Rune stared out across the room, a frowning creeping its way onto his face. Filing into the sim room opposite to Rune’s was that same red-headed kid who’d been shooting him dagger eyes earlier when he’d caught Rune staring at him. He was giving Rune the same look right now.

Rune wasn’t really sure what he’d done to earn the kid’s animosity, but he definitely knew what that look meant. It was the, ‘fuck you asshole, I’m gonna come over and fuck you up’ look. Rune didn’t know what he’d done to get the kid to be so angry at him in particular, but he knew how to deal with people who had it out for you. You either beat them down hard enough that they couldn’t get back up, or you ran. Rune cracked his knuckles and gave the kid a sharp smile. He wasn’t about to run from this asshole.

The kid’s eyes narrowed, and then he slipped out of sight through the door to the sims room, but not before mouthing something at Rune. Rune had no idea what he’d said—he’d never really been any good at reading lips—but he’d bet dollars to donuts that the kid had been threatening him somehow.

Rune quirked a smile. He’d been up against mega-slum drug runners, gang members, and the mega-slum cops, who might as well have been an armed gang of their own. Those were the sorts of people you ran from. Not this red-headed twerp who thought he was hot shit. Regardless of why this kid had it out for him, Rune was gonna put him down, and hard.

Jamis bumped him on the shoulder. “Yo, that kid looked pissed. You know him from somewhere?”

Rune shook his head. “No, I don’t know him at all.” He frowned. “I’m pretty sure all I did was shake my head at him when he ran by going back to the pit and make eye contact with him when we were standing in formation after.”

Jamis shot him an appalled look. “You made eye contact with him? How could you? Don’t you know that’s like, the biggest social taboo ever?”

Rune’s eyebrows shot up. “Wait, really? Am I not supposed to look people in the eyes? Oh shit. Damn.” He looked back at the other room with a look of worry on his face, thinking that society must’ve changed a lot in the time that he’d been gone. A muted choking noise came from his right, and he turned to see Jamis slumped over, barely hold back his laughter. When he saw Rune looking at him, he just broke out laughing.

“I can’t believe you fucking fell for that. Not supposed to look people in the eyes.” He paused to laugh some more. Rune’s face slowly turned red. “I just looked you in the eyes, my man. Whaddya think, society turned so uptight we can’t even look at each other?” Jamis kept laughing, and Rune joined him. After a while, they managed to calm down.

“Wow, I can’t believe, I actually fell for that,” Rune said between gasping, laughing breaths.

Jamis smirked. “You’re so gullible.”

Rune just shook his head and shrugged. “I guess I can’t deny it.”

They stood there and smiled for another few seconds before Rune gestured to the pod room. “Well then, let’s get in there and kick these guys’ collective asses.”

Jamis frowned, then glanced away, back towards the throng of trainees milling about the room and awkwardly forming groups. “Don’t we need a third member for a tactical group?”

Rune shook his head. “No, the Drill Sergeant said that he’d just assign people to groups if they didn’t join any. I figure that if we get in a pod the drill Sergeant will just assign us, someone.”

Jamis frowned, and shot him a look. “Wait, but if the drill Sergeant gives us the last, groupless guy they’re gonna suck at this.”

Rune just shrugged. “Whatever man, together you and me can pick up the slack.”

Jamis shrugged nonchalantly. “Alright man, your call.”

Rune strode by him, entering the sim room. Glancing around, Rune saw pretty much exactly what he expected; a bunch of dive capsules. They were smaller and more elegant than the ones that they’d had back in the 22nd-century, but the basic outline remained the same. Rune cranked open the top, got in, and felt his consciousness fade.

A few brief moments later, he materialized in what seemed to be an endless, glowing white room. Standing a few feet away from him was Jamis. Hanging up in the air was the massive blue letters, ‘Friendly Party: 2/3’ and below them, ‘Enemy Party: 3/3’.

Jamis spoke up. “Guess we just wait now, then.”

And wait they did. After nearly two minutes the pair was beginning to get pretty bored when all of a sudden another kid materialized some ten feet away from the pair. They stood up to look at the kid. It was that same chubby kid who the drill Sergeant had been yelling at for not running hard enough. This could either be really good, or really bad.

Deciding to play it safe an be nice, Rune walked straight up to the kid and held out his hand. “My name is Rune, and you are…” He trailed off, giving the kid an expectant look.

