Strange Happenings
Midnight. They always came at midnight. The chimes from the old grandfather clock in the den jolted Daniel out of his restless dreams. It wasn't the chimes that woke him so much as the knowledge that They were coming. It was the same horrifying ritual, every single night.
The room was illuminated by an eerie pale green glow. Three figures in haz-mat suits stood around his bed. One of them held a large briefcase, another held a gun, and the third--the apparent leader, from the way he acted--was making entries into a large handheld computer. Daniel tried to escape, to run, to even move, but some unseen force held him in place, as immobile as the bed itself. The leader looked up from his computer and signaled to the one holding the briefcase, who set the case down and began to open it. Daniel strained to see its contents, but couldn't from his position. If only he could move...
The leader reached forward, grabbed the bedcovers and--
The shrill blast of Daniel's alarm clock filled the room. He'd had that dream again, the same one he'd been having every night for nearly a month. Except that it didn't feel like a normal dream. It felt more like a memory, but one that had been partially forgotten. Anyway, Dan had more important things to worry about, so he pushed whatever it was aside for the moment. Today was the last day of school, finally. All he had to do was survive his last few final exams, and he'd be home free. He wasn't about to let a creepy dream get him down.
***
Dr. DiCaoz glanced over his biology classroom. "Is anybody still working on the final?" he asked tiredly. He paused for a moment, then said, "If everybody is finished, you may talk quietly amongst yourselves for the remainder of the period." As the class erupted in chatter, he went back to nursing his hangover.
Daniel loved his biology class. It wasn't just that he was good at it, or that it was the last class of the day. By some bit of luck or fate, he happened to be in the same class as his four closest friends, Gassan, David, Pammy, and Jake. Gassan, David, and Pammy had become absurdly popular since coming to high school. Gassan was Lebanese and therefore "exotic," David was a star swimmer, and Pammy was a cheerleader. In retrospect, popularity was an inevitability. To the other popular kids, Jake an avid follower of the Furry subculture (he called it a craze, but nobody else did) and Daniel, the introspective writer, were social liabilities. Still, Gassan, David, and Pam never let their newfound "friends" keep them away from Jake and Dan. Privately, Daniel was grateful that he had managed to befriend the four people who appeared to be immune to high school drama.
"So, what'd you guys think?" Pammy whispered.
"I'm pretty sure Dr. Di is a nutcase," Gassan answered quickly. He was met with a chorus of approval from his companions.
"Anyway," Pam continued, "are we having our annual Thank-God-The-Schoolyear's-Over party tonight?"
"I can't go," Jake said, "I've got a convention."
"I can't go either," said David, "My dad's taking me camping. He's on a back-to-nature kick."
"I'm visiting my grandma," Gassan said. Pammy rolled her eyes.
"Alright," she sighed, "when do you guys get back?"
"Sunday"
"Sunday evening"
"Sunday, but it'll be late."
"So," Pammy continued, "is Monday night alright with everyone?"
***
The days passed quickly. By the time Monday arrived, he had gone an entire weekend without his mysterious dreams. He was mostly relieved, but part of him wished the visitors would come back so he could find out what they were up to.
The streets were charged with an eerie calm. A summer storm was coming. As Daniel reached Pam's door, he couldn't help but feel a strange foreboding. Something was decidedly wrong. He rang the bell.
"Come in," called Pammy. Dan opened the door and found friend sitting on the floor in a tidy circle. They were all staring at him, an unsettling hunger in their eyes. "We are playing Truth or Dare," Pammy intoned mechanically. "Please, join us. Truth or Dare?"
"Please choose Dare," Gassan said, in the same unearthly voice.
"The Truth is never any fun," agreed David, still in the same tone. Throughout the exchange, none of the four took their eyes off of Daniel.
"Is everything alright?" he asked. "You all seem...different."
Pammy answered in the same monotone as before: "We are collectively unnerved at a series of recurring dreams we have been having. Perhaps you too are experiencing these visions?"
"Yeah," Dan said, "but I'm not acting that weird about it."
"Perhaps," Pammy said, "All will be made more clear if you answer this simple question: Truth...or Dare?"
Written by Zodiac on 31 May 2008
Gaming
When the matter of the flying werewolf first surfaced,you thought it only another stupid hoax or internet story that somehow had found its way in the pages of a regular newspaper.
