The door to the workshop was beginning to lower itself. Pepper looked over and saw that Amprage and Rattler were still play fighting in the yard. He shook his head but sighed in relief that the two metal familiars had not damaged one another. “Hey! You two, inside.”

  Amprage barked towards him and Pepper took the gesture as a child throwing a tantrum.

  “We don’t do that Mr. Now get inside before I ground you from watching TV for a few days.”

  His familiar wined and immediately headed for the door. Rattler slithered behind all while Marcus chuckled at the comical scene. Pepper heard the truck start up behind him and he opened the door to let the patiently awaiting familiars inside.

  “Be gentle with the door, last thing I need is to replace it because you two go charging ahead and nock it off the hinges.”

  “Yes dad.” Amprage replied. This time he changed his voice to match that of an old cartoon character.

  Pepper rolled his eyes and then made sure to lock the door behind him. He was about to make his way outside when he realized he should inform Wilson of the errands they planned to run. A quick turn of the corner to the hallway and Pepper was surprised to see Wilson’s bedroom door was cracked halfway.

  He leaned in and knocked, the force cracked the door a little bit more open. There was no surprise to him when he found his roommate sitting behind a holoscreen. He wasn’t sure where the new keyboard had come from but his roommate continued to clack away on it. “Hey Wilson. Marcus and I are going to head to the store and grab some groceries for the week. You want to come along?”

  Once the question was asked Wilson immediately stopped his typing. He sat there for a second and then without warning or word, stood up and walked towards the door. There was something in the way Wilson walked that warned Pepper that he should move out of the way. A quick adjustment and side step backwards and Pepper saw his assumption was accurate. Wilson exited, slammed the door closed behind him, and continued forward all without slowing his stride.

  “Okay then.” Pepper added and followed behind Wilson and finished locking up the residence. He was curious if he needed to call shotgun to save his seat as front passenger, but he was happy to see that Wilson went straight for the back seat.

  “Alright man, you are the navigator, tell me where we are flying this ship to.” Marcus informed him as he entered the vehicle.

  Pepper began to tap away on his holodex and within a minute found a Nordon’s nearby. He grinned. Surprise surprise. He thought. They rolled the windows down and enjoyed the nice breeze and fresh sent of the scattered trees. Music was blaring and he and Marcus started head banging to a few songs on his roommates playlist.

  “I’m really into this. What band is it?” Pepper asked while he pointed towards the stereo.

  “The Matt Dinniman band. Old school garage grunge core.”

  “I’ve never heard of that them or that genre.”

  “Many haven’t but it’s going to be big. Just like us. Haha!” Marcus ended with a chuckle and outstretched his fist towards him.

  Pepper finished the fist bump gesture and chuckled.

  “Yeah they’re going to be doing a concert here in Atlanta. I think it is somehow connected to our regional invitation with the league. We should totally go.”

  Pepper smiled at the idea. He had never been to a concert besides the few local bands that would play at events such as the county fair. But the thought now appealed to him. He was happy to be spreading his wings the way he had been and experiencing a whole other side of life. “Let’s do it.”

  They whipped through the parking lot and made their way inside. Pepper grabbed a shopping cart and started to push the cart behind Marcus. They started at one end of the store and slowly wove their way to the other. Pepper couldn’t help but chuckle as Wilson stayed eerily quiet and behind him the entire time. Pepper couldn’t help but think of Wilson being a terrified child who was afraid that they were going to be left behind.

  Marcus countered the odd roommate by being playful and making jokes at every turn. He even started to take a few posed photos with some of the merchandise and even convinced Pepper to do one or two. The entire time they loaded up the cart with their favorite snacks and drinks. They had come to the other side of the store and Pepper was now shoving the heavy cart towards the registers.

  “My mom told me to say thank you for bringing me along.” Wilson said in a deadpan voice.

  Pepper looked to Marcus and the two of them tired to contain their laughter. Pepper took a breath. “Don’t mention it Wilson. Happy to have you come along.” He turned back and started to unload the cart onto the conveyer belt and felt a warmth of happiness grow within him.

  He looked over and saw Marcus was trying to separate the groceries out into different piles. Pepper then motioned with his hand. “You know what. Throw it all on.” A confused look appeared on Marcus’s face. “I got this. Our first grocery run together, it’s on me.” Marcus tried to protest but Pepper held his hand up firmly. “Serious. I got it.”

