“Is he dead?” Ember whispered fearfully. SOFI responded softly from the speaker of her phone.

“He’s been disabled. It’s almost impossible to kill an Enduser without a coup de grâce from a Cellblade. That’s the thing you’re hold—”

“I know! I heard you say it earlier and it’s also really obvious from context.” Ember whispered heatedly. In the distance she saw May leap from her two-story perch and land in the lawn with only a slight bend of her knees, like she’d hopped off the bottom rung of a stepladder. Her impact sent up a swirl of grass and water. Ember apprehensively gripped down on the hilt of her sword as she beheld the apparent superhumanity of their attacker. When the girl was close enough to be illuminated by the streetlights she appeared to be Asian, about Ember’s age or younger, and dressed in a graphic t-shirt with cutoff jeans and a pair of grey argyle stockings.

“Wait for my signal.” SOFI said as May drew ever closer to her prey, worrying Ember more and more with every step. She didn’t understand what she was waiting for, not when May was just a few feet away from July. The thought occurred to her that SOFI had planned to make a sacrifice of July to somehow better Ember’s own chances. Was that what the sprite meant by success being not what she dreamed? May held her bow out and made a gesture on the flat of the riser next to the sight window, causing it to collapse and fold up into her phone, which had been evidently integrated into the bow. Just as May initiated the transformation SOFI yelled: “Go!”

Ember burst out of her concealment like she would leap off a starting block and bore down on May, who lost a precious second to surprise at her reemergence. It wasn’t quite enough. The girl made the strokes on her black Machina phone to summon her own blade, a tangled branch-hilted dark rapier which glowed pink along its deadly edge. SOFI must have known there wasn’t enough time. In a moment of desperation Ember lifted her sword above her shoulder and held it parallel to the ground by the hilt, tossing it like a poorly designed spear. She figured even if it didn’t go in point first, some part of it would hit May and possibly interrupt her action. A second was all that was needed.

“Don’t!” SOFI yelled in warning—too late, as it was out of her hands by then. It surprised her how well the toss went off, since she’d never held a sword in her life, much less thrown one. The point sailed true, hitting May over her right lung and continuing forward until there was only about a foot of blade left to go. She recoiled and was driven back a half-step by its momentum. Ember watched her stagger around, hunched over and stunned by the attack, and even amid the torrent of adrenaline she was horrified that she might have actually killed someone. May yanked her own phone out of her pocket and made some quick motions on the screen with her thumb. Ember thought: was she texting? A moment later a green aura enveloped the girl, with lighter green motes flying off like fireflies. Worried that May would use the last of her strength to stab July, Ember grabbed him by his shoulders and dragged him away.

She looked up in time to see May, rather than fall down as she expected, slowly straighten herself up and give Ember a disturbing smile. The predatory expression was accented by a pair of black, long, fang-like bangs which framed her face, each tipped with a subtle turquoise coloration. Ember didn’t know whether someone who had a lung punctured would be able to stand, but she knew no one would smile about it. A stain of red was spreading on the girl’s white shirt from where the sword pinned the cloth to her. The most striking thing about their attacker up close were her unnaturally vibrant rose-pink irises, which must have been colored contact lenses. They matched the glow of her rapier.

May’s smile broadened into a triumphal grin when she took July’s old Nokia phone from the pavement as a prize, though her composure was broken somewhat by her lengthy struggle to cram its 90s bulk into the pocket of her tiny cutoff jeans. Afterwards she hooked the toe of her dark gray tennis shoe underneath the crossguard of July’s white longsword and flung it into the curb inlet of a storm drain. Ember winced as she heard it clatter down there, having forgotten to retrieve it when she dragged him away. Now neither of them was armed.

“What are you?” Ember said. She was mortified, glued in place by the worthless third brother of the fight, flight, or freeze siblings.

“I am a,” May said, her bright eyes wide with glee, “cocktail olive!”

She pulled Ember’s sword out of her chest with only a flinch and flipped it around so that she was now holding both, and then strode forward and simultaneously stabbed both blades into Ember’s chest. As May withdrew the the bloody pair Ember felt a tremendous yet diffuse pain which seemed to join the two wounds and engulf her entire chest. She fell to her knees and gazed off, numb to her fate, too stunned and enervated to even make an expression of defiance or speak a last word. May put the sole of her shoe on Ember’s chest and kicked her back onto the asphalt. She didn’t even feel the impact. It was a quiet, mild night, the stars were out, and her wounds didn’t hurt as badly as she expected. It wasn’t the worst way to go, and if she closed her eyes she felt like she would just peacefully slip away. With the little resolve she had left, she kept them open. May leaned over her and shook her head with a air of pity, then effortlessly yanked Ember’s phone from her paralyzed hands to take it as an additional prize. She sheathed Ember’s sword into it and jammed it into her other pocket for safekeeping.

