Chapter 58
Jax was shocked by his team’s victory over the All-Stars in The Tycoon Challenge. Throughout the week, he had watched the followers of Invictus grow and had resigned himself to another loss for his team of challenger upstarts. He wished Bobby and Ralph had filled him in on their plans earlier but understood that they probably didn’t want to get his hopes up if they couldn’t deliver in the end. After the music had wrapped and all the guests had been escorted from the Aquarium, Bobby had explained how Tinker Fast ended up performing at their party. He had explained that his drummer’s cousin was Tinker’s assistant’s brother-in-law, but Bobby hadn’t known whether Tinker would actually come through. Jax cynically supposed the chance to be on an episode or two of the highest-rated show in the world was probably a good incentive to get her to follow through and show up. Then again, there was definitely a chance that she was thinking philanthropically and just loved the cause!
Ralph’s tactics were shocking as well. Originally, Ralph had told Jax that he was trying to figure out a way to tie the online auction bidding to Shortfin’s account so that they could leverage the auction and thereby contribute more directly to the team’s victory. But when he saw Tinker, Ralph called an audible and worked with the singer and her manager to arrange the surprise debut of her new single through Shortfin Mako’s OnyxSocial. It was actually a really smart idea. Had it come from Ken, Cecilia, or even Bobby, Jax wouldn’t have been so surprised. The fact that Ralph had figured it out, and executed it flawlessly, floored Jax.
By the time the clock ticked down, ending the challenge, Jax’s team had beat The All-Stars 5 million followers to 1.5 million. He could definitively say it was a team effort, which was why he had stared blankly at Ricky Diamond when The Tycoon had asked him which two of The Challengers deserved leaderboard points for their efforts over the course of the week.
After the party had wrapped, The Show had pulled Jax aside to escort him to the set that was made to look like The Tycoon’s elaborate boardroom. Mr. Diamond had congratulated Jax on the victory, and then dropped the bomb. “Okay, son. Now that you have claimed victory, it’s time to get down to brass tacks. In addition to the 10 points that everyone on your team will receive for winning as a group, as team leader, you will receive an additional 10 leaderboard points. But with great responsibility comes immense power. You must select just two of your teammates to receive extra points for their individual contributions to your victory. Whomever you select will receive three points each. So, kid, think out loud. Who do you think deserves these points and a leg up on the competition?”
Jax wondered if The Tycoon liked to repeat himself to throw people off as a sort of interrogation tactic or if maybe his age was catching up to him in his speech pattern. But that thought was crushed by the weight of this responsibility. “Well..” Jax paused and pursed his lips while thinking about who might be in the running for the points. So many of his teammates directly impacted the team’s results. “I mean, Ashbury chose Shortfin Mako as the client. If Ash hadn’t been so passionate about choosing her, I’m pretty sure we would have gone a different direction, and that would have changed everything. Shortfin’s activism and connections were the only reason we were able to throw together this event last minute the way we did when the first venue and vendors fell through unexpectedly.” Jax noticed Ricky Diamond smirk when he mentioned the Florida debacle but kept thinking out loud. “But it was Hieroglyph who graciously stayed up all night to help me create the overall winning strategy, even after losing out on both being team leader and on the choice of client.” What he held back from being spoken aloud was that he wondered what would happen if he chose to reward Ashley but not Bailey, after all the work he had done during the balloon hunt to bring the two opinionated women closer together.
“Very interesting,” Ricky Diamond interjected to ensure more screen time in the episode. The man had an uncanny ability to manipulate a production of this nature. “Are they your two picks, or are there others?”
“Hmmmm…I’m not sure.” Jax was genuinely stressed. He didn’t want to disappoint anyone, and he didn’t want any of his new friends to hate him. He wished he could just give everyone points! His mind wandered to think about what his sister would do. Fuck! June would be pissed if he didn’t choose her. “Skyrocket was immensely dependable all week. It’s always a plus to have someone who knows how to calm you down and support you when you need it. And she did that for me. Same with Samurai Tortoise. We just met, but being roommates has made us super close, super fast. But I’m not sure if they compare to others when it comes to impacting the challenge results. Like, Kidd Grimm connected us with Tinker Fast. Without Tinker, we definitely would have lost. Although, he did keep that a secret, which made it harder for UFO to execute his plan, which guaranteed us the win! I mean, he figured out how to leverage all of our work by making Shortfin Mako’s account private, pinning the download link to Tinker’s new song, forcing Ms. Fast’s fans to follow Shortfin Mako to access the song. I am so impressed with UFO. I feel like he definitely has to be one of the Top 2 individuals.”
“Great!” The Tycoon broke in again. “That’s one down! One to go! So, who will get the other three points? Choose wisely, son.”
