by R. E. Rowe
GAME ON
by R.E. Rowe
Copyright 2015 by R.E. Rowe
Professionally edited by Erin Brown
Cover Illustration by LLPix Designs
Space Command Spacecraft Illustrations by Rafael Bot
Space Command Robopod Illustration by Bernard Erlinger-Ford
Atilla Spacecraft Illustration by Bernard Erlinger-Ford
Atilla Robopod Illustrations by Srdjan Pavlovic
Andromedia and Milkyway Illustrations Art©www.jonlomberg.com
All Spacecraft and Robopo illustrations copyright 2015 R.E. Rowe
All rights reserved. This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
All inquiries should be addressed to: [email protected]
Game On is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, places, theories, and dialogue in this novel are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual aliens, planets, moons, people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, organizations, or locales, is coincidental.
Game On/R.E. Rowe—1st ed.
ISBN 978-0-9909992-6-3
Dedicated to dreamers who dream up dreamers.
“Game On!” ~Jayden Banks
Most kids called online gamer JAYDEN BANKS the luckiest thirteen-year-old around before his curiosity transported him into a real intergalactic war that just might destroy Earth, get his parents killed, and change his destiny forever.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
About the Author
Connect with R.E. Rowe
Other books by R.E. Rowe
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1
Outthink, outsmart, and outplay—boring. Changing the game—priceless.
Thirteen-year-old Jayden Banks fluffed up his bed pillow and adjusted his headset. He fidgeted more than usual, but it wasn't from the anticipation of another online battle. It was the game hack checklist that was driving him crazy. He’d activated the cheat codes after his best friend, Parker Jameson, had installed the attack code. But had they forgotten something?
Level 150 had been open to gamers for only four days, and Jayden and Parker were one battle away from leaderboard history. Conquering Level 150 in less than five days would surely get their names and pictures in the Galactic Blog of Fame.
After readjusting himself on his bed for the twentieth time, Jayden decided they were as ready as they'd ever be. “Level 150,” he muttered with anticipation. “Game on.”
He tapped the refresh button on his status screen and watched as their homegrown computer worm infected opposing avatars like a new flu virus. Updates appeared in a pop-up window on the tablet every second, showing each opposing avatar’s position and weapons status. Jayden almost grinned, then stopped short, and glanced at his golden retriever, Rox, curled up beside him on the bed.
With one hand, Jayden scratched Rox under the chin for luck, and gripped his dad's red mini-tablet in his other. He double-checked the battery level. Twelve hours remained.
“Ready when you are, Jayden,” crackled Parker’s voice through the speakers of his headset.
“Seriously, stop using my real name!” Jayden said. Parker obviously needed to review the rules.
“Sorry, Killgeek,” Parker muttered.
Jayden gazed at the screen. His reptilian avatar crouched behind a pile of rubble next to Parker's avatar. A quick tap with both of his thumbs widened Jayden's view. “The city’s a mess,” he whispered into the headset’s microphone. Two more taps made his avatar crack its scaly knuckles.
“Yep, total chaos,” Parker replied.
“I can barely hear you. What’s up with your microphone?" Jayden asked. "You sound like you’re a million miles away.”
Of course, that was ridiculous since Parker’s house was, in fact, only a thirty-second jog from Jayden’s house. Both of their families lived inside the Tinkerhill gated community of custom million-dollar homes in the historic downtown district of Los Gatos, California, near the Santa Cruz Mountains.
“Hold on,” Parker said, fumbling around with his headset. “Is that better?”
“Yes . . . much,” Jayden replied as he zoomed in on Parker’s avatar. Its green lizard head shook and sent drool everywhere like Rox did after chewing on his sock toy for an hour.
“The payload is working perfectly,” Parker said. “I can see everything.”
Jayden surveyed the pop-up window. “I show six remaining,” he said, counting them carefully. "You see them?” he asked Parker.
“Yep. They destroyed our getaway transport.”
“How’d they do that?”
“How do you think, Jayden?” Parker pointed his avatar’s long yellow fingernails at Jayden’s reptilian creature. “Dirty bomb!”
Jayden sighed. “How many times do I have to tell you not to use my—”
“Sorry, Killgeek.”
“So how'd we miss the bomb?” Jayden asked.
“We forgot to include a radiation detector. Oh, and there’s more bad news.”
Jayden surveyed the smoldering virtual street. “What news?”
“Zeekmo is with them.”
Jayden’s heart lurched. “Zeekmo? She never watches this close to the front line.”
“She probably wants to reverse engineer our hack,” Parker said. “Personally, I think she figures our big green butts are mash.”
Jayden felt his knuckles aching from gripping the tablet all morning. There had been way more surprises on this level than any before it—too many ridiculous twists. “You’re pathetic, you know. You made me do all the work.”
“I was pinned,” said Parker. “I had to focus on taking out their hawk-eye’s laser on the roof.”
