Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

The last light was snuffed out. A shadow of the blue light from the computer still branded onto my eyes. The plug still clutched tightly and firmly in my fist.

I was shaking, and not because everything tangentially electronic or digital in my house had turned off and plunged me into darkness. No, the childish fear of the dark was nothing compared to the terror that had quickly creeped into my bones and wrenched my guts into knots. I had innocently believed that this would all stay in the past, that he would stay in the past. But now my adolescent mistakes have come back to haunt me, and I don’t know how far he’ll go to get revenge.

I need to prepare, and I need to prepare fast. But I have no idea how long it will be before he attacks again, and I don’t know where to start. Where do I go? I’m almost certain that he’ll find me again, even if I fly all the way to the other side of the world. It would only be a matter of time until-

“Alan? What happened? Why are all the lights out?”

My wife had stumbled into my room with her phone flashlight to guide her, our daughter clinging tightly to her side. Her face was painted with the ghostly light and concerningly regarded mine. I must’ve looked pretty terrified, because she immediately went over to comfort me. 

“Are you alright? You look horrible!”

“Y-Yeah…I’ll be fine Kaori…”

My daughter hugged my leg and smiled up at me with a brave face.

“It’s OK Daddy! I’m not that scared!”

It was at that moment - when I looked down at her sweet and innocent face, and felt the assuring composure I always felt when I was with Kaori - that I realized I needed to protect my family no matter what. I wouldn’t ever be able to live with myself if he found them. I shivered at the thought of all the horrible things that he could do to them, and if they found out about him, then they would never be able to look at me the same way. I tried my best to keep my voice steady,

“We need to go out of the house while the technician comes to fix the lights.”

Kaori frowned “Why do we need to leave? Can’t we just go to the breaker and fix them ourselves?”

“I tried that already,” I lied. “There’s some stuff wrong that’ll need pros to fix.” I tried to think of somewhere to go that would be safe for us to hide, if just for a little while. “We can go to my sister’s place. It’s not that far from here after all.”

My daughter bounced up and down, ”Yay! Sleepover at Auntie Harmony’s house!” I smiled at her sudden enthusiasm despite my worries.

“Go pack your things and we’ll leave as soon as possible, okay?”

“Okay!”, she hurried out of the room, her hands in front of her to keep her from tripping over things.

Kaori still wasn’t fully convinced. She looked at me suspiciously and I tried my best to keep a straight face. 

“Does this have anything to do with your.. friends?” 

She said ‘friends’ in a different tone, and knew that I had been caught.

“I-, well… I’m not completely sure, really…” 

Her expression softened into a worried look. She knew all about the stick figures that lived on my computer, and how reckless they could be. But I hadn’t told her everything, and it seemed as though she was about to find out about those underlining details really soon if I didn’t do anything to stop it. Before I could think of something to tell her, a look of resignation formed on her face while she spoke again.

“It’s alright, I understand. I’ll pack our stuff, and we’ll let you sort out whatever it is that just happened.”

I looked at her gratefully. “Thank you.” 

“Of course.”

She gave me a hug, and I was relieved. Words could not describe how thankful I was that she was being so understanding. It invigorated the energy in me to make sure that I did everything in my power to keep them safe.

If it weren’t for our daughter's infectious excitement, the packing would've almost felt tense and dire. Every minute that passed felt like another minute wasted before something terrible would happen, and it willed me to move faster. I still packed my own bag, even though I had a feeling that I wouldn’t be coming along with them. After a torturing amount of time, we had finally shoved the last of the luggage into the car, and our daughter hopped anxiously into her seat as I closed the door behind her. Kaori lowered the window so that I could talk to our daughter.

“Why aren't you in the car Daddy?”

“I'm not coming with you sweetie.”

She gave me her huge puppy eyes. “What!? Why not??”

“Well, Daddy has to make sure the technicians know where the problem is, otherwise they'll be wandering around the house scratching their heads trying to find the problem.”

“Oh!” her eyes brightened again, “Okay! I'll see you later Daddy!”

“You bet sweetie.” I mustered a smile to match her shining one, and then went over to Kaori to say goodbye.

“Be safe.” I said quietly.

