Frogmaster

The original thread at RSR A little bit of background: Arawnius and I wrote this about three and a half years ago on Runescape Realm. t was originally started on the actual Runescape forums on a discussion about...well, addiction to Runescape. Arawnius and I then reposted a similar story on a thread in Runescape Realm called "Wanna quit runescape?" We made a few additions and changes, then posted the first few chapters as a thread called "The Addiction", and things took off from there. We worked on it for about a year, posting new chapters about every week or so. We collected quite a fan base at RSR, and a lot happened as a result of the story. Fans made their own versions of it and barsigs. Arawnius made a few pictures of the characters. We started a website and official forums about it (which we eventually closed due to lack of activity, but it was relatively popular in its prime). Then, for reasons unrelated to the story, Arawnius and I were eventually banned from RSR and the thread was locked. We've both made new accounts there, and the administration agreed to unlock The Addiction and now it is an open thread once again. ------------------------------------------------- Chapter One Part One: MEET JONNY After playing RuneScape for hours on end, things start to happen to your physical and mental being. Weird things. But we'll get to that part of Jonny's miserable life later. We'll start out this story with Jonny sneaking a laptop into his room and playing it into the wee hours of the morning. Playing a very addicting gamea game called RuneScape. He neglected every other part of his life, friends (he had none), parents (not seeming to notice their child's miserable existence), school (he was failing every subject except computer science), and fitness (now 5' 2", 327 lbs, and couldn't lift a 5 lb dumbbell). He was a very sorry thing, indeed. On RuneScape, however, his life was much better. He was inching ever closer to the elusive, full dragon. Level 95, all his skills 75+, he was getting closer to achieving something no one else (except Andrew, maybe) had ever gottenperfection. He played every spare moment of his life, and the only thing he talked about at the dinner table was the new skill level he had gotten, or how he recklessly slain another dragon. He was technically blind unless the image in front of him was an LCD screen. Everything else to him was plainly black and white. Speaking of white, that was literally the color of his skin. Not tan, with a few freckles here and there, but solid, unbreakable white. He barely looked human, and to top it all off, he did not act it either. Figuring out in his second or third year of RuneScape that the rest of his life was wasted, he simply did not give a crap. He woke up, played, played (skipping every meal but dinner, which his oblivious parents made him eat), then played some more. He always fell asleep at the computer now, his bed was dusty and full of cobwebs. Jonny now lives in RuneScape. If he dies or gets scammed, he cries his bloodshot eyes out. If he makes another million or advances a skill level, he cheers so loudly the neighbors throw random objects at his window. It all changed one night, though. His parents were downstairs, playing a game of chess (resulting in dad's checkmate, involving a couple of recklessly brave pawns and a rather vicious bishop), and decided to go to bed. Jonny, of course, was deaf to their sleepy goodnights as they passed his room, playing RuneScape, of course! He was working on his slayer skill at the moment. Pretty soon, at about 2:30 AM, Jonny dozed off at his computer, leaving his character fighting a particularly strong greater demon. The window to Jonny's bedroom was cracked open, due to his mother's concern for his fresh air and well-being. Two black gloves from the outside gripped the window and silently pulled it up. The hands grabbed Jonny's laptop and rushed out; leaving no trace as he stealthily closed the window to its original height again. Jonny was too fast asleep to hear or notice any of this. A couple hours later, Jonny woke up after a disturbing nightmare of him losing to a hobgoblin. His mother and father were downstairs enjoying scrambled eggs and bacon when it happened. The scream was so loud and psychotic, their neighbor awoke and dialed 911. Jonny spoke, as he had not in over a year, and screamed "THE C-C-COMPUTER!!!!!!!!!!!" Mom and dad assumed this was bad news and rushed up stairs to their kid's stinky, nasty room. The laptop was gone, and Jonny was on the floor beating the ground between sobs of utter sadness and longing. Part Two: THE CORRUPTION Jonny was in utter dismay for the next four hours, screaming what was left of his lungs out and banging on the floor, sobbing. The laptop was gonehe couldn't play RuneScape anymore.it was horrible. He yelled at his parents and demanded that they buy him another laptop immediately! They told him no, that he plays too much anyway! This put Jonny into further fits, causing him to punch a hole through his wall and scream at the neighborhood. That night, Jonny had a planan evil one. He could get another computer very simplyhe just had to steal one! So, Jonny crawled out of his house (he had been inside for over a year, now) and was determined to get a computer. He walked all the way to Best Buy (he was out of breath just walking, that's what 327 lbs does to you) and stopped at the door. There was a security camera watching the entire store and the entrance. He wished for his rune throwing knives for this one. It seemed there was no way that Jonny could get inside. But, he used his imaginary thieving ability to try and pick the lock on the door. The alarm went off when the door censors picked up Jonny's oversized hand fumbling at the lock, and hell broke loose. Jonny broke the window with a stray brick laying on the ground, and ran into the store. Jonny scanned the aisles quickly, he could now hear distant sirens coming. He found the laptops, grabbed a cool-looking silver one, and ran (well, he sort of oozed) towards the back door. He kicked it open with his flabby leg, and walked into the woods, where he lay for the remainder of the night huddled in a small grove playing RuneScape, and hiding from the feds. Jonny awoke the next morning in the woods behind Best Buy. The thoughts of RuneScape were dominating his every action. He was slowly turning into a 'Scaper himselfWhen he woke up in the middle of the woods, he picked up a long sturdy stick and started sluggishly walking deeper inside. He eventually came upon a camp site, which of course, a psychotic RuneScape addict would think was a Rogue Camp. He saw a man and his son emerge from a tent at the site. Then, Jonny snapped. He charged at the man as fast as he could, his "wooden longsword" at the ready. He slashed down across the man's chest as hard as he could with the stick, leaving the man's chest with a nasty cut and the man and his son very startled. Jonny yelled "HAHA! Say hello to Lumby n00bs!" and with that, Jonny forced all his might into stabbing the sharp stick into the man. The man's son was crying very badly, but Jonny beat him down mercilessly, only wanted to loot their camp for "items". Jonny had committed his second crimeMURDER. Part Three: THE FUGITIVE When we last left Jonny, he had supposedly "pked" a man and his son at a campsite in the woods, where he had fled after stealing a laptop from Best Buy because a burglar had stolen his old one. Jonny stole some beef jerky and a canteen from their camp, which he ate to replenish his "HP". Then after a few more minutes of trudging heavily through the "wildy", Jonny came out to and old farm, where he stayed that night at played RuneScape on his laptop. Jonny woke up at around 4:00 that morning, when he heard sirens in the distance. "Oh No!" thought Jonny,"The forces of Zamorak have found me!" Jonny gathered up his "inventory" and ran. After another day of running, he stopped under a tree to play RuneScape all night. The next morning he walked about a mile through the woods and came out in the back of his old neighborhood. He snuck back into his house, where his mother and father were watching the news closely about a story where a "fat teenage boy had stolen a laptop from Best Buy, and is supposed to have murdered two campers". Ol' ma and pa ran to Jonny and tied him up; they said it was for his own good. Then Jonny realized the truth. He was own his own. He was wanted by the government, and would certainly face years of prison time. He had to move to another country, change his name, and steal some "gp" from his parents before this of courselater that day as Jonny's parents called the cops to come take their son, Jonny broke out of his bonds and slugged out of the house with his laptop. He came to the airport after stealthily creeping through town. He had enough money to last him about a year, and he might be able to pull off this relocation thing if he was wise about it. So he bought headed up to the ticket counter and bought a ticket, a ticket for his new homeEngland. During the plane trip, Jonny played RuneScape on his trusty laptop. During this trip he achieved what no one else ever hada perfected character, with 99 in all of his stats, although he longed for something moreWhen they landed, Jonny hurried out of the airport with his belongings, and knew exactly where he was headed. He called a taxi and headed for his targetThe Jagex Ltd. HQHe knew what he had to do, he was on a mission for what he thought would benefit all of RuneScapeto make RuneScape how he wanted. Part Four: TIME FOR ACTION As the taxi pulled up to Jagex headquarters, Jonny leapt out of the yellow car and hurried inside, clutching his laptop at his side. He slammed his fist down on the counter in the lobby and screamed "I wanna see Andrew Gower!" The clerk said in a clam, bored voice, "You're gonna have to wait you fat loser." At this snide remark, Jonny was enraged. He stormed out of the building, muttering a particularly vulgar curse word under his breath. He screamed at the taxi driver to take him to the nearest hotel, and the driver, now also angry, told Jonny to screw himself. Jonny slopped his fat being out of the car and walked towards a tall hotel a few blocks away. That night, Jonny devised another plan. He would see Andrew Gower one way or the other, even if it meant adding to his already growing list of crimes. He picked up a nearby tourism magazine and discovered there was a weaponry shop not far from the hotel. Jonny was know wising up to the modern world and discovering that not everything was about swords and armor. He was still unnecessarily and unhealthily obsessed with RuneScape, though. Jonny decided to pay a little visit to this gun shop. The only gun he could relate to was his dwarf cannon which just recently helped him out of a sticky situation with an aggressive greater demon. Expecting to find one of those giant cannons, he opened the door to the gun shop and his jaw dropped. There were assault rifles, sniper rifles, handguns, machine guns, rocket launchers, and even grenades. Taking three or four of each, he turned to walk out of the shop without even paying. "Excuse me, sir," muttered the tough looking clerk, "I believe you need to pay for those" "Oh, but you see," replied Jonny, now edging towards the door, "My thieving level is 99I can steal from anywhere, ya know?" "NOT IN MY SHOP!!!!!!!" The store clerk grabbed and shotgun and began wildy firing rounds and Jonny, who presented quite an easy target to even the worst of aims. Jonny leapt behind an upturned table (from all this running and hiding he was becoming a little less solid and fat), and let a few rounds loose with his stolen Magnum. The clerk chucked a grenade in Jonny's direction, which Jonny very stupidly decided to pick it up and throw it back. It exploded in mid-flight, and all the gunpowder in the room followed suite. The place was a blazing inferno by the time Jonny grabbed an unattended SUV and sped away, the trunk full of guns and explosives. Part Five: THE CHASE As Jonny floored it, so did the enraged gun shop clerk. He was hot on Jonny's tail, inching ever closer to him. They were both going about 100 miles per hour, a crash at this speed would result in quite a gruesome death. Following the small convoy of two cars were several police cars armed with guns. Jonny took a sudden left turn, going up a narrow road which ended in a bridge. The problem was, though, that the bridge was suspended over water and a large boat was coming through, so the bridge had to be raised. Jonny saw it, and intended to drive up the bridge like a ramp. He was in midair when he hit the top of the boat, crashing through its antenna tower and landing on the other side of the bridge with a resounding crash. The SUV was now in flames, and even Jonny knew that cars can explode when on fire. So he ran as far as his oversized self would allow in the 1 minute before the explosion. The other cars had also landed on the bridge and were shooting various guns at him before he did something else insanely stupid and got them all killed. Jonny hobbled off into the woods, where they never found him and eventually gave up. Part Six: THE ASSAULT Jonny kept on hiking through the woods, and slept that night in a cave, in which he stayed up played RuneScape. He awoke the next morning, prepared for the mighty reckoning at hand. Jonny crept through the city and to Jagex headquarters, where he once again went up to the desk and demanded to see Andrew Gower. "Listen fatty, go home and get some exercise." Jonny went insane, and brought a large, painted-red scimitar out of his backpack. He slashed it down across the clerk's face, and as she screamed in agony, Jonny slayed her viciously. "U got 0wn3d", Jonny taunted her corpse, and headed to the elevator. When Jonny was about halfway up the building, the elevator's power was killed. "Oh, no!" Jonny thought "It might be a hacker! Better keep alert." When the elevator doors opened on the 7th floor, Jonny came out swinging his "dragon skimmy". He injured a lone guard, and then used his dagger to stab him senseless. Then he ran to the stairway, where he climbed another 7 floors. On the fourteenth floor, Jonny thought he had stepped into RuneScape itself. Obviously someone was more obsessive than he was, and Jonny didn't like that. After a seemingly endless walk down a long hall that was painted with a mural of the RuneScape map, Jonny came upon a huge door, reminiscent of the door to the Tree Gnome village. Jonny open it, and inside he saw his target. Sitting a medieval like throne, in painted-red armor, wielding a huge red shield and a very long whip, was Andrew Gower, who was surrounded by hundreds of TV monitors, showing live footage of many of the large cities of RuneScape. Jonny charged at him, not caring if Andrew knew why he attacked him or not. Part Seven: THE SHOWDOWN Jonny charged at Andrew Gower furiously. Gower leapt out of his throne and whipped him a fierce lash across the face. "What are you doing here kid!?" Gower screamed at him. Jonny replied "I'm here to make RuneScape the way it should! I have slain all of your monsters! I have conquered all of your quests! I have perfected all of my skills! And now I want more!!! I NEED more!!!! MWAHAHAHHAHAHAHA!!!!!" Jonny laughed maniacally as Gower dashed towards him. Jonny brought down his scimitar fast, but Gower's whip was faster, and Jonny's scimitar was knocked out of his hands by the ferocious flog. Jonny was knocked backwards, and hit the wall with a thud. He reached into his backpack and pulled out a revolver he had stolen from the weapons store. Andrew neared closer, whip at the ready. "Kid, you have tried to kill meyou have tried to conquer my realm!! You think you are more powerful than me! Heh! Now you will learnand the cops will believe that I fought in self defense! Now say goodbye!!" Gower raised his whip, ready to deliver a deadly slash, but as he did, Jonny whipped out the revolver and fired a single shot through Gower's pretend armor. It hit him in the heart, and Gower knew it was over. "NO! My kingdom! My world!!! MINE! I WON'T LET YOU TAKE IT FROM ME!" Gower exclaimed psychotically. "It's mine now, Gower. And I will rebuild your corporation of my design! I will perfect RuneScape! It will be irresistible to all! Soon enough, it will be internationally proclaimedIt will be the greatest game in the world!! And after thatIt will be the world!!!" Jonny laughed insanely as Gower took his last breath, and collapsed. Jonny took Gower's supposed armor and left with his weapons, and his old laptop. But before leaving, Jonny took hacked into Gower's master computer, and stole the RuneScape file on a disc. Jonny knew what he would do. He would go underground, and perfect RuneScape from his high-tech laptop. It would be his, and he would be supreme ruler. Jonny was looking into the future and the future looked bright for him. But his definition of bright is not exactly good for us. Chapter Two Part One: THE HIDING Jonny staggered out of the Jagex Headquarters in his new armor, which he thought was full dragon. He could hear the familiar sounds of sirens, but he jacked a lone motorcycle behind the building, and sped off. As he headed toward the countryside, an armored car appeared behind him, and it was accelerating quickly. Jonny pulled off an RPG from his back, and skidded to a halt on the side of the road. He propped the rocket launcher on his shoulder and aimed for the metallic car. A man leaned out the passenger side window of the car and started firing at Jonny. Jonny got a clean shot at the car and pulled the trigger. The rocket sailed through the air and hit the car in the side. There was a huge explosion, and the car tipped over on its side, but the rocket didn't pierce its armor plating. Jonny was reloading his RPG when he saw another guy emerge from the car. The man was pointing an assault rifle straight at him. Jonny finished reloading the rocket and fired at the man. The actual rocket hitting the man killed him, and he didn't feel the agony of the latter explosion. Jonny rode on and on the seemingly endless highway, nearing his destination. After another hour or two of riding, he rode off the road and into the grass. His GPS system on his satellite said a cave was a mile ahead, and he revved his engine at the thought of his new home. The small lump in the ground finally came into view, and Jonny stopped his bike outside of the cave. He grabbed a flashlight out of his "inventory" and shined it into the dark cave. It was lifeless inside, and Jonny slowly lumbered inside. After settling down in the cave with his sleeping bag, he tore through his backpack, and pulled out his laptop with the powerful wireless router at the ready. He turned it on and popped in the disc he stole from Andrew Gower. His squinty, bloodshot eyes lit up at the sight of it. There was a huge page of information about how to program and update RuneScape! Jonny hopped to it, and quickly added an update that allowed all skill level maximums to be raised to level 999. Then Jonny added all new weapons, such as the Whip of Zamorak, the Hammer of Guthix, and the Mace of Saradomin. He created a new holiday drop just for the occasion of the new changes, and all week rocket launchers were dropped. Jonny added a new quest, the god?s quest, and it gave access to huge new areas, all created by himself, and the players thought it was the best week of updates ever. After a long night of updating RS, Jonny collapsed on his laptop, not able to hear the far-off humming of a car's motor closing in on his location? Part Two: THE MODS Jonny awoke blinking the strong