Nothing delighted Pepper more than seeing Jamie’s name crossed off the list. He wasn’t the only one, however. Jaime was listed at the top, followed by Kirsten, Perry, Chloe, Darrel, and finally Levi. Pepper then scrolled to the top of the list and smiled when he saw Carlie making it into the top 10.

  Mika - 181

  Sebastian – 179

  Pepper - 168

  Tamin - 164

  Lucas – 164

  Erynn – 150

  Alexa – 146

  Chase – 139

  Dana – 138

  Carlie - 133

  His eyes didn’t stay there long and returned to the top four names. His jaw clenched as he saw Tamin’s name listed directly below his. The fact that he was ranked above his nemesis wasn’t good enough.

  His mind flashed back to the KBVS arena, the very moment he watched Tamin smash his golem to pieces. Tamin’s face filled his mindscape, a sinister laugh and cackle that didn’t seem to end. It was the low rumbling growl that pulled him out of the mental entrapment he had been in. Pepper shook his head for a second and looked down to see Amprage standing at his feet.

  The bright yellow eyes of his familiar stared back at him. “Dad, are you okay?” Amprage tilted his head, acting out the dog personality profile.

  Pepper looked up and saw Nightmare Mala standing there in his bay. His heart swelled and he felt more confident and determined than ever before. Pepper took a deep breath in and found his handballing into a fist. “I’m okay… just ready to get my revenge.”

  He turned back to the control panel and went over his score sheet.

  Victory – 10

  Creativity – 7

  Style – 5

  Energy – 10

  Direct Hits – 7

  Blocked Hits – 7

  Critical Hits – 7

  Knockdown – 10

  Grit – 10

  Judge’s Discretion – 10

  “Seriously? I scored less than my first match against Carlie? And only 5 points in style? How did I not have style? I went straight melee and sent my opponent leaving on a one way ticket back across the pond. This is…” Pepper didn’t finish as Andrea’s hand reached up and covered his mouth.

  “It’s my last night here and the last thing I want is you being stuck with a crabby pants.”

  Pepper slowly turned and sighed into her hand. He slouched his shoulders, but knew she was right. Andrea lowered her hand but leaned in and gave him a kiss. “I’m proud of you though, and knew you’d win.” She smiled and then transitioned into a slight sinister chuckle. Her finger jabbed into his ribcage and she started to motion for them to leave. “Come on… your taking me to some concert that is playing later tonight at the fair grounds.”

  Pepper’s mind quickly flipped through his memory bank. “Wait… Marcus was telling me about a concert he was planning to go to.”

  Andrea let out a breath and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, the Matt Dinniman band! He was the one who told me about it. Now come on…” Andrea was now yanking on his arm for him to leave the bay. “I told Marcus and Wilson we would stop by and pick them up on the way.”

  Pepper had to fight to stay at the control panel and go through the security measures before leaving. “Give me just a second.”

  “Come on!” Andrea playfully called out. Her feet were slipping across the bay floor. “A little help Amprage!”

  “Okay!” Amrpage ran over and latched onto Peppers ankle and began to pull.

  The bay door had just finished closing and they had turned to walk down the corridor in search of their companions. They had only made it a few feet before they were stopped by Pepper’s bay neighbor. Pepper pointed to the guy standing before him. “Zeklor, right?” His guess brought a smile to the man’s face and a small sparkle appeared in his eyes.

  “Hey! Yeah… Pepper right?” The man asked while pointing back at him.

  “Just as spicy as ever. What can I help you with?” Pepper had just barely got the question out when he heard the overly exaggerated sound of Andrea clearing her throat. He glanced at her and didn’t hesitate. “Say, we’re actually running late to get to a concert-“

  Zeklor perked up with excitement. “Oh yeah, The Matt Dinniman Band concert. I was planning to go to that also!”

  Pepper motioned between them. “You wanna join us? We’re going to pickup some friends and head over there now.”

  “Sure!” Zeklor spun around and hurried to close up his bay.

  Pepper could see the irritation on Andrea’s face, but he was grateful for the patience she graced him with. Zeklor finally stepped out and joined them as they continued on towards the others. Pepper turned to him in stride and asked. “So, what’s on your mind?”

  “So, I watched your last match and wanted to ask… how in the world do you do that thing… you know, with the metal?”

  Pepper smiled but took a few seconds to think over whether or not he should share his process. He finally decided to tell Zeklor how he had modified the rune. His reasoning came down to the fact that they were not in the same colored cohort. Zeklor could eventually look up his stat sheet anyways and wouldn’t need to do much investigating and forum searching to put two and two together.

