.”

“Is anyone else taking damage?” Connor asked.

A chorus of noes answered him.

Lynn ground her teeth. Stupid, freaking algorithm, picking on her at the worst possible moment. She cursed at it with her choicest Larry maledictions as she tried rolling and dodging randomly, hoping it would throw off her invisible attacker’s aim.

“Everyone, retreat as a group back the way we came,” Connor said. “Let’s see if we can get out of range or if it moves with us.”

The command almost sent Lynn sprinting away—she was desperate to stop taking damage. But just as she was turning, her eyes flitted over the spot by the fence where she’d seen a distortion before. The sun had been shining down brightly at the time, banishing any trace of shadow. But now a cloud had moved in, dimming the direct light, and Lynn suddenly realized what she was looking at.

She charged.

“Raven! What are you doing?” Connor yelled.

“It’s an unknown and I think I know what it is,” she yelled back.

Actually, she didn’t think. She knew exactly what this stupid, sneaky, good-for-nothing glob of plasma was.

She attacked the faint sparkles of the sneaky unknown with everything she had, ignoring the steady flash of damage as she slashed, stabbed, and shot round after round into it.

“What’s Lynn fighting?”

“I don’t know, I can’t see anything to target!”

“There’s nothing there on my overhead.”

“Are we not high-enough level to see it?”

Lynn ignored the confused chatter of her team as she focused on destroying her attacker with extreme prejudice. Wrath and Abomination did their work well, and soon the sparkling mist exploded in spectacular fashion, making Lynn suspect the unknown had been quite large.

“Congratulations, Miss Lynn! You have discovered a new unknown and you have also leveled. As per your previous instructions, all your leveling information has been minimized to your option menu, you can review it at any time. Please stand by while my unknown-entity analysis completes its review.”

Lynn turned so the wooden fence was at her back and she had a clear view of her surroundings. She stood there, chest heaving, weapons held loosely at her side, as a riot of anticipation and dread stormed through her.

She’d leveled to twenty-five. There was no going back now.

Had she achieved her next Skadi item? Or had she missed it?

Why was Hugo taking so long?

Her teammates came up and stood in a loose semicircle around her, still alert for TDM attacks as they traded silent glances.

“Everything okay, Lynn?” Edgar asked.

“Yeah. Waiting on Hugo’s analysis of the unknown. Did you all level?”

“Yup,” Dan said, and the other two nodded.

“And nothing jumped us?” Lynn asked with a frown.

“The day is still young,” Edgar muttered, his eyes scanning their surroundings.

“Maybe it’s because we’re right next to a building?” Mack said. He sounded as nervous as Lynn felt.

“Let’s stay focused, team,” Connor broke in. “Everybody refill your slots, top off your health, and keep an eye on your overhead map. Johnston and Nguyen, you provide overwatch while me and Rios go pick up loot, then we’ll take a look at it and distribute as needed.”

Lynn listened with half an ear but was distracted when an image of the new monster popped up on her display. As she suspected, its bulging, tentacled form looked like a bigger, meaner version of the Lecta and Lector.

“The unknown entity has been designated as a Lectragon, a new Bravo Class-1.”

“Called it,” she muttered.

Hugo didn’t stop to congratulate her on her powers of prediction, simply continued his spiel.

“It appears to be another electrovore with similar feeding habits to the Lector and Lecta. This entity has a plasma-beam ranged attack, significant stealth capabilities, and a defensive particle shield. Defeat of a Lectragon should yield ten globes and roughly eighty ichor points. Excellent job, Miss Lynn. Credit for the detection, defeat, and analysis of this unknown has been added to your Hunter profile and the official list of TDMs.”

“Sneaky bastard,” grumbled Lynn as she scanned the entity’s details. They were accompanied by her experience bonus and reward loot, including a significant haul of Oneg. Helpful, but not worth the dip in her kill-to-damage ratio.

Dread twisted in her gut, and she hesitated before finally selecting her menu to pull up her leveling announcement.

All the usual stuff was there: experience bonus, extra loot, and a new weapon selection—she chose the ArcLight Pistol to give to Mack in case he wanted two of them. None of the standard, single-handed weapons would ever come close to Wrath or Abomination, which leveled with her and maintained their damage advantage.

But that’s all there was. No announcements and no special bonuses achieved.

Lynn’s throat constricted and her heart sank like a ten-ton boulder. She had to swallow before she could subvocalize a question to Hugo.

“Um, Hugo, I, uh, don’t see anything about a new Skadi item. I guess I didn’t make the cut?”

“Pardon? Do you mean a new rare item in the Skadi’s Avatar named set?”

“Um, yeah.” Her eyes felt hot and prickly. She would not cry. Really, she wouldn’t. It was just a game. She was never emotional about games. Never.

“Ah! There is no notification because there is no item, Miss Lynn.”

Lynn froze.

“What?”

“There are six items total in the Skadi’s Avatar set, which can be achieved at Levels 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, and 40. The next item in the set is available—”

But the rest of Hugo’s info dump didn’t even register in Lynn’s brain. She was too overwhelmed by a flood of intense relief to do anything but stand there and breathe deeply, trying to slow her galloping heart.