glow of a flashlight out of his eyes. "Wha-" he said as he groggily sat up, remembering his self-proclaimed heroic actions of the previous night. "Change RuneScape now!" said the holder of the flashlight. Jonny couldn't see who was holding it so he just shouted "NO!" The flashlight lowered. It was a group of people, all wearing sporty jackets that said RS Mods on the front. They had suspenders under these jackets, socks that came to their knees, and jacked up shorts. Quite the geeky type. "I refuse!" shouted Jonny. "I changed RuneScape for the good of mankind! There's no way I'm changing it back!!!!!!!!" The leader of the mods, the one holding the light, starting shaking with laughter. All the other mods then followed suite. But with one wave of his hand, the leader ceased it. "Don't want to change it, eh? Well we're gonna make ya!" All the mods tore out dragon weaponry and dragon armor. Bright red names and levels appeared over their heads. They were all level 126! Jonny ran for it. He tore out of the cave as fast as he could. The mods were on his heels like a hobo on a ham sandwich. Jonny was doomed. Part Three: THE SCARRING Jonny was barely ahead of the mods; they were closing in fast and Jonny's bike was losing fuel. One mod closed in on Jonny and slashed his tires with a dragon scimitar. Jonny's motorcycle slid across the rode and to a stop on the grass. He meagerly stood up and pulled a dragon longsword from his backpack. Jonny took a bite of a nearly-spoiled shark and lunged at one moderator. The mod raised his blade to block the attack, but was too late and found himself headless. Another mod swung at Jonny, but also was slain mercilessly. Jonny chuckled at his demise, and picked up his head and threw it at another mod, who was knocked down and Jonny stabbed his sword through him. Jonny quickly turned around and slashed about five mods brutally until dead. The second wave of mods quickly retaliated, and Jonny found himself surrounded. Then he pulled out Andrew Gower's former abyssal whip, and spun himself 360 degrees around, while flogging all the mods around him. Soon all the mods were members of the deceased, and Jonny stole their items and a motorcycle. After riding to his secondary hiding spot for around an hour, Jonny heard another engine rumbling behind him. He floored it, reaching a max speed of 250 MPH on the high-tech motorcycle. But it still wasn't fast enough. The unknown biker was closing in fast, and Jonny knew he was soon going to have another battle on his hands. The mystery biker was in clear view. He was wearing full dragon armor and had an abyssal whip strapped and dragon square shield strapped to his back. Jonny couldn't tell who he was through his dragon medium helm though. The biker slammed in Jonny's motorcycle, and Jonny spun out and landed on the grassy edge of the road. For a moment Jonny thought it was all over as he gazed at the starry moonlit sky, but he quickly regained his morale and hobbled his morbidly obese self up. The biker was now off his bike and walking toward Jonny. The biker lunged at Jonny with a lash of his whip, and Jonny retaliated by whipping back at him. The two combatants' whips were entangled in each other's, and it was turning into a tug of war. After pulling their whips back and forth for around five minutes, Jonny knew he had to do something. He pulled out his old steel longsword, which he was saving for memories of his noobish days, and hurled it at the biker's wrist. The blade passed through his hand and onto the ground behind it. The disembodied hand fell to the earth with a disturbing thump. The biker cried out in sheer agony, and Jonny picked up his whip, still in the grasp of the maimed hand on the ground. Jonny now wielded dual whips, and flogged the biker's helm off. Then he realized who was behind the helm. It was Paul Gower, Andrew's brother. "You are the one who killed my brother!" as Gower said this, he took out his dragon longsword from his backpack. "He deserved it!" Jonny said, "He didn't update RuneScape enough!" Gower swiped at Jonny, and Jonny's whip lashed against his sword. "After this, there will be no one to stop me from making RuneScape the greatest invention of all time!" Jonny screamed. "Die Gower!!!" Jonny flogged Paul's chest, but his armor protected him. They were locked in the heat of battle. Jonny noticed Paul was slowing down from the loss of blood out of his handless wrist, and he took advantage of it. Jonny sped up his attacks, giving Gower a run for his money. They slashed and lashed back and forth, waiting for each other to fall down from the exhausting battle. Then Jonny saw it. When Paul came down to slash at Jonny, Jonny leaned over and wrapped the whip around Gower's legs, pulling him onto the ground. As Gower lay on the grass, Jonny said "I have always wanted to achieve perfection for RuneScape. The only way to do that is to eliminate all the problems...and the last one is you, Paul!!!" Jonny raised his whip, ready to deliver the deadly flog across Gower's face. But then Paul tripped him, stood up and pulled out a poisoned dragon dagger from his backpack. As Jonny lay on his stomach on the ground, Gower said "This ought to slow him down for a while!" And he shoved the dagger straight through Jonny's spine. Part Four: THE AWAKENING Jonny was walking along the road to Varrock. He slew a few goblins on the way, gaining no experience but at least he wanted to test out his new rocket launcher. Jonny passed on of his friends and said hi, then headed to the bank and deposited a few items in the bank. Then he headed to the wilderness to PK a few noobs and head to the greater demons for some good ol' experience. Only one thing though...he had forgotten to bring food. Jonny soon found himself with lower and lower health, so he decided to head back to Varrock. But on the way, disaster struck. A high level PKer saw Jonny as a target and took the opportunity to strike. Jonny was poisoned after moments of the battle. And with his health dangerously low, the world started to dissolve around him; he knew he would soon see Lumbridge, which he hadn't been to in ages. But instead of Lumbridge, he saw a bright white light shining in his eyes. And he awoke. Jonny heard someone say "He's awake!!! He's AWAKE!!!!!" He recognized the sound of his mother. Jonny screamed, but no sound came out. He tried to hop out of the strange bed. But the tubes in his arms prevented that. And the fact that his legs were completely numb. Jonny ripped the tubes out of his arms, and threw back the sheet covering his body. And now he realized he was a huge blob of fat, and his skin was even paler than before. Jonny screamed again, but still nothing. A doctor came into the room, and rushed to Jonny's side. He scribbled some notes onto a clipboard and ran out of the room. Then Jonny's mother spoke. "Jonny, why did you leave us? This never would have happened if you didn't play that game!" Jonny would have shouted in anger at her insolence. But then he remembered he couldn't talk. He was filled with rage...he could only remember RuneScape, a game he played. Jonny grabbed a piece of paper laying next to his bed and almost ineligibly scrawled "How long have I been asleep?" His mother grimly responded "Seven years." Jonny went insane at this. He started flailing his arms around violently. Then he remembered what he had done. He had become addicted to RuneScape, committed various crimes in America, fled to England, killed Andrew Gower, hid in the English countryside, and then battled it out with Paul Gower, who must have defeated him, because Jonny was paralyzed from the waist down. And his vocal cords were screwed. The doctor came back in the room with what looked like a high-tech wheelchair. They lifted Jonny up and placed him in it. It looked like he was being forced to go back outside for the first in seven years. Jonny's newly awakened mind hatched another evil plot, but it looked like he was going to need to check on RuneScape first. So he grabbed another piece of paper and wrote down "Bring me my laptop." His mother brought him a laptop clearly different from his old one stolen from Best Buy, and he was soon typing in the URL for RuneScape...but the site was not found... Part Five: THE ESCAPE It was around midnight....Jonny awoke still in his wheelchair after a day around town which included his mom breaking the news to him that his father had killed himself at the loss of Jonny. Jonny felt no regret, because his evil little mind was devising a plot to bring back RuneScape, which had obviously been deleted because Paul didn't want anyone else to become as addicted as Jonny had become. Jonny was going to get back the RuneScape file that had been stolen back from him...and he knew that probably involved some maiming and torturing in the process. He knew this would be difficult, since he was basically useless without the function of his legs. But this new wheelchair, it was so high tech he could move very quickly with only the tilt of a joystick. But Jonny was still angry at the world. He was bent on making it into a RuneScapian paradise (well maybe not paradise?more of an evil dictated world run by him where everyone is addicted to RuneScape). Jonny decided to take action. He slowly moved the joystick on the wheelchair?s armrest around, and the wheels slowly moved forward. He knew he wouldn?t make it down the halls without being caught by a nurse. So he slowly used his flabby arms and strained to pull open the window. When he did and alarm sounded and his doctor ran into the room. "What are you doing Jonny!?" he cried, but Jonny wheeled over to him and grabbed a scalpel out of his coat. The doc staggered backward, and Jonny pinned him to the wall with his wheelchair. Then he reached up and grabbed the doctor's neck and yanked him down to Jonny's height. Jonny raised the scalpel to the doc's throat and quickly ran the blade across it. The doctor joined the members of the deceased. Jonny soon found himself outside the hospital, having to make a crude ramp out of chairs and doctor's body to get out of the window. Then he moved across the lawn and onto the parking lot. He noticed a security guard patrolling the parking lot, and he slammed the joystick wheelchair control forward. Then he heard the sirens blare, and knew he was doomed...he didn't even have his now-ancient rune scimmy! The officer pulled up to Jonny and asked him what he was doing out of the hospital. Of course, Jonny couldn't answer him. Jonny grabbed a notepad out of the cop's pocket, and the uneasy officer almost karate-chopped Jonny's arm. Jonny wrote down "Can you please take me to England?" The officer now thought Jonny was insane, because he wasn't about to go across the ocean just because some teen told him to. The police escorted Jonny back to the hospital and on the way Jonny wrote to him, "RuneScape Pwns Joo!". The officer now stopped pushing Jonny's wheelchair. "You played RuneScape too!?" He exclaimed. Jonny nodded. Then the officer took Jonny back to his patrol car. When in the car Jonny wrote "What was your name?". The officer replied "I think you may have heard of me...my username was The Old Nite." Jonny's fat jaw dropped. Then he grabbed the notepad back and quickly scrawled down, "My username was..." Part Six: THE PLAN "My username was---" suddenly, Jonny's wheelchair started going crazy. It spun him around and flipped him several times. It looks like he was attempting to break-dance. Jonny tried writing the first letter of his name again, the wheelchair repeated the insane process. "Can't write it!" he scrawled on the piece of paper. "I think I know who you are anyway..." responded the officer. He put Jonny and the wheelchair in the back of the car, and started driving. "Where are we going," wrote Jonny. "My place," responded the officer. They drove for hours and hours, through a giant marsh without a real road, a dense forest, and through an underground cave. After going up a giant volcano, the officer stopped the car. He pushed Jonny to a large hole in the ground, and suddenly shoved him in without warning. Jonny thought he would die as he sped through the volcano, and he could see the lava rapidly approaching. But he landed on something soft at the last minute, as Jonny was fumbling for buttons on his wheelchair that let it fly. "Now, then, Jonny," said the officer. "I believe we have some catching up to do. First of all, I have an invention that might make our discussions easier..." He pulled out what looked like a neck brace, with dials and buttons all over it. "I originally invented this so as I spoke, text appeared on the RuneScape screen. But I have tweaked it a bit, so now it generates a voice out of the movement of vocal cords." Jonny snapped the device around his neck. He attempted to speak, and oddly enough, his old voice came back out. "Wow, thanks a lot!" he said to the officer. "This will indeed make our talking easier." Jonny told him all about his quest for RuneScapeian domination. He told him about Andrew and Paul and the battles with mods, and about his life before this, about how he wished to perfect everything about his RuneScape account. After finishing his story, the officer sat and thought for a long time. "Well," he said at last. "My thoughts exactly. We should create an alliance, the two greatest accounts, creating a bigger and better RuneScape...RS3." Part Seven: THE ALLIANCE Jonny looked at the Old Nite for a while...then the officer asked "So tell me Jonny, what was your RuneScape username?" "It was-UGH!" Jonny's wheelchair started screwing up again. W-w-w-h-a-a-t-t-t i-i-i-sssss w-r-r-r-oooon-g with this thing!?" he said as the chair vibrated violently. The Nite ran over to him and flipped the switch on the back of the chair. The machine let out a sound similar to when you cut off your computer. "So can you tell me your name, now that the chair can't...err...'block' it?" Jonny responded "Ok, my name was Zezima..." WHAT!?" the Nite screamed. "You're my ultimate rival!!! GET OUT OF MY LAIR NOOOOW!" "But I thought you knew! You said that we were the two greatest accounts!" Jonny said "I assumed you were equally great to be that addicted to mention it to some random hospital patrolman. So now leave, I hate you for being sosoADDICTED." Then the Nite turned his back to Jonny. "Please Nite!" Jonny pleaded with the cop "Look at us! I'm a fat 20 year old-half machine, and you're a hospital cop who lives in a volcano for Guthix's sake!" The Old Nite turned around. "I suppose you're rightbut I still can't believe we met each other." Then Nite reached into a cupboard and pulled out 2 sets of dragon armor and 2 of those paper crowns that you get from Burger King at your birthday party. "You got some p hats huh?" Jonny said. "I used to have some, but my parents threw them away." Nite tried to put the armor around Jonny's huge paralyzed legs, but he failed horribly. "So this is what happens when you're number one huh?" he asked. "Not necessarily" Jonny replied "Just eat healthy and get plenty of exercise kids!" Jonny turned around and winked at an imaginary camera. Then the Nite had a plan. "While I stayed down here for many years playing RuneScape and working part time as a cop, I developed ground-breaking technology that I never let the outside know about." "Like what" Jonny pondered. "Like THIS", and with that Nite opened a massive closet dug into the cave wall, revealing some strange looking guns and a pair of robotic legs. But Jonny was even smart enough to know that these robotic limbs required the wearer to have NO legs in order to wear them. Then an operating table came out of the wall. "Oh no, you're not testing your crap on me!" Jonny turned his wheelchair back on and moved backwards. "Zezima, do you really want to spend the rest of your life in that thing?" Nite said. "Think, if your brain hasn't dissolved yet, think about itthe utter power you could have with those nano-tech legs.and with all my technology! We could make the world into RuneScape!!! That is what you really wanted right!?" Jonny was about to cry, which he hadn't really done since his dog died, about a year before he began playing RuneScape. So Nite gave Jonny some anesthetic, and he dozed off into a world of great weapons, mighty foes, and alliances of great powers Part Eight: THE REUNION Jonny awoke abruptly. His vision was foggy, but he soon came into focus and saw The Old Nite standing over him. "You're awakeyou've been out for a few hours" he said. Jonny leaned up and noticed he could move his legs, except they were robotic now, but with a skin colored covering over them. "I guess this was worth itwhat'd you do with my old legs?" Jonny asked. "Zezima, I threw your legs into the lava on the other side of the volcanoI knew you wouldn't mind." Nite replied. "I guess notnow where were we about the whole "taking over the world" thing?" Jonny asked. "We were going to use my advanced technology to turn to world and its inhabitants into RuneScape." Nite responded. So Jonny and Nite began loading themselves up with high tech guns, and they equipped their dragon armor, which would actually provide some protection this time. Jonny even brought a new shiny abyssal whip out of the stockpile of weapons, and Nite got himself a Verac's flail. They got into Nite's patrol car and they headed down the volcano. When they came to the bottom of the fiery mountain, Nite drove to the road and then they were both on a course for the airport. Around eight hours later, Nite woke Jonny up and told him to get out of the car. It was around 4 o clock in the morning, but the airport was bustling with people. It was a strange sight indeed to see a skinny man and a fat teenager with mechanical legs both walk into the airport, wearing shiny red armor. The duo approached the ticket counter and asked for two tickets to London, which the nervous attendant quickly forked over. Then they both turned around and sat down in the lobbyAnd that's when Jonny saw him. "Nite, look there he is!" Jonny whispered, and Nite quickly turned his head to find Jonny pointing at an average looking guy standing about 20 yards away from them. "Who's that Zezima?" the Nite replied quite loudly, not caring who heard. But he didn't know that who Jonny was pointing at clearly recognized the name of the former number one player. "Looks like we won't need those tickets after all" Jonny said, as he rose out of his seat. "That's Paul Gower." Paul was now facing Jonny, and a few curious pedestrians were backing away from what they knew was going to be a fight. "I thought I bloody killed you!!!" Gower screamed in awe; as he looked at the armor clad Jonny. Paul, Jonny and the Old Nite brought out their weapons, and charged at each other, leaping over some seats. Nite fired an Uzi at Paul, but missed and chopped up some advertisements behind them. Jonny got his whip ready and lashed Gower across the face, leaving a deep cut on his cheek and forehead. Gower pulled out the dragon dagger Jonny remembered from long ago, and stabbed it at Jonny. By now they heard sirens coming toward the airport, and Paul fled to the runway, Jonny and Nite on his heels. He knocked down a flight attendant and jumped in the plane. Soon after, Nite and Jonny did too, and Jonny's mechanical legs stomped the poor attendant in the face as he careless hopped into the jet. Paul ran to the pilot, and yelled at him to lift off now as he held the red dagger to the captain's throat. By now the SWAT team had a sniper brought out to take down the dangerous threesome, but they couldn't get a clear shot. Paul locked the door to the pilot's cabin, and Jonny and Nite couldn't knock down the reinforced