Q: Will there be any typical VRMMORPG things happening in the story (leveling, questing, dark and sinister plots etc.)

A: Yes. Very soon.

Q:There seems to be a lot of ominous(3spooky5me) foreshadowing going on. Is there going to be a tragedy tag added?

A: I can neither confirm nor deny without the Secretary's consent.

Q: Do you wish real people were giving you feedback and not just the silly voices in your head?

A: Yes. Please comment and review, rant etc.

River POV! Get ‘em!

Six years working alongside him. Six years of vandalism, bold words and bolder acts and dozens of near arrests, fatalities and a few things much, much worse. The man never fails to make my blood run hot and cold.

When he asked me to join him I knew he had eyes bigger than his stomach, however I knew he had the mouth and teeth to get whatever his eyes saw into said stomach. No word on how they’ll exit. Not that I expected to anyways.

‘I’m glad you asked’

Everyone stared at him when he said those words, his lips curling upward, eyes cold and sparkling... He could do that to a room, to a crowd. His presence was like a giant microphone and an even bigger pacifier. When he was silent, so was everybody else. He took our indignance in his stride, like we were the children and he was the knowing older one. And it’s true him being the knowing one, every casual action, every word, every flourish belied his plans: plans we would never figure out until he told us. He was as much of a dictator as the ones we undermined. Like anything we had to add was just noise. So why did we stay? The same reason why Aladdin rubbed a dirt-streaked lamp from a dinky little cave. Because we knew he was the one with the magic, the one that could make our three wishes come true.

Three wishes… almost as true for us as it was Aladdin. We weren’t fools. We knew. We knew his tactics couldn’t be sustained long term. You can’t hold down a fort with guerilla warfare, can you?

But you can take the fort, you can break down the walls, cut off the supplies, snipe the soldiers one by one. We couldn’t win a war but we could win a revolution: just the eight of us and maybe a few extras. That’s what we came to do. We came to win.

Face laid back on his bed, as if he was discussing something as light as the weather.

“Galeforce and Slips already know most of the plan.” Face said. “And Boxman knows bits and pieces from what I and Slips have told him. So now is as good time as any to tell you fine folks.”

“Any reason why you’ve been so hush-hush?” Bones asked.

“The ears of the spoken-to are not always the only ears listening in. Don’t worry, if I didn’t trust any of you guys, you’d be… not here, to be precise.”

“That’s not very precise…” I sighed.

“To be honest, you guys won’t really be doing anything in this plan. Just a standard bit of interference. Really nothing extraordinary. Galeforce and Slips get all the fun parts.”

“Standard bit of interference?” Sparky asked.

“It’s a little bigger than normal, but perfectly manageable.” Face said. “Galeforce is handling the hard part. Anyhoo, do you guys want to know or not?”

“Yes.”

“Duh.”

“Just spit it out already!”

Face rubbed his hands together, staring out of a window. He laughed. He looked back at us and laughed some more, facing the window again.

“We are going to pull off the world’s largest and most widespread leak of classified information with World Sprawl Online.”

Oy. Don’t think you can pull that kind of crap here, brah. Sincerely, Justin.

I scanned everyone. The message was sent to all of us…. I cradled my head between my thumb and index finger. Of course they were listening in! Why wouldn’t they? Privacy, my foot!”

“Face!”

“What the hell?”

“Calm down everybody.” I said, looking up with my eyes. “I’m sure Face was planning this.”

“Thank you, River.” Face said, nodding at me. “ We will, in fact, use this very game to leak massive amounts of secure information and- ” he turned knowingly to the sky. “-the AI’s who run this world are going to help us.”

I’m seriously gonna kick all of you if you keep talking about this shit. You’ve been put on probation for now.

What? Leaks? How? Why through a game? No, the real question is: what’s Face’s game? A leak can be done anywhere there’s nothing special about this place. Something about this...

“The AI’s are going to help us because although we’ll only be using two main security weakness-” Face flashed up two fingers like a peace sign, sticking out his tongue. “-we’ve found countless others which could seriously interrupt gameplay and even potentially kill people in real life through the game if we decided to exploit them. It doesn’t have to be this way. We are willing to share this knowledge with the AI if they cooperate with us.”

You bastard. This is your last warning.

“We are also willing to share the weaknesses with hackers. A lot of hackers. They could raze this world to the ground. The kind that could cause several minor catastrophes in every first-world country on the planet simultaneously if they united. You spent years creating it, didn’t you? It’s beautiful, truly a wonderful construction, I can tell how much care you took in running simulations and making personal adjustments, working tirelessly, ardently. I can make this world of yours stagnate and rot with just a few words or I can give security fixes your teams wouldn’t have found for months or even years.

You’re a villain, you know? A bully and bastard. Definitely not my bro.

“Please. Don’t do this.”I said to Justin, involuntarily putting my hand on Face’s shoulder. “Don’t let this place be destroyed for something as trivial as this.”

Face turned towards me and made the smallest smile.

What do you want from us?

“We want you to perform a task which only you can do.”

What is it?

Face looked all of us in the eye before waving his index finger in a circle, like a siren.