  There was something about Zeklor’s attitude and demeanor. He was the complete opposite of Carlie and even Jaime. A genuine nature that seemed to love all aspects of the Golem League.

  Pepper started in on sharing the process he took and Zeklor only pestered him with more questions regarding the process. It came off as if Zeklor couldn’t contain himself and his curiosity was getting the better of him. He asked everything from how the spark cycle readings were impacted to how Pepper had resecured the rune process unit with the tiny shard of metal inside.

  Zeklor finally confided in Pepper that he wanted to learn more about customizing runes. But admitted he was too afraid of damaging them and left with only broken parts and an empty bank account. Pepper laughed and then shared with him how he got his start with fixing a few damaged cards for other competitors in his KBVS club, but then went on to working at Rhino’s. Once Pepper finished sharing his story, it looked like the light bulb illuminated within Zeklor’s mindscape.

  “That’s such a great idea! Just work on other people’s stuff for free and get experience that way. Broken parts are broken parts, right?”

  “Exactly!” Pepper smiled. He then turned and saw Marcus and Wilson shuffling towards them. “Hey guys! How is the invitational going for you so far?”

  Marcus was easy going and made a so-so motion with his hand. “I’ve currently got a score of 75.”

  “Hey! That’s not bad. “

  “Would have been worse if it wasn’t for you taking the time to train with me P-Dub.” Marcus said while taking a deep breath and widening his eyes.

  “No worries bud.” Pepper then shifted his gaze over to Wilson and noticed a deep and sorrowful scowl on his roommates face. “What’s wrong Squints?”

  “I lost…” Wilson replied while blankly staring straight ahead, his gaze passing directly through them as if they weren’t even standing there.

  Pepper was about to ask about Wilson’s match, but then realized that his roommate hadn’t competed yet. The discovery made him even more puzzled for a second, but then his own mental lightbulb turned on and he knew Wilson was referring to the TCG. “MuscleMommyLover99 again, huh?”

  Wilson closed his eyes and finally lifted a tightly clenched fist in front of his face. Pepper couldn’t help but see a slight trembling come over his roommate as he muttered through gritted teeth. “No… I have a new nemesis that seeks my utter demise. PumaPounderX.”

  Pepper felt his face distort with an animated expression of shock. “How do they not have a moderator or intern… somehow who checks these sorts of things?”

  ***

  The group finally arrived to the fairgrounds but Andrea and Pepper couldn’t help but laugh to one another. It was nothing like the fairgrounds they had in Kalamazoo County, rather it looked like a smaller version of the SEC Regional League arena. There were quiet a few people he recognized from the arena there at the fairgrounds as well. A few nodded in recognition, where others passed by without a second thought.

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  Andrea led the group over to the food area while Pepper, Marcus and Zeklor all talked about some of the matches that had taken place so far in the invitational. Pepper at least glanced up to notice the area was filled with food carts, only… there was something different about them. The tingling sensation caused him to investigate.

  It wasn’t the menu’s, food options, or how the vehicles were parked. The realization sank in once he finally reached the end of the row and confirmed his suspicion. Every single food truck was being run by a golem! He couldn’t find a single person in sight that appeared to be overseeing their work. In addition to that, Pepper soon realized that all the food carts were owned by the same company.

  All a person had to do was walk up to a small touch pad, order their food, pay with their holodex tap feature and the golem would start preparing the meal. Pepper was confident that the controller rune had a wireless connection which synched with the point of sale system. He now assumed that each menu item simply had an automated command sequence and timer countdown to ensure each process was completed exactly how the chef had programmed it.

  Andrea had just finished placing an order for an elephant ear with extra powder sugar. They were all watching in amazement as the golem immediately responded to the order and began making the hot and oily desert. Their attention was quickly ripped away as an ear shattering scream rang out behind them.

  They all turned around to see a crowd of people running in all directions. One of the food trucks was rocking back and forth as if it was being tossed back and forth by a violent earthquake. A new wave of screams rang out as the side panel was shredded open.

  Pepper could now see the golem working inside the food cart was spastically twirling around and violently swinging and flinging items all throughout the area. He caught sight of the metal fryer tray being thrown clean out the service window of the cart. But it was the small droplets of oil which flung off the metal that brought him even greater alarms.

  The oil pelted down on the grass area directly in front of the cart. A second later and the area was quickly engulfed in flame. Peppers eyes shifted over to the food cart next to him and behind him, but he couldn’t find a controller module that he could try to quickly hijack and try to combat the threat.

  His eyes widened and he turned around. Amprage’s eyes locked onto his. “Amp… you ready to get in on some action?”

