After Steve had finished the third round of questioning by the government, he was finally allowed to go home. He had stayed there for two whole days and was eager to get back home. A ride was arranged for him. He stared out the window at all the familiar sights, indulging in nostalgia during the ride – the posh mansions along the way, the Mormon church, the signboards, the bridge over the river and the Red Robin restaurant which served delicious burgers. Within an hour he arrived at his mother’s house in Maryland. As soon as he entered the house’s front yard, his mother came running out and hugged him.

“Steve,” she said, tears falling down her cheeks, “I knew that you would be back safe.” Had she been staring out the window ever since he had gone missing? Knowing his mother she had probably done just that.

“I really missed you, Mom,” Steve said. “I missed you all so much. Where are the girls and Tony?”

“The girls are inside and Tony disappeared like you did. Now that you’re back, I’m hoping that he will return soon as well,” she smiled optimistically.

“Steve!” two girls squealed when they saw him enter the house.

“Lisa, Ruth,” Steve smiled happily at his younger sisters. “Oh God, how I’ve missed you two.”

Steve saw a car stop in front of the garage and a sixteen year old boy got out the back. He was right on time. Tony looked so different from what Steve remembered. There was something in his eyes, something that almost everyone who went into the Tower had. He wasn’t sure how to describe it. It made Tony look more hardened, as though he had been through a thousand baptisms of fire and blood.

“Tony! Thank God!” his mother ran and hugged the teenager.

“Mom! Get off,” Tony protested, breaking out of her hug. He was the same old Tony. He hated any physical display of affection. “Steve, were you in the Tower too?”

Was there something in his own eyes that gave him away? “I was,” Steve said. “It must have been hard on you.”

“I managed,” Tony said. “I wish we had been able to meet up in there. The Tower must have transported us to different dimensions.”

“Dimensions?” his mother asked. “What exactly happened in there?”

“Mom, don’t ask. We aren’t allowed to say much. We signed an NDA with the government,” Steve said. “They won’t be able to cover it up for long though. You’ll find out on the news eventually.”

“Whatever it was, it must have been hard on my boys,” she said. “Come, I’ll make you some lunch. You must be hungry.”

Ah! How he’d missed his mother’s cooking. “That would be great.”

“Did the government make you an offer?” Tony asked him, as they sat down on the couch in the living room. The army had said that they were considering starting a division for Players and asked if he was interested in joining.

“Yup. I’m thinking of accepting it. It’s our patriotic duty. What about you?”

“I’ll do whatever you do.” Tony was always like that. He always followed his big brother.

“You’re underage though,” Steve ruffled his brother’s hair, laughing at his glowering expression. "You’ll have to wait two more years.”

“I’ve learned how to wait,” Tony said. “They said they would give me a college scholarship if I accepted their terms. I’ll be able to join the army as soon as I graduate. I haven’t agreed to anything yet.”

The next day was Sunday. Steve’s mother insisted that they all go to church. He didn’t protest. The last time he had been to church was at his father’s funeral. After the service they ate lunch at a restaurant and then drove back home. When they arrived, Steve found a man and a woman, both dressed in suits, waiting near their SUV parked in front of the house. It looked like they had been waiting there for a while. They both looked at him as soon as he got out of the car, sizing him up. Steve did the same to them. They didn’t look like people from the government. They didn’t have that air. Who were they? He had just wanted a quiet Sunday with his family. Why couldn’t people leave him alone?

“Mr. Steven Palmer?” the woman asked.

“Yes.”

“We are from the Biggs Foundation. You might have heard of us. May we talk to you in private. This is regarding your recent adventure.”

“You mean the Tower?” Steve asked. The woman nodded.

“Fine. Come in.” He led them to the study. “Would you like a soft drink? Beer?” He hoped they would refuse. He wasn’t in the mood to entertain them for long.

“No thank you,” the woman said. “If it’s all the same to you, we would like to jump right into business.”

“Sure. What’s this about?”

“We would like to know what you plan to do now that you’re out of the Tower. Did the Army make you an offer?”

“Yes,” Steve said. Since they already knew, there was no point denying it.

“What if we offered you a better alternative? We represent a group of very powerful people who work behind the scenes of governments all over the world.”

