With a roar, Miles launched himself from a squatting position at Silent Stealth who easily ducked under his swing and shoved him with his shoulder. Miles stumbled back and fell on his rear.
“You bloody idiot” Silent Stealth said. “What the blazes was that for?”
“Don’t you dare joke around about that” Miles snarled. “Do you have any idea of the pain that virus has caused? Or have you been so far removed from the situation with you thievery that you haven’t noticed.”
Silent Stealth sighed. “Yes Miles. I am all too aware what that god-awful virus has caused. Every hurt it causes weighs heavily on me.” He spread his arms wide. “You see before you, the reason your friend was put in a coma.”
Miles launched himself at Silent Stealth again. Alex and Croe lunged at him and held him back.
“I don’t understand” Croe said. “How does a professor with a British accent fit into all of this?”
“I am a professor at Oxford in the medical department.” Silent Stealth replied. “About three years ago, I was called upon to serve the masses by developing a way to safely disperse crowds during riots.”
“Really,” Miles interrupted. “I wasn’t aware that England had riot issues.”
Silent Stealth frowned at him. “Idiot. I was hired by a research group sponsored by the United Nations. They wanted a nonlethal method of averting violence, and felt a doctor would be best to solve this problem.”
“That makes more sense.” Croe commented.
“Indeed” Silent Stealth acknowledged. “After several months of work, we realized that a specific sound frequency had the ability of interfering with the nerves of the human body, rendering them temporarily inert. It was the perfect. All we had to do was play the tone, and within seconds the riot would be over. There was one problem though,”
“It did its job too well, didn’t it?” Croe guessed.
Silent Stealth nodded. “With the paralysis came horrible pain. Nothing we did could erase it. Nothing we did could negate it. The project was scrapped and the group moved on to other methods. Because I specialized in the field, I was fired with the order to delete anything pertaining to my research.”
“I’m guessing you didn’t,” Miles said.
“How could I?” Silent Stealth asked. “How was I possibly meant to scrap months of research and effort all because some idiot decided there was no bloody way it would work? No great scientist before me ever gave up under such naysayers, and damned if I was going to as well.”
“And in doing so caused pain and injury to dozens and broke apart friendships.”
Anger sparked in Silent Stealth’s eyes. “Idiot. Have I not made it clear to you that my I regret my actions enough? Your eyes may be clouded from reason, but I have done everything I can possibly do to remove the virus from Rune.”
“Alright then, say I’m wrong. Tell me how your little lab project ended up in Rune in the first place,” Miles demanded.
Silent Stealth shook his head in remorse. “I was a fool. About Sixteen months ago, I came up with what I thought to be a safe way of removing the pain. But I needed equipment; ways to test it. I took to the internet and found what seemed to be willing subjects. I sent them my research and a few days later they sent me a file. The file contained a virus destroyed my computer and erased all the research on it. I think you three know the rest.”
“Unfortunately we do,” Miles said. “They took the sound and put it in a virus. Next time we met them, they used it on BA.”
Silent Stealth nodded. “Milesoftheblades, I am truly sorry for what my creation did to your friend. I warned them that excessive use could cause such things, but I never would’ve even conceived the notion that they would actually attempt it.”
Miles put his forehead in his hand and sighed. “Jesus Christ Stealth, you’re making it really fucking hard for me to hate you right now.”
“There’s one thing that doesn’t add up.” Alex said. “What is it the Hackers really want? They’ve already got something they can use to control others; what else do they want?”
“Access to the Core,” someone behind them answered.
The group whirled around. Janus was standing not ten feet away from them looking no worse for wear.
Miles launched himself at Janus and dragged him over the fence and dove into some bushes.
“Woah! Dude! What was that f-mmmphh!” Janus called before he was muffled. Alarmed, Alex, Croe, and Silent Stealth ran over to where they had fallen.
“Miles, you seem to be doing a lot of tackling lately,” Croe commented.
“Shut up! Get in the bush, or go away. This is serious,” Miles whispered furiously back.
Curious, Alex got in the bush. Croe followed as well as Silent Stealth after a moment.
“What the hell are you doing?” Miles whispered angrily at Janus. “You know what Qilin told you.”
“Miles, do you actually think that they don’t already have their suspicions?” Janus replied. “You heard Saru when they had us surrounded on the wall.”
“Just because they have their suspicions doesn’t mean you should run around confirming them.”
“Stop, stop, stop,” Alex said, holding up his hands. “You two are having a conversation that I know nothing about.”
Miles opened his mouth to answer but Alex held up a hand. “I wasn’t finished. What I want to know right now is how the heck did you get unbanned?”
Janus sighed. “GN, do you remember when I fixed your powerup so that it wasn’t always the Hacker’s virus?”
“Yeah, what of it?” Alex asked.
“Back then, I said that I even though I was able to fix the powerup, I didn’t have access to the Core. Well, that wasn’t true. That freelance job I did was to fix a gamebreaking bug that the dev’s didn’t want to fix themselves. Turns out, the bug was in the Coreitself.”
