The commotion near the entrance of the room caught Pepper’s attention. He looked over to see people filing in. It was a mixture of the rising stars and veterans from earlier, but he soon recognized a few faces of the Golem League gladiators—Dakota Krout, Michael Head, and then a broad-shouldered giant of a man who was using a wheelchair himself. Pepper felt his face light up.

“You’re JoeDan Worley.”

A playful smile came over the man. “Last time I checked I was.” JoeDan removed his black ball cap and rubbed his hand across his cinnamon hair. His blue eyes were rich and colorful like the ocean. He shifted in his chair and adjusted his gray T-shirt, which had the word “VetCore” printed across the front.

“I mean, wow, you’re really here,” Pepper practically stuttered.

JoeDan made a curious expression and then glanced over the names. “Well, shouldn’t I be here? I mean, my name is printed on the card.” He broke into a warm, deep-hearted chuckle. “What’s your name, big man?”

It was then Pepper’s turn to chuckle. The compliment seemed a little backwards, seeing how his waist was roughly the size of one of JoeDan’s arms. “I’m Pepper, Pepper Walker, and this is—”

He couldn’t even finish the introduction. “Oh, you don’t need to worry about that, big guy. I already know this crusty old sergeant.” JoeDan turned his attention to the sergeant sitting next to Pepper. “Now, Bill, don’t think I haven’t forgotten that you promised me we’d do a wheelchair race this year. I’m still holding on to the fact that you cheated five years ago, and I’m out for my revenge, you hear?”

The old vet started to dry cough while sputtering out a few staggered laughs. “Bullcrap—I never said such a thing.”

“Cheaters never prosper, Bill … I’m not going to let you die before I get my rematch on that race.”

Pepper smiled as he watched the frail sergeant playfully smirk at the newly arrived member of their table. It wasn’t long before the rest of the dinner party appeared, and JoeDan made the introductions. “All right there, Pepper shaker. Let me introduce you to my better half, Angela. Then we have James Hunter’s better half, Jeanette. This is Captain Edward Fin, who I think you already met, and Angel Ramon.”

“Wow, way to completely ignore me over here.”

Pepper turned to see James Hunter shift over to the seat directly next to him. The man had nice rust-colored hair, slightly slicked back, and a mid-length beard that complemented a strong jawline. His black polo shirt also had the VetCore emblem embroidered on it.

James pulled the chair out and took a seat. “I swear I can’t take or wheel this guy anywhere.” He gestured towards JoeDan and shook his head with a clear roll of his eyes. Pepper interpreted it as meaning JoeDan had been poking the bear all day long, and there were clearly no signs of it stopping anytime soon. James leaned over and stretched out his hand. “James Hunter.”

“Pepper Walker.” The two exchanged a firm handshake.

“Is this your first GolemCon?”

Pepper couldn’t help but display a smile of excitement. “Yeah, it is. I was really lucky and am one of the rising stars.”

“Well.” James lifted his hand to emphasize his point. “Let me say, Pepper… if you’re a rising star, then you’re not lucky. You got that special something that others see and recognize. They chose you to be here.”

Pepper didn’t even get a chance to say thanks for the lovely compliment. The voice of Nick Bosloe filled the room. “Right, we’re about to get started with our dinner ceremony. But before we do, we want to be sure that we honor our special guest.”

Pepper turned just enough to see the podium over his left shoulder. The famous Golem League announcer stood behind it, his hands moving gently as he spoke. “Now, I am told that we have a special guest who is going to speak on our esteemed guests’ behalf. So without any further delay, I give you all… Mr. James Hunter.”

The room began to fill with loud applause. James gave Pepper a smile and a wink as he stood and made his way to the microphone. He cleared his throat while the room quieted down a few seconds later.

“First off, I want to be sure we clarify. That applause is for the one and only Staff Sergeant William McKay. So come on, let’s give Sergeant Bill another round of applause for all he did.” The room filled with celebratory applause once again, and Pepper noticed that a few people rose to their feet. Before long, more and more were standing in appreciation of the veteran, and Pepper followed suit.

They remained there for only a minute. Yet Pepper didn’t let JoeDan’s motion of reaching over and grabbing the sergeant’s hand go unnoticed. A small tear fell down JoeDan’s cheek as he smiled and gave his fellow veteran an affirming nudge.

“Okay. Well, for those of you who don’t know me, I am James Hunter. I am one of the founders of VetCore, a veteran-only guild within the Regional League, and I also happen to be blessed to be given the title of guild commander.

“I consider myself blessed, because I get to be a gladiator in the Golem League but also hold the honor of being a guild commander. Both positions have highs and lows, but the low days are few and far between. However, there are two other titles that I hold near and dear to my heart. One is the title of veteran, and the other, the one I say is the most important… a friend to Staff Sergeant William McKay. Or, as I normally call him, Sergeant Bill, or just Sarge.

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“When Sergeant Bill asked me if I would be willing to speak on his behalf at the ceremony, I felt honored. It’s a weird feeling when someone who was your mentor asks you to speak for them. Because what exactly do you tell? What do you say? But more importantly…” James paused for a second and seemed to get his bearings. “You know… Sarge is one of the few Rift Wars survivors who received the Medal of Honor… and there are many days when you think that that is still not enough.”

Pepper’s eyes grew wide in amazement, and he slowly turned and looked at the veteran. The man merely kept his gazed fixed on the flowers. The slight nod and firm smile of JoeDan confirmed to him that he had heard James correctly. Sergeant McKay was a Medal of Honor recipient.

