The buzz podz pulled up outside his house and he was surprised to see a man and woman standing by the front door. They both appeared a few years older than him and he felt they were more than likely closer to Zeklor’s age. The guy had a pair of blue jeans on and a graphic t-shirt.

  Amprage ran up to greet the two and his eyes narrowed in on the mans shirt. A flaming sword on one side with a spiked chained mace on the other. A horned red devils face was in the center, drawn in the American traditional tattoo style. The words Hellfire Club arched over the devil horns said all he needed.

  “Nice shirt.” Pepper said as he approached.

  “Ha, thanks man. You play a little DnD?”

  “On occasion. Not so much these days.”

  His awaited guest quickly adjusted his long greasy black hair, tucking it behind his ear. He nodded while smiling. “Right on, dude.”

  He extended his hand, “Pepper”

  “Frankenstein”

  Pepper was about to turn and great the woman standing across from the guy, but he had to do a double take. “I’m sorry… your name is Frankenstein?”

  “Ha, yup, just like the monster.” The man’s eyes appeared to be hardly open and Pepper couldn’t help but wonder if he wasn’t even half asleep while standing there.

  His eyes were wide in confusion. “Okay…” He slow turned and then looked at the woman. She was a fellow ginger as her cinnamon hair matched the spotted freckles on her face. Her eyes were pearl blue and Pepper couldn’t help but think of a vast ocean as he stared deep within them. “Pepper”

  “Cari-Lynn” She smiled while clasping on to his hand. “I have to say, it’s been fun watching you compete in the SEC invitational.” Pepper was about to reply but Cari-Lynn continued. “I would love to talk with you more about your build, that is, after I give you my pitch on our new guild.”

  Frankenstein chimed in from behind Pepper. “Hey, wait your turn kid.”

  Pepper let go of his hand, but couldn’t help but feel that Cari-Lynn had tried to hold on just a little bit longer than what a normal greeting should last. He turned and faced both of them while pointing his finger between the two. “Wait… you’re both here to talk to me about joining your guild?”

  “Well yeah, dude.” Frankenstein replied.

  “It would appear that way.” Cari-Lynn followed. She placed her hands in the front pockets of her silver vest and shrugged her shoulders. “That is, if you haven’t signed with anyone. I have no doubt that… well, there must be a lot of guilds wanting to come talk to you about joining them. Hopefully I can convince you to reconsider?”

  Pepper was gazing into her eyes and felt the hard nudge arrive on his shin. He quickly looked down to see Amprage had gently head butted him. A small smile formed and he looked back up at the two. “You know what, come on inside and we can discuss this in the living room.”

  He quickly unlocked the door and stepped in. They hadn’t even made it three feet inside and his holodex was buzzing with phone calls. They were from numbers he didn’t know and could only guess that whoever was on the other line was about to offer the same offer he was moments away from receiving. He closed the notification and placed his notifications on silent mode.

  The two followed in behind him and he offered them a bottle of water. They both declined but Pepper decided to grab one out of the fridge. They sat down and he listened to both make their presentations.

  He had already made an assumption on Frankenstein, and there was no surprise when the offer could be summed up to. We’re here to rock, party, and have fun competing. There was also a heavy emphasis on Pepper helping them out with creating better golem builds. He couldn’t be sure, but he felt there must have been some kind of whispers floating around with how he had helped Zeklor and possibly even Marcus.

  He then gave his attention to Cari-Lynn, she smiled and slowly batted her eyes at him. “Well, not to try and convince you to not go with, what was it again? The Brotherhood of Flame?” She lifted her hand over to Frankenstein who nodded back to her in approval. She formed a smile that Pepper immediately read as being fake, but she soon turned her attention back to him. “As I was saying. I’m not here to tell you which guild you should or shouldn’t go with. But, I am proud to be a part of Arise. Our guild has exclusive agreements with Quintek and Dark Dwarf. So you’ll have access to their entire library of rune cards.”

  Pepper lifted his finger and motioned between the two. “Do either of your guilds have facilities?”

