Middle Triumvarate Book 1 Chapter 1

"Middle Triumvarate" isn't even the working title, it's just a placeholder I'm using to ID the story in my own files. Once a working title and/or final title get picked I'll go back and replace the chapter names, but until then...

Also, for thes series/overseries I'm going to try and do more traditional titles/screens, but Patreon's text editor doesn't support that, so It'll be simple style at the moment. I'll look into how much work it is to do pictures of screens that I then put in with the text, but that seems like too much work from this side.

Anyways, please enjoy and leave thoughts, you're the only people seeing this right now! (My editor will eventually, but not yet. Unless, he's on here with a pseudonym? I doubt it. Hi if you are!)

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“This rush is killing me!”

Maeve glanced around the room, which was empty except for her and her dramatic coworker, who had draped herself over the nearest display cabinet with one arm limp over her face. “Ah, yes,” Maeve replied monotonously. “It’s so busy. We’re completely overwhelmed. Amelia, you run for reinforcements; I’ll hold them back as long as I can.”

“Maeve, I’m bored,” Amelia whined, completely ignoring her friend’s sarcasm. “This is boring. Why can’t we go look at the exhibits while there’s no one here? There aren’t any tours scheduled today!”

Maeve glanced around to make sure a particularly odious individual wasn’t in earshot before replying. “Because there are donors here today, and you know how Doctor Miles gets when they’re around.”

Amelia perked up with an expectant look, “Is Denise here?”

“Miss Stations isn’t here; Mister Morgan is.”

Amelia’s expression went carefully blank as her eyes darted around the room.

“We’re alone, it’s fine.”

“He’s so creepy.” She grabbed her arms and shuddered. “I hate that Doctor Miles has to be alone with him. Is she going to be okay?”

“We’re not the only ones who don’t like him, apparently; Scarlett plays at being her assistant when Mister Morgan shows up.”

“Oh, good. The muscully ass-kicker can handle anything he tries, although it isn’t great that she has to deal with him either.”

Maeve shrugged, “What can we do about it? The rich, smarmy guy gets away with being smarmy as long as he doesn’t cross the line, and Doctor Miles has to meet with the donors if the museum is going to keep the funding they bring in. Life sucks, and you kill anything that tries to kill you.”

Amelia shot her a confused look. “Isn’t it ‘life sucks and then you die’?”

“That’s too passive. Life is going to suck; something will try to kill you, you kill it, and you move on. We’re all going to die eventually, but I’m going down swinging.”

“You sound like your brother.”

“Which one?” Maeve asked, suspicion laced in her tone.

“Caleb.”

“Thank you!” Maeve preened in response to the compliment.

Amelia shook her head admonishingly at her, “You two are mean to that boy.”

“He deserves it! Thanks to that weeb, we’re stuck with those lame names forever.”

“Just last week, you wiped out an entire guild for making fun of your names.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Their good-natured bickering got cut short by a jerky squealing noise that came from down the hall. They both jerked up into more professional positions than leaning against one of the displays or with a butt up on a desk.

A short, skinny man around their age came around the corner, wearing the same style of pole shirt with the museum’s logo embroidered on the breast, but his was the maroon color that denoted a museum employee, unlike Maeve and Amelia’s white volunteer polos. He stopped at the edge of the kiosk they started tours at and stared at them. “What are you two doing?”

Amelia let out a relieved breath. “Oh, Parker, it’s just you. Doctor Miles has donors visiting today, and you know how some of them can get.”

Maeve stopped trying to wrestle her name tag lanyard out from under her shirt and leaned against the desk. “A couple weeks ago, one of them said Scarlett was being unprofessional for putting on chapstick.”

“...What?”

“Right? It was that old lady from Seattle who wanted to fund a wing about her family history.”

“Oh, the one who got mad when the board refused her since her family isn’t from anywhere near here, and no one would know who they were?”

“Yeah, that one.”

Parker gave them both a stink eye. “Do you two sit here and gossip about donors all day?”

“Not the whole time.” Maeve replied with false cheer, “Sometimes we gossip about Doctor Miles.”

“And the rest of the employees!” Amelia added in.

“Can’t forget the other volunteers; we gossip about them all the time. Like how last week, at band camp-”

“Okay, okay!” He backed up a step with his hands up. “I got it, jeez.”

