04-18-2010, 07:00 AM
The prisoners tried to fight their respective foes, and although many of them were too busy fighting to do much thinking otherwise, everyone could tell that the situation was about to come to a head. The tarrasque had been attacked constantly by a multitude of different attacks from a variety of angles, it hardly seemed to have a scratch on it. Jagged spikes of rock burst from the ground, scraping the underbelly of the great beast, but it seemed as though it was a minor inconvenience to it at best. The slashes of a great sword licked against its back, but to no avail. Whatever the prisoners threw at it, the tarrasque merely shrugged it off.
Magnus, however, was having a tougher time of it. He had mastered the art of manipulating the system, but the more he went about doing it, the more the system began to manipulate itself. There were instances throughout his fight with a few of the more willing prisoners where things would happen that fell outside of his influence, and in fact, some of them worked against him. Brief glitches in the visuals and flecks of dark matter caught his attention every once in a while, and left himself open for attack.
If he was going to impose his will in the minds of these weak, pathetic prisoners, he was going to have to do it soon. And he would need the tarrasque to do it. He glanced over at his creation, but his heart sank when he gazed upon it. The massive beast continued to roar and stomp about, but the flecks of darkness that he had been distracted by earlier began to spread on its skin. What looked like a mere spot grew into a cancerous looking thing, and soon began to envelope the entire creature. What was once a brown monster evolved into a massive shadow, glaring its bright yellow eyes solely upon Magnus.
The hacker shook with fright, knowing full well that if his creation had indeed gone mad, it would be the end of him. His eyes broke from the beast and fell upon Yuffith and Kepler, who had removed themselves from the situation but kept themselves within sight. The girl seemed as clueless as ever, but that damned elf had a grin plastered on his smug face. The hacker realized immediately that whatever was happening was a direct result of his actions.
His only regret as the tarrasque began to tower over him was that he could not stop him in time.
*
“No…” Gamer breathed to himself as he clicked the “enter” key on his keyboard.
No response, just like his other attempts. The clicks and clanks resounded painfully in his ears as his eyes quickly scanned the screen in a nervous stupor, flicking back and forth as he watched the events unfold. It had all compounded so quickly that the teenager was having trouble even believing that it was happening. What began as a simple skip—a glitch in the video feed, he assumed—turned into oddly colored patterns that seemed to envelop the entire area around each player that he monitored.
He pulled up the command prompt, where he knew he could easily contact Mixie. If anything, she would know what had been happening to his precious machinery:
“What the fuck does that even mean?” Keith slammed a fist on his desk and sank back in his chair. The event that he had placed his players into began to shift, their reality warping into several other possibilities, the chaos that ensued almost impossible to predict or even keep up with in his bird’s eye view. The entire system seemed to be at the mercy of whatever had begun to vex it, though he couldn’t tell what it was. He shook his head—Lance must have been the cause of all of it, he figured, though he had no idea what he could have possibly done.
The screen began to twitch in and out of clarity, making it painfully obvious that he would lose control in a matter of seconds. Although he couldn’t quite see the person who was speaking, he heard one last message before everything went black.
Though the message itself was jumbled, the purpose was all too clear. “Gamer…watching…you’re next.”
He shook his head and bolted from his chair. If his experiments had escaped from his game, he would make sure that his army of robots would be there to protect him.
*
One by one, as the program began to shut down, every person’s eyes began to flutter open.
“I guess this means that we’re free,” the blonde-haired courier spoke first, examining his hand as he lifted it towards his face.
“Oh fuck!” Belle’s scream startled everyone as they tried to regain their senses after being in slumber for so long. “Oh fuck yes. The changes weren’t permanent.”
“Well…” Victoria shook her head, standing to her feet. “We seem to be alive. That’s good.”
“It’s not the afterlife,” Orion replied swiftly.
“Yeah. Pretty sorry sight if it is,” the pink haired teenager, Ashe, observed casually as she rubbed the base of her neck.
“Yeah, well…” Ander stood up from the back, walking towards the door. “No point in standing around. If we’re alive, that means we’re still inside the kid’s mansion. If we’re inside the kid’s mansion, that means he’s probably still here. He hasn’t had enough time to escape. And since he’s here…”
His voice trailed off, obviously not caring to finish the sentence. Juno, however, was more than happy to oblige. “And since he’s here, we might as well make him pay.”
