Here we are! Finally after 8 chapters, since we first met Arachnoid, our heroes meet him in battle. Enjoy!676Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCiEEcIOyIb
Alex, Janus, and Miles stood at the top of the spiral staircase that they had followed for the last few minutes, battling Hackers, and placing explosives. Only one floor remained, and it was blocked by a heavy iron door. Miles attempted to slice through it with his sword, but the blade skittered off the metal surface while dealing no visible damage.
"Well, we can't break it down," Miles said. "Anyone got any lock picks?"
"Who are we, Silent Stealth?" Alex said. "We're generally not trying to break into locked iron doors."
"Well, if we can't get through, then what're we going to do?"
Janus, who had been silent during this exchange, pushed past Miles and tested the door handle. It turned, and the door opened with a rasp of metal.
Miles stared at the open door in confusion. "It, just opened."
"Yeah," Janus said, "Good thing it did. I would've looked like an idiot if it didn't."
"But, why?" Miles asked. "Why have all this security to keep us from getting here, and then have an unlocked door?"
Expecting it to be dark, Alex ignited a fireball and peered inside. To his surprise, a massive hole in the roof and side provided all the light that he needed. Several bookcases lined the walls along with a workbench with several pieces of weapons, armor, and ingredients. What interested Alex the most though, was what was in the middle of the room. A pedestal holding a strange orb sat in the dead center of the room, flanked by two poles with metal balls placed on the top and metal coils spiraling down the poles. It was like nothing Alex had ever seen in Rune.
"Looks pretty deserted," Alex said as he ventured inside. "Maybe this was all a decoy to hide their real main base."
Miles followed after him, sword raised and ready to attack. His eyebrows shot up when he saw the orb sitting on the pedestal. "I don't think so," he said. "They wouldn't place that item in a decoy."
Curious, Janus peered inside as well. "Oh hey!" he said, "The scrying orb! I haven't seen that in ages!"
"Wait, okay, I'm sorry for my noob side showing again," Alex said, "But what is this orb thing exactly?"
"GN, this orb allows you to view anyone or anything in the game," Miles said. "It's the ultimate spy weapon. We bought it off of Spicy ages ago, but the Hackers raided our base and took it. This is one of the reasons why we could never surprise the Hackers. The only downside is that it won't outright tell you where someone is, and it only works in intervals of about twenty minutes."
"So who is it looking at right now?" Alex asked.
Miles peered into the orb for a moment, then reared back in shock.
"Us," he said.
At that exact moment, the door they had just entered through slammed shut with a loud bang that echoed through the room. Janus ran over to the door and wrenched on it, but the door remained locked. "We're not getting out this way."
"We don't need to get out," Alex replied. "All we have to do is set these explosives and blow this joint to kingdom come."
"A feat that you shall find is quite impossible," a voice above them said. Alex looked up just in time to get a face full of web shot from Arachnoid. Stumbling and cursing, Alex tripped over one of the poles and fell to the ground. Through the gauzy veil of web, he could see Miles and Janus battling the Hacker leader.
"My my, aren't you persistent," Arachnoid said. "You would've done very well working with us."
"Doubtful," Janus said, shooting an arrow at Arachnoid, who scuttled out of the way at the last second to avoid. "I'm horrible at coding, and just as likely to avoid orders as I am to do them. My brother is the one you'd want." He fired another arrow, striking Arachnoid this time. The Hacker leader hissed and dropped from the ceiling, flipping around to land on his feet.
The instant he landed, Miles, who had been waiting for Arachnoid to get within range, let loose a mighty yell and sliced at him. Arachnoid saw the blow and threw up a wall of web in front of himself, tangling the blade in the sticky mess. As Miles attempted to free himself, Arachnoid webbed Miles' hand to the sword, and further ensnared his sword in his web. Abandoning his attempts at freeing his sword, Miles punched and kicked at Arachnoid, who dodged around Alex's friend until he got to his backside and kicked at him into the web, ensnaring the swordsman.