“Do you need something, Parker?” Maeve asked him with just a trace of acid in her voice, “We have to stand here and wait for someone to show up and want an unscheduled tour.”

He stepped forward with a smile he probably thought was suave and leaned against the display next to Amelia, ignoring Maeve. “I was just wondering if you’d reconsidered my offer to go out this weekend.”

Amelia’s eyes rolled back so far. Maeve was worried she’d sprain something, and Maeve sat back to watch another spat where one of the participants didn’t seem able to get it through his head that his advances weren’t welcome.

Amelia Earnhardt Byrne was a gorgeous woman with long, curly auburn hair that complimented her striking green eyes surrounded by a galaxy of freckles. If Maeve wasn’t as comfortable in her own skin as she was, her best friend would probably invoke a little jealousy from her. Thankfully, Maeve was perfectly comfortable being the “less attractive” friend, with normal brown eyes that matched her normal brown hair pulled up in a simple ponytail. Not that she actually thought of herself like that, but with an example of the same kind of jackass that said things like that to her when she was out with Amelia, it wasn’t hard to remember those kinds of comments.

Amelia rolled her eyes and talked over whatever invitation Parker was repeating. “I’ve told you, Parker, I have a boyfriend!”

“That guy?” Parker rolled his eyes, “You can do better than him. Like me! He’s just-“

“Bigger and stronger than you?” Maeve interrupted with barely disguised glee in her voice, “A historical reenactor who beats on other people in plate armor for fun? No, that can’t be what you were going to say…” She made an exaggerated thinking face, complete with a “The Thinker” fist under her chin. “Oh, I know what it was! He’s… right behind you.”

Parker had been watching her with a frown while she mocked him and scoffed. “Right. Like that’s-“

A hand clapped down on Parker’s shoulder with some force, and the owner of the hand leaned in close to Parker’s ear. “Why do you keep hitting on my girlfriend when she’s asked you to stop?”

With a startled squeak, Parker stumbled away from the person behind him, bumping into one of the displays. Panting. He glanced up anxiously at the stern-faced man looking back at him. “Uh…”

“Sugar-plumpkins!” Amelia squealed. She jumped up and wrapped her arms around her boyfriend's neck. He pushed her against his chest with one hand, still staring at Parker.

“I’m… I’ll just…” Parker turned and scurried off.

The three of them watched him run off. When he’d made it back through the squeaky door, Maeve turned to look at the stoic man with an affectionate woman still hanging from him. “Hey, Alex.”

“Hey, Maeve,” He gave a short wave with his free hand before looking down at his girlfriend, who’d started snuggling into his chest. “Sugar-plumpkins?”

“I want a pet name for you!”

“What happened to ‘babe’?” He unwrapped her arms from his neck and lowered her down to the ground. “I liked babe.”

“Babe is fine for normal days, but it doesn’t really convey, ‘I love this man and plan to spend the rest of my life with him, stop hitting on me’ the way ridiculous, over-the-top, and somewhat nonsensical pet names do,” Amelia told him.

His head tilted back as he stared at the ceiling to think, “There’s the potential implication that you’re running into things too quickly, and the relationship will burn out before that.”

“Pfft. What people think about our relationship isn’t my problem.” She hopped upward and planted a kiss on his cheek. “Hey, babe.”

He smiled and bent down to give her a kiss back. “Hey.” He looked up at Maeve, and a sly grin crossed his face. “My deepest apologies,” He said in a formal tone, “I’ve failed to greet you appropriately.” He walked over in front of her and dropped to one knee, his dark hair only just below Maeve’s eyes as tall as he was. “Greetings and salutations to you, oh dangerous one. This lowly knight greets thee, Lady Second, commander of the Trium-“

“You shut up!” Maeve snapped. “Keep the game and real life separate!” 

Amelia gave her signature eye roll as she leaned against her boyfriend’s back. “Calm down. There’s no one here, and even if someone here hears us, there’s no way they know who to sell the info to.”

“Yeah,” Alex agreed, “You’re going to expect a bunch of museum employees in rural Georgia to know that there’s an open bounty on the true identities of the three members of the Triumvirate, the most powerful players in all of Hold the End Online. It’s only a ten thousand dollar bounty anyway.”

“We aren’t in rural Georgia; you have to drive, like, an hour to get into rural Georgia.”

Maeve groaned and buried her head in her hands, ignoring Amelia’s indignation. “I can’t believe it got so out of control. We just wanted to play games together again.”

