Internet Explorers:Chapter 2 Part 1 (Kept ya waitin', huh?)
Posted: May 30th, 2010, 7:45 pmglossary: show
division record: show
“I know that browsing the internet looks easy. But there are always the people that lay traps in the most popular places. These popular places are what I like to call forums. These forums are usually safe cities, but once in awhile, you will be ambushed. By the trap layers. The Spammers.”
Fourinone sipped his coffee as he sat in his cubicle chair in the 10th floor of “Forum 23, HQ Building,” one of three buildings in the heavily guarded Forum 23. It was a large place, even though only four people occupied it.
He read the through the News to see if Runouw returned from his vacation yet. Not an article about it. So instead, he looked at the clock. Midnight. His shift. Fourinone walked to the locker room on the bottom floor to grab his jacket, put on his browser helmet, and headed out. He was the Nightshift-Moderator/Trap disabler of Runouw.com.
As he walked outside, he sniffed the fragrant night air, and turned on his flashlight. Time to walk allll around the forums, allll night, to seek out any and all spam posts, and disable them. Like any other day. He searched Off-Topic first, seeing as it was the most popular trap area.
Not a single trap in the city so far. Something was not right. Not a single reflector shone in the darkness. Forum members were trained to place reflectors on traps to make it easier for mods to find ‘em.
It was the night shift, no one was awake except Four and a few others lying down in their beds, eyes open, in their profiles with insomnia, and every once in awhile, MessengerOfYahweh or Nin10mode, bored and walking around with nothing better to do. When they were awake, they usually helped Four out, setting up the reflectors. Every once in awhile, Niklaw would stay up to help him out too. Make it a much easier job. So he browsed through the Residential area, looking for Moy’s User Profile. He found it, and to Fourinone’s relief, he was awake, just walking back and forth in his house, bored with nothing to do.
The moderator knocked on his front door, and Moy quickly responded.
“What is it, Four?” he asked, knowing it was him without even opening the door.
“I need some help. I just want to make sure I don’t miss any traps tonight.”
“I already checked the whole place. Not one trap in the city.”
“Odd…”
Moy opened his door. “Isn’t that a good thing?”
“It’s supposed to be, but for some reason, I just feel like..” He paused for a minute, and looked at Moy’s calendar across the foyer. March 21st , 2010. At the same time, Moy glanced at Four’s watch and saw it was 1:21am. “… like, today, something important will happen...”Fourinone turned his head to the Internet Moon that hung over the entire website. He could faintly see that the Earth was slowly aligning with the moon and the Internet. Perhaps half a day longer, and they would make a straight line in the universe. “… And it won’t be good.”
“Okay, my little girl. Let’s go over this one more time before you leave for the web, alright?”
“Alright, dad.”
“What do you always need to have on your head before you reach that planet’s atmosphere?”
“A browser.”
“You need them because?
“The Internet’s air doesn’t have oxygen.”
“Preferably what kinds of browsers?”
“Mozilla Firefox, Chrome or Opera.”
“Why?”
“They have faster radio receivers, and contain more oxygen tanks, plus Internet Explorer and Safari will sometimes leak.”
“And you go by what name over there?
“Bluestar90210.”
"Bluestar90210’s father glanced at his watch, and it read 11:22am. He placed his eyes back on his daughter before saying, “Good. Now remember- the trip’ll take about 5 hours, so be patient, behave, and most importantly, be careful! There are bad guys on that planet too!”
“C’mon, Moy! Are we going to the Tavern today or what?”
Moy flashed his head to his side, got off of the bench he’d been laying on, and jumped in front of Mode. “Sorry! I...
… I didn’t get so much sleep last night. I was trying to rest my head…”“You never get that much sleep. And you’re always so awake at this time of day. Something wrong?”
“No, no…”
“Alright… If you need anything, just tell me, m’kay?”
Moy replied, “Right,” but he was really thinking, “I’m not sure if I’m the one who’ll need help, for some reason….”