The kid nodded and said, “I’m Harvey, suh.”

Jamis, right behind Rune, popped out with a smile on his face and held his hand out to the kid too. “I’m Jamis, ni—” It was right about then that script popped up in front of each of the trainee’s faces reading, ‘Match begins in 60…” As they watched, the number ticked down to 59.

Rune nodded and spoke. “Looks like we’re gonna get thrust into the fight right away.” he shot a stern look at the fat kid. “Look, man, you didn’t do so well at the pit, but I’m still expecting you to pull your weight here. He gotta beat these shitters. They’re assholes.”

The fat kid nodded, a serious look on his face. “I know. I wanna at least get entrance to Combat. Would be nice to take some of the classes. I gonna try just as hard as you are, I swear. Harder even.”

Rune nodded, satisfied. As long as he did his best, Rune would be fine with it. Together they waited. ‘Match begins in 5…’

Rune closed his eyes, waiting for the transition. When he next opened them, he was standing behind a pair of sliding glass doors. Behind them was a metal platform, and on the metal platform, there was a whole bunch of tech and other loot.

A message popped up in front of each of the three group members. ‘The objective of this match is gathering resources. Each team will take resources from the pile, receiving a number of points corresponding to the number of resources gathered, up to fifteen for all resources. Three points from the final score will be deducted for injuring or obstructing members of the opposing group. The door opens in 60…’

Rune frowned. This really didn’t seem like the sort of round that Rune’s group would win. While he could definitely pull his weight, Jamis was small and Rune wasn’t quite sure how much he could haul, while the fat kid was definitely out of shape and wouldn’t be too much help. As Jamis shouted words of encouragement, Rune was looking at the pile, trying to think up a plan.

His eyes passed over what was a bunch of meaningless tech to Rune before his eyes finally lit upon an object he was familiar with—in fact, he’d just been using it.

Rune spoke up. “Guys, distract the enemy team. I think I’ve got a plan.”

Harvey gave shot him a questioning look, but Rune just ignored it. Jamis nodded like he’d been expecting it and said with confidence, “alright man, I’ll trust you.”

Rune gave him a thank you nod before the timer ticked down from one second to none the trio sprinted out into the enclosure. Jamis immediately began screaming every obscenity in the book at the other trio of trainees and was soon joined by a slightly less confident Harvey. The enemy group did their best to ignore them, also in turn ignoring Rune. Whereas all the other trainees stopped at the edge of the pile of resources, Rune ran into it. He weaved around something that looked like a massive microwave oven, a pile of bars of some strange type of metal, and then a small machine which seemed to be a drone of some type before he finally arrived at the object he’d spotted from the glass window.

After shooting a glance over his shoulder to make sure the enemy team wasn’t right on his heels, Rune bent over before picking up and switching off the safety on the EMR-27. Spinning, he took careful aim at the three enemy trainees who were walking away with their loot. He shot the read headed guy first, followed by the black-haired Asian-looking guy who was standing just to his left. The final guy, who was stocky, brown-haired, but obviously fit and muscular, saw his two partners explode into red shards and tried to run back to the pile of resources to take cover. Rune didn’t give him the chance, firing three shots, missing the first, nailing him in the hip with the second, and killing him with the third.

Harvey looked at him, his mouth wide open. “Earthsoul! I can’t believe you did that! Won’t we lose all our points for that?” As if the system itself had heard them, a message popped up in front of them. ‘Challenge Complete! All resources claimed by Blue Team. 9 points deducted for injuring enemy team. Current Score: Red Team: 0 Blue Team: 6’

Jamis let out a whoop. “Damn! Six points in the lead. Nah, that was way better than trying to take the resources one at a time. By the end, they’d probably have been ahead and gotten a point or two on us. Now we’re six points up, easy.” He ran over the Rune, a smile on his face, his hand raised for a high-five. Rune gave it to him. “Good thinking, man.”

Rune just shrugged. “They said it was a strategy test, not an endurance test. There had to be some way to game the system, just had to figure out what it was. It’ll probably be the case for all the challenges in this simulation.”

Jamis and Harvey both nodded, serious looks on their faces. Harvey spoke first. “Yeah, you prolly right. Gotta outthink dem, not beat dem down with our fists.” Harvey frowned. “This is supposed to be my shtick. I’ll be smarter next time. My b.”

