Ultimatum: The Proving Grounds

by Wade Adrian

  “Really? Damn, I was going to get pictures.”

  Carol patted him on the cheek. “Aww.”

  Claire grinned and shook her head. “Go on, or they’re going to leave you behind.”

  Tim scoffed as he headed for the door. “They wouldn’t dare.”

  Carol rolled her eyes as she followed him. She gave Claire and Toby a smile and waved before interlocking her arm with Tim’s.

  The room was clearing out. Aside from Jerry checking on his people, who were still working at most of the stations around the walls, and Steff at the last GM setup.

  Claire stepped in closer and slipped her arms around Toby. She laid her head on his shoulder. “Long day.”

  “Really was.” He hugged her tightly for a moment, then let his arms slack but kept them around her. “Got close a few times there.”

  “I had you.” There was certainty in her voice.

  “I never doubted it.”

  “Mmm. Even so, I still don’t want to heal anymore. Boring.”

  “Boring? That was boring?”

  “The repetition. Like playing whack-a-mole with health bars.”

  “Super important whack-a-mole.”

  “Maybe.” She didn’t sound convinced. “You know, it’s funny. Not to long ago it was awkward to hug you in public, but now it’s not.”

  “Sleeping together will do that.”

  “Pfft.” She smiled.

  “Group hug!” Jesse appeared out of nowhere and wrapped her arms around both of them.

  Claire sighed.

  “Hey, good news! You actually logged out. But you really should have stayed for the loot.” Jesse nodded a few times. “I got stuff I can’t even use.”

  “No point.” Toby shrugged a bit. “I’m not going to play Tobin Ironblood again.”

  Jesse let go and took a step back. Her face was painted with confusion. “What? Why not? You have to! We didn’t even really clear the raid. You can’t just leave shit half done.”

  “Well there wouldn’t be a moment’s peace, for one. People trying to murder me, other people I’ve never met talking my ear off. I’d rather just be me, hanging out with you guys on the down low. We’ll get back to the raid, I’m sure.”

  Claire let go as well. “Mmm. I want to reroll anyway. Screw healing. We can start over together.”

  “Sounds good.”

  Jesse glared at them. “But I don’t wanna reroll. I got a world first. I’m the god king of all druids.”

  Claire shrugged. “You don’t have to reroll.”

  “Yes I do.”

  Toby smiled. The notion that Jesse hadn’t been invited never crossed her mind. “Well, we’re rerolling.”

  She sighed and crossed her arms. “Fine.” The pouting should have looked odd on a nearly thirty year old woman, but she pulled it off. “It will be easier with an established world anyway. And the influx of new players for the actual launch should help us find groups.”

  Claire patted Jesse on the cheek. “Look at you, being all practical.”

  “I know. I hate it. I’m still going to be a druid. You guys do whatever you want.”

  Toby shrugged. “Honestly, haven’t really considered it.”

  Claire smirked. “Just like the first time.”

  “You have a point. I’ll put more thought into it this time.”

  “Which is to say, ‘any thought.’ “

  Toby shook his head. “Rude. I thought about it before. I thought I looked cool.”

  “That was your basis for picking a borderline broken class?”

  Jesse shrugged. “He did look cool.”

  “Ugh.” Claire shook her head. “Come on. I’m starving.”

  “I think there’s pizza in the break room.”

  Claire gave Jesse a cold stare.

  “Or… we could go to Cheng’s? Get some chow mein?”

  Claire nodded. “Sounds delightful.” She tucked her arm under Toby’s. “Chow mein?”

  34

  A week later Toby was sitting in the back room of the print shop. His bit of work for the day was done, so he was lurking on the Proving Grounds forums.

  He’d learned a lot about different classes now. He had a solid grip on the mechanics that he had lacked before.

  Mr. Stevens was asleep at the break table on the other side of the room. The TV was going on about the weather, all of which was well north of them, and something about a visiting dignitary. Big time important stuff.

  He ignored all of it.