  The metal familiar snorted and shook his head. His limbs tense and seemed ready to instantly react. “Ready? I was born ready Pepper!”

  Pepper turned and pointed directly towards the malfunctioning golem. “Go get him Amp! Let’s do this!”

  Amprage took off in a run and headed directly towards his target. Andrea cried out behind him. “Pepper what are you doing?”

  Marcus seemed to feed off of Pepper’s confidence and courage. “Rattler! Get in there and help Amprage!”

  Pepper smiled as he watched the metal snake familiar slither forward and worked to close the distance as quickly as its metal body would allow it to. Amprage had arrived at the foot of the golem. It had now worked its way out of the food cart and was frantically spinning around. A large butcher knife was in one hand while the other was shaped like a serving spatula.

  “Okay! Okay! Okay! Pepper! …. I’m here… now what do I do?” Amprage cried out with excitement. His body was practically prancing around while it danced from side to side to avoid being struck by the golem.

  “I dunno! I guess we should have talked this part through before I had you just rush in there.” Pepper yelled back. His heart rate was now racing faster with every beat.

  The golem spun around faster than Amprage had anticipated. The golems legged kicked the metal familiar square in the rib cage and sent him flying off to the side by a few feet. “Owser!” Amprage cried out as he hurled through the air.

  Pepper’s heart skipped a beat and panic grabbed hold of his throat. He finally fought through the sensation. “Amp! Are you okay?”

  To his surprise, his familiar landed on all four paws. An aggressive shake of his body and Amprage was charging back towards the golem. “You won’t defeat me that easily you giant ball of play-dough!”

  Pepper was frantic in trying to figure out what to do and simply called out, “Amp use your head!”

  “Excellent idea!”

  He immediately realized that Amprage took his advice as a literal command. His familiar was now lowering his head down like a mountain goat charging in to clash against his opponent. “No not like!”

  CLANG….

  Amprage landed a direct hit with his head against the golems hip. The force was enough to catch the golem off balance and sent it stumbling down to the ground. A loud thud could be felt upon its landing, but Pepper was more concerned about Amprage who was staggering backwards and looked punch drunk.

  “Great googly moogly… I’m pretty sure I felt actually pain that time…” His familiar turned and looked over towards him and Pepper immediately saw the giant indent on Amprag’s head. The four inch indentation rang straight down the center of Amp’s head and Pepper couldn’t help but be grateful that his familiar didn’t literally have a brain. “Pepper… how bad is it?”

  He ignored the comment and went back to seeing the Golem was ripping up the ground as its body still flailed uncontrollably around. He knew there was no point in worrying about his familiar taking any more damage. He was already going to spend hours fixing the indentation, as long as the familiar rune remained secure, that was all that mattered. “Go help Rattler!”

  “Rattler! Right… teamwork…. Here I come my slithering friend!” Amprage turned and launched into a charge, but immediately slammed into the side of another food cart. He clearly didn’t see the giant food cart directly next to him, or he had his calibration sensor rattled when he took the damage. Either way, Pepper was nothing short of embarrassed and covered his face with his hand.

  Rattler on the other hand had arrived at the golem and was now wrapping its copper body around the golem’s legs. It appeared to lock down as tight as possible, but Pepper was just happy to see that it appeared strong enough to cripple the malfunctioning golem.

  Amprage had recovered from his latest blunder and was now rushing to the rescue. His effort however left Pepper just scratching his head. His familiar arrived and clamped down his metal teeth down on the serving spatula. Pepper couldn’t help but chuckle as Amprage’s small speaker let out an audible growl sound.

  Pepper was about to yell out another command but was quickly cut off. “Back away! Back away!” He turned to his right and watched as a giant law enforcement golem arrived along with two police officers. One of which was clearly operating the police golem.

  He called out and told Amprage to back away. Once his familiar was clear, the Police Golem came down with a heavily imbued energy strike. It only took one direct punch to the malfunction golems mid-section for it to crumble into shattered pieces. The area now secure from the hazardous situation and fire fighters came rushing in from all around with fire extinguishers. They doused the few flames which remained burning throughout the area.

  The familiars slowly came back to their bonded owners. Pepper was inspecting the damage to Amprage’s head but couldn’t help but chuckle. “Yup… that left a mark alright.”

  His familiar looked up at him with giant puppy dog eyes. “Pepper… does it look bad… ass?”

  He laughed, “No, not at all.” Amprage wined in response but Pepper’s attention was pulled away when he noticed the police officer approaching them.

  The officer gave them a nod when he arrived. “Hey there. I just wanted to say thanks for the help back there. Your familiar’s made a solid effort.”

  Pepper playfully countered. “If you want to call it that.” He laughed, “But thanks… we’re just happy nobody got hurt.”