As the two walked to Niklaw’s Tavern, (It was the most popular bar in the city) Moy turned his head to gaze at the many building on the opposite side of the road. He saw Marioiscool254 walk into His Caption Contest, and he saw Avolerators walk into the Joke Off to choose his next two contestants.
“This enthusiasm won’t last very long, will it, Yahweh?...” he thought as he took a stern look into the sky.
They walked a little further, and soon, the two users could see a glimpse of the Tavern. Mode dashed to the Tavern, eager to order the usual: A tall glass of ice-cold Dr. Pepper. Something wasn’t right about that kid.
Moy simply walked following Nin10mode, but he paused for a moment.
Mode had run into the thick glass door of the Tavern when a strange man exited. The man was wearing a brown jacket, a small hat, and he looked a lot older than a lot of the other users. The stranger turned to Moy, and Moy could see that this guy was nothing but trouble. In a flash, the man paced into another building; an empty one, and Moy could see a sign being built over its doors as he dialed 911 in his cell-phone.
No one answered. He cursed, realizing that there wasn’t a mod to call, because no one had the shift this time of day.
He noticed Nin10mode run into the building, and Moy smiled.
“Alright! You got this one,” he shouted out to Mode.”
In the fields, people hunted animals for sport. In the ocean people hunted fish for sport. In forums, people hunt spam traps for sport. Runouw.com recently made a medal system. Win the Level Designing Contest, or mark a significant amount of spam traps, you get a medal.
Mode came out of the place, twirling his reflector tape in his finger. “I’m getting that medal if it’s the last thing I do!”
The two walked into the Tavern and instead of straightforwardly asking the bartenders for his regular, he asked if they saw a strange man come in.
“Nope. Sorry,” Buffooner, he’s one cool guy, replied. “But I did see a new kid walk in here. He put a flyer on our bulletin board and he placed a mat underneath it. It’s probably some youtube link. No harm.”
“Are you sure? Because we just saw a spammer walk outta here, and started advertising stuff in the vacant building neighboring this. By the way, I’ll take a Dr. Pepper,” Mode replied.
“Pfft,” Buff taunted. He walked to the soda dispenser in the shelf behind him, put some Dr. Pepper in a tall glass, and slid it across the table to his customer. “Did you guys get enough sleep last night?”
The two boys looked at Buff like he should know the answer already.
“… Right,” he responded.
Mode walked to the pool table, while Moy got some players. Azn, Kimonio, Sonicfan253, and Kirby_999 gladly accepted.
The fun didn’t last very much.
A scream was heard in a neighboring building; the same one that Mode had went into to mark.
Soon, a crowd was just outside the topic, worried about who was in there. They looked like they were waiting for a mod to come, but they all knew that none would come. Not at this time of day. Finally, Moy decided it was time to act. He barged through the decaying wooden doors, and he almost stumbled into a trap. He caught his balance and knelt down next to the trap. It was a Viagra Snare. Smack dab in the middle of the trap, he saw a nametag.
Username:
- -Luigi22
Rank:
- -New Member
Moy stepped out of the facility, holding up the name tag. His fellow users gasped. They lost yet another new member. They mourned their newcomer’s capture, but not for long. Soon, more and more screams were heard throughout the city. They were right in the middle of a spam flood.
Bluestar was hiding under a broken table. Moments ago, she heard screaming all around her. Probably from kids about her own age. She didn’t know what to do. She panicked and started to run around.
When she caught her bearings, she decided to hide in the building instead of running away through the portal inside. Across a small mat, she had read the following on a flyer:
“Free online games! Get them right here!
Peach XXX
Zero Suit Samus XXX
Zelda XXX…”
The list continued and named several female heroines. Unfortunately, Bluestar didn’t know the meaning of XXX… She almost stepped on the mat, seconds before, but she forgot all about it when the screaming started.
It seemed like she was waiting for ages for the noise to stop. She covered her ears, closed her eyes, and started to think about her family back on Earth. There are bad guys on that planet too, her father had said.