“What? Like the Illuminati?” Steve laughed. “Come on. Be serious.” When he saw that their expressions hadn’t changed he frowned. “You aren’t really from the Illuminati are you?”

“The Illuminati is old news. We represent the most powerful people of today’s world. Even presidents and prime ministers have to follow their orders.”

“And what do they want with me?” Steve asked. He could tell they weren’t lying. In the Tower, he had learned to read people. It had proven to be an invaluable skill.

“We’ve read reports about you. You have impressed our chiefs, and they plan on grooming you to for a position within our organization. They want to start you off with heading a private military company made up of Players. You will have full freedom in its operations. We will fund it entirely, and give you a 49% stake in the company.”

“This sounds too good to be true,” Steve shook his head. “What’s the catch?”

“No catch,” said the woman. “We just hope that you’ll give priority to certain contracts that come your way. We are willing to invest ten billion initially.”

“Ten billion dollars?” Steve’s jaw dropped. He couldn’t even imagine that amount of money. With a 49% stake, he would be worth almost five billion.

“We’ll also send you skilled people to help with the management.”

“So, the Biggs Foundation is just a front? I thought you guys were only a think tank.”

“It’s a legitimate organization. It’s just involved in more things than is seen by the public eye,” said the man.

“Can you name some of the chiefs? Have I heard of any of them?”

“We aren’t at liberty to reveal their names, but you would have heard of some of them.”

“Alright,” Steve came to a decision immediately. Ten billion! He didn’t even need to think about it. His family would live in luxury from now on. Tony, Lisa and Ruth would go to college. “I agree. I don’t know anything about building a PMC though.”

“Don’t worry,” the woman chuckled. “We’ll help. And it’s better not to call it a PMC. We’ll have to think of some other term.”

“How about guild?”

“Guild? That sounds much better. I’ll let the upper management know.”

“Where do I sign?”

“Someone will meet you in the next few days with all the paperwork. You will also have to undergo training, which is nothing rigorous. It’s on an island resort, and usually lasts a month.”

“Alright,” said Steve, and walked them to their car outside.

“We’re going to be rich,” he shouted with joy, after he entered his house and closed the front door.

“What happened, Steve?” his mother asked.

“Those people are helping me start my own company,” he said. After his brother and sisters came down to the room he started explaining what had just happened. “Tony, I’ll make you a board director. You can do that while you study.”

“But I’m only sixteen?” Tony asked, bewildered by the sudden change in their fortunes. “Is that okay?”

“I’m not sure, but the rules are different for us now. The people I’m working for will make sure that everything is legitimate,” Steve grinned. “What should I call my guild?”

“How about Steve’s Angels,” Lisa joked.

“Give it a rest Lisa,” Steve snorted. She had been teasing him the entire day when she found out about his girlfriends. Luckily, his mother didn’t know what they were talking about, or he’d get an earful.

“What do you think about The Ascended?” Tony asked.

“The Ascended,” Steve bit his lip in thought. “I like it. Let’s go with that.”

A few days passed. He finished all the paperwork, and getting the necessary permissions. He was able to finish everything very quickly, thanks to the Biggs Foundation, or the organization behind them. He was now officially a billionaire. He spent the rest of the week, enjoying time with his family and was then flown to a privately owned Caribbean island.

The training on the island was mainly about networking with the other players who had been chosen to become guild leaders. There were two hundred and forty six of them from all over the world. There were twenty from the United States of America. The largest number came from China—thirty two. Considering the population and area of each country, this seemed about right. If each guild was given billions of dollars, then the Organization behind them had a colossal corpus of money. He was surprised to find that Yuri wasn’t at the island. Steve wondered why the Organization had let such a talented person go. Maybe they had other plans for him.

There were a few lectures that he had to attend, mostly on management, but also some political science, and other subjects. The lectures were interesting, and he soaked in all the knowledge coming his way. There were also regular tournaments between the Players, which were watched and recorded with great interest by the Organization. Most of them had not demonstrated their abilities to their fullest potential during the government debrief, but they were doing so now. He won every single tournament. He also found out that the Organization was conducting extensive research on mana. He was asked a few questions about it by some of the researchers who had come to the island especially to watch the tournaments. He answered as best as he could. Everyone here knew he was at a higher level than most other Players, and treated him with great respect.

