“You made it, Care Bear. You look good, brah!”

Will went to shake Carey’s hand, one of those diagonal hand-clasping shakes usually accompanied by a bro hug, but Carey brushed his hand aside and fully embraced his friend. He even kissed Will on the cheek.

“Aren’t you gonna buy me dinner first?” Will asked.

Carey had already moved on to Beatrice. As they embraced, he lost himself in the scent of her light, sweet perfume. The feeling was more of a brother and sister reuniting after being separated by a traumatic war than anything else, and the affection there was mutual. When Carey pulled back, there were tears in both of their eyes.

Bea’s smile was the same as it had been in the simulation, but her hair was cut short around her ears and she was thinner. Will looked virtually the same, though with slightly pockmarked skin and an uneven haircut. The game had altered them all, but only slightly.

There was a third figure—a man much shorter than the others. He sat in a futuristic-looking electric wheelchair. Carey recognized him only after a moment of studying his face and his cocky smile. Though his legs were smaller and slimmer in real life due to the paralysis, the broad shoulders and rectangular jaw were the same.

“Wally!”

They clasped hands and grinned warmly at each other.

“Good to meet you in the flesh, mate. You’re even uglier in real life.”

“And you’re… shorter, for sure.”

“That’s a funny joke, mate. And don’t ever hug my wife like that again, or I’ll cave in your melon.”

“Your…” Carey looked at Bea. “… wife?”

She nodded, blushing, then flashed him the engagement and wedding rings on her right hand.

“Two years,” she said.

“Congratulations, guys. You make a good couple. The Acolyte and the Sargonaut. Can’t let a handsome Feral get in the way of that.”

They all shared a laugh at that, though Carey noticed he felt a bit lightheaded.

“Did you accept the job?” Will asked him.

He nodded. “I sure did. But I’ll be honest, I could use some fresh air right now. Been locked indoors a bit too long, I think.”

“There’s a beach only a five-minute drive away,” Wally said, using his fingertips to manipulate the wheelchair’s controls, spinning the chair toward the exit. “Why don’t the two of you take him? Get him some sunnies and a cossie and I’ll meet you back here for dinner.”

Roger flashed Carey a thumbs-up and followed Wally out.

“Get me some… what?” Carey asked, as Will and Beatrice put their arms around his shoulders and led him out.

“Sunglasses and a bathing suit,” Bea said. “Believe me, I still don’t understand half the shit he says after two years of marriage.”

“Seems like a good guy, though, for a wanker,” Carey said, putting his arms around his friends.

“Takes one to know one,” Bea said, and pecked him on the cheek.

***

The day was sunny and warm, not too hot despite this being San Francisco Bay, a place Carey had always wanted to visit mostly to check out Silicon Valley and all its cool startups.

They sat in a row on the sand, gazing out at the ocean. Beatrice texted something into her phone, the second time since getting into the car that she’d done that. Carey didn’t care to ask who she was talking to. Probably work related. Soon, the three of them would be working together—a party of adventurers once more, like the old days.

“So do you feel caught up?” Will asked him.

Carey nodded. “It’s all so incredible. I mean, the story about your brother’s overdose, Bea’s ex being a psychopath… I would have thought you came up with that for the game.”

Will grabbed a clump of sand and let it drain through his fingers, the salty wind bending the stream.

“You’ll learn something about the employees at ResponsVR, especially the coders and the designers. Roger handpicked each and every one of us. He ain’t just a CTO—he’s a pretty damn good recruiter, too.”

“I noticed,” Carey said with a smirk.

“We’re like a family,” Will continued. “And you’re in the family now, whether you like it or not.”

“It’s an honor,” Carey said. “Trust me. Being an engineer beats cold-calling engineers any day.”

Bea tapped another text and put her phone down.

Okay, getting a little annoying now.

Carey changed the subject. “I miss Min-joon, you know?”

“We do, too,” Will said. “He’s a good kid. You created him, so you’ll always carry him around, you feel me?”

