"Arty?"

"Yeah, Z?"

"I'm nervous as hell," My eyes were darting around the room, looking for an escape.

"Z?" she placed a hand gently on my arm, the warm touch transferring perfectly through my haptics.

"Yeah, Arty?" My eyes met hers.

"You've talked to the whole Oasis like 3 times already".

"Yeah, but that was as a Gunter...I was good at that. Now I'm a…" I looked down at my upsettingly crisp suit and made a face, "-CEO". I sighed, "I look like frickin Sorento".

As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I felt the cold twisting in my gut...should not have said that. I cringed as I waited for the nymph sitting beside me to transform into Goro and rip my arms off.

My eyes were mostly closed, I didn't see her move. Art3mis silently slid into my lap, pushing off the leather couch cushion and wrapping her arms around my neck. My own arms automatically wrapped around her. I don't deserve her. I bring up the bastard who killed her dad and she decides I need a hug.

"Z…" She lowered her voice, whispering into my ear, "Wade...You could never be Sorento".

"How? I've got all this power and I'm clueless. I'm supposed to make money for the shareholders. I-" My heartrate skyrocketed with the word 'shareholders'

She put her finger to my lips, unintentionally sending my heartrate even higher. Her voice was firmer, not gentle any more, "You aren't doing it for money". A mischevious grin slid across her face, "And you've got Me, Aech, and DaiSho to stop you being a jackass".

I buried my face against the warm skin of her neck, "I love you, Samantha".

She tensed up noticably, breath catching in her throat. I felt her shake her head before she relaxed against me again. She took a breath before replying, "I love you too". I could feel her smiling against my hair.

We sat there for a moment, hiding from reality - virtual reality.

The door opened to reveal a yellow zukin that was barely concealing the wearer's trademark grin, "Z, Art3mis, Aech says to 'get your butts out here before I come carry you out'". Sho's attempted impression of Aech's modulated voice sent Art3mis into fits of giggles

I took a breath then stood up, holding Art3mis bridal style. She gave me a look. I put her down and she patted my chest before kissing my cheek, "Come on, McFly".

We walked down the hall, Art3mis holding my hand discreetly and Sho bouncing off the walls. When we met up with Daito and Aech, the metallic giant was in absolute panic mode.

"I seriously CANNOT talk to this many people...it's like...EVERYBODY!" Her huge body was swinging around, steel fists once seriously denting some piping. Daito was dodging her flailing in an artful sort of dance.

I opened my mouth to attempt to calm the crazed giant but before I could speak, the heavy bass of Billy Squier's "The Stroke" started thumping through enormous speakers and the digital crowd was pulsing up and down, holographic projections of the Egg and the Oasis logo spinning around the room. The Great and Powerful Og floated around above the crowd in his flying throne, clearly enjoying himself immensely.

Art3mis looked at me with a quirked eyebrow and a teasing grin and my heart stopped momentarily...I wonder if that ever goes away?

"Let's put on a show," She wiggled her eyebrows one more time before practically dragging me out toward the stage. Her steps were timed with the pounding beat and she looked for all the world like a rockstar. Her smile was so infectious, that I and even Aech couldn't help but break into a grin.

We stepped out from behind the curtain and the crowd went insane. First for Arty, then for me, and Aech, then Daito, and finally for Sho.

I took a deep breath before starting to speak, trying desperately to remember my rehearsed speech. I had it running in a side window off in the corner of my vision but I wanted to try to remain natural. "Ladies and Gentlemen, Gunters, Oasis Denizens, Thank you for coming," I paused momentarily and grinned, "Although I suppose you didn't have much of a choice since this is on every device connected to the net". There was a light laugh from the crowd and Art3mis bit her lip and glanced at me, stopping my heart again.

I continued the address, much more relaxed, "My name is Parzival and beside me are Art3mis, Aech, Daito, and Sho," I gestured to each of them in turn

Art3mis did a sort of spin to greet them. Aech waved in her sort of smallish way with a half smile. Daito bowed formally and Sho did a flip before Daito grabbed his hand and forced him into a bow.

"We are the High-Five and I'm proud to say we are now in charge of the Oasis," There was no cheer at this news. The crowd if anything seemed uncomfortable at this statement. "Above all," I continued, "Our number one goal is to keep the Oasis free and open for all. No advertisements outside of designated commercial areas. PvP will stay as it is. School will stay the same. I grew up in the Oasis, same as a lot of you. It's my home."

There was sort of a collective sigh of relief from those avatars in direct attendance, and, I suppose, from the millions of people gathered at live event spaces where we were being projected as holograms, and probably from the millions more who were watching on cell phones or on floating screens all over the Oasis.