“Maybe a bit too much,” Bluestar whispered to herself.
Finally, a person barged in through the door, and he was holding a gun. Bluestar closed her eyes again, and waited for a ‘Bang!’ to shoot out. She did. But she was still alive.
Bluestar slowly opened her eyes to a squint, and saw that the man was actually a teenager. Maybe 14. And the gun he held didn’t look normal. It looked like a toy gun from a sci-fi movie, and the girl could see that in the gun barrel were not bullets, but reflector tape. She glanced at the portal she had almost taken. It was covered with the same tape the teen had in his gun.
The man turned around and saw Bluestar, scared and confused. He walked up to her.
“Hey there, little girl! You okay?” he asked. Bluestar didn’t respond. She was too afraid. Too uncomfortable.
More shots rang out, and the teenager ducked. Bluestar glanced at the door and saw a man. The same man that had set the building up. He was shooting bullets at the teen, but he was too fast. Shot after shot, the teen dodged and maneuvered closer and closer to the pedophile. Bluestar also noticed that he was changing his ammo at the same time. This time, with real bullets instead of tape.
Soon, the teen was close enough to make a solid shot at the older man. The man ran out of bullets and fled the scene before the teen could shoot.
He approached Bluestar once again, and held out a hand.
“Don’t worry. I’m the good guy,” he assured. Bluestar grasped the teen’s hand and they ran out the door, where he finally told their names. “By the way, I’m Kim!” he said, both of them running to a place called Niklaw’s Tavern.
“Bluestar,” the girl responded. “Bluestar90210.”
It turns out that Bluestar was the only newbie that wasn’t captured. The rest were lost in cities filled with things that they shouldn’t see. She was the lucky one. She stood in the corner, thinking how fortunate she was, compared to the others. Unlike most kids, she felt guilty about surviving, when all the rest were taken away. She was sad that she had survived.
“Where’s Suyo where you need ‘em!” Kim complained.
Inside the Tavern, everyone, including Kim and Bluestar, saw a light blink from a nearby computer. Computers were portals that took people from Earth to the Internet. Usually, it would take only a few seconds to travel between the two, but Bluestar had “limited connectivity,” which is why she took 5 hours to reach the planet.
The Tavern customers all stared at the computer as if they were waiting for it to do a front flip. Finally, a familiar person- at least to the local veterans- emerged.
“Suyo!” Mic greeted. He was the Morning Mod/Trap-disabler for Runouw. Recently, his browser helmet broke and he had left for several days. “It’s about time you...“
“- o-ly h-ve a limit-- ti-e he--. I ju-t ca-e back to s-- wha-‘s goi-g on,” Suyo interrupted
The whole tavern tilted their heads in a confused way until Buff translated.
“Sorry, I think his connection is slow. He’s trying to say, ‘I only have a limited time here. I just came back to see what’s going on.’ Well,” Buff said as he turned toward Suyo. “We’ve just been hit with another massive spam flood.”
Suyo bowed his head and the others could see the anger in his solemn face. The Mod walked outside and witnessed the tragedy that happened only moments before. Flyers with pr0n were still being carried by the city wind and nametags were everywhere. The tags were from the newest users. He walked back inside and saw everyone stare at him. Suyo tried to speak again, and Buff translated.
“’Unfortunately, I have to leave now,’” Buff said. Gasped echoed throughout the room. “’Any moment longer, and my browser will burst, and you’ll see me die right here on the spot. I’m sure that you can hold up a bit longer. Good luck.’” With those final words, Suyo stepped on the computer and in a flash, he was gone.
The users looked at each other. They waited for someone to speak up. Moy started.
“What’re you guys doing? We need to clean up these traps somehow!” he explained.
Kim stood up, and he took a deep breath. “He’s right. We need to act. Fourinone and Niklaw won’t be able to handle a whole city infested with spam. We have to find some way to …” He was trying to look for the right word, and it took him awhile, but he finally found it. “… Upgrade ourselves… Become… mini-mods.” He smiled at the thought.