James sniffed and cleared his throat. “Okay, so… I asked Sarge if there was a certain story he wanted me to tell. He was very clear and adamant to not tell the story about the time the demon was blasted straight through the porta-john while he was taking a dump. But I can still clearly see him covered in a weird combination of black oily hellspawn blood and septic porta-john blue. So, good thing we’re not telling that story.

“I then asked him if he was okay with me sharing the story about the time we snuck the demon head and gently placed it into bed with him. He said he would rather we not discuss that story, or how Sarge unloaded his magazine into the dead hellion’s skull and then proceeded to mercilessly force us to conduct physical training until our insides were our outsides.

“I asked him if he wanted me to share the time we put the airbag under his seat in the briefing room. And unfortunately, instead of him sitting in the chair and being launched from one side of the room to the other, it was our newest captain straight out of the Academy. Needless to say, we were pretty sure Sarge was going to lose his stripe that night. However, let’s just say it was epically hilarious how that captain checked every chair he ever sat down on from that point forward.

“But of course, Sarge didn’t want me to let that story out of the bag either. Instead… Sarge just said that he was happy we could have this moment. A moment in time to remember that humanity lived on. That we rallied together to fight a darkness so great that we even stopped seeing the light of hope. Yet here we are.

“Sarge doesn’t really talk about his Medal of Honor much. Nor does he talk about the countless missions he completed, the battles he fought in, or the dozens upon dozens of demonic corpses he laid waste to. The thing that he does mention is the names. The names of those lost; the names of those who are no longer with us.

“There was only one thing he asked me to do tonight. That was to give a toast to those who are no longer with us and those who survived. So, ladies and gentlemen, if you would please grab your glass and let’s raise a toast. To the generations to come; to those who are here and those no longer here. May we never forget what was taken from us, so that others may live.”

***

The dinner was over, and the area was filled with commotion as conversations all throughout the room rippled with life. Laughter was in one corner while stern resentment was in another as discussions verged on the edge of arguments. James and JoeDan had just finished escorting the honored guest out so he could retire for the evening. The two returned to the table, and Pepper couldn’t help but ask.

“So, what happened?” He motioned with his head towards the entrance.

James took a sip of his drink and looked at JoeDan before turning towards him. “It’s known as ‘rift poison’ or ‘ethereal poisoning.’ We didn’t know it at the time, but demons appear to be steeped in this type of ethereal essence, to say the least. Additionally, this energy seems to be radiating off the portals themselves.

“When the initial attacks started, we had no idea what we were up against. We relied on our old military tactics and weaponry. The initial few who responded and tried to fight off the demons unfortunately seem to have been bathed in the dark energy from hell. I am no doctor, and I’m honestly not a hundred percent sure how it effects the body, but I believe it’s similar to radiation poisoning. Your body is basically melting away from the inside out. The rift poison, though, it almost seems to draw your body inward until you shrivel into the shell of the person you once were.”

Pepper let out a long sigh. “Is there any cure for it?”

James tilted his head. “There is… But are they effective, though? That’s the real question. There are still many veterans who are battling it. I know both JoeDan and I have a certain degree of it, but ours is small in comparison to someone like Bill.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” JoeDan replied, taking a sip of his drink. “You know, I am certainly happier to be in my condition when compared to old Sarge there. My heart breaks for him. I dunno how much longer he will be around with us.”

“How did you lose your leg?” Pepper asked out of curiosity.

A slight chuckle came from JoeDan. “Oh, I didn’t lose it there, big stud. I know exactly where it went. It was plastered all over Interstate 80 and half my squad.”

Pepper nearly spat out his drink. He felt embarrassed, partly because of his reaction and also due to his question. Yet he couldn’t help the laughter he was on the verge of letting out.

JoeDan caught his reaction and immediately knew what he was suffering from. “Hey, big stud, it’s all good. I get it. You got to find the humor in things. I mean, at that moment, Matt Marshall certainly didn’t like being covered in chunks of my leg. But at the end of the day I made it out in not too bad of a shape compared to some others. All right, all right, all right.” JoeDan lifted his drink in a toast, and the table chuckled and returned the gesture.

James had been glancing over his holodex and then cleared the message. There was a curious expression on his face, and when both JoeDan and Pepper gave him their attention, he flared his eyebrows. After taking a quick drink and chomping on some ice, he said, “There’s a rumor going round about a certain dynamic duo that is going to use a duplicator rune.”

“A duplicator rune?” Pepper asked.

James’s eyes widened and he leaned his head back as his eyes shifted back and forth between JoeDan and Pepper. “Don’t you read the Golem League Rune Adoption List?”

The Golem League Rune Adoption List was where all official approved runes were listed. Pepper knew that there was a very specific testing and certification process for companies to get approval for their runes. Once that was all complete, the rune was added to the list. It didn’t mean that those runes were commercially available yet, but it was certainly the first place one could find out what was about to be available.

He shook his head bashfully. “I haven’t checked that in maybe a year or so.”

“Dude.” James rubbed his hands over his face and cleared his throat. “Some major advice, and I mean major advice. Always read the updates, especially on there. If you want to be at the top, you have to see what is soon going to be available and how to counter it.”

JoeDan added, “That’s true. We haven’t seen all the runes being used yet, but that doesn’t mean someone isn’t trying to figure out a strategy to implement them. A good example would be the binding rune—we haven’t seen anyone use that yet. And there’s the restoration rune, which I’m still really curious about.”

James was nodding as JoeDan spoke. “Exactly. I’m really curious about this whole duplicator rune that just got approved, and I think we both know who we’ll see apply it before anyone else.”