She had no idea why, without realizing it, she’d gotten so attached to this item set. Somehow it had become a part of her identity as a Hunter, and she would have felt miserable missing even one piece of it. There wasn’t a wiki on it yet, probably because she was one of the first to achieve it, so she’d simply assumed the pieces came every five levels.

Lynn relaxed, letting her head droop as she recovered from the emotional roller coaster. That was when she spotted something shining in the grass half under her foot. She stepped to the side and reached down to tap the glowing item. It disappeared from the grass and popped up on her display, rotating slowly. It looked like a standard Army-green ammo can. On its side was painted the TD Counterforce logo.

Hmm? Was this some new special ammo?

Then Lynn spotted the augment’s name and she snorted in laughter.

“What is it?” Edgar asked, glancing over at her.

Lynn pressed her lips together and took a deep breath to suppress more giggles.

“I, uh, just found an item called the ‘Ammo Can of Holding.’”

Dan guffawed.

“For real? What does it do? Give you an infinite supply of Oneg?”

“That’d make Edgar happy, for sure,” Lynn said, selecting the new augment to read its description. “Whoa . . . even better than infinite health . . . ”

“What could be better than infinite health?” Edgar said.

Lynn grinned at him.

“It doubles my personal augment capacity.”

Whoa-ho-ho-ho! No way!!”

“Yes way.”

“What did you find, Raven?” Connor asked, coming over with Mack now that they were done sweeping the area for loot.

Lynn showed him, and he whistled in appreciation.

“That will come in handy.”

“You’re telling me. We all need one of these.”

Connor scratched his head.

“I’ve kept a pretty close eye on the auction listings since the summer and I’ve never seen one listed.”

“I bet people are only just now finding them,” Lynn pointed out. “The description says it’s a Level 25 augment with Level 20 minimum requirement. If it’s relatively uncommon, that probably means not many are being found and those that do find it are keeping it for themselves.”

“Possibly,” Connor agreed. “Whatever the case, I’ll keep an eye out for it in the marketplace. They’re bound to go for a lot, but we’ll see.”

Lynn wasted no time equipping her new augment while Connor went over their haul.

“It’s not much, just a few offensive and defensive augments. I’ll post their stats in the group chat and you all let me know if they’re better than anything else you have. Also, everybody put their current supply numbers in the chat so I can see who’s low and Rios and I will distribute what we found—”

A sudden buzzing hum behind Lynn made her jump and everybody turned to stare at the wooden security fence.

“The regulators. They restarted,” Mack said. “Does that mean the school power is back on?”

The others looked at each other and shrugged, while Lynn just stared at the fence. The power station at Lindale Mall had come on almost as soon as she’d finished clearing away the feeders around it. But this one had taken five minutes or so to restart. Did that mean Lindale Mall truly was a coincidence and the school maintenance techs had simply fixed the glitch just now? Or had the larger mass of feeders done something more lasting to the grid that caused a delay before the power came back on?

Lynn gave her head a shake to rid it of ridiculous thoughts. She was letting the game’s realism get to her. It spoke well of Mr. Krator and the other game designers because she was not the kind of gamer who enjoyed role-playing and subversive storylines. She was too analytical. All she wanted was to find the patterns, figure out how to beat it in the most efficient way possible, and make money while doing it.

Yet this game . . . it was wreaking havoc on her instincts. She blamed the ground-breaking algorithm they’d designed to generate the monsters and battle scenarios. Powered by cutting edge AI, it was no wonder the game seemed so real. It was truly making her question the line between game and reality.

Well done, Mr. Krator, she thought ruefully, and refocused on what Connor was saying.

“—still plenty of time before sunset, so I think we’ll push north next and clear around the sports field toward the woods. I’m curious what we’ll find. Has everybody made their new weapon selections and switched over their augments?”

They all made various noises of agreement, and Lynn happened to glance at Edgar. She did a double take, noticing a change in his armor’s appearance.

“Oh no! You had to replace your Loincloth of Lordly Might?”

“Yeah,” Edgar said, making a mournful face.

Dan slapped him on the back.

“Time to rejoin the real world with all us lowly, loincloth-less mortals.”

“It was a good item,” Lynn said, struggling to keep a straight face. “Loyal, brave, and true. We should light a pyre for it and celebrate its passing into Valhalla.”

“Wait,” Mack said, “isn’t that where dead warriors go? Why would a loincloth—”

“Sully not the Loincloth of Lordly Might’s memory with your unclean lips!” Lynn cried out dramatically as Edgar wiped away fake tears and Dan held a hand over his mouth to keep his laughter in.

“All right, team,” Connor said, giving them a hard look. “We have hunting to do. You can horse around on your own time.”

“I am going to miss it,” Edgar whispered to Lynn as Connor continued his directions.

“Your noble frame just won’t be the same without its Lordliness gracing your nether regions,” Lynn whispered back, cheeks burning from the effort of suppressing her grin.

“Let’s make a long sweep line,” Connor said loudly, and shot Lynn a look. “Spread out about thirty feet between us. I’ll hold the middle to keep an eye on things. Johnston and Nguyen, take the left, with Nguyen on the wing. Raven and Rios take the right, with Rios on the wing. We’ll advance across the fields and clean up anything we find between here and the woods. The dots didn’t look too thick when I checked the map earlier but support each other as needed. If we come up against anything big or unexpected, we’ll pull in and make a tighter line. We might not all be in visual contact from end to end, so be sure to pay attention to the team channel. Got it?”