Everyone looked up at the two boys, except Bluestar. The group split up into divisions, and 4 main people organized them; Marioiscool254, MessengerOfYahweh, Buffooner, and Kimonio. They agreed that this whole conflict could only be resolved with the use of drastic measures, without the mods.
“But what if they can handle it?” Buff asked.
“Tell you what,” Mic replied. “We’ll wait ‘till tomorrow for the mods to handle at least some of this. If we don’t see a significant amount of progress done, we’ll follow through with this idea we have.” He turned to face the rest of the leaders. “That okay with you guys?” They all nodded simultaneously, and started to prepare.
The crowd around the 4 was bustling in the Tavern, noisy and anxious. Mic was the one to speak up this time.
“Alright! We’ve decided out plan of action. We’ll have 4 divisions. One will stay back to research traps and find new ways to handle them. The group will be lead by Moy. Our second, will be lead by Buff and I. We’ll have 2 Defense Squads to guard the remaining buildings of Runouw.com. We can’t let our home fall to spam. Lastly, we have the Exploration Front. It will be lead by Kim. His experience in the field will do him, and his group, well. They’ll go through those traps to see what dangers lay ahead. They also will search for those kids we lost recently…” He shut his eyes for a moment, and thought about those captured kids. “They’ll find those kids we lost recently…”
“I’ll let you guys pick first,” Moy said.
Mic Gestured to Nin10mode and Hugemariofan, and the two approached their new leader. After that, Buff pointed to Sonicfan253, who was still standing by the pool table, and star-fawful, who had just entered the Tavern. They took a minute to realize what was going on, but they willingly gave their loyalty to Buffooner. Kim was last to pick before Moy would take the floor again.
“Hmmmmmm…” Kim exaggerated, making a big show out of thinking about which two of four remaining people would follow his lead. “iChoose…” Another one of his inside jokes, (I ~~~ = i~~~) “Chau… aaaaaand… Blablob!”
Moy’s heart sank at that moment. The two remaining were Avolerators and [L2]. He didn’t having anything against Avo, but he and [L2] had a feud of sorts. A user strolling through the forum would usually have to change a subject they were talking about so they would stop arguing.
Moy and [L2] glared at each other with cold, hard looks. It almost seemed like a professional staring contest… Okay, fine. Professional staring contests don’t exist.
“You got that Moy?”
“Huh?” Moy re focused himself and turned his attention to Mic.
“You zoned out on me there, for a second,” Mic stated. “I was saying that you and your new crew can stay in the ‘Video Thread’ Building. That way, you don’t have to travel far to get to the spam buildings, and you don’t have to bring any tools with you a long distance. Plus, you might even be able to make some nifty devices in the Video Thread. You know, treat it like a personal lab.”
“Ah. So where are yours and Buff’s crew going to stay?”
Mic pointed in two directions. One finger pointed in the direction of the News Forum, one of the outer parts of the city, which was closer to the Homepage Entrance, and the other finger pointed to the General Artwork Forum. It was directly opposite to the News Forum, by the Graveyard (Although it was more of a ghost town than a graveyard, since that was where all the rundown topics were transported to.) “I’ll be guarding the Main Entrance by the News Forum, while Buff secures the Graveyard. We’ll be bunking around the outer perimeter of the city to ensure that no other spammers enter.”
Moy raised an eyebrow. Did this 13 year old kid really make a clear plan of action in the few seconds that Moy and [L2] had a stare-off? He was definitely from college, no doubt about it.
Kim walked up to Moy, and Mic, with Azn and Blab on both sides of him. “So, what about the rest of the users?” He motioned for the two to look at all the others in the Tavern. Kirby_999, Kirby859, galaxymario, hypersonic, and several others, were sitting around the counter. “What are they going to do?”