May took two fingers off the hilt of her rapier to flash a v-for-victory towards what might have been a camera or spectator off to the side. When she turned back to deliver the coup de grâce, a white short sword held by someone just out of Ember’s field of vision lunged into May’s heart. The girl looked down in shock and let out a cry whose piercing shrillness Ember was mostly spared by her detachment from events. Her first thought was that it was a third party, then May staggered out of range and she saw that her savior was July. He immediately went for another swipe, but it was overextended and May drunkenly parried it.

July overtook Ember and interposed himself between her and May. Though it wasn’t really time for such concerns, she wondered where he’d gotten another sword. July’s phone was still sticking halfway out of May’s pocket, and she saw his blade fly off into the storm drain. Ember was feeling less tired and pulled herself to her feet shakily, willing her heavy limbs to right her. It crossed her mind that if May felt anything like she did, that girl was in no condition to put up a real fight. May tossed Ember’s orange Eos to the ground, grinding the tip of her black-and-pink rapier against the screen. As she leaned on it for support, no strength left in her, she pointed a trembling finger at July in warning. He stopped cold.

“Careful! Your girlfriend is dead without her Cell.” May said, displaying the unhinged expression of a desperate criminal who had chanced upon the perfect hostage.

“I just got here! I don’t know the rules.” Ember exclaimed indignantly. She was still clutching her chest, worried that important parts would spill out of it otherwise.

“Cry about it.” May said. Plenty of vinegar still in her.

The fog in Ember’s mind was starting to clear. She wasn’t in the mood to do cartwheels, but she could at least think again. Even though she was afraid she would die from her wounds, which would have been a definite kill in any film, she didn’t quite feel like she was hurt all that badly.

“May, return our stuff and I’ll let ya go. I got about five seconds worth of patience.” July said. May grimaced as she considered the bargain.

“It could have worked!” May said, mostly to Ember. She reluctantly tossed July’s black Nokia to him and then backed away from Ember’s Eos, careful to keep her nervous eyes alternating between them both until she stumbled backwards over the curb and fell into a nearby mailbox. After collecting herself she turned around and loped away, red with embarrassment.

#

Ember went over to where her phone lay on the ground. SOFI popped out of it and knelt on the glass to dolefully examine the indentation May’s Cellblade had left in the screen. She tested its depth with her small finger, looking like a child who had just seen her favorite toy smashed beneath a tire.

“My shiny new screen. Only a Cellblade can harm a Cell. What are the odds.” SOFI said. When Ember picked up the phone SOFI dove back into the screen. As SOFI said, there was now a small divot in the middle from where May rested the tip of her sword and threatened to end Ember’s participation. It was nice to know the all important Cell couldn’t be damaged by dropping it or getting it wet. Newly two dimensional SOFI moved a couple of the application icons to the center and sat on them with her hands on her cheeks, pouty and morose. She occasionally casted an annoyed glance back through the screen towards Ember.

“SOFI, what the hell just happened? Why did that girl attack us?” Ember said.

“I’m not talking to you.” SOFI said, and turned her head away. Ember rubbed her head. She could make assumptions and come up with a decent picture of what was going on, but given that her life was evidently in play she thought it might be best to get back on the fairy’s good side.

“Do you live in my phone?” Ember asked. SOFI hesitated and then nodded, deciding that wasn’t a violation of the silent treatment. Ember sighed and relented. “Then, I guess I owe you an apology, for giving you up so easily.”

Ember held it level near her chest, to give the fairy something to stand on. SOFI hopped out and settled on it, her hands on her hips.

“Was that so hard? You should take my feelings into consideration. When it comes down to it, I’m the only one you can completely trust. Keep an eye out in case someone else decides to rush.” she said, and folded her arms. Ember nodded with contrition. Around her she could see people coming out of their homes to gawk, and the shadows of others who were peeking out of windows. Distant sirens were growing louder and louder with approach.

Ember stepped out of the road and onto a weatherbeaten and cracked concrete sidewalk. July had been leaning over the storm drain, grumbling and snaking his arm down thus far in vain. She was confident enough in his ability to solve the simple problem that she ignored him in favor of more pressing issues.