  There was a baffled expression on Frankenstein’s face. “I mean… We all meet up at my house, and there’s a bathroom you can use if you need to, dude.”

  “Oh, excellent. Yeah that’s… great.” He turned and looked at Cari-Lynn.

  “We do have one main warehouse that we rent out. It’s roughly 2,000 sqft and we will swap out golems out whenever one of our members is slotted to compete.”

  “I see.” He couldn’t help but feel there was still something just underneath the surface that wasn’t being said. “How many members do you have? Currently… active… in your guild?”

  As soon as the question left Pepper’s lips, he saw Cari-Lynn act like her skin was crawling with spiders. “Umm, well. We are still building our team and we see a really bright future ahead of us.”

  Pepper narrowed his gaze and took a deep breath. “And that would amount to?”

  “Umm. Two. We have, two active members, within… Arise.”

  “Got it.”

  He then turned and looked at Frankenstein. He was using his fingers to count while the details slowly processed within his head. His eyes sparkled and it looked like the light bulb came on. “Seven… we got, seven of us.” Frankenstein then lifted his hand out towards Pepper to emphasize. “But all good dudes, my dude. You don’t need to worry about that. We all have each others back.”

  Pepper clapped his hands together and began to rub them up and down. “Well, I really, really appreciate you two coming by and offering me a chance to join your…”

  He paused and Frankenstein chimed in. “Epic?”

  Pepper pointed over to him. “Yup, that’s it. Epic… your epic, guilds. Thanks Franky.”

  Frankenstein chuckled. “For sure, dude.”

  “I’m gonna need some time to think all this over.”

  “I understand.” Cari-Lynn said. The group stood up and Pepper couldn’t help but feel Cari-Lynn brush her hand across his shoulder. She then flicked a small paper card and stuffed it in his back pants pocket. “In case you need to get a hold of me.”

  They walked to the door and Pepper couldn’t help but notice that Cari-Lynn’s hips swayed far more than what they had before. He closed the door, counted to five and then spun around. His mouth had practically dropped to the floor.

  “What the hell was that?”

  Amprage slowly shook his head. “That is what is referred to as flirting, Pepper.”

  “She, she…” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out the small paper card. A hand written number on it. “She gave me her number!”

  “I believe it is safe to say that she wants to give you far more than that.”

  “You think?”

  “Congratulations Pepper… you’ve been honeypotted.”

  “That isn’t being honeypotted.”

  “I beg to differ.”

  “Whatever.”

  Pepper looked down to his holodex and was seeing number after number continue to call in. His voice message icon kept ticking upwards with awaiting messages until it finally stopped. A new system notification popped up with the phrase, inbox full.

  He then opened up his options and called Zeklor. His friend answered and immediately let out a long sigh. “Dude… is your phone getting blown up as well?”

  “Not only that, I had 2 show up to my house!”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah…” Pepper didn’t even have time to finish when a firm knock arrived on his door. His head snapped around and he glared at the shadowed silhouette standing on the other side of the fogged glass cutouts.

  “Hello, I’m looking for Pepper Walker? I’m here with the Powerhouse Guild.” A muffled voice called out.

  Pepper speed walked to his bedroom and closed the door. “Dude! Another one just showed up.” He said under his breath.

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I dunno… this is all, a lot. You know? Heck, I even had one of the chicks hit on me and give me her number.”

  “Nice.” Zeklor said with a large smile.

  “Zeklor! I have a girlfriend.”

  “Not so nice…”

  “Exactly.” Pepper reached up and rubbed his face. “I don’t know what I am going to do.”

  “I mean, it’s not a bad problem to have.”

  He took a deep breath but then slowly sighed and thought back to his old workshop. “It’s funny… only a few months ago, I day dreamed about being here in this exact spot.”

  “And now?”

  Pepper chuckled. “I’m not gonna lie. It kinda sucks.”

  Zeklor joined in as the two laughed for a few seconds. “It’s a lot for sure. Well, hey. I already scheduled to go take a tour of Valiant’s facilities. You want to just go with me and check it out?”

  “Really? You’re cool if I tag along?”

  “Of course, dude.”

