The Arena: Haced

Author's note:

This is the third installment in my The Arena series but it can be read standalone. It features themes of reluctant sex. All characters are over the age of eighteen.

Thanks for reading!

-----------

"Hold the stretch. Ten more seconds. Relax into it. Five more seconds."

Audrey rested her fingertips lightly on the mat. She didn't need the approval of the virtual coach to know that her form was good.

"Aaand stand," the coach said. "Ten-second breather."

Standing, Audrey caught her reflection in the smart screen. "I'm not in my twenties anymore," she sighed.

"You are in the top three percent of women aged thirty-two for your overall health," the coach said. "Your aerobic capacity is in the top two percent and your strength and speed are-"

"I didn't ask." Audrey wiped her brow, but before the workout could continue the smart screen blinked red to indicate an urgent call. "Pause workout. Who's the call from?"

"Tricia Campbell."

"Trish," Audrey mused, smiling. What possibly could be urgent for the CEO of The Arena? "Put her through. Uhhh, camera off!"

"Audrey!" Tricia's voice came through clearly but had an agitated edge. "I'm sorry to call so early. You were probably, I don't know, up all night coding or something."

"I don't pull all-nighters anymore," Audrey said, chuckling. "Doing some yoga. What's up?"

"I'm here with Casper. Engineering. You remember him, right?"

"Sure."

"Mind if we go on camera?"

Audrey rechecked her reflection and performed an internal shrug. "Yeah, that's fine. I'm in my workout clothes, though. Don't judge."

Tricia's camera popped on. To Audrey's surprise, she and Casper weren't in Tricia's office but rather the operations room for The Arena, the virtual reality sex show that Tricia owned and ran.

Audrey's stomach sank. "What's wrong?"

"Is it that obvious?" Tricia asked wryly. "Casper can explain it better than I can."

Casper, a young man with stereotypically unkempt attire, leaned into the camera's field of view. "We've had an incursion."

"The Arena? A hack?"

"Yes. Someone -we don't know who yet- hacked in and loaded their own simulation, deleting the one we had loaded for tonight's show."

"You have a backup though, right?"

"Yes, yes," Casper said, waving a hand impatiently. "That isn't the problem. They've locked their simulation in place. We can't remove it."

"What's the simulation?"

"Don't know.

We

can't enter the simulation," Casper said, emphasizing 'we'.

"You might be able to, though," Tricia added.

"Wait, I'm sorry. You and Casper have admin privileges in The Arena and you can't get in, but you think I might be able to?"

"It isn't about admin privileges," Casper said. "Trish, tell her about the note."

"This arrived overnight," Tricia said, before displaying a short message.

I have control of your torture box. You won't make a dime from peddling other people's fantasies until I say so. It will take a Knife to close this wound.

Audrey went cold. "They wrote that? A Knife?"

"Yes." Tricia spoke quietly. "Audrey, that was your name in the hacker forums, right? When you worked for us?"

That wasn't the only community that knew me as Knife,

Audrey thought. "Yes," she said, trying to match Tricia's even tone, "but I haven't been active there for years."

"Trish and I have both tried entering the simulation," Casper explained. "We can't. It's coded to only allow a specific person."

"Me."

"That seems likely," Tricia said. "Can you think of anyone who might have taken an interest in you from back then?"

Of course. The hacker community was highly competitive, and Audrey had been prominent enough to draw the attention of both admirers and detractors. "There were a few, sure," she began. "But like I said, that was years ago. Why now, and what's the connection with The Arena?"

"We don't know, either," Tricia said. She said nothing more but the implication was clear.

"You want me to go in."

"If we're right," Casper said, "and the simulation is coded just for you, then no one else can even give it a look."

"And you've tried other approaches for getting rid of the simulation? Rebooting? A cold start?"

Casper gave an impatient expression which said,

Yes, of course I tried all of the obvious stuff.

"No luck. Whoever it is rewrote the firmware, too. A restart just loads the same scene."

"Audrey," Tricia said, adopting a kinder tone, "I'm sure eventually we can purge The Arena and regain control. Worst case we outsource it to a top-tier security firm." This drew a vexed look from Casper, but Tricia continued. "But we're supposed to have a show tonight. You remember how tight our margins are. If we lose tonight's revenue, and if it slips into another week, we'll be in trouble."