Realizing that Arachnoid had taken out everyone but him in less than twenty seconds, Janus backed up, drawing his knife and pulling out a grenade. The two circled each other, Janus with extreme caution, Arachnoid with bored ease. This continued on for several seconds before Janus pulled the pin on the grenade and rolled it towards Alex, who had the bag of explosives. Before it reached the ensnared ginger however, Arachnoid snatched it up with a string of web and tossed it out the open ceiling, where it detonated harmlessly. As Arachnoid tossed the grenade, Janus charged and tackled the Hacker leader. The two went tumbling, as Janus stabbed wildly into Arachnoid's cloak before being kicked off. He rolled to the side and was just about to stand up when he too was webbed tightly to the ground. Arachnoid then stood up and dusted off his now torn cloak. He clambered back up to the ceiling and peered down at the three below. "Incredible," he sighed. "They send their greatest warriors against me, and I take them down without even using my staff. This speaks volumes for the capabilities of the Coders."
"Well considering we're kicking your ass down there, I'd say it also speaks volumes about the Hackers as well," Miles retorted. "Just give it a few more minutes, and they'll be knocking on your door."
Arachnoid growled. "I will admit that the work of my fellow Hackers has been less than satisfactory today. But it doesn't matter. Whether the Coders knock within a few minutes or a few seconds is irrelevant. The Coders have neither a few minutes, nor a few seconds. They have no time at all."
A cold feeling crept into Alex's stomach. "What does that mean?" he asked.
"The coding that Janus has set up to stop us is a challenge, but useless," Arachnoid said, "We had what we wanted the moment we laid a finger on him. We only continued this charade to make you think you've won."
Miles swore. "You got it," he said angrily. "We've been fighting you all day and you've got the Core."
"Correct, Milesoftheblades. We now control all that happens within Rune. I can change night to day, make anyone I wish at maximum level, invincible, and able to smite their foes with a single attack. I can even remove that pesky patch that protects those who wish to oppose us." Arachnoid said.
"But why? Why lead us on to make us think that we could still win?" Alex asked.
"Because right when a man's hopes are the highest, he can be most easily and effectively crushed," Arachnoid answered. "And when they are crushed, there they are powerless to stop anyone, or anything."
"And what is it exactly that we'll be powerless to stop?" Alex asked.
Arachnoid turned to Alex. "Elementary, Ginganinja: the complete takeover of all online games."
We interrupt this critical plot point,,
Croe stood up at long last, the flow of straw from his arrow wounds was finally sedated. Looking around, he saw that apart from a slow trickle of Coders and Players that had managed to return to the castle after being killed, he was on his own. The battle had left him behind.
Croe checked the chatroom to see what was happening. Things were looking good. The spawnstones were destroyed, and the Hackers that remained were isolated in small clusters. All that remained was for GN, Miles, and Janus to destroy the keep.
As if on cue to show Croe that he should never get his hopes up, the Hackers that remained powered up the virus that they'd kept disengaged for the fight and began using it on the attackers. The chat exploded with warnings and alarms that the Hackers could now use the virus to its full extent. Hearing this, many players threw down their weapons and ran for the walls to escape, only for their route to be cut off by Hacker that poured out of building that were previously thought to be clear. The ensuing battle was ugly. Many decided to simply log of, their characters standing motionless as Hackers cut them down mercilessly. In less than a minute, the tides of the battle had completely turned.
Croe uncharacteristically swore and looked around the castle grounds, searching for a break in the fighting that he could use to reach the Keep. All he saw were fleeing players, and advancing Hackers with their viral weapons. Going on foot would be impossible.
Croe changed his search to the area around him. He had a scroll of Icarian Flight, but he had only one more use before it was gone. If he could find another, he could jump multiple times and be at the Keep in no time. Spying a canvas bag, he ruffled through it only to find it was one of the bags of explosives carried in to destroy the castle. Plenty of explosives, but no scrolls. Croe was about to toss it away in disgust when he spied something that might prove useful. A plan began to form in his head and he set to work, wasting no time at all.
"I don't understand; how does getting control over Rune equal a takeover of all the MMOs ever?" Alex asked.