"We also want to honor the memory of James Halliday," I looked around the enormous room and the words caught in my throat. I couldn't shake the memory of speaking with him in his childhood bedroom...He was so real.

"...And in doing that, we want to ensure that something like the Sixer takeover can never happen again." Art3mis stepped forward and continued my speech seamlessly. Her statement was met with overwhelming applause.

She was referring to the "Sixer Takeover" which was the collective term given to the period of time between Halliday's death and my finding the egg. Once they were no longer actively blocked by Halliday, IOI had purchased massive amounts of online space and turned it into storefronts, call centers, and mod factories all staffed by loyalty center detainees. The IOI malls strictly carried IOI licensed merchandise and spread quickly. Walking through one, a player was subject to special IOI "Security Programs"...basically meaning you could be totally scanned at random since you agreed to it by walking into the parcel. The worst part though, was that all the parcels were patrolled by Sixers; Stuck up, pseudomilitary, stick-up-their-ass Sixers who thought they were cops.

The Sixer Takeover had effectively shut out a lot of individual entrepreneurs. Aech would have had a legitimate storefront if not for the fact that IOI charged unimaginable rent for a small store and required that the Intellectual Property rights of all items sold or created by the proprietor must be licensed to IOI eternally without compensation.

The sixer properties expanded like crazy. It got to a point where you could hardly go anywhere that wasn't controlled by them except for exclusionary zones like PvP areas and schools or privately owned property.

Basically...it sucked.

Since the Egg had been found, though, we had rolled out new restrictions on corporate influence in the Oasis. All corporate entities had to buy property through an independent system which was more heavily regulated. We redid the zoning rules so that planets would be organized more reasonably, basically laid out like eternal suburbs with private property making up the vast majority and huge commercial entities only occupying a small centralized area. Commercial pursuits which had not hit a revenue of 10 million credits per year were considered "small commercial" and were afforded roughly the same status as individuals.

That plus the outlawing of loyalty centers forced IOI out of most commercial and private space inside the Oasis, all without us needing to enact potentially damaging direct limitations on IOI. The company is awful, but they manufacture a lot of hardware that people depend on.

"We don't really want to do much with our new power," She continued, going slightly off script, "But I think we can all agree that...Screw the Sixers". The crowd repeated her sentiment with a roaring "Screw the Sixers".

"We have introduced a policy requiring all corporate-registered avatars to wear in an easily visible location, the new Oasis Corporate Partner logo," Art3mis wore a smirk that almost entirely gave away how amused she was with the logo Aech had designed. It featured a red printed "P" inside a larger "C" inside a still larger "O" on a red background. The overall effect was of a red and yellow bullseye. A small wave of laughter rolled through the crowd.

She looked back to me with that same light in her eyes she'd had when we danced at the Distracted Globe. She shot me a little grin and nodded as if to indicate she wanted me to pick it up again.

"Anyway, we wouldn't have gotten you all here if we didn't have a good reason," Aech said before I had a chance to say anything. "We've put together a little fun for everyone to celebrate the end of the contest." She paused, smirking, "This one's for you Gunters out there". Og grinned down at them.

"We have hidden several surprises around the Oasis. Little things mostly, like relics, but a little better," Daito continued.

"Instead of powers, you get to play with us," Sho supplied, casually walking around on his hands.

I stepped forward and spoke again, "What we've put up for grabs are opportunities, opportunities to get to know us. Some of the eggs are an invitation to play a certain quest with one of us, or come tour the Gregarious offices IRL, or even just come hang out in the basement". Most of the crowd started discussing in hushed voices.

"Halliday always said the Oasis was never meant to be a one player game," I continued, "We're running the show now, but we want YOU to run it with us."

The tension in my gut at announcing the new hunt released somewhat as I saw the excitement in the crowd.

"Onward to the hunt!" Shouted Art3mis in what would shortly become the rallying cry of the new generation of Gunters.

The hundred or so holograms of Halliday's egg started to circle around above the crowd in the center of the massive virtual venue. Every real life venue had a similar display. The doors at the back burst open and the eggs flew out into the nothingness of space, dispersing in totally random directions.

"Just think like a Gunter," I said off the cuff, creating what might have turned out to be the second most common nu-Gunter catchphrase.

The crowd flooded out of the venue, some avatars engaging rocket boots or jet packs in an attempt to get ahead of the crowd. I laughed out loud as I saw Og hanging upside down, and jerking side to side, dodging the lightning bugs that were rocket propelled people.

"that could have gone worse," Aech said as she clapped me on the shoulder with her enormous hand.

