The crowd suddenly erupted with applause, screams, and whistles. Marcus Ryan and Howie Fulton walked out onto the south side of the stage, though the larger-than-life screens showed them from all angles so everyone in the audience could see. They smiled and waved, wearing suits and their traditional headsets, which doubled as microphones.
“Good evening,” Marcus began, his voice echoing throughout the arena. “I’m Marcus Ryan.”
“And I’m Howie Fulton. And this is . . .” He pointed out at the crowd. Twenty thousand voices answered him.
“Saturday Night Gaming.”
The crowd erupted again with applause and cheers.
Marcus beamed at the cameras. “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Riot Games Arena in Los Angeles, California.” Another round of monstrous applause came from the crowd. “Years of prep and training, months of preseason action and tournament matchups have all led to this point. Tonight is the national championship for the RAGE tournaments, what has become the biggest event in the VGL thanks to these two teams. InvictUS vs. Defiance, the hottest rivalry we’ve ever seen. It all comes down to this final fight. Who will be crowned the 2054 RAGE Champions?”
“That’s right, Marcus. This is a groundbreaking moment in league history as we are joined by more viewers than ever before from countries all around the world. We are privileged to watch the top teams compete in what is sure to be history in the making.”
Hannah fanned herself in the background. “I think I’m going to be sick.”
“Don’t listen to it,” I said, waving at the screen like it was nothing despite my own churning gut. “They’re just amping up the excitement for the crowd.”
As if just to spite me, Marcus spoke up in the background.
“Let’s check out some of the parties around the world. Locally, in Los Angeles.”
The footage changed over to a live feed of downtown L.A. overflowing with a sea of bodies.
“New York City.”
The footage changed again to the largest city in the country, and my stomach twisted at the sight. Times Square looked less full on New Year’s Eve.
“London, England.”
Another sea of people. Union Jacks waved in the background.
“And Seoul, South Korea.”
In the country that had always been the biggest for video game tournaments, I watched as the cameras panned across entire stadiums of people that had gathered to watch on screens larger than any I’d ever seen before.
“Okay,” Hannah said. “Now I really am going to be sick.”
Either the rest of my teammates felt the same, or they were really dedicated to the team—being they were all matching shades of green.
I walked up to Hannah and took her hand. “Hannah, look at me. We trained for this. We’re here because we are the best, and we want it the most. We’ve dedicated our lives to the game.” I took a breath and found myself speaking the doctor’s words. “Where do you want to be tomorrow?”
“It depends—”
“No, it doesn’t. It doesn’t depend on tonight. Where do you want to be tomorrow?”
“But, I want to be a champion.”
“Then, you try. And if you don’t make it, tomorrow you get up and try again. This isn’t the only championship. This isn’t the only chance you’ll ever have. Tomorrow, win or lose, you’ll be a gamer who gave it her all to get there. That’s what matters.”
The clenched muscles in her face and shoulders relaxed as she accepted my words. Eventually, she sighed and nodded. The doctor was right. This was just a moment in time. An important moment, but there would be plenty of those in our futures. How we learned from them was what really mattered.
Onstage, Marcus bellowed.
“In this corner,” Marcus joked, as if this were a boxing match. He pointed at the west side of the stage, where five pods sat waiting. “Please welcome to the stage . . . IN-VICT-US.”
Deep in the crowd, a set of double doors opened, and the five members of InvictUS walked out and down the aisle between throngs of fans, held back by rails. Music blasted from the speakers, but the crowd’s chaotic screams nearly swallowed any other sound. All five stared straight ahead, expressions as ruthless as killers.
Please just be part of their image.
“Shit, they’re huge,” Derek commented, and we all nodded. It really shouldn’t have been a surprise. We are our avatars, so they’d have to be the same size in real life as they were in the virtual world. Still, seeing them in person instead of only inside the game made it all the more real. These guys could have been pro wrestlers.
The stage director shooed us to the doors.
“Get ready.”
After InvictUS filed onstage, Howie took over the announcing.
“And in this corner”—he pointed at the east stage featuring our pods—“ladies and gentlemen, we give you DE-FI-ANCE.”
The double doors opened, and I led the team into the arena. Twenty thousand voices enveloped me in a deafening roar that rivaled a jet engine. I smiled my warrior’s smile and marched confidently down the aisle to the stage. Inside, my stomach curled. I was melting under the heat of the lights and number of people packed into one open space. My nerves shook until my knees nearly buckled. I felt like I was walking on a tightrope.
We climbed the steps to the stage and faced the audience, leaving a good five-foot gap between ourselves and InvictUS. I purposely turned my gaze away from them and focused on the crowd, thinking the twenty thousand screaming fans would be less intimidating than the brutes standing next to me. I was wrong. Looking out at the fans as they cheered and waved made me realize just how many people were watching us, counting on us to win. My stomach churned. No. I was being stupid. Most professional athletes had to deal with this every single game. I centered myself, calming my nerves.
It was a game. Nothing more. We were here because we were at the top of our form, and we deserved it.