door. The plane down was going down the runway, and no one could stop it except Paul. And he wasn't about to. The flight attendants closed the doors and told the passengers to remain calm, though you'd have to be a psycho to remain calm when there are three RuneScape addicts on your plane, and you're slowly climbing into the sky. Jonny and Nite told all the passengers to get down or be slain. So they cooperated. And now the plane was far too high in the air to jump out of. But Jonny and Nite hadn't planned on the fact that this plane was going across the ocean and they didn't refuel completely. All they wanted was the RuneScape programming file from Paul. The flight was doomed, but no one was caring about that matteryet. Chapter Three Part One: THE FINAL FLIGHT Nite grabbed Jonny by his flabby legs and heaved him against the door to the pilot's cabin several agonizing times. Nite finally dropped Jonny and gave the cabin's a final kick, and behind the door was Paul Gower, holding the pilot by his throat. "Let him go Gower! Or I will kill you!" Nite roared. Jonny was still lying on the ground in a fatty heap of machine and flesh. "HAHAHA! You fool! Why should I? I'm the one who has the pilot, and control of the plane!" Gower exclaimed. "You barely have control of yourself, psycho!" Jonny grumbled from the floor. "Zezima! You fool, I nearly killed you once before, and now it looks like I've got two of you losers to deal withbut that's just another reason I deleted RuneScape" Gower replied. Jonny noticed the pilot was eyeing his surroundings for a way to escape Gower's grasp. Then the daring captain leapt out of his seat and punched Gower square in his snobby nose. Jonny chortled at this rebellious assault, but quickly was silenced when he saw a familiar dagger sticking through the pilot's stomach. Gower turned around and grabbed the microphone for the captain's loudspeaker. "Ladies and gentleman, this is your new captain speaking. You are all about to die. Thank you." "Gower, you idiot!" Nite screamed. "The passengers are going to go crazy now!" Jonny already noticed cries of sheer terror coming from the first class cabin, and he swore he heard some yell "I have SARS and it hurts!" from the lower class cabins. Whatever that meant. Jonny's attention went back to the clash between Paul and the Old Nite. Now they were about to break into a psychical fight over control of the plane. Jonny couldn't do anything, because his mechanical legs didn't exactly know how to get back up yet. One feature Nite would have to remember to fix if they survived this ordeal. Then Nite swung at Paul with his dragon scimmy. Paul retaliated with a skillful block from his dagger, and then with his left hand brought an abyssal whip out of his backpack and whipped it at Nite's chest, leaving a small but rather painful gash. Nite struck back, but Paul's skillful whip tricks knocked him backwards, out of the pilot's cabin, and right onto Jonny's pale face, rendering Jonny unconscious and even less useless. The battle was escalating through the first class cabin. Passengers were ducking out of the way of the sparks flying between the blade and the whip. Gower's whip wrapped around Nite's scimitar, and flung it out of his hands and through an innocent passenger's suitcase. Then Nite pulled a few Matrix dodges, all while pulling a vicious Verac's flail out of his backpack. The two chain-bound weapons swung wildly about the cabin, and the flail hit Paul and he found himself near the back of the plane. The two combatants backed up from each other, looking like lancers about to charge, which they did. Gower and Nite ran as fast as they could, straight at their opponent. But then Gower turned around, ran backwards at the bathroom door, and ran up the wall whilst Nite charged straight at a blue barricade to the airborne outhouse. Paul flipped off of the wall like a trained gymnast, and lashed Nite again in the back. The door to the bathroom flung open, and there was luckily no one on the crapper. Nite lay groaning next to the toilet. "FIRE WAVE!" Gower screamed with great emotion, and pulled a baseball out of his backpack, sprayed the baseball with some hairspray he found on a table in the bathroom, and pulled some matches out of his backpack. Paul Gower held the match in front of the ball, and threw it. Gower's throw missed, and the flaming ball hit another can of hairspray on the table. Paul jumped out of the bathroom as soon as the can ignited and the bathroom exploded, burning Nite to the third degree, not to mention also blowing a hole in the back of the plane. The tail of the plane was on fire, but the plane had yet to lose altitude. The jet was rocking violently, and Jonny awoke from his unconsciousness. He saw the fire in the back of the plane, and someone had rushed to the controls to give out a mayday signal. Jonny grabbed a chair's armrest next to him and gave all his might into pulling himself up and running to the back of the plane. He saw Nite emerge from the flaming bathroom with a huge burn on his face and legs. "NITE!!!!!" Jonny screamed. Gower stood up behind Jonny. "Both of our lives are nearing a close. I had to delete RuneScape.all because I feared of someone taking over like you!!! I have nothing to live for!!! THISISTHE END ZEZIMA!" "ZezimaI'm sorryI've failed our mission" Nite weakly said from the floor. The flaming hole in the back of the plane was growing bigger and bigger. Nite continued "I'm sorry about everythingabout being your rival in RuneScapeabout trying to kill you in the wildernessabout everything" "NO NITE! This is just the dawning of the rest of our kingdom! It won't end here I swear it!!" Jonny was finally weeping over his dying friend. Gower was making his way toward the front of the plane to kill the passenger sending the distress signal. Then the back of the plane broke off, and some passengers fell out and into the ocean below. Nite was being sucked back by the fast moving air, and Jonny grabbed his abyssal whip and wrapped it around a metal bar on the plane's ceiling. Nite slid backwards toward the dark abyss behind the plane. "Zezimagoodbye my friendRuneScape will always be with you if you remember mepleasecomplete our mission." And with that Nite reached into his pocket and threw Jonny a strange looking key. "That's the key to access my home! Use the weapons to finisURK!" With these last words, Nite was sucked back to the edge of the plane. He was barely holding on to an armrest of a chair at the edge of the gaping hole. Paul walked to the back of the plane, and raised his whip for Nite's weakening fingers. "I always liked Lilyuffie88 better than you bothgoodbye, Old Nite." And with those final words from Gower, Nite's fingers were cut off by the sharp edge of the menacing whip, and Nite flew back into the abyss. The memory of Nite flying of into the dark distance behind the plane still haunts Jonny to this day The jet was heading straight for the water below, and Jonny knew there was no way for survival. "Goodbye Zezima. RuneScape is nothing compared to this. This is the end." And the smirk on Paul Gower's grim face was the last thing Jonny ever saw. Part Two: THE SURVIVAL Jonny awoke to total darkness, with a painful headache. He opened his eyes, and it must have been the darkest night ever, because he couldn't see anything at all. It also must have been a pretty warm night; he also felt a hot glow on his body. He felt around him, and his robotic legs were in shallow water. He was lying down on the shore of a beach. He didn't remember much from the day before, except that the Old Nite had been killed by Paul Gower, and that they were on a plane flying to England. Jonny used his weak arms to lift his bulky body off the beach, and he brushed the sand off of his tattered shirt. He noticed he had been bleeding, because he felt a liquid oozing from his arm. But at least he had survived the plane crash, although he had no idea how. Jonny slowly walked down the dark beach, but sometimes strayed to far to the left, and walked into the water, or went to far to the right and hit a wooden pole, which he assumed was a tree's trunk. He walked farther and farther down along the shore until his robotic nerves in his feet felt that he was walking on his own footsteps. His mechanical toes felt around in the sand until he hit something moist and fleshy. Then Jonny remembered all the people who didn't survive the crash. He pulled his feet back in terror. It very well could have been his friend, the Old Nite. Or maybe Nite was alive. "No that was impossibleno one can survive a drop from that height" Jonny thought to himself. Then two horrible thought came to Jonny. The first was that he was going to be stuck on this island, and was going to need to use all of his fire-making and woodcutting abilities to survive. The second thought was that it could be the middle of the day. Jonny remembered what he had learned in school long agoSometimes if people take a strong blow to the head, it can damage nerves and leave them blind. Jonny screamed and had another insane moment, resulting into him running into another tree. He fell to the ground on his back and heard something snap above him. Then a sharp jolt hit him in the back of the head. He opened his eyes again, and saw a blurry beach. Then he focused back to normal vision. Still pretty blurry from those long hours of RuneScape, but better than total darkness. Jonny saw that the thing that hit him was a coconut. He looked out over the oceanno land in sight. He ran around the island once. It was completely surrounded by hundreds of miles of water. Jonny ran into the small forest in the center of the island. He sat under a tree and started trying to think of ways to survive. He grabbed the coconut and slammed it against the tree. It broke open, but all the milk split onto the sand. Jonny devoured the inside of the coconut, though. It tasted pretty good, but not as good as a lobby or a shark. Then Jonny heard sand crunching behind him. He turned around and saw a blurry figure walking on the sand. As the figure came closer a British voice leapt from it. "You surprise me Zezima" the voice said, and Jonny could now see the figure's mouth. The man continued "However, here there is no way to escape your inevitable death." Jonny's blood turned cold and a chill shot down his spine. It was Paul Gower. Part Three: THE RESCUE Jonny saw Paul running towards him on the sandy beach. Gower gave Jonny a fierce uppercut which sent Jonny back a few feet. He rose to his feet and brought his dukes up. Jonny swung at Paul's jaw and just barely blocked a jab at his ribs. Then Jonny noticed the whip hanging from Gower's back. Gower bent down and picked up a coconut. He then hurled it at Jonny, whose enormous belly blocked the blow. Jonny grabbed the coconut again and flung it at Paul, who was knocked off his feet by the heavy fruit. Jonny quickly stepped on his back, grabbed the whip, and wrapped it around Gower's neck. Gower gagged as the sharp edges sliced into his skin. "Time to die Gower! Seems like the player beats the creator this time!" And Jonny pulled back on the whip, causing the long chain to spin free from Paul Gower's throat, also slitting it in the process. Gower lay motionless on the beach. Jonny sat down, strangely empty inside. Like the feeling he had when he got his first party hat. His vision started to blur again. "What theOh no it's happening again!" Jonny thought, as he soon found himself in a totally dark world. He stood up and ran into another tree, hoping the blow to his head would revitalize his vision long enough to make a signal for help. It still didn't work, so Jonny just cracked open another coconut and had a small feast. After a few hours of contemplating his escape from the island, he fell asleep in a totally dark world, and dreamt of old RuneScape, which he hadn't played for seven years. He awoke in the middle of the night (or day, he couldn't tell from his blindness) after hearing a small sputtering in the distance. The noise sounded like the motor of a small boat. Jonny yelled for help, and he heard a distant voice respond. He was already saved. The boat skidded onto the shore, and Jonny felt someone take his fat arm and lead him to the boat. He told his rescuers his name, and thanked them for finding him. But telling them his name must have been a bad idea, because the next thing Jonny knew, he was handcuffed to the seat. Part Four: THE SLAMMER Jonny was panicking as soon as he saw his wrist locked to the metal bar on the small boat. The two men looked like policemen, American policemen, and then Jonny remembered that he had been in a coma when caught, so he never had time todo time. "Please let me go, I'll give you 100k if you free me!" Jonny pleaded. The coppers remained silent and focused on sitting and driving the boat. "P10x!?" Jonny yelled once again. Still no answer. Then Jonny had an idea. A very stupid one. "ULTIMATE STRENGTH!" Jonny screamed upward, and then he tried to break out of the metal handcuffs. Try as he might, the false prayer did nothing, and his blubbery arms fell back. The policeman whispered something to the other piloting the boat and he nodded back. Then cop gave a vicious swing of his blackjack at Jonny's head, and the next thing Jonny new he was having another one of his dreams. "Phr33 st00f p10x Zez?" Jonny heard a voice say, and he realized it was a noob private messaging him. He cut off the PM to friends, and started chopping more magic logs. After a few minutes of chopping, a mysterious old man appeared, and took him to a maze. Jonny sighed; he knew the loot was of no value to him. Despite that he hurried through the maze, and soon found himself in the inner walls of the tricky trap. The shrine in the center was closer and closer, and as he came to the final cage door, he tried to push it open. It didn't budge. He pushed again, but was pushed back, and the door then slammed sideways in his face, and the world faded around him. He found himself looking at a similar barred door, except this one didn't have a way out of it. He was in the slammer, the stony lonesome, the iron box, the small-round-room-that-you-can't-get-out-of, the pokeyor jail. He started crying for a second, and then went to the guard at the door to his cell, which he shared with 3 other idiots. The guard immediately told him to get his fat ARSE back in the cell, or be horribly bludgeoned. Jonny crawled to the back of the cell, where he sat down and wept. One of the cellmates said to him "We gon' eat you alive in here son!" Jonny was seriously freaked now. The next day Jonny found himself waking up to multiple punches in the stomach. He felt sicker than a hobo eating dinner. He wanted to be PK'ed rather than live through this torture. After about a week in the pokey, an inmate came up to him and said to meet behind the basketball goal at the recreation courtyard. Later that day, at exercise time, the fat teen dragged his being over to the basketball court, and behind the goal, where he saw an inmate named Slick Johnston, accompanied by Jack Daniels, his close mate. Maybe a little too close. "Me and Daniels are gonna blow the joint, and you're just fat enough to pull it off, see?" Slim said. Jonny nodded in compliance. "A'ight, here's da poop." He continued. "Jonny here is going to go back to is room like normal, but when he's in front of the guard, he will tackle him, most likely killing him. Then we grab the keys, take his uniform for me, and leave. Got it?" Jack and Jonny agreed, although Jack Daniels was just here for the ride. He was quite useless in the plan. The guards blew the whistle, signifying exercise time was up, and Jonny headed back to his cell, ready for action. Part Five: ZE ESCAPE Jonny returned to his cell, excited with anticipation. He watched his cellmate's alarm clock that he stole from a grocery store and claimed it was for his sick grandmother. The clock said 2:06 PM. Jonny waited for 3:00 PM, which was the agreed time for the plan. His cellmate was currently singing a ballad about two frogs and a large tortoise, whilst swaying his arms and legs side to side in tune to his "song". There were many stains varying in color, size, and stench on his cellmate's bunk. There was a red one, a yellow one, and even a brown one. Jonny didn't even want to think about where those cam from. He glanced at the clock again. 3:09 PM. Thinking about his gross cellmate didn't do much to pass the time. Jonny was just about to try and sleep for the remainder of the time when a harsh, hoarse voice sounded "RA-OOOOOOLLL CA-ALLLLLL!" It was Jimsonion T. McLongShankins. He was the bipolar, seven foot, 150 lb. prison warden. There were rumors that he had AIDS. He was also gay. Jonny, like the rest of cell block A4, shuffled out of the cell and into the hallway, being forced to salute to all of the officers who passed by. After a sharp bark of "YAT-TEEEEENT-SHOON! (Attention)" from McLongShankins, Jonny and his other block mates snapped their backs straight up, put on a stone(d) face, and saluted, as they had learned from previous encounters with McLongShankins. As they straightened their backs, Jonny heard a sharp snap from a particularly old prisoner, then heard him screaming in agony. One of the guard pulled out a shotgun, loaded it with a shell or two, and shot the old man at point blank right in the grill. Twice. The old man's left thumb landed in Jonny's hair, who quickly flicked it away. Somebody started laughing at the geezer's corpse. He was also shot. At point blank. In the face. Twice. Jim (Mr. McLongShankins) barked out some words, instead of going up and down the line of prisoners and staring at them as he usually did. "Al-reeeight! Luuuuiiisteeen yuuuup! Tooodaay iis the day when we test you guys!" There was a silence for about two minutes. "Fer whaat?" finally squawked one of the inmates. He was shot. "Today we will test the guards on their shackling skills!" He barked after the squawker's body parts had been mopped up. A groan arose from the line of guards, some who were awkwardly shuffling their cleats (they were required to wear football cleats for some unknown reason). "They have been working on shackling for eighteen weeks now and I have decided to"he got on one knee, looked up towards the barred sunroof, put one hand over his mouth, and barked"PUUUT THAYME TEW THA TEEEEEEEEEYST!" He returned to his previous position, looking quite pleased with himself. "Ok, then, guards! Line up and face a prisoner, and shackle him and the 'mate beside him together. If you fail this test, you will be shot." The guards swaggered over to the inmates, and begin shackling them. Coincidentally, Jonny was beside Jack Daniels, so he and Jack had a nice chat whilst being shackled. "So, Jack," asked Jonny. "How's it going? Ready for the big event?" "Gumhhguhh." Replied Jack. Jonny could smell alcohol so thick you could cut it with a knife on his breath. "Em, well," replied Jonny, gagging from the smell. "That's good." Jonny turned the other way and decided to talk to his other cellmate, Prometheus. Prometheus, now, was an odd old chap. He liked to wear tortoise shell "helms" and used scotch tape to shave with. He was six feet tall, and tad bit chubby. He had blue hair (when asked what kind of dye he used, he said he'd never heard of dye), and a red beard. When people tried to talk to him, he merely replied with "Poseidon." Nobody knew why he liked ancient mythical gods so much, but he was caught smuggling in stink bombs while serving a ten year term for grand theft Moped, and given another seven years. He had one friend, Gorbonio, who was green. Really. Greenweird, huh? Quite. Anyway, Gorbonio liked