//------------------------------// // TOME Short - New Generation // Story: The Ponies of TOME // by Scarlett Haze //------------------------------// "I'm really glad you came with me into ;Lavendera, its really scary," a nervous girl voiced as a shadowy figure hid behind a pillar. "It's no problem," a guy spoke back. "Maybe we can see each other more, I'd like to maybe get to know you some more." The figure tilted its head out, eying the two avatars as they came closer. Username: Com.E.D. Class: Swordsman Power: Misdirection The female wore the classical comedy mask of theater, hiding her face. Her hair spiraled upwards, resembling chocolate ice cream on a cone, and her schoolgirl uniform easily stopped weeaboos who eyed her bright red stockings, red skirt, and white shirt. Two daggers hung by her side, one with the hilt end looking like a heart, the other dagger with its end like a diamond. Beyond the look, her presence let out out an air of joy and happiness. Getting close to the pillar, the figure wrapped her arms around the male avatar and placed a shining dagger to his throat, while another poked into his back. Username: Trag.E.D. Class:Swordsman Power: Hoodwink "Too bad, you won't be knowing my twin for much longer," the tragedy mask wearing avatar threatened. Trag.E.D. looked to be a mirror image of Com.E.D. The only differences being in hairstyle,color of clothing, and how her daggers looked. The brown hair she had fell around her shoulders, her bangs just above her eye level. Her schoolgirl uniform was a dark blue in contrast to Com.E.D.'s red ensemble. One dagger had its end resembling a spade, while the other's end was a club. "Wait, what's going on?!" the male avatar screeched out as Com.E.D. pulled out a program. "Now, hold still," Com.E.D. happily encouraged. "This won't hurt you, but it will hurt your bank account." The focus cut off as it rose to the sky and settled back down to a brawl. Username: Billy_B.A. Class: Animalistic Power: Gun Runner A group of five avatars surrounded the black snake-skinned warrior as he remained still. His head remained down as he brought up a pistol close to his sleeveless red shirt. "Nowhere to run, snake man!" An avatar called out as the wind barely made Billy's cargo shorts move. "Your ours, now!" Billy only gave a smile, revealing his fangs before his reptilian eyes opened as well. "Making a mistake, surrounding a deadly animal. Especially when that animal can do this." With a swing behind him, the pistol fired a bullet, striking an avatar in the head. The four remaining avatars moved to attack, forcing Billy_B.A. to slide away and pull the shotgun attached to his leg. A few short blasts later and two other avatars were sent careening backwards and to the ground. "Forget this!" One of the two yelled out, retreating at full speed. Billy put his shotgun back and whipped his assault rifle from his back, aiming down the sights and sniping the runaway. The final avatar stood in stunned silence as Billy kissed his rifle and put it away. "You want to see something really cool?" Billy chuckled, holding his hand out to his side. The avatar could only stare as a large shadow towered over him before the focus cut back to the sky again. In ;Mechcity, Bigtime was performing some shadow boxing in a ring corner as another challenger entered his ring. Username: Sniperwheel Class: Mechanical Power: Arsenal The light purple robot with blue LED eyes raised his arms up as the crowd roared at his entrance. "Oh, yeah! Bring the noise! Greatest freakin' player in the game has just entered the ring to take out the obnoxious champion!" Bigtime only smiled as Sniperwheel continued bad mouthing him. He enjoyed making people want him to lose, only to see him come out victorious again and again. The ring bell went off as the battlegrid locked in, prompting Sniperwheel to rocket forward with a fist out. Bigtime only got down on a knee and let Sniperwheel's single wheel strike his shoulder, but moved with the momentum to cause Sniperwheel's front to hit the ring floor. Sniperwheel's attempt to recover was cut off as Bigtime stomped on the axle portion of Sniperwheel, making it bend slightly. Bigtime moved away as Sniperwheel tried his hardest to get back up from the ground, "What's wrong? Can't make your tough words meet your actions?" "Oh yeah? You gonna act like that?!" Sniperwheel frustratingly yelled before a large cannon stretched out from his chest. "Eat some o' this, ya slime!" Bigtime only grinned as he watched the cannon charge and fire. In a large explosion, the dust settled to see Bigtime crumpled on the ground, the crowd immediately cheering at the sight. Sniperwheel's arms rose up as he turned to the crowd. "That's right, I did it! Not any a this-" "BA-BOOM!" Bigtime yelled out as his fist collided with the back of Sniperwheel, a large explosion of its own sending Sniperwheel flying into the battlegrid wall and sliding down before the LOSE! graphic came up. "And another victim of Bigtime's Stunt Double technique!" Mouthofthesouth yelled out over the intercom of the faux arena as multiple avatars booed angrily at what had happened. "They don't call Bigtime the 'Master of Deception' for nothing, folks! Check off another win for Bigtime as he prepares for another opponent!" Bigtime's attention went to a personal message that appeared before him, reading the message his already large smile went wider. "South!" Bigtime yelled, "I'm not taking any other challengers, a new business opportunity has come up for me." *** Back in ;Lavendera, Com.E.D. and Trag.E.D. were reading their own messages. "Aww, but I really wanted to get more money out of these hapless suckers!" Com.E.D. moaned. "Stuff it," Trag.E.D. snipped. "With this, we'll be set for life." *** Billy_B.A. only nodded from his seated position. "Well, my friend, I've got to go." Getting up and stretching for a bit he looked around and gave a laugh. "I keep forgetting that OMEGA can do this much destruction." Billy began moving from the crater left behind by the OMEGA-RPG and cracked his knuckles. "It's time to kick ass and chew bubblegum. Sadly, TOME don't have any gum." *** Mentalmusic only rocked back and forth from his seated position as his fellow workers came into ;Hellscape. "Here we all are. The actor, the theatrical, the gunslinger, and the music man." "Wait, who's the actor?" Bigtime said with minor confusion. "Thank you for coming so quickly," the dark fog of ;Hellscape interrupted. "I'm sure that I wasn't interfering with any of your own personal work?" "Rather standard day, to be honest," Billy_B.A.shrugged. "It was fun!" Com.E.D. chuckled. "It was a waste of time, before we got your message," Trag.E.D. contested. Bigtime put a mechanical hand to his chin, "What's the word?" The black fog only hovered as it slowly disapparated again, showing the darkened form resembling Webmaster again. "The Drain Edge has been confirmed to be out of the hands of its previous owner. I'm sending programs to each of you that should aid in finding the right one. Each Drain Edge is set with a specific programmed code, this program will alert you when one is close by." The programs were sent to each of the hackers with a wave of the doppelganger's hand, "When you have the right Drain Edge, you will bring it to me." Each hacker nodded as the fog thickened yet again. "Go now, every day that the Forbidden Power remains out of my hands, the more I will be forced to resist the urge to come up from this place and find it myself." Two fiery red eyes lit up from behind the wall of fog. "I will not be pleased if such a thing were to occur." MentalMusic stood up and gave a bow, "As you wish, our master. We will no longer remain in your august presence until the prize is found for your glory." "Yeah, go team go!" Com.E.D. cheered as Trag.E.D groaned. The hackers all teleported away, leaving the dark figure behind the CODECRUNCHR.ORG sign to begin pondering on his return back into the world he left behind.