“You’ll be told in due time.” Face said, miming a careless look at at a now nonexistent watch. “Make sure you protect what is dearest to you.” He was gone. I raced to log out as well, not wanting to be at the mercy of the moderator-AI-gods.

POV Switch to Face.

“Back already?” Lucy beamed.

I clambered out of the capsule and kissed the top of her head. “Maybe I missed you.”

“Really?”

“Sure did. I just wanted to spend a little more time with you.”

Lucy turned over her shoulder and furrowed her brow at me. “What’s the matter? You don’t look too hot.”

“I’m just a little worried that’s all.”

She punched my shoulder, smiling. “I’ll be fine. Mmkay?”

“Of course you will be. That reminds me. You need a nickname. Any ideas?”

“How about Wonderwoman?”

I swatted at her head. She parried, sinking into the couch.

“Hey! I was joking! Besides your name is clearly just a rip-off of the A-Team! Why can’t I-”

“It’s a homage! More importantly, it’s Face because Iam the face of revolution!”

“Whatever. How about Eyes? Because I’ll see what’s going on behind-”

“Rejected.”

“Already?!? Then how about Pawn? Jane Pawn. My word is my pawn.”

“So you’re my pawn? Are you still bitter about-”

“Wasn’t I always? That’s what you said...”

“Rejected.”

“Urrgh! Then call me Lullaby.”

I rubbed my face. “I like it.”

“Sounds cool, right?”

“It does.”

“Then, it’s settled!

POV Switch to Galeforce! Light em’ up!

The man I met for coffee was, from head to toe, bright orange. He kept on fiddling with his biscotti and rubbing his nose like he was holding in a sneeze, almost as if he were a schoolboy. He was not. No school in their right mind would even let him within one hundred meters of their campus if they knew who he was. He was vigorously scrubbing orange off his gun before dropping it in surprise.

“Mazzetti?” I asked. “My, I suppose you really do look good in any color.”

“Signor Bosco!” he said, wiping his brow and frowning at the orange on his hands. “It has been awhile, no?”

“Of course, Mazzetti. It’s good to see you again. Alas, I am in a hurry today, you don’t mind if I cut our reunion short do you?”

“Very well, Signore. “he stood up and gestured with a head and arm towards a service exit “The men you asked for are waiting in the alley. All twenty-six of them.”

“Thank you, Mazzetti.”

“It was good to see you again. If you ever miss the business, feel free to come back. It’s hard to find men with your kind of fire.”

I would’ve said no to any other face. “If you run into any troubles, I’ll see if I can smooth it out.”

“Thank you very much, Signor Bosco.” Mazzetti said, nodding his head. “I greatly appreciate this little favor you’ve done for us today.”

“You’re a good man, Mazzetti.” I lifted my mug. “I’m glad I got to see you again.”

“Same to you, Signore.”

We tilted our glasses back and drank, sputtering and coughing. Chugging coffee… definitely a bad idea… how did we forget that? Mazzetti was bent over, hacking. I reached for a glass of ice water, taking a quick but deep draught before walking over to Mazzetti.”

“Signore! Are you-”

“Fine. Fine. Here. Take a sip.”

He coughed a little, gurgling the ice water in his mouth. Deep brown puddles sat on red and black crisscrossing over marble flooring. A few waiters and baristas rushed out to help us back to our feet. Mazzetti waved them away.

“Cazzo!” he spat.

“You chugged the coffee too?”

“Signore, it is hard not to get sucked into your pace. You must understand.”

“Yes, of course. Forgive me.”

“Nonsense there is nothing to forgive. Only a great Don could command so effortlessly. Still there is much I have not learned.”

“At least you treat the children well. The troublemakers, at least.”

“You knew?”

“I guessed. No one else would dare something so stupid as dousing you in orange.”

“You always said it was the bold young ones that make the best recruits.” Mazzetti nodded.

I clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Your dedication is great as always.”

“It is thanks to you, that I’ve become this way.”

“Don’t say that. I only knew what it was like to be young and restless and what I learned from taking on responsibility...” I chuckled, maybe a little too pleased. “Work hard, Mazzetti. Grow your family and cherish them well. You have all my blessings.”

“Thank you, Signore Bosco!” he said, hand on his chest.

I looked towards the service door and back at Mazzetti. “We’ll have a proper coffee together when I’m done with my business! One that we can take our time with.”

“I’ll bring you around to my new villa when you’re finished. Jodie and the children miss you. You’re like a grandpa to them.”

A quick hug. “And you are like a son to me.”

“H-Have a good trip, Signore!” he said, inclining his head slightly.

“A good trip? Yes. I think it will be.”

I stepped toward the door, each footstep ringing, hitting heavier and heavier. In my mind, something flashed before me: eight masks, each one with a person behind them. Eight steps. Seven. Three. My hand was already turning the handle. For just a brief second, I saw those masks shattered and bloody, laying next to eight strewn out bodies.

“It’s only a matter of time…” I muttered. “Only a matter of time…”

Chapter Notes: Hehe. Get pumped.