Lynn took a deep breath and sounded off with the others. She felt light, almost buoyant, and full of energy. After so many weeks of walking on eggshells and always worrying about having to clean up after Ronnie, it was incredibly relaxing to have someone reliable and level-headed in charge.

Okay, so the day was still young. But Connor did seem to have his act together.

As they set off around the school buildings and across the activity fields, it was all Lynn could do not to break into a jog, picking off TDMs as she went. She fairly bounced as she strode forward, keeping in line with Connor to her left and Mack on her right. The sunshine warmed her back and shoulders, helping dispel the chill that had set into her muscles while they’d gathered loot and talked.

They took their time sweeping the school grounds, using the opportunity to find a new equilibrium as a team. Connor remained professional and competent, critiquing and praising in equal measures. He did get on Dan’s case for excessive chatter. Lynn didn’t mind it and thought it improved team morale, but she could see Connor’s point that it was distracting from the mission.

Overall, it was a pleasant hour of vaporizing Delta Class TDMs and practicing accuracy and combat technique against the Charlie Class. They saw a few Bravo Class monsters, but not many. By the time they reached the woods north of the school, they were all ready for a breather. Connor had them exit combat mode and group by the fence that bordered the school grounds. Lynn munched on an energy bar while Connor gave Mack some pointers on melee fighting.

Edgar wandered over and stood beside her, sipping occasionally on the tube of the built-in hydration pack of his TD Counterforce backpack.

“You doin’ okay?” he asked quietly, glancing down at her.

“Yeah, actually. Today’s been great. No Ronnie, no drones, and no drama. It’s almost too good to be true,” she said with a smile. The invigorating hunt combined with residual elation that she hadn’t missed the next Skadi item had made her much more chipper than usual. It was a weird feeling. “You?” she asked.

Edgar grunted and shot a sidelong look at Connor, which sobered her up.

“Still waiting for the shoe to drop?” she asked, lowering her voice.

He nodded.

“He might be a good hunter, but I still don’t trust him.”

Lynn shrugged.

“If he’s playing some sort of game, it’s a long game. Don’t worry, we’ll keep our eyes open.” Her words didn’t seem to reassure Edgar, who just grunted again and took another swig of water.

Connor rounded them up soon after, and one by one they jumped the school fence into the unmown grass and brush beyond that swiftly turned into woodland. Lynn had never explored the area during her time in high school, considering her extreme aversion to the outside. But she vaguely remembered that these woods surrounded a major power-node tower, with a neighborhood to the east and a highway bordering it to the northwest.

Once they had gathered again on the far side of the fence, Connor started laying out his strategy for their advance when the faint sound of buzzing grew overhead. Lynn groaned and glanced up. Sure enough, there was a sleek little drone overhead to the west, circling the perimeter of the school grounds. It would spot them in seconds, if it hadn’t already. She was honestly surprised it had taken the resident vultures this long to sniff around the back side of the school, though . . . 

She glanced at the corner of her display and saw it was a little after when school normally let out. Maybe they’d figured it was finally safe to encroach on school airspace now that classes were officially over. Whatever the case, it meant the end of the brief respite she’d been enjoying so much.

Connor spotted the intruder, too, and sighed.

“Let’s switch to subvocalization only from now on,” came his voice over the team channel, “at least until we get under some cover.”

Lynn gritted her teeth and resolutely fixed her eyes on the woodland in front of her.

“Hugo, can you put on my ‘Burn It Down’ playlist, low volume, left ear, but also overlay game sounds, normal volume on both ears?”

“Certainly, Miss Lynn.”

“Thanks.”

“Okay, team,” Connor continued, “let’s line up on the fence and continue our sweep, but no more than ten feet between us. The underbrush should thin out once we’re under the trees and it’ll be easier to keep together. For now, let’s get through this border area and make sure we aren’t leaving any monsters to sneak up behind us. If we run into any big clusters of TDMs, pull in and reform as an attack-V with Johnston at the point.”

They lined up silently, then jumped back into combat mode on Connor’s signal. Lynn dropped in almost on top of a Grumblin, but it didn’t immediately react. That few-second delay gave her batons time to reform as deadly weapons of mass “murderation,” and she dispatched it with a quick slash. By then the rest of the scattered monsters in the area had taken notice, and the whole team switched to ranged weapons to pick them off as they rushed to attack.

Once the immediate area was clear, Connor called an advance and they waded forward through the tall grass. Lynn was very glad it was no longer summer—she still checked for ticks every night out of habit, but the cold weather seemed to have killed them off. Soon, Skadi’s Wolves were pushing through saplings, brush, and brambles, attempting to stab at the odd monster that glided right through the tangle to attack. Here, their high-performance uniforms made things infinitely easier. Thorns, stickers, and prickly brush slid right across the fabric’s tough surface, allowing them to slip smoothly through the thicket.