"Indeed it could have," Came the laughing voice of Og who now joined us on the stage as the venue quickly emptied, "Jim would be thrilled with this new crazy idea".

"Thanks Og," I said, still slightly lightheaded from the sudden departure of my severe nerves.

"How long do you think until the first one gets found?" Art3mis asked, quirking up an eyebrow.

"Dunno, but it'll definitely be one of Aech's," Sho joked lovingly, dodging an equally loving swipe from Aech's massive hand.

"Didn't you actually hide one under a rock?" She asked Sho defensively.

"Yeah...but they won't be looking under rocks. Everyone's gonna think it's some big fantastic quest to find an egg...not under a rock".

Og watched the conversation as one might watch a ping-pong match.

Aech rolled her eyes. We had all taken responsibility for hiding some of the eggs. The original plan had been to have exactly 100 with each of us taking 20, but during a few late-night brainstorms between Samantha and myself, we came up with about 50 of our own that were too much fun to pass up, thus landing us at the uncertain figure of "A hundred or so".

We had managed to prevent corporate interests from attempting to get at the eggs by stipulating in the Terms of Service that any of the new eggs were transferable ONLY to privately registered player avatars and that any contract regarding transfer of an unfound egg was unenforceable. That way, no company could sign someone on with the requirement that they hand over a prize. With this little bit of legalese, Og and his team of lawyers had effectively ended the Sixers or any similar endeavors permanently.

As a side-effect of the massively public battle at Castle Anorak, public opinion of IOI had shifted even further south than it had been. Even non-Gunters were mostly anti-IOI at this point. As such, several other hardware manufacturers had quickly gained market share at a nearly unprecedented rate. Oculus went up to about 15% of the market, HTC held about the same, with Habishaw trailing by only a few percentage points. Tesla Bodysuits were now outstripping the X1 in most markets and the Hardlight battle-jackets were catching up with PvP obsessed players. The six of us were all quietly (or not so quietly in Samantha's case) hoping IOI went completely out of business, but for the moment we had to play nice.

Og seemed to remember something suddenly, "Ah, Wade...before I forget, Art3mis here mentioned something you might like to know".

That got my attention, what in the world could Arty and Og be conspiring on. There was a tense moment, only defused when Og finally spoke.

"You don't have shareholders," A smile grew on the old wizard's face.

Aech nearly fell over laughing.

Art3mis' smirk could have melted steel. As it was, it just melted me, "Z, you've been talking about shareholders for like a week...nonstop".

"I just wanted to be sure you understood the full weight of your stake in the Oasis and in Gregarious Simulations," Og continued, "And to alleviate any worries you might have regarding that particular aspect of your new position".

"Y-" I tried to speak but couldn't quite get my voice to work since Arty chose that moment to walk toward me, swaying her hips. Does she do that on purpose?

I fumbled with the controller dangling from my wrist, trying to turn on my emotion suppression program but the damn thing kept slipping out of my hand. The effect was my avatar's left hand twitching furiously with his face very obviously dumbstruck.

Art3mis placed her hands gently on my shoulders, those big, sparkling, gold-green eyes looking up at me. It sent shivers down my spine.

"Just relax, Z," She spoke softly. She ran her hands down my arms and gave a light squeeze, smiling crookedly.

"Well as much fun as," Aech gestured broadly to indicate myself, Og, Sho, and Art3mis, "That was; I've got to get some sleep IRL. I was up all night fixing Iron Giant..finally got the left leg working again though".

Aech yawned and Daito followed suit. Sho looked around the circle and declared, "I'm gonna go smurf".

"What?" asked Arty, amazed there was some Oasis lingo she didn't know.

"Smurf, get in a low level avatar and go PvP," Sho replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, already scrolling through his menu and wearing the default converse and jeans on his lower half.

"Damn...why didn't I think of that?" Said Aech through another yawn. Sho's name disappeared from the box above his avatar to be replaced with "SixerFixer21".

"Because you're not me," quipped Sho, flashing his trademark grin before exploding into pixelated dust as he teleported to Planet Doom.

Aech seemed on the edge of a retort but it died on her tongue as her shoulders slumped, "G'night guys".

Next came a chorus of "Night Aech" from the four of us who were left and an "Oyasumi" from Daito. Then both Aech and Daito could be seen grabbing their headsets before themselves exploding into pixelated dust.

"I suppose it's my turn to disappear now too, I've got a meeting I need to attend on Gygax," Og flashed his own trademark grin that always seemed to indicate that he knew more than he let on.

"Go on Dungeon Master," said Arty, wiggling her eyebrows and turning around in my arms to face him.