“I think four groups of three are enough for now. If we need more help, we can just recruit some of these users,” Mic responded. “But for now, they can just try to carry on with life.”
“So, basically, it’s a draft system?”
“Precisely.”
Mic ran to join the crowd around the counter. Kim followed. “The defense squads and researchers will sleep in their designated areas tonight. Kim, you and your group can sleep in your profiles, but you have to report to Niklaw’s Tavern by 800 hours, okay?”
“Psht. Save the military talk for Zeb, Mic.”
Kim was falling. It seemed endless. And it was dark, too. He couldn’t hear anything, except the faint rush of water. His eyes were closed, and he waited for an inevitable death. Only, it didn’t come. Seconds passed, and they turned into minutes, which turned into hours, it felt like. Kim finally opened his eyes. He looked down, and saw that the bottom of this dark abyss was not getting any closer. He could, however, see the source of the rushing water. It was far, and Kim could barely see it in all the darkness that surrounded him. But he could see it. A waterfall, perhaps as tall as Niagara Falls, of Earth. Kim squinted, to try and get a better view. He faintly saw that the water actually wasn’t water. Past the gush of liquid, Kim made out several shadows moving behind the falls. One of them fell, and part of the water around it blurred into a dark red.
Seconds passed, and Kim realized that he was actually falling closer to the bottom now. In fact, he was perhaps, only one kilometer away from the bottom. He closed his eyes again, and waited for death to approach, like Bluestar did when they first met.
“KIM!!!”
Kimonio awoke to the sight of Blablob. He rubbed his eyes and spoke back. “What do you want, Blab?” Kim turned to face the window, and saw it wasn’t even dawn yet. “It has to be at most, 2 o’ clock right now. What’s the rush? We don’t have to report to the Tavern for another six hours.”
Blab ignored his comment and he screamed into Kim’s face. “We’re under attack!”
Kim’s eyes shot open, he hopped out of bed, and started looking for his Spammist Gun, which Blab was actually holding in his hands. He tossed it to Kim, who, as soon as he caught it, ran out the door with his Pj’s still on. Immediately, he saw spammers running out of profiles, with guns and traps cocked in their pockets. He even saw one with a Playboy hanging out of his jacket. Kim fired several shots, all of them clean, perfect hits. Six spammers fell, but there was still a whole city prepared to replace those six.
Kim began to dash to Off-Topic, when he heard slashes behind him.
He made a 360 and noticed blood dripping out of a blade that Blablob was holding. Right under the blade, Kim saw a spammer face down on the street.
“I made it in five minutes,” Blab said. “It’s a flamer-saber. I herd u like.” He winked and joined Kim in the sprint to Off-Topic.
Mic knocked down another spammer. He cracked his knuckles and stomped down on the pedophile, crushing his lungs. Nearby, Nin10mode was defending himself against two spammers.
He pulled out an extra dagger and started stabbing both. Blow after blow, blood drooped down their chests and they tried to retreat. Ninny cornered them and continued to attack. Every two hits, he thrust his weapons in an outward circular direction, and stabbed them two more times. Finally, the daggers reached deep enough to reach the walls they were up against, and Nin10mode dragged his weapons upward, and the two bodies nearly split in half. They fell, and slowly, they disintegrated, and their bodies were no more.
Mic punched another spammer, and roundhouse kicked another that was sneaking up on him. The News-room was clear, and the two joined Hugemariofan at the entrance of the building. He had just finished dealing with a spammer armed with a semi-automatic machine gun, and he wasn’t in the best shape. His arms were bleeding, and hair had the smell of blood in it.
“Ninny! You go help him get to the Encouragement Topic!” Mic ordered. “I’m sure that none of the spammers will be there. It’s probably the closest thing to a hospital we have here! I’ll be your escort to make sure you get there safely.”
Nin10mode ran as fast as he could out of the News forum with HMF on his back. He dropped his daggers for Mic to collect, and they hurried off towards the Off-Topic forum.
