Gamer Army Read online

  But as the three of them stood there, he remembered how the others had done. Flyer, not Ranger, had fought off the tower security soldiers who had come down to check out the base. She had stunned most of the base personnel. And Jackie had actually found the Velox data transmitter in the first place, as well as their way out.

  Could he be the one in trouble in the contest? But no. If he hadn’t pulled the busted-up Engineer out of there, they would have lost.

  All three of them had played crucial parts in this round. They’d succeeded in the mission as a team.

  The double doors slid open in front of them, and Mr. Culum led Sophia and X into the arena. The first two smiled enthusiastically. The third did not.

  X seemed … what? Rogan wondered. Worried? Nervous. The big guy shot a look at Mr. Culum, but then, cracking his knuckles, turned his attention to the gamers.

  Mr. Culum clapped his hands. “Gamers! Gamers, gamers! In all my years in the business, I have surveyed thousands of video games. I have played hundreds myself and watched the best players in the world take on hundreds more. Your ability to adapt to different types of gameplay, from tough combat drops, to landing on that single Chinese battleship way out in the middle of the ocean, to the fierce firefights claiming the Polyadaptive Nanotech Cloak, to this, the careful subterfuge, barely escaping the base security measures.”

  He laughed, shaking his head in what seemed like disbelief.

  “And all three of you have kept your objective in mind! A lot of gamers with twice your age and experience would have just shot at everything, every piece of tech and every NPC they saw.” He paused for a moment. “I like games that make players think. That’s why I got into the computer and gaming industry in the first place. Because I wanted to challenge people to think more, to expand our idea for what is possible. That’s why I’m experimenting with Laser Viper, turning it into a game like no other. The greatest game the world has ever known!”

  Six cambots circled around him.

  Sophia took advantage of his pause to congratulate the gamers as well. “I was as impressed as Mr. Culum,” she said. “All three of you did such a great job.” Her shoulders slumped a little. “Unfortunately only two of you can move on to the championship round. So Xavier will escort you back to the dorms. As usual, I’ll call each of you into the interview room one at a time for our customary after-game talk. And by the time we’re done, the decision will be made. But for now, you should all be very proud of yourselves! Super good job!”

  Back in the dorms, the commons was decked out like a party—like the first time they had completed a mission and really felt like a team. A bowl of cheesy puffs, a tray of taquitos, all kinds of candy, a pizza, and an iced tub filled with cans of PowerSlam covered the table. Upbeat adventure music, the kind of sound that played in the background of action movies, echoed from speakers around the room.

  On the giant screen, clips from the game showed off the best action of the last round. Rogan punching out the guard in the White Tower. Shay landing a perfect flying kick to take down two soldiers. Jackie prepping the cutting charge and exploding the generator exhaust vent.

  “Xavier thought you deserved a celebration.” Sophia spoke loudly to be heard over the music.

  The gamers exchanged confused looks. But Rogan wasn’t about to complain. He flopped down on the couch and popped the top on a Tangernado!-flavored PowerSlam, ready to relax, to celebrate with his fellow gamers, with his friends.

  “Shaylyn?” Sophia said, standing next to the open door of the interview room. “You’re up first.”

  Shaylyn said nothing but went with Sophia. When the door closed behind them, the party atmosphere felt diminished, not only because they were missing Shay, but because the beginning of the post-game interviews signaled they were one step closer to one of them going home.

  •   SHAYLYN SPERO

  Before I answer your question, can I just say that this is, like, the most fun I’ve ever had. The Flyer, like, barely ever gets into hand-to-hand fighting. In most games I fly recon or provide cover fire from the air. Fly rescue or carry other vipers up a cliff or something. I don’t want to brag, but I had some awesome moves in this round. Like, boom, boom, boom, the bullets kept hitting me, but I took down that entire platoon or whatever. Gaming at home? If my laser viper gets hit, my gamer gloves vibrate a little bit. Like my little brother’s baby rattle. But today, although obviously I’m glad bullets weren’t really ripping through me, I could really feel where each one was hitting my viper. It’s like I was the viper. And I was a pretty good one, all ninja and stuff. That’s all I’m saying.