The rest of the former players muttered agreement, despite their moral backgrounds. It was questionable whether or not some of them would follow through with it, but they all knew that if the right person got there first, then Gamer would be in more pain than he would like, and then he would die. Their scattered thoughts of revenge were further interrupted by a soft, feminine gasp from the corner opposite Ander. All eyes fell on Yuffith, who still looked much the same. She made a point to look every contestant in the eye as she spoke. “Please, I beg of you. Please don’t kill him.”
“You don’t want us to what now?” Alexander Trafford said in almost a scoff, as he casually patted the pockets of his jacket for another cigarette.
“Sorry, but that isn’t going to happen,” Orion crossed his arms. “The boy must pay for his crimes.”
“I…I know what he’s done was wrong,” Julia sighed, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. “But…please, he’s my brother! He’s all I have…just please…”
“Well…” Kaden paused, taking a deep breath as he sorted out his thoughts. “We need to confront him regardless. Letting him just…chill out while we all run away seems awfully…I don’t know. What’s the word?”
“Stupid,” Sophia offered, her eyes still closed as she was laying down, though she had awoken with the rest of them.
“Right,” the courier nodded. “It’d seem pretty stupid.”
“Let’s do that, then,” Piper hopped up. “Looks like the thief is bursting at the sides just to get there.”
Ander glanced at Sage and Sophia before he offered a response. “I just want to talk to him.”
*
Keith holed himself up in his room, curling himself into a ball as he stared at his door. A line of robots curtained him from the opening, of course, and there was another wave of robots just outside, but he couldn’t help but feel afraid for his life. He shook his head, tears streaming down his face as he thought about the gravity of what he had done. Real, living people were used for his own enjoyment, and they broke out. They broke out, and now they were likely looking to kill him. It wasn’t fair.
It just wasn’t fair!
He gripped his pillow and burrowed his eyebrows. He deserved so much better than the life he had been given, and he definitely deserved a more sophisticated cause of death than to be torn apart by the hands of some simpleton. In dwelling in his emotions, he began to laugh. He wasn’t sorry at all for capturing them. He felt no remorse for the ones he had already killed. It was all in good fun, and if they couldn’t take the joke, it didn’t matter. His laughter grew both in intensity and volume until a loud thud sounded from outside his room, leaving behind a quaint silence.
Keith crushed the pillow with all his strength, his pupils focusing in on the pattern of his door. The robots stood motionless, making the teenager feel even more uneasy. Suddenly, the door burst open, and before Keith could even blink, beams of ki tore through the metallic bodies of his guards at the sides, and a loud crunch sounded just in front of him as Belle smashed his fist into its head, riding on the momentum of its body as it fell to the ground.
Hibiki narrowed his stare upon seeing Keith. His body tensed, but the hand of Victoria pushed him back as she placed it on his shoulder. “Don’t you think we should get some answers first?”
“Psh, I don’t even know you,” the impulsive fighter rolled his eyes.
“She’s right, though,” Gamer replied, his voice quickened with fright. “Yeah, you want some answers. Can’t get answered if I’m dead, right?”
“Then why don’t you hurry up and give us those answers, hm?” Trafford said.
“Right. Answers,” Keith chuckled nervously until he suddenly realized that it was an inappropriate response. “Um…what do you want to know?”
“You could start by telling us why you did what you did,” Tamsin sighed.
“Or remind us again why we shouldn’t just kill you,” Juno shrugged, placing his hands behind his head casually.
Keith’s mind raced. He had absolutely no reasoning to give them, at least nothing that would prevent him from being killed. He shook his head and opened his mouth in an attempt to get something out. However, Julia marched up to him and slapped him across the face before so much as a grunt could escape his lips.
“Don’t you even dare try to justify what you’ve done!” she cried, her countenance suddenly bolstered from before. “We’ve been through rough times, but there is nothing that you can say to make things right!”
Keith merely stared at her blankly, rubbing his face tenderly. Julia turned around to face the rest of the group. “I understand that you wish to…to kill him, and honestly, you’re within every right to do so. But the fact is that death would be too…” she began to choke on her words. After several more attempts, she shook her head and moved on. “Keith will pay for his crimes. Mr. Stone and Lance are going to the authorities as we speak.”
“Yeah, I’m sure they’ll have a hell of a time figuring this one out,” Orion smirked.