“I would’ve said the same to you.” she replied with a look that said much more. And with that, they drove away and I watched keenly as they disappeared into the streets.

~~~

I have to say, walking around alone in the lightless house is way eerier now that it’s only me. It was a miracle that I hadn’t fallen over something and split my head open at first, but after a while I got better and better at traversing my way through pitch black. All I’ve been doing is locating anything that has electronics attached to it, and turning it off. Even if all it has is batteries, I made sure that the batteries were off in a random cupboard far away from any device. Everything else that I could find was either a way to barricade my bedroom, or a way to defend myself if ever necessary. I don’t know why I thought I needed defense mechanisms of any sort, but something in my gut told me I should collect as many weapons as possible. 

I tried to get rid of my phone, but I just couldn’t do it. I knew that it was probably the biggest liability that I owned, but I needed to know when my family arrived. I needed to know that they got to Harmony’s house safely. I couldn’t handle the fact that I wouldn't be able to check up on them at any moment, so I stuck it in the corner of my junk drawer and hoped that it was enough to bury the biggest weak point.

My bedroom looked like the artillery room of a warzone. It was an absolute mess of haphazardly placed furniture shoved in front of the door and piles of objects ranging from mildly bludgeoning to extremely sharp. If I was in a more silly mood, I probably would’ve raided my daughter’s art supplies and painted camo streaks across my face.

The stress was probably the worst part of it all. I don’t know when he will strike next. I don’t even know how he will do it. I’ve tried my best to block out any kind of way he could attack, but I’ll never know if it was good enough until he finally decided to act. What if the next time he acts will be days from now? What if I starve before he even gets to me? I was starting to question everything I was doing. Was it really a good idea to isolate myself from my loved ones? Is it safer to have them by me, where I can protect them? I immediately answered my own question. No. I could tell from those few minutes when I was exposed to his raw strength that he was too powerful. If he ever got to them, I was sure that there would be nothing stopping him from doing whatever he wanted to my family. I needed to keep them far away from me. 

But as soon as I started thinking about my family in the human world, my mind suddenly wandered to the sticks on my computer. The Color Gang, The Chosen one, The Second Coming… were they safe? And where were they? The last that I had seen of them, The Chosen One had dragged his younger counterpart into the portal, and the others had followed suit. It was only a few hours later that he… I shuddered. The events were still fresh in my mind. I saw what he did to The Chosen One. If he could do that to one of the most powerful beings I have ever seen, then whose to say that he could do worse to the others, or even, to the wider Internet as a whole? I mean, The Dark Lord was really close to letting his own creations wreak havoc on everything online, so why wouldn’t he be any different?

My eyes drifted towards the computer screen on my desk, its screen still lifeless as before, and I saw the power plug on the floor where I had dropped it to help my family pack. What if the sticks had found their way back to my computer, and were waiting for me to open it up again? I mean, they’ve told me that no one can get in when I turn it off. They could be running from their demise, from him, counting on the fact that I’ve always kept the computer on, and unexpectedly they would be caught in a dead end, because I was too scared to turn the computer back on…

Slowly, very slowly, I turned to the desk. With great uncertainty, I picked up the plug and headed to the outlet. Just as the two links would connect, I faltered for a second, then plugged it in…

Chapter Text

A bright blue shockwave blinded my vision and I fell backwards.

Before my eyes had recovered from the flash, I scrambled to get out of sight. By sheer dumb luck, I had found my way under the bed. I tried my best to stay as silent as I could while cursing myself for not thinking to put any weapons under the bed.

Then I heard something. 

Footsteps. Very soft, very tiny footsteps. That was when I noticed that the room was illuminated by not only the computer’s dim light, but also by a moving, very bright blue one. The light wasn’t what bothered me though, what bothered me was that I recognised those sounds. The footsteps, the soft swooshing, even the faint clicks. I had heard those sounds so many times that they had become ingrained into my head. That was the sound of a stick figure.

But how? I tried to rationalize. Maybe I was right and the Color Gang was on the computer again. But there was no way I could hear it from this far away. They’re usually so soft that you can barely hear it. These sounds, they felt real. Almost as if they had been fully brought into reality and materialized in my world. There was only one explanation, and yet it felt so unbelievable. 

Suddenly, the bed above me disappeared – not moved – but flat out vanished as if it was never there to begin with. I looked up to see that everything else in my room save the chair, computer and desk had vanished as well. But I wasn’t focusing on that.

There he was. Victim. In the human world. At first he was barely larger than the palm of my hand, and then he just enlarged himself to be as big as a human with some techy wrist thing on his arm. He was simply… floating there staring at me. I mean, I assume he was staring at me, based on his body language. He didn’t have any eyes or face, like every other character of mine. The blue glow of his body pulsating like a heartbeat, and the HUD tracker fixed on my eyes. We stayed like that for a moment until I backed up on the floor, unintentionally hitting the wall. I spoke slowly, not really caring that my voice was shaking.

“Victim, please, you don’t have to do this.”

It was like my voice had snapped him out of… whatever he was doing, because he instantly balled up his fists, and blue lightning crackled within it. Instinctively, I dashed out of the way, and turned to see that what was once a solid wall was now crumbling dust under Victim’s fists.

My heart was hammering in my chest. 

“Victim. Please. Calm down.”

But my pleading words did nothing to break his stone character. Victim turned and grabbed me so fast that I swear I hadn’t even blinked before he moved. Then he threw me onto the ground with so much force that all the air rushed out of my chest, I’d be surprised if something hadn’t broken. He put one of his legs onto my chest, and knelt down to my level. 

I wheezed with every raspy word, “Let. me. explain. Vic-”

He punched me right in the nose before I finished my sentence. Hot blood gurgled into my mouth and throat as he punched again. 

And again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

And again.…

My glasses were absolutely shattered, and I was barely conscious by the time he had stopped. The pain throbbed in my ears as he lifted me up off of the floor and forcefully thrust me into my chair. My vision was blurry, but I could barely see that he had conjured a lasso, and had tied it around me so tightly that my already constricted lungs struggled to expand. He wrapped the lasso around my neck, and I could already guess what would happen next.

He made the rope tighter, and tighter. I was gasping. Choking. Begging with my eyes for him to stop before he killed me, hoping that there might’ve been something compassionate within him. But all I saw was a hollow gray circle with a bright blue tracker, and things slowly darkened…

Then I heard a buzzing, and my restraints slackened. I coughed up blood then gasped and gasped as I swallowed sweet air into my lungs. It was only after I cracked open my swollen eyes that I looked up to Victim facing something that had appeared on my desk.

My phone. And it was buzzing with a call.

The silence that continued while the ringtone went on was heavy and foreboding. I think I would’ve preferred getting choked to death than have to experience this moment. After what seemed like an eternity the phone went to dial, and once my voice message finished I heard Kaori’s sweet, sweet voice.

“Hey Alan! Don’t know why you’re not answering your phone, but I called to say that we made it to Harmony’s!”

Then I heard my sister.

“Yep! They both got here safe and sound. Kaori explained everything about the power outage, so don’t worry, you're all welcome to stay as long as you’d like!”

My Daughter’s voice came next, first from a distance then very clear, like they had given the phone to her.

“Did you hear that Daddy? We get to have a sleepover at Auntie’s forEVER!! Yay!!”

Laughter was heard. Then my wife’s voice again.

“Well, I hope everything’s okay back there Alan. We miss you, and really hope you’ll be here soon!”

A slight pause as Harmony and my daughter said goodbye. Kaori’s voice came back, but softer.

“I love you.”

Then she hung up.

All the pain had vanished. Everything that an instant before had throbbed with intensity was now numb, and I felt oddly sick. My whole body was trembling fiercely as I pleaded with tears in my eyes.

“Victim…No…Please…They’re everything to me…”

He hadn’t moved at all during the whole message. In fact, it took a few seconds after my pleas before he even moved his tracker. But when he did, and when he turned to face me, I sensed that his mood had changed. I could tell before that he was mad. But now, I could sense something much more sinister. I don’t know how I could tell, but when I realized it, a pit in my stomach dropped, and I struggled against my restraints with a newfound energy.

“No, no, no, no, no, no. PLEASE. DON’T. I’M BEGGING YOU, DON’T HURT THEM. I’LL DO ANYTHING PLEASE–” 

But as I screamed, he deleted the chair and levitated me with his powers. With his free hand, he shot a burst of crackling energy at the computer behind me, and something bright appeared, though I couldn’t see it. He shoved me backwards and the last thing I saw before I blacked out was that faceless, stoic gray outline of a circle that I had so naively created all those years ago…

Chapter Text

I don’t know how long it was until I woke up again. My aching head made me stir awake as I looked around bewilderedly at my surroundings. How the heck did I end up in a green field? And why did the sky look so strange? It was like the clouds were some kind of repeating texture, and was that a corner in the sky? I stood up, confused. Was this some weird dream? It sure looked like one. The whole area seemed to be a huge room with four walls that looked like the sky, giving the place the illusion of looking bigger. It was odd that I didn’t hear anything, not even the slight whistle of a breeze. Just… silence. Maybe it was a recurring dream, because this place felt oddly familiar, like I had seen it before. But when I turned around, I saw something that snapped me back into reality. 

One of the “walls” was just a window. No. Not a window, but a screen. A screen that showed my bedroom. And when I looked close enough, I saw my reflection in it, and I saw that I had turned into a cartoon character. 

I had somehow travelled into my computer.

Questions swirled together in my mind. How am I in my computer? How long had I been out for? And how was I a CARTOON CHARACTER??? I looked down at my hands, at the low detail, monotone-colored simplicity of them, and everything else about my appearance. Strangely, I didn’t feel any different. I guess being a cartoon doesn’t change anything about my biology, or just being myself in general. I looked back at the screen and out into the human world. I could see fairly well save for the digital glare. As I surveyed the room, I stared incredulously at the damage that had been caused - the crumbled wall, the blood stains - It was frightening to know that Victim had done all of that…

Oh my god. Victim. He knows. He knows about my family. And he knows where they are.

Even though my glasses were miraculously repaired and on my face, my vision went blurry from welling tears again as I thought of the nightmarish danger that they were unknowingly in. The horror from before sank back into me as I pounded on the screen, trying hopelessly to get out. To the touch, the screen felt static-y and buzzing with electricity, which would’ve made me feel uncomfortable if it weren’t for how terrified I was, and how I was absolutely screaming my head off, punching the glass and calling out into the soundless scenery for help.