“Bloody hell” Silent Stealth breathed. “Do you mean?”
“That he’s got access to the one thing that’s been preventing the Hackers from complete control of Rune? Yes.” Miles said. “Now do you see why I tackled him into the bush? If a Hacker saw him walking around, they’d know what was up.”
“Geez no wonder Qilin never let you out of the hideout.” Croe said in wonder. “If a Hacker got ahold of you, it’d be game over.”
“Speaking of Qilin,” Janus interjected, “Someone needs to get in contact with him. I unbanned him as well.”
Miles groaned. “Perfect. Now we’ve got two people who are supposed to be banned running around Rune.”
“Calm down Miles. Qilin’s smart enough not to go running around Rune.” Janus assured him.
“But you aren’t” Miles countered. “Now I’ve got to make sure you aren’t captured and bugged.”
“Stop it! Both of you!” Silent Stealth ordered. “What our focus should be right now is getting back to the base and after a kip, figuring out what the bloody hell we’re going to do now.”
“He’s right,” Croe said. “We’re way too exposed here. If we can get to the cave, we should be safe enough to talk.”
“Good” Janus said. “Now could you please get off of me so I can move Miles?” Miles did and Janus rolled out of the bushes. The rest crawled after him, their characters brushing leaves off in an automated response.
Just as Bearzerker and Master Saru ran around the corner. They saw Janus and skidded to a stop, eyes wide with shock.
Janus drew his bow and sent several arrows at them and they dodged out of the way Bearzerker screaming “Get him!” Master Saru recovered first and ran at Janus.
“No!” Miles shouted as he charged headfirst into Master Saru. They tumbled and Master Saru shoved him away.
Silent Stealth and Croe ran at Bearzerker, drawing their weapons as they did. He saw them and smiled. “It’s too late” He called out. “I’ve already called in reinforcements.” Sure enough, Hackers began streaming out of alleyways, around corners, and from the sky.
“Good!” Croe yelled back, spinning his scythe in small arcs as he tried to stab Bearzerker in the neck. “More of you means the more likely Arachnoid is going to be here!”
Alex meanwhile ran to help Miles. Master Saru was playing with him. He wasn’t even using the viral aura. “You are a cockroach.” Master Saru said to Miles. “One that I shall crush under my staff without a single thought.”
Alex activated the flame edge and the sword glowed with the viral aura. He swung at Master Saru who blocked with the back end of his staff. Such a trick would’ve confused Alex the last time he and Master Saru had fought. But two months had passed and Alex had learned a few tricks. He angled his sword and it slid down the length of the staff. Surprised, Master Saru barely had time to deflect the blow so that it scored only a minor slice instead of the limb removing one he had intended. Master Saru’s eyes widened in shock.
“Tell me, what was it that you said to me?” Alex asked. “That if I did a bit of grinding and gave it a few months that I might’ve beaten you? Tell me,” he said as he flicked the sword up underneath Master Saru’s neck. “Am I still a noob who’s wet behind the ears?”
Before Master Saru had the chance to answer, Alex was slammed from the side. Alex went sailing across the street, sword flying from his grasp. He landed and rolled, desperately trying to get up. Before he could, the minotaur that had rammed him slammed him once more, this time with a fist encased in the viral aura. Alex yelled as the noise dug into his ears. He felt himself go limp and nearly fell out of his chair. As he stood up once more, he blearily saw that while they had been fighting Bearzerker and Master Saru, they had been surrounded by what looked like every Hacker in the game. surprisingly, Bearzerker, Master Saru, and the Minotaur had stopped fighting and stepped back into the mass of Hackers.
Alex, Silent Stealth, Janus, Croe, and Miles formed an imperfect circle facing the Hackers. Croe passed Alex his sword and he accepted it gratefully. “What’s our plan of attack?” Croe asked.
“Janus makes us invincible and we fight our way out” Alex said.
“No way.” Janus argued. “They touch me and they can bug me and get access to the source code. Besides, I can’t make you invincible.”
“I thought you had access to the source code and could do anything with the game,” Alex countered.
“Yeah, but that takes time. And if you haven’t noticed, we don’t exactly have a lot of time.”
“You are correct Janus,” An echoy voice announced. “You do not have time.”
The crowd parted and a figure walked through the gap. He wore a threadbare cloak that seemed to widen disproportionately near the feet. Alex couldn’t make much underneath except that he was thin everywhere but his feet, and his eyes seemed to glow. What caught his interest was a pure black scythe being used as a walking stick in his left hand. It had lightning bolts running down its length and made everyone’s hair stand up.
“Hello Arachnoid,” Croe growled. “Come to give me back my scythe?”
Arachnoid laughed. “It’s been too long Croe. I see you haven’t changed a bit. So you still believe that this scythe is yours?”
“It was part of our deal!” Croe argued. “You said I got the scythes if you got the gold. That was our deal! And you broke it!”
“And you trusted someone on the internet to keep their word. I think we’ve already disproven that ideal.”