  “Alright, well… if you want, you can just come over and we can watch the golem match and then head over together.”

  “See you tomorrow P-Dub.”

  “Sounds good.”

  The rest of the night was spent dodging multiple knocks of the door and trying not to look at his holodex. It got to the point where he would decline one call, all for another one to be there waiting for him to decline it as well. Another part of the industry he was not aware of were agents, and they were now actively reaching out to convince him that they and they alone could get him the best deals with guilds, sponsors, and industry insiders.

  Pepper wasn’t sure when exactly he had fallen asleep. But he had slept right through his alarm clock and was then woken up by Amprage. His familiar warning him that Zeklor was knocking on the front door. He staggered to the door and slowly opened it up.

  Zeklor’s eyes widened. “Nice hair do.”

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  He grunted in response. “My bad dude.”

  “It’s all good.” Zeklor walked in and closed the door. Pepper started to walk towards the laundry room to grab a Big D Energy drink and he heard his friend call out. “So, what time did they finally stop knocking?”

  Pepper looked down at the small cardboard box the drinks were packaged in. He grabbed hold of the empty box and carried it in his free hand while he took small sips out of the other. His feet shuffled across the floor until he arrived at the kitchen counter top and found a black marker.

  Don’t knock, leave card. Is all Pepper wrote on the blank side of the container. He then unfolded the box until it was flat and grabbed the roll of tape. A few seconds later the sign was posted on the front door. It was slightly off center and tilted to one side, but he didn’t care. As long as they read it and followed the instructions he left, he’d be okay with that.

  “Breakfast burritos?”

  Pepper looked over at his friend and realized he had not even noticed the brown paper back Zeklor had walked in with. He plopped it on the counter and Pepper shrugged. “Sure.” He tilted the aluminum can up and slightly jiggled it back and forth. “You want one?”

  “Sure.” Pepper started to walk back towards the laundry room and then heard Zeklor add. “Just… please don’t give me a nasty flavor, will you?”

  He chuckled. “Don’t worry. I email Ryan and specifically tell him what flavors he can and can’t send me.”

  By the time Pepper returned to the room, Zeklor had already placed the burritos on paper plates. His friend had also got the holoscreen turned on and was working to load up the golem match. “Hot sauce is in the bag if you need or want more.”

  “Thanks.” He replied while placing the can down on the side table.

  The theme music for the Golem League came on and drew Pepper’s attention to the screen. JD walked onto the screen and the first thing he noticed was the rain umbrella hat he was wearing. The odd hat had an alternating color pattern of red, white and blue. JD reached up and adjusted his sunglasses which concealed his eyes, but then placed his hand in the front pocket of his Golem Leage Season 8 hoodie.

  Nick slowly came in the camera view from the opposite side. The announcer gently rubbed his hand across his business suit. His gaze was clearly focused on his counterparts hat. “I didn’t see rain in the forecast JD.”

  “Well, you might want to check again Nick. Because… there is a 100% chance of awesomeness about to rain down on us from this match up!”

  There was a slight chuckle out of Nick. “Is that so?”

  “It is, a guarantee that you can take to the bank!”

  Nick shoot his head and finally turned to the camera. “Well there you have it Golem League fans. We’re happy you’re here, because, as my counterpart JD Glasscock has mentioned, this matchup is one you’re sure to be happy not-to-miss.”

  JD gave a pointed finger to his co-anchor and then waved it over to the camera. “Ha, you are spot on Nick. Now… I got to say, Season 11 of the Golem League has by far been my favorite-to-date.”

  “Really, and what makes you say that JD?”

  “We’ve talked a lot about the need to think outside the box. One of those gladiators who has done it, is none other than… a man I like to call the mad professor!” JD’s finger was pointed up and his head shifted back and forth between Nick and the camera. “David Bushman!”

  Nick laughed and shook his head. “Well, yes… if you’re tuning in, you are probably already aware that yes, David Bushman is facing off in todays match up. But… mad professor? Really JD?”

  “Well yeah man! Big Dave was one of the first gladiators to utilize anti-gravitational runes and show how you can use flight in golem matches. But! He didn’t stop there Nick! Ohhh no… he then was like, hey, what if I make my goblin on a flying surfboard have a sniper rifle!”

