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Jay rounded the corner, panting. Even with the amount he’d managed to level up, he couldn’t hold off the Red Visors for much longer. Why were they so stuck on him anyway? He knew he’d seen some other players in passing. He didn’t want anything to happen to them, of course…but couldn’t he have just a small break to recover his stamina a bit? No? Fine. He still didn’t see why they had to target him, specifically, though.
On the other side of the street, Scott was cloaked and watching some noob get closer and closer to accidentally divulging his hideout to every Visor in the area. If it weren’t for the imminent danger, he would’ve honestly laughed at the kid. Hard. The way he pranced around and quipped with the enemy was nothing short of goofy. That was the only word he had for it.
While none of the Visors were watching, Scott uncloaked his arm and waved. Jay’s eyes widened. Scott signaled for him to keep his mouth shut. The nod he got back pretty much confirmed that subtlety was not this guy’s strong suit. Great. Leaving his hand exposed, Scott gestured for Jay to move right. The other did as he was told. With the occasional direction, Jay was able to lead most of the enemy to Scott for sniping. It wasn’t until the area was cleared and he was standing directly next to the shorter man that Scott released his cloaking.
“Get in,” he ordered. As he spoke, Jay noticed him constantly looking back and forth at their surroundings.
“Uh. Everything okay?” he sheepishly asked.
“Get. In,” Scott hissed.
“Okay, okay!” Jay shot back. As if on cue, he was all but shoved into the wall. Or at least, he thought it was the wall? What he was greeted with blew his mind. Putting it mildly, this hidden space had tons of supplies. Vehicles. It had everything anybody could possibly need in-game. “What is all this? Where are we?” he asked without even thinking.
“Oh, I don’t know. A place where all the big-mouthed people who like picking on Visors can make their great escape. Their exit, if you will,” Scott teased. Jay looked at him with a mixture of wonder and indignation. “For real, though, it’s my place. I have it locked behind a stealth wall not even they can break. Too high a level for them. Of course, that’s if someone doesn’t show them the way inside first,” he continued, eyeing Jay as he muttered the last bit. Suddenly, Jay recalled how close he was to the wall earlier.
“Sorry about that,” he said with a grimace. Scott shook his head.
“You didn’t know. I was only messing with you. You’re new, aren’t you?” he asked. Jay nodded. “I can tell. You’ve played a lot of games in your time, though, yeah?” he added. The other nodded again.
“When we found a copy of Prime Empire, I couldn’t believe it! I promise I’m not usually this bad. This way of playing games is different, that’s all. It’s so intense,” Jay commented. Scott gave a hum of agreement, seemingly lost in thought.
“You could say that. Listen. It’s rough out there. Not sure why, but something’s telling me I can trust you. You have that vibe. Someone like you doesn’t need this game, and I mean that in the nicest way possible. But you do have gaming sense. You might be clumsy, but you are really quick on your feet. That’ll get you pretty far. Since you’re probably gonna be in it for the long haul, I’ll let you in on a few things. Let’s just say I’ve been here a while and leave it there,” Scott offered.
“Wait...how long?” Jay asked. Scott shook his head and refused to answer. Feeling a sense of awkwardness, Jay changed the subject. As the tension slowly died down, the two realized they had quite a bit in common. More than they’d initially thought. Once Jay fully recovered and Scott was convinced he knew enough about Prime Empire, the two agreed it was time for him to leave.
“Yeah. Feel free to come back here when you need a place. Be careful. Make sure no eyes are on you, or it’ll put us both in danger. Got it?” Scott lectured.
“Got it,” Jay affirmed. As he turned to leave, he felt a hand wrap around his wrist.
“I never did ask. What’s your name, zaptrap?” Scott questioned, letting go.
“Zaptrap? That’s what...nevermind. I’m Jay. Jay Walker,” he answered, trying to shake off the coincidence. While getting to actually be in a video game was practically a dream come true, it suddenly dawned on him how alone he was. He also realized he had no way of knowing how to return to the actual world. No way that had been confirmed by anyone before, at least.
“Alright, Jay Walker. Nice to meet you, I guess. I’m Scott”, the reply broke his thoughts.
As the two grew familiar with each other, Jay started to help out more around base. He figured it was the least he could do to repay his new friend. He became Scott’s set of eyes on the outside. He also helped Scott with some of the mechanics inside. They had a system. Not a very organized one, but it worked.
As he leveled up more and realized the enormity of the advantage the two of them had over other players, a sense of guilt took hold of him. Witnessing all this unnecessary struggle when he knew he could do something about it took a toll. It simply wasn’t who he was. He knew that, as a ninja, he would’ve never let this happen.
“Hey Scott? You have a sec? We have to talk. This is legit. I’ve been...kinda thinking about something. A lot, actually. Why can’t we use our base to help out some of the other players? We could network, and maybe then we could bea-” he started.
“Absolutely not. Look, man. I trust you. But I can’t trust smuggling a bunch of people we don’t know into here. You don’t think the Visors are going to notice eventually? You’re really nice, but that’s exactly your problem. Too nice. You get burned because of it,” Scott chided. Seeing how hurt the other was, he soon regretted those words.
“I’m sorry. Sorry you’ve been in here so long that it has messed with you this much. But I can’t do it. I can’t stand here with all this power you’ve given me...helped me get...and know others are getting hurt while I hide. I have friends out there who are probably going to come in here looking for me. Do you know what I’d do if something happened to one of them because I was stupid enough to walk into that machine?” Jay pleaded. Scott considered him for a moment, then let out a sigh.
“Fine. We’ll do it your way. I…know what it’s like,” Scott confessed. “Nobody gets in that I don’t greenlight first, though,” he added sternly. Jay figured that was fair enough (it was Scott, after all). He agreed. “I mean it, Walker!” he called out as the other went to leave the room. He heard Jay laugh.
A few moments later, Jay walked back inside with a completely new look to his avatar. All Scott could do was shake his head in disbelief at what he saw.
“Of all the possible skins and outfit combinations, you had to go for the flashiest set out there? What am I going to do with you? Do you want to help people or not? You’re going to stick out like a sore thumb!” he reprimanded.
“Really? That’s funny. I’m surprised you didn’t notice, Mr. All-Knowing-Game-Master. Because it’s actually modeled after yours!” Jay spat out in an attempt to sound clever.
What he didn’t expect was for Scott to mutter out an “Oh. Thanks. Anyway, tell me about those friends you mentioned earlier.”
So Jay did. And when Scott met Superstar Rockin’ Jay’s friends, he knew exactly who they were.