Alex chuckled and shrugged. “You know the developers just want you three to work for them making more content; it’s not like anyone is actually after you.”

“I don’t want to make video games; I want to play video games!” She protested, “It’s no fun if you know what’s going to happen ahead of time.”

“I get that.” Amelia gave her a quick side hug, “But I’m going to give Alex a tour of the medieval wing, and I don’t have time to listen to you complain about it again. If anyone comes by, tell them I’m on break.”

“A tour?” Maeve asked skeptically, “What’s this, the four hundredth time?”

“Three hundredth, actually.”

“Whatever, don’t get caught making out on camera.”

“Please,” Amelia flipped her hair back and grabbed Alex’s hand, “I taught you about the blind spots.”

“See you later.” Alex waved over his shoulder as they walked off. “We still on for this weekend?”

“Caleb’s still on his RV trip, so he’s a maybe, but Malcolm’s going to be on.”

“Great! Bring your real characters, not the alts!”

“Never happening!” She called back. Maeve leaned on the desk, her hand propping up her head as she went back to waiting for something to happen. The museum wasn’t very busy on random Wednesdays, and it was still three hours till closing. If there weren’t donors in the building, she could have used her phone or pulled something to do up on one of the computers at the main desks, but the little museum had only grown to the size it was through generous donations of money and exhibits. Maeve wasn’t going to ruin Doctor Miles’ hard work by looking less than professional in front of a donor, even if it was creepy Richard Morgan. Hell, Doctor Miles had even managed to finagle for one of the traveling dinosaur fossil exhibits that moved from museum to museum to come to them next year, and that would be awesome. Too bad that was next year and she was bored now.

An hour passed of her being bored and sneaking in some time on her phone when she was sure no one was looking, including some teasing texts to Amelia. She was about to send one accusing her friend of being an exhibitionist when something strange happened.

________

 Quezeuq Energy has reached critical mass for this universe. System bootup has begun. Please prepare for Universal Integration. 

_________

Maeve stared at the screen that looked like something out of a video game floating just within her field of vision. It was a light gray color with black text and was translucent enough that she could see the screen and the writing on it but still make out the area in front of her as well. “What the hell?”

________

 Quezeuq Energy will most likely cause advanced technology to fail after Universal Integration until said technology is insulated against Quezeuq Energy. It is recommended that all individuals stop all vehicles before Integration and remove themselves from the area of the following detected structures, buildings, and devices: 

Nuclear power plants, Oil rigs, Missile silos, Particle accelerators, Prototype teleportation machines, Prototype quantum computers, Prototype laser weapons, Prototype plasma weapons… 

{See Full List}

________

Maeve glanced at the flashing option to see the full list and briefly thought that she wasn’t going to read the entire list of things this screen thought she should stay away from. The screen vanished as soon as the thought flitted through her head. Maeve could feel her breath start to come faster and faster, and she faintly tried not to hyperventilate.

“Maeve?” She glanced up and found Alex’s friend Ed from his historical reenactment group standing in front of the desk. “Do you know what’s going on? And where is Alex? He asked me to meet him here to give him some of his stuff back from the last tournament.” He waved at the air in front of his face. “Do you know what this is? It’s from the video games you guys play, right? Some altered reality stuff or whatever?”

“Augmented reality. And, uh, I don’t know.”

“Weird. How are they getting me to see this? I didn’t agree to anything on my phone, and I’m not wearing any glasses.”

The next screen that appeared cut off anything Maeve could have thought to say.

________

  Universal Integration will likely result in spatial and geographical changes occurring on your planet. Please be in physical contact with anyone you would like to guarantee you arrive with following Universal Integration. System resources will be deployed to ensure that children arrive with their parents or closest caretakers, and no resources will be available to guarantee arrival for adults. Again, please be in physical contact with anyone you’d like to arrive in your new world with.

Universal Integration will begin in: 

8 Minutes 37 Seconds

________

Maeve quickly read through the next message, blood draining from her face as she finished each sentence; by the time she’d read it all, the countdown timer was almost at eight minutes left. She dashed for the doors, knocking a lamp off the desk as she ran.

“Where are you going?” Ed called after her.

She ignored him as she burst through the door into the recently expanded wing that held a number of donated exhibits, which Amelia called “the medieval wing”. “Amelia!” She screamed.

“Maeve!?”