  What? Oh yeah. That’s, like, the hard part. I came into the contest to win it, to beat all the others and become the champion. But that’s become harder and harder, you know? Because I’ve spent a lot of time with these people, and they’re really cool, actually.

  Yeah. I guess. Even Rogan. Even though he’s still, like, a jerk sometimes, thinking he’s all that.

  But he is a great gamer. So is Jackie! And Takashi too. Beckett? Well, he might have been if he could have kept his temper under control. But I don’t know who should be going home this time. Of course I want to move on to the championship. But I … I don’t know … I wish all three of us could move on. Like, you know what I mean?

  Back in the commons, Rogan and Jackie waited for their turns at talking head interviews.

  “If the second-to-last gaming round in the tournament was that intense, I can’t imagine what they have in mind for the championship. What could top that?” Rogan fingered his Zelda pendant.

  Jackie moved closer to him on the couch, to the one place between the table and the sofa’s high back, the only place in the whole complex besides the bedrooms and bathrooms where cambots could not go. That wouldn’t stop the cameras mounted in the ceilings and walls, but maybe they were far enough away, and the music was loud enough, to cover their conversation.

  She spoke quietly. “What was that stuff at the beginning of our time in the underground base? Clap your hands twice?”

  “Oh yeah,” Rogan said. “Forgot about that. Some kind of side quest, maybe? An Easter egg type thing? A voice cut in like that once for me on Call of Duty: Alien Wars. Turned out it was an alien trick. Maybe it was supposed to be a secret Scorpion message?”

  “With Takashi’s voice?”

  Rogan chomped a cheesy puff and thought it over. “It sounded like him, but who knows? Maybe that was part of the Scorpion trick.” The two of them munched treats in silence for a while. Then Rogan asked, “What do you think it was?”

  Jackie shrugged but said nothing.

  “Jacqueline?” Sophia chirped, returning to the dorms with Shay. “Let’s go have a chat.”

  •   JACQUELINE SHARPE

  Any of us. All of us, really. It was a team effort in this last round. We had a big base to search. It took all of us. Shay kept the soldiers off our backs. I found the device and our way out. Rogan helped get me out in the end. If any of us hadn’t been there, the other two would have failed.

  That’s why I don’t want to see anyone have to go home. They’re my friends, and they deserve to be in the championship as much as I do. So I won’t say who I think should move on to the finals with me.

  But I really want to win this. I know not a lot of kids my age think about stuff like this, but I want to go to college someday. My parents said they’d pay for it if I keep my grades up, but one thing I learned rebuilding my Xbox is that I like relying on myself. My cousin has a PlayStation. He barely cares about it. Doesn’t take care of it. Always wants something else. Me? My Xbox is my baby because I earned it.

  I like earning my own stuff. When you’re a kid, you have nothing. You live in a house your parents own, sleep in a bed they bought for you, and you have to do what they say. Like, it’s the law. When you’re twelve, you can’t go out and get a job and buy an apartment or something. You can’t even buy an apartment in Virtual City without parental consent. Everything comes
from Mom and Dad.

  I love my parents. That’s why I don’t want them to have to pay for my school. I want to take care of myself. They love helping me, but they’re proud of me when I take care of myself too. That’s why I want to win this contest.

  And, also … it’s fun. Yeah. Man, it feels good to be a gamer.

  •   ROGAN WEBBER

  It’s such a close call. I’d be happy to stay on with either of them. I know I started this contest with a lot of attitude. Shouting Ego sum maximus all the time. I was almost as bad as Beckett. OK, maybe I was a lot like Beckett.

  I want to win this. I have to win this or I’ll lose my Virtual City apartment. I don’t think it’s bad to want to be the best, but what’s different now is that it’s not like I’m playing against random gamers online. A lot of real life has come into my game. Jackie and Shay are my friends.

  If I am picked to play in the championship, it will partially be because of them. We took on that last gaming round together.