Rune just waved him off. “No, it’s all good. We’re in this together. If you have a good idea, just speak up. I won this one alone, but for some of the future ones I’ll bet teamwork is essential.”

Jamis threw up his hands. “Teamwork and fighting I’m all down for, but I’ve never been great at planning things out. More of a do now, think later sort of guy. Guess I got lucky with my group. I’ll just leave this to you two.”

Rune smiled at him and nodded, about to say that was okay when all of a sudden the world faded out again and Rune found himself in a bunker alongside Jamis and Harvey. In front of the trio was a rack with a set of three EMR-27s in it. After a couple seconds of standing around and glancing back and forth in confusion, a message popped up in front of them ‘The objective of this match is to eliminate the enemy team. Each target eliminated will give the team an additional five points. Each team will have a map, two radios, one radar that will activate after ten minutes, and three EMR-27s. The door opens in 180…’

Jamis frowned, and looked around the bunker. “I’m guessing it would be a bad idea to hole up in here. They could just pin us down and keep shooting until we all went down.”

Meanwhile, Rune ignored him and went up to look outside the sliding glass doors into the forest that was just outside of the bunker. He frowned. It pretty much just looked like a regular forest.

Glancing to his left, Rune spotted Harvey looking out into the forest with wide eyes and a face full of wonder. “Wow,” Harvey breathed, “It’s gorgeous.”

Rune frowned. “They still have VR pods, right? Haven’t you seen a forest?”

Jamis shrugged. “Yeah they do, but not everybody uses them. I played a ton of games so I’ve seen this plenty of times but,” he shrugged and pointed helplessly at Harvey, “again, not everybody.”

Rune nodded before turning back to look at Harvey and giving him a questioning look. “You never played a fantasy game or anything before?”

Harvey shook his head. “Never even seen the inside of a pod before. First time. Never seen a forest. Too much work in my dad’s shop, and ‘sides, he was always tellin’ me that this sorta stuff rots your brain. Spend too long in the pod, and soon enough that’s the only place you’ll ever wanna be. You know what I mean?”

Silence reigned for a few seconds. It seemed that despite a change of four hundred years, some things still stayed the same. Rune sighed. “Yeah, some people just disappear into the arcades. I know what you mean. My younger brother...” He cleared throat and stopped talking.

The conversation lapsed into uncomfortable silence before Rune looked down at the window in front of him and realized that the trio only had 120 more seconds to plan out their strategy before the match started.

He spoke with a hint of command in his voice, “Guys, let’s talk about our lives later, let’s get the guns now and come up with a strategy.”

Harvey and Jamis both nodded, and the three walked over to the gun rack so that each one of them could grab one of the EMR-27s. Rune glanced down at the ammo gauge, noting that it had forty shots. More than enough for the job.

He glanced over to see Jamis looking at the map. “Yo guys, it says here that we’re inside a kind of arena thingy enclosed by a square wall. One section of the map is cut off by what’s marked as a ‘rocky shallow river’.” He looked up at his two compatriots. “Maybe we could just hole up in the corner, wait ten minutes for the sensors to come on, and then gun them down when they try to cross.”

Rune was shrugging, thinking that it wasn’t a bad plan at all, when Harvey spoke up. “Nah, it’s not a bad plan, but I think you were closer with your first plan.”

Jamis frowned. “What do you mean?”

Harvey pointed down at the ground. “We should stay here, in the bunker. Or, at least, two of us should.” He pointed to the radio. “One of us takes that and leaves for just outside. They gonna expect us to stay in here and hide, and it’s gonna be the first place they think to check. Besides, no offense meant, there’s a problem with your plan. If they sees us holed up in the corner and waitin’ for them, they just gonna cross the river somewhere else.”

Rune was nodding along as Harvey finished. “I like it.” He turned to look at Jamis. “Now, it’s not like your plan isn’t pretty good, but I’m pretty sure Harvey’s is better. They’re going to be pissed off after the last match, and they won’t think that we have any strategy going. They’ll probably just rush the bunker, and having one dude out there in the forest hiding who can snipe them down when they do will ensure we win.”

Jamis shrugged. “Yeah, it’s probably the better idea. Alright, so who is gonna go outside and snipe em’ down when they come?”

Harvey’s eyes shifted to stare at Rune. “Rune’s prolly the best shot out of us.” He glanced between Rune and Jamis. “Not sure though, haven’t seen you shoot yet.”