Magnus, however, was having a tougher time of it. He had mastered the art of manipulating the system, but the more he went about doing it, the more the system began to manipulate itself. There were instances throughout his fight with a few of the more willing prisoners where things would happen that fell outside of his influence, and in fact, some of them worked against him. Brief glitches in the visuals and flecks of dark matter caught his attention every once in a while, and left himself open for attack.
If he was going to impose his will in the minds of these weak, pathetic prisoners, he was going to have to do it soon. And he would need the tarrasque to do it. He glanced over at his creation, but his heart sank when he gazed upon it. The massive beast continued to roar and stomp about, but the flecks of darkness that he had been distracted by earlier began to spread on its skin. What looked like a mere spot grew into a cancerous looking thing, and soon began to envelope the entire creature. What was once a brown monster evolved into a massive shadow, glaring its bright yellow eyes solely upon Magnus.
The hacker shook with fright, knowing full well that if his creation had indeed gone mad, it would be the end of him. His eyes broke from the beast and fell upon Yuffith and Kepler, who had removed themselves from the situation but kept themselves within sight. The girl seemed as clueless as ever, but that damned elf had a grin plastered on his smug face. The hacker realized immediately that whatever was happening was a direct result of his actions.
His only regret as the tarrasque began to tower over him was that he could not stop him in time.
*
“No…” Gamer breathed to himself as he clicked the “enter” key on his keyboard.
No response, just like his other attempts. The clicks and clanks resounded painfully in his ears as his eyes quickly scanned the screen in a nervous stupor, flicking back and forth as he watched the events unfold. It had all compounded so quickly that the teenager was having trouble even believing that it was happening. What began as a simple skip—a glitch in the video feed, he assumed—turned into oddly colored patterns that seemed to envelop the entire area around each player that he monitored.
He pulled up the command prompt, where he knew he could easily contact Mixie. If anything, she would know what had been happening to his precious machinery:
Quote:>: MIXIE! WHAT’S HAPPENING?
>: …
>: …
>: …
>: I’m sorry. This was my home, but I did what my programming required of me. I’m glad it did, as I believe this is the just course of action. Goodbye, my creator. May your creator have mercy on you.
“What the fuck does that even mean?” Keith slammed a fist on his desk and sank back in his chair. The event that he had placed his players into began to shift, their reality warping into several other possibilities, the chaos that ensued almost impossible to predict or even keep up with in his bird’s eye view. The entire system seemed to be at the mercy of whatever had begun to vex it, though he couldn’t tell what it was. He shook his head—Lance must have been the cause of all of it, he figured, though he had no idea what he could have possibly done.
The screen began to twitch in and out of clarity, making it painfully obvious that he would lose control in a matter of seconds. Although he couldn’t quite see the person who was speaking, he heard one last message before everything went black.
Though the message itself was jumbled, the purpose was all too clear. “Gamer…watching…you’re next.”
He shook his head and bolted from his chair. If his experiments had escaped from his game, he would make sure that his army of robots would be there to protect him.
*
One by one, as the program began to shut down, every person’s eyes began to flutter open.
“I guess this means that we’re free,” the blonde-haired courier spoke first, examining his hand as he lifted it towards his face.
“Oh fuck!” Belle’s scream startled everyone as they tried to regain their senses after being in slumber for so long. “Oh fuck yes. The changes weren’t permanent.”
“Well…” Victoria shook her head, standing to her feet. “We seem to be alive. That’s good.”
“It’s not the afterlife,” Orion replied swiftly.
“Yeah. Pretty sorry sight if it is,” the pink haired teenager, Ashe, observed casually as she rubbed the base of her neck.
“Yeah, well…” Ander stood up from the back, walking towards the door. “No point in standing around. If we’re alive, that means we’re still inside the kid’s mansion. If we’re inside the kid’s mansion, that means he’s probably still here. He hasn’t had enough time to escape. And since he’s here…”
His voice trailed off, obviously not caring to finish the sentence. Juno, however, was more than happy to oblige. “And since he’s here, we might as well make him pay.”
The rest of the former players muttered agreement, despite their moral backgrounds. It was questionable whether or not some of them would follow through with it, but they all knew that if the right person got there first, then Gamer would be in more pain than he would like, and then he would die. Their scattered thoughts of revenge were further interrupted by a soft, feminine gasp from the corner opposite Ander. All eyes fell on Yuffith, who still looked much the same. She made a point to look every contestant in the eye as she spoke. “Please, I beg of you. Please don’t kill him.”