  What? No. Come on. It’s impossible. It’s not fair.

  Fine. If you force me to pick one who should move on with me. I’d have to choose … Shay. But just because she has been bugging me for a long time about who is the better gamer. If I beat her in the final round, I’d finally prove that’s me.

  “We have come to the time that you three gamers, and all of the viewers at home, have been waiting for.” Sophia’s dress and its light horizontal pleats looked almost like the folds of an accordion. A loose silver silk sash hung from her left shoulder, diagonally across her to a knot at her waist, and a large silver Atomic Frontiers electrons-orbiting-the-globe logo broach was pinned near her right shoulder. Somehow the light glinted off the broach and dazzled her smile. “In a moment, I will announce the two of you who will move on to the championship round of the Laser Viper Final Challenge. This has been, without a doubt, by far the most difficult decision our judges have had to make. All three of you are excellent gamers, and you should be proud of your accomplishments. But two of you have a slight edge that has earned you a place in the championship. The first gamer who is safe, and moving on to the next exciting round of gaming, is …” Her smile beamed as she looked the three of them over. The giant screen, blank between them, would soon display the first finalist. “Shaylyn Spero! Congratulations!”

  Rogan’s shoulders slumped. Why couldn’t he be called first? Just once.

  Jackie hugged Shay. “Great job. You deserve it. Good luck.”

  Shay fist-bumped Rogan and took her place beside Sophia and X. Rogan clenched his fists and glanced down a few times, but mostly he was confident. Mostly. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jackie bite her lip.

  “Now …” Sophia swapped out her cheerleader face for her serious look. “It’s time. Rogan Webber. Jacqueline Sharpe. One of you … will be moving on to the championship round. One of you … will unfortunately be going home.” She folded her hands in front of her. “The other finalist in the Laser Viper Final Challenge … is … Rogan Webber!”

  Rogan heard a small sigh from Jackie, but turned to meet her sincere smile. He was a little surprised by her tight hug.

  “Congratulations, Ro.” A sob shook through Jacqueline. “Good luck.”

  “We’ll miss you,” Rogan told her. He meant it.

  Jackie smiled through the tears and waved at Rogan and Shaylyn. “You two are the best friends I ever had. And Takashi.” She sniffled. “We’ll game together again.”

  “Rogan?” Sophia sang. “If you’ve said goodbye to Jacqueline, please join Shaylyn over here. We want to get some great publicity photos of the first ever Laser Viper Final Challenge finalists.”

  X had already stepped up to Jackie, signaling it was time for her to go.

  “Bye, Jackie,” Shay called out.

  Jackie headed toward her room, but then stopped suddenly and turned around for a second, long enough to fix the other two gamers with a serious stare. She clapped exactly twice, and a moment later vanished into her room to pack. Rogan and Shay both knew what she was hinting at.

  Cambots swarmed around them, recording video and snapping still photos. Their faces smiled larger than life on the big screen. Shaylyn and Rogan exchanged slightly competitive grins, the longtime bitter rivals now secure with a spot in the championship. Each knew the other would never back down.

  “I hope you two are excited,” Sophia said. “Take some time to celebrate, but also get some rest. The final game is coming soon, and I promise you, it will be like nothing you’ve ever imagined.”

  Over the course of the next three days, Shay and Rogan relaxed and watched movies and a little game film. Cambots continued buzzing about, and mounted cameras made sure they were always being watched, never alone. But the environment in the dorms was weird. When they’d first arrived it had been full of activity, tension, and conversation. Now it was often quiet enough for them to hear the tiny motors that aimed and focused the cameras.

  After Jackie was sent home, Rogan had worried that he and Shay would soon be arguing like old times. But since there was no one else with whom to hang out, and since their old bitter rivalry had been mostly replaced by a mutually beneficial partnership, neither wanted to say or do anything that might set the other off. The result was a calmer and friendlier atmosphere than Rogan would have thought possible.