~~~

After what I think was an hour later, my energy was drained. Now I was just leaning against the screen in silence, the tears still rolling down my face. I was spiraling down a rabbit hole of regret and self-loathing for being so stupid. If I had just been a little smarter, if I had been a little more proactive, a little more protective, then maybe, just maybe there could’ve been a chance that Victim would never have found out about my family. 

And now, I was handing them what was very likely to be a very painful death.

All of a sudden, I heard a loud whooshing noise behind me, and I turned around to see that the portal at the bottom of the screen had opened up again. I jumped up in terror, expecting to see Victim, coming back to finish the job. I tried to find somewhere to hide, but it was all just a flat plane of grass, so I quickly dashed behind the portal and hoped he wouldn’t look behind it.

But instead of hearing those digital clicks and seeing the bright blue glow, I heard a mechanical humming noise, and then the powering down of an engine. Once that was silenced, I heard the sounds of a regular stick figure. In fact, I heard more than one pair of footsteps jumping off of something, probably whatever it was that had just turned off. If I counted correctly, I had heard five pairs of feet jumping down, and now a bunch of swooshing noises, indicating what I knew to be a bunch of sticks talking to each other. My heart skipped a beat, and for the first time it wasn’t because I was scared, but because I was excited. Slowly, I peaked my head around the swirling light to get a hopeful glimpse at who had just entered my computer.

I had never been so relieved to see my friends talking amongst themselves. The whole gang was there; It was amazing to see Red, Blue, Yellow, Green and most of all The Second Coming. Without even thinking I ran out of my hiding place with a smile on my face. 

“Guys! Thank goodness, you don’t know how-”

But I quickly regretted being so eager, because they turned around quickly, also expecting someone more hostile, and Red stepped forward immediately to punch me in the face. I backed away as quickly as I could so as to prevent another face injury. The rest of them all looked like they were ready to fight me.

“Woah! Guys! It’s me Alan! Don’t punch me please!”

They barely lowered their stances, which gave me reason to believe that they could understand me just as much as I could understand their swooshing notions for speech. I could see how coming back home to find it completely unrecognizable and inhabited by a total stranger would cause extreme suspicion, so I tried to think of a way to get them all to calm down.

“I’m… Alan!” I said slowly, as if that would be any help. I pointed excitedly to the screen, and then to me, and repeated that a few more times. Now they were just standing there, probably confused. The only way that I could tell was that they were all just looking at me now, and The Second Coming was scratching his head. Not only was there a language barrier, but due to their lack of any facial features it made me have to react solely off of their body language. I grimaced. This was going to be really hard. 

Everyone was standing warily while I tried to think of a better form of communication. It just so happened that at that moment I saw The Second Coming still had the UI pen, and I became excited again as an idea came to me. I headed towards him, and all of them instantly looked as though they would barrel down onto me if I moved another step. I put my hands up to try and indicate that I wasn't gonna do anything, then I looked to The Second Coming,  who stiffened as I put my attention onto him. I pointed slowly at the pen in his hand, then clasped my hands together in a pleading formation. He looked down at the pen then back at me, probably in realization of what I wanted. But as he motioned hesitantly to give it to me, Yellow stopped him and shook his head, probably saying something along the lines of ‘we don't know what he would do with that’. I began to become fearful, and I tried again to plead that I wasn't going to use it to harm them. I stayed in that position for a lot longer than before, in hopes that it would make them trust me a little more. Then The Second Coming made a swooshing noise at Yellow, causing him to take an apprehensive step back. Then finally he dropped the pen in my outstretched hands.

I could tell that if made so much as a singular wrong twitch, they would've been on top of me in milliseconds, but I calmly drew like how I've seen them use the tool, and created a mouse similar to the one they knew to be mine, and I wrote a few words beside it in the air:

‘It's me Alan.’

Then I drew a big arrow pointing to me because a little more emphasis never hurts. 

At first, they all just stared at it and examined me, probably in disbelief or somehow trying to figure out if I was lying. Then The Second Coming leaped over to me unprompted and gave me a huge crushing hug. The wind had been blown out of me, but I was so happy and relieved to see them excitedly jumping around and swooshing at me. But of course, even though they finally believed me, their motions for talking meant nothing to me. I bet that they were all probably talking to me and asking me hundreds of questions, but it was all still going over my head. Flustered, I wrote:

‘Guys, I still can't understand you ’

and they calmed down, looking at each other in a more concerned way, also understanding the difficulty of the problem before us. Suddenly, The Second Coming jumped up in excitement and orange text popped into existence above his head, saying, 

‘can you understand this?’