A month soon ended and Steve was back in Washington DC. He looked at the high rise building that he had rented for his guild, feeling very proud. There were twenty seven floors. He would now have to fill them with people. The first thing he did was track down his old party and tell them the good news. He arranged immigration clearance for all of them and even for a few of their families who wished to move here. They would all be made directors in charge of operations. Steve had no doubt that in a few years his guild would rival Blackwater.

The mass recruitment drive continued for over a month. Steve had gotten about half of his old raid party to join up with him by offering them very lucrative salaries. The subordinate staff that helped to run things smoothly were all hired by the Biggs Foundation, though he did manage to get some of his old buddies into upper management. Through his contacts in the Biggs Foundation, he was able to liaise with important people in the government including the President himself.

Soon, he got his first contract worth fifty million dollars. There had been trouble in Botswana. He was tempted to lead the mission himself, but decided against it in the end. He sent out a party of ten players with Elizabeth in charge and monitored the mission closely via satellite. They captured the insurgents with ease and fulfilled their mission with flying colors. A mission that was supposed to take them a month took them a few days. The Organization behind him had provided Steve with a vast intelligence network that he used to its fullest potential.

A few days later, some Players from Sweden leaked the news that the world would be facing a crisis soon. There was probably going to be an outbreak of monsters on Earth, one of the Players said live on the news broadcast. The governments of the world had hushed up this information for quite a while, but it was now finally out in the open. The Player accused the governments of ignoring this threat and wasting their time playing their geopolitical games with one another.

The public took what the Player said at face value and started to panic. Law and order vanished over night in some regions of the world and Steve’s guild got a slew of new contracts. Some players in central Africa decided to become warlords, which actually granted some stability to those places. Those Players had enough sense not to fight with each other, and peace reigned over those war torn regions. Steve wondered if the Organization was behind this too.

One day, his intelligence department delivered him a strange piece of news. Yuri had finally made a move. He had been gathering Players from Slavic countries for quite a while now. Steve had wondered what he planned to do with them. The answer had come that morning. Yuri had conquered Ruritania and made himself king of the small nation. A few hours later, Yuri announced his accomplishment to the world.

“I hereby announce the rebirth of the kingdom of Ruritania. Ruritania will be a country of heroes from now on,” Yuri said, on the television screen. “We will use all our resources to prepare for the coming threat. All Players from around the world are welcome to be a part of our heroic nation. You will gain benefits here that are impossible to be had elsewhere. Here you shall be Lords, ruling over territory. No other country will offer you as much autonomy and freedom as Ruritania. You will be able to grow to your fullest potential through our training programs and protect your families when the monsters break out and ravage this world.”

Yuri’s offer was appealing to many players. The number of Players in his kingdom soon rivaled Steve’s guild. Steve called Yuri up and congratulated him.

“I guess I have to call you King Yuri now,” Steve laughed.

“Please,” Yuri snorted. “We’re brothers.”

“Are you acting on behalf of Russia?”

Steve had wondered if Yuri was a government puppet.

“This was my own decision,” said Yuri. “The world needs some shaking up before things start getting worse. The governments aren’t taking the new threat seriously. They are more interested in manipulating us for their own greed.”

“So the Organization isn’t behind you?”

“What organization?” asked Yuri.

“You’ll find out soon enough, now that you’re a king,” Steve ended the call. Yuri was right. The monster threat was hanging over the world, and it could erupt at any moment.

“Nia,” he called his director in charge of training, “From now on increase the intensity of everyone’s training, especially the rookies.”

There was something that had been bugging him for a while. It had been irritating him like an itch that wouldn’t go away. He hadn’t been able to pinpoint what it was, but then he suddenly remembered. “Bon,” he growled. He called a certain number and said, “There’s a Player called Bon. I want him blacklisted. I don’t know his last name, but he’s from the west, probably from California.” Steve remembered that Bon’s friend had once mentioned something about his home, before the sixty fifth floor’s Boss fight. He had forgotten what it was exactly.

“Will do Chief,” the voice on the phone said.

Steve felt much better after he had done that.

A strange piece of news caught Steve’s attention while he was browsing through his feed. There had been a gradual change in the color of the towers. Their exteriors were slowly darkening. Steve had a feeling that the monsters he had been trained to fight in the Tower would soon come to Earth, and when they did all hell would break loose.