Jamis frowned. “I dunno. I thought I did pretty good on the marksmanship test, but we won’t know scores until the end of the day.” He sighed, waving at Rune. “You might as well do it. You seemed to be a pretty good shot.”

Rune nodded. “Alright then.” He glanced down at the screen again, noting that they had just over fifteen seconds left before the doors opened. “How about we all go out together after the doors open, find a good place for me to camp, and then you two come back here.”

Harvey and Jamis both nodded, the first with a, “sounds good,” and the second with a “Yup, let’s do it.”

A few more seconds and the doors slid open. The trio jogged out into the clearing before moving into the woods. It didn’t take long before Jamis’ voice rang through the air. “Hey guys, I found a bush that I think would work super well.”

Rune and Harvey ran towards where they heard his voice coming from before they finally spotted him standing next to a dense pine bush with his hands on his hips. Jamis pointed at it and said, “you could hide in this super easily. What’s more, you can see most of the rest of the clearing if you pop your head out.”

Rune nodded. “Alright, guess this is it.” Climbing up into the bush, Rune climbed halfway through the bush before squatting down and sinking into the foliage.

Harvey’s voice came from outside. “Yeah man, you’re practically invisible. No-one’s gonna find you unless they’re looking super hard. We’re just gonna head back to the bunker when they come you’ll hear us yellin’ and shootin’.” Harvey paused for a brief second. “Give it a couple before you pop out.”

Rune nodded, moving a frond that was pricking him in the out of the way before saying in an annoyed tone of voice, “yeah, sure, I got it.”

Rune made out an, “alright,” before he heard the sound of shoes crunching against dirt and leaves moving away from him. Sighing, he settled down for a long wait. He waited. And waited. For nearly four minutes he sat there until he heard a loud voice ring through the air.

“Hey, you cheaters in there?” The angry voice rang loudly through the air. Rune poked his head through the top of the bush, glancing around but not spotting anyone before ducking down and back into cover.

It only took a second before Jamis’ voice rang loudly out from the direction of the bunker. “Who’s cheatin’, your mom?”

The first voice, this time more aggravated, rang out again. “You little shit! We should’ve crushed you in that first challenge. When I get my hands on you, I’m gonna beat the living shit outta you!”

Jamis’ voice, ever cheerful came back after a brief second. “Won’t be able to beat the shit out of me after a blast your hands off.”

The first voice came again, this time explosively angry. “That’s it, you’re fucking done.” A few seconds of silence passed before Rune heard the distinction fizzle-pop-CRACK of an EMR-27 being discharged. It was followed by another, then another, and continued for nearly a minute before firing died off.

Jamis’ voice came again. “Please tell me you’re not trying to sign on for Combat because that’s some of the shittiest marksmanship I’ve ever seen.”

A different voice from the one that had first spoken rang out annoyedly. “Oh fuck you. You didn’t get any of us, either. How about you come out from that dinky little hole of yours and fight us like real men.”

Jamis’ voice came with a retort quickly. “We wouldn't be real men for long if we came out and let you blast our dicks off.”

The first voice came again, this time slightly smug. “Wouldn’t be anything to blast off, no need to worry at all.”

Jamis’ voice came quickly. “Same to you, Sluice Slut. Come in here and get us, and we'll fill you up with all the plasma you could want.”

A third voice spoke up. “Hey fuck you. We’re gonna blast the shit outta you dumbasses. Just you watch.”

The clearing lapsed into silence for a good half minute before Rune suddenly heard a smattering of EMR-27 shot and then Harvey shouting, “hey screw you! Don’t think I can’t see you tryin’ to creep up on us from the sides.”

A couple more shots rang through the clearing, and Rune poked his head out of the bush to spot what the enemies were doing. Two of them, neither the red-haired kid, were on each side of the bunker, creeping along the wall towards the entrance of the bunker. Meanwhile, the red-haired kid sat somewhere behind a copse of trees and fired shots through the opening of the bunker, keeping Jamis and Harvey pinned while his two teammates got into position. If Rune had been in the bunker they might’ve been screwed, but outside this was the perfect opportunity to take them down.

A savage smile on his face, Rune hopped out of the bush with as much stealth as he could manage before creeping towards where he could see the EMR-27 rounds coming from. Sure enough, he found the red-haired kid squatted behind a tree leveling shots at the entrance of the bunker whenever he saw movement. Rune blasted him with a single shot, before blasting one of the guys on the wall, exploding him into a cascade of red shards. The final guy turned to give Rune a surprised look before Rune blew him to pieces as well.