I had completely forgotten that he could do that. I nodded my head fiercely, and wrote ‘YES’ in all caps, and added a bunch of exclamation marks because I too was ecstatic. They all jumped up and down, and then the others bombarded The Second Coming, probably giving him suggestions of what to say next to me. He waved them all away impatiently and the first message was replaced with:

‘how did you get on your computer??’

I shrugged, writing down, ‘I got trapped in here’, glazing over my harrowing interaction. I wanted to avoid that and any talk about Victim for as long as possible. There was no need to bring it up now, so I wasn't going to. 

‘Where did you guys go?’ I asked. They all looked at each other, as if they were trying to find the right words. Everyone was conversing, each probably saying something more about what happened. Eventually, The Second Coming shook his head, and more text appeared, 

‘It’ll take too long to explain. We need better communication.’ I frowned, then wrote,

‘How are we gonna do that?’

We all stood for a moment, trying to think of something, but I couldn’t think of anything. Then very abruptly, Yellow shook from his trance and started getting energetic. He motioned to the others, and after a few seconds they all nodded approvingly and patted him on the back. I looked questioningly at The Second Coming, and the writing said,

‘Yellow has a plan.’

In all honesty, I wish he had been a little less vague, but I wasn’t going to argue because now Yellow had run over to the screen, where the task bar was. But of course when he tried to open the windows button, it wouldn’t work because Victim had completely smashed that whole interface with a giant hammer. He put his hand under his head as he thought for a second, and then looked over at the crushed pieces. He started searching amidst them and found the piece that contained the reset button. He looked at the rest of the gang, who were shaking their heads and acting in protest, probably telling him that resetting the computer now would be a terrible idea. But he said something to them, and they all reluctantly went quiet. The Second Coming grabbed my arm, and the text above him read,

‘Don’t panic ok? It’ll be over soon.’

It immediately made me panic a little, but before I could write anything down in response, Yellow clicked the button.

We were plunged into a darkness so devoid of everything it felt suffocating. Wherever I looked, it was just disorienting nothingness, and I started breathing hard. But I felt The Second Coming’s arm squeeze mine even though I couldn't see him, and I relaxed a bit knowing that I wasn't in the void alone. We waited for an agonizingly long time, but eventually I was blinded by how instantly everything had returned to full brightness. When my eyes readjusted, I was amazed to see that the computer had been fully restored to the version it was before Victim had ruined it; It was as if nothing had happened. 

Before we could celebrate at Yellow’s stroke of genius, he was off running again towards the other end of the screen. He reached down to pick something up that we couldn't see, and when he stood up again, he was holding the Minecraft Icon in his hands. I gasped, because I hadn't even thought about using the mechanics of the block. Yellow saw my surprise, and gave a little chuckle-esque swooshing noise and let me hold it in my own hands. I felt a rush of power, and looked up to see the creative mode hotbar hovering there. I flitted through the items for a few seconds, until deciding to place and destroy a dirt block. It was amazing how simply this icon could just create and destroy matter on a dime. Yellow nodded at my wonder, and he put his hand out for me to return it. Clearly he needed it for something, so I gave it back to him.

Yellow turned to Blue and shoved it in his arms excitedly, to Blue's likely confusement. Then he said something to him, and Blue perked up in realization. He took a bunch of different potion-related items from the catalog with great swiftness, and soon there was a pile of items at his feet. Eventually, he gave Yellow the Icon back, and began to work. It was almost mesmerizing to watch him at his craft with breakneck speed. In less than five minutes he had finished with a glowing potion in his hand, and he looked confidently at everyone else. He then handed it to me, and I looked questioningly at them while asking,

‘What will it do?’

‘It will turn you into a stick figure’ was The Second Coming's message.

I was dumbfounded. In very messy handwriting, I wrote,

‘It’ll WHAT?’

They all made the chuckling noise and then nodded. I looked over at Blue, who looked as confident as ever. How was it even possible that he could create something like this with Minecraft items? And in such little time? I looked down at the inconspicuous bottle with great disbelief at how such a small thing could cause such a big impact on me if I drank it. I looked over at them once more as doubt creeped in and once again began writing.

‘Are you sure this will do what it says? What if it turned out wrong?’

The Second Coming put a comforting arm on my shoulder, and the text appeared once more.

‘You can trust us, and Blue's potion making skills. And besides, do you really wanna keep writing stuff constantly?’

I looked around at where we were standing. He was right; the air was littered with all my comments and conversations due to the lack of an eraser. I had barely used the pen, and there was already a mess. It would be such a pain to have to use it for hours on end, leaving an obvious trail wherever we went. And to be honest, I really wanted to know what it felt like to be a stick figure. I could already feel my heart racing with excitement. I gazed nervously at them, and they gave me encouraging nods. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath to steady myself and to keep my heart from beating any harder, and then swung my head back to drink the whole thing.

The first thing I felt was a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach and a throbbing in my head, then suddenly I toppled over because of the combined reasons of my head weighing a lot more than usual and the sudden unsteadiness of my legs. I groaned, my head still hurting, but as I did, I heard something I never would’ve expected.

“Oh my gosh! Is Alan okay? Maybe this was a bad idea!”

“Relax Red, he just fell, there’s nothing to worry about!”

Still in shock at what I was hearing, I opened my eyes to see the gang all staring at me. Red looked the most concerned out of all of them, and Blue was rolling his eyes at him in a joking way. I tried to say something, but I was still slightly stunned.

“Y-you.. You guys have faces? And you can TALK?”

Green raised an eyebrow, smirking slightly.

“Well what did you expect? That we were all mind-readers?”

“Alan didn’t know any better!” The Second Coming came to my defense, frowning at Green. He then looked at me with sympathy, “You feel okay?”

“I… I don’t know.” In all honesty, the only sensation that was the most similar to what I was feeling was the phantom limb sensation, except I felt that way everywhere on my body; everything felt lighter than it should be, except for my head. When I raised a hand to my face, I was dumbfounded to see that I had no fingers - just a stub, and no feet for that matter either. It was odd that just a moment ago they had existed, and now… gone. When I looked back at the reflection of myself on the screen, I could see that I still had glasses on, and that my face consisted of much simpler lines and shapes. My head was larger than before, and completely hollow like The Second Coming, except a little rounder. It was a peculiar feeling to be able to look straight through something that was usually completely opaque. I was purple too. A bright cool purple was the only color that I was now, and looking at my torso, it was even weirder to see that everything was gone except for a single line. I patted myself down, almost as a way to gain closure, and to really make sure that this was what I was now, for the time being..