I glanced over at InvictUS, five carbon copies of flesh-colored titans. Taking a deep breath, I calmed my nerves even further. They were people. Gamers like me. Either they would win, or we would. We’d practiced and trained and pushed ourselves as hard as we could, and we had fun through all the blood, sweat, and tears. In the end, that’s what really mattered.
Winning, however, would be oh so sweet.
Howie and Marcus walked forward to a stand at the end of the stage. It was covered with a small tarp.
“Tonight, we’ll see these two amazing teams face off in what is sure to be an incredible matchup.”
“That’s right. And they’ll be playing for this.”
They ripped the tarp off the stand to reveal the VGL Champion Cup, black and sleek like the arena, with blue-white inlays. It glistened and sparkled in the endless stage lights and camera flashes from the audience. The names of every gamer from every tournament in 2054 were etched in plates around the base. Given the number of tournaments in the VGL and the always-evolving game lineup, there was a new cup issued every year. The cups from previous years sat in the VGL Hall of Fame. Forever.
“Remember,” Marcus began, “since Defiance is the team in the losers’ bracket, they will need to defeat InvictUS without a single player lost.”
My stomach tightened, and I pushed a breath through my lips. We’d trained for this. Studied and planned as much as we could. We were ready.
“Tonight, not only is Team Defiance fighting to win, but also for the memory of their fallen teammate, Nathan Saunders,” Howie said. He stepped toward the audience and raised his voice, so he was heard in every corner of the arena. “Despite what you might have heard, Nathan Saunders died of a drug overdose earlier this season. He’s not the only one, either. It’s a problem that’s plagued these tournaments for years.”
What the hell did he just say?
Behind Howie’s back, out of sight of the ca
meras, Marcus gave me a thumbs-up.
I stood there, numb and blinking, too stunned to react as the announcers spoke the truth about Nathan’s death and the trouble gamers experienced both in and out of the games. They, too, had risked their careers to shoot the middle finger at an industry poised to swallow us whole. Whether the producers had cut it from air or not, it didn’t matter. There were twenty thousand people in the audience. With twenty thousand phones.
Rooke lowered his head, and whispered to me, “You’ve even turned the announcers into rebels.”
My open mouth spread into a smile as pride overflowed my veins. Pride for the announcers, for standing up for what they believed in. Pride in my team, for following me this far. Pride in myself, for fighting for what was right.
Like Rooke had said, be a good leader and people will follow.
Oh, God. Blah. He was right.
The crowd went eerily silent, the kind of silence where you hear a single cough, and it echoes throughout the entire room. A phone lit up in the audience, like a beacon from a lighthouse in the dark. Then another. And another. Soon, the entire arena was glowing with the screens of twenty thousand devices. Devices they’d use to get the word out. This was it. There was no stopping the truth now. The Internet would explode. Every social-media site would overflow. There was no hiding, no cover-up that could stop the momentum we’d created.
There you go, industry.
Eat it.
“All right,” Howie said, glancing back at us. “We want a good, clean fight. And most of all, we want to be entertained.”
The crowd laughed, then cheered.
Marcus turned to the cameras. “As the teams get ready to plug in, here’s a quick word from our sponsors.”
That was our cue.
I walked with my teammates to the east stage, where our pods sat waiting. Above us on the screen was our team logo, shimmering for the audience to see. Just before I climbed into my pod, Elise nodded at me from her workstation. I smiled back and took a breath. Here we go.
The doors closed around me with a deafening boom. Had they always been that loud? Wires crawled across my skin, triggering goose bumps and chills that only added to the weighted feeling in my stomach. And yet, somehow, I felt numb to it all, as if the lid had just been closed on my own coffin, with me inside it.
I steadied myself, pushing the fear out with a slow, calming breath. After a few more, it evaporated, as if lifting out of my pores. The weight was gone, never to press down again. I focused on the sensations of the real world. The wires tickling as they attached to my skin, the heated air of the arena, and the soft shimmer of the pod’s opal core. Last match.
Last time.
I closed my eyes, and when I opened them, I stood inside the tower.
CHAPTER 26
Balance. It had been the key to everything. My salvation. My sanity. Even the game. But I didn’t realize just how much until that moment.
Inside the tower, high above everything else, I sat balanced with my teammates on the support beams, completely hidden from view. Several feet below, the tower’s stone floor sat cold and empty. Wind curled in from the entrance, sweeping up bits of dust and gravel. The debris kicked and skidded across the stones, then went still. Dead still. I had to wonder. Would the cameras even see us up here? Of course. They could see anywhere inside the virtual world. The audience would know right where we were.
InvictUS wouldn’t.
Single file on the beam, we sat the way we’d practiced. First Lily, then Derek, followed by Hannah, Rooke, and myself. Though it had nothing to do with appearances and everything to do with tactics. I looked down the line at my teammates. Hannah had her eyes closed, though whether it was due to the height or concentration, I wasn’t sure. Everyone else balanced on the beam, calm and nervous at the same time, deep breaths coupled with fluttering fingertips. That same terrified-but-tranquil combination swirled through my own stomach. I took a breath and released it.