HMF was unconscious. Maybe even in a coma. But for some odd reason, he twitched every time a spammer was nearing. Mic ran forward with HMF’s automatic signal, and thrust the two daggers into a spammer turning a corner. Perhaps Huge wasn’t completely useless when knocked out…
Ninny followed, looking at each street sign for the correct sub-forum. They were still at Site Discussion when HMF twitched again. Mic rushed to the corner of Site Discussion & Gaming, and that’s when steel met steel.
Mic was face to face with a mysterious figure, with a longsword. The darkness of the night hid their identities and Mic immediately thought the stranger was a spammer. “Shwings!” and “Clangs!” sounded the night, and Mic knew that HMF wouldn’t last the whole fight. He blocked the swordsman with a dagger, and gestured to Ninny, who was hiding about 20 meters away, to proceed to the Encouragement Topic. Mode nodded, and ran past the fight towards Off-Topic once again. Mic’s oppressor started to give chase, but he was too distracted by the two daggers getting closer and closer to his chest. So instead, he sent a friend of his to run after Ninny.
Ninny and his pursuer disappeared into the darkness, and Mic resumes his battle with the stranger. “Clang! Clash!” The sounds repeated over and over, and Mic thought, “Wow, this guy must be that spambot from Kympo…”
Kim needed to catch up. Another user’s life was on the line, yet again. He couldn’t shoot the spammer, since he would risk hitting the user on him. He wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he killed an innocent user. So his only option was to sprint.
At the corner of Site Discussion & Gaming, Kim finally decided to whip out something special; He cocked his Spammist gun and took a key out of his pocket. He pressed it to his browser and turned it, and a mini-keyboard integrated on the palm of his right hand. He typed in “@viewtopic.php?f=12&t=3532,” and he disappeared with a bright flash. As his enemy ran through the streets, Kim jumped out of the “Super Mario Galaxy 2” building and made a stance. His opponent ran right into him, and both users were on the ground groaning. Wait… Kim thought. Spammers don’t groan. They have no emotions or feelings… who is this?...
Kim stood to his feet and spoke in a deep, serious voice. “State your name.”
The other guy looked confused in the darkness, but finally said, “Nin10mode.”
Kim recoiled, and shrieked in his normal voice. “What!?” The sun started to rise over the Internet’s horizon, and Ninny raised a brow.
“So we’ve been fighting each other this entire nigh-“ Mode couldn’t finish. Swords were heard piercing through something… The two users realized what just happened, and rushed towards the sound.
As they ran, the streets had even more “dirty” fliers than the day before. There were no more spammers running around on the bright side.
When they got to the source of the sound, they found Mic with a frozen look of despair as he looked at Blab. He stabbed him in his right arm, and Blab was bleeding uncontrollably. He pulled his dagger out, and when he saw Mode and Kim, his pupils shrank. He ran towards his user profile, leaving Mode and Kim there, with wide eyes looking at Blablob, who was lying on the ground.
“He’s in worse conditions than-!” Nin10mode started.
“HMF!” The two finished his sentence. They’d left him on the streets alone and vulnerable!
“I’ll teleport there!” Kim assured. “You stay here and try your best to keep Blab alive!” Kim typed in the same address he typed before, and he was gone again.
Ninny looked in every direction he could for some sort of infirmary topic. “Aznchau’s Guide to the World of Spam” was the closest thing. He walked in, with Blab on his back, and he took out medical supplies out of a nearby closet. This building was basically a recently made training ground for identifying and eliminating spam. It had weapons, reflective tape, tutorial flyiers, and examples.
Mode sighed while taking out bandages and anesthetics out of the treatment box. “Let’s see if I inherited anything useful from mom…” He put on a pair of rubber gloves and started treating Blab. He injected the anesthetics with a tiny needle, and started stitching the open wound. It felt like it took hours, and Mode couldn’t stand the sight and risk much longer…
HMF was in the same condition he was when Kim and Mode left, but this time, a real spammer was lifting him. Kim had no idea how he could anticipate the villains escape route, so his teleporter was virtually useless. The spammer had unpredictable maneuvers, and sudden turns that Kim couldn’t keep up with. He was about to give up when someone appeared from the sky. He landed in front of the spammer with a blur, and punched him down. Huge almost dropped with a thump, but Kim jumped out at caught him at the last second.
