“Ha, good one, dude,” Halicar said, then pulled up a screen on the terminal at his desk. “Okay, so I see you’re all pretty low level. You can’t officially join until you hit fifty-five, but we can work with you if you’re willing to put some effort in. Grind on your own, and when you get to fifty, you can fight in our arena.” He gestured out of the dome, off toward where Kaiden had seen a fight happening as they’d walked in. Even through the clouds the explosive effects of abilities being fired off were visible in flashing bursts of light.
“A few wins in there will get you some rep, you know? And if you take down the whole tournament, you’ll get to meet PlayaSlaya himself. Quite an honor,” Halicar said. “Also, you’re free wardens, which is good. Opens up some different combat combinations when we go into guild versus guild PVP.” He looked up with a smile. “The higher-ups love that, too. Versatility, they always—”
“We’re not trying to join,” Kaiden said, cutting him off mid-sentence.
This time, Halicar stopped what he was doing, frowned, then shouted over his shoulder.
“Nassus! Need you for a sec.”
Another player walked in. She wore black and red power armor similar to her partner's.
Nassus
Class: Brawler
Faction: Maximus
Level: 55
Never seen that class before, Kaiden thought. Though truly, they hadn’t seen much of Nova Online outside of the Warden Corps. There hadn’t exactly been time to freely explore since he’d started playing.
“Hey! Fresh meat,” Nassus said, smiling wide as she saw them in front of the desk. “Whoo! Finally, someone lower on the totem pole than us who'll have to work this crap job.” She paused. “Er, I mean, welcome! We’re so happy you’d like to join.”
“Said that’s not why they’re here.” Halicar clearly ruined Nassus’ good mood with that.
She looked at them, face all scrunched up in confusion.
“Then why the heck are you here?” She leaned down and pulled up a screen on the terminal. “You’re not on the guest list. And you don’t have an appointment.” She stood straight. “So what gives?”
Kaiden swallowed hard and prayed his voice would sound half as confident as it did internally.
“We’ve come to speak to PlayaSlaya. We have information he’ll want. And a proposition for him.”
Silence then, as both members of Maximus stared, uncomprehending. Finally, Halicar shook his head, then laughed quietly.
“You don’t understand how this works, do you? You think PlayaSlaya has time for people like you?”
Nassus laughed at that.
“Forget level fifty-five, forget the entrance requirements, these guys haven’t even passed level forty.” She shook her head as if in disbelief. “You’re wasting our time.”
“Not the only thing here I’m gonna waste,” Titus growled.
Kaiden waved back at him.
Stay calm, he wanted to say. I got this.
He turned away from Titus and took a step forward, pressed both hands into the desk, and leaned forward until he was up in both of the players’ faces.
These guys respect confidence, right?
“Why don’t we let PlayaSlaya decide what’s worth his time and what isn’t?” Kaiden said, forcing his voice into his best impression of a growl.
Halicar smirked.
“How about nah?”
Kaiden shrugged and leaned back.
“When we go around you and he hears what we have to say, we’ll be sure to mention it was you two who delayed us. Made things more difficult than they needed to be.” He smirked back as he delivered the last line.
What do you think about that, huh? Feeling big and strong now?
Halicar and Nassus burst out laughing at near the exact same moment. Nassus bent over forward, catching herself on the desk to stop from collapsing.
Kaiden felt his face go hot. Were he out of game, he knew he’d be blushing uncontrollably.
“Threatened by a level thirty-whatever,” Nassus said, whooping with laughter. “Man, no one told me today was gonna be this fun.”
“Enough of this.” Thorne stepped forward. Kaiden deflated a little as she did so. Clearly he wasn’t as good at this as he needed to be.
“You two are just bottom-of-the-barrel desk jockeys,” she said, a scowl stretched across her features. There was an intensity in her eyes as she spoke. “You don’t have any power here. You just do what you’re told when you’re told to do it.” She let that hang in the air a moment, then spoke again, her tone icy. “I’m telling you to get your superior. Someone here who actually matters.”
Neither of them was laughing now. Apparently Thorne had struck a chord with them.
These guys respect strength, confidence. But all their bluster is just fronting, Kaiden realized. Internally, they’re paranoid that they’re nowhere near as strong as those ranked more highly in the guild. That... makes sense. Thorne apparently had some experience dealing with just these sorts of people.
“You want to go higher up the chain of command?” Nassus said. “Fine. Here we go.” She waved to Halicar and he pulled up a video call on the terminal.
An unfamiliar voice answered and the hologram of a person appeared right after it.
“Nando here. How’s it going, guys? You need something?”
“Yeah, we got some—” Halicar began to say then was cut off by a sharp elbow from Nassus.
“Butt dial, sir. Sorry about that.”
“Ah, no worries then.” The hologram of whoever Nando was disappeared.
Halicar gave his counterpart a confused look.
“That’s not who I wanted you to call.” She pressed a button on the terminal and another voice call started. An all-too-familiar voice answered this time.
“Sup?” Recruz said as his hologram resolved itself above the desk.
“Got some morons here that want a meeting with the commander,” Nassus said. “We told them no, but they’re persistent.”
The ghostly image of Recruz turned around to face Thorne. Then his eyes moved to Kaiden and he frowned.
“You again? Seriously?” He shook his head.
“We’re not going to accept no for an answer,” Kaiden said, stepping forward and forcing himself to look confident. “I’m telling you right now, your commander wants to hear what we have to say.”
Recruz looked back to the two at the desk.
“See them out,” he said, hitching