Inside the woodland the underbrush thinned out, making it much easier to see each other through the tree trunks. Most of the trees were medium sized, a mix of oak, hickory, ash, and maple. Lynn knew, because she’d been studying the woodcraft book Edgar had given her for her birthday. In fact, she had it with her in her backpack. In a way it was silly to be lugging around a book made of paper when she had the entire mesh web at her fingertips. All she had to do was ask Hugo and he could identify every tree in sight down to their species name. But the book had felt like the sort of gift that ought to be used, like her father’s pocketknife, which was tucked securely into one of her uniform’s discreet pockets. Plus, the extra weight enhanced her strength training. Win-win.

It didn’t take them long to hit the southern edge of the thickly clustered dots they’d seen on their overhead. Right off the bat, groups of Spithra and Orculls peeled off the mass and charged toward them. The assault wouldn’t have been much more than an annoyance if it weren’t for the pairs of Phasmas that kept popping up at their backs and attacking while they were distracted at the front. Then they stumbled on a Creeper nest and everything went to hell. Connor called a quick retreat and they backed up, killing Phasmas as they went and pulling the TDMs after them. Once they got rid of the first wave they cautiously inched forward again, trying to take out the Creeper nest without attracting another wave of aggressives.

And then they did it again. And again. And again.

It might have become tedious and repetitive, but every engagement was different and there wasn’t a moment Lynn could slack off and lose focus. She’d checked her individual ranking when they’d crossed the fence and had seen that she’d slipped to third in kill-to-damage ratio. To regain top position she had to be at her very best for every second of battle, landing every blow, dodging every attack like smoke on the wind. Otherwise, the rest of the Skadi set might slip through her fingers. Connor’s professional and timely commands kept the chaos manageable, and Lynn was able to sink into her Larry brain for long stretches, letting her hunter instincts push away the incessant buzzing of life’s worries.

Connor did a good job gauging the heat of their engagements and kept them from being overwhelmed by plenty of well-timed retreats. They scooped up loot and resupplied as they went, checking each area for items before moving on to the next. It might be an hour or more before they headed back through the woods to get home, and by then the loot would be long gone. Eventually the waves of Charlie Class TDMs gave way to Bravo Class, which Lynn enjoyed because they were more challenging.

But not everybody was doing as well.

Mack was struggling to keep up, not only in kill rate but also responding to commands and movement changes. Privately Lynn thought Connor should have let him stick to double pistols and simply upgraded his weaponry rather than assign him an entirely new fighting style. But she hadn’t wanted to confront Connor right off the bat. Maybe she was being too protective of Mack—maybe the struggle was good for him. At least Connor wasn’t berating him for mistakes like Ronnie had. But it was clear through the tone of his voice and his clipped instructions that he was impatient with Mack.

There wasn’t time to worry about it, though, and since Edgar was between her and Mack there was little she could do to help. Instead, she focused on slaughtering monsters like an unstoppable machine so Edgar’s load was lighter and he could help cover Mack.

Eventually, even Lynn started getting fatigued from the constant battle. Moisture wicking and odor resistant her uniform might be, but it couldn’t entirely erase the smell of hard-earned sweat. They’d never faced this many monsters in successive waves while Ronnie was captain, and still the mass of dots to the north seemed just as thick as before. Where were they all coming from? Had they been camped out here the entire time? Or were they congregating around something?

A part of her suspected there was a boss out there, probably near that node tower. But depending on its level, they might not be able to see it, much less fight it. As long as they had an endless supply of monsters to kill, though, and were able to retreat when needed, she was happy to keep chipping away at the successive rings of TDMs guarding whatever it was.

They were just regrouping for another advance when Lynn heard a telltale roar ahead of them. A shiver ran down her spine, and for once she didn’t feel the usual thrill of bloodlust fill her. That was a Manticar, and she was so tired. At that point facing one of them would be an annoying obstacle instead of an exciting challenge.

Sure enough, a lone dot that the other dots pulled away from was headed straight toward them from the north, as if it had been sent out to do battle by its commander. In a sudden rush of panic, Lynn realized who would be facing it up close and personal: her and Mack. One glance down the line and she could see Mack was almost stumbling in weariness. Honestly, they all were.

“Connor,” she subvocalized on their team channel, “that’s a Manticar about to jump us and it’s been a long day. If everybody else will pull back a little to draw it away and distract it with ranged fire, I’ll get behind it like I’ve done before and take it out from the rear.”

“It’s Bancroft, and that’s a job for more than one. You and Rios are on assault, you’ll take the Manticar together. Johnston and Nguyen, fall back with me and concentrate all fire on the Manticar.”

Lynn gritted her teeth but didn’t argue.

“Mack—I mean Rios, just follow my lead. We have to attack it head on and slip behind to get under the stinger where it can’t strike us. Then we just slash at its legs and keep moving with it, and it’ll be dead in no time.”

“O-okay,” Mack said, clearly unhappy with the situation.

There was no time to reassure him, so Lynn simply charged forward and hoped he followed. If he held back and tried to dodge the stinger from the front, the Manticar would take him out in a few strikes.

The Manticar loomed up out of the trees, charging straight through trunks and bushes. Lynn’s path was less straightforward, but she still headed right for its head. At the last second she dodged to the side and rolled under its first stinger-tipped strike, coming up beside its flank. She gave the huge muscled leg a slash with Wrath, then spun, ready to lunge again and move with the Manticar to stay under its stingers where it was safe.