"Call it a, staging ground," Arachnoid answered. "Two years ago, we discovered an irregularity in Rune's coding. The irregularity allowed for interaction between Rune and virtually anything that had online access, including other video games. While it was initially only possible to interact with websites and in-browser games, further inspection revealed that with modifications, it was possible to interact with any game that was involved with the internet. Think! Any game ever was now available to be played absolutely free!"
"That still doesn't explain the virus you stole from Dr. Helling, and how you've used it to put people in the freaking Hospital!" Miles interrupted.
"It was soon after taking advantage of this irregularity that we realized that not only could we play games, we could alter them as well," Arachnoid said, ignoring Miles' outburst. "Not through means that we are capable of using in Rune, most games have their update systems locked down much tighter than here. What we did find was that bits of code found within Rune could be, transferred to the other games. And through that, we could alter the games to however we wished."
"Very impressive, truly," Janus answered. "I don't think that the alteration of one game through interacting with another has ever been done before. But you still haven't explained why you are doing this."
"Do I even need to?" Arachnoid said, rounding on Janus. "Look at the state many MMOs and online games are in. Many completely neglect the wishes of the gamers with the assumption that they will buy the games simply because of brand loyalty. They will complain the entire way, but in the end, they are sheep, following the Shepard wherever he leads them. And those who refuse to accept this are a minority, cast aside to make room for new sheep. But now the minority has the power to stop this. We will appoint Hackers as heads of games that need guidance. They will alter the course of the game to a point that better follows the wishes of the players. We will have a voice, and we will use it. That is why we are in Rune. That is what we will accomplish."
Alex was stunned. All the theories, all of the ideas he had that could explain why the Hackers had engaged Rune in a civil war, none of them came even slightly close to the true explanation.
"That, actually makes a lot of sense," Janus said, equally surprised. "I can totally see why you'd want to do that. I mean, just look at how removing split screen in Halo ruined machinimators."
"Yeah, whatever," Miles said. "I guess I would've preferred a HD version of Star Wars Battlefront 2 instead of the crap we got instead. But that still doesn't explain the virus that your cronies love using so much."
"That, Milesoftheblades, is an insurance policy. It will be used against anyone who tries to stop our work. It is not even necessary to use it as an attack within a videogame. It can be sent via email, phones, or even as Dr. Helling created it- to be played on stereos to put developers into submission."
"Dude, that's borderline terrorism," Janus said with shock.
"No, that is terrorism." Miles said angrily. "That is straight up terrorism. You pull that, and your ass is on a one way ticket to Guantanamo bay along with all your other Hacker friends."
"Not if they are unable to find us," Arachnoid said. "Tell me, do you know that despite all the improvements in computer security, there are still so many unsecured ways to enter a network and leave untraced? We could enter a developer's intercom, play the noise for as long as we want, and then exit unnoticed. That is what we can do. That is what we will do to anyone who opposes us."
"Well that speaks volumes for what will happen to the Coders," Miles said. "What do you have planned for them?"
"The Coders while meddlesome and irritable were misinformed," Arachnoid said. "Their previous transgressions shall therefore be forgiven. Should they continue to attack us from this day forth however, they shall suffer the same as anyone else."
"You know that they'll never stop," Miles said. "You've done too much to them. They'll continue to fight you until they're gone, or you are."
"Then it shall be until they are gone," Arachnoid said. "We have the Core now. Nothing can stop us."
At that moment a dull booming from came from the open wall. Alex, Miles, Janus, and Arachnoid all looked to see a fireball blossoming in the air. A small, secondary fireball detatched itself from the main body and rocketed towards the hole in the Keep. Arachnoid hissed and skuttled to the side as the fireball reached the Keep and washed over the walls. Arachnoid typed into a keyboard and the fire vanished, but not before depositing a soot covered scarecrow in the room.
I'll be the first to admit it. The dialogue this chapter wasn't all that impressive. I apologize for that, I really do, but I kind of wrote myself into a corner with the Hacker's true intentions when I didn't come up with them earlier on. Trust me when I tell you that this has subsequently changed and will continue to be different in all the other stories I write.
See you all in two weeks!
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