It was the middle of the summer, a time you hate worse than any other in the year. Yeah, people would be running about, enjoying the sun and the bright sky, but you prefer the cold, damp isolation of your room. Safely seated behind your computer, talking to your friends and working on grinding a few more levels in Shell Shock.
The game was some kind of hidden indie pearl that you and your friends had discovered in the last year. The game showed a near-future demon invasion storyline, in which Earth was being conquered by parasitic demons from the hellish dimensions. These parasites would take over humans and animals hosts, corrupt and twist them for their nefarious purposes, equipped with advanced weaponry and eldritch sorcery they had overwhelmed most of the humanity.
In the game, you play a human recruit in the Heaven Alliance, tasked with using a variety of advanced weapons, deadly spells, and fierce chimeras to fight off the invasion.
The game had little over a million active players all around the world, but even then clawing your way up into the top ten had been no easy feat. What the Shell Shock players lacked in number they compensated in determination and skill.It took you the best part of the year in daily practice before you could even manage to get to the top one hundred. But after that you seem to have found your balance, and in the months that followed, you made a spectacular rise into the top ten.
Written by Ashley-natter on 04 October 2016
Talk
You pull up your friends list. David, Pammy and Jake were already logged in. You quickly switch on your microphone and join on their private voice-chat line.
“You still won’t admit I’m right?” David was shouting as you logged in.
“I told you, your argument proves nothing!” Pammy said. “I still think that episode 7 was much better than anything in the new trilogy! Anakin and Obi Wan spent the whole time twirling and spinning like some kind of ballet dancer! Meanwhile in episode 7 they were having a sword fight!”
“But that’s because they are masters in the force and can predict each other moves!” David retorted.
“I don’t care,” Pammy said gleefully. “It was still really lame and relied too much in impossible acrobatics and set pieces to be an awesome duel. With the new one you can feel each blow and see the fighters struggling to get the upper hand!”
“Sorry to interrupt, guys,” You say. “Are you two still going at it?”
“Daniel!” David called out. “I didn’t see you log in!”
“You’re late, noob,” Pammy said. “And David won’t shut up about Star Wars!”
“I’m right on time,” You say. “We have a few minutes before the mission begins.”
“Yeah, but you are the one that likes to obsess over your loadout and fighting formations…” Pammy said.
“Today we will have to improvise,” You say.
You don’t want to tell them, but you have been felling weird all day. You feel distant, disconnected.
“Hey guys,” Gassan says as he log in. “It’s raining really heavily around here, so maybe I’ll randomly disconnect during the match.”
You clear your throat. “Time is short. Let’s talk mission, guys.”
“If this is another Juggernaut takedown, I’m out,” David said. “I’ll bail and play Battlefield instead.”
“What’s the matter?” You ask. “Don’t you enjoy a challenge?”
“I enjoy a challenge,” David replies. “I’m not a masochist like you.”
Written by Ashley-natter on 11 October 2016
The Juggernaut
You can understand him. The Juggernaut was a powerful new weapon the demonic parasites had unveiled recently. A giant war machine seemed built from parts of battleships, and with enough firepower to level a small town in seconds.The thing was equipped with nuclear artillery, flak cannons, homing missiles and capable of emitting beams of hellish energy that could heal and even resurrect fallen enemies. For the past few weeks, all of the game’s most devoted players had been trying to figure out how to go through its defenses and kill the damn thing. But so far it remained unbeaten.
Despite the endless barrage of complaints claiming that the developers had committed some kind of mistake during the introduction of this new enemy, the company refused to remove the Juggernaut from the enemy’s arsenal or nerf it. Many players were expecting a new update that would bring bigger and more powerful weapons to the humans, something to level the battlefield, but so far the developers remained silent.
“It’s a new mission,” You say. “Be optimistic. There might not be a Juggernaut in it.”
“Yeah,” Pammy said. “Maye they will finally introduce those new spells they have been hinting on them forums.”
“Those damn mages,” David spoke, pacified by now. “I don’t know how you can mess around with all that arcane scripting that goes in the spell system. I just need to point to whatever I want dead and squeeze the trigger.”
“I’ll remember that,” Gassan immediately chimed in. “When you are bleeding on the floor and begging for one of my healing spells.”