  Nick nodded along, “Well, you’re not wrong there. Dave has brought us nothing short of classic matches with some awesome spectacles for-”

  Nick couldn’t even finish as JD cut him off. “Well! My little birds be chirping in my ear today Nick. And they’re telling me, that something awesome is in store for us today.”

  Nick laughed, “Well… let’s not keep our fans waiting as we get set for Dave Bushman vs. Charlet Dubois.”

  The camera shifted to the view of the ancient roman Colosseum. Granted, it wasn’t the actual historical landmark, rather, an upgraded replica version. Built roughly twenty miles to the east and nestled up in the mountains of San Gregorio da Sassola.

  There was a slow fade to a new camera view that was within the arena. Holographic projectors placed simulated people within the stone carved seats. Large speakers pumped the sounds of the crowd within the stadium, but were discreetly installed to not detract from the symbolic atmosphere.

  Miss Dubois appeared at the top of the stone stands and slowly walked down to the gladiator platform which was placed on the edge of the arena barrier. Her hair was a colorful mixture of rose and hot pink. It formed into braids which ran down the sides of her head and continued down her back. Her hands were tucked into her black denim jacket that she wore over a bright blue crop top. She walked onto her platform with a confident stride and her gaze towards the opposite side of the arena didn’t waver.

  The camera drifted right past Miss Dubois and caught her unwavering glare, but slowly rotated around and zoomed in on her opponent. Dave had stopped at the top of the staircase which led down to the platform. A bright blue baseball cap concealed his short hair. He reached up and lifted it up slightly at an angle to give him a more unimpeded view.

  Pepper could see that Dave was taking a second to glance out over the arena and Pepper recalled that Dave had never competed in the Coluseem before. “Well, this is cool!” Dave said loud enough for the camera microphone to pick up on. He then pointed towards his opponent and yelled. “I would apologize now, but that just isn’t in my nature France! And… even if you through up the white flag now, I still wouldn’t accept surrender! Ha!”

  Pepper couldn’t help but laugh and realized it had been quiet a while since he had last watched a Dave Bushman match. The US gladiator out of the Midwest had a few years of age on his dad and had been involved in the Golem League since the beginning. The contrasted spectacle wasn’t just done with Dave’s verbal challenge to his opponent, rather, it was also in his attire.

  Miss Dubois could easily be ready for a social media photoshoot. Where-as, Dave, looked like he was ready for a Nascar weekend event. He started to make his way down the steps and Pepper couldn’t help but notice the Big D Energy drink can he carried in his one hand. He mentally chuckled and thought, well, I guess Dave isn’t afraid to take the fine for carrying in unofficial branded item into the arena.

  Dave had only made it roughly halfway down the stairs when he dug into his khaki cargo pants pockets and retrieved his gladiator command interface. He arrived at then platform and adjusted his bright crimson red tshirt which sported his favorite college sports team. He shrugged his shoulders and tilted his head back and forth. “Alright, call the cleanup crew and let them know we’ll be ready for them in about three minutes!”

  The two announcers audio was brought in to the broadcast and Nick was clearly trying to hold back his laughter. “Now JD, you and I have both met hundreds of gladiators over the years. There is certainly something to be said about Mr. Dave Bushman.”

  “Ha! I like to think of that classic film The Big Lebowski… instead of The Dude, you have, The Dave.”

  “Well that certainly puts a new spin on it JD, now doesn’t it?”

  “Dave is a mastermind at the subtle art of mind games. He’s already in your head before you even wake up in the morning on the day of your match. You know what I mean?”

  The two giant metal gates on either end of the arena started to split down the center. Each side slowly disappeared into the stone walls which held them in place. The cameras shifted between the two golems waiting in preparation behind them.

  Pepper focused on Miss Dubois’s golem first and the camera slowly shifted over to it. A sleek and voluptuously curved woman stood there. A highly glossed shine came off a scantily clad black dress. The dress was so tightly fitted to the golems body that Pepper was sure it was made from the base material itself.