“Yeah right, amateur,” Jayden said, adjusting his grip on the tablet. He tapped the controls, and his avatar bared its fanged teeth and hissed. “You were out of position when they unloaded on us.”
“I got distracted,” Parker replied, then cleared his throat. “Hey, did you see that Raven avatar?”
“The monster with the dark blue feathers on its beak?” Jayden asked.
“Yep, wicked cool. I bet it’s a World Corp game monitor. I think they’re suspicious of us.”
“Just ignore them. They won’t be able to prove anything. Maybe they’ll hire us.” And World Corp totally should hire them. After all, Parker was the best coder Jayden ever knew, besides Parker’s twin sister, Nora—
aka Zeekmo.
Jayden’s avatar flicked its forked tongue in and out of its mouth, updating the tablet’s readout
of environmental status. He saw the building fire getting closer to them.
Parker let out a loud sigh. “Now what do we do?”
“I’ll launch my replicating blasters. Looks like our last stand.”
“You’re heaving all of them?” Parker asked.
“Not yet,” Jayden replied as he checked weapon status. “It's time for our smoke-a-bloke strategy. Just sit tight and light for a momento. ”
“Remember to take out Nora if she joins the fight,” Parker said.
Dang it! Jayden had forgotten that Nora was watching. He felt his face heat up. “I thought she wanted to be a designer, not a player. Do we have to take out Zeekmo?”
“Shut up, would you?” Parker complained. “If she stands with them, it’ll be the only way to capture their flag. You want to be first to rule World Corp’s new level, right?”
Jayden sighed. “Of course.” No way did he want to take out Nora’s avatar, but he couldn’t tell Parker that.
“Let’s do this.”
Parker’s muscular avatar aimed his weapon from behind a heap of rusty metal. “I’ll whistle when I’m ready.”
Jayden rolled his eyes. Parker’s birdcall whistle was pathetic. It sounded more like blowing a raspberry full of spit than a bird singing. He scanned through their game status one last time. “Blaster shells ready. Laser charged. Life energy 5 percent. Enemy locations identified. Enemy weapon hack activated. Shields hacked.
We're ready.”
“Good, here they come,” Parker whispered.
“Uh, oh,” Jayden said. “Just like you thought. Zeekmo’s avatar is with the Geckonian clan.” He knew destroying Nora’s avatar was not the way to impress her.
Jayden heard Zeekmo shout, “Fire!”
A dozen more rival green Geckonians materialized out of nowhere.
“Retreat!” Parker screamed. “Nora hacked my hack! She’s riding our game worm like a rodeo bull.”
But it was way too late. Lasers zipped everywhere, and blaster explosions vibrated Jayden’s headset. Five members of the Geckonian clan charged forward.
“Watch our backside! Let’s show these green buckets of flesh how we roll!” Parker howled into his microphone.
The weapon fire increased and explosions rocked the scene. “They’re destroying us!” yelled Parker.
Three more Geckonian avatars appeared out of nowhere. Jayden watched in horror as the three quickly joined five others and jumped into the fight.
“Oh man.” Jayden hesitated. A wave of reality struck. The way Nora was using Jayden and Parker’s game hack against them was beyond brilliant as far as Jayden was concerned.
Parker made his raspberry sound and fired a blaster burst at the aliens. The explosions snapped Jayden out of his brain freeze. He fired his blasters as fast as he could.
When their rain of pain landed on target, green masses exploded like giant paint balloons.
For a moment, Jayden thought they might still triumph. Snap, winning, he thought, and then fired all his remaining weapons.
Jayden whistled to attract the alien's attention. “Over here!” he shouted.
Just as he started to release a cluster of replicating shells with his left thumb, a one-hundred-and-five-pound furry golden mass jumped straight onto his lap. “Rox!” Jayden screamed as the mini-tablet tumbled out of his hands, then crashed to his bedroom floor with the headset flattened under it.
Before he could move, Rox gave him a sloppy lick with extra saliva, and blinked his big brown eyes.
“Gross. Go on, Rox!” Jayden said, as he wiped the disgusting goo from the side of his face.
He stretched to twist on the bedroom lamp, afraid that his dad’s titanium trophy tablet was completely trashed. When Jayden picked up the tablet from the floor, a bright white light beamed from the display, illuminating the ceiling.
Unbelievable! The tablet was still alive!
But after a few seconds, the bright white light faded until it disappeared. Strange. Jayden took a closer look. The tablet was still intact and running, but there was a major dent in the red frame. Constantly changing, strange symbols filled its display.
Jayden squinted at the screen . “Dad is so going to kill me,” he whispered.
What looked like a website address suddenly appeared on the top line and remained fixed while the symbols continued to dance all over the tablet’s display. Instead of the usual website format, the address read:
“vlaic://385647n77932w.”
Every second a symbol changed to a different symbol. Jayden was sure something inside the tablet had short circuited, or worse, melted. The information on the screen made no sense to him. It was official: the tablet had gone crazy.