Thankfully, an alert sounded in your headphone just then, signaling the start of the mission. The game immediately changes from the loadout screen to the loading screen. As the other players finishes loading you see their avatars materializing around. David and Pammy are the first to appear, Jake and Gassan appear shortly after that.
In the fictional near-future reality of Shell Shock, the five of you are soldiers stationed in the remains of Washington, the front line of the war. David and Pammy are soldiers, they fight mostly with advanced weaponry and armor; Jake is a scout and assassin fighting with very long range weapons and mixing technology with a few basic spells; Gassan is the team healer, using advanced spells to keep everyone mostly alive for the duration of the missions.
Written by Ashley-natter on 18 October 2016
Chimera Jockey.
You are something else entirely: you are a Chimera Jockey. Using powerful spells you control one arcane abomination, a creature altered through the use of barely understood magic.
Most players like to use the big dragons or even eldritch unicorns, but you have found your place with the gryphons. Those sly flyers had become your immediate favorite since the first moment you controlled one of them. It was almost instinctive with them; you knew how to use their abilities to the best.
The screen dimmed, and the spinning crest of the Heaven Alliance appeared on the screen in front of you. As the crest faded away, it was replaced by the familiar face of Konnor Lowell, Grand-Wizard and leader of the human resistance. In the background story he had been the first human to learn about the demonic forces crossing into our world and had single-handled created the basis of what would become the Heaven Alliance.
“Greetings, soldiers,” he says with a tired expression, it was a running gag by now that the Grand-Wizard never had a good night of sleep in his life. “I’m not going to lie to you, today will not be a normal mission, but it’s one I have been waiting for since these vermin first begun invading our planet.Our suffering is far from the end, but today we will make them pay.”
The Gran-wizard points to a board next to him, you can see what appears to be the blueprints of an old aircraft carrier.
“You should recognize the USS Nimitz, we have rescued it from demonic forces during one of our first missions.” The scene cuts to pictures from the giant ship, you can still remember that mission, the fight to retake it had been bloody and intense. The players not only had to destroy the forces outside the ship, but also needed to go into the cramped corners of the battleship and fight almost room by room.
Written by Ashley-natter on 02 November 2016
To the enemy homeland
“During the last months it has been repaired and fitted with our most advanced arcane technology and now we will send it direct to Hell and attack the enemy homeland!”
“Hell yeah!” David shouted, perfectly echoing your own reaction.
In all Shell Shock missions so far the fight had been confined to Earth itself, mostly fighting over the ruins of cities and the new fortified settlements. Even though the portals to Hell were a common sight amidst the demonic hives it was impossible to cross them. Or, at least it had been so far. This was the first mission that had ever involved an offensive straight into Hell.
“As soon as the Nimitz crosses into Hell,” Connor went on, “it will begin a full scale invasion, we will have full support from the artillery positions on Earth using trans-dimensional ammunition, but we will not have any reinforcements unless we can conquer one of the portals. That’s our primary objective, don’t try to kill every enemy you see. Focus on your objective.”
The Grand-Wizard began to show some photos taken by the clairvoyants. What little you could see of the city showed a true fortress inhabited by what appeared to be thousands of demons, there were defensive positions and gun emplacements almost as if waiting for you.
“Damn, that will be awesome!” Gassan says. “Try not to run too far from me, the place looks like a maze.”
“At least we will not see any Juggernaut around here.” David celebrates.
“Huh,” Pammy says. “Why do you think so?”
“Those things are made with part of battleships, so they should only exist on Earth.”
“Don’t count on that,” Jake replied. ”Who knows what these creatures really look like under all that armor, maybe we will find some of them in their natural state.”
“That would be interesting,” Pammy agrees.
“Don’t jinx it!” David complains.
The screen changed this time to reveal the inside of the giant carrier filled with troops, military and arcane hardware, all kinds of war machines and all the chimeras they could cram inside the ship. You see the elevators working non-stop to take the flying chimeras and the compact fighters to the launching ramps.
You suddenly see yourself in control of your gryphon being lifted to the main deck of the carrier, dozens of other chimeras getting ready to launch, most of them are the big fighting dragons, but you see at least four others gryphon and some other exotics creatures that were added on the latest patches.
Written by Ashley-natter on 18 November 2016