  When the police and feds raided Miller’s office they found out he had pretty much been lying to them all from the start. He wasn’t responsible for the explosion downtown. It really had been caused by faulty service work. He also didn’t have any standing ties to anyone on a watch list. He had some contact with a few hacker organizations, but most didn’t really communicate back to him.

  All his efforts had been focused on continuing to do what had gotten him fired in the first place. He had been mining the code for useful information and making updates to the code he had released before in an attempt to bring it up to date for sale to a company overseas. As a “customer” he had access to the entire client, but his server code was significantly out of date. So he had given himself a week to poke and prod it to test his theories on how it had been updated. He really thought he could manage in a week what everyone else had done in ten months. Pretentious prick.

  That, or he had gotten greedy. His plan had been about hiding from the company while keeping them chasing their tail. In that regard he had succeeded. His own separate work had not gone as well.

  Interestingly enough there were notes lying around about a plan to draw out his work over weeks instead, but he calculated the risk of being found to be ever increasing and had grown to favor trying for one quick and convoluted search. His old plan seemed to be where the weapon code that would eventually become Soulbreaker came in. A defensive measure against GMs. All of that had changed, though.

  His later notes became erratic as his pride got the better of him. It wasn’t enough to make money at their expense, he wanted to hurt the company. So he had impersonated them and made changes he knew the player base would hate in an effort to destroy the game.

  It made sense, in a crazy roundabout way. He was trying to get the client and server code so he could sell it, and it was worth more if the game it came from didn’t exist as competition. He assumed he had seen enough to make up the difference when he decided it was time to attack Toby.

  His mention of deleting dead characters wasn’t exactly a bluff, either. He just never had a chance to put the script into effect. They found it when they were going through the computers he had been using. Bullet dodged on that one.

  That was as much as Toby understood. They’d thrown some technical terms around. He had nodded and tried to look knowledgeable.

  Mr. Stevens had been cool about the whole thing. He didn’t ask too many questions, and most of those were heavily implying he would raise hell if anyone had mistreated Toby. He was good people. And he was delighted to have his prize employee back.

  The place hadn’t exactly suffered for his absence, Mr. Stevens could handle everything Toby could, but things hadn’t been as smooth. Mr. Stevens had spent the first two days Toby was back complaining about the lazy teenagers that comprised the rest of the staff.

  It was kinda nice to be back.

  It was quiet.

  Comfortable.

  Familiar.

  And it was boring as hell.

  Toby sighed as he scrolled through another forum thread about people being confused by the “event” that Miller had put on. Some who didn’t get in on the early access period seemed genuinely upset they had missed out.

  Crazy people.

  Their supporters had won out in the end. The “Ironsworn” had a title in game as well as one they could use on the forums.

  Toby’s new character didn’t have it.

  Ironic.

  He was a shaman now. He’d li
ked the uncivilized quality his barbarian possessed, but the shaman was capable of more. Not as much damage, but he could cast spells now and heal in a pinch. If he speced right, he could heal with the best of them. Of course, he had not done so. At least not yet.

  Their leveling group didn’t require that kind of careful setup and balancing. He could end up the main healer later, or Jesse could do it.

  Claire and Jesse had both been busy of late, so his shaman was still pretty low level. He didn’t want to advance without them and could only bring himself to fish for so long.

  They had company concerns to see to. He could certainly understand.

  Despite Miller’s best efforts the event had actually increased sales. The game’s world was designed to be shifting and changeable, but the fact that the very rules of playing it had also temporarily changed seemed to really sell people on the concept.

  And they were overjoyed.

  Morblina was a nice town now. He fished at the river there, and would occasionally walk by the church and look at his old chair… it had furs covering it now, and they’d placed some golden tribute stuff to keep anyone else from actually sitting in it.

  The best part was Soulbreaker leaning up against the chair, like Tobin would be back in a minute. It wasn’t the actual sword, he knew that, just the same model. But it was nice to see it.