Audrey nodded mutely. Tricia, Casper, and the others were good people, and she had enjoyed her time with the startup company. More compelling was the suggestion that the hack was directed more against her than The Arena. If her history as a hacker had drawn the attention to her former employer then she had an obligation to help.

"Okay," she said. "I'll check it out."

***

Hugs awaited her at the studio. Casper's was appropriate in a perfunctory way for a co-worker from five years ago, while Tricia's was warmer.

"Oh, thank you so much for coming in," Tricia said, with a lingering embrace, "this means so much to me."

"It's good to see you," Audrey said, meaning it. "Both of you," she added, raising her eyes to Casper. "I was glad to see that The Arena caught on."

"We're keeping our heads above water," Tricia said, guiding her inside. "Adding the nonconsent scenes helped, and using FearPak to make them more visceral helped connect us to a wider audience. Viewership and participation have grown steadily. We're profitable."

"But, you can't afford to lose momentum?"

"Right," Tricia said. "Here's the tank."

Entering a high-fidelity simulation like The Arena required a state-of-the-art VR suit. But for a figuratively and literally immersive experience, a saltwater flotation tank made a vast improvement. By freeing the participant from gravity, and minimizing resistance to movement, the tank displaced physical reality, allowing for the simulation to take over. Casper excused himself while Audrey stripped naked, wriggled into the suit, then submerged herself.

Back in the control room, Tricia and Casper joined Audrey on the audio link. After checking comms, Casper talked Audrey through the process. "We'll drop you into the simulation," he explained. "If you aren't the person for whom the simulation is coded it'll be a short ride. But if we're right, and it's keyed for you, you'll be the first to get a look."

"If I don't like it I'm dropping out," Audrey reminded him.

"Absolutely. Not just at the beginning. We can pull you at any point in the simulation."

"Alright, let's go."

Floating with the VR goggles on, the noise-canceling earbuds in place, and the suit idle, Audrey hung in a world void of sensation. While Casper conducted the final checks, Audrey performed a breathing exercise, relaxing her body.

"Our comms will be encrypted," Casper explained through the earbuds, "but anything you say aloud will be heard by others. Assuming there are others in the simulation, that is."

At first, at least, Audrey appeared to be alone. The scene took shape around her, a jungle path flanked by roughly-cut stone blocks strewn seemingly at random and wrapped in vines.

"Looks like Southeast Asia," Audrey said. "Very game-like. Designed to appear open world, but I'd bet there's only one way forward."

"We see it, too," Tricia said. "Looks like you were the one the simulation was coded for."

She had been attired properly for the scene. Audrey's boots trampled vines, and a pair of khaki trousers, if unnecessarily form-fitting, protected her calves and thighs. Colorful birds darted overhead and unseen primates shrieked at her arrival. She walked carefully forward between the ranks of stones until they parted to reveal a large clearing.

"Holy video game," Audrey muttered. Indeed, the crumbling structure looming over her could have been borrowed from any of a dozen tomb-themed video games. It had once been pyramidal, but over the centuries vines and rain had conspired to erode and pull free half or more of the outer stones, leaving the exterior pitted and scarred. What remained was dark and imposing, with no sign of an entrance.

Audrey poked around for clues. A pair of flat stone slabs had once adorned the front, perhaps bearing inscriptions. One had fallen centuries past, and the other was choked with vines. Between them was a low plinth, also vine-covered. Audrey pulled at them, sending beetles and centipedes scrambling.

"That was faster than I expected!" The amplified, synthetic voice boomed over the clearing, genderless and disguised.

"I can confirm you have been joined in the simulation," Casper said dryly.

Audrey did her best to feign disinterest, continuing to pull the vines from the plinth. "Who's that?" she asked. "One of my admirers?"

"Figuring that out is part of the puzzle," the voice said, "part of the fun."

"Yep, playing live-action Nintendo is super fun. What's next, Frogger?"

The plinth, a low platform designed to support a column, instead held only a compact, vertically set shard of stone. Audrey bent to inspect it but the voice rang out once more.

"Oh, but you're so much sharper than that, aren't you, Knife? Solve this puzzle and I'll tell you more, but I'll throw you a clue first. You'll need to share your fun with others."

