"Once everyone gets here, I think the first step we need to take is to find one of the Fearless and convince them to join us." Mori shifted on her section of the tower's parapet, Ronin and Wei busy peering at a holographic map he'd pulled up. They'd found her team's old base in the fifth ring, but with no one occupying it.
"Aren't you a Fearless?" Wei asked, wrinkling her nose.
"We need a...more fearless Fearless than me," Mori explained lamely. Really they needed a Fearless because after shuffling through her inventory half a dozen times, she hadn't been able to find the cube.
"We don't need another Fearless," Ronin said. He poked at one of the moving dots on the map. "There. Wraith's entered this ring, probably with the team in tow."
Wei hopped up and stepped up onto the edge of the tower. "I'll head over to meet them." Her voice registered in Mori's ear. "We've got comms?"
"Comms are good," Mori confirmed.
Wei gave her a thumbs up and leaped from the parapet.
Mori looked up from fiddling with her earring to find Ronin offering her a gleaming blue blade. "My knife," she said in disbelief.
"And that's not all," Ronin said. Her pistol shimmered into existence. "I used or traded most of your food and crystals." Then a light blue rifle materialized in his hand, its surface decorated with silver streaks across the metal.
"But...that's not mine," Mori whispered. Her finger skimmed over the smooth metal stock of the weapon. "I broke my rifle in the battle before I left." The color matched the tint of a perfect cloudless sky—her favorite color.
"I might've cleared one of the hardest dungeons just to get it for you. Look, look, look!" Ronin raised the rifle to his cheek with a practiced motion and fired at a boulder in the field below. Light raced out of the barrel. At first Mori wondered if he'd missed, but then a boom like thunder cracked the air and the rock crumbled.
"Whoa," Mori breathed.
Ronin whistled at the damage. "Best rifle in the game," he said.
Mori stepped back when he offered the gun to her. "You should keep it. You worked for it, not me." She eyed the weapon, identifying it as the Artemis rifle.
"Mori," Ronin said, lowering his voice. "I got it just for you. Not me, not anybody else." He took her hand and placed it on the stock.
"Thank you." Mori cradled the rifle in her arms, admiring the beauty and lethality of it. More than that, her heart filled at the thought he'd done this for her. "Why would you go through all that trouble though?" She looked up to search his face, her breath catching in her lungs at the intensity in his eyes.
"Because you remind me of someone," Ronin said softly. His hand hovered over hers like the touch of a butterfly's wing. "You see, I—"
"Mori!" Ren screamed, stomping up the stairs.
Ronin stepped back as Mori turned to the stairwell, the gun evaporating in her hands. "Up here, Ren."
Her old friend appeared and paused, her chest heaving and face splotched red. In two quick strides, she reached Mori and slapped her across the face before pulling her into a rough hug.
"I deserved that," Mori said, wincing from the sting of Ren's palm.
"Don't you ever do that again." Ren sniffled. "I though you were dead, idiot. Not to mention this is, not the first, but the second time you've fallen off the face of the fricking planet."
"I missed you too, Ren."
With a final squeeze, Ren whirled around and barked out orders down the stairs. "Hurry up, slow pokes. We haven't got all day!"
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Facing Fear | ✓ ONC 2023 Honorable Mention
Science Fiction| 𝟏𝟐𝐱 𝐅𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐝 | An ex-gamer enters a virtual reality ruled by a rebel AI in order to rescue her younger sister and shut down the death game. * * * Eight years ago, Mor...