  Like an old friend.

  There were already rumors about what would happen if someone picked it up, but it wasn’t possible.

  Toby had tried a few times.

  The bell on the front door rang. Mr. Stevens was on his feet a few moments later. His brain seemed keyed to the sound. He grumbled a bit.

  Toby leaned back in his chair. Nothing much had changed. It was quiet.

  “Toby?” Mr. Steven’s voice carried into the back.

  Ugh. So much for quiet.

  A new special order would turn this into a long night. He had hoped he would be able to get out on time to see if Claire and Jesse were about. Mitchel was pretty reliable of late and he hadn’t been averse to rerolling, though he kept running his ranger while the others weren’t about.

  He did have a guild to run, after all.

  Toby, Claire, and Jesse’s new characters were part of it. Toby found it amusing.

  He ventured out front, though he wasn’t exactly breaking a land speed record.

  Claire was waiting at the counter.

  She gave him a smile and a wave.

  He sped up his stride.

  “Hey.” He wandered around Mr. Stevens behind the counter. “And what can I do for you, miss?” He tried to put on his uncaring business smile, but a real one escaped.

  “Oh,” she shook her head, “nothing for me.” She pointed.

  Paul was standing at the wall, examining some of the brochures. He glanced up. “There you are.” He nodded as he walked over to the counter. “I’ve been trying to contact you all day. You weren’t answering.”

  “Uh?” Toby pulled his phone out of his pocket. “I don’t think you’re in here.”

  “So you just ignore calls if you don’t know the number?”

  “Generally.” He shrugged. “But I don’t have any missed calls.”

  “What?” He took out his own phone and paged through it. He recited a phone number that was almost correct.

  “3-4. Not 4-3.”

  Paul made an irritated face at his phone. “Jesse gave me the wrong number.”

  Claire glanced aside at him. “Or you transposed them. Maybe you’ve got number lysdexia.”

  “Don’t joke, that’s a real thing.”

  “And apparently you have it.”

  The bell rang again. “Hey, you get him yet?” Jesse stuck her head in the door.

  Paul glared back at her. “You gave me the wrong number.”

  “What? No I didn’t.” She wandered inside as she took out her own phone. “Maybe you have number lysdexia.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know how I work with you people.”

  Toby’s phone rang. He looked down to see it was Jesse. He ignored the call. “Seems like she has it right. So, what can I do for you?”

  “Well…” Paul glanced aside at Mr. Stevens for a moment. “I don’t want to be rude or anything.”

  “What?” Toby glanced aside at Mr. Stevens. “He’s cool. And we’re not exactly super busy at the moment.”

  Mr. Stevens crossed his arms. “Interrupting my show.”

  “You were sleeping through it.”

  “Best way to enjoy the twenty four hour news cycle.”

  Jesse laughed. “Oh snap.” She ran up to the counter and held her hand high. “High five!”

  Mr. Stevens raised an eyebrow at her.

  “No? That’s okay. You’re still cool.”

  “Delighted.”

  Claire stared at Paul for a few moments before rolling her eyes. “He wants to offer you a position at Brave New World Entertainment.”

  Paul glanced aside at her as if she was on fire, but his eyes settled down a moment later. “Yes. That.”

  Toby blinked a few times. “I’m not exactly… qualified for any of that.”

  Claire shrugged. “Sure you are. You’d be working for Jerry in the pit. You know it like the back of your hand. And you already know all about the genre. He’d just need to show you a few particulars, and he’d be happy to do so.”

  Paul nodded. “We need reliable people who work well with our staff.” His eyes shifted to Jesse. “Some of them are an acquired taste and have a tendency to gel poorly with applicants.”

  She glanced over at Paul. “What? That guy was really cute.”

  Paul shook his head. “And I for one, would love to see the level of professionalism increase.”

  “Oh.” Jesse’s eyebrows shot up. “Did you mean that girl? Because she was really cute, too.”

  Claire patted Jesse on the shoulder. “It’s quite time, now.”