That’s when she spotted Mack, and she groaned. Her teammate had skidded to a stop in front of the Manticar, which had turned to roar in his face and attack with all three stingers. Now Mack was backpedaling to stay out of reach while shooting the beast in the face. Lynn would be the first to admit that the eight-foot-high augmented-reality monster was as intimidating as heck. But she also knew its weakness and had killed multiple Manticars before with just this technique, so there was nothing to hold her back from diving right at it. Mack was used to sniping Manticars from a distance, and instinct or fear had held him back.

Common sense told her to stay put and take out the Manticar as quickly as possible, capitalizing on the distraction Mack was providing. It was what Larry would have done.

But this wasn’t WarMonger2050, and she wasn’t a mercenary looking out for her bottom line and ready to cut her losses if need be. Maybe Mack’s life wasn’t in danger, but the pressing urge in Lynn’s chest to dash forward and help him was no less strong.

Lynn saw the Manticar’s stingers descend once, twice, three times on Mack, and then she couldn’t take it anymore. With a curse she dashed around the creature’s legs, so close she could have run her fingers through its fur—if it had been any more than a visual illusion, of course. Rounding its shoulder she lunged to put herself directly under its huge head and then let loose with Abomination’s armor-piercing special ammo. She pumped round after round into it as fast as her finger would move, all while stabbing it repeatedly through the throat and up into its head.

Understandably, her attack distracted it from its current prey, and it reared backward with an earsplitting roar. The air and even her own body seemed to vibrate with its ferocity—some kind of weird side effect of her earbuds vibrating against her ear bone, probably.

Far from intimidated, Lynn lunged forward to stay under its head and keep shooting . . . 

And ran face first into a tree trunk as big around as she was. She bounced, quite literally, off the tree and fell backward, landing hard on her butt then flopping onto her back, all the wind knocked out of her. Thankfully her fall was cushioned by flimsy bushes and a thick layer of leaves. She lay motionless where she fell, stunned and head throbbing.

“Lynn! Are you okay?” Mack shouted and ran forward, still shooting. More fire was pouring in from the front and sides, and she felt a vague sense of relief when sparks burst above her head and the roars of the Manticar went abruptly silent.

“Everybody, exit combat mode!” Connor shouted. There was a crashing of brush as the guys gathered round.

Lynn stared up at the four heads leaning over her.

“Oops,” she said, suppressing a weird urge to giggle.

Connor frowned.

“Are you injured?”

Edgar shot him a glare.

“She’s got a knot the size of a walnut oozing blood on her forehead. Of course she’s injured!” He crouched down and held up three fingers in front of her face.

“How many fingers am I holding up?”

“Three, silly. And no, I don’t have a concussion again. I’m fine. Just kinda winded.”

Edgar’s eyes narrowed like he didn’t believe her. But instead of fussing, he held out a hand to help her up.

“Whoa, take it slow,” he murmured, and Lynn couldn’t have agreed more. Her head was spinning.

Ow. That tree had hurt.

“That was sooooo cool!” Dan gushed, once it was clear she wasn’t in imminent danger. “I can’t believe you just got right under its head! You were, like, stabbing it in the brain! Man, Lynn, sometimes you make me wish I wasn’t a sniper. You get to have all the fun!”

“Like running headfirst into trees?” she muttered, and Dan laughed.

“You should get checked out,” Connor said. “That knot looks pretty bad.” He’d backed up and was now standing, arms crossed, watching her with that expressionless face of his. She couldn’t read him. Was he concerned? Angry? Annoyed?

“I’m fine,” Lynn insisted, letting go of Edgar and stepping away. Her hand felt hot and tingly where it had made contact with Edgar’s skin, and she got busy brushing leaves and dirt off herself as a distraction. “Besides, my mom is a nurse. She can look at it when I get home.”

Connor’s expression didn’t change, but he nodded.

“Miss Lynn,” Hugo said in her ear, “are you sure I should not summon a medical transport? Head injuries can be quite dangerous and you are hardly in a position to judge your own level of fitness considering you attempted to brush off a Grade 2 concussion mere months ago.”

“Lay off, Hugo,” she subvocalized, “I’m fine. I didn’t black out or anything.”

“But—”

“We’re done for the day, then,” Connor was saying, and Lynn focused on him so she could ignore Hugo’s fussing. “Good work, team. We made great headway to Level 26 and team cohesion is . . . getting there.” He glanced at Mack but didn’t say anything. Even so, Mack seemed to shrink in on himself in response.

Lynn frowned. She bet her friend felt responsible for her getting hurt, even though it wasn’t his fault at all.

“Hey, Mack, thanks for keeping that Manticar distracted for me,” she said, giving him a smile. “It worked out great. Well, except for me being a complete klutz.”

That brought a tentative grin to Mack’s face.

“No problem. But next time, let’s do it in a field or something. We wouldn’t want you getting another concussion.”

“Well, I can’t make any promises. But I will definitely keep a sharper lookout for trees hiding inside TDMs.”

“Come on,” Edgar said, forestalling any further banter. “It’s a long walk back to the airbus platform, and Lynn should go home and get some ice on her head.”

Lynn wouldn’t admit it, but she was grateful for the suggestion. Her head was throbbing with what she suspected was the beginnings of a massive headache.