The shard had to be some part of the puzzle to expose the entrance to the temple, but when Audrey reached for it the air crackled angrily with electricity. She yanked her hand back.

"I believe," Casper began, "that you won't be allowed to proceed unless we broadcast your feed."

"Broadcast it? Let anyone jack into my feed?"

There was a hushed conversation from the control room before Tricia spoke. "We could minimize the visibility," she assured Audrey. "If we don't advertise the feed, if we suppress notifications, then only those who happen to check the usual channel will discover it."

"Nnno," Audrey said slowly, still chewing on the idea. "Let's lean into it. The hacker is threatening your revenue stream, right? Turn it around on them. Advertise the simulation as a test of some sort, encourage people to jack in."

Tricia hesitated. "You don't mind?"

"I can drop out at any point that it becomes uncomfortable, right? Until then you might as well make some money." Perhaps flipping the script on the hacker would throw them off their game.

There was another indistinct conversation from the control room, this time ending with Casper's voice. "Okay, I'm starting the broadcast. While you get to work on the puzzle, Trish and I will send out notifications to the regular viewers."

"Drop something into the social media communities for non-consent and rough sex, too."

"Oh?"

"Yes. I've got a feeling about this."

Audrey reached once more for the stone shard. At her touch the remaining vines and dust dissolved into mist, not just from the shard but from the stone slab to her left. But whereas she had thought it might contain an inscription of some sort, a clue, instead it was perfectly reflective.

She should have been expecting a mirror. They were an extremely common device in simulations, especially when the participant didn't get to choose their appearance. Contestants in The Arena were presented with the opportunity to inspect their virtual bodies early on, to admire the idealized form that had been selected for them by their partner. No one in The Arena was unattractive.

Audrey's appearance, however, wasn't idealized, just retro. The young woman staring back from the shiny stone was a perfect replica of her in her mid-twenties. At five-foot-seven and with a trim, athletic build, Audrey's legs nicely filled out the stereotyped explorer trousers. An equally drab top, untucked and tied high to expose her midriff, served to showcase her modest cleavage. Wild brown hair hung past her shoulders. Whoever had designed her body for the simulation knew exactly what she had looked like at twenty-five, even if they had dressed her like a video game heroine.

The stone shard had also transformed. No longer a dusty spike, it now protruded up from the plinth, smooth and sleek. That it was phallic was obvious. Of average size, the tip swelled like the head of a penis, was thickest at the middle, and tapered just slightly toward the base. It gleamed.

"Okay, the feed is live and viewers are starting to jack in," Casper announced. "We've got three regulars. No, make that five. Eight. Yeah, the word is going out, and... oh shit, what's that?"

"Casper, shut up!" Tricia hissed before addressing Audrey. "I'm sorry, but it isn't too hard to figure this one out, is it? I wouldn't blame you for dropping out now."

Audrey circled the stone phallus, assessing it. To either side were worn places on the plinth where for centuries supplicants must have placed their feet while lowering themselves onto it. "We knew this wouldn't be a G-rated sim. Let me at least check it out."

The puzzle didn't require solving a riddle or combing through backstory for a clue. It wasn't a puzzle at all, just a mechanism for forcing Audrey to humiliate herself. She would have to mount the phallus and fuck it.

"If it's any consolation," Tricia said, "more and more women are jacking in. Well into triple digits now and climbing."

That's because they'll get to experience the sensation in private while I have to let the world watch me fuck a stone cock,

Audrey thought

.

She began unlacing her boots.

The booming, digitally altered voice returned. "Of course, Knife is going to perform!"

"Why don't you join me?" Audrey said, unbuttoning and wriggling out of her trousers.

"Do well here and we may meet," the voice said. "But for now I'll enjoy the show with the other viewers. Can't give away my supervillain identity so early in the program!"

The phallus was situated such that when Audrey straddled it she faced herself in the reflective stone slab. It wasn't, she thought, a bad view. Lean, toned legs supported her hips as she lowered herself over the stone until it brushed against her pussy. In the simulation, just as in real life, her bush was trimmed to a minimalist triangle. How many people had seen her this exposed?

Shrugging off the disturbing thought Audrey pushed herself against the head of the phallus. Instead of chilling her, the stone was warm, and instead of feeling dry, it slipped past her labia with slippery ease. She rose and fell again, then once more, pushing the head well into her. Soon she was pumping it with relish.