Croe lunged at Arachnoid and Alex and Miles had to hold him back. “Not good strawhead.” Miles warned.
“I nearly had him last time!”
“Last time you weren’t surrounded by God knows how many Hackers,” Miles shot back. “Besides, we have bigger problems.”
Arachnoid laughed once more. “On the contrary, you do not. I can promise that all of you will leave this square without a single hair misplaced. All you have to do is hand over access to the Core.
“You’ll have to get through us before you get it,” Miles growled.
Janus held up a hand. “Miles, access to the Core is with me. I’ll decide what happens to it.” He looked at Arachnoid. “What exactly do you plan on using the Core for?”
“What are we going to use it for? Astonishingly, that is the first time any Coder has ever asked that question to any of us.” Arachnoid said. “They have fought us for almost two years now and not one of you has ever asked why we do what we do. You claim that you are doing what’s best for the game, that you are bringing back its glory days. And yet, that is what we are trying to do as well. The only difference is that we wish to bring about a new golden age, not bring back an old one.”
“You’re forgetting one more difference.” Miles said angrily. “We’re not willing to hurt others in real life to achieve our goals.”
Arachnoid turned to him. “Milesoftheblades. Of all the Coders, you are the one brought to my attention the most. You talk as if you have the moral high ground. And yet, you and your friends continue to use our own tools. Tools that you readily condem.”
“It’s not like I had any say in the matter,” Alex argued. “Your henchmen infected me without my knowledge or consent.”
“Oh, but that is but one of the tools I was talking about,” Arachnoid said. “The Hackers and the Coders both use the same methods to access parts of the game restricted only to the developers and those they hire. Why, we even use the same programing software. So you see, we are no different from you.”
“Just because the Coders use the same tools as you do doesn’t mean that you’re the same.” Alex countered. “One knife can be used to prepare food, while another is used to stab people.”
Arachnoid nodded. “A fair point. But I am getting off topic. Janus!” He turned to Janus. “Hand over access to the Core and you and your friends get to go.”
“As much as I’d like to do that, I can’t,” Janus said.
“And why is that?” Arachnoid asked.
“Because my brother isn’t here right now,” Garret answered. “He’s fixing Miles and closing his back door right now.”
As if on cue, Miles began to grow in size. His muscles spasmed and bulged, growing back to their normal size. His massive sword reformed on his back. He grabbed it and grinned. “Tell your brother I said thanks” he said.
Janus nodded. “Will do. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get out of here before it gets ugly.”
His head drooped and a countdown timer appeared over his head for one minute. Miles swore. “The game thinks he’s in combat. He can’t logout yet!”
Alex conjured up a viral ball and viral aura and lobbed the ball at the coders. It splashed against them and did damage, but they weren’t affected by the noise.
Arachnoid sighed. “So be it.” He gestured at them. “Destroy them.”
The Hackers roared in triumph and swarmed towards them. Miles shoved Janus into the middle of the circle and swung his sword in long sweeping motions, taking out half a dozen hackers in one swing. Croe waded towards Arachnoid, his scythe spewing orange fire. Every time he sliced, an arc of Hackers disintegrated into orange powder. Silent Stealth ducked around Hackers, stabbing them in the back and stealing their purses equally. Alex found himself facing a fully armored paladin and a horned Viking wielding a battleaxe. He lobbed a viral ball at the Viking, who simply raised his shield to block it, and ducked under the backhand slash by the paladin and stabbed at his chest. His sword bounced off the paladin’s armor, making a dull gonging noise. Alex stumbled back from the blow. As he did, the Viking slammed his axe into Ginganinja’s left leg, severing it. Losing his balance once more, Ginganinja crashed to the ground, his health bar flashing weakly. Alex desperately tried to get Ginganinja to get back up, but it was useless. Without his leg, he was staying down.
“Guys! A little help over here!” He called out. To his dismay, the others were fighting loosing battles as well. He watched helplessly as Miles was stabbed multiple times with a dagger and beheaded by a dual wielding swordsman. Croe had tripped over one of the Hackers he had killed and quickly disappeared into a sea of bodies. Silent Stealth was nowhere to be found.
Out of nowhere, his vision blurred as an armor clad arm grasped Ginganinja’s neck and lifted him into the air. He was brought face to face with the Paladin. “This is for what your friend did to me two months ago” the paladin sneered. His arm glowed red and Alex screamed in pain as he felt his arms go numb. Desperately, he tried to lift them up and remove his headset, but his arms refused to budge.
And the noise continued to pound into his skull.
He coughed, and felt something warm and sticky coat his shirt. Dimly, he tried once more to remove his headset. All he accomplished was managing to tip his chair sideways. His head slammed against his bed’s backboard and the world flickered and died.
Mercifully, the noise stopped.
Dun Dun Dunnnnn!
Sorry I don't have an intro this time or much of an outro, but I'm currently trying to get ready for college via a bunch of mandatory online classes. See you guys in two weeks!
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