“You don’t want us to what now?” Alexander Trafford said in almost a scoff, as he casually patted the pockets of his jacket for another cigarette.
“Sorry, but that isn’t going to happen,” Orion crossed his arms. “The boy must pay for his crimes.”
“I…I know what he’s done was wrong,” Julia sighed, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. “But…please, he’s my brother! He’s all I have…just please…”
“Well…” Kaden paused, taking a deep breath as he sorted out his thoughts. “We need to confront him regardless. Letting him just…chill out while we all run away seems awfully…I don’t know. What’s the word?”
“Stupid,” Sophia offered, her eyes still closed as she was laying down, though she had awoken with the rest of them.
“Right,” the courier nodded. “It’d seem pretty stupid.”
“Let’s do that, then,” Piper hopped up. “Looks like the thief is bursting at the sides just to get there.”
Ander glanced at Sage and Sophia before he offered a response. “I just want to talk to him.”
*
Keith holed himself up in his room, curling himself into a ball as he stared at his door. A line of robots curtained him from the opening, of course, and there was another wave of robots just outside, but he couldn’t help but feel afraid for his life. He shook his head, tears streaming down his face as he thought about the gravity of what he had done. Real, living people were used for his own enjoyment, and they broke out. They broke out, and now they were likely looking to kill him. It wasn’t fair.
It just wasn’t fair!
He gripped his pillow and burrowed his eyebrows. He deserved so much better than the life he had been given, and he definitely deserved a more sophisticated cause of death than to be torn apart by the hands of some simpleton. In dwelling in his emotions, he began to laugh. He wasn’t sorry at all for capturing them. He felt no remorse for the ones he had already killed. It was all in good fun, and if they couldn’t take the joke, it didn’t matter. His laughter grew both in intensity and volume until a loud thud sounded from outside his room, leaving behind a quaint silence.
Keith crushed the pillow with all his strength, his pupils focusing in on the pattern of his door. The robots stood motionless, making the teenager feel even more uneasy. Suddenly, the door burst open, and before Keith could even blink, beams of ki tore through the metallic bodies of his guards at the sides, and a loud crunch sounded just in front of him as Belle smashed his fist into its head, riding on the momentum of its body as it fell to the ground.
Hibiki narrowed his stare upon seeing Keith. His body tensed, but the hand of Victoria pushed him back as she placed it on his shoulder. “Don’t you think we should get some answers first?”
“Psh, I don’t even know you,” the impulsive fighter rolled his eyes.
“She’s right, though,” Gamer replied, his voice quickened with fright. “Yeah, you want some answers. Can’t get answered if I’m dead, right?”
“Then why don’t you hurry up and give us those answers, hm?” Trafford said.
“Right. Answers,” Keith chuckled nervously until he suddenly realized that it was an inappropriate response. “Um…what do you want to know?”
“You could start by telling us why you did what you did,” Tamsin sighed.
“Or remind us again why we shouldn’t just kill you,” Juno shrugged, placing his hands behind his head casually.
Keith’s mind raced. He had absolutely no reasoning to give them, at least nothing that would prevent him from being killed. He shook his head and opened his mouth in an attempt to get something out. However, Julia marched up to him and slapped him across the face before so much as a grunt could escape his lips.
“Don’t you even dare try to justify what you’ve done!” she cried, her countenance suddenly bolstered from before. “We’ve been through rough times, but there is nothing that you can say to make things right!”
Keith merely stared at her blankly, rubbing his face tenderly. Julia turned around to face the rest of the group. “I understand that you wish to…to kill him, and honestly, you’re within every right to do so. But the fact is that death would be too…” she began to choke on her words. After several more attempts, she shook her head and moved on. “Keith will pay for his crimes. Mr. Stone and Lance are going to the authorities as we speak.”
“Yeah, I’m sure they’ll have a hell of a time figuring this one out,” Orion smirked.
Quote:I’m REALLY sorry that this ending was so underwhelming, but I’m exhausted. I hope you guys had fun regardless.
I won’t do an exit thread like I was going to do, so this is it. Good times.
As for how your character will exit, that’s largely up to you. The “authorities” are just the local police force. They’ll allow your character to go back to wherever they came from, or treat wounds, or whatever. This is for if you even choose to write about your exit from the situation at all. xD
I’m sure I’m forgetting something, but whatever. xD
![[Image: Tamsin-Signature.jpg]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v477/Tom_Phoenix/Tamsin-Signature.jpg)