  Toby glanced back and forth between them. “I mean, I’m flattered and all, but I’ve got a job. And this place would fall apart without-”

  “I could put in a good reference.” Mr. Stevens addressed Paul, ignoring Toby entirely. “He’s a hard worker, spends more time here than I do. Learned the whole place in less than a month, and it took me six. Though maybe I’m just an amazing teacher.”

  Toby frowned. “But you need me here.”

  Mr. Stevens waved dismissively. “Bah. Life is easier with you around, sure. But I can teach other kids. You’re the only one that never left. Long since you should have. This is a job, Toby.” He pointed at Paul. “That is a career. You’re still a child. Some day you’ll understand the difference.”

  “But…”

  “Would it help if I fired you? I wouldn’t want a bad mark on your hiring record.”

  “I mean…” Toby stammered. “You guys are across town. I have a bike, there’s no way I could commute.”

  Claire rested her elbow on the counter and laid her chin on her palm. “I could use a roommate.”

  Jesse’s head swerved to look at the other woman. “You have a one bedroom apartment. You don’t have room for a roommate. I already suggested that.”

  Claire’s eyes casually drifted aside to look at Jesse.

  Jesse blinked. “Oh. Oooh.”

  Claire rolled her eyes.

  Mr. Stevens nodded. “Seems like you’re running out of excuses.”

  Toby frowned.

  Mr. Stevens chuckled. “I promise I’ll call you if we need extra hands.”

  Toby stood up taller and nodded. “I’m going to hold you to that.”

  Paul glanced around the show room. “And he may need to. We’re going to be doing an advertising run before long. Trade show season is coming up. Need all kinds of stuff. Business cards, banners, flyers, brochures. That sort of thing.”

  Mr. Stevens shrugged. “That’s Tuesday around here.”

  “You got a business card?”

  Mr. Stevens stared a Paul for a few moments. “That’s a stu
pid question.” He picked one up from behind the counter and held it out.

  Toby chuckled.

  Jesse grinned. “I love this guy.”

  Paul nodded politely and put the card in his pocket. “Maybe you can get a job here, he’s going to be understaffed.”

  “Are you kidding? I’d get myself killed in a printing press or something.”

  Mr. Stevens turned his eyes to Toby. “You haven’t given them an answer yet.”

  Toby nodded. “Yeah, I know. It’s… a big change.”

  Mr. Stevens shrugged. “You’ll do fine. And when it’s time to move, give me a call. I’ll send over a team of useless teenagers.”

  Toby scoffed. “No, thanks. I like my stuff in tact.” He smiled and held out his hand to the little old man.

  Mr. Stevens shook it. “Good luck.”

  Toby glanced out at his friends. “I don’t think I’ll need it. Thanks for everything, Mr. Stevens.”

  The old man nodded.

  Jesse leaned out over the counter. “Soooo?”

  Toby turned to face Paul and nodded. “When do I start?”

  “As soon as possible, Mr. Morant.”

  Claire smiled at him. “So, we roomies?”

  “Totally.”

  Two weeks later the last of his things were sitting on the floor of Claire’s apartment in boxes.

  Scratch that. Their apartment.

  Well everything was there, aside from his furniture. That was in storage for now. They’d work something out. Getting out of his lease had been the worst part. He’d be paying rent for the empty apartment for two more months.

  Claire’s place was bigger despite also being a one bedroom, one bath setup like his. Each of the rooms was larger. The first thing they had done was set up each of their VR stations in the dining room.

  One the perks of accepting the job had been a full kit to take home, though that wasn’t the nice gesture it appeared to be on the surface. Toby had agreed to some on call stuff, if the need arose. So far it hadn’t.

  Since the incident with Miller all admin level accounts had been deleted and recreated as a hard set list with all out of date ones culled. They knew everyone that had one, or access to one, so Toby and Claire could still access theirs from outside the building. Not that they wanted to, really. It seemed entirely too much like work.