  He swallowed and cleared his throat as the camera gave a nice close up, detailed look, at the… assets. The smooth and perfectly shaped… features of the golem were so well crafted that Pepper believed clay was the base material. That caught him by surprise as clay was rarely ever used in the Promina League or higher.

  The golem’s skin was given a pearl white coloration which contrasted nicely against the high gloss black dress. Platinum colored hair flowed down in front of the golems face and ran down the back. On top of golems head rested a silver crown studded with red and black jewels. The golems eyes were glowing with a crimson red coloration.

  A slow step forward and the golem strutted into the arena as a runway model. The hips swayed in the same manor as a woman. There was the sensation that seduction had been infused into the golem’s build alongside the rune cards as well.

  The golems hand lifted up and with a flash of crimson energy, a black rose appeared in the golem’s hand. The flower came to rest on the golems face and after a brief moment, it flicked its wrist and tossed the flower forward. In the blink of an eye, the flower transformed into tiny shadow bats that fluttered towards the center of the arena before they dissipated into thin air.

  “Wowzers Nick! You think that Temptress is free Saturday night?” JD added to the broadcast.

  A quick shift of the camera around to the opposite side and Pepper couldn’t help but look at Dave’s golem and laugh. A giant green goblin head was set on top of a far smaller body. The proportions were clearly built to be miss-matched, and Pepper couldn’t help but think of the famous toy line who followed the same pattern.

  The green goblin stepped forward, its head started to wobble around. The motion continued even as it came to a stop. Instead of a top pointed hat, the goblin had been gifted with a backwards facing baseball cap.

  There were crude lines that weren’t as sharp and refined as some other golems, but it gave Pepper the insight that Dave had used stone for his material base. Rather than chiseling the clothing, Dave had custom fabric clothing made for his goblin. A black graphic tshirt with cut off blue jean shorts.

  Each of the goblins wrists had black leather bracelets. The sun reflected off the large chrome spikes that ran down the center of them. A black leather studded belt matched the bracelets but looked as if it was barely holding up the pants.

  The one article of clothing which did appear to be carved from the stone was a poorly crafted pair of boots. It was the paint job given to the boots that allowed viewers to see they were clearly not a finally polished pair of leather work boots. But overall, Pepper couldn’t help but think of how the companies must have felt when they saw the order arrive. 1x giant tshirt and 1x giant pair of pants… to be worn… by a golem.

  Dave had given his golem a painted base layer of green, but then went on to add tattoos. Granted, they weren’t real tattoos embedded into the stone, rather, designs airbrushed onto the golem. It almost appeared like every inch of the golem was covered from head to toe, with only the main face being spared of a design.

  Dave placed his energy drink can down on a small ledge off to the side of his platform. He shook his head and then brought his hands in front of him. His golem mimicking the gesture and to everyone’s surprise. Dave along with his golem started to air guitar. The distinct sound of a guitar strum began to play.

  “Doth my ears deceive me!? Or is that… Fat Lip by Sum 41!” JD exclaimed.

  The countdown timer hovered over the arena and counted down. It ended at the exact moment the song had reached its bridge. A high velocity driving rhythm had Pepper and Zeklor’s heads bobbing along.

  He could see that the Temptress’s hands balled into fists and crimson energy was now swirling around them. Her power up sequence leaving him with the thought that Miss Dubois was preparing for a powerful starting move.

  However, his attention shot back over to Dave’s punk rock goblin. The golem paused his air guitar for a split second and gave the rock’n’roll devil horn hand gesture. A second later the goblin pointed the index and pinky finger directly at the temptress.

  A giant orb of green energy immediately appeared and encased the temptress. The goblin went back to playing his air guitar while the temptress immediately shifted her stance. There was a clear sign that Miss Dubois reacted by cancelling out whatever attack she had planned to enact. Now, she watched on as the green semi-transparent sphere remained in place.

  “What… what is Dave doing JD? That looks like an energy shield, but… instead of protecting the goblin, it’s… it’s…”

  “It’s imprisoning the Temptress! Ha! I friggin love it Nick!”