“They’re coming,” Hannah announced in a hushed whisper, eyes still closed.
Footsteps pounded up the path to our tower, heavy footsteps with the sharp clangs of armor knocking together as they ran. I peered over the edge to watch. In their standard form, four members of InvictUS burst through the tower’s entrance and ground to a halt when they were greeted by nothing more than an empty tower. They’d expected to find all of us here since they hadn’t crossed anyone in the fields. And we were. They just had no idea where.
Grunts and sounds of confusion echoed off the tower’s walls.
“What the hell?” one of them shouted. “Where are they?”
“Did they go for our tower? Maybe they’re already there.”
“No way. We would have seen them.”
“There has to be at least one of them here.”
They scurried around the tower, glancing out the entranceway and in every other direction. One of them ventured outside and circled the perimeter of the tower. They all looked like little ants. Just like when I’d perch on the roof of the facility, InvictUS looked as if they could be crushed by my thumb. Not so undefeatable now.
Still balancing perfectly on the beam, I signaled to Lily at the other end. She caught my eyes. I held up one finger, then made a chopping motion with my arm. She nodded. She pulled an axe from its sheath at her waist, slowly drawing it out into her grasp.
It slipped.
The axe tumbled through the air, descending straight for the ground. InvictUS was about to find out where we were. So much for the element of surprise.
With one leg wrapped around the beam, Lily flipped around the pole and snatched the axe back midair. With the momentum of the flip, she brought herself back up and rested upright, axe gripped in hand, a grin pulling at her lips.
Never underestimate a blonde in pigtails. Never.
A silent breath of relief echoed through us all. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply, but it failed to calm the heart thudding in my chest.
Lily held the axe up next to her head and made a chopping motion as she aimed. The beam squeaked under her movements, whining in protest. My thudding heart went in my throat. I glanced down at our opponents, but the pattering of their feet and constant swearing covered the sound.
Lily aimed, once, twice, and released.
The whooshing sound of her axe whizzed through the air, like the chopping sound of a helicopter’s blades. It tomahawked straight for one of InvictUS. He heard the sound and glanced up.
“What the—”
It nailed him in the head, splitting it open from cranium to nose. He collapsed instantly to the ground.
I signaled to my teammates. Jump.
Three.
Two.
One.
We leapt and landed in perfect unison on the tower floor, a wall of soldiers and death. Short framing the tall. Dark mixing with light. Men between the women. Now we looked like a team.
A real team.
Image isn’t everything. But it helps.
The three remaining members of InvictUS stared wide-eyed, then exchanged looks with each other. Their shocked expressions morphed into grimaces, and they charged for us. We held our ground, bringing them to us.
At the last possible second, all three girls, myself included, dropped to the ground, tucked and rolled. Perfect unison. We slid through the gaps between the trio of InvictUS and came up to our knees as they passed, slicing through the air for anything that resembled flesh. Hannah’s axe landed home, cutting right through her target’s leg. He screamed and dropped to his knees. The three of us pounced on him, ripping into neck and chest. In half a second, his eyes glazed over with the look of death.
We sprang to our feet as Derek and Rooke wrangled with the remaining two attackers. Five-on-two and surrounded on all sides. They went back-to-back, for what good it would do them. We moved forward and back, sometimes
in pairs or threes. Like rippling waves of an ocean, crashing into the enemy with a steady pulse from all angles. Swords clanged together. Metal clanking metal became its own symphony.
I stood between Rooke and Hannah as we battled the duo. Dropping to one knee, I swung for one’s calf. He swung down to block me, leaving his upper half unguarded. Rooke landed a solid swipe through his neck. Blood gushed out of the gaping wound. He fell to his knees, clawing at his own neck. We drove our swords into his chest. He seized, then collapsed to the ground.
I stole a glance at Rooke. He grinned back.
One more to go.
The five of us circled him. He spun every way, trying to keep an eye on each of us. Sweat poured down his face, his gaze darting about. Finally, InvictUS knew what it was like to be prey. But unlike them, we wouldn’t make him suffer.
Derek retrieved Lily’s axe from our first victim’s head and hurled it at him. It sunk into the back of his skull. He gasped, dropped to his knees, and fell face forward onto the tower floor, his final breath whooshing out of his lungs. Then it went silent.
Dead. All of them.
That was it. We’d done it. We’d broken through the impenetrable force that was InvictUS. Now, there was a new invincible team on the block.
Defiance.
I could just hear the announcers right now.
What a show. Underdogs Defiance just owned it like nobody’s business. In all the years of virtual gaming, we’ve never seen anything like this.
Excitement exploded within until I shook, until I thought I’d go insane from the energy rushing through me. I fought the urge to scream. To jump up and down. The match wasn’t over yet. Somehow, on the outside, I remained cool and collected, despite my dancing innards. I nodded at my teammates.
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