They all turned and headed back the way they’d come. Their path of advance through the woods was easily visible by the trampled bushes and kicked up forest loam. Lynn made a mental note to never go hunting in a garden or nature preserve. The environment would not thank her for it.

Speaking of environment . . . Lynn took a whiff of her uniform and wrinkled her nose. After her little stunt she now smelled of sweat and dirt. Yippee. She couldn’t wait to get home and take a shower.

Edgar stuck close by her side as they walked, though he was as silent and placid as ever. Connor walked in front talking battle tactics with Dan, whose hands were dancing with excitement as he exclaimed over various ideas. Clearly, he’d warmed up to their new captain over the course of the afternoon. Mack walked silently between their two groups, tugging on his fledgling goatee as he lost himself in his own thoughts.

Lynn wasn’t inclined to talk either, though for her it was because noises were doing painful things to her head. She’d resigned herself to a miserable trip home until she suddenly remembered she had pain reliever stashed in her backpack. It, along with sunscreen, bug spray, and energy bars, made up her “essentials hunting kit.” In the past she’d needed it for sore muscles protesting about all the new ways she was pushing them. But her body had adapted and changed, toughening up with the constant training. Without stopping, she swung her TD Counterforce bag off her back and dug for the little bottle, then swallowed a few pills and washed them down with water.

“You okay?” Edgar asked once she’d replaced her backpack.

“I’ll be fine. Just a headache, totally expected after running headfirst into a tree.” Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw a grin lift Edgar’s lips. “Hey, you’re not laughing at me, are you?”

“Who, me? Laugh at a Toa Tama’ita’i? To her face? I’m not that dumb.”

Lynn narrowed her eyes, but Edgar’s expression remained passive, even if his eyes danced when they glanced over at her.

“Humph,” she snorted. “I’m just glad the woods were too thick for drones to follow us. If one of them had caught my flub on camera I’d become the laughingstock of the global gaming community. I might as well kill myself now and avoid the misery.”

“Nah, it wouldn’t be that bad.”

“Don’t try to sugarcoat it, Edgar. Heck, I’d love to see a vid of what happened. I’d probably laugh myself hoarse. If ‘epic fail’ footage like that made it to the mesh web, I’d become a meme within seconds.”

Edgar didn’t reply, but when she looked over at him, she realized it was because he was too busy holding in his laughter.

She rolled her eyes and lengthened her stride so he wouldn’t spot her involuntary grin, though she had another motive too. Coming alongside Mack, she glanced over.

“Hey. Penny for your thoughts?”

He gave her a worried look.

“They’re probably not worth even that.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right if they’re anywhere along the lines of blaming yourself for me trying to bulldoze a tree with my head. It’s not your fault. Got it?”

Mack sighed.

“I know you’re right, but I still feel bad. I really suck in this new position and I feel like I’m letting the whole team down.”

“Good grief, Mack, no. Connor made the assignment, so if you want to blame someone, blame him. Anyone would need time to adjust to new weapons, new fighting style, and new position. You just need practice. You can work on it in the evenings with the training simulations. You’ll be back to your usual standards in no time.”

“If you say so,” he muttered, sounding unconvinced.

By then they’d reached the edge of the woods and conversation died down as they pushed through the thick brush and came out near the school fence. Lynn had already known from the growing buzz above what awaited them, and the knowledge made the throbbing in her head worse. She refused to look up and acknowledge their existence, though. Stupid drones. When their team jumped the fence and headed across school grounds, the buzzing sound lessened, but didn’t disappear.

As they rounded the school building and the deserted airbus platform came into view, Connor slowed and dropped back to walk on Lynn’s other side opposite Edgar.

“How are you feeling?”

“Took some pain reliever, I’ll be fine,” she said with a shrug.

“Still, just to be safe, I’ll be escorting you home.”

“I’ll take her home,” Edgar said, his tone unusually harsh.

Connor’s reply was cool.

“I’m the team captain. It’s my responsibility to look after my team.”

“I’m her friend, it’s my responsibility to make sure she’s okay.”

Lynn scowled and she wished someone would hurry up and invent teleportation devices—right after they invented invisibility cloaks. What the heck was up with those two?

“Um, okay, so, everybody calm down. One, I’m fine. Two, nobody needs to ‘take me home.’ My head feels better already, and my mom will check me out when I get home.”

“Actually, Lynn, I need to talk to you about a few things for the team anyway. Run some feedback past you. It’d be easier if we chat on the airbus, since I’ve got some things going on this evening.”

“Uhhh, okay.” Lynn glanced at Edgar, who was looking at Connor—and not in a friendly way. “Um, Connor, usually Edgar, Mack, and I take the same airbus, we all live in the same direction.”

“Ah. Makes it simple, then. We’ll all ride together.”

He didn’t mention where he lived, but Lynn was pretty sure it wasn’t in the same area of town as her, Edgar, and Mack.

Once on the airbus, their uniforms made a few heads turn, though everybody soon went back to minding their own business. One kid near the front turned in her seat and gave them an open-mouthed stare that morphed into a mile-wide grin. She mouthed “So awesome” and gave them a double thumbs-up over the back of her bench. Lynn surprised herself by grinning in return and giving the tween a wave. She was so obviously starstruck it made Lynn’s heart warm.