to address Prometheus like "Yo, yo, Promethio!" Prometheus would reply with a half grin and hum a random song. Prometheus only wore two sets of clothes: Nothing but a girls' bikini, and a tie and gym shorts. He was quite a strange chap, indeed. I don't know why I am rambling on about Prometheus and Gorbonio, but I am. Anyway, the shackling test was almost over. Some of the guards had gotten so frustrated that they just shot their inmates instead of chaining them together. Jonny glanced at the large clock on the wall behind him. It was 3:59 PM! Jonny looked across Jack, who was now interestedly picking his nose, at Slick. "Well," Jonny muttered. "It's time!" Slick replied "OK, we're already out of our cells. All we gotta do is run toward the door (which was open, Jim is an idiot) and we're free! Jack, you, and me are shackled together already, so we can just drag Jack! He's to drunk to remember his own name, much less run. So, on the count of three! One, two," Jonny prepared himself to run. "three!" They bolted off toward the door, dragging Jack by the ankles behind them, An alarm went off, and every guard in the cell block chased after them. They could hear the other inmates hooting them on as they ran. As they were almost near the final door, bars slammed down around it, and all the lights went off Part Six: BATTLE WITH MCLONGSHANKINS As the lights went off, everything went silent. All the inmates stopped hooting, and the guards stopped running and panting. Even Jonny, Jack, and Slick stopped running, and turned around to face the dark cell block. All they could hear was one sound: the boots of Jim McLongShankins steadily clunking towards them. They stopped clunking at about two or three feet away from the humbled trio of convicts. "I done knew I shoulda shot you'uns," he uttered in a rough voice. "But I think I'll let ya livefor the moment that isbecause you'uns gotsta fight me!" He pulled out his nightstick, twirling it around and around, spreading his legs out and his "battle-ready" position. Now Slick Johnston was always ready for a rumble. He had been in the prison for 15 years, and killed and/or mortally wounded many an inmate. "Bring it on, ya bipolar son of a" just as he spoke those words, Jonny leapt in front of him. "Wait, I'll handle this, I'm level 126, remember?" said Jonny. "Man, you mean in RuneScape?" replied Slick. "That's a flippin game, see?" Jim was growing impatient. "Is ya'll'uns done a'quarellin o'er who'uns gon fight me, or will I just hafta kill all thray of ya'uns?" He asked. "OK," said Jonny. "We'll all fight you." "Fair 'nuff," replied Jim with a swift nod of his head. And with that, he lunged at Jack, obviously the easiest target, and swung with all his might at Jack's head, who flopped down on his belly, narrowly avoiding the blow. Now Jim was in the air, and Slick took advantage of that. He tackled Jim in midair, and slung him down to the ground. Then he began mercilessly beating his grill out. Jonny got in a few kicks, too. After about a minute, Jim regained his senses and kicked Slick off of him, and wielded his nightstick like a sword. He swung at Jonny's massive stomach, whose blubber deflected the hit, and the nightstick swung back 'round and smacked Jim square in the face. Jack lunged his unsightly being at Jim, who was now unconscious from the nightstick. Jack finished him off with that final bodyslam. Jonny dusted off his hands and said, "0wn3d." But they were far from pwning the entire prison. All the guards resumed their mad dash towards the cons, and the trio ran like the wind. They scaled a wall, using Jack's teeth has climbing picks, and kicked out a barred window at the top. They then used the pick strategy to get back down the wall, then they found themselves on the roof. There were guards all around. There was no way out. Part Seven: FREEDOM Jonny and Slick looked at each other, knowing this may be their final chance for freedom, seeing as they'd surely be racked to death if caught. Slick hatched a quick but dumb plot. "A'ight, here's da plan, we roll Jonny's mass through the crowd of guards, then use Jack's teeth to tunnel under the fence!" Jonny didn't have time to agree, because the next thing he knew he was on his back rolling down the roof at a maximum velocity. He couldn't see anything because he was spinning so fast, but he felt rapid thuds smacking against his body, and thought he heard a scream of sheer agony in front of him, soon followed by a blood-curdling squelch. Then he hit a solid wall on concrete and thought he broke his pelvis from the blow. Slick and Jack Daniels ran over to him and Slick threw Jack on the ground unnecessarily hard. After taking a swig of booze from his trousers, Jack started eating the dirt at a rate that any oil driller would be astounded by. After the tunnel was wide and deep enough, Slick pushed Jonny into the pit and he rolled through it like a pinball, shooting up from the other side and landing on the ground with an earth shattering thud. Jonny picked himself up and saw Slick and Jack sprinting toward the woods near the jail. He heard sirens in the distance. Jonny started running after them, and his robotic legs kicked into overdrive. He jumped clear over the trees in front of him, landing next to Slick and Jack. "HOLY CRAP!" Jack screamed, that being the only recognizable thing Jonny ever heard from him. Then he picked up his two (in)mates and leapt again, this time something on the bottom of his foot activated and he was flying. He thought of Old Nite flying off into the blackness behind the plane that night and almost cried for a second. Soon after, Jonny heard a chopping sound and saw a dark green shape moving towards them at the same altitude. It was a chopper, loaded with a dual chain guns on both sides. Jonny flew higher, but not too high, remembering that he actually needed oxygen. The chopper followed suit. The two fierce guns were closing in on them. Jonny only saw one way out. The chopper's blades were directly underneath them. Jonny had a choice. He still had his abyssal whip stored in a secret compartment in his leg. He could drop that into the blades and they would all be saved. Or he could drop Jack. He chose Jack, who was appalled at Jonny's choice for the few seconds that he lived after being released from his grasp. The copter was quickly subdued, falling into the forest below. Smokey the bear would be none too happy about this mishap. But Jonny just ignored that, along with Slick Johnson's screams for Jack. He just kept on flying over this seeming endless forest. Part Eight: REMINISCENCE Jonny and Slick finally landed in a small grove in the middle of the dense forest. Jonny was so tired, he just plopped on the ground and slipped into unconsciousness Jonny had just gotten home from school. His dad was waiting in the kitchen, and they went outside and played football together for hours in their backyard, right after Jonny had dropped off his books and ran outside. One of Jonny's friends, Kevin, walked by. "Hey, Kevin!" yelled Jonny to the tall, blonde, amazingly-strong, girl-attracting kid. "Let's catch a movie!" Jonny and his friend rode to the movies, ate popcorn, and laughed together at a good movie. Later that day, Jonny went home, after sharing a few jokes with Kevin, and got on his computer. He checked his e-mail, and chatted for a few minutes online with his friends. Then he turned off the computer, and headed to his other friend's 10 year birthday party. He had a great time, and by the time he returned home, he was so tired he fell asleep before his head hit the pillow Jonny awoke in the grove, sweating and shaking. He felt an odd sense of longing in him, a desire to be normal again. He quickly realized that that was no dream, it was a memory. A memory of the days before he played RuneScape. A memory of the days when he had friends, and had great times and laughs with them. A memory of the days when he was an average, healthy kid, with no addiction to anything but the antics of childhood, where kids played in the sun all day long, and fell asleep at night, waking up to a day full of laughter and adventure. In real life. Not on a computer game. In real life. Jonny lifted up his tear-stained head, and realized he had been crying, had showed emotion, for the first time since Nite had slipped from his grasp that day in the plane. He finally realized what this horrible addiction had done to him. Instead of a healthy, working, tan, normal, young adult, he was a half-robotic, pale, nationally-wanted convict. RuneScape has ruined his life. It has ruined his physical and emotional being, tearing up his mind. It had made him overweight. It had made him lose friends. It had made him endure life-threatening dangers that had made him into the fat addict he was. It had literally killed his personality and soul. But RuneScape had helped Jonny, in a way. He had made friends, like Slick, Nite, and Jack. He had lost friends, as well, though. He had adventures with these people, unforgettable adventures. He had fought along side of them in the heat of battle, fighting for what he believed in. He had defeated enemies with them, lost battles, won battles, and even done time with them. Jonny lifted up his head and looked into the distance, where a sunrise was slowly beginning to form against the starry black of night. This is who I am, he thought to himself. This is who I am. With that, he sat up and walked into the distance, readier than ever for anything that may cross his path. This is Jonny. Chapter Four Part One: JACK'S HEAD Jonny slowly walked north, after thinking hard about his addiction. He'd decided that he would continue fighting for what he believed inthe perfection of RuneScape. He soon found Slick on a small dirt path a few yards ahead, cradling something in his rough arms and crying softly. "What is it, Slick?" asked Jonny worriedly. "I-It-ts Jackhe-he never had a ch-chance to say goodbye to me. We had served six years together." Jonny remembered a few hours ago when he had no choicewellOK, maybe he had a choice, but he remembered when he dropped Jack to save Slick and his own life. "Slick, he died for us. Remember that" reassured Jonny after taking a disgusted glance at Jack's oversized, smelly, rotten, dirty, bloody, hideous, heart-stopping, grim, grimy, slimy, rough, unshaven, gruff, ugly, revolting, repulsive, nauseating, gross, vile, abhorrent, foul, smelly, polluted, soiled, stinking, unsightly, horrible, terrible, appalling, dreadful, scandalous, outrageously dreadful, scummy, crusty, pale, idiotic, [developmentally delayed]ed, dumb, stupid, large, unintelligent, dim, slow, dim-witted, dense, thick, dull, brainless, mindless, foolish, unsightly, nasty, horrid, declared ugliest face of the year in 1998, offensively distasteful, awful, bawdy, bedraggled, befouled, begrime, begrimed, bemire, bespattered, besplashed, black, blasphemous, blue, buggy, cheating, colly, contaminated, contaminating, corrupt, dingy, dirty-minded, draggled, dust-covered, dusty, fecal, feculent, filthy, flyblown, foul, fouled, foul-mouthed, foul-spoken, greasy, grime, grubby, grungy, hostile, illegal, illegible, ill-gotten, impure, infected, lewd, lousy, maculate, marked-up, mucky, muddied, muddy, nasty, obscene, off-color, oily, profane, ribald, salacious, scabrous, scatological, scummy, septic, smeared, smirched, smudged, smudgy, smutty, snot-nosed, snotty, soil, soiled, sordid, spattered, splashed, squalid, stormy, travel-soiled, travel-stained, unclean, unfair, unjust, unsporting, unsportsmanlike, unswept, unwashed, alarming, atrocious, baleful, despicable, disfigured, forbidding, frightful, grotesque, hideous, horrible, horrifying, ill-favored, ill-favoured, ill-natured, inaesthetic, menacing, minacious, minatory, monstrous, ominous, repulsive, scrofulous, sinister, surly, threatening, unaesthetic, unlovely, unnatural, unpicturesque, unsightly, unworthy, weird, eldritch, strange, supernatural, uncanny, unearthly, unusual, wyrd, horrendous head. Suddenly, Jack woke up, gave a huge belch, and fell back asleep. "He's alive!" exclaimed Slick! "Alive!!!" Jonny, inside, hated this fact, but attempted to cheer along. "Er, yay!" he said timidly. "Alive! Woohoo." The three settled down for the night, built a fire, and Slick and Jonny soon found themselves joining Jack in a peaceful world of slumber. Part Two: TRIO VS DI Jonny, Slick, and Jack woke up, and Slick had prepared them a quick breakfast of root stew and sap cider to start out their day. After a rather nasty belch from Jack, the trio set off northern. Their goal was to reach Oogle Mountain, where it was rumored that the world's most powerful supercomputer was located. Here they could program RuneScape the best and quickest way possible. Jonny had found out that Slick was Duke Freedomone of, if not the most, wealthy person on RuneScape. He was arrested for going to an Internet café in the nudethat isdisturbing the peace. He claimed he had forgotten to wear clothes that day, so he figured it was okay. After all, his computer at home had broken down, and he needed a place to play RuneScapesell some yellow party hats, to be exact. Now don't ask me how you "forget to wear clothes," I just don't know. There's Slick Johnston for you. Jack didn't know a lick RuneScape; he was just along for the ride. About an hour into their journey (Slick estimated it would take 24 hours to reach the giant, purple mountain looming in the distance), the travelers came across a small grove. In this small grove, there was something very strange. A group of people dressed in blue robes were throwing tennis balls on fire (never something Arawnius would do!) at each other! There were repeated yells of "Fire Strike!", then a "fire ball" would come hurling towards someone. Slick yelled, "What is this?!" and all of the "mages" stopped and looked at him like was the devil. "We Damage Incorporated, and this is our training session!" yelled one of the taller ones, stepping up to Jonny and Slick. "Er" said Jonny. "You guys hold training sessions? Do you realize that this is real life?" Jonny recalled the days when he had done this kind of thing. That was a while ago. Now he was actually somewhat fit, he looked like a normal person again. He was tan, and had even gotten muscular from his adventures all over the world. "RuneScape is our life!" yelled a girl from the back. It was obvious this group was hopeless. "OK, then, whatever," said Slick. "We'll be moving on then" "Not so fast!" said the leader, stepping even closer. "This is our territory. To pass, you'd have to kill us! Like that'd ever happen!" The nerds all chuckled heartily at their master's wise crack. Jonny and Slick took a step back; their leader was a little too close for comfort. "Oh, ok, we'll 'fight' you then!" said Jonny, remembering the stock of weapons he had acquired in his mechanical legs. He winked secretly to Slick and Jack. Slick winked back, and Jack just kind of blinked and stood there stupidly. "Attack Strategy #74!" yelled the leader. All of the DI members stood in a triangular sort of shape, with the leader at the front, and the weaker members at the back. They all posed, tennis balls and lighters at the ready. The leader made a complicated move, whipping his hands around, pulling a tennis ball out of his pocket, and lighting it in one, complicated, swift, practiced motion. Jonny pulled out a pistol and shot him dead. He fell to the ground. "ATTACK!" yelled the combatants, and they clashed with the small trio. They hurled tennis balls that were flaming at them, which were shot away with the powerful weapons that Jonny and Slick had been saving. Pretty soon, however, the nerdy bunch had started using "melee" combat, pulling on red cardboard and wielding red sticks. Jack and the co-leader met in head on battle. The co-leader swung a might blow at Jack's stomach, which was reverted and bounced right into his face. Stumbling backwards, the co-leader pulled out a "dagger", and made a wild stab towards Jack. The cardboard crumpled when it collided with Jack's fist, and Jack punched the co-leader. He was out for the count. Slick and Jonny were shooting wildly at all of the deranged members. You'd think it'd be easy to shoot through cardboard, but there were just so many of them! As Jonny and Slick grew tired of pulling triggers and reloading, a giant mage stepped up to the plate. He had a grenade. Yes, a grenade, in a dense, dry forest. "NO!" shouted Jonny, but it was too late. He had pulled back the pin, and threw it right at the trio. Jonny's only choice was to shoot it so it didn't explode right in their grills, which he did. All light and sound disappeared for two seconds. This was no ordinary grenade. Jonny, Slick, and Jack were blasted off their feet, a good ten yards up the path. As they got to their feet, they saw everything around them was a blazing inferno. They were quick to realize that they were lucky to be alive, as many of the DI members' limbs were hanging on the nearby plant life. But there were more of the members, left, and they gave a wild scream a tore off after the trio, infuriated at their shooting of the grenade, as if it was their faults. Jonny, Slick, and Jack ran for their dear lives, the wild savages close on their heels. Part Three: OOGLE MOUNTAIN Jonny, Slick Johnston, and Jack Daniels were running through the flaming forest, with the Runescape crazed Damage Incorporated members on their heels. Everywhere Jonny saw a possible escape, a burning tree fell on it or another DI clansman threw a grenade at it. There were shouts of "FIRE WAVE!" and "FLAMES OF ZAMORAK!" throughout the clearing they were in. Then Jonny remembered he had rockets boosters on his mechanical legs. "Prepare to R0x0rs!" Jonny yelled through the chaos into the ears of Slick and Jack. He grabbed them both and as a flaming tennis ball passed under them, they shot into the sky with the aid of Jonny's futuristic lower limbs. Oogle Mountain, Montana, was home to a huge stash of Japanese supercomputers from the government. Luckily, Jonny had done a bit of research in jail on supercomputers, and was able to hack into a government site to find out about this remote computer hotspot. The Oogle Mountain Vault was only 50 miles away from their prison, and after breaking out, Jonny knew that he could finally make his RuneScape dreams come true if he was in control of these machines. Jonny was still not sure how long he had been unconscious between the trip off of the island in the Atlantic Ocean where he had washed ashore after the plane crash, but he knew it must a been a few days to wake up in a prison in Montana. After this reminiscing, Jonny turned his attention back to the looming purple mountain in the distance. "We should be there in about 10 minutes at this rate, eh?" asked Slick, who was also Duke Freedom on RuneScape. "Yeah probablytaking over the place shouldn't be hard, seeing as they don't exactly send their best men to guard a mountain that no one knows about." Jonny replied. Jonny turned his head around to see the forest burning off near the horizon. "Hope D.I. is goneless opposition when I rule RuneScape" He thought. The trio landed at the top of the mountain, in a small patch of evergreen trees. Jonny rolled up his right pant leg and opened his storage compartment, which had his abyssal whip stolen from Andrew Gower, some cheetos, a grenade, a few survival supplies, and a few various firearms. And he also had the RuneScape program disc, the key to the whole operation. The three descended to the foot of the mountain, keeping the noise to the minimum. After about 30 minutes, they came to Oogle mountain's base, where the cave that held the entrance