“Here, let us help you.” The Second Coming said with an outreached hand, probably sensing my uneasiness. He and Blue helped me get to my feet, and I immediately started wobbling again. Clearly I wasn’t used to balancing all of my weight on two stubs, but they helped me enough to get me to keep my footing. Then I just looked at them all in amazement. Their faces weren’t nearly as customized as The Second Coming had made them to be that one time, but in a way, there was an essence of those features in each of their faces. Yellow, unsurprisingly, was the only one with glasses, and The Second Coming’s eyes were just a little bit larger than everyone else’s. Everyone's face, including mine, was made up of black lines. I turned to Blue.

“Wow. You can make something that can do this?”

He looked at me proudly. “Yep. But it wasn’t all me. If it weren’t for Yellow and his genius plans, we’d still be struggling to talk to each other.” Everyone else nodded in agreement and looked at Yellow, whose face had become slightly more orange.

“Aw you guys… It was just common sense, you know? I mean, I knew that restarting the computer usually fixes things, so it wasn’t that hard to figure out.”

In any case, Red became more excited now that the shock of everything was fading away.

“Alan’s a stick! This calls for a group hug!’

Then he gave me a big hug that nearly made me fall over again, and everyone else joined in chuckling. I smiled a truly happy smile for the first time in a long while. It was surprisingly really fulfilling to finally be united with my ‘family on the computer’ or so to speak.

Wait.

My family.

I gasped, now shaking all over. The gang released from the hug in surprise, and I started hyperventilating while making the motion of wringing my fingers through my hair, even though I didn't have either of those things. Green was by my side, with a much more scared expression on his face.

“What is it? What's wrong?”

I sputtered words out in breaths.

“...My family… Danger… Need help… He's after them…”

“Who’s after your family?” Blue said slowly, in a voice that would usually have made me feel calmer, but had no effect on me now. The Second Coming’s voice was quiet and distant as he spoke.

“H4CK3R.”

Everyone turned to him. There was a far off look in his eye, and he knowingly glanced at me.

“H4CK3R is after your family, and he trapped you on the computer to keep you from interfering. Is that right?”

“Uh… yeah. How did you figure that out?” I asked, surprised at how he had understood so quickly, momentarily snapping me out of my terror.

“You're not the only one that he's been giving trouble to,” He said with an exhausted look. “He kidnapped me and Yellow, so the rest of the gang came to rescue us.”

Green piped in. “After we found Second and Yellow, we hitched one of their flying bikes,” he pointed to the vehicle that I had heard them enter on, “and came immediately back here, hoping that we wouldn't be followed.”

Everything about the story made sense, but something he had said confused me.

 “Wait, did you say Second?” 

The Second Coming responded for Green. “Yeah. That's what they call me. After all ‘The Second Coming’ is a mouthful, and it gets annoying to constantly say after a while.”

“Oh.” I felt a twinge of guilt and embarrassment, it had been me who had named him after all.

“It's alright,” he probably sensed my embarrassment and smiled understandingly, “You can call me that too if you'd like.”

“Okay.” I smiled, but then I was jolted with another sense of terror as I remembered Victim again.

“I need to save my family. He knows where they are, and it's only a matter of time before he does something to them.”

“Well, if that's the case, where's your family? Maybe if we get there we could prevent something from happening,” Yellow replied thoughtfully. I was surprised at his willingness to go straight towards the stick that had just kidnapped him.

“You guys want to come? After what he did to you two?” 

Red butted in fiercely. “Of course we're helping you! Did you think that we're just gonna let you face that guy alone?” They all seemed to agree with Red's sentiment. I was touched by their eagerness to help me.

“Thanks guys. That means a lot.”

They all smiled encouragingly as Second spoke in determination.

“So we need to get to them. Alan, where are they going, may I ask?”

“My sister's home.” I said confidently. “My plan was for them to stay there for a little while, and then go somewhere else abroad with my sister coming along, but they didn't know that so they're just staying there.” 

“Alright.” Second declared, “I'm assuming that she has a computer?”

I nodded as confirmation, and Yellow joined in.

“Then that means as long as we stay in the computer, we just need to email her, get in the email, and we'll be there in an instant.”

I never would’ve thought of that, it was brilliant. Everyone seemingly agreed with me, and they all nodded in approval. I responded excitedly,

“Great! We'll be there in no time! We might even get there before Victim does!”

They all looked at me in confusion. Second gave me an almost concerned look.

“Did you just say Vic-” but before he even got through half his sentence, chaos ensued.

The computer was starting to glitch out in certain places. Even the Minecraft Icon in Yellow’s arms had begun glitching, then disappeared entirely, causing him to cry out in fright. The UI pen disappeared in my hand too. The bike they had arrived on was glitching as well. Before long, everything was glitching in and out of existence. Second yelled as loud as he could above the noise.

“We need to get out of here! Get to the portal!”

They all rushed towards the portal, and Second half led me-half pulled me to the gateway, probably because he knew that I could barely walk, let alone run for my life. I watched as one by one they disappeared into the swirling light, and I grew anxious to get through. Finally, Second and I reached it, and I cast one last glance towards the crumbling computer that used to be my friend's home and my only gateway to their world, before jumping into the bright light.

Chapter Text

If I hadn't felt weird before, I was certainly nauseous now. I don’t know if I have a stomach, but if I do, the constant falling sensation as we traveled through the tunnel was eventually gonna make me vomit everything out of it. 

After some time, the panic ebbed away, and I looked around in awe. The tunnel we were in was transparent, and the outside world had left me speechless. We were in a void of space splattered with blue cubes, which closely resembled stars in this atmosphere. Everywhere I looked, there were tunnels like the one we were in, all connected to the cubes and to huge orbs. The orbs had titles like Youtube and Instagram, and I realized that they were various social media platforms, or at least the manifestation of platforms that we could travel to. But the tunnel we were in wasn’t taking us to any of these orbs, but rather to an even more massive planet that looked almost like a different version of Earth. Was this what the Internet looked like on the inside? It was all so majestic, and I marveled at the serene beauty of the little flashes of energy that dashed across the platforms and the constant hum of electricity in the in-between space. 

