A Tuesday afternoon, the Virtual Internet (VirtNet)…
The usual suspects of buyers, reviewers, and scammers trying to hock “free” coins or items deals, filled the Champions’ Jamboree marketplace. The marketplace programs (bots) called out to any passing player praising whatever Hero, Deathtrap, or Power card they were responsible for. Most of the players gave the programs cursory glances; however, everyone was here for the release of Pink Squibble.
Pink Squibble is one of the most famous vehicle/mounts in the game; it’s famous because of the real creature it is based on. The giant pink cat-dragon with six legs and spires along its lower spine and tail was used by the Surfin’ Slayers during the Champions’ Challenge. Pink Squibble could surf on water or clouds. It could surf on land by riding pockets of air a few inches off the ground. Pink Squibble shot heart beams from its eyes bringing peace and love to those it touched.
The Surfin’ Slayers traveled the world fighting disharmony and brining friendship. They were monster hunters until they realized many of the “monsters” they hunted were just regular people trying to live life.
Reaction: The Bellwoods Game by Celia Krampien Ch 8-10
Wonder what’ll happen since Noah broke the rules.
Mystery girl guiding them, you say? 🤔
Whispers saying Carmen’s name and a bat swarm attack. How strange.
The Champion’s Challenge was an inter-dimensional contest to see what realities would survive the Grand Convergence. The Grand Convergence was caused, accidentally, by The Wizard. The Wizard cast an ancient spell to merge the medieval-like world he was trapped on with his modern day home-realm. The Wizard, was trapped in an alternate reality after trying to protect an omnigate from falling into the wrong hands.
In order to return home, he cast the spell to merge the two worlds. Instead, it started merging all the worlds. To stop this cosmic collision, cosmic forces, like the Gamemaster–the living embodiment of games, summoned Champions from every reality to compete in various contests. The winners’ home-realms got to survive another day while the losers were erased (aka cancelled) or merged–and consequentially rebooted–by the Convergence.
Turned out the Challenge was mostly a delay tactic until The Wizard was beaten and the spell broken.
After the Challenge, the surviving Champions held a jamboree. While waiting for the food to cook, the Champions played a card game. Since, it was a game to be played while waiting for the food, there weren’t many official rules. Basically, you entertain the audience while waiting for the “dinner bell” to sound. The more spectacle you create, the higher your score–aka the longer your health points (or HP) last.
Eventually, word about the game got out and it became an actual thing. Over the years, it has transformed from a simple trading card game into a massive online game with crafting, resource management, survival battles; and of course, card trading. It is filled with beat ’em areas, platformer areas, quest areas, and first-person shooting areas (those are uncomfortably strange). And the marketplace, which I’ve mentioned.
So, Pink Squibble, a legendary card, was about to be added to the game. Only a few copies would be sold because the game developers, BLT Games, could only catch or convince a few souls to participate.
To make the cards more, uh, lifelike, souls are added to the card, even item cards like Powers. The souls help to boost the popularity of the card. Some souls are “attached” to videos or memes making those go viral.
The souls come from the Lost Souls, those who were erased or vastly altered thanks to shifts in the timeline. Lost Souls are those affected by paradoxes. They are neither alive nor dead. They must wait in Limbo, or Purgatory, until they can be reborn in the current timeline. Along with being “attached” to projects, Lost Souls can be reborn as artificial intelligences, animals/insects/plants, or computer programs (hence where we get the phrase “ghost in the machine”).
However, Lost Souls aren’t the only souls available. For a long time, living people were abducted and used as project assets. It wasn’t just video games either. They were used in books, movies, artwork, and so on. Eventually, thanks to a parallel version of me named Joseph Ramirez, the law changed. Ramirez defeated the lord of the video game realms, The Host, during a game challenge. All that was left of The Host after the challenge was a broken kitsune mask. Unfortunately, his wife, The Hostess, continues his black market deals.
Game developers and other shady creatives get away with “soul farming” because they use Lost Souls. They claim to be helping Lost Souls leave Limbo. The law requires the Lost Souls and living people to consent to being used as an asset (or actor), but consent is easy to fake, and desperation can be a powerful thing.