to the vault was. Jonny signaled the coast was clear after sneaking up on a single "noob" of a guard and choking him 'till unconsciousness. They proceeded into the cave, where Jonny pulled out a flashlight from his secret leg compartment and shined it in. The first thing he noticed was a couple dozen assault rifles pointed at him. The second was a shiny chainmail shirt and legs in the middle of these soldiers. "Hello, old chum," came an English voice from the head attached to the chainmail. Part Four: MEET RELDO The trio edged nervously away after they heard the loading of several AK47s uncomfortably close to their faces. It was all dark, they couldn't see a thing. "Come this way," said the voice in the armor. "If you will." Six strong pairs of hands grabbed Jonny, Slick, and Jack. They were dragged backwards, blindfolded, handcuffed, and shackled. "Well, I've beaten you here, apparently," said the voice, "This was your destination, right?" "Just tell us who you are what you want, creep," said Jonny definitively. He heard a short grunt of approval from Jack behind him. "Who am Iwho am Iso many answers for this question," said the voice. "Let's seewhere shall I begin? Ah, yes. I amto the common player of RuneScapeReldo. I am the Librarian of Varrock. But behind these dusty volumes, there's so much more going on. I am always watching the top ten players. In fact, I'm always watching every player. But I concentrate on the more outstanding ones. That means you, Jonnyor shall I sayZezima?" "OK. You're some geek who sits at a computer and makes sure the best players don't start demanding money from noobs. Big whoop," said Slick. "But that's not all I do. Ever wonder why your computer lags when you are about to make the biggest trade of your life? Or when you are about to complete the biggest quest, or battle the highest-leveled monster? Ever wonder why your axe breaks, or a rock starts smoking the one time you turn your head before clicking? Players with installed webcams will find this to happen more frequently" "You meanyou can see people?! Through webcams? And you can probably hear them too? That's just sick!" exclaimed Jonny. "Sick it may be. To others it may be lag. Or spy. Or bad fortune. Or the evil forces of Zamorak. But I am Reldo. Reldo the Hacker. I can see everything you do if you have a webcam, everything you say with a microphone. I can pop your CD trays in and out. I can make programs open and close on your computer. I can go into RuneScape, and play as a monster or as a tree ent. I can do anything. I control your files. I can control your very LIVES! Jonny, I have been tracking you ever since you got that laptop, almost eight years ago, from Best Buy. Know why? It had a GPS system, webcam, and microphone hidden in it. When Nite operated on your legs, little did he know, he was actually installing tracking devices, webcams, mikes, and all sorts of stuff all over you. He wired you up like a freakin' Christmas tree. So I know you, Jonny. I know you." Jonny's mouth was halfway to the floor. "wh-why-why did you come here? To Oogle Mountain? To capture me?!" "You insolent fool! I would never go through so much trouble for you. I came here to make a new RuneScapesame reason as you, as I heard from your conversations. It will be called RuneScape. But I have invented a new type of hacking. PixelCams. Every pixel in the RuneScape world is a camera. Some are regular, some are rotating, some are thermal imaging, some are negative imaging, etc. I can see exactly what each player is looking at, plus his face and his surroundings. I can hunt everyone down. I can ruin their lives, both in virtuality and reality. There is only one flaw in my game though. To make widespread updates in RuneScape, you must insert the exact color of the mods' crown. To get this color, you have to mix every party hat together. That's all I need, then RuneScape, and the world shall be mine!" "So your plan is to take over the worldwith an online computer gamereal nice," said Slick. "You're telling us thiswhy?" "Oh," answered Reldo, "I plan to kill you, so it really doesn't matter." Jonny suddenly remembered a class about computers he had taken long ago. He remembered computers screw up if magnets were around them. He remembered Slick telling him his account name during the shackling test. He remembered the shackles were magnetic for some strange reason (how unnaturally convenient). Sothe magnetic shackles disallowed Reldo to hear the conversation about Slick's file, because that's when Jonny found out! Reldo didn't know that Slick was Duke Freedom! "Tell me, Reldo," said Jonny. "Do you accept bribes?" "Being a traitor and a spy, I consider these quite often, yes," answered Reldo. "Suppose Slick here was to log onto his account. He'd trade you his entire accountjust for you not to spread this new RSPC (RuneScape PixelCam Version)," said Jonny. "Slick, here, is probably some level 35 noob who has full steel. Welleven if he was level 126 with full dragon, the only person that would have every party hat color in the right numbers would be Duke Freedom. And I can guarantee this rattrap right here isn't Duke Freedom!" Jack made a lunge toward Reldo at this snide comment, but was restrained by the guards. "OK," reasoned Jonny. "If Slick had the party hats, you wouldn't make RSPC, right? Because you're sure he doesn't have them, and you can listen to all of our conversations, so you know who's file he has, right?" "Haha!" chuckled Reldo. "I am positive he doesn't have the party hats! Deal! If he has the party hats, I won't make RSCPhehehe." They heartily shook hands. "Good then," said Jonny. "Let's unblindfold here" "NO!" shouted Reldo. "Only Slickto log in for a few quick seconds." Reldo quickly unblindfolded Slick. Jonny heard a cart coming in, then a quick chattering on the keys, then he heard Reldo screaming, after blindfolding Slick again, who was chuckling quite heartily. "NOOOOOOOOOO! HOW?! He's Duke Freedom! This is impossible! NO! NO! No RSCP! NOOOOO! Must make it! I'll kill you all!" He lunged at the bound trio. He tore the blindfolds of them first, and ripped them off. Jonny looked up into a face. A familiar face. His father's face. Part Five: GRIM REUNION Jonny couldn't take his eyes off the face he saw looking back at him. It was his father, who Jonny hadn't seen in about 8 years. The face had an aged and gruff look to it, and was red with fury after losing the chance to make RuneScapePixelCams. "Dad! It's me!!! JONNY!" Jonny cried helplessly at the raging man. Slick and Jack were fending off some guards behind Jonny. Jack was flopping madly, and Slick was stabbing some of them with his homemade (or should we say, jail-made) shank. Soon the guards decided to open fire, and the trio ducked behind some stalagmites. The three refugees were cornered in a cave with dozens of evil henchmen and a vengeful father who only cared about destroying the person who destroyed his life. When the tricky troops had used all of their shots up, they all reloaded simultaneously, giving Jonny, Slick, and Jack a few seconds to run. Jonny pulled them up a staircase carved into the cave wall, leading upwards to unknown floors. They heard a grenade tossed behind them, and the three barely jumped out of the stairwell in time before it collapsed, hopefully crushing their pursuers. The trio found themselves in a dome-shaped cavern filled with wires and CPU's everywhere. The floor was not a natural cave floor, but a sort of glass that made I look as if you were walking on air. About 200 feet below this floor was a huge pit of magma. "Well, we can keep on climbing out of here, or we can try to make RuneScape 3 right now." Jonny announced. "Well, ya see, if we tried to create the piece now, dem guards could come a'bustin through the wall any second and light us up. Or they could all be dead and we could make the game," Slick said. Jack gave out a grunt of what they thought was agreement. Jonny decided that they were going to try to download the supercomputer's memory onto the small chip in his mechanical legs, and create RuneScape 3 by hooking the legs, which had the program in them, up to a radio tower or large computer server. They worked for about twenty minutes sorting through the various wires to find the right one, and plugged it to the port in Jonny's legs. The wire started rumbling, and the whole room followed suit. Then the room lit up so brightly the glow of the lava below was completely gone. Everything was a pure, futuristic white. Some electrical nodes on the walls lit up, and a green current of electricity flowed through the walls into the CPU that Jonny's legs were hooked up to. Then a heavier rumbling came. The three unwary chaps turned around to see a drill machine smash through the wall to the room, followed by a storm of guards who made a skillful formation around Jonny, Slick, and Jack. But then Jonny realized that glass wasn't going to hold a bunch of men and a huge machine. And Jack. The glass floor was creaking and swaying. Some of the troops fell over, and holes started to break into the glass. Reldo, or Jonny's father, stepped into the chaotic room dramatically, avoiding all the cracks and gaps. He walked over to his son and just started at him. Jonny was now crawling across the floor, trying to get Slick and Jack to come to the other side of the room where there where stairs to the top of the mountain, and the control center. Reldo drop-kicked Jonny in the back, and even though Jonny didn't want to hurt his own father, he quickly pulled out his whip and wrapped it 'round Reldo. He then kicked ol' pa into a wall, where he lay unconscious. Then a huge gap split across the glass in the room. Jonny was separated from his last two remaining friends (well, more of forced companions). "Jonny! Help! Jack won't move, da fool's scared to death!" Slick cried from across the gap. Jonny knew he couldn't save them in time, as his highly developed intellect knew that the whole mountain could erupt if that drill machine fell into the lava below. It was either get the rest of the memory downloaded and fulfill his promise to the Old Nite, or try to save two of his fellow fugitives. Then he remembered that picture of Nite flying off into the blackness behind the doomed airplane, and Jonny felt that if he was quick enough, the file could be downloaded and Slick and Jack could be saved. Jonny plugged in the wire as fast as humanly possible. The file was 95% uploaded, and that last 5% wasn't coming easy. Then another large gap split through the glass, and the whole gang of guards fell into the lava pit. The fiery brew below started to spew and sputter. Reldo was unconscious laying next to Slick and Jack. The cracks and breaks in the glass started coming faster97% *SMASH*.98%*FOOOSH*..99%- The drilling machine tipped over the edge of the remaining floor, falling into the lava below. Jonny ripped out the cord, thinking that last percent wouldn't make a dramatic effect on RS3. He leapt towards Slick and Jack, who were both screaming with terror at the collapsing volcano. At the same time, a splash of lava mixed with near molten shrapnel and rocks shot up through all the gaps in the floor as the lava level rose. All Jonny could see for a few seconds was fire, and then through the fire he saw something coming at him from the other side. Reldo had thrown his last rune throwing knife at Jonny, and it sliced him across his right eye. Jonny picked up the knife and put it in his pants pocket. Luckily he had his eyes closed and wasn't blinded, but the wound seemed to hurt worse than any regular cut. It wasn't any different except, that in his father's final moments of life, he had chosen to attack his son. "I'M SORRY SLICK!!!" Jonny screamed through tears, "I WILL MAKE RUNESCAPE 3! YOU WON'T DIE IN VAIN!!!" Then the roof started to collapse and Jonny activated the rockets on his legs. The molten soup was rising quickly underneath him, and he was flying up the stairs as fast as he could possibly go. When he reached the top room, just underneath Oogle Mountain's peak, the roof broke open and Jonny flew out, only a few feet before the mountain's top completely exploded, sending ash and lava flying into the air. As Jonny flew away from the mountain, he pulled the knife out of his pocket. There was a small inscription on it, and it didn't say made in China. It said "PROPERTY OF LILYUFFIE". Jonny knew that the whole world must be against him now. He was alone again. Part Six: THE LONELY ROAD Jonny was hurtling through the air at top speed. He had the knife in his hands, and was just staring at it. Lilyuffie, the third best player, was on his father's side. And that's another thing he had yet to figure outJonny had been told that his father committed suicide. But he would have to ponder these thoughts later, as the brown, dusty ground beneath him was approaching speedily. Jonny slammed down on his mechanical legs, and they tough steel forged in Nite's volcano held up and absorbed the impact. Jonny fell rolling to the ground, and stopped when he hit a tree. Ash and molten rock rained down upon him, and all he could do was shield his face with his shirt and wait out this treacherous molten rain. Shortly after the "rain" stopped, Jonny looked up. Ash poured into the place where his head had been before. Everything was black; when volcanoes with years of ash and rock stored up inside of them erupt, the ash floats in the air, blocking out sunlight. Jonny had no clue where he was, the only thing he had to go by was gravity, which wasn't really helping right now as he tried to pull himself out of his gray prison and up onto the ground above him. After a quick boost from his mechanical legs, Jonny finally heaved himself out of the pit, where he had laid for ten minutes avoiding the ash. Everything was pitch black. Jonny collapsed with exhaustion, he hadn't had sleep since the battle with DI. His only possessions were his clothes, a small knife, and the computer disk containing RS3, which all crumpled up along with Jonny himself as he entered the world of slumber. Jonny woke up a few hours later, feeling a bit more rested. Everything was still pitch black, he had just lost two close friends, found out that his father was an evil RuneScape hacker, and found out that one of RuneScape's top players was against him as well. He had no motivation to keep going. He wanted to lay in the soft ash forever, to make it all go away. But Jonny knew he couldn't chicken out now. There were times when he felt like this in his previous adventures, but he kept going. There were times when his friends felt like this, but they held strong for him. Jonny pulled himself up, and began walking what direction he thought was north, to find a place to upload RuneScape 3 and share it on the internet. He had gone too far to quit now, and he knew he must fulfill his promises to his close mates, and patted the disk in his pocket. Oh, there would be an RS3, no matter what it takes. Jonny was walking for about an hour when he saw a faint glimmer of yellow light in the distance, maybe half of a mile away. He was tired, hot, and extremely thirsty, as the ash had not made such a aftertaste to his dinner ofnothing. He knew he must be approaching the end of the ash contamination, and sped up his pace. He finally arrived at the light, and the ash was so thick, he could see where it stopped. Almost blinded by the new luminosity of daylight, he staggered out of the gray world, and began walking down a dusty road. His good ol' mechanical legs, who had held through the ash, had a compass on them that verified Jonny's guess of him traveling north. One quick siren is all it took, and Jonny began running. He had almost forgotten that he was a nationally wanted convict for murder, robbery, and my personal favorite: grand theft helicopter. But this wasn't any small arm state trooper chase, this was the feds. As Jonny looked around, he saw and heard tanks, helicopters, and bloodhounds scrambling after him. They were closing in. Fast. Part Seven: MEET YUFFIE Jonny increased his speed. The pack of bloodhounds and ferocious Dobermans were on his tail like a hobo onoh sorrythat's already been used once. Well, anyway, they were right behind him. He activated the rocket thrusters on his legs and flew up through the canopy of the forest. Jonny knew that the dogs were out of the problem now, but he still had to worry about the tanks and choppers. He heard a loud explosion and two missiles from the helicopters narrowly missed him. He saw the tank's turrets turn towards him. His legs kicked into gear and sent him flying back towards the prison, even though he was quite a few miles away from his former cell and Oogle Mountain, the only two landmarks he had in this unfamiliar northwestern area. But his thoughts got the best of him once again, as he found himself on the receiving end of a stun gun shot from one of the copter's special arsenal of non-lethals. Jonny awoke slowly. The corners of his eyes were all black and flashing purple for a while as he focused on the world around him. He was in some sort of dimly lit cavern, tied to a chair. Well, more of bound with titanium chains to a reinforced titanium-steel alloy chair. He tried to lean over the chair's uncomfortable armrest to look at the clock inside the compartment of his mechanical legs. It clicked open at his brain's command, and the electronic display said 9:16. He had been out for about 8 hours, because he had remembered looking at the clock when he put Reldo's dagger back in the compartment. Then the lights became brighter and a figure stepped through a probably-titanium door on the other side of the cavern. "Hello, ZezimaI must say its been a while since we last met," the figure said. "Who are you!?" Jonny asked demandingly. The figured raised a hand over its shoulder and then Jonny saw two things: a dagger stick into the wall the chair was against, and the hand of the thrower rest back on its side. The dagger was engraved with the name "LILYUFFIE", just like Reldo's. "Zezima, I'm LilYuffie88, you can call me Yuffie though, as I don't really like the numbers..." Jonny thought she mumbled "stupid name stealers" under her breath, but then she walked close to him and Jonny saw her up close for the first time. At first Jonny thought she was pretty hot, but then he remembered the kind of action he had been getting from the babes since he started RuneScape. None too good. "Zezima, I know you've got the program for the entire RuneScape game hidden somewhere." Yuffie told him. "And you want to make RuneScape 3 too, right?" Jonny asked. "Yes, I was hoping you could help meof course, I would be the number one playerforever," replied Yuffie. "That's not how the game's supposed to be, Yuffie." "And how would YOU have made the game, Zezima?" demanded Yuffie. He thought for a secondhe didn't really care much about RuneScape any more. It was really fulfilling his promise to The Old Nite that made his strive for the goal. "I'm not gonna help you rule RuneScape, if that's what you want." Jonny finally said. "Fine, I guess I'll just let you watch then," she said. "No---hey, get outta my pants!!!" yelled Jonny, half turned-on and half scared for his life. Yuffie held a dagger up to his throat and said, "Make the compartment openNOW!" Jonny couldn't really refuse, and the storage bin in his legs clicked open. Yuffie pulled out his abyssal whip along with the sealed case containing the RuneScape program. Then she grabbed a Cheeto out of there and ate it. Then she walked out of the room, whip in one hand, disc case in the other. A few minutes later, Jonny felt the entire cavern begin to shake. He heard loud noises from