Kim was groaning with the weight of HMF on his back, and the person held out his hand. “Get up, toolbox!” Aznchau! Where’d he been!? That’s not important right now, Kim thought. Right now, we have to tend HMF’s wounds…
Aznchau pulled Mariofan onto his back, while Kim typed in the web address of Mic’s profile. “@memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=144” Chau grabbed on to Kim’s shoulder with Huge still on his back, and the three saw Mic about to run out his abode with his guitar. The two explorers looked sternly at Mic and nodded. Mic nodded right back, and took his guitar out of his case. Azn laid HMF down to the floor, and took a step back. Mic played a few chords on his acoustic and, like magic, HMF’s wounds dissipated. Azn Kim and Mic all let out a large sigh, and knelt down to HMF to see when he’d wake up.
They kept silent, and they all stared at HMF with worried expressions until Kim broke it. “So what was up with you back at Gaming & Site Discussion? You weren’t acting like yourself.”
“I-it was my first fight with a friend here,” Mic responded, with the same look he had when he realized he’d stabbed Blab. Where is he, anyway?”
Azn got into the conversation. “I saw Mode take him into my Guide to the World of Spam. I can see everything with my aypic nightcrasher skills.”
“Your WUT?” Kim bluntly asked.
“It’s… something for a story I want to start writing… toolbox.”
“I’m a toolshed, silly boy.”
As the two continued their chat, Mic saw HMF open an eye. He smiled, and helped Huge get on his feet. Kim and Chau’s talk came to a gradual stop and the four users headed towards Niklaw’s Tavern. It was already 7:30am.
When they got to the corner of Site Discussion & Gaming, the first thing they noticed was Ninny sitting down with Blab near the curb. The two looked up and joined the walk to Niklaw’s, and started a conversation. A conversation similar to the one that Mic Kim and Azn had a few minutes ago.
Ninny started. “Why did you flee after Kim and I got there?”
“I… was… If you were in my position… you probably would’ve, too.”
“We always get into fights with each other, here in Runouw. No biggy.”
“Yes, but I could’ve have killed Blab. I could’ve finished him, and by accident, too!” Mic took a breath and calmed his voice. “… I don’t want to be the cause of a death of an innocent user. And I definitely don’t want to be the cause of a good friend’s death.”
“I’m fine, Mic,” Blab assured. “You have no need to worry. Let’s just walk to the Tavern and pretend it never happened, alright?”
The group nodded and grew silent as they continued their walk. Now, it was 7:53, and Everyone could tell what the others were thinking, because they all thought the same exact thing; What happened to the others last night? What did they go through?
MessengerOfYahweh peered into a hallway in the Video Thread. An open window let in some morning light, and he saw [L2] squatting by one of the televisions. He was watching “Super Mario 64 Codes,” a video posted by Suyo earlier in Runouw.com history. Moy approached him, and when [L2] turned to see him, he immediately stood up and jumped at him.
“What do you want now, Moy!?”
“Just wanted to remind you we have to go to Niklaw’s in a few minutes! Sheesh! Why do you always yell!?”
[L2] let out a deep breath. “The same reason you do!”
“When have I been known to yel-“ Moy paused, and thought about what was going on right now. “I have my own reasons.”
“Excuses, excuses.”
“Shut it.”
“Make me.”
The two frowned and clenched their fists. Just then, Avo appeared from one of the rooms with a video camera. He looked up, saw the two, and dropped it.
“C’mon, guys. Not now. We have to get to the Tavern in 7 minutes.”
“7 minutes is enough time to let out a little anger,” [L2] stated.