"Go end the world with your D20," I added.

"I intend to," replied Og before his avatar disappeared in a puff of green smoke and a flash of light.

Once he was gone, Art3mis rounded on me. My heart rate skyrocketed again. I wonder if she knows what her eyebrows do to me when one of them is quirked up like that. I reached out my hands to grip her waist as she approached. She smirked and jumped into my arms. I nearly fell over.

"What the hell?" I exclaimed as I struggled to stay upright and maintain some dignity.

I was used to her jumping on me in the Oasis, but normally it manifested through my haptics as a light pressure on my arms and body. This time, her entire weight hit me. As I was trying to figure out what my haptic suit had done to simulate this, a pair of small hands removed the visor from my face to reveal the grinning face of Samantha.

I laughed and asked, "What's got you in such a great mood?"

She bit her lip and shook her head, "Can't tell you".

Samantha practically dragged me out of my rig and to our bedroom, "What's the hurry?" I asked with a laugh in my voice.

"I haven't seen you at all today," She half-groaned as she threw her small body around, trying to drag my much larger frame along despite the fact that I was coming willingly.

"We spent all day together, we built that puzzle on -"

"Oh shush...you know that doesn't count," She was now pouting at me and sitting on the edge of my - our bed with her hands holding mine.

"It does so count," She started pulling off my gloves and unzipping my suit.

"Nope, Only reality's real," Of course she's quoting Halliday, even weeks after the contest is over. Maybe that distance is the reason she's paraphrasing instead of quoting directly.

"Don't you throw Halliday in my face," I replied, trying in vain to fight back a wide, goofy grin.

I looked down at her for a second, just a heartbeat. She had this happy glow since the Egg, I'd never seen anything like it. Her slightly messy auburn hair, her sparkling green eyes, her crooked smile, even her birthmark all just added to the perfection of her.

My hands found her ribs and I tickled mercilessly. Samantha fell back on the bed laughing and I followed her down since she'd wrapped her legs around me. I fell on top of her and her Rush t-shirt pressed coolly against the exposed skin of my torso.

Tickling turned into kissing, turned into...the next morning.

"Wade! Samantha! Breakfast is served," Came the ridiculous voice of the Curator through the heavy oak door.

In response, Samantha let out what can only be called an "aggressive snore".

I had been staring at the ceiling for almost 10 minutes at that point, just enjoying the slow awakening that comes with the woman you love still sleeping peacefully on your chest.

My lungs inflated with the loud response I was about to make before deflating again just as quickly with the realization that Samantha might actually murder me if she woke up like that. I elected to just let Og wait it out.

Instead of shouting in her ear, I ran a hand up and down her back, "Arty, get up, food".

My heart fluttered when instead of waking up properly she smiled and buried her face more aggressively against me.

Now fighting a battle between my growling stomach and snuggling girlfriend, I tried to win both. I attempted to peacefully extricate myself from the tangle of limbs we had become through the night. In response, she only held tighter to me, now clearly conscious but reticent to admit it.

"Wanna sleep," she groaned, trying to pull me back as I finally managed to get on top of her and halfway untangled.

"Then sleep," I said quietly.

"You stay," She answered, pouting.

"I eat".

Samantha's eyes finally opened and fixed me with what I have learned to call "pleading anger". It was equally adorable and frightening. The expression was sort of the same as when a cat knows you could be petting it but aren't.

"God you're terrible in the morning," I said with a smirk, knowing it was exactly the right thing to say to get her riled up and actually awake.

She sat up, "And you're aggravating in the morning. I'm a multi-billionaire...can't I sleep in?"

I poked her leg as I stood up, and began pulling on my shorts, "You're a multi-billionaire with a job".

She collapsed again with a sigh but after only a second, joined me in readying herself for breakfast.

"Wade...your visor," I turned to look in the direction Helen was pointing to find my visor flashing red.

Picking up the visor, I looked inside to see the text, "Image attachment, touch orb to view".

"Did you-?" I started to ask Helen, but she cut me off, shaking her head. She was the only one as far as I knew who could have directly pushed an attachment to my rig.

Without saying anything more, I took a deep breath, and reached out to touch the floating white pearl in virtual space.

After an imperceptible delay, still holding my visor a hand's breadth from my face, I could see a floating 3D image of three avatars smiling and leaning against one another like one might see on the cover of a sitcom. Each one was looking at the camera and holding a cylinder. The three cylinders were identical, red one one end and blue on the other, glowing faintly.

My stomach dropped out from inside me. I'd seen one of those before...the ONLY one.

...The Cataclyst.