  “You are something else Walker.” Marcus said with a playful huff and finished with a pat on his upper shoulder as he passed behind him. Marcus started to bag up the groceries on the other end and Pepper saw Marcus’s attention drift away. He couldn’t deny the girl was attractive and noticed Marcus start to strike up a conversation with the young woman.

  “Pepper would it be okay if I also got this candy bar?” Wilson asked behind him.

  He turned to see Wilson looked straight ahead rather than up at him. “Uh, sure. That’s no problem Wilson. Throw it on up there.” Pepper motioned with his head towards the conveyer belt. What he did not expect was Wilson aggressively flicked the chocolate bar with his wrist so hard that it practically ratchetted off other items. Good lord Wilson, destroy everything in the process why don’t you. He muttered to himself.

  Wilson also stepped behind him and walked over and stood closer to Marcus who was now actively flirting with the woman. She was laughing and giggling and covering her hand over her mouth. Pepper didn’t think much of it but was soon pulled away when he heard the cashier told him the total.

  His eyes dashed back over to the older woman who was patiently awaiting his payment. “I’m sorry, what was that again?”

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  “I said, your total comes to 447 Flex.”

  Pepper’s eyes fluttered rapidly and he slowly swallowed. “You’re telling me that all our groceries… everything we put on the belt is 447 Flex?”

  The woman raised her eyebrows and huffed. “Welcome to adulthood young man.”

  Marcus took a break from his flirtation and called over. “Is everything okay?”

  Pepper immediately responded. “Yup, yup. Everything is fine. I just, didn’t run the numbers all the way in my head. You know, forgot to carry the one and all.” He ended in a nervous chuckle and hoped his favorite roommate didn’t question his lie.

  This is ridiculous! This is how much groceries cost? That is more expensive than my clay to work on Mala. He tapped his holodex against the payment terminal and the beep confirmed it was approved. One thing is for sure, I’m never paying for groceries again!

  Pepper turned and started to head towards the bagged goods and load them up into the cart. Marcus was finishing up his conversation with the young lady, but Pepper still caught out of his side view the two exchanging information. He brushed it off though and didn’t want to butt into Marcus’s personal affairs.

  The ride home was practically identical to the ride there. Music, jokes, and laughter all filling the cab of the truck. They unloaded the groceries and worked on an organization structure for the kitchen. The system was developed of, ‘this doesn’t fit here’ and ‘should the crackers and cookies be with the cereal?’

  Pepper stepped back and took in a deep breath when they were done. This adulting stuff isn’t too bad. He thought. His happiness stayed for only a half minute until he saw the grocery receipt on the counter and remembered how much that bill emotionally hurt him.

  He quickly changed his gaze to try and erase the current thought. “So, what do you guys wanna do now?” Pepper and Marcus both watched as Wilson turned and went back to his room and slammed the loudly closed the door. “Well guess that answers that question.”

  “Movie time?” Marcus questioned.

  “Sounds good.”

  They both crashed on the couches while the first movie was loaded up. Pepper wasn’t sure when exactly he had fallen asleep, but when he had awoken it was much later in the day. He looked around to see Marcus was barely paying attention to the movie and was navigating his holodex.

  “Hey Pepper, you don’t have a problem if I have a few friends over do you?”

  He rubbed his face to awaken him. He didn’t necessarily like the idea, but he didn’t want to be rude to his roommate. The more he thought about it, this was partially Marcus’s living quarters as well. It didn’t seem fair to limit his roommates and the last thing he wanted was a house full of rules.

  “That’s fine.” He replied.

  Pepper felt restless and out of boredom decided to load up his Golem Chat. He went to his main page information and practically choked on his own saliva. 22,116 fans!? Where in the world did they all come from? Who… why…. He rubbed his face again and once he was done his eyes confirmed what they had initially seen.

  As the screen was there Pepper was notified that a new message had just arrived. He was hesitant to open it, but he felt as if he couldn’t resist. His finger tapped it open and row after row of unread messages appeared.

  “Friends with Marcus huh? You must have had everything handed to you like he did. Birds of a feather flock together. Loser!”

  “There is no way you got a regional invitation. Probably had mom and dad buy it for you! Your fighting style is terrible. Hope you get wrecked and go home where you belong.”

  “Good luck at your competition! I hope you do well.”

  “Did you ride the short gingerbread bus to school after you left your stupid gingerbread house?!”

