For The Win (Gamer Girls, #6) - Auryn Hadley Page 0,166

another. This time, it was for a picture. Dez said she needed a good headshot to put up for Rhaven's listing as a lead developer for Deviant Games. It took a few tries, and Dez let Rhaven decide when the image was good enough, and then she had to review the write up.

Just like with everyone else, Rhaven told her about Cyn saying he could get her legal identity changed. Dez was thrilled. Enough so that she actually grabbed Rhaven's arm - which made both of them pause. Then, the woman reached for her back pocket, pulled out a sucker, and offered it over.

"Seems I feel safe around you," she said. "Welcome to the Flawed Team."

Two hours later, Amy and Mark worked together to hit every social media platform in existence when they announced their new employee. The official statement included her win in the Denver PLG tournament, her reputation as a modder, and made her sound really impressive. It didn't even take ten minutes before every game forum that Deviant ran was overwhelmed with hate.

"I want a filter added!" Dez screamed. "Fag, tranny, and she-male will create an automatic twenty-four hour ban. Sam? Put a five minute delay on comment posting, and two minutes for replies. We're slowing this shit down, people. The lag will piss them off, but they'll assume they're overloading us. Braden? I need you to check the network. Someone get us ready to be DDoSed. If we block them on the forums, they'll try to overload our network next. The last time they came at us this hard was for Silk. They lost then, and they're going to lose now. Let's move, people!"

Like everyone else, Rhaven moved. She had her own desk now - right beside Braden's - and a rather impressive computer to work at. Dropping into her chair, she called out, "I'll mod the forums. Safer that way."

"I'm double checking our protections," Jeff called out.

"Do we need to call Jason?" Flynn asked.

"He knows," Braden said. "Right now, he's working on getting Rhaven's shit offline." Then he paused. "Shit! I need to tell Knock."

"What?" Andy asked. "Why?"

Dez just chuckled. "Because that boy is going to be a better hacker than me, and he doesn't have to worry about legal liability. Do it, Brae. Tell him we're feeling a little alone and need to ruin someone."

"On it," Braden promised.

And then it was just a click fest. Rhaven deleted and banned with impunity until long after the sun went down. Then she did it some more. Sometime after ten, people started yawning and stomachs were growling. Chance stepped in to divide up teams. Those who needed a break were sent home to get a little sleep, and he ordered pizza for the ones who had to stay. Rhaven said she was good for a while longer, so she stayed, working until almost five in the morning. Braden kept bringing her coffee to help her keep going, and the chatter between the other devs got softer and less frequent, but none of them would stop.

And it was all for her.

This was Rhaven's first real example of what they'd tried to tell her. It was simultaneously mortifying and awe inspiring. All of these people were doing this simply because she was part of the whole, and all they expected back was for her to step up when it was their turn. There was no word for the feeling that created, but she finally understood why they called it a lifestyle. This really was about all for one and one for all. It was about having each other's backs and making sure that somewhere in the world, a truly safe space existed. Not just one for the devs, because they'd do the same for any harassment.

The next day, it was more of the same. Sometime overnight, her phone had updated to the new number, too. She only knew that because she sent Braden a text and he asked who it was. That meant she had to notify her entire contact list. Her father messaged right back, letting her know that he'd tried to call but her number was disconnected and he'd been worried. She assured him that she was fine. Busy fighting back, but fine.

On Monday, it was better. And then, on Tuesday, Rhaven walked into the building to find Amy waiting for her with a handful of papers.

"I may have looked, and this is important enough that both of you are turning right back around and going to