Maeve turned and sprinted toward the sound of Amelia’s voice. She found Amelia and Alex near the display of different armors with their clothes slightly askew.

Amelia turned to her as she busted through the swinging door between sections. “Maeve, why are you screaming? What’s happen-“

“Hold hands!” Maeve snapped, grabbing Amelia’s hand as she said that. “Now!”

Alex grabbed her other hand while both of them stared at her. “What’s wrong?”

“Haven’t you been reading these screens?” She waved her face in front of her face to indicate what she was talking about.

“Yeah, it has to be some gimmicky marketing stunt, right?” Amelia said nervously. She glanced up at Alex. “Right? It’s just some company showing off their new tech to show off their game or whatever, right? That System showing up and the world getting bigger or part of some multiverse is a popular genre right now.”

“I think what Maeve’s worried about is the chance that it isn’t something like that,” Alex replied slowly, watching Maeve. “If it is just some company being assholes with their bad marketing, then we have a fun story about holding hands when we saw the reveal trailer. If not…”

Ed pushed through the door. He stopped and frowned at the three of them. “What are you doing? Is-“

“You! Hand, now!” Maeve shouted at him, pointing at Alex’s free hand.

“What? I-“

“Ed.” Alex’s firm tone shut down any protests the other man had as he held out his hand. “Just in case, man.”

Ed cautiously reached out and grabbed Alex’s hand. “You’re starting to freak me out, guys.”

Maeve started pulling them toward the exit to the wing. “Save it for later; we have six minutes to find more people. Do not let go.”

They ran through the empty museum, heading for the central offices. Maeve cursed at each stupidly long hallway meant to copy other, larger, and more successful museums and each closed door.

“Where are we going?” Ed asked as they pushed through door after door, still in a human chain.

“It’s a slow day, so almost everyone left early, but Doctor Miles and Scarlett are still here with a donor,” Amelia explained, “We want to get to them!”

Maeve glanced to the side, and a screen popped up right where she wanted it to be.

________

Universal Integration will begin in: 

4 Minutes 19 Seconds

Hurry, Maeve

________

She ignored the worrying sight of her name on the screen and started pumping her legs faster. They curved around a corner, bumping into each other as they slipped on freshly waxed floors. She felt a scream rising in her throat as she lost her grip on Amelia’s hand before her friend lashed out and grabbed her arm, nails digging into her skin. A broken sob fell out of her as they scrambled to their feet, still connected. They burst into Doctor Miles’ office, the door slamming into the wall hard enough to break the stopper. It was empty.

“Fuck!”

________

Universal Integration will begin in: 

2 Minutes 1 Second

________

“Doctor Miles! Scarlett!” Amelia shouted down the hallway.

Alex’s head snapped to the left toward the reconstruction and restoration rooms Doctor Miles was so proud of. “That way!”

They sprinted down the hallway, spread out in a loose line to avoid tripping. They hit the door to the restoration rooms, and Maeve desperately worked at the handle. “It’s locked!”

“Move!” Alex surged forward, his hands letting go of Ed and Amelia’s hands. His foot came up, and he brutally stomped down. The wooden door frame splintered as the lock’s metal bolt tore through the weaker material. He reached down and reclaimed the open hands. “Go!”

The first three rooms in the miniature complex were full of tables and workbenches of various antiques and minor historical artifacts from the local area, all laid out to be repaired or restored. There was too much space and too many items for the museum’s limited restoration staff to work on everything, but Doctor Miles’ had been excited at the various possibilities they had for expanding. The first three rooms also had no one in them.

________

Universal Integration will being in: 

40 Seconds

________

The door to the fourth and last room was closed but not locked. Maeve tried to push it open but found something behind it, blocking it. “Hello?” She called out through the crack.

“Maeve, is that you?”

“Scarlett! Open the fucking door, we’ve got seconds left!”

“I barricaded it! I can’t get it open that fast!”

“Stick your arm through the gap in the door!” Alex shouted.

The sound of slamming and things falling were heard as Scarlett pulled down her barricade.

________

Universal Integration will begin in: 

10

9

8

7

6

5

________

Scarlett’s arm jammed through the slightly wider gap, just enough for Maria to grab onto her wrist.

________

Universal Integration will begin in: 

3

2

1

Universal Integration will now begin.

Please brace yourself; this will likely be unpleasant.

________

Everything went black.