Multiplayer by John C. Brewer Page B

real.
    “I will, since I took most of those blasts saving your unarmored butt. What’s that Lorica armor made of, plastic?”
    “Why’d you have to slap a limpet mine on Gore’s back?” Izaak suddenly broke into laughter. “Guess that merc of yours is good for something after all.”
    Hector opened up a new menu. He’d wanted to do this for a long time and now he had a reason. “Making a new clan,” he said, to Darxhan. “Already got it set up. Just needed a name. And no, it doesn’t contain the words fart, dump, or douche.” The name appeared on his screen as he punched in one letter at a time: S – P – A – R – T – A – N – S.
    “That hasn’t been taken?” asked Deion. A moment later ‘DARXHAN’ popped up on the clan roster.
    “Just don’t start calling it the Fartans.”
    “Very funny. What’s our symbol going to be?”
    Hector hadn’t thought of that. “One thing at a time,” he said, and left it blank, glad to be rid of the flaming skull-head.
    “So what happened to Vera?” Deion asked, and Hector finally told him the whole story, including that he was sure he’d find Mal-X in Alanya. Deion listened intently and didn’t interrupt.
    “Mal-X, huh?” said Deion, when he’d finished. “Short for Malcolm-X I guess?”
    Hector admitted he had never heard of Malcolm-X, so Deion told him about the black Muslim leader from the sixties.
    Deion paused a moment. “From what you said, sounds like this Mal-X figured out the suspend-modem cheat.”
    “You mean like from Halo 2?” Neither Hector nor Deion had ever been a victim of this cheat but both had heard of it. “I don’t know. I was never out of control. No blue screen.. Just there one second, gone the next.”
    “Could he have been an empath? Using teleport?”
    Hector laughed. Empaths were the biggest disappointment of Omega Wars . “Have you ever seen an empath who can do teleport? Or anything useful? Besides, he was using tech. Empaths can’t use a nexus blade.”
    “Then why doesn’t he just meet you in a multiplayer matchup. Why’s he tell you where he is so you can do it in the MMOG?”
    “Easy. He kills me in multiplayer-mode and I come right back. He kills me in MMOG quest mode and he gets all my stuff and Izaak has to go into a replication tank for a week. Bigger consequences. You know how it works.”
    “There’s not a gate there,” said Darxhan. “We’ll be stuck.” There was a pause. “Who’s this guy? Colonel West?”
    Hector heard a quick intake of breath and looked over to see Darxhan standing in front of his dad’s vanguard. “Deion Get away from there!”
    “Your dad’s old character is still ali – “
    “Yes, he’s still alive – active.” Hector liked Deion, but the kid could be so nosey at times.
    Darxhan stood there for a moment in silence. “I guess that makes sense. You still have pictures of your dad, right? Just never thought about it like this.” This is the last thing Hector wanted to talk about. “Does your mom know he’s still here?” Deion asked.
    No. And neither did the shrink. Hector had no doubt they’d make him get rid of the vanguard and Hector couldn’t bear to simply… delete him. Like terrorists had done. “She doesn’t watch me play very often.” Hector knew it wasn’t really an answer and changed the subject, but remained uncomfortable for some time.
    They accessed the mapping feature of Omega Wars and zoomed in on Alanya Peninsula, thrusting two miles into the Mediterranean from the coast of Turkey. Sheer cliffs fell hundreds of feet on the west side, ending in a jagged spine of steep rock that stretched into the sea; the Dragon’s Tail. Hector remembered from his vacation that the cliffs on this side of the peninsula were studded with the yawning black mouths of caves. A half mile away, the east side of the stubby finger of land sloped down to a narrow beach and harbor, where the quaint, seaside town of Alanya spread out for miles in either direction.