Want early access to Zero.Hero 2 before its release? Check out my $5 tier or above on Patreon to get those chapters (starting Sunday 7/26) and get access to the full re-release of Zero.Hero 1 when it drops tomorrow 7/24.

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Here's the summary for Zero.Hero 2, and a teaser of the first little bit of chapter 1, just for you guys!

Summary

Terra’s Heroes are zeroes no more.

For Claire and her RPG hero friends, the spring semester was loaded with PR interviews, sponsorship requests, and paparazzi. Summer has come and it’sfinally their chance to unwind in Italy.

Or is it.

The Hero Olympics will test Claire on and off the field as an evil plot unfolds in the shadow of the games. Augur’s visions can only get them so far as Terra’s Heroes fight not just to claim victory for their guild, the Stewards of Light, but to foil the plans of an unknown agent who’s pulling the strings of the massive corporation XHRI, an Olympic sponsor.

The line between friend and foe will blur as Claire navigates new waters of fame and fandom. Can Terra’s Heroes prevent the games from falling into the grip of a deadly plot, or will they succumb to the wiles of their mysterious enemy?

Chapter 1

My ears popped for what felt like the fiftieth time when the Captain’s voice came through the overhead speakers. “We’ve now reached our cruising altitude of thirty-five thousand feet. It’s a quick eleven-hour flight direct to Naples, Italy, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t stretch your legs.Feel free to get up and move about the cabin for the next hour, then we’ll have a bit of dinner.”

Piper turned around in her seat to look at me and Norah as she not-so-whispered, “This is wicked awesome!”

I was giddy to be on a private jet too, but more than that, I was nervous. I licked my lips as I opened my character screen. The “Paths” tab next to Inventory pulsed at me, but that’s not what I was here for. I came for my new spell, Familiar Bond.

I’d intended to let the doctors at SoL strap me up, read my brain and anything else they wanted for science while I went on my quest to the Shaman realm… but after the way they’d treated us, specifically me, we’d lost confidence in them. The Director had withheld so much information about what had happened when I was in a coma, and the things that had gone on the six times I’d died.

And sure, they’d paid uswell for that job, and took care of my mom’s doctor bills, but then we were turned into public icons. SoL had us dragged around from one convention to the next, posing for pictures, participating in roleplays of the events which were completely made up since no one knew what happened at the end of the fight.

Not even me.

I looked back at that part of my memory, trying hard to lift the haze around it. I had banished the thoughts, the same way I’d forced myself to forget Jitterbug’s ruined face, and I knew myself well enough to know I wouldn’t do that lightly. Either I wanted to forget because it’d been so horrible I couldn’t stand to ever see it again, or I was hiding something.

Keensense tickled my neck at that, and I knew it was true. I hadn’t told the girls for fear of freaking them out over potentially nothing, but then my Keensense tingled at that too. I’d wanted to say something to Elise once, but it didn’t seem like the right time.

Then we were swept away by the coming of spring, and the coming of the press, the paparazzi, the limo rides, the luxury, and the freakin’ action figures. SoL had fought hard to keep leaked vid captures and random pictures of us transforming in alleys off the Local Board, but it only took a few hackers to trace the postings back to their source and mass publish the images.

The weeks leading up to June had been a whirlwind tour of Colorado as Claire, with my mother. She spoke teary-eyed praises to reporters, so grateful to have a daughter like me. She went on and on about how I was paying all her bills, paying my way through school, and still managing to save Denver in my limited free time. I wanted to vomit every time the reporter said anything along the lines of, “Sounds like an angel.”

When I had finally remembered about the missing memory, we were packing for Italy. I didn’t want to ruin the trip with a false alarm, so I just kept it to myself.My stomach turned a bit, one-part guilt and two-parts fear as my vision hovered on the “Shaman Familiar” text in the popup.

“Are you going, or what?” Elise asked as she turned around like Piper.

I looked up at her, trying to summon my confidence. “I’ll have ten hours to find this thing and do whatever I need to do to make it mine. I can be woken from my trance, so it’s important that no one interferes.”

Norah knocked my shoulder. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep Mr. Juhl and the flight attendants away.”

Piper grinned. “And I’ll eat all your meals when the stewards aren’t looking so it seems like you’re not dead.”

“Teamwork,” Elise said with a grin that sparkled.

“Stop fuffling around and get to it,” Norah urged. “You’re running out of time.”

I exhaled hard through pursed lips. “All right, see you guys on the flipside.”

I leaned the seat back all the way, a huge perk of being in a private jet. I took one last sip of my bottled water to wet my dry mouth, then laid back. The cool, sterile air whooshed in through my nose and I held my breath at the top.

Here we go.