Up ahead, I saw a pinprick of light at the end of the tunnel, and as I watched, it slowly grew bigger as we approached the giant planet. The light started to take form as we got closer, and I realized in horror that it was actually a gaping hole with light shining into it that we were all heading straight towards. Before I could do anything to stop, we fell through and now I was thousands of feet above a lake, with a city far off into the distance of the surrounding forest. The view would've looked breathtaking if I wasn't screaming and flailing my limbs all around me.

The gang, oddly enough, was significantly more calm about the fact that we were falling straight towards the water at top speeds. In fact, Red and Green were both curling up into a cannon ball formation while Yellow and Blue watched intently, cheering them on. Second was looking disapprovingly at all of them. Before I had time to question their strange actions, I plunged into the waters and the cold enveloped me with a shudder. Everything tumbled around me as I tried to find my bearings and get to the surface. Interestingly, I could see much better underwater than how I would've as a human, but I didn’t care about that right now. What I cared about was getting above water before I drowned.

Gasping for air, I reached the surface to hear the others bantering,

“I totally beat you, Green! There was no WAY your cannonball was bigger than mine!”

“Technically speaking, neither Blue nor I were able to see your splashes to determine if it was higher or not.”

“Ha! See Red? That means my record still stands!”

“You guys…” I heard Second groan, “Let's just get to land, okay? We're not here to joke around!”

I would've agreed with him if it weren’t for the fact that I was struggling to stay afloat.

“...Guys... hel-”

I wasn’t really that good of a swimmer regularly, with me living in a land-locked state and all. But having to swim when all I had for arms and legs were sticks, and when my body was significantly smaller with a lot less surface area, it was nearly impossible. I was using all my strength to swim while trying not to panic, but it wasn’t working, and very quickly I sank underwater. Then I felt something drag my head back above the surface, and I saw that Green had grabbed me and was swimming to land with me in tow. 

When we finally got to land, we were at the bottom of a cliff edge, and I realized that I recognized this cliff. Looking around at the bay, it dawned on me that this was the very scene where everything had transpired with The Chosen One and The Dark Lord. It looked so different now that I was actually here, not just seeing it through my computer screen. 

“You okay, Alan?” Green asked, still slightly breathless.

“Yeah. Thank you so much. I don't even know how I could ever-”

“Don't mention it.” He said with a smile before I could finish my praise. 

“Welcome to the Outernet!” He proclaimed with a slight edge of dramatics, gesturing all around us. Once everyone else was on solid land, Second spoke with notes of discouragement.

“I guess we need to get up the cliff again.” Everyone groaned or sighed heavily, as if they've had to climb it multiple times already.

“We really need to add stairs,” Yellow remarked, looking gloomily up to the top. I did the same, and worry quickly settled within me as I saw how high it actually was.

“Wait, how am I gonna get up there? I couldn't swim! How am I supposed to rock climb?”

They all looked at each other with uncertainty until Green spoke up.