There was some debate if Pink Squibble should be a Hero or Power card. It was a living being, but it was also a mount. In fact, Pink Squibble is the first vehicle/mount to be added. Everything else was a character, trap, or “magical” ability.
BLT Games thought about it being a Power since it wasn’t a hero, sidekick, ally, villain, or minion. However, it wasn’t a superpower, spell, or advanced technology either.
Then BLT Games thought about what other vehicles or mounts could come to the game, like Weather Lord’s Hurricane Car or Knight Hunter’s doom horse.
Eventually, they decided on a new category: Boons. The Boons mostly worked outside of battles, like fast travel or for fun travel around the map. You could use it to escape a battle; or in the special Battle Zone areas–where you become the characters–you can use it as a wingman, or second life, allowing your primary character a chance to recover. More features would come as they fine tuned it.
People waited patiently for the marketplace to reset and Pink Squibble would be released. There was some shoving as people formed a line. One person threatened another.
The clock finally reached zero; someone screamed.
Don’t forget to drink some water, stretch, and take a break.
Dreams 2: Animation Project | Fireflies & Lantern Illustration in Procre… via Uli-verse
“Pink Squibble is missing!” a young woman in a neon outfit shouted. She was one of the programmers, or some other employee–maybe a marketing person.
“Missing?” said one video game reviewer.
The crowd chatted in a panic for a few seconds then the woman continued. “Someone stole the file!”
The crowd muttered and mumbled again.
Another man, who looked like a cyberpunk character in a business suit–short, dark hair at the sides but longer on the top with a spiky look–addressed the crowd. He also wore dark sunglasses and had dark markings along his face. However, he spoke in a serious, business tone. “We’ve decided that whoever retrieves the file will get their own copy of Pink Squibble.”
The crowd chatter was now excited. With a limited supply, the chance at a guaranteed Pink Squibble was too appealing.
The hunt for Pink Squibble was on, and I was joining. I planned to buy one anyway and free the trapped soul. According to the rules, once I owned the card (book, painting, etc), the soul inside belonged to me, thus I am able to set it free. Once freed, the soul would be welcomed into the Afterlife, having been reborn in this timeline; or if the one trapped was a living person, they could return home.
If I found the file, I could get the reward Pink Squibble and the Pink Squibble I paid for. I’d be able to set two souls free.
I hopped the next hyper-tube, pneumatic-like tubes that connect virtual sites–kind of like hyperlinks or website addresses–to the main part of the VirtNet to see if any of my contacts heard anything.
***
My investigation didn’t lead anywhere. None of my contacts knew anything…or they just didn’t want to say anything.
However, while I was sitting at the digital version of the Red Rover Restaurant, eating a digital hamburger, I spotted a familiar sight creeping past the window. He wore the brown robes of the Clay Men.
The Clay Men is a group of hyper-fans who use black magic to accomplish their goals. Their goals range from saving a show from cancelation to rebooting older shows to abducting people and using them as fuel or as characters in their fan-fictions. Their main goal is to become characters themselves, which they call Steel Men. To become a Steel Man means a form of immortality and great power.
This particular Clay Man might have nothing to do with the missing Pink Squibble file, but he was up to something. His shifty stance and constant sideways glances were as subtle as a neon sign.
***
I followed him to a website for a storage warehouse. The business went under some time ago leaving the digital warehouse abandoned. I peeked through the window. A group of Clay Men surrounded an electrified cage; they chanted faux Latin phrases, as if someone didn’t know Latin but knew how to sound like they did.
The one I followed swiped a file from his wrist Omni-Cuff. The file zipped through the bars of the electric cage. A series of pixels built Pink Squibble.
“Excellent work, Rudy,” said one of the Clay Men. I’ll call him “Frank.” He looked like a “Frank” to me. Frank used his wrist Omni-Cuff to contact BLT Games. He informed them that the Clay Men had their Pink Squibble.
“Our demands,” said Frank, “are simple. Get rid of the Boon system. The Boons are an affront to the game. There were no boons when the Champions played, and there should be no boons now.”
I rolled my eyes. The original game didn’t have crafting or Battle Zones either. It’s evolving.
Frank’s face grew solemn. His voice dropped a few octaves. “Pink Squibble is a Power.”