  The goblin golem had now started to more aggressively head bang to the song it was performing for the masses. It lifted up it’s leg and then slammed his boot onto the arena floor. A jagged beam of green energy zagged across the arena and made contact with the green sphere. The energy appeared to glow and ripple as it absorb the newly arriving wave the goblin sent forth.

  Miss Dubois was now appearing frantic. Her Temptress was flying balls of energy at the sphere she now found her golem encapsulated in. Each attack not having any sign of effect. She then wielded an energy sword and started to hack and slash at the sphere.

  Each strike only resulted in the green orb ripping with intense flash of green light. She then went on to slamming the golems fists and kicks against the sphere, seeing if the blunt force would work. The result only left the Temptress in the same position it had found itself in.

  “This is stunning JD! Simply stunning! What on earth will Miss Dubois and the Temptress do?”

  “Ha! I love it Nick! It’s like I said at the beginning of the match. Gladiators who think outside the box. Well, Dave came in and said, hey, how about you enjoy some time being trapped within a box, and let’s see if you can get out. Straight up punk rock!”

  “Well, Dave and his punk rock goblin are certainly not done with their performance, as they’re starting to play a new song.”

  “Oh, I’d even recognize that song if I was trapped in a coma! Thnks fr th Mmrs by Fall Out Boy!”

  The goblin was now tapping his foot while still strumming on the air guitar. It’s head was banging along to the song as the crescendo began. A quick pause and the goblin outstretched his arms. Two green swirls began to form around its hands. Their speed increasing by the second until they finally reached their apex and appeared to be nothing more then a dedicated line of energy in continuous motion.

  Pepper watched as the goblin reared back. It lifted its front leg and in one fluid motion it brought its hands together in a mighty thunderclap and foot stomp. The green energy shot straight out at an angle. The beam slammed into the hard sand of the arena, but didn’t stop there. It dove underneath the surface and continued to the base of the temptress.

  Half a second later, Pepper watched as the green energy re-appeared directly underneath the temptress. It sprang up and wrapped around each limb. The golem now shackled by the attack and was tethered to the spot.

  The camera shifted to Dave who was laughing uncontrollably on his gladiator platform. His hand clasped against his chest while the other slapped down on the wall of the stone balcony. He finally reached up and whipped the teers from his face as he did his best to compose himself.

  “Hahaha! … Thank you … Italy! Bwahahaa!” Dave bellowed out.

  He then returned to his air guitar. His punk rock goblin mimicked the motion once again. A final driving beat began to ring out and Dave was aggressively head banging along.

  “I’m not okay by My Chemical Romance! Nick! This golem match up is worth every royalty fine were going to incur! I love it, I love it!” JD cried out.

  The goblin continued to head bang to the song, but with every simulated strum of the guitar came intensifying green energy. It’s power continued to surge off the goblin and poured into the arena sand. The energy pulsed with light to show that the effect was continuing to strengthen the two attacks Dave had launched.

  As the song drove its way into the second portion, the green sphere began to shrink. But it didn’t stop there, in unison the energy shackless tightened and pulled down on the temptress. The bindings then caused the temptress to buckle. The energy sphere continued to crush down even further as it compacted by the second.

  Pepper could see cracks spread across the temptresses skin. The crimson energy poured out and grew as the wounds separated even further. It finally culminated when the temptress’s energy core imploded and all that was scene by the viewers was the green sphere filled with contained explosion.

  The victory horn blared, but the show wasn’t over. Dave’s dark and devious laughter once again filled the arena. The final guitar strum continued to ring out through the arena and Dave bowed to the stands.

  Dave then reached down to his golem controls and activated a final command. His punk rock goblin opened its mouth and stuck out its tongue towards his opponent. The golem then turned around and decided to showcase the goblins buttock’s as it pulled down its cut off shorts.

  “Oh for heaven sakes JD... That is certainly uncalled for. You’ve clearly beaten your opponent, there is no need to… rub it in ones face.”

  “I dunno Nick… sometimes the message needs to be said, Punk Rocker’s can still stick it to the man. Well done Dave Bushman!”