This son crap was so fucking condescending. Jax had to push the anger deep down as his mind spun. He had narrowed it down to Bailey or Ashley. Whoever he chose, the other would be crushed. “I think I’m going to go with Ashbury for the second individual point-getter. This whole week really embodied everything she stands for and loves, and honestly, I don’t think we would have been strong enough to win without her conviction.”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“Wonderful! Let’s get the rest of the competitors in here and reveal the results!” The Tycoon shouted. Jax suspected he was growing bored with the whole ordeal. Many of the ultra-powerful people that Jax came in contact with over the years had the attention spans of meth-addled goldfish. Especially when it came to matters that didn’t pertain to themselves. The Tycoon was possibly the worst offender in this respect. Calling him a selfish narcissist was an understatement.
Jax was amused, though, as it took another hour for all of The Challengers and All-Stars to be rounded up and gathered in the faux boardroom to commence the final meeting of The Tycoon Challenge. The two assembled teams faced off across the giant rectangular table while Ricky Diamond began to reveal the individual results. As team captains, Jax and Lizzy were sitting closest to The Tycoon and his adult children. Jax could have sworn he caught the blond team leader staring at Gazelle Diamond with something that resembled jealous admiration.
“Congratulations all on a well-fought battle,” The Tycoon began, looking at each side with a bemused smirk. “While the All-Stars held a large lead throughout the week, The Challengers pulled off the victory in the final moments and ended up blowing their opponents away, winning by more than three million points!” It was unclear to Jax whether Mr. Diamond didn’t understand the actual object of the week’s trial, or if he just confused “followers” and “points.”
The Tycoon continued, “After the conclusion of the week’s challenge earlier this evening, I sat down with Borealis, the winning team’s captain, and asked him who he thought deserved to receive individual points that will be added to their leaderboard scores. And, well… let me let him tell you what he decided.”
Jax sat, shielding his eyes from his teammates, particularly his twin sister, as a video began playing on the wall over The Tycoon’s shoulder. Luckily, the Top Seed producers barely edited his words at all. They mostly just removed pauses and The Tycoon’s questions. The video only lasted about two minutes but seemed to Jax to go on forever. “... I am so impressed with UFO. I feel like he definitely has to be one of the Top 2 individuals.” Jax glanced over at June, who was wearing the distinct sad, angry, and confused expression on her face that asked, “You chose Ralph over me?!”
And then, at the end of the video, when he chose Ashley over Bailey, he looked over at his freckled friend and mouthed, “I’m so sorry.” She nodded as Ricky Diamond shouted.
“So there you have it! Ashbury and UFO will each receive three additional points for their individual contributions to the winning side.”
Jax slumped back in his chair, just urging this whole ordeal to come to an end.
“Now. Before we can adjourn, I must show you one more little bit of my conversation with Captain Borealis. You see, when it came to awarding him his 10 leaderboard points for being the captain of the winning team… Well, let me just show you.”
The Tycoon motioned to the giant screen over his shoulder, and another video began to play. This time, it was more casual. Jax realized it was a little snippet of the conversation he had with The Tycoon while waiting for the rest of the competitors to arrive.
“It feels so awful choosing amongst my team like that,” Jax said to Ricky as the powerful Herald half ignored him. “I wish I could give my points to Hieroglyph. She’s had a really hard month. You know, she wanted to be captain. And she stayed up all night plotting out the whole strategy. I wouldn’t have even known where to start. Sure, I rounded people up and kept the train running, but for real, she was more of a captain than I was. I dunno. You ever think you don’t deserve what you have?” In the video, The Tycoon jerked his head to take in what Jax had just asked. His expression said it all. No. Of course, Ricky Diamond had never thought he didn’t deserve, well, everything. And he had a look in his eyes like he was ready to punish Jax for the thought. But Jax kept opining, “No, I guess you probably haven’t. But right now, it’s hard for me to accept my points when I know that someone else deserves them more.”
As the video screen went blank, Jax looked over to Bailey, whose eyes were welling up with tears. What was the point in showing that? Was production attempting to exploit the potential rift between Jax and Bailey for entertainment? His eyes flickered with red and purple dancing energy as the anger welled within him
“Can Hieroglyph and Borealis please stand?” The Tycoon forcefully asked. Once the two were up from their seats, he continued, “We have decided that you are right, Borealis. Wait Wha-” Ricky turned his back on the room and whispered unintelligibly into the air. Jax supposed he was getting something fed to him from production into his earpiece and didn’t like what he was hearing. Once The Herald gathered himself, he turned back to the room and begrudgingly, through gritted teeth, started his line again. “We have decided that you are right, Borealis. But your generosity and selflessness are what we are looking for on The Council of Heralds. So we will allow you to split your points with Hieroglyph if you like. Instead of receiving 10 points yourself, you and Hieroglyph will each be awarded five points. Does that sound like a more equitable arrangement?”
Jax nodded immediately but took the opportunity to think quickly. Maybe he could award some to Ken and June as well. “Can I also give some of my points tuh-”
“Don’t push it, son.” Ricky Diamond cut him off. “Take the win.”
Jax quickly said, “Sounds good. Thank you for your consideration of my idea,” and then sat down. He was wearing a large grin, pleased with the results, until he looked over at a face that bore a strong resemblance to his own. Her expression was less grin and more angry frown. Jax was going to have to do some serious damage control.