“Rush?” Ember said.

“All Endusers can purchase abilities using Coins. A typical progression would be to save up and focus on permanent abilities that provide a long term benefit.” SOFI said. Ember nodded. She didn’t play many mobile games, but when she did she preferred to buy permanent advantages rather than the temporary ones. They seemed like a waste of money. SOFI continued: “A rush tactic would be to go for expensive expendable abilities like, for example, exploding tornado arrows. My impression is that girl plays a lot of games and when she got here she did what was familiar: try to win. Rushing is a good tactic if that’s your mindset. Since you get Coins for defeating an Enduser the payoff of rushing only happens if you succeed. If you rush and get turned back, you’re worse off.”

Ember frowned. That girl did attack her and July, and nearly killed them. She had to remind herself of that. Still, she couldn’t help feeling empathetic towards someone who was in the same situation as they were.

“Defeating other Endusers is the only way to advance?” Ember asked.

“There are many ways.” SOFI said, a hint of mischief in her voice. Ember moved on to a more pressing question:

“SOFI,” Ember said, “am I in a battle royale? Can there be only one?”

“Yes and no. The game is fairly dangerous insofar as it offers the other Endusers incentives to kill you, but, technically, no one has to die. Once all the Endusers are here a continuous poll is set in motion which all Users may vote in, including you if you are so civic-minded. People can change their vote at any time. When one of you achieves 60% approval, he will gain access to a special power that allows him to end the game. Then all surviving Endusers will be returned to the real world.”

“What does a person get for becoming popular? Seems like you could just lay low and wait.”

“There are Mandates scattered throughout the world. If your team possesses a Mandate at the end, they can change the world of Noumea in accordance with the powers of that Mandate.”

“No offense, SOFI, but isn’t this just some alternate dimension? I don’t care.”

“It is,” SOFI said, “but that isn’t all it is. Has either of you seen the movie TRON?”

“No.” July said.

“Yes,” Ember said, then added, “I mean… no.”

She had seen TRON, but she had a higher calling than the truth.

“The point is, Noumea is a metaphysical manifestation of the Internet. If you change things here, the real world will change. At least, that part of it will.”

“I still don’t care.” Ember said, “Are there any tangible prizes?”

“Oh! I almost forgot. Of course there are fabulous prizes. On returning to reality the winner will receive the Holy Grail… of utility coupes: a red 1978 Subaru BRAT in excellent condition which may or may not have previously belonged to Ronald Reagan! All surviving Endusers will also receive a $25 gift card to Applebee’s.”

Ember put her face in her hand.

“Don’t worry,” SOFI said, and leaned in, looking like she was going to deliver a valuable piece of life advice, “If you don’t like the gift card you can flip it on Ebay. You’ll get most of the value.”

SOFI folded her arms and closed her eyes, and nodded smugly to herself.

“So. If I win, I can change anything I want about the Internet.”

“There is the potential to change anything. The short version is that your team must control the Mandate pertaining to the rule you wish to change. Can’t you think of something you don’t like about the Internet? I sure can.”

“Ah, I guess, I don’t like… people who post vague messages on social media? Just say the thing.” Ember said. It was the first thing that came to mind.

“Bang! They’re gone. Assuming you control the proper Mandate when you win.” SOFI said, forming her finger into a gun. She looked up at Ember expectantly, as if expecting grander things, her palm atop her thumb like she was going to fan the hammer in a western.

“And,” Ember said, ever more invested, “Those articles where it’s just a single paragraph on a page. Unexpectedly audible advertisements are a bane. It’s a waste of time to tell a website your age, since kids just lie anyway. The YouTube commentariat should be catapulted into the Sun.”

“Bang bang bang… bang! History.” SOFI said, blowing off the tip of her finger gun and replacing it in the imaginary holster at her hip. Though, Ember counted, and there was still one more shot. Worth holding onto.

“But none of that is worth my life. It definitely isn’t.”

SOFI shrugged.

“I’m not surprised you don’t think so, because you and July are neutral Yellows. You don’t have to fight. I’ll warn you, though: your support may make you a target. If you control any Mandates, you can forget about laying low.” SOFI said.

“Can’t I tell my supporters to support someone else?” Ember said. Politicians did that all the time when they lost a primary, or in other countries where the electoral system supported more than two parties.