  The two of them were eating dinner one night, seated on opposite sides of the table, both having selected big plates of spaghetti with a side of meatballs. Rogan broke the silence. “I’ve been thinking about something.” He stopped, twirling his fork around and around in his spaghetti. Part of him wondered if it might be better not to bring this up, to talk about some gaming thing instead. But this had been on his mind a little since Takashi left, and a lot since Jackie went home. “I don’t want you to make fun of me.”

  Shay frowned. “Why would—”

  Rogan’s fork clanked down on his plate. “I just don’t want you to make fun of me.”

  “OK,” Shay said sharply.

  “Because other people, like other vipers in the war room, or people around Virtual City, would make fun of me for talking like this.” Rogan took a deep breath. “I love video games.”

  Shay opened her mouth like she was going to speak up, but she stopped herself.

  Rogan continued. “I love them because in a game there’s no question about how I should be, how I should act. In a Batman game, I know I have to fight bad guys until I take down Joker. In Laser Viper, I’m Ranger and, except for the weird gaming stages in this contest, I know my job is mostly to fight.”

  “Okayyyy.” Shay held out the word like, So what’s your point?

  “I don’t get the real world. I don’t spend a lot of time IRL. Everyone in real life knows all the coolest shows to watch, how to act, what to wear, what to say, and who to say it to. I don’t.”

  “Really?” Shay asked. “In digi-space you always seem like—”

  “A jerk?”

  She pressed her lips together for a moment. “Like, confident. That’s all I’m saying. I don’t really fit in so great at my school. Like, I’m OK at volleyball, but not a part of the inner circle. But from our time together in Laser Viper and in the war room, I always, I don’t know … I pictured you there in Seattle with, like, a million followers. In real life, I mean. Like, I thought you’d be up in the Seattle Space Needle, and all the other kids rushing to buy tickets to come up and hang out with you.”

  “No. We don’t actually get to the Space Needle much.” Rogan laughed. “It is cool, though. I guess what I’m trying to tell you is that I’ve always been a failure at real life, and I thought if I could win this contest, I could be someone awesome in Virtual City, like Mario Alverez.”

  “Oh, he is so cool. So cute.”

  Rogan rolled his eyes. “Can you not?”

  “What?”

  “Never mind. I still want to win the contest.”

  “Yeah. Not happening. Sorry, Ro.”

  He turned his fork ar
ound and put a meatball on it, like he was ready to fling the food at Shaylyn. She held her hands up in surrender, and he lowered his weapon. “But this is real life, right? You and me and Jackie and Takashi.”

  “And Beckett?”

  “It’s like Jackie said before X took her away. I don’t really have a lot of friends outside of digi-space. But we’ve been hanging out together here, in the real world, for a long time, and … well …”

  “You haven’t been a failure in real life with us,” Shay finished for him.

  He was grateful she said it. He’d really set himself up for her to take him down hard.

  “I’m still going to beat you in the tournament, but”—she sighed as dramatically as something out of Shakespeare—“you’re all right, Ro. You’re even, I guess, if I had to be totally honest, but I’ll call you a liar to your face if you ever tell anyone I said this, but you’re even … kind of cool. Maybe real life isn’t so bad.”

  The two rivals smiled at each other. They went back to eating in friendly silence.

  After dinner, they vid called home, and Rogan was happy to talk to his mom and dad. They didn’t talk about anything special, but somehow speaking to them reminded Rogan of how much he missed home, and at the same time, how comfortable he was starting to feel on his own on the other side of the country. It was a paradox, Rogan knew, but it was true all the same.

  On the morning of the fourth day after the previous game round, X came to the dorms for the two gamers. Both Rogan and Shay were puzzled when he told them they didn’t need to bother with their game suits, and doubly puzzled when they were taken down a different series of corridors, not through the atrium with the Sun Station One model but to a section of the giant compound neither of them had seen before.

  Finally they entered some kind of medical lab with oxygen masks, IV towers, defibrillators, and various pieces of complex scanning equipment. Advanced computers stood by at the head of two long, narrow tables in the center of the room under bright lights. The top half of the side wall was a window, on the other side of which were the smiling faces of Mr. Culum and Sophia Hahn.