above, and then the lights went out. He felt his stomach start to tremble, and then he felt a strange sensation throughout his body. A loud explosion-like noise surrounded his ears, and he felt that everyone alive could here it now. Then the world seemed to dissolve in a mist of sparkles around him and he found himself falling. He felt calm and peaceful through the fall which seemed to last hours. A few minutes later he landed on a solid cave floor, and the cavern had substantially changed. The metal chair looked as if made of some strange, new material. The door on the far side of the room opened suddenly, and a figure in full dragon armor, not any cheap imitations, walked into the room. It was Yuffie. RuneScape 3 was complete. Chapter Five Part One: THE NEW WORLD The world had become RuneScape 3. Jonny couldn't do a thing about this, as he was at the mercy of the programmer and supreme ruler of the new, virtual world, Lil Yuffie. She walked toward him, wearing the shining, real dragon armor. The light reflected off its crimson surface, dancing on the cavern walls. Jonny assumed this place was somewhere new in RuneScape, created by Yuffie, but he still had no clue of how he could escape. "How do you like my new creation, Zezima?" Yuffie addressed Jonny in his RuneScape name. "I gotta admit, it's got good graphicsbut overall the gameplay sucks." He sneered. She slapped him across the face, and the scar over his eye stung a little. "That could be a ban, sir. You don't want to know what happens when you're banned." Jonny remembered the old Disc of Returning. He imagined many banned people trying to scramble for one to return to RuneScape. But that item was no longer in circulation, so he could only imagine what happens to the poor souls of banned ones. "Would you like to take a stroll around the new world?" Yuffie asked, and knew Jonny didn't really have a choice. Some guards came in and un-cuffed Jonny out of the strange chair. He was led through a series of winding, torch-lit caves, and finally was forced up a ladder, into a foggy, green-skied swamp. There was a strange green glow to the north of Jonny, and he could see the ocean to the east. He turned to his south quickly (he had a compass in his mechanical legs, which the transfer to RS3 had not changed). There were some small hills, and Jonny identified them as The Barrows of Morytania. He was obviously south of Port Phasmatys and north of Barrows. The guards, led by Yuffie, hurried the helpless Jonny along the swampy areas, and a few vampires started at Jonny, hungrily. He saw a person fighting the vampires in the distance, and realized that the citizens of Earth must have received implanted memories of RuneScape during the crossover to RS3; otherwise no one would have a clue here. Jonny, Yuffie and the two guards walked out of the dense swamp and towards Port Phasmatys. Yuffie equipped her Ghostspeak Amulet and the ghost guards at the gate to the town opened the barrier. Jonny saw the usual in the town: a ghost protesting, Robin Hood gambling, smithers smithing next to the bankThey all hurried to the docks where the ghostly ships were harbored. The Ectofunctus-powered ship was ready for sailing, so Yuffie must have made some updates in the game. The guards led Jonny on board and Yuffie followed behind them. Jonny was forced into some chains and tied to another strange chair with a greenish aura around it. Yuffie seemed to pull some bones and a bucket of slime out of nowhere, and poured it into the boat's Ectofunctus. A rumbling deep within the bowels of the boat appeared as the ghastly power source brought the ship to life. Yuffie yelled out "Ardougne Harbor!" and the boat started to move. Jonny knew where they were headed. Jonny, Yuffie, and the couple of guards would soon be at the capital of Kandarin. What their mission was, Jonny had yet to find out. The boat started to shake about thirty minutes into the journey. "What's going on!?" Jonny yelled at Yuffie. She smiled and said "Let's see if you still have your old fighting abilities about you." Jonny hoped those hadn't left him yet. As soon as he thought this, a large thud was heard above deck and Yuffie calmly walked to the upper floor. When she came down, a huge Dagganoth was following her. She pointed it at Jonny, who then saw red numbers and letters appear above its head. Its name was the Dagganoth Lord, and it was exceeding level 800. Jonny was only 126, and the words "Zezima-Level 126" appeared above himself. He knew not even the strongest of warriors could barely solo the Kalphite Queen. He knew that he could very well be staring at Lumbridge Castle in a few moments. Or at least he hoped so. Part Two: BACK TO BASICS The hulking Dagganoth Lord looked at Jonny with its beady black eyes. Jonny looked at the hulking Dagganoth Lord with his wide blue eyes. The red numbers above the beast's head made Jonny even more frightened, he was more powerful than any monster Jonny had killed. "Well, what's going to get you out of this one Zezima?" said Lil Yuffie, who had released the giant creature on him. "It doesn't matter. Even if I die, I'll only drop bones. Have fun with the couple of exp you get." He replied. The Dagganoth moved closer. "Ah, yes I forgot to tell you, when you die all your skills go back to level one. Have fun also." Yuffie sneered. Jonny looked at his skill chart, a magical piece of paper that recorded all of his skills in his pocket. He had all his skills quite high, just like old times, but still, the max level was 999 for all skills, so he was quite normal now (he only had 99 in each skill, the former maximum). Jonny swiveled around to see the Dagganoth's head up in his grill. He closed his eyes, and didn't see the great lizard-like being rear back and swipe across his body. The world turned cold, and Jonny fell to the ground. He felt three huge gashes across his chest, but luckily he was too dead to feel the simulated pain. The world dissolved around him and he felt a falling sensation again. He was going to lose his perfect skills. He could hear a faint laugh in the back of his mind. Jonny awoke with a start. He felt a warm ray beaming down on his face, and he was looking straight out the gate of a castle's courtyard. There were two fountains beside him, and a few people walking around, trading pretty much worthless things. He ran through the exit of what he new as Lumbridge Castle, and behind him he saw another unfortunate person appear in a shower of glittery sparkles behind him. They too had just been killed, and were crying fiercely. Jonny stopped running, and turned around to see who the person was. It looked sort of like a grown-up version of one of his old friends from junior high, all the way back before he had even heard of RuneScape. The old friend of his probably had never heard of RuneScape before the entire Earth was converted into this virtual world. His friend probably had no memory of the last world either, and Jonny thought that he and Yuffie were the only two people left who had that recollection. His old friend's name was Tyler in real life, but on RuneScape 3 it was Darktyler1. "Hello, are you alright?" Jonny asked Tyler. "Shut up noobI just died too." He whispered angrily. "I was level 126 before I diedI'm Zezima. Look at me." Jonny said. "So what? It doesn't matter anyway; people who are high ranking drop out every day when they die. 126 isn't that great anyway." Tyler spat back. "Calm downyou want to go train on chickens or something?" Jonny asked, feeling like a total n33bzor, which he was. "FineI guess we can level together or something for a while." "GoodBy the way, who are the best players right now?" Tyler looked puzzled for a second, and then glanced down at his pocket and pulled out a small magical paper, much like the skill chart, except it was the high score list. "The top playerLil Yuffie of coursehmm, seems like there's a new second highest ranker." "What's their name?" Jonny questioned. "The second highest player? Oh, that isThe Old Nite." Part Three: COULD IT REALLY BE? "'Scuse me," said Jonny quickly. "I had thought you said 'The Old Nite' there for a sec." "Em, you heard me right," replied Tyler. "The Old Nite is the second best dude." "No, no you don't understand. The Old Nite used to be a good friend of mine" said Jonny, his voice trailing off as he recalled the day it all ended. "Pfft, how many times have I heard thatI suppose Lil Yuffie's your girlfriend, right?" mocked Tyler with apparent sarcasm coating his voice. "That girl is the devil in disguise, trust me, I wouldn't even come close to her if I could avoid it." Said Jonny in reply. "But, The Old Nitetell mecan it really be? Is he really the second best player? Tyler, I saw the man die. He fell out of a plane." "Fell out of a plane?!" exclaimed Tyler. "When was this?" "Long story, don't asktell me, how do I PM on this game?" asked Jonny as they made their way to the chicken farm near Falador. "Just write the recipient's name on the back of the skills scroll where it says "Name" and write your message. There's a quill with the scroll if I'm not mistaken," answered Tyler. "Thanks, let's see" said Jonny. He located an orange, fiery quill that had a deep black tip and began writing out the message. He wrote 'The Old Nitethis is Zezima, or Jonny, as you better knew me. Listen, if it is really you, how are you back?'. He put the quill back, and within a few seconds of his stop of writing, a small shower of sparks, similar to those of the respawning, cleared the scroll of its contents, the message was obviously sent. Tyler and Jonny continued their journey to the chicken yard. When they finally arrived, they found that the chickens were happily pecking away at dirt. The Shepard dog growled at Jonny as he passed to get to the chickens, even snapping at his ankles. "What's with the mutt?" question Tyler as they began their fleebish training. "Oh, I think I've got a pretty good idea" replied Jonny as he reasoned that Yuffie could probably take the form of NPCs in her game. Suddenly, he felt a shower of sparks in his inventory, and grabbed the scroll to find that Nite had replied 'Can't talk much. I've found out something that you really need to know. Paul is here, along with Yuffie and some other big shots. Get over here now, we're at the Jolly Boar in Varrock. I'll explain later.' "Tyler, I have to go now, something's come up with a friend," said Jonny hurriedly, leaving the chicken yard. "But, wha-" said Tyler. "We've still got training to do!" "Sorry, man, I gotta go!" With that, Jonny started sprinting northeast, towards Varrock and the Jolly Boar Inn. Part Four: DESPERATION AND EXPLANATIONS Jonny was almost out of energy when he passed through the gate at the north of Falador. A few hapless noobs called him a bigger noob, which he sadly realized was true, after recently dying and losing all of his preciously perfected skills. Jonny pulled his magical PM sending paper from his pocket and quickly scrawled a note to Old Nite. "What's goin on up there?" he wrote as he started to slow down, hence his loss of energy. "What've you found out?" The writing on the paper dissolved in a sparkly mist and Jonny anxiously awaited a reply as he grew closer to Barbarian Village, then to Varrock. He walked through the fence surrounding Barbarian Village and nearly chuckled at the astronomical noobishness of the training ground. He might have had his skills reduced but he was far past the know-how of these newcomers. He decided to try his luck at battling a "barb", so he crept up behind a gruff looking one. He pulled out an iron longsword he had picked up passing through Falador, and stabbed the crust old nomad in the back. "YEEEEARGH!!" the barbarian screeched, leaving Jonny astonished at how Yuffie had managed to realistically craft these NPCs. He shouldn't have let his guard down, as he was soon smote by a fierce steel axe blow. Jonny bolted down the bridge across the river to Varrock, the smelly old barb on his tail. Jonny was nearly past Juliet's house when he turned around to check on his pursuant. He could see that the barbarian was reaching for a throwing axe on his back, and Jonny quickly continued his running. He turned his head over his shoulder and saw the glinting axe flying through the air towards him, with no way to dodge. He closed his eyes and waited for his return to Lumbridge, when he heard a loud roaring explosion over his head. Jonny meekly opened his eyes to see what looked like a meteor flying towards the awestruck barbarian. It was a Fire Wave spell, one of the best in the book, and it hit in full force. The poor old crusty man was blown into a gray dust that caught a breeze and blew away. Jonny turned around to see Old Nite, Yuffie, and the "other big shots" Nite had mentioned. Jonny identified them as Thehate (Hate), Uloveme (Love), Kale Stille, and the noob of the high ranking bunch, Casserole, who still was way past great. "How did you survive falling out of the plane that night???" Jonny asked Nite on the way through the bustling city of Varrock. "It wasn't easy, but before I became an officer, I had a little military trainingmore of Special Ops stuffand so I used some of those skills to survive the impact on the water. Then I swam to a nearby island" "Island, huh? I washed up on one the next day after the crash, where Paul Gower had obviously been too. I met him and" Jonny was cut off. "I know, I saw his body on the sand when I got there. I found I had a satellite telephone on me, and so I radioed for help. Next day I was back in the States." They had almost reached the Jolly Boar when Yuffie broke into the conversation. "This is all great stuff but I think we've reached out location. Nite I think you should tell Zezima that important thing you've found out." Jonny shot a menacing glare at Yuffie, who simply kept on walking. "Oh, all right. Well Jonny, I know there may be some tension between you and Yuffie, but I would strongly recommend not getting on her bad side. She controls all of what you see around you, the great land of RuneScape! It's only decent to respect her by accepting what she doesif she sees a noob needs punishment, she acts on it." Then Nite bent down to whisper in Jonny's ear. "And you DON'T want to know what she can do to you here." Yuffie was now the sender of a menacing glare towards Jonny. He winced at the sight of her spiteful grin. Jonny knew in this world he was going to have to play by her rules. Or change them himself. Part Five: PUNISHMENT The group of seven came up to the door of the Jolly Boar Inn, at the edge of the northern Varrock wilderness, and Yuffie just kicked it open crudely. A startled waitress jumped and spilt a frothy Asgarnian Ale on the floor. "Watch out next time nooblet" Yuffie spat at the girl. "Oh, wait, I forgot, there isn't a next time in the book of Yuffie!" Jonny couldn't decide if the girl was an NPC or a real person. Either way, in a few seconds she was a red cloud in the wind. Yuffie had cast some sort of deadly magic on her, and she was gone forever. Or maybe she was just in a place where all other banned people went. Or she was dead. This entire system of mixing real life and RuneScape play was very perplexing to Jonny. Thehate and Uloveme started to chuckle as the red vapors floated out of an open window. Yuffie just smiled heartlessly and nodded towards the bar. "Gimme a Slayer's Respite!" Yuffie screamed at the frightened bartender. "Oh, ermyes, right away," he stuttered. Hate then stepped up as Yuffie took the bubbly drink off of the counter. "HmmI'll be having the wine of Zamorak." He said in a voice that sounded like he had just had a larynx transplant. "Hurry up if you value your soul." Obviously these high levelers overly abused their elite-ness. But Jonny could probably relate to that seven years back. Well, at least Nite doesn't misuse his powers Jonny thought to himself. Nite walked up to the bartender and cracked the man's jaw with the hilt of his sword. Then he spit in his face and leapt over the counter, stomping the man until he went unconsciousness. The Old Nite seemed to be crueler than all of them. Jonny knew he was hopeless here now. A few minutes later, the bartender awoke and stood back up; knowing that not fulfilling his duties as a bartender for more than a few minutes would mean certain death. Uloveme ordered a simple dwarven stout, and Casserole picked the Choc Tuesday. Jonny's turn to order came, and he didn't want to embarrass himself in front of the elitists, even if they were all terrible people. "I'll have a Blurberryuhh." Jonny thought of something cool to say. "Shaken, not stirred." Jonny looked over at the table the group was sitting at, and they all paid him no attention. Not even Nite glanced at his meager attempt to look "1337". Jonny was really irritated now, and seeing that Nite was on Yuffie side, he screamed, "Nite, how in the world could be so freakin' heartless to stomp a bartender into the ground for no REASON!!" Jonny was fuming mad. "Why not? Is there a problem with asserting myself?" Nite said matter-of-factly. "By the way, Jonny, have you decided on joining Yuffie's cause? Because it would be a great benefit to a noob like you." The Old Nite seemed to spit out the last part of his sentence in disgust. "What's wrong with you Nite? We were friends, and now you practically worship Yuffie?" Jonny yelled at him. The other high levels were starting to look agitated now. "All Yuffie wants to do is control the entire world herself! You people are mindless henchman to her! Can't you see that she couldn't care less about anyone?" Jonny was starting to breath heavily after this rant. "I see that you are declining my great offer. Since you obviously are my enemy, I must dispose of you." Yuffie said this as she stared carelessly at Jonny. "Goodbye Zezima." Jonny had no time to think. He dashed out of the bar as fast as he could, throwing his Blurberry at the high level group. He had no chance of making it out of the bar, because after only a second Yuffie had shot a red blast of light out of her hand that hit Jonny square in the back of the head. Then the pain came. It was like Jonny had had a trillion burns amplified by thirty million times all over his body. It didn't only affect his physical body, but the spell made him feel the worst he had ever felt. The pain made him want to die. Every single cell or pixel of him wanted to feel the comfort of death. There was no way he would ever want to live a second like this. It was the worst torture imaginable, or even unimaginable. Yuffie and the other were laughing at him as he writhed in pain on the floor of the bar. His vision was blurred and fading now. Everything was red and black. Jonny's last sight of that place was Nite's face grinning with pure hate as Jonny was banned. Jonny awoke from a sleep that seemed like an entire year. He was in some sort of empty white zone. It seemed he was floating or standing on nothing. Then he heard some voices, which strangely sounded as if they were coming from all around him. He started to walk forward through the white emptiness, and then, right before his eyes, a crowd of what must have been all the banned people, were in a mass brawl. A startled Jonny ran up to the crowd and grabbed a woman by her shirt. "What in the world's going on here?" Jonny wondered. "The disk! We must get the disk! It is the only way!" the woman said crazily, like she had rabies or something. Jonny knew what she must be talking about. The Disk of Returning had obviously been put back in RuneScape to free a lucky banned one who managed to grab it. Someone must have it in that crowd. It was his only way out of this nothingness. Jonny dashed