Rune cleared his throat before shouting, “I got them, guys.”

Jamis peeked out from the bunker before he spotted Rune and let a smile creep across his face. “Hell yes! We fucking owned them!”

Rune allowed a smile to work its way onto his face, and he let out a chuckle. “You should’ve seen the expression on the last guy’s face, they weren’t expecting it in the slightest. We fucking destroyed them. It was an awesome plan, Harvey.”

Harvey rubbed the back of his head, his face going red. “Aw, man. It wasn’t anythin’, just some basic strategizing.” He gestured at Rune. “You coulda done it, I’m sure.”

Rune shook his head. “It was all on you man. That was some really great thinking.”

Harvey flushed even redder, and seemed about to make a response when all of a sudden the world faded out again, and Rune found himself in a new environment. This time it was a futuristic cityscape, with skyscrapers made of a gleaming dark metal.

This time, both groups were given a set of fifteen combat drones to control. Each member had three aerial, low firepower scouting drones and two ground based drones with heavy weaponry. There was a lot to plan and only four minutes to prepare, so the trio’s plan this time around was a lot more slapdash and less thoroughly thought out. They barely managed to eek out a victory, Rune managing to catch the enemies with a flank from one of his heavy artillery drones. And then that challenge ended.

Over the course of the next couple hours, they faced the enemy trio in a variety of strategy challenges. Some of the strategy challenges were more like puzzles and games, others featured combat and and more physical confrontation. Insults, blows, and gunfire were exchanged in generous helpings. Rune, Harvey, and Jamis all got taken down at least once or twice, and even lost a match or two to their enemies. At the end of it all, though, the trio had 122 points to the enemy’s 97.

As Rune rose up out of his pod, he came face to face with a grinning Jamis. “Hell yeah man, we beat those fucking assholes!”

Jamis held his hand out for a high-five, and, letting a smile creep onto his face, Rune followed through. Jamis lent him a hand to help him out of his pod, and Rune slid out of the goopy confines of the dive capsule. Glancing across the room, he spotted Harvey struggling to get out of his pod. Jamis followed his gaze and spotted Harvey in his predicament, quickly walking over to give him a hand and congratulations as well. Soon enough the trio was ready to go, and they opened the door to the pod room to find a very angry red hair kid waiting outside the sim room for them.

The kid jabbed a finger into Rune’s chest. “Now don’t you go thinking that because you beat us once that you fuckers are better. You fucking cheated, and that’s the only way you won.”

Rune looked over the kid’s shoulder, to spot the asian kid looking abashedly away and the brown haired kid looking apprehensive. Those weren’t the looks of kids who wanted to throw down. Rune opened his mouth, about to respond with his own bit of flame, when Jamis’ voice came from behind him. “Yeah, you just keep telling yourself that if makes you feel better.”

Rune rolled his eyes. “We’re covered in gunk from the pods,” he said in a mollifying tone of voice, “and I can see that you guys are too. How about we all go get a shower, maybe you’ll cool down and stop being such a raging asshole.”

A dark look came over the red haired kid’s face, and his fist curled into a tight ball. Rune was readying himself to dodge when a sharp voice came from the side of the two groups. It was the drill Sergeant. “Hey, what did I just tell you trainees? Get a goddamn shower and report to briefing room 115 for the written examination within fifteen minutes. What the hell are you lollygagging around here for?”

The red headed kid shot an annoyed look at the drill Sergeant, but then let out a long sigh before taking a step back and letting the tension out of his shoulders. “Yes sir, sorry sir, we just got a little distracted discussing the matches with our opponents.”

Silence hung in the air for a couple seconds before the drill Sergeant spoke again, this time shouting, “well, what did I just ask you? What are you waiting around here for?”

The red headed kid shot one last angry look at Rune before turning around and walking off down the hallway, his entourage following close behind him. The asian kid gave the trio an apologetic shrug as if to say sorry. Rune and his friends just stood there for a second before following the trio past the drill Sergeant towards the shower room.

As he walked, Rune frowned and thought back hard on what he’d done through the day, eventually giving up as he drew a total blank. He wasn’t really sure how, but it seemed that today he’d made an enemy.