Lynn sat down next to Edgar and Connor took the empty seat on her other side. Lynn immediately regretted her choice of seats as the warm presence of not one, but two male bodies, both a head taller than her, loomed on either side. It wouldn’t have been so bad if they hadn’t spent the entire afternoon exercising. Edgar smelled as bad as she did. Almost worse, Connor didn’t smell bad. He exuded a kind of musky, woody scent that made Lynn want to lean away from Edgar and toward him.

She sat as straight as a board, hands on her backpack between her knees, hardly daring to move as weird thoughts raced through her head.

Connor had been doing sports for years, so he’d probably invested in some new expensive deodorant that turned his sweat smell into cologne, right? That was a thing, wasn’t it?

Which one of them had more muscle? Obviously Edgar was bulkier, built more like a wrestler, but Connor’s skintight uniform made it abundantly plain that he was all lean strength with barely an ounce of fat on him.

Not that she’d been looking. Had she? Well, obviously she’d been looking at him off and on all afternoon, but not like that.

Lynn felt her face grow warm and she hurriedly fixed her eyes on the floor between her feet. She needed something else to think about, stat. What homework did she have to do when she got home?

That was the moment Connor decided to chat about “a few team things.” It was all Lynn could do to answer in intelligible English. It was mostly routine stuff, though, not the strategy or performance feedback she’d expected. In fact, the questions were almost sociable, such as how she liked the game and what her favorite monster to fight was. Edgar was silent throughout, as was Mack without Dan there to laugh and banter with. Normally Dan rode with Ronnie since they lived in the same area, but now Dan was riding home by himself.

When they finally reached Lynn’s stop, she nearly jumped out of her seat.

“This is me! See you guys tomorrow.”

Connor stood as well. “I’ll see you to your apartment. I had one more thing I wanted to ask you about.”

“Uhhh.” Lynn’s brain failed to give her a coherent response, and she was distracted by the hard stare Edgar was aiming at Connor.

“Do you want me to come with you, Lynn?” Edgar asked quietly, shifting his gaze to her.

Lynn was pretty sure if she spent any more time sandwiched between two large, smelly men, she might have a mental breakdown, so she hurriedly shook her head.

“I’ll be fine. I’ll ping you when I get to my apartment, okay?”

“Okay . . . be safe,” he said.

“Uh, right, will do,” Lynn said, and fled the airbus.

Somehow, she’d hoped that walking as fast as she could might make Connor magically disappear. To her annoyance, he trotted to catch up and easily kept pace with his long legs as they descended the platform and headed to her apartment complex. To make matters a hundred times worse, there was a cloud of drones hovering above the stop—paparazzi drones just waiting to pounce. Their buzzing followed her and Connor along the sidewalk, making her neck and shoulders tense uncomfortably.

“So, um, what did you want to ask about?” Lynn said without looking over, hoping to get whatever it was out of the way so she could go home and hide from everybody and everything.

“Oh, well, mostly I wanted to thank you for giving me a chance with the team. I really enjoyed today. It was certainly an eye-opener. You did a great job. You’re even more impressive up close than on the TD Lens vids I’ve seen.”

“Um . . . you’re welcome? You, uh, weren’t too bad yourself.”

She actually had no idea how he’d done. She’d been too busy focusing on her kill-to-damage ratio to ogle Connor fighting monsters in his skintight uniform. The thought made her face heat again, and she sped up even more.

“I do have a bit of feedback, though,” Connor said, keeping pace.

“Could we, uh, voice chat,” Lynn asked, jerking a thumb upward.

Connor glanced up, seeming to notice the drones for the first time. He shrugged and switched to subvocalization.

“I know you were trying to help Rios with that Manticar, but you took a big risk and ended up injuring yourself. In the future I expect you to stick to the assignments I give you and trust in the rest of your team to support you.”

“Uhhhh, okay?”

“Everybody was concentrating fire on the Manticar, we would have destroyed it soon enough without you needing to take risks.”

That made Lynn look up, brows drawn together.

“But Mack wouldn’t have survived that long. I know how much damage those stinger strikes do, and it was going at him with all three!”

“And you think I didn’t know that?” Connor said, raising one eyebrow.

“Well . . . ”

“I’m the team captain, Lynn. It’s my job to know those things, and my job to make the calls. How can we fight as a team if I can’t trust my subordinates to do their jobs and stay in their lane?”

Lynn’s mouth opened and closed a few times as an embarrassed prickle made her skin itch. How could she explain her decision? Mack dying would have been bad for the team—not to mention Mack—and everything would have been fine if that tree hadn’t been there. Yes, she’d lost situational awareness, but the same thing might have happened if she’d stayed at the Manticar’s rear like she’d meant to.

“I-I wasn’t doing anything you didn’t tell me to do. You said to assault the Manticar, and that’s what I was doing.”

Connor shook his head, a little smile on his lips.

“Yes, I suppose so. But it was still a risky move and you know it. Besides, Mack made a mistake and didn’t follow orders either. It was good for him to understand the consequences of his actions. If he died, then he died, and that would have been a useful lesson for him. You weren’t helping by saving him from that.”