“You can throw some of your support to others, especially if they’re on your team, but you’ll always have a degree of popularity. You can’t even get rid of it by being a jerk, because there is a demographic which likes jerks! May lost some supporters who thought she was cute and harmless like a kitten, but gained others who liked that she was cute and ruthless like a wild cat. Now she lost supporters who wanted to back a winner and gained supporters who want to back the underdog! If you lie in a room motionless you’ll probably get support from people who think you’re making a statement about the futility of human action. Some people will vote for you because you’re cute, or they like autumn, redheads, white people, and so on. So no matter what you are, or who you throw your support to, you’re always worth about 2 percent.” SOFI said.

Though she’d been popular in middle school, she’d never stood out at her high school, socially, so the prospect of a popularity contest was not encouraging. On the swim team her accomplishments were decidedly modest. No one would have picked her out as a champion of any color, and in fact her strategy for popularity had mostly been to keep a low profile and wait it out. Not too popular, not too unpopular. She’d graduated the previous spring, and was on the eve of her first semester at Dartmouth. That, she told herself, was when her life would really start.

SOFI alighted on one of the application icons on the screen and it receded away from the screen. Ember could see this subtle three-dimensional effect, and though there were devices with three dimensional screens her Eos wasn’t natively one of them. She’d also seen those screens and they were always lacking in some way, while this effect was perfectly real. Even if her finger couldn’t pass through the glass plane, there was a little world in there of which she could only see the surface.

“So waiting for it all to blow over might not be an option?” Ember said, and ran her hand through her hair.

“Right! It’s improbable for someone to get a super-majority when eleven other Endusers are alive. It’s a zero-sum game.” SOFI said.

“What else besides a Cellblade can kill an Enduser?”

“Mandate guardians. Falling into a bottomless void will also kill you. That’s called a ‘ring out!’”

“Oh.” Ember said. She was sorry she asked.

“Also. It isn’t only Endusers who can use Cellblades. Superusers can, but at this stage they will not attack you.”

“Shoot,” July said from over her shoulder, giving her a start. She hadn’t realized it, but he had been leaning over her and listening to SOFI’s explanation. He must’ve retrieved his sword from the inlet at some point.

“Hmm?” Ember said.

“Your Agent. She’s helpful and smart as a whip.” July said. SOFI demurred like a proper lady.

“Oh stop.” she said. Ember pointed at SOFI and looked at July curiously.

“Yours isn’t like this?” she said. SOFI reached up and moved Ember’s pointing fingertip away with both of her tiny hands. It wasn’t polite to point. Ember was more surprised that SOFI was able to do that, since she had expected her to be an insubstantial holographic ghost.

“Nope.” July pulled out a blocky grey device with a greenish monochrome screen. It wasn’t his phone—but it must’ve been the thing he used to produce the second Cellblade. He explained: “Let me show ya. This is my dad’s old PDA. I found it with the phone in the attic and I was messin’ around with ‘em.”

She saw the words ‘PalmPilot’ written in white block letters along the top of the bezel when he brought the PDA up. In the green glow of the backlight Ember saw his Agent, which looked like a German shepherd dog, laying at the bottom of the screen. There was a bowl-shaped icon nearby that read FIDO, and the digital pet stirred from his rest to look at her, his tail swaying back and forth in preemptive approval. Ember grinned and rubbed her finger on the screen to pet him, but the dog only tilted his head in adorable canid confusion. July nodded sagely and pressed his lips together.

“The screen doesn’t do great with fingers. And in case you were wonderin’, he ain’t no talking dog.” July said.

“Do you normally get the news from television?”

“Yep. Or the paper.” he said. Ember had a hard time believing such a person existed who was, by appearances, in his early 20s.

He pulled a little plastic stylus out of the side of the device and used it to pet FIDO. The dog onscreen wagged his bushy tail.

“Awww…” Ember said, clasping her hands together with delight.

“Yeah, ‘aww.’ Wanna trade?” July said. Ember squinted her eyes and smiled amiably, and shook her head: no.

“All Agents have unique abilities to complement their Endusers.” SOFI said, and looked up at Ember.

“Your name means wisdom.”

“I am the wisest!” SOFI bared her teeth in a brilliant and endearingly genuine smile. Though it didn’t much help her case, seeing as Ember associated wisdom with beards and stoicism, not bubbly little fairies with blonde ringlets.

“Does that mean I’m dumb?” Ember said.

“Not at all. It’s not necessarily weaknesses that are complemented.”

