Bugz nodded. “I know what you’re going through. I’ve been there. You feel a knot in the pit of your stomach, knowing that people are talking about you. You want to reply to every single message, don’t you? Argue every single point?”

“Yeah…”

“But you also know it’s pointless, right? There’s no argument you can make that will win a meme war.”

“I guess.”

“Anyway, all I’m saying is I hope maybe now you realize the truth about your friends.”

Feng looked away.

“The Floraverse is so cool. But people like Clan:LESS prevent others from enjoying it.”

Feng finally re-engaged. “Sure, whatever. But you don’t know what it was like for me. When it was tough for me as a kid at school, who was there for me? My parents? Liumei? You? No, none of you were there. Clan:LESS was.” Feng’s jaw tightened visibly. “Alpha was there for me. First, just as someone to look up to on streams. And then he actually reached out and invited me in. You know what it means to have someone you watch stream invite you to play with them?” Feng shook his head. “I could always talk to the guys in Clan:LESS and go on missions with them, no matter what was happening in the rest of my life.” He sniffed hard and wiped his nose. “And now it’s over.”

Bugz nodded.

“I don’t even know if it was worth it.”

Bugz stopped nodding.

Stormy and Chalice walked back across the paved road playing on their phones. They took their seats on the picnic table again. Stormy eyed Bugz and Feng.

“What’d we interrupt? You two love birds having a lovers’ quarrel?” Chalice giggled.

“Shut up,” Bugz said with a smile. She glanced at Feng and, seeing him downcast, set her face into a more serious expression. “What were they doing when you went in?”

“Still talking,” Stormy replied.

“His aunt was there too,” Chalice added, nodding to Feng.

“Sounded like some pretty serious stuff,” Stormy added.

“Life and death.”

CHAPTER 45

Bugz stroked the feathers above the Thunderbird’s eye. The bird sat on a rock face above the shores of another lake.

“C’mon now, Binesi!” Bugz called out. The Thunderbird straightened up, and after a few false starts she managed to fly up to a nearby tree branch. The massive cedar swayed under her weight as though caught in a strong wind.

Suddenly, a thick laser beam crashed into the treetop and sent the Thunderbird falling toward the ground.

“Clan:LESS!” Feng pointed to a nearby rock hill. As he shot off the first few rounds from his machine gun, a small horde of Clan:LESS mercenaries crested the hilltop and returned fire.