Conflicting thoughts swirled in Lynn’s head, so she didn’t reply. His argument made sense, but it also felt . . . off. Yes, Mack needed to learn how to fill his new position competently. But letting him die just to teach him a lesson? It didn’t feel right, but they were competing in an international competition with astronomical stakes. Connor had been leading a team in high-stakes competitions longer than her, though her mercenary jobs in WarMonger had probably earned her far more money than Connor had ever made off sponsorships at a high-school level. The thing was that Lynn’s in virtual missions had all been one shots. There was no long-term team development or strategy. The only thing that mattered was whatever worked for that battle, nothing more.

“In any case, as brave as your move was, it was the wrong one for that situation. In future, I’d appreciate it if you stuck to your role and let us all work together to support each other, rather than doing anything stupidly heroic, okay?”

They’d arrived at the front doors of her apartment building, so Lynn slowed and forced herself to face Connor. She gave him a serious, professional nod. “Got it.”

At that point she expected—and hoped—he would say goodbye and walk away. Instead, he lingered, looking at her with an unreadable expression.

“I’m not Ronnie, you know,” he said out of the blue, leaning forward slightly. “You can trust me to take care of you and the team.”

What the heck?

“Uhhh, sure. I know.”

“Good. Because I know you’re used to second-guessing your captain’s every order. But you can’t do that with me. I know what I’m doing, Lynn.”

“Yeah, sure. You’re a pro and all that. I get it.”

“I’m glad you do,” he said, and smiled. It wasn’t his usual reserved, polite look, but rather a full-face smile showing off his brilliant white teeth. It lit up his whole face and . . . wow. That blond hair and those blue eyes . . . 

There was another awkward pause, then Connor chuckled quietly.

“You know you really are an amazing player, Lynn. It is truly an honor to have you on my team. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody move with such fierceness and beauty. You look fantastic out there.”

Lynn’s brain, which was busy sorting through conflicting emotions, stuttered to a halt.

What?

“I’m not surprised everybody is so obsessed with you. You’re beautiful, smart, and a phenomenal gamer. How are sponsorship companies not already breaking down your door?”

“Uhhhh . . . th-they are,” she said, uncomfortably aware of the faint hum above her head.

“Really?” he said, and took a step closer. “Why haven’t you accepted any of them?”

“Uhhh . . . ”

Because I hate attention, her brain said, but her mouth didn’t seem to get the memo.

“I can help you with that, you know. I’ve already got quite a bit of experience in negotiating sponsorship contracts. In fact, why don’t we get together and talk about it? We could grab dinner sometime.”

“Uhhh . . . ”

“Miss Lynn, are you in need of assistance?” Hugo’s voice said unexpectedly in her ear. “Your speech center seems to have malfunctioned. Shall I summon your mother to run interference?”

“No!”

“Pardon?” Connor said, brow creasing at her sudden yell.

“Oh, sorry, I was, uh, talking to, um, my personal AI,” she said hurriedly, going back to subvocalization. “It, uh, came on because I’m so close to my apartment and it started doing stuff and . . . sorry. Um, what was your question?”

“I was just asking when you’d like to go out for dinner, to talk about sponsorships?” Connor repeated, a little half smile back on his face.

“Uhhh . . . ” Had she said yes to dinner? When did she say that? “I don’t know, everything’s really busy with school and hunting and all that.”

“But sponsorships are important for the team too. The more you have, the more it will attract offers for everyone else. And we can use the extra funds to outfit our team better. It’s really a team matter, so I think it would be entirely appropriate to make time for it. How about this Saturday evening? I can pick you up at seven, does that work?” He gave that brilliant smile again and something swooped in her stomach.

“Uhhh, I’m not sure—I mean, I think—um, I have to ask my mom?”

“Oh?” Both his eyebrows rose. “I didn’t realize you still let your mother run your schedule. I guess I assumed with all the hunting you have to do for this competition that she trusted you to take care of your own affairs.”

“I mean, she does,” Lynn said, waving a hand dismissively and hoping her face wasn’t turning red. “I just, you know, want to run it past her. We’re pretty close.”

“Of course,” Connor said, his smile back in place. “I’m sure she’ll be fine with it. It’s for the competition after all, and what parent doesn’t want to support their child?”

“Uh, yeah,” Lynn agreed faintly, head still spinning. Had she just agreed to go on a date?

“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow after school for another hunt, but I look forward to Saturday.” Connor waved and turned away from the complex doors, heading back the way he’d come. Lynn stared after him, not really consciously. She still didn’t know what had just happened.

Had he really called her beautiful? Did he mean it? Or was he just being nice?

Nobody had ever called her beautiful before. Well, her mother did sometimes, but that didn’t count, obviously.

Wait . . . was this some sort of trick? But no, it couldn’t be, not after everything Connor had already invested in becoming a part of their team. Could it? He had cut ties with Elena, hadn’t he?

But hadn’t he and Elena been a thing? Elena certainly seemed to think they were, but Lynn honestly couldn’t ever remember a moment when he’d seemed pleased to be around her. She’d never seen them make out at school or anything, and Elena was notorious for PDA with her revolving door boyfriends. That pop-girl was a “marking her territory” kind of predator and wasn’t afraid to show it.

Suddenly Lynn realized she was still standing out in the open, watching Connor’s well-built form disappear down the street like some kind of lovelorn idiot.

She fled inside, trying not to think about the ubiquitous sound of humming overhead.


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Framed