“How do you mean?” Ember asked. While she was no habitual angler when it came to fishing for compliments, she really could’ve done for a confidence boost just then.

“Let’s just say you’re the Enduser who is best equipped to use me. Our fates are one, so you know I’m not messing around.” SOFI said.

“I guess you’re being forced into this, then, like I am.” Ember said.

“You agreed to this when you approved the Enduser License Agreement.” SOFI said. Ember grimaced and remembered all the hundreds of times she’d signed one of those obtuse contracts without reading a word. It was possible that one of them outlined every detail of her situation somewhere amid an impenetrable foam of legalese. SOFI continued: “Secondly, I didn’t have to either. I chose to enter because this is important to me.”

“Why is that?” Ember asked. SOFI looked at her a moment.

“I am your servant.” SOFI said. “If I told you what I believed before you were ready for it, I would become your master. I neither chose that for myself, nor wish that for you. A good servant does not govern from below.”

Ember nodded hesitantly in acknowledgment of SOFI’s wishes. July brought his phone over and held it slightly above hers. FIDO jumped out of the top of the device in pixelated red-and-black monochrome and trotted over to SOFI with his tail happily in the air. Ember’s fairy knelt down and rubbed the dog behind his alert ears, and looked into his eyes with an amused expression.

“What a good boy. I bet you have some neat tricks, don’t you?” SOFI said, and FIDO barked happily. As SOFI plied him with attention his bushy tail wagged with furious intensity. July and Ember together leaned over the diorama scene, then quickly drew back in embarrassment when they saw how close they were to each other. FIDO ran and jumped back into July’s PDA as he took it away. He cleared his throat and went for an abrupt change of topic:

“How did May do those things?” he asked SOFI, who folded her arms and looked smug.

“Well?” SOFI said, looking to Ember for the response.

“She bought them.” Ember said.

SOFI nodded and dove into the glass screen. This time she vanished from the home screen completely instead of hanging out as a two-dimensional element, as Ember had seen before. Ember flicked away from the central home screen onto one of the side ones and saw two applications she didn’t recognize: Gestures, and Cellblade.

Out of curiosity she went for the Cellblade app first, just to see what was in it. Most of the screen real estate of the application was dominated by an image of her sword. A question mark button pulled up the way to draw the Gesture, in case you’d forgotten. When she tapped on her ‘Scottish Broadsword’ she saw she could rename it, but she wasn’t quite ready to do that. Another thing she wasn’t ready for was ‘Natter Integration’, which evidently displayed messages related to your tag on the flat of the blade. That sounded incredibly distracting and annoying. The last thing in the Cellblade app was an in-app store icon, which as of then contained only the ‘Bait’ ability. The description claimed your Agent would print an insulting message on the blade at an opportune moment to unsettle your opponent. She had her doubts, also, about the usefulness of that.

After that she opened the Gestures app, and saw a list of abilities and their descriptions. At 15 Coins a Cellbow was expensive, but she was familiar with archery, and given her recent experience on the other end of one she thought it would be a wise first purchase. She clicked on it but nothing happened. It couldn’t be for lack of funds, because the interface showed her as having 50 Coins. All of the entries were grayed out. Did she have to fulfill some other requirement?

“I can’t buy them.” Ember said, showing the grayed-out entries to July as well. SOFI let out a tinny hum through her speaker. July snapped his fingers as if he knew.

“Bet you anything it’s a store you’ve gotta go to.” he said.

While they had been talking a small crowd of older people had drifted together and were quietly conferring with each other, glancing fretfully over to Ember and July. Two Crown Victoria police cruisers mounted the curb and threw an intermittent strobe of red and blue over the neighborhood. On the door of the Crown Vic was written: Forum Heights Administration. Ember remained in place and waited to be questioned by the authorities, as she’d been taught. The policemen ignored her except for a furtive glance or two. Two of them examined the house, which was now properly afire, and the other two went straight to the assembled citizens and invited them to return to their homes. She and July stood silently by as if they were waiting near the steps of a gallows. Ember tensed as one of the men finally started walking towards them. He was weathered, thinning blonde hair, a little on the heavy side.

“As far as you two,” he said, and Ember sank with dread, “I’d get out of here if I were you. Subway is thataway.”

“Yes, sir.” she said with a quick nod, feeling a weight come off her. July was stood off to the side, keeping a lookout while Ember handled the police. To think his alert behavior struck her as paranoid just a few minutes ago.