Another two-month hiatus! Yes!
I like to now call the cast of characters the Doctor Who New Years Weekend Marathon Bridgade and Brawl Playing Duo Plus Shishou.
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The group sat cross-legged on the floor of the hallway, for some reason finding little need to migrate into Miss Anonymous’s actual apartment. Now armed with a laptop that had been seized by Katana, the Doctor Who-platoon began to fill the last two additions as to what had been going on.
“Okay, yeah, ‘cause see, we were playing Brawl and then the signal was changed,” Missy grumbled, propping her head on her hand, her elbow on her knee. “I was kicking butt too.”
“Yeaaah right,” Sangome snorted in response, rolling her eyes as she shifted her legs. “But you know what that means? If what the Britaboos say here is true, that means whoever’s in control of this – coughAdamcough – can override your friggin’ TV. It was set to the aux function, not on a channel.”
“Wow, that’s…pretty hardcore,” Wayward noted, tilting his head from one side to the other. “…Damn. Like wow.” He paused. “Hey, what do you mean Britaboos?!”
TimeChaser was the one to roll his eyes this time. “Doesn’t matter. But it seems every channel of the TV has the possibility of being overridden with whatever signal the person in char – okay, let’s just say it’s Adam – whatever signal Adam is sending out. Seeing as how it’s that evil bile known as Twilight, I think we need to fix this, and fast.”
“And not the good kind of bile, like the kind we throw at the screen,” Katana mumbled, eyeing TC as she spoke. He snorted.
“Alright, that sounds awesome and all,” Missy continued, “But…how do we go about, uh, de-bileing the broadcast?”
“We go to the source,” Nehszriah answered, who was currently holding the shoulder of a quickly-falling-asleep Arch. “And, you know, fix it. Like secret agents.”
“Super dragon?” the little one’s sleepy voice said, her eyes fluttering to life. Japan giggled while Nehs sighed and patted the younger girl’s arm.
“Take a nap kiddo, this might be the only chance you get.”
“I’m not…I’m not tired…”
“It might not be a bad idea to lock her up here,” Missy suggested, jerking her thumb back at the door. “She’s tired. Not used to being awake this late, I guess.”
“Ehhhh!” Trip whined in protest, which was met with another pat from Nehs.
“I think she’ll be okay, just gotta wake her up.”
“Coffee,” Kat murmured over a series of clicks from the mousepad.
“We’re not getting her addicted like you,” ‘gome replied flatly. “…What the heck are you doing on there, anyway?”
“Doin’ my research.”
“…Right.”
Wayward suddenly leapt to his feet. “Alright, this is fun and all, but that’s me lying. Truth is, I’m bored, this is boring, I want to watch Donna, and sitting around isn’t going to get things fixed.”
“Since when did we agree to this?” Sangome questioned while the rest of the group stood up. Miss Anonymous tugged at her arm and, with a defeated sigh, the girl dragged herself to her feet and gave a slightly disapproving glance at the whole group.
“C’mon, we’ve defeated cupcakes,” Katana said to the look, closing the laptop and handing it back to its rightful owner. “Surely we can beat Adam. We used to do it all the time.”
“Yeah. When we were kidlets. And we really didn’t, we just had a good streak of pissing him off.”
“Ah, but it was a good streak.”
“It was.”
Arch rubbed her eyes and let out a tiny yawn, causing Japan to squeak in delight. “So glad Des isn’t here, he’d be all over your moeness.”
“Ewwwww,” ‘gome mumbled before slipping into Missy’s apartment, presumably to get her jacket and outdoor gear.
“Trip, you sure you’re okay?” TimeChaser asked the girl. He had barely the height to loom over her with either authority or parental concern, but he still tried.
“I’m – I’m fine!” she burst with sudden anger, which was quickly trounced with regret. “Ah – I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that!”
Nehs gave her a light tap on the head. “Don’t make us throw you in the box.”
“I’m sor – I mean – yes – okay.”