“We'll all help you get up there. We just have to hope that it'll be enough.”

~~~

That was one of the hardest things I've had to do. When I finally pulled myself to the top, I just layed there, catching my breath for a good 5 minutes. The gang looked a little better off, but not by much, and it was a while before anyone did anything. Eventually, Blue spoke up.

“Well, what’s next?”

Second scanned the area while Green said, “Why don’t we look around in the hut?” and pointed to the small shed-like building at the very edge of the cliff. I vaguely remembered it from when I saw it a few years ago.

“Yeah, sure.” Second agreed hesitantly, as if there was something else on his mind. He didn’t stay like that for long because a few seconds later, he snapped himself out of it and frowned suspiciously at the hut. 

“Hold on guys.” he called out, and everyone stopped to look at him. Slowly, he made his way to the building, and we all instinctively followed closely behind. Just as he was about to enter through the wide open doorway, he jumped back in surprise as someone else leaped out looking ready to fight us all.

“Wait. Second!? You’re here! How did you get out?”

It was him, the Chosen One. Everyone, including myself, relaxed to see his familiar face. Yet, there was something about him that was different; I couldn't quite put a metaphorical finger on it. Maybe it was his demeanor? Or maybe it was the way he held himself? In any case, we all rushed forward to greet him. Second responded, still slightly startled to see him.

“Oh thank goodness you're okay No One!”

But as he said those last words, he became confused and placed a hand on his mouth, shocked at what he said. Chosen flinched slightly, and his smile quickly faded. Red laughed.

“Oh you're so silly Second! His name is No One not ‘No One’!” but he too was surprised at his own words. Green looked frustratingly at both of them.

“What's the matter with you guys! Why can't you just say No On-” He stopped himself as he fell into the same mysterious trap. He spoke again slowly, 

“I meant No-” but stopped again as his second attempt failed. I watched as the Color Gang all tried fruitlessly to say his name, unaware of how Chosen was slowly becoming more and more dejected. I noticed this and immediately stepped forward to speak up.

“Hey guys, stop. You're hurting The Chosen One‘s feelings.”

Everyone quickly silenced, probably because I was seemingly the only one who could actually say his name. Chosen looked surprised, and it occurred to me that he probably didn't recognize me.

“It's me Alan. I'm a stick figure now, but don't ask how ‘cause that's a long-”

“Alan?” He looked at me in shock, and I gave him an encouraging smile. Now that we were face to face, I noticed that there was something about him that was… empty. I don't know how else to explain it, but his eyes had lost something in them, as if some kind of spark was missing. I don't even know how I could tell, since I've never actually seen his face before. I spoke hesitantly, trying not to be rude.

“Did… did you lose your powers when he renamed you?”

He looked down at the ground, with a disheartened expression on his face.

“Yeah.” He said, a little quieter than usual.

“What? How did that happen!” Red cried out in dismay, and the gang gave each other worried glances. Second looked the most devastated out of all of them, and placed a hand on Chosen's shoulder, maybe in an attempt to comfort him.

“It was H4CK3R, wasn't it?” He said, stating it rather than asking. 

Chosen nodded. “It was all so quick. One moment I was at their HQ, and the next I was back here again. Then after…” he trailed off for a moment, but spoke again quickly, “he flew straight to Alan's computer, and I haven’t seen anyone else until you guys showed up.”

“This H4CK3R guy is really starting to get on my nerves,” Blue exclaimed with a frown. “First he messes with Second and N-.. his brother,” he looked over to Chosen apologetically, “then he traps Alan in his own gosh-darn computer so that he can kidnap his family, and then he renames No One for crying out loud!” 

Green piped up. “Yeah! I mean, on what grounds is he doing all this stuff on? I bet he's just doing it to be evil!”

I nodded along, trying my best not to show any signs of discomfort. Second looked at me thoughtfully, and I made sure to avert my eyes from his.

“Wait. He did what to Alan?” Chosen asked, snapping out of a trance that he had been in while the others were talking.

“I know it's terrible right?” Red cried out suddenly. “We need to save them!”

“But how do we do that?” I asked, “We can’t go back to my computer, so how are we supposed to get to my sister’s?”

Yellow responded “Well, I guess the only way we can get there.. is to…”

He trailed off suddenly, and his face quickly morphed into an expression of alarm. The air around us had become… different. It was like someone had drained the atmosphere of joy and replaced it with an unsettling tension. We all stood there silently in a tangible anticipation, wondering what had just caused the sudden change in mood. 

No, not what. Who.

Somehow, I could sense that this sensation wasn't the cause of something natural, but almost certainly by a stick figure.  And there was only one whom I could think of who might have the power to do this. The problem is that would be impossible, because that stick wasn't alive anymore; he's been dead for years.

Right?

The group was all looking around at our surroundings anxiously, trying to figure out what had just happened. I saw something move in the corner of my eye, and I whipped my head around to see… something black making its way towards us from the cliff edge. Then, I heard a cry from Yellow, who was pointing to a similar blob of the same black thing coming from the forest. 

“Is that..blood?” I heard someone whisper, but I couldn’t tell who.

The blood was coming from all directions, and it was all heading straight towards us. As it got closer, I saw that it glimmered a bright red. We all huddled closely together in terror, though I had to admit that Chosen looked the most terrified out of all of us. If the very stick who would usually face danger without an inkling of doubt was now shaking in fear, then there was no chance that whatever this blood meant was going to turn out to be a good thing.

As the first streams of blood met up, it clumped together at two points and began building onto itself as more of the substance joined. It was after a few moments that I realized that it was forming two bright red legs, then a torso, then arms and finally a head with a sharp-toothed grin and eyes that continuously flickered with an evil, dark glint.

The Dark Lord was alive.

I was so utterly petrified that I didn’t even have the ability to think about how this was possible. I watched as The Dark Lord basked in our horror. 

“You..” Green whimpered, his usual cool-natured demeanor disappeared and the word slipped from his lips.

The Dark Lord grinned. “Me. Is that all you have to say for this lovely reunion? Why I’m sure it's been nearly 5 years since we've seen one another!” 

He began to walk around as he spoke, slowly examining each and every one of us with a sinister hunger.

“But, h-how? How are you alive?” Yellow sputtered, cowering deeper into our huddle as he asked the question that was on all our minds.

The Dark Lord gave a cackle that sent awful shivers down my spine. “Oh little one. You see, we hollowheads are much tougher than you think we are. We're so much harder to kill when properly powered. Isn't that right, No One?” He shot an eager glare towards Chosen, who shook tenfold and began hunching over, making himself look smaller and weaker than I've ever seen him before. The Dark Lord’s gaze lingered maliciously on him before suddenly moving to me, which caused my already immense fear to spike even higher.

“How great it is to finally meet face to face, Alan.”

How did he recognize me? No one else has been able to do that so quickly. I stared silently, too scared to make any sudden movements. The Dark Lord snickered at my reaction. 

“Why so quiet Alan? Cat got your tongue?” he asked in a taunting drawl. “Why, I haven’t seen you in so long. Isn't it time that we took a moment to catch up?” 

He leaned an arm on my shoulder and gazed at his hand carelessly.

“I do hope that you'll come with me this instant, you see, my friend and I have something for you which I am sure will make you very willing.” As he spoke, his hand started dripping with the same blood from before. It morphed and shifted into unrecognizable shapes until eventually turning into a long blade that was nearly the same length as his arm. I shivered, not only because of the familiarly deadly blade, but more so because of what he had said.

“You don't mean...” My breath became short, despite my attempt to keep it steady. The Dark Lord seemed to find delight in my panic, and continued to prowl around me.

“Why yes Alan. That is exactly what I mean. Now, you are going to come with me at this very moment, whether you like it or n-”

“Stop it. Stop this now Dark. You've had your fun, leave Alan alone.”

I was shocked to see that despite everything, Chosen had spoken up and stepped between us while glaring straight at him, trying to look as menacing as The Dark Lord was. I think it surprised him too, because he stood there for a couple of seconds, until he burst into his cackle once more.

