Darkness (5)

"RoyalBlue, how nice to meet you in real life. Apologies for not recognizing you, your hair color is a bit unique." He motioned to my silvery blue white hair.

DealWithIt's attitude did a 180 and he started acting nice to me. I went back to ignoring him. I suppose it would look bad now if I froze him.

He was looking around the gym which I had mostly frozen in my annoyance. Whatever it would melt soon. Would I get charged for water damage?

"So, what do they want with us?" I directed my question at DealWithIt.

"Well apparently we are the three who learned to use magic on our own, so they turned me into a tutor for others and I'm not sure what they want with you and Blank yet." DealWithIt said. "But they said they wanted the two of you to wait here for a representative."

So the government was all about wasting what little free time we had huh? Their rep wasn't even here yet they demanded that we come. My mood turned a little frosty. They had no respect, I should just freeze them all.

"Sorry I'm late!" a girl with short cut black hair ran toward us. NightSong leader of the Blackwolves. Of course she'd be their rep.

"Get to the point already so we can leave again" I growled.

"Royal, nice to see your ever cheerful face again." She replied as I glared at her.

"Well?" I muttered. I had a million other things I'd rather be doing.

"Come with me, just Blank and Royal, sorry DealWithIt, but also thank you for agreeing to train the mages!" NightSong shot him a somewhat guilty look as she led us away.

"Who are you?" Blank asked NightSong.

"NightSong, I'm a member of the government Blackwolves, and also the extended and not really welcome LoneWolves guild." She looked at me hesitantly.

I ignored her. Ignoring the government members was now a favorite activity of mine. Ever since they had been useless in the tower defense there had formed a line between the solo players and the government members. They just couldn't keep up with the gaming elite.

She led us to a small building where she swiped a card to enter. The room was full of computers and I recognized the other Blackwolves hanging around. Their eyes focused on Blank and me as we entered.

"Well if it isn't our favorite guild master Royal!" said one.

"DarkHope" I replied easily noting the most annoying of the Blackwolves. "We aren't a guild." It was the same answer I gave him every time he tried to somehow make a pro-guild statements. Pity I couldn't just make the Blackwolves into their own guild. Then I'd be able to ignore them even more.

"So why are we here?" Blank asked looking around the little gaming hangout.

"Information" replied NightSong. "Since you two are the most powerful players in the game we decided to share with you our updates."

"Updates?" muttered Blank looking confused. Oh right he didn't know they were government wolves sent in to find ways to destroy the system.

"Yes here is what we have so far but I don't think you're going to like it." She pulled up some information on one of the computers. It was some type of multicolored graph that I couldn't understand. Literally looked like a rainbow died on a piece of paper in a very brutal way.

"If you look here and here, you can see the marks that don't line up clearly related to the anomaly of...." She said a whole bunch of stuff and I got very confused very fast.

"Nightsong English please." I said stopping her rant. "and keep it short please I can't focus for more than a few sentences."

"Oh uh right….." she paused for a moment thinking. "The AI M.A.N.G.O. isn't actually and AI like we originally assumed. Its possible it just thought that term was what best aligned given its attachment and ..." she started trailing off again.

"NIGHTSONG! English!" I growled again.

"Sorry sorry" she apologized "It's basically a life form from and inter-dimensional space rift or alien. Its home realm also seems to be made of a different substance that is slowly leaking into ours. This is causing our 'magic' powers to form."

"Sounds very futuristic" I muttered. "Why do I care?"

NightSong glared at me, "because it affects all of us idiot! We are currently looking at potential ways to close the rift but that still leaves us the problem of the AI-ish being."

"Let it open, magic is fun!" I replied, earning myself another glare.

"I should have never invited you" she muttered.

I smirked and looked at Blank. He was oddly quiet. No wait I think he was just trying to comprehend the AI thing. Was it still and AI, what if it was made artificially in the other realm? Whatever I'll just keep calling it an AI. Changing it was too much mental effort unless it chose a new species type.

"Anyway we plan to keep working of finding its weaknesses." NightSong looked at us, "we need you guys to continue to distract the AI creature with its games, and also be the backup in case we fail."

I scoffed under my breath remembering their original desire to name the guild backup. They were the backup. We were the shining stars of the game. The top players tied for strongest. Mainly because we never had a decent fight and obviously it'd be a bad idea to go all out with our lives on the line.

"Anyway for now go get some rest, the next challenge is near." NightSong muttered clearly not in the mood to talk to me any longer, thankfully.

I happily left the hidden room area with Blank trailing behind me. He looked lost in thought.

"Hey Blank." I said a random thought coming to mind.

"Huh?" He turned toward me.

"What's your real name, you know if it's not a problem to ask since now we know each other in real life." My eyes focused on his.

"You first" he replied. "It's rude to ask someone's name without giving your own."

"Still Royal" I replied, "My parents must have been idiots. What about you?"

He looked a bit hesitant as if hoping I would of just dropped the whole conversation. "I don't have one." He finally replied.

"Huh?" I looked at him confused. "Care to elaborate?"

"My parents never gave me one, and the orphanage wasn't creative."

He was also from an orphanage? I wonder if he was also forced to take an orphanage last name like mine. ORPH335. I really wish I remembered my real last name.

"Okay well now you have to tell me." I replied curiosity starting to get the best of me. Why was he even suddenly feeling so talkative? "Come on spill" I added.

"Blank" he replied, "Blank ORPH338"

"Wait your name is legit Blank? Dude that's kind of awesome in some ways!" it made for a cool game tag also.

"The hospital left it blank since it was never filled out, and the orphanage system changed it to Blank." He stared at his feet.

"What you really don't like it? but you still use it as your gamer tag?" I replied.

"New topic okay?" Blank said. Hmm guess he really was touchy about it. If that's the case though he should have just not told me. Well not like it was insanely important or anything.

"Hey Royal" Blank said speaking again.

"Hmm?" I turned toward him.

"Do you ever want to hang out, like outside of normal game work hours?" He asked.

I stared at him for a few minutes. Wait was this friend zone or more...… I wouldn't mind having another friend and I did kind of owe him for the cleaning wipe earlier, but I didn't want to start something else.

"As friends?" I asked.

"Yeah" Blank replied.

Why did he have to look so happy over something so simple. Maybe Deck was wrong about his crush? Hanging out a little couldn't hurt right?

"Sure" I replied. Was there even much to do given the current state of the world? We might be lucky to find a thing of popcorn.

"Great! And um if you ever want to try being a little more than friends let me know okay?" Blank said.

I immediately felt my face redden a little. Just what was I getting into? Deck was totally right. How to even reply to that. Darn he knew how to set a good trap, if I backed out now I'd look like a rather mean person.

"Just friends." I replied unable to think of anything better. He should be honored I upgraded him from rival to friend. I had two friends, goodness what was this world coming to?