A few minutes passed before Sangome and Miss Anonymous came out the door, decked head to toe for the cold of the outside. The latter locked the door before she turned on her heel to find the former frozen in place, her expression rigid in dumbfound disbelief.
“…You’re sure we’re friends with them?”
“- Isn’t that right Archy, huh, huh?”
“Why’s tha – oh, the llama thing, right.”
“You people bring matches for Archy…?”
“YOU SHUT UP ARCHY YOU SHUT UP!”
Right before Nehszriah could bleat further, Missy clapped her hands. “Guys. People here. People sleeping here…my gosh, why we weren’t yelled at already is beyond me, but let’s get out of here before somebody does decide to come out and be all angrish at us, okay?”
The group, suddenly faced with the threat of angry residents, bolted down the hall, racing down the stairs and practically flinging themselves out the front door in overdue panic. The actual tenant of the building came a few seconds after them, shaking her head but with a smirk on her face.
“I didn’t mean RUN AWAAAAY, but you know what, it worked.”
TC began to hop on his feet. “Okay, so, we can start moving now?”
“You’re free to move,” Japan noted, flicking her hair behind her back. “You don’t have to wait for the rest of us.”
The oldest member took a few moments to think of a retort. “…Well…who’s gonna…uh…”
“Who’s gonna be our buttmonkey, I know I know,” Katana filled in, to which TC groaned. “That’s why we need you.”
Sangome rolled her eyes before tapping her toe on the sidewalk. “Alright, tell me which way to go and I can be the fraggin’ leader.”
“Broadcast tower,” Nehs answered, pointing down the sidewalk before hooking her fingertip to the left. “Still about four blocks west, then another two north.”
“I’m aware,” ‘gome replied, a slight look of resentment coming to her eyes. “Ohh, the days of the streak…”
As they finally began to move on, there was one thing Wayward couldn’t help but notice: Sure, the city wasn’t the busiest at night, but it was far too dead for it only being one in the morning. The streets were practically barren, filled only with the occasional parked vehicle. No busses were running, no sounds other than the quiet howl of the wind, but most disconcerting…no other people.
It was beyond eerie.
“This is striking me as very ‘robot holocaust’ish,” Nehszriah’s voice said as if linked to his thoughts. He jumped and looked to the source, who was striding right alongside him. “Quiet, eh?”
“Yeah. Too quiet.”
“Good observation.”
“I pride myself on the quality of my observations.”
At the front of the group, Trip was doing her best to keep awake. To do that, she had to keep her mind moving, and the easiest way to do that was to have her eyes and head moving. That proved to be useful, since when they crossed a street, she took note of something down the block to the left.
“Guys…what is that?”
The group came to a gradual halt, following her finger down the block. If one wasn’t looking for it, it might’ve been hard to see, particularly against the stone buildings, but sure enough it was there. A white rope of sorts was being thrown out a third-story window before a leg suddenly appeared, straddling the windowsill. The Doctor Who-brigade-plus-Brawl-duo gave each other quick glances before bolting down the street, Wayward and Japan reaching the location first.
“Shishou!” Japan shouted at the realization of who it was. The girl looked down to see just who in the world had spotted her, her eyes growing wide in relief.
“I have never done this before, help me! ” she whimpered, now with both legs swung over and to the outside.
“What the heck – oh my God, are those bedsheets?!” Nehs questioned and answered in amusement, grinning broadly. “Awesome!”
“No, not awesome! I’m going to get eaten by a Twitard, that is not cool!”
“How the hell did you have enough time to do that?” Katana asked, gasping for breath from the sudden running.
“And why,” Missy added, though her tone of voice was a bit odd. Kat gave her a confused side-glance.
“What happened?” TimeChaser cut over the rest, clearly more focused on actually helping Shishou than questioning her method of escape.