“Oh my, looky here! The powerless stick is standing up for his creator now is he?” He said in a whiny voice, which made Chosen waver slightly. Then something changed in his eyes as the once playful look turned into a villainous one. The black blade, that had been diluted and merely a suggestion before, had now solidified and sharpened into a real weapon.

“You see, No One, I was willing to wait a little while and be patient for the sake of our dear friend Alan here, but clearly you're much too eager for me to finish the job right here and now.”

The Dark Lord had seemingly forgotten about me, and began advancing on Chosen, whose courage had fallen away from him as quickly as it had appeared. All I could do was watch. 

“Get away from him.”

The voice had an undertone of deep anger, which made everyone turn towards Second in response to his sudden statement.

His hands were glowing with a bright green light, and green particles were floating off of them. His eyes shined with both anger and a green glimmer, and they stared straight into The Dark Lord’s. It was as if his stare alone had made the blade transform back into blood, which I don't think even The Dark Lord himself noticed, because his wickedly smug face transformed into an uneasy one. 

“I said, get away from him. Do you need me to elaborate?”

A vividly green ball of light formed in his fist, and The Dark Lord's eyes locked onto it. Slowly, he stepped away from Chosen, his gaze now head on with Second's. He tried reaching again for the sly voice from moments ago.

“You think you're so high and mighty with that party trick of yours?”

Second just narrowed his eyes at him, and slowly raised the glowing hand, which startled The Dark Lord even further.

“Fine! I'll leave you losers alone. But don't think I'm done with any of you yet.”

His hands ignited as he lifted himself into the sky, still focused on Second, and after a few moments he was gone in a blaze of fire.

The silence that followed was unlike anything that I've felt before. A few moments after The Dark Lord had disappeared, Second blinked a couple of times, as if he had been woken from a daze. He looked down at his hands and gave a sharp gasp, surprised to see them glowing, and in that instant the glow faded, and the glimmer in his eyes vanished, and he was his normal self once more.

But he wasn't normal, everyone could see that now. I had denied myself to the fact for years, uncertain if he was truly different from the others. But now the proof was written right here in front of me, and I was still struggling to wrap my head around it. I looked over to the Color Gang, whom all appeared to be just as amazed as I was.

“You…you have… POWERS?!!” Red blurted out, his mouth wide open.

“I-…” Second mumbled, still somewhat dazed and seemingly in disbelief of what had happened.

“Why didn't you tell us this??” Blue exclaimed as he moved toward Second.

“I didn’t… know about them.”

“What do you MEAN you didn't know about them?” Green asked suddenly, flinging his arms upward.

“Had it never crossed your mind before?” Yellow inquired, his question slightly quicker and more intense than usual. 

“I just didn't know about them before today.” He said, much quicker to react to everyone's questions now that we were floundering him with them.

“He saw himself using his powers in one of my memories.” Chosen said suddenly, and we all spun around to see his grim yet slightly proud face. 

“When they were scanning through my memories to find out where Alan was, they caught a glimpse of the final battle Second had had with Dark, and it was just as Second walked into the room.” He smirked suddenly, “Well, it wasn't really a fight. More like Second just laying it on Dark for murdering all of his friends. Did you guys ever wonder how you all magically woke up after seemingly dying?” He gave a knowing look to Second.

The Color Gang and I looked back at Second, completely awestruck. He looked down at the ground, slightly embarrassed.

“I'm sorry I didn't tell you guys. I was still processing it myself, and I had no idea how to say it without sounding like I was crazy.”

I went over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“It's alright Second. We're not mad at you, just shocked really.”

They all nodded in agreement. Green sighed heavily.

“It's actually so cool that you've got powers. I would love to have some.” He pretended to be throwing fireballs into the air, which made Second chuckle, and he finally relaxed.

“Can you do it again?” Green asked hesitantly, holding back his excitement. Chosen perked up at the question as well. Second frowned slightly.

“I don’t know. I don't even know how I got them to work just now.”

“You can just try, what’s the harm in that?” Chosen said in a voice that crept up in anticipation. Everyone looked at Second expectantly as he gave us an uncertain glance before closing his eyes to concentrate. His fists balled up and his brow furrowed as we waited, but eventually he just sighed and opened his still normal eyes.

“I can't. It's useless. I don't know how.”

“Just try, I'm sure you'll get it eventually.” Chosen stepped forward as he replied with a little more intensity than was necessary. His reaction made Second a little uneasy and unnerved.

”He doesn't need to know right now. Don't hassle him, that just makes Second feel worse.”

Blue said stepping forward to comfort Second and glare at Chosen, which made him step back in embarrassment. 

“Well, in any case we still somehow need to get to Alan’s sister’s computer.” Yellow said thoughtfully, changing the subject. “It's all the way past Stickcity too.”

“Stickcity?” I asked, curious. “Where's that?”

“It's this huge city where most of the sticks live!” Red exclaimed, pointing his hand towards the forest. Then Green gasped, and we all looked at him.

“I know how we're gonna get there!” He exclaimed excitedly, hopping slightly on his heels. “King Orange can take us there!”

The Color Gang all became hyped as well, and they agreed with Green's plan.

“Well then, what're we waiting for?” Second said, “let's go!” He motioned to the forest and the Color Gang all started heading there.

But before I could follow them, Chosen placed a hand on my shoulder. “Hey, can we talk for a sec?”

I looked nervously at the others, who were quickly making their way towards the woods.

“Won't we fall behind and get lost?”

“I know how to get to the city, it’ll be fine.” He waved a hand dismissively. He began walking towards the cliff, and I followed him as he talked.

“So before you guys got here, I was really just sitting here for a while. And as I sat there, I started thinking about some stuff. Stuff that had never really occurred to me before. Stuff about my origin, plus Dark and Second's.” He looked at me and I suddenly understood what he was going to ask. I uncomfortably held his gaze, until he looked back at the waters ahead as he continued talking.

“All three of us were born with powers. Albeit, Second's is in remission for whatever reason, and mine are…just gone.” His voice trailed off as he stopped for a second before beginning again. “But that still doesn't change the fact that we were all created with powers. And not just any kind of powers, but unbelievably strong abilities. Beyond any kind of power that I've ever seen in any other stick, artificial or not.” He gestured behind him. “The Color Gang aren't like us. Don't get me wrong, they're amazing sticks, but they don't have powers like the hollowheads, and they aren't nearly as durable. So why are we different? Why is it that every stick that you've ever created has some kind of immense power?”

“I…” I started, then sighed. It was something that I've thought about often but no matter how many times I've wondered about it, I never seem to find an answer.

“I don't know.” I never understood why they were different from everyone else. It wasn't like I was using some kind of magical software or program. One day I had just decided to create a stick figure, and he suddenly came to life, and it's been that way with all the stick figures that I've ever created. None of my animator friends have ever had that happen to them, at least to my knowledge.

“Well, it's pretty odd.” Chosen said, looking far off into the distance, and I did the same. I watched the rolling waves curl into the rocks below, deep in thought. There had to be some kind of explanation for this weird phenomenon, it was like the solution was just calling out to me. It was almost as if I could see visions of Chosen and The Dark Lord fighting each other in the skies above me, then a great flash of light as a powerful green beam erupted from a vision of Second, and finally the blue electricity crackling through the air as I was tricked into giving Victim powers. This cliff was saturated with the essence of all of the stick's energy, and it was almost as if I could feel the static hum of the power hidden within the ground. In fact, it felt like that energy was reinvigorating me by just being nearby. I almost felt dizzy with this new exhilarating excitement and frenzy, and the rush almost made me feel more-

“Hey slow pokes! You guys coming or what?” 

Green called out, which startled me back to reality. I turned around to see that he had come back for the both of us, and he had an impatient expression on his face.

Chosen chuckled apologetically, “Sorry, we're coming now.”

We followed Green back to the forest, but not before I cast one last wavering glance at the cliff.