“I know. But it would be cool to see him again. I wonder if…”

“Naw,” Will said. “Roger wouldn’t allow it. He died for a reason, and resurrecting the simulation of Min-joon or Sam could trigger the wrong sorts of things, if you get what I’m saying.”

“I think I do.”

“But, man, we talked about him all of last night. That little guy was so real. You did that,” Will reminded Carey, clamping a hand around his shoulder and gently shaking him.

“He was a little sweetheart,” Bea said. “Remember when he stole your five silver and you wanted to beat the tar out of him?”

“Five silver and a lockpick,” Carey said.

The wind rustled the shortened tips of Bea’s hair. She looked beautiful despite the changes—wiser and more like a mature, intelligent engineer than the sassy, girlish winged healer Carey had met in Astros.

She picked up her phone and read a message. With a mysterious half-smile, she texted something back.

“I have to bite,” Carey said. “Who are you texting at a time like this? Come on, Bea—this is like my Coming Out party. Literally, coming out of that tube.”

Beatrice slipped the phone into the pocket of her shorts. She stood up and stretched her long legs.

“Stand up, Carey.”

“If we’re doing one of those lame ‘friends running into the ocean together’ scenes, like in a sitcom…” Carey stood and wiped sand off his butt.

“Same old Carey,” Will said with a chuckle.

“Take a good look,” Beatrice said. “Seriously, just look at that ocean.”

Carey gazed out at the distant spread of ocean. A seagull screeched overhead. The wind tickled his hair.

“It’s beautif—hey!”

Hands scurried up Carey’s back, feeling like a raccoon trying to climb him.

Someone had snuck up behind him. It had been a set-up.

Carey threw himself forward, like the Feral he’d once been, only he was no longer agile and dropped to the sand with a thump instead of rolling away like an orange-eyed rogue. Strangely, he couldn’t remember any of the skills or combat knowledge he’d learned in Astros. Apparently, it wasn’t the same kind of Matrix-style learning experience he’d been led to believe, though it would have been cool to still be an expert at parkour and archery.

Flipping himself onto his back, he looked up to see a silhouette against the sunlight.

The short, shapely silhouette of a woman.

“Get up, DrollTroll,” she said, extending a hand.

Carey grabbed it and pushed himself up. When he saw the woman’s face, he immediately pulled her into a bear hug.

“Ara.”

“My real name is Aralise,” she said, gently pushing him away so she could gaze into his eyes. “Aralise Gomez, senior artificial intelligence designer. But yes, everyone calls me Ara, even in real life.”

She pecked him on the cheek. Carey hugged her once more.

“I’m so glad you’re real,” he said.

“And I’m so glad I’m not trapped in your forehead crystal.”

She resembled the cartoonish Ara he’d summoned many times from his Araband back in Astros, only a bit chunkier, broader about the shoulders, and she wore a pair of glasses that gave her a nerdy charm. She was beautiful and exotic with her olive skin. Her toothy smile made Carey’s knees go weak.

“Okay,” Carey said, “I’m ready for that lame ‘friends running into the ocean’ moment now. You guys up for it?”

Will stretched his back. “I could go for a dip. Bea?”

“Last one in buys coffee.”

She flung off her shirt, dropped her shorts, and ran toward the water. The others did the same, not caring that they were stripping down to their underwear in public. This section of beach was almost empty anyway. It reminded Carey of their dip in the lake back in Ciranor’s Valley.

Will sprinted after Bea. Ara took Carey’s hand.

“I’ll be your guide to this place,” she said. “Sorta like I was in Astros, only this time, if you call me ‘honeybuns,’ I can actually slap you.”

He tightened his grip on her hand. “I would never. But do me one favor, Ara.”

“Certainly.”

“Don’t ever call me DrollTroll. He’s dead. I killed him.”

“I know you did.” She gave him a proud, heartfelt smile. “I was there.”

He pulled her by the hand as they ran into the ocean, splashing like children in the sunlight, the water warm and soft against Carey’s skin.

He could get used to this.