“I dunno,” she answered, nervously glancing over her shoulder and into the room. “We were watching TV and then Twilight came on, but I wasn’t watching, I was getting a drink, and when I came back, Driffter was all weird and forthing and I decided to get out as fast as I could because she was screaming about Edward and dammit that’s creepy! ”
TC looked lost for words. “…Wow, that was…”
“That was an awesome story assault,” ‘gome said instead, shifting from one foot to the other in an attempt to ward off the cold from standing still. “But um…is it just the one?”
“Wha’?”
“Just Driffter?”
“Yeah?”
“…So you resorted to crawling out the window.”
“…Yes. Okay, look, it seemed like an awesome and good idea at the time.”
“Dude,” Katana cut in, fidgeting with her goggles, “Just say something nerdy to her. I mean, quote something.”
Shishou looked helplessly at the group three stories below her before sighing. “Okay, like what?”
“A quote, a skit, something. Something that has more intelligence than Twilight.”
“…Okay. Brb.”
Once Shishou had swung herself back inside, TimeChaser turned to Miss Anonymous. “Did she really just say ‘brb’?”
“Seems that way…”
“I am now afraid for the entire human race as a species.”
“Mmm, that took you a while.”
Shishou was soon back at the window, her eyes wide in panic. “Okay, that didn’t work – help me now please! ”
“Well, it looks like you get to use your awesome rope ladder,” Wayward said as the group subconsciously migrated closer to the building. “Start your descent.”
“…It’s cold out.”
“Yeah, dress warm.”
After yet another delay, which resulted in Shishou reappearing with another hoodie over her torso, she finally began her climb down. Of course, the sheets ended up untying their knots, resulting in her momentarily kicking against the building before falling backwards to the ground. Wayward, Japan, Nehs, and Katana were there to catch her, their knees and shoulders buckling under the impact and awkward weight distribution.
Once on her feet, Shishou let out a sigh of relief, rolling her shoulders and kicking out her legs. “Thanks guys...agh…what the heck!” She looked up at the window, eyebrows furrowed, before turning back to the group. “You guys don’t seem surprised. What is going on, if I may ask?”
Trip raised her hand. “Um, we were watching Doctor Who –”
“So were me and Driffter. Man, Fires of Pompeii is actually a good one!”
“- and then Twilight came on and then Kat said something from the Twilight RiffTrax –”
“Ahh, you would,” Shishou muttered, eyeing the goggled one and earning her a light punch to the arm.
“- and then we figured it must be a broadcast thing, so we went out and went to Missy’s place and she and Sangome were there and they attacked us but then TC did a Doctor Who bit –”
“Cassandra,” Japan offered in order to fill in the blank. Shishou snorted in laughter, withholding it by grinning.
“- and then they decided to come with us and then we were walking and saw you and now we’re here.”
“…Trip, I award you the ‘longest run-on sentence I have ever heard’ award,” Sangome announced, patting the young girl on the shoulder. She frowned in embarrassment.
“So…it sounds like you guys got out of the frenzy by quoting things,” Shishou mused, cocking her eyebrows. “But…I tried that on my sister and it didn’t work.”
“…Maybe that’s it. She’s your sister, so she’s used to it,” Missy supplied, her hand cupping her chin. “Immune, so to say.”
“So…whoever is being possessed to be a Twitard is still themselves somewhere in there,” Kat added next, biting her upper lip. She suddenly looked up. “Wow guys, good luck with me if I become possessed.”
“But then why did Kat quoting work on us?” Wayward asked. “I mean – okay, I can see how it would work on me, but the rest of these nerds, I don’t know.”
“…Maybe ‘cause she got it in the early stage,” TC replied after groping for an answer. “I mean…we were still consciously aware and all, not like in a frenzy or anything.”
Then came an awkward silence, the group processing the proposed information before letting out a collective sigh.
“You know what, let’s go with that,” ‘gome said with an affirmative nod. “Sooner we get this fixed, sooner we get out of the cold, sooner I can go back to kicking Shino-lover’s butt at Brawl.”
“You so wish that was the case.”