The other Clay Men nodded; their faces resolute.
“You have one hour,” said Frank. Click.
I sighed. “Guess it’s showtime.”
I switched over to my hero account. I changed from WarriorFang, a teenage boy in a purple trench coat, jeans, and sneakers, into NeonFox, a humanoid fox wearing a dark purple vest, jeans torn off at the knees, and dark purple, toeless boots. The fox body had a metallic look with some circuitry piping along the skin.
I inherited NeonFox from Joseph Ramirez after he merged with me. It’s a long story.
NeonFox cracked his knuckles. “Time to introduce myself.”
The introduction went as well as expected.
NeonFox smashed through the wall. A few Clay Men shouted, “It’s Dogboy!” People know that NeonFox is the digital avatar of Dogboy; they don’t know that it belongs to Joe Rover.
“Get him!” shouted Frank as the digital warehouse shifted into a foul, Hadean landscape. Lava pits formed in the background. The ground shifted into hard, basalt-like rock. Pools of goo formed around us. The air took on a smell like rotten eggs. NeonFox started to pant from the heat.
The Clay Men have the ability to alter reality, kinda. If they believe a stick is a sword then a sword it will be; but if they stop believing, it’ll become a stick again.
The Clay Men hood-wearing hoodlums attacked NeonFox with blades, fists, and guns.
NeonFox dodged and weaved from the attacks. Now and then, he landed a hit. One of the Clay Men landed in a pool of the goo. It started covering him like tar. He screamed and flailed until he finally couldn’t take it anymore and gave up believing in the pool. A second later, he laid spread eagle on the ground. The unholy battle arena glitched for a second because the Clay Man stopped believing.
One foe swung an oversized sword at NeonFox. He dodged it with a twist to the left. The Clay Man swung again and again; NeonFox dodged each one.
“That is impressive,” said NeonFox between strikes. “Those kind of swords are generally super-heavy. How are you able to lift it? Do you work out?”
The Clay Man stopped swinging. He looked like a cartoon character who realized he ran off a cliff and was now standing on air. The sword became extremely heavy. The sword dropped to the ground, and the attacker groaned from the sudden drop. A second later, the sword transformed into a movie prop. The attacker looked at it and backed away slowly.
NeonFox then cyber-equipped his network weapons: a cyber-shield and cyber-sword. They looked like a normal sword and shield except with a more glowing, pixelated look.
The other Clay Men glanced at their weapons. A couple said, “Uhh…” They flung their props, sticks, and water guns into the air and ran as fast as they could.
“Come back here!” Frank shouted after them. “Useless!” He then sneered at NeonFox. “I’ll deal with you myself.”
Frank held out a hand towards Pink Squibble. He chanted a dark spell. NeonFox could tell it was dark magic because it was more a chant than singing or speaking poetry.
Frank pulled Pink Squibble into his hand like a vacuum sucking up a dust bunny. Frank’s body twisted and popped as he transformed into a monstrous version of Pink Squibble. Instead of pink, he was black. He had six legs with claws. His eyes were red, and his teeth sharp. He laughed victoriously.
Then in the most adorable voice, he said, “Good morning, everyone! Today, we’re going to learn the importance of sharing.” He wiggled two of his leg-hands in a happy, playful manner.
“Say what?” NeonFox said.
“Let’s all sing the ‘Friendship Song’!” he said.
A second later, thankfully, Pink Squibble threw up Frank. NeonFox was close to throwing up too from all the sugary-goodness.
Frank, now human again, pounded the ground and grumbled.
Pink Squibble shifted back into its normal form. “Happiness, love, and kindness,” he said before shooting out heart beams. The beams transformed the sinister battleground into the abandoned warehouse.
NeonFox stood over Frank. Frank looked at him helplessly. “Guess today’s lesson is never merge with a being of pure innocence,” NeonFox said.
Frank moaned.
***
Pink Squibble folded back into the file. NeonFox handed over Frank and what Clay Men he could over to the authorities. He then switched back to me. I handed the file over to the BLT Games people and got my copy of Pink Squibble. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t let me buy another copy. They, however, would let me gift it to a friend. I sent the copy to Danny. Later, he and I set our Pink Squibble souls free.
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Joe Rover 
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