Only catching her reflection in the stone slab dimmed Audrey's pleasure. Seeing herself as would a stranger, watching her hips selfishly driving her pussy onto the stone cock, she was reminded how coarse the scene would appear to another. No one was forcing her to do it. There wasn't a cage of vipers about to spring open or a surge of water flooding the platform to drown her. To those joining the simulation, she'd just be a woman pleasuring herself with a floor-mounted stone dildo.

So she closed her eyes. Audrey sought out some fantasy that would align with the physical sensation, something to take her over the edge. The men she enjoyed most in bed were active partners, constantly in motion, kissing her, stroking her, and changing positions. That didn't mesh with her having to do all of the work with an immobile partner. But there had been one man who had come close. Whether he had been tired, had a strong submissive streak, or was just feeling lazy the night they fucked, he had been happy to lay back and let Audrey gyrate on him.

"Take what you want from me," he had moaned, hands resting placidly behind his head. "Take as much dick as you want."

The memory flooded back to her. Kyle, that had been his name, had remained relentlessly hard while Audrey fucked him. He hadn't even played with her tits or ran his hands through her hair. He'd been little more active than a dildo, but a very warm and alive one, and when Audrey came he had followed seconds later.

Subconsciously, Audrey's pace increased. She impaled herself on the phallus until her ass slapped against the stone. Soon she was soaked, then trembling, and not just from exertion. Bliss crept up on her, gently at first then with a tightening grip. Audrey came.

"Hoo, oooh," she cried out, the sound torn from her uninvited. "Ah fuk." Audrey's pussy clenched and shuddered as orgasm claimed her. She pushed her g-spot against the fattest part of the phallus, drawing out a few more seconds of ecstasy, then pulled herself free.

Tricia waited politely while Audrey stood panting, but eventually broke in. "Well over a thousand women, and more than a few men, have joined the feed," she said softly. "Word is spreading fast."

"Ah, okay," Audrey rasped, still regaining her composure.

A tremendous grating sound drew her attention to the front of the temple. Where before there had been only stone and rubble, a ragged but unmistakable gap had appeared, kicking up a cloud of dust. Audrey tugged her pants and boots back on, then headed toward it.

The entrance dwarfed her. Audrey approached slowly letting her eyes adjust, but while gloomy, the interior of the temple wasn't completely dark. Well overhead, affixed to the temple's ceiling, a constellation of fictional stars cast pale light in streams of white and blue. As with the outer clearing, there was a single way forward, a narrow hall lined with statues of naked men in a variety of tortured poses. Several had toppled from their bases, shattering into rubble.

Audrey crept forward. At the end of the hall, a set of stone terraces on a massive scale led like steps up to a door equally grand. The height of each terrace was well beyond what Audrey could climb, but into each was cut a human-scale set of steps. She approached the first set, but when she set foot on the lowest step, the temple shook once more.

"This isn't one of your aerobic workouts," the voice from earlier echoed, loudly enough to fill the chamber. "But you will need to move quickly if you don't want company."

Audrey looked back in time to see the statues begin to move. The life-sized, powerfully built sculptures rose slowly from their awkward poses, stretched, and began to look about. One appeared to become disoriented and fell from its block, shattering, but the other three leapt safely to the floor. They spotted Audrey.

"Shiiit." Audrey sprinted up the steps but by now the entire chamber was in motion. The terraces were moving side to side so when she reached the top of the first terrace the next one was moving in the opposite direction. It took her several precious moments to spot the next set of steps, which were moving rapidly away from her. She cursed again, sprinting toward them, and climbed once more.

In true video game fashion, the challenge grew harder the higher she climbed. The terraces moved faster and changed directions more often. More than once, just as Audrey neared the next set of steps up, the terrace stopped abruptly, sending her sprawling. When she regained her feet, the steps would spin away in the opposite direction. She began to tire.

The statues had no such trouble. None of them were over six feet tall, but they jumped with ease from one tier to the next, pausing only to locate Audrey and flash predatory grins before continuing their climb. Dread chewed at her. The stone phallus she had taken on her terms, but the creatures pursuing her were sure to force the issue on theirs. Stone cocks slapped impatiently against their thighs, engorged and menacing.