  “Me too. It’s rare that these things malfunction, but… it does happen from time to time.” The officer paused and Pepper read his demeanor and assumed something else was about to be asked. “I also wanted to remind you that any weaponized runes are illegal outside the confines of the Golem League.” The officer hesitated again but then pointed down to the familiars. “That goes for familiars as well.”

  Pepper fought the internal struggle. One part of him was upset and offended that the officer just assumed he was unaware of the law. The other part tried to tell him that the officer was just doing his job and was being cool about the situation that had unfolded.

  “Well, there are no runes in our familiars besides the one that have brought them to life. You’re welcome to inspect them if you’d like?”

  The cop smiled and waved his hand, dismissing the offer. “That won’t be necessary. I honestly love golems and familiars. My Sgt instructed me to come remind you guys of the law. But I personally don’t see any need for anything further here.” The officer glanced back over to the destroyed golem and quickly looked back as he started to walk off. “Okay, report writing time. You all be safe out there and good luck at the invitational.”

  They turned to each other and realized the concert had started and began to make their way to the stadium’s entrance. The room was packed to the brim with fans who were all cheering and screaming out for Matt. Marcus found a side stairwell and motioned for the group to follow his lead.

  He led them up to a side balcony that looked out over the arena floor. Colorful lights and lasers danced over the crowd from above. The drummer started to kick aggressively on his base drum, and they excitedly watched as the rest of the band arrived on the stage.

  The lead singer slowly approached a microphone placed in the front-center area of the platform. He leaned in and his low and rough voice called out. “Yo… what’s up Atlanta!” The crowd roared to life and the chant for “Matt” rang out louder than before. The singer grabbed hold of the bass guitar that was draped around his neck. A leather jacket was worn over top an old graphic t-shirt with a large roaring tiger face plastered on the front. He rolled his shoulders before he leaned into the microphone again. “Alright… alright you crazies…”

  He chuckled. “I am Matt Dinniman… and this here is my band. On drums we have the crazy animal, the one and only, Jeff Hays!” Pepper turned his attention to the drummer, the small and slender Asian man stood up, ripped his shirt off, twirled it over his head and then launched it towards the crowd. He let out an impressive ear-shattering scream and then sat back down on the drum kit and roared into an aggressive, fast paced drum solo which abruptly ended a minute after it started.

  “Heck yeah man! Get it. Haha.” Matt called into the microphone. He then turned and motioned to his left. Pepper shifted his gaze to see a lighter skinned black man who was tall and slender built. A large billowing beard that hung down over his neck, with a backwards facing baseball cap. The candy apple red guitar was draped over his shirtless body and swayed lightly off his chiseled abs. “We have the insanely talented, Justin Thomas James!”

  Justin leaned back and made his guitar sing as he whaled out an amazing tune. The playful melody rang out and the colored lights and lasers danced in sync with the short-lived solo performance. He ended his greeting with a bow and the crowd roared once again.

  Matt laughed and nodded along. “Hell, yeah!” He then turned to his right, motioned with his head. “And over here on my right is the mad hatter himself… the one… the only… Gary Freaking Furlong!”

  Pepper looked over to see a burly man step forward. A mohawk ran directly down the center of his head. He was wearing a red and black checkered flannel shirt. An ivory and black accented guitar strapped across his body. Gary didn’t let out a whaling solo as Justin had, but rather gave a reverberating sick metal riff. A pulsating wave of energy aggressively flowed into the crowd and set the tone for the show that was about to come.

  Matt then lifted his hands up. The leather jacket he wore spread out behind him. He then stroked his beard and cleared his throat. “And I…. AM…. MATT DINNIMAN!” The crowd roared to life and the singer gave them the devil horns hand gesture. “We like to kick things off with this instant classic… And let this song be a warning… to all you out there in the music industry. You mess with the bull; you’re going to get the horns! … or in this case… the feet picks!”

  Matt stood back from the mic stand and the band rang with life. A fast yet playful tune ripped to life with both guitars strumming along. Matt leaned back towards the microphone and now had a playful and heavily sarcastic tone on his voice.

  “Richey’s gonna learn, that I told all my fans; to send him feet picks… in his DM’s.

  He thought it was a joke, but he’s about to see-that I never joke when it comes to feet!

  And now his DM’s are full, and there’s nothing but cringe,

  and he’s one photo away from a meltdown! Haha!

  Richey’s gonna learn, Richey’s gonna learn, Richey’s gonna learn!!!!

  So don’t mess with me, and just embrace the feet!

  So just wait Richey, more feet are coming, more feet are coming!”