He put the headset back on and adjusted the microphone. “Parker? You still connected?”
“Yep. Why'd you hesitate yet again? What happened?”
It was true. Lately, Jayden had been hesitating at the worst possible time during battle, but that was the last thing he wanted to discuss.
“Rox decided to team kill me," Jayden replied. "How’d we end up?”
“Zeekmo modified our attack worm all right. Turned it against us like a rabid dog. Zeekmo’s avatar used wearable weapons on her hands, knees, and elbows. But before she could kill us, we blew up our massive butts .
. . So much for level 1-5-0.”
“You mean—”
“Our alien-splatter is everywhere. They got our flag dude . . . it’ll set us back at least a hundred levels.”
Parker sighed. “Zeekmo slaughtered us.”
Jayden peered at the strange symbols moving across the tablet’s screen. “I think my dad’s tablet is broken.
When Rox killed me, it hit the floor. Now it’s acting possessed.”
“You broke his ‘Investment Banker of the Year’ award? The fastest tablet in the known universe? More expensive than my dad’s Mercedes?”
Jayden groaned. “Looks like it . . . The one and only.”
“You’re so screwed,” Parker blurted out.
“Not helpful,” Jayden said. “Seriously, get over here and help me fix it.”
“Be there in five. G-striker, out.”
Chapter 2
Parker launched himself through the open window into Jayden’s bedroom, jumping onto the floor with flourish, his arms in the air. “A perfect dismount!” he said, beaming.
“Can’t you use the front door like a normal human?” Jayden asked.
“Why, dude, when I can take the direct route?” Parker adjusted his ever-present black baseball cap over his curly, caramel-colored hair. Most of the time, Parker wore a ball cap with “Pop Star” printed on its crown, turned sideways. He told Jayden it topped off his epically cool-look of faded jeans and a black t-shirt with
“WINNING” printed in bold white letters. Even when it was eighty degrees outside, he wore a flimsy black leather jacket over it. Naturally, kids at school called him, “Pop Star.”
In Jayden’s opinion, Parker was the worst singer on planet Earth. He couldn't even rap. The same kids in class had tagged Jayden, “Surfer Boy,” but at least that made some sort of sense. After all, he lived in the Santa Cruz foothills only a short drive from the Cali beach community of Santa Cruz. His dark brown complexion made his shoulder length, sandy blonde hair appear sun-bleached. But Jayden avoided all things saltwater, especially when there was potential to become Great White shark bait.
Together, the two friends had been labeled “The Odd Squad.” But that didn’t bother Jayden. It actually helped them because no one suspected the so-called Surfer Boy and the Pop Star duo were a game hacker team.
Well, no one except for Parker’s twin sister, Nora.
Rox jumped up to give Parker a nice, big slurp.
“Okay, let’s see the patient,” Parker said, nuzzling Rox before crossing to the bed and grabbing the tablet.
He pulled out the headset connection and moved the screen close to his face.
“No way,” said Parker. “The tablet
has gone nuts.”
“Obviously . . . The input is locked out too. Do you think it’s totally hosed?” Jayden groaned when Rox once again jumped on him.
“No clue,” he replied. “Here, hold up the tablet and smile. I want to take a selfie.” Parker pulled out his mobile and snapped a photo.
“Why?” Jayden shook his head in disgust.
“I want to record how Rox killed you before your dad does it for reals,” Parker said with a laugh.
If the mini-tablet turned out to be burnt toast, Jayden knew his dad would restrict his online access and ruin his life forever, or at least for a couple weeks. Up until this point, Jayden had been proud that he’d avoided major drama, school conflicts, and girl problems. Although honestly, after turning thirteen, he actually wanted girl problems. Especially if it involved Nora.
Jayden hated to disappoint his dad, aka Mr. Banks. After all, his dad ran the largest high-tech hedge fund in Cali’s Silicon Valley, and Jayden’s mom sat on the corporate board. It had taken months for Jayden to convince his parents that teen-gamers, like Parker and him, would give their investment company an edge when considering new gaming company investments. Of course, neither Jayden’s dad nor mom had a clue he and Parker were hacking their way through the games to the top of the leader boards, leaving game modification Easter eggs behind like rabbit turds.
Jayden flinched as the mini-tablet began making a repetitive, high-pitched beep that sounded like the tones in a hearing test. With each new beep, the volume grew louder. He tossed the tablet onto his bed like a hot potato. The symbols on the screen flashed, changed to bold, and then flashed again. The red tablet acted like a ticking time bomb counting down to explode.
“Did you press the reset button?” Parker asked.
Jayden’s face twisted. “Seriously, Parker? What do you think?”
“Well?” Parker persisted.
“Of course . . . you moron.” Jayden groaned. “It didn’t work, duh.”
Jayden grabbed the tablet and discretely tried it again just to be sure.
The beeps continued faster and louder, each one a different tone.