and it appeared to be... recording? No. He was fucking streaming! She looked at Riley, then tilted her head to the phone.
"Don't worry, Destiny," the tall guy assured her. "They can't trace my signal if they don't know where it's coming from or where it's going. And right now, the most loyal members of the Kings of Gaming are all waiting for this."
"Said it couldn't be done," a guy beside him chuckled.
But the tall guy looked right at the screen. "Chaos tried to convince all of you that I don't do my own dirty work. Bullshit. Here's your proof."
"Soul Reaper," Zara breathed.
He looked over at her. "So you're not an idiot."
"Wouldn't go that far," someone else said. "Dumb bitch knows who you are and still showed up. She's not even any good."
"She's better than you," Riley taunted. "She's had entire kill streaks on her own, and she hasn't been playing that long. Only we get to tell her she sucks."
But the tall man snarled. "On her own? You kept picking her back up! I killed her, and you just rezzed her. Not a fair fight. That's what you fucking women do. You whine and meddle until you have all of the advantages, and then you try to call that fair! You pick the men you decide you'll lift up, and you shit on all the rest, but you are the weaker sex! Games were made for men - "
"Boys," Dez corrected.
Soul_Reaper stepped forward, but Riley moved between him and Dez. "Go ahead, big boy," she taunted, "but you should know that I hit back."
He stopped. "Because you might as well be a man. Ethan over there is one."
"Rhaven," Riley warned. "Her fucking name is Rhaven."
Soul_Reaper just pushed right into Riley's face. "You getting a little of his dick on the side or something? Because you're awfully protective of that loser."
"Says the man hiding behind a mask," Riley breathed - and then she reached up and yanked it down, exposing the man's face to everyone in the room.
Soul_Reaper swung, using the grip of the pistol in his hand, and Riley couldn't dodge it. The crack was loud. Her head whipped back, her dreads flying in the air until she was doubled in half. Then Riley just began to laugh. Shoving her hair back, she stood straight again, exposing a gash on her cheek, but it wasn't even deep.
"That all you got, pussy?"
Soul_Reaper snarled, stepping forward to do it again, but Riley was faster. The woman swung, using her entire body to do it, and her fist cracked right into his face. The man staggered back to grab it.
"Don't fucking hit women!" Riley yelled. "You want to be a badass, then fine, let's go, you inbred incel piece of shit!"
Then Soul_Reaper lifted his gun, aiming it right at her. "Sit the fuck down."
"Do it," Zara begged. "Please, Riley?"
Riley sat, and Dez moved to look at her face. "It's not bad."
"Nah, horses have done worse," Riley promised. "I'm fine, Dez. Promise."
So Dez shifted onto her ass, staying beside Riley. Her eyes, however, hung on the man before them. He looked... familiar. The problem was that she couldn't place him. Was it from her assault? Maybe from those years she'd spent stoned?
The guy had to be over six foot two, but he probably didn't weigh more than one-fifty. The bean pole type. His nose was large with a prominent bump on the ridge of it - and not from Riley's fist. His eyebrows were dark, so likely his hair was as well, but while she felt like she'd seen him before, she could not figure out where.
"What do you want?" she asked instead.
"You're going to pay for what you've done to me, but first, I want to know why you ruined my career," Soul_Reaper demanded. "Of all the people there, why did you pick me? Was I not attractive enough for you? Too smart? What is it about me that convinced you that I wasn't good enough to be a part of the team, hm?"
And that was all she needed. "Larry?" Dez asked. "Larry Voltolini? The community manager for FoxFlight?"
"Oh, so you do recognize me," he sneered. "You destroyed my chance to work in gaming."
"No, I recommended that you be reassigned, not fired," she told him. "I was sixteen years old, and they wanted my opinion on how to make their game stop bleeding money. I said they needed to get control of the community first, and you couldn't do it. They didn't respect