into the mob, knocking over a small man and a strange looking woman who resembled a penguin. The disk was being tugged by two body builder looking men in the center, who were both taking a beating from the others who desired the purple hoop of freedom. Jonny tried to grab it, but he was jawed (in the jaw of course) by a short, dark haired man to the left of him. Jonny quickly struck back and punched the glasses off the man's face, who then stumbled to the white, empty floor. The man looked up at Jonny with a familiar spitefulness. Jonny screamed, but no one could hear it in the mass confusion and chaos around him for the Disk of Returning. Jonny looked right into the eyes of Paul Gower. Part Six: FIGHT FOR THE DISK Need for the Disk of Returning here was similar to the need of booze for a hoboit just had to happen. All of these people, Jonny realized, needed the Disk just as badly as he did. But most of all, him and Paul. Everything was silent now (except for a guy who had his head on fire, screaming something about leprosy), and all eyes were focused on Paul and Jonny. "Oy, kid. Give it up," spat Paul, with apparent distaste in his words. "We've fought too many times before; you know I'll come out on top, like I always do." "How come you're in this crud hole, then, smart one?" Jonny answered back. "That's a story for another time," said Paul, looking a little nervous. "You don't need to know that!" he said a bit louder, his beady eyes dodging 'round the room. Jonny took advantage of this moment of anxiety (not like every other moment in Jonny's crazy life wasn't anxiety), and lunged at Paul, finding that he still had a rusty bronze dagger in his boot, and pulling it out. Paul fell down to the ground, spat out a bloody tooth, and jumped to his feet, preparing for another duke-out with his life-long enemy. "You get more and more confident every time, Zez," said Paul, circling around Jonny. This ushered a gasp from the crowd, all of which were, at some time, RuneScape players, and obviously knew who Zezima was. "But you must remember, I was your creator." "The only thing you created for me was a life of misery!" Jonny retorted, remembering the days and nights of addiction. "Ah yes," said Paul. "Let's reminisce, shall we?" Then, clutching the disk safely in his hand, he lunged at Jonny's throat with his teeth bared like a wolf. He landed on Jonny, and actually sunk his teeth down into his throat. Blood oozed out from Jonny for a second, and then it was Paul who was in agony. Remember, now, the voice amplifier from Nite? Yes, that was in Jonny's neck, and Paul bit straight down onto the electrical metal, and volts surged through his rough body. The disk still firmly clutched, he was thrown backwards off of Jonny, and landed on an old woman a few feet away. She started kicking him, which triggered an attack from the rest of the crowd. The disk was up for grabs again. Literally. It was thrown into the air by Paul after enduring the agony of millions of attackers. Jonny saw it, and, unfortunately, so did the rest of the crowd. Everyone stopped, time stopped, even the screaming of the flaming man stopped, as the disk floated through the air. It was a purple, speckled hoop, with a small inscription on it. The eyes of thousands of banned 'Scapians watched it flip and turn in the air. Then, slowly, it began its descent. Everyone's eyes followed it down, except, maybe, Paul's, who were probably ripped out by now. It banged on the soft white ground with a resounding clatter, and spun around like a plate a few times before being still. Then, every person in the room was on it like a hobo on a ham'n'cheese sandwich. Thousands of screams of delight at another chance at the disk pierced Jonny's ears like knives. Jonny, himself, threw his full self towards the disk with as much strength as he could muster. His mechanic legs really paid off here, but he strained his arms as far as he could as well; he heard the muscles in his chest and forearm rip. His eyes were focused on the small hoop of purple; he neither heard nor saw anything else. A big, burly body builder, and a giant, fat woman lunged about the same time that Jonny did, and consequently, they all landed on each either. Jonny had gotten the better deal, he had both of his hands on the disk now. He pulled as hard as he flippin' well could, but it wouldn't budge. By now, the other thousand or so people were all on top of the trio, and Jonny could feel his ribs being crushed. He saw an opening to his left, above a small guy he recognized as Gorbonio, one of his cellmates from prison. It was either his life, as he was being crushed by the weight of many troops, or the Disk, which was also being grabbed at by a million people. Jonny decided he'd take both. So, with a final burst of strength, he tore the disk from the grabbing hands, and rolled towards the opening, the disk tightly against his chest. As he rolled out of the human mountain, he ran as fast as he could, holding the disk up high, thinking about freedom, trying to get it to work. At last, as the horde was beginning to catch up, he was lifted up by the disk's power, and started soaring above the faces of a million jealous Scapians, doomed to be in the banned hole for life. Part Seven: THE DISCOVERY The world swirled around Jonny as he tightly clutched the Disk of Returning in his hand. He took a last glance down at the banned people and then he seemed to enter a glowing green tunnel, going straight up. Jonny was then blinded by an unknown light source, and he soon found himself lying on the floor of the Jolly Boar Inn. "You alright there, bud?" said a voice Jonny soon realized was the bartender, who had just recently received a fierce beating from a group of high level players. One of his eyes looked like it was about to fall out. "YeahI am now, I think." Jonny replied quietly. Jonny got to his feet slowly and check the compartments in his mechanical legs. Nothing was in them, and he remembered that he had died before being banned, leaving him with noob stuff. Also, all of his skills had been reduced. There was no way he could take on any of the tyrannous high levels at this low level. It could take an immeasurable amount of time to regain his former perfection, but he wasn't going to spend eternity fighting rock crabs again. Jonny had no choice but to find a way to glitch the RS3 virtual world. After a night of staying in the Jolly Boar, Jonny went out to watch a few people PK at the wilderness entrance north of Varrock. One person dropped full black armor when they died, and Jonny was able to quickly snatch in before the person's killer did. Jonny was going to need everything he could find to survive in RuneScape before he found a glitch. After a meal of cooked bear meat given to him by a good-willed level 34 player, Jonny set out on a walk to Falador. He had no clue what was in store for him as he walked through the Barbarian Village. Jonny's eye was caught by a quick, strange glow coming from behind the house in Barbarian Village with the clay furnace in it. Curiously, he stepped off of the road and peered around the house. Nothing was there that wasn't supposed to beor was there? Jonny thought that he should search the area a bit before moving on to Falador. He knelt down in the wet grass behind the house and started to feel around on the ground when his hand felt something cold and metallic slightly covered in the moist grass. It seemed to be some sort of handle that was attached to the ground. Jonny gave the rusty thing a quick tug, and could feel the ground around it move. He pulled again, and saw the ground budge in a square shaped area. Finally, he yanked the handle with all his strength (which was only level 4 after his death and banning), and the ground broke open, revealing a trapdoor hatch that had been buried under the grass. Jonny looked into the hole the trapdoor formerly covered. He couldn't see anything, so he walked over to a torch set up by a barbarian and held it into the underground passage. There seemed to be a ladder on the wall, like a sewer or something. Jonny put one foot on it, and the ancient metal gave way, and he fell into the dark depths below. He hit the ground where the ladder led to, unconscious. A few minutes later, a strangely looking figure approached him, and carried him down a mysterious underground passageway. Part Eight: THE REFUGE AND THE REFUGEE Orius was usually not supposed to bring any outsiders into the Refuge. The others wouldn't allow any risks to be taken that could lead to their discovery, but this particular person seemed different. Of course, no one had ever found the Refuge before, so this wasn't much of something to worry about. The young man who fell from the entrance was unconscious and Orius was going to take him to McAllister, the leader of the "Refugees", as they called themselves. Orius seemed to have a strange feeling about this guy who he found, while going to check the food supplies in the Refuge's storage, to see if they needed to go out for another round of hunting, but then he saw the guy laying on the floor, so he planned to carry him to the main hall. Jonny woke up in a greenish-blue room. He slowly came to his mind and sat up on the small but strangely royal (and out-of-place looking) bed that he had been sleeping on. He checked the clock in the secret compartment in his mechanical legs. He had been asleep about four hours from when he left from Varrock to go to Falador. Jonny guessed he was underground, because he smelt a strange moist tinge in the air, like a mushroom or a wet rag or something like that. The bed creaked slightly as he climbed out of it and brushed a little dirt off of his shirt. Nearly as soon as he stood up the door of the room creaked open and a short looking man who seemed to be in his forties or early fifties walked in. The man was dressed in a gold robe that glinted in the light of the torches on the walls. He had jet black hair and a beard that was gelled and [bleep]ed at the ends. A very strange old chap, indeed. "Hello, outsider." The man said in a kind, yet firm voice. "Welcome to our Refuge. My name is Joseph McAllister, but my RuneScape name would be McAllisterr8. I have not experienced the effect of the virtual switch like most people." Jonny assumed that he could trust this McAllister, so he asked him "Do you know who did this to the world?" Jonny already knew, but he was testing the man. "Yes. Lilyuffie88 created this virtual, yet real world." McAllister answered. "Now let me ask you, do you know how such a simulation is possible? Or do you believe we were here all along, like Yuffie's program was supposed to make us? Or do you know the truth, that this is all a complex virtual simulation in our mind?" Jonny answered the latter option, since he was a major part in this entire incident. "Yes, I remember the world before this. I was the best player in RuneScape when it was only a game on the internet. Then that thing happened that changed my life. I'm can't really remember why I could be so obsessed, but I thought my life was RuneScape. All I talked about was how I had "recklessly slain another dragon" or perfected another skill. One night I think someone broke into my house and stole the laptop I was using. Youremember what a laptop and all this stuff is, right?" Jonny glanced at the man and McAllister nodded. Then he continued. "Well, I was pretty crazy after that. My parents wouldn't buy me another one, and I hadn't really owned the laptop that I used in the first place. I stole it from one of my old friends one daythat I can remember. I was mad at him or something. Anyways, it got stolen after I had been obsessed with RuneScape" Jonny continued to weave the tale of how he had stolen another one from Best Buy, killed someone in his RuneScape fueled insanity, fled to England, killed the Andrew Gower, fought and was put into a coma by his brother Paul, woke up seven years later and met the Old Nite after escaping a hospital to find the RuneScape internet game gone, they saw Paul Gower at an airport and their plane crashed on an island after a fierce battle, Jonny thought he finally killed Paul and then was arrested by the police who also rescued him, was put in jail with some crazy folks the escaped, went to Oogle Mountain only to have his last friends killed after upgrading the RuneScape3 disk, and was captured by Yuffie (pretty much sums all the pre-RS3 stuff up, huh?). After an hour of telling all the details and whatnot of his experiences, Jonny fell back on the bed and let McAllister talk. He was obviously a very patient man. "Now, let me tell you how this RS3 program works. Our bodies are frozen in time on Earth. This is a very complicated interaction of our minds and souls put on this RuneScape plane. Sort of analternate universe. Ever see the Matrix? Like that'cept we don't have plugs in our headsheh. Well, essentially time on Earth was been moved to that alternate reality of RuneScape created by Yuffieand that upgrade to the RS3 program obtained by you on Oogle Mountain was what allowed it to create an alternate universe. A wormhole to another dimension, free of anything and ready to create, like a blank page, was opened up when this program was run in Yuffie's computer. This simulation was the first thing to enter the new dimension, so it became that universe. We only entered through an invisible wormhole sent out by the creation of it. It's all very complexI hope you're still with me." McAllister was finally done. Jonny was a heck of a lot less patient that he was, but the explanation was surely going to be helpful. "Now I think we should go get something to eat." McAllister cheerfully suggested to Jonny. "I hope you like bear jerky and Dwarven Stout!" The two walked out of the room and into a large underground cavern, with decorated columns supporting the limestone ceiling. There were a few small tables scattered about, and on each was a box of what Jonny assumed was going to be dinner. A few of the other "Refugees" walked in and out of rooms every now and then, and nodded at Jonny and McAllister who were casually sitting down and munching on the bear jerky and Dwarven Stout, which made Jonny feel like mining again for a second. Someone had even left them a surprise dessert inside the ration box; some fresh Karamjan banana pudding. "So what are you guys doing down here?" Jonny asked as he dug into the creamy yellow pudding. "We're trying to find a glitch in the program so we can delete it. So far we haven't got much, but we aren't going to give up anytime soon. I think we're nearing a breakthrough though. That room over there is the mainframe room, where we set up our own computers, which are even glitches themselves, seeing this is supposedly a medieval game." McAllister set down his fork and was about to speak when a girl who looked about Jonny's age flew out of the mainframe room. "Mr. McAllister! There's something you should take a look at now! I think they might have found us, I'm seeing a large player moderator reading near Barbarian Village, right above us!" McAllister's calm face turned into a serious grimace, showing the wrinkles in his forehead. "Alright, AllasonI'm coming. Jonny, you just sit tight for a second." But Jonny wasn't paying him much attention. He was more focused on Allason than McAllister. He was staring into the face of someone he once knew. Some he was once close to. Another friend. Part Nine: BROKEN BONDS Alarms and sirens flashed and rang throughout the underground hideout of the Refugees. McAllister headed into the room Jonny's newly remembered friend, Allason, had come out of. "Jonny", McAllister said as he turned while entering the room. "Don't worry about anything, just stay underground. We can take care of the mods." "Mods?" Jonny asked. "No way, I've gotta help you with this. I'm experienced inoh never mind." Jonny remembered that he had all of his skills reduced to zero recently. He was in no shape to fight an army of mods again, especially in their game. "Hmmwell then againQuickly! Follow me, Jonny!" McAllister shouted. Jonny followed him into the mainframe room. There were about 20 people either hitting keys on the multiple keyboards in the room of sprinting into closets and coming out withguns! They had gun glitches! Jonny thought. With those he could defeat any mod, even if his skills were lowered. "Here, I think with these you can defeat any mod, even if your skills were lowered." McAllister said as a technician handed him a gun that reminded him of the Battle Rifle on some other game he used to playSome other Refugees were suited up in some sort of bulletproof armor, and Jonny was handed a cube by Allason. She pressed a button on it and the small box unfolded into a suit of the bulletproof material. Jonny slipped it on, and it felt as light as a regular shirt, yet it you could probably survive a cannonball hit with it on. He still hadn't told Allason about him knowing her. "Sir, they've discovered our entrance!" yelled a man sitting at the computers to McAllister. "They're coming inside!" "Alright boys, lets lock and load!" cried McAllister excitedly. "Well, you don't have to really, since the bullets are automatically generated." This made Jonny feel like he had just visited his favorite cheat code website. About ten of the Refugees, including McAllister, Jonny, Allason, and someone Jonny had been recently introduced to, Orius, crept through the passages of the underground Refuge safe house. They could hear many metallic footsteps of what must have been moderators in armor. Primitive, thought Jonny. They would soon see them face to face in the torch-lit halls of this place. Jonny was about to kick some mud off of his newly acquired bulletproof boots, but then they saw the moderators down a long hall. In the lead was none other than The Old Nite. McAllister, despite him being the oldest combatant in the fray, was the first to fire. Immediately, a few moderators out of the band of what looked like 40 or more, fell on the floor and dissolved. Back to Lumbridge for them. One of the moderators yelled "I think they are t3h h4xx0rxz!" Jonny could only watch, because he couldn't get any room to fire at the mods. A few of the group tried to dodge the bullets, but not even level 99 agility could beat a glitch. Only six of the unfortunate group of moderators made it fifteen feet towards the Refugees, and after minutes, they were all gone, except for The Old Nite, who was hit in the leg and laying on the floor. Orius raised his rifle to finish him. "Wait!" Jonny said right before Nite was finally defeated. "Let's justtake him hostage. Maybe we can hold him for ransom from Yuffie." "I'm sorry to say this Jonny, but there's no chance Yuffie cares about him. We'll be just as fine if we finish him off. He won't be gone forever, but his skills will." Orius lowered his gun again. "Please! Zezima-I mean JonnyI'm sorry, tell them to spare me. I've worked so hard to achieve this. II will join you and your friends if you justplease." The Old Nite begged. Certainly a bit more humble now, are we? Jonny thought. "Alrightthen come with us." McAllister said. Then he looked at a middle aged looking Refugee and said "Hey, Johnston, do you think you could go see if the entrance hatch is covered? I'm sure they damaged it on the way down." The group of Refugees and Nite started walking back towards the Refuge's main hall. Jonny was about to congratulate The Old Nite, but then he saw Nite raise a large Dragon Mace off of his back and prepare to swing it at the Refugees (who were in front of Nite and not watching) and Jonny. Jonny couldn't believe his former friend could be so heartless, but he had to make the