“I’m not letting you guys fight no matter what. Like it or not, this is our team. We have to work with each other. Not against each other.”
“I shouldn’t have let the others pick first. Just saying,” Moy said, ignoring Avo’s statement.
The three all grew annoyed looks on their faces, when the TV changed to a different program.
“…Step 1: Change the subject
Change the subject before things go too far, and express your desire to drop it.” Howcast was on. On the bottom-right corner, a blue bar slid onto the screen and text dissolved in, saying, “How To Stop an Argument in 30 Seconds.” The bar vanished as fast as it appeared, and Avo turned back to the two, who we’re already on step two.
“Step 2: Maintain silence
If the other person continues to argue, maintain silence, listening but not engaging, so the argument is over before it starts. Don't add fuel to the fire.”
The two boys stood silent, and Avo could feel the anger dissipating. “Alright… Now let’s go to the Tavern so we aren’t late. Okay?”
“Nah…” Moy said. “I kind of want to talk about what happened last night. It was interesting. Wouldn’t you two say?”
“Definitely,” [L2], now calm, agreed.
Moy raced down the 7th floor of the Video Thread. Two men with guns chased him down to the very last room, next to the stairs leading to the rooftop. It was the Annoying Orange Room. Awhile back, TheBetterGamer occupied the empty room, and installed a television set with only one channel available; The Annoying Orange.
Moy dove behind the set, and buried himself in wires. (Don’t worry, he didn’t go anywhere near the outlets…) The spammers scoured the room, but failed to find Moy concealed in the cables and darkness. As the two approached the TV, Moy grabbed a remote from on top of the TV and clicked the power button. The room turned bright and a video with over one million views faded into the screen. Intrigued, the spammers walked into the portal directly in front of the TV to log in and advertise their services and products on youtube.
“Phew…” Moy sighed with great relief and attempted to walk back out to the hallway, but a person suddenly flew through and crashed into the window by the stairs. Moy scanned the opposite end of the hallway, and he saw yet another set of spammers. “Jesus Christ… How many are there!?” One of them had an arm up, as if it had just threw a nasty blow.
[L2] let out a heavy moan as he picked himself up off the floor and saw Moy peering out the hallway. “What are you doing!? There are spammers right there!”
Moy snapped into attention and ran to the room on the other side of the hall; Don’t Mess With Captain Falcon: Episodes 1 & 2, installed by SuperSpongerific about 13 days ago. On a nightstand next to the TV, a pair of yellow gloves glowed a godly golden hue. Moy slipped them on, and felt a massive amount of power surge through his fists and knee. He sprinted down the hall to confront the spammers, and noticed he gained incredible speed, too. He jumped up to the first one and met its face with his knee. Static electricity transferred from Moy’s knee and into the spammer’s face, and the two we’re frozen for a split second. Hitstun, I guess.
As the first spammer vanished into thin air, the other was met with a fiery punch. He too, vanished within a few seconds. “Show me your moves,” Moy taunted. He turned to [L2] and gestured with his index and middle finger to follow him. “Come on!”
[L2] started to walk down the hall, but a strange force was keeping him from getting any closer. He felt himself getting stiff, and his browser started blinking red. A virus struck.
The same men that logged into youtube before came back, and as soon as they saw [L2], they grabbed him and slowly dragged him towards the window.
“Moy!”
“Don’t worry! I got the power of GOD’S HAND!” He ran over to the two men carrying [L2], but noticed his speed was decreasing. He crouched down to the floor and his feet set aflame. He flew through the air, his feet illuminating the darkness of the night, and he hit the two attackers. The golden gloves dissolved, and when they both thought all was done, the spammers crashed into [L2] in a last ditch attempt to kill him. The three fell out the window, but [L2] managed to move his arm a bit to grab onto the window sill. Moy felt like all the strength was sucked out of him and was breathing heavily.
[L2] stared down the 6 stories below him and saw blood explode out of the two spammers. “Is that my fate, too?”