  “Hi, I know you don’t know me. But I recently discovered your account. First, congrats on all your accomplishments! A sponsorship, that’s so great and such a huge accomplishment on its own! Okay, I don’t know if you’ll see this, but was hoping you’d be able to give me some advice when it comes to my build? I have been thinking of going with wood rather than clay. There is a cost basis, but I have this idea using an element rune…”

  “A friend of Marcus is certainly no friend of mine. I hope I can face off with both of you, give you both what you deserve. Cheating pieces of SX2T!”

  “Hey stranger, its been a minute. How are things? You get all setup in the big city?”

  The more Pepper read the more he gritted his teeth. He felt his jaw clenching tighter with every negative message that his eyes glanced over. His heart began to pump in his chest and his internal forge began to ignite with frustrated anger. If there were positive messages awaiting him, he couldn’t hold on to them. He would smile for a brief second, only for it all to be erased a second later. For every unprovoked veiled message acted more like a dagger which stabbed him right through the heart.

  Pepper finally closed the application and turned to his roommate. “You wanna go for a run?”

  A sarcastic expression came over Marcus’s face. “I got my friends coming over man. They’re on their way remember?”

  Pepper sat up on the couch and rubbed his eyes. “Right, sorry about that. I’m gonna head out, I don’t know how long I’ll be gone for.”

  “Everything okay?”

  He appreciated the question and he felt Marcus was genuine in asking out of his concern. But, he just didn’t feel comfortable opening up about what was eating at him. He smiled and motioned with his hand for Marcus to not worry. “Yeah, everything is fine. I just need to clear my head. Mentally get back at staying focused on the invitational.”

  Marcus nodded. “Don’t let the pressure get to you man. Many of these gladiators out here are kids who got lucky, and old dudes trying to cash in on the cash cow the league offers. We’ll slice through the competition and be on our way to the next level in no time. You’ll see.”

  “Yeah, you’re probably right.” He turned and looked for Amprage but didn’t see his familiar. “Have you seen Amp?”

  “Nah man.”

  Pepper started to search the main area of the house. He approached Wilson’s bedroom door and for a second, thought he should invite Wilson on his run. Who am I kidding? He thought and continued to walk past the door and entered his master bedroom.

  It didn’t take him more than one step before he saw Amprage laying on his bed. His limbs sprawled outward and with his chest and belly sticking up and into the air.

  “Wanna go for a…”

  Amprage immediately snapped upwards and into a spin. His feet barely planted onto the bed and the metal dog leapt off and started to run around the room and then bolted for the door. “Yes! Yes! Yes! I don’t care what it is, I am down for the adventure!”

  Pepper lowered himself down and held out both his arms to stop his bonded familiar. “Hey! What did I say about running in the house?”

  Amprage stopped and skidded for an inch or two across the carpet. “I’m sorry Pepper… it’s the zoomie protocol within the personality profile. I’ve tried deleting it several times but it seems to keep re-installing itself without warning. To say the coding is powerful is an understatement.”

  “You can say that again. Alright, well give me a minute or two to get changed and then we’ll go.”

  As they both walked out the door Pepper felt the urge to explore his area more. He turned and headed in a different direction than what he had done on his first run. His feet carried him for miles, his muscles sore but were fueled by the anger he carried inside for the unwelcomed resentment that had been sent.

  Pepper finally ran up a small incline of a hill and just as it came to a small bend in the road, he noticed a clearing off to the right side. He walked over and noticed that the area appeared to have been purposely configured to overwatch the city. The small hillside was no mountain by any means, but it certainly served as a good observation area and Pepper could see how the terrain slowly angled down into the city.

  His eyes scanned from right to left and stopped when he finally saw the rift portal. The large circular gate was massive compared to the one that was back home. The inside was as dark as a black hole, appearing to absorb the light around it and not give any hint of what lay beyond.

  He began to noticed the changes of the city directly in front of the portal. It was a desolate land of crumbled concrete and destruction. Buildings of a different world lay on their sides, symbols as if they were ancient tombstones to what life was like before the war.

  A rescan of the background now allowed him to take notice of the two distinct areas. The old city, which was the current battlefield in front of the rift gate. Then there was the new sprawling city center far off to the right side of his view. A new city built out of the ashes, so to speak.

  Pepper closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. There was a faint scent of fresh cut grass upon the air. He let the calming sensation flow over him and let his mind be at ease within the moment. Another long breath and as he slowly exhaled he opened his eyes and saw the rift gate begin to glow.