decision quickly. He swung the butt of his battle rifle at Nite, and the fatal blow to his head had Nite dissolved before he hit the ground. All of what The Old Nite had worked up on RuneScape was gone, because he had to betray Jonny. The Refugees saw what had happened and a few gasped. "Why, Nite?" Jonny said to the torch-lit ground where Nite had been. "I gave you another chance" "We should be wary, that he could have his skills automatically restored by Yuffie. He could be back soon." McAllister said as he put a hand on Jonny's shoulder. "It's alright Jonny. It was for the best." Allason was about to say something to Jonny when she looked right into his face. First she gasped at the memory of Jonny's face. Then she gasped at what she saw behind his head, down the hall. Part Ten: RETURNANATION "Look!!" shouted Allason. The Refugee's assault group turned around to see a huge 7-foot tall masked figure standing in the Refugee bulletproof suit with a seemingly impossible to wield rocket launcher. None of the group recognized him, her, or it. "He." said the mysterious one. "Who are you and what do you want?" Orius said loudly. "Hmm, why don't yer let him guess? I think Jonny might kno-wuh." Jonny looked deep into the mask of the large one. For some reason, the words "bipolar" and "Mc-Something" came to his mindthere could only be one man "McLongShankins!!" Jonny realized. "Dern right Jonny. You's escaped from meh prison a while's back I reckon." The giant prison warden replied. The group of Refugees remained quiet while Jonny talked. "I thought me, Jack, and Slim killed you when we escaped" "Welp, I managed to suuuur-viiive that brutal scuffle, and now Yuffie's done made me the prison warden fer Port Sarim prison! She alser (also) restor'd me memory from before RS3! Howzabout that un?!?" "So what do you want with me now?", Jonny asked McLongShankins. There wasn't any way even an uber haxxer could have reacted to the following blow. McLongShankins gave a nasty roundhouse right into Jonny's head, and he was sent flying into the wall. One of the torches even fell off from the impact. The Refugees were about to fire on McLongShankins when he deployed the rocket launcher's deadly projectile. Jonny's eyes were blurry as he regained a bit of consciousness to see an explosion clear and his friends' items lying on the tunnel floor. Then McLongShankins approached. "Whadda you'un's reckon I want!?..." Jonny didn't answer. He remembered what happened at the prison when people answered McLongShankins questions. Hot lead happened. "REEEEEEE-VEEENNN-JUUUUUUH! (revenge)" McLongShankins screamed in his trademark way. This was soon followed by stomping Jonny's face into the floor. Jonny regained consciousness once again in the cave he had been in when first entering RuneScape 3 with Yuffie. He assumed he would see her again soon, and sure enough, the doors at the end of the room opened. LilYuffie88 walked in with Uloveme and Thehate at her side. The Old Nite was following them, but he was handcuffed and had some sort of chain around his neck. "Hello again, Zezima. I see McLongShankins accomplished his job well." "What'd you do with the Refugees!?" Jonny spat at Yuffie. Thehate looked a bit disgruntled and grabbed the hilt of his new dragon 2-hander. "They were sent to the Realm of the Banned. I have also made sure all Discs of Returning are approved by me before sent into circulation around the world. Your buddies won't be seeing you again." Jonny didn't know how to reply, because he saw no way out of this problem. Perhaps Yuffie had won, once and for all. "Now Zezima, maybe you wondered why I said you will never see you friends again. Surely you assume that I will ban you againright?" Jonny wasn't even thinking about that, but he nodded anyway. "Well I hateerrlove to tell you, actually, that I can show you a fate worse than being banned!" "What's that then?" Jonny said, less than half-heartedly. "NITE!" Yuffie yelled at the shackled failure behind her. The Old Nite moved towards her with the strength of a dead cat. "Tell Zezima what we have to do to him." Nite spoke. "We are forced to fight each other, Jonny." Yuffie slapped Nite. "You will call him by the name I told you to call him!" "Zezima, I mean! I'msorry master." The former policeman looked more pathetic than ever. It almost made Jonny sad to see this, but he remembered how he had just betrayed him. "Goodbye Zezima. I hope you enjoy your time in the Battlefield." Yuffie waved her hands and a purple sphere surrounded Jonny and Nite. They were both lifted into the air, and disappeared with a flicker of sparkles. Jonny and Nite were flying through a tunnel with strange, psychedelic shapes on the walls. Jonny thought this must be what it was like to be a hippie, but this second of humor was cut short when he landed on his stomach on a dusty ground. He got to his feet and looked around. All he could see was a sea of dirt. Hundreds of miles surrounding him. It looked like pictures from the Mars rover that Jonny had seen so long ago. Maybe that was where Yuffie had teleported thembut he could breathe, so that pretty much killed that theory. A long ways off, miles away, Jonny could see a small dot on the horizon where he assumed Nite had landed. His only choice was to head towards Nite, and if he was forced to, battle him like Yuffie said. Part Eleven: SHOWDOWN Jonny realized he must confront his enemy, then friend, then enemy again. He checked his 'inventory,' and found that he had twenty-five sharks, a strength potion, a dragon dagger super-poisoned, and an anti-poison potion. He found himself holding an abyssal whip, full dragon, rune boots, ice gloves, and a Legends' cape. Lilyuffie must have equipped him and Nite with the same standard equipment, so it would come down to skill instead of who has the better st00f. His blood boiled at thought of her menacing recent actions. Jonny was torn between fighting Nite, or seeing who he was actually loyal to. But as Jonny saw a cloud of dust several miles away, that could only mean Nite was running towards him. Jonny began the run as well, ready to fight Nite. They charged at each other as fast as the heavy dragon and boots would permit. Jonny saw Nite's look of evil determination, and he decided he would fight Nite once and for all. Jonny was tired of Nite's switching around loyalty, and, though Nite saved Jonny once before, it was time for his demise. The two opponents closed the gap between them very quickly. Jonny took a swig of strength potion and lunged forward with his dagger ahead of him, deadly poison dripping from the end. Nite ducked quickly, and they were both still charging towards each other. Jonny sailed over the top of Nite and hit the dirt with a crash. He tried to yell in pain but apparently they'd been muted, because he could not. Jonny stood back up and turned around, only to see the business end of a whip swinging his direction. He took out his own whip and blocked the blow, but he still got cut a little on his chest. A small "1" in a red splotch appeared above him. Apparently the battle graphics hadn't changed much, at least in the Battlefield. Jonny faked swinging the dagger at Nite's dragon medium, and quickly dropped to his legs, driving the dagger into Nite's shin. Three damage. Nite took a swig of anti-poison and pulled back the whip for another blow. Jonny winced in pain as it wrapped around his legs and yanked him violently into the air. On the way down, Nite dealt Jonny a roundhouse kick to the face, which added couple damage on. Jonny wrapped his whip around the back of Nite's neck and pulled himself to his feet. He pulled Nite to him with the whip and then yanked his head at Jonny's knee. The dragon medium provided ample protection, but Jonny still managed to deliver seven damage with that maneuver. Nite was apparently eating to regain health, because his half red bar returned to green again. Jonny took out his dagger again and tried to stab Nite in the neck. He blocked it, however, and whipped Jonny in the face for a whopping twenty-three damage. A bite of shark later, Jonny was back on his feet tripping Nite up with the whip. He flipped Nite around and stabbed him a few times with the dagger. Thirty-two damage. Then, Nite just started running. He pulled off all of his armor and just began to run into the distance. Jonny followed, of course, but felt his energy beginning to decline. He too dropped all of his items, save for the dagger and a few sharks. Jonny was trying to catch Nite, but he was far ahead of him. Jonny didn't know what Nite was trying to accomplish by running. Maybe he knows something about this place that I don't Jonny thought to himself. They ran, Jonny thought, for miles and miles. Apparently they had unlimited energy in this Battlefield of Yuffie's. Something was slowly appearing in the distance, however. As they got closer, Jonny realized it was a tall tower, reaching several stories into the sky. There were also a few rocks at the base of the tower. Nite stopped and picked up several of the rocks. They had markings on them, and Jonny realized they were runes. There were three laws, three souls, three airs, a chaos, and two bloods. Nite turned around and looked at Jonny in the eyes. He then closed them and moved his arms out spread-eagle. A purple, mystical ball slowly enveloped Nite and he got smaller and smaller. A sharp "whhiiiing" sound sealed the deal, and Nite disappeared from sight. Jonny looked down, and gathered up the runes. He figured out the Nite must have teleported, but Jonny didn't know how to in this new RuneScape. He just concentrated and closed his eyes, spreading out his arms simultaneously. He thought about the runes, everything he had learned about runes in his RuneScape career. He just concentrated, and a few moments later, he felt very cold, and then very hot, and then normal again. He opened his eyes and found he was on top of the tower. The roof of the tower was very small, barely big enough for four or five people to stand on. There was absolutely nothing preventing a giant plunge onto the dusty ground several miles below. They were so high up, Jonny realized, that it was getting hard to breathe. Nite was standing on the edge of the tower, looking out into the distance. He turned around and saw Jonny there. Then, Nite pointed out over the edge of the tower, atnothing. He was pointing into bare space. Then, Nite did something unthinkable. He walked to the back of the tower, turned around, and ran to the edge, leaping off. Jonny watched in disbelief. Nite was committing suicide?! But as Nite got lower to the ground, he just materialized out of thin air. And that was it. Jonny thought to himself, well, he's led me this far. Might as well So Jonny repeated Nite, and took the leap. Artificial gravity did the rest, and Jonny was soon plummeting to the ground just as Nite had. He then felt very lighthe was materializing as well. Everything seemed to go blaaaaaaaaack Part Twelve: PURPOSE/BEGINNING OF THE END Once again Jonny found himself falling into darkness, and then emerging in a psychedelic tunnel. Jonny assumed that since he committed suicide in the Battleground, and wasn't killed by The Old Nite, he was teleported back. He could see Nite falling ahead of him and then he disappeared in a flicker. Jonny followed soon after. They were once again in Yuffie's cave, where the RS3 program was based. It was almost completely dark, except for a few lights around the doors. "So, Nite, are you friend or foe now?" Jonny asked his assumed ally. "I'm sorry Zezi-Jonny. I betrayed our friendship for Yuffie's promises. Don't say anything else. I'll go find her and destroy this RS3 now." Jonny was a bit startled to hear this sudden announcement from Nite. He was ready to go and fight immediately. "Alright, Nite, let's go." Jonny said. "No. This is my fault. I'm going alone from here." Nite whispered. "Huh? What are you talking about? Nite, I stole the RS3 disc. I downloaded the files. I killed the leaders of Jagex. This is my problem. I just crawled out of the hospital window at the wrong time of night when you were on patrol. I'll finish this." Nite paused for a second as Jonny walked toward the door. "No Jonny. I started this. There's something you should know now, something no one else in the RuneScape world, besides Andrew, Paul, and I, know. It's about the true purpose of RuneScape. You see, for quite a while strange things have been happening. Before RuneScape's shutdown seven years ago, a final update was made, before Andrew died. It was a free-to-play minigame, and people didn't really understand it. Anyone in RuneScape could participate in it, and a "great reward" was promised for any player that completed it. But no one could complete it, because when the minigame started, all that happened were strange symbols and flashes of light appeared on the screen. Not even the Jagex mods, who had to program it, knew of its true purpose. The Gowers just offered extra pay for its quick completion. JonnyIt was for hypnotizing. They had been working behind the scenes with the world's leading psychologists for years. The effects wouldn't appear immediately in a player, but within the course of a month the player would suddenly want to travel to Jagex headquarters for a "RuneScape Worldwide Convention". There, Andrew and Paul would complete their dream. Millions of players worldwide would be united in a common, unrelenting goal to" "BAAA-OOOOOOOMPH!!!" An explosion rocked the ground above, and stalactites fell to the ground from the cave's ceiling. Jonny and Nite barely dodged a particularly large one that dropped and shattered right next to them. Suddenly, light shown in from above, clouded by smoke. The two were blinded by the brightness that filled the room, but regained site to see a rope waving in front of their eyes. "C'mon, Jonny! You and your friend get up here!" yelled a familiar voice that belonged to McAllister, leader of the Refugees. Jonny grabbed the rope, and heard gunfire as he ascended the thickly woven rope, probably made by Ned. He got to the surface and saw a band of Refugees, who Yuffie obviously didn't succeed in imprisoning for too long, because they had their armor and Battle Rifles equipped and were winning an assault on Yuffie's Morytanian headquarters. Nite emerged from the hole after climbing the rope, and quickly ran over to Jonny. "Are these your hacker friends!?" Nite asked, as he had recently been defeated by their hot lead rounds. "Yep, and looks like Yuffie doesn't stand a chance now" Jonny said as he grabbed Battle Armor and a Rifle for Nite and himself. "Alright, I'm guessing you're pretty good with a gun after your time in the force?" Nite said nothing, just aimed and fired at the hapless approaching warriors issued by Yuffie. Many of them fell to the ground and dissolved within seconds. After about two more minutes of a stream of fighters emerging from Yuffie's base, none of the Refugees had been injured at all, except for Orius's brother, who hit his knee on another Refugees gun while his armor was off. A few of the soldiers were resting behind the frontline, eating apple pies they took from the Refuge, but probably because they were more bored than tired. "Look's like we got 'em all, boys" McAllister proudly said to his troops. "Now let's storm the base and find lilYuffie. She couldn't have escaped, as our technicians at the Refuge have shut down all teleportation. Alright! Orius, you lead the group on my left! I'll lead th--" All of a sudden McAllister stopped talking. His armor and gun started to shoot sparks. All of the Refugee soldiers looked up in fear and awe. Then he was lifted into the air and he disappeared in a purple explosion. Ashes fell to the ground. Nothing dissolved, or sent back to Lumbridge. Yuffie walked out of the nearly-destroyed base. A few Refugees fired at her, but the bullets exploded the nanosecond they were fired, and the foolish soldiers who shot at hear were hit by the blasts. They lay on the dirt, motionless. Yuffie raised her hand and black bolts of lightning struck all of the Refugees. Jonny and The Old Nite were the only ones left alive. Yuffie stared into Jonny's eyes and said, "Zezima" Then Jonny was lifted into the air Finale Part One Yuffie lifted Jonny off of the ground with her mystical modding powers. She looked up at him and then glanced at The Old Nite. Jonny was honestly about to pee his Kevlar body armor. Nite didn't look much better either, because he knew he was getting his next. "Zezima, it's time you learned why RuneScape was created." Yuffie said in a proud, villainous manner. "Well, Nite was about to tell me before the Refugees blasted us outta the crap pile you call a base." Jonny struggled to say. "What were the millions of players united relentlessly for again?" Yuffie instantly dropped Jonny and ran full speed at The Old Nite. She was unsheating her Dragon 2-hander and was going to show no mercy. For a few seconds after falling, Jonny just sat dazed in the Morytanian swamp dirt as he watched Yuffie dash at Nite, who seemed to be paralyzed in his place. That was when Jonny made his decision. It could have been instinct, but what ever part of his mind told him to jump in front of Nite, he succeeded in it. Yuffie was sprinting too fast to realize that Jonny was taking the blade for Nite. She brought the red sword down right on Jonny's chest. There was an instant explosion of energy, and both Yuffie and Nite were blasted about fifty feet in opposite directions. They were both knocked unconscious. When The Old Nite awoke, he was looking into the misty-green Morytanian sky. He quickly got on his feet, looking around to see Yuffie still laying unconscious about 100 feet away from him. There was a pile of ashes lying next to a dragon 2-hander on the ground. "Nono, it's not true" the shocked Nite said. "This is all fakethis whole thingthis is impossible!" The former rough-n-rugged cop finally broke down and cried over what was left of Jonny. Jonny's last true friend was then filled with rage and picked up the huge red blade lying next to him. He walked over to Yuffie's unconscious being and looked at her for a second. He was about to make the final blow when "Oy!" came a nasally New-Jerseyian voice from being him. Nite turned around to see an odd looking man with dreadlocks and a backpack on behind him. "Yeah you! With tha sword! Ya friend or foe?" he said, pointing at Nite. "Friend I guess, and what is it you want?" Nite said a bit angrily to the strange stranger. "Name's Slick Johnston. There's not a lotta time left! Ya'd best follow me!" Nite hesitated for a second, tied Yuffie to a tree with the rope he used to climb out of the cave, and then decided to follow this "Slick". He must have come out to Yuffie's base for a reason, and whatever it was, there wasn't a lot of time left. Nite caught up with Slick's greasy dreads, and as they were running through the halls of Yuffie's headquarters, he realized this man he was following would talk to his backpack every now and then. He could have sworn he heard it reply a few times. "A'ight, bub! Lemme ask ya one important questionDo ya remember anything before this RS3?" Slick asked Nite. "Yes" he replied. "Everything." "Thaz great, cuz ya betta be able to hack a computer." Slick picked a lock on a door at the end of a hall to reveal a large room with television monitors covering the walls. If Jonny would have been there he would have said it looks very similar to Andrew Gower's office. Slick ran over to a massive board of buttons, keys, and lights. It had to be at least ten feet long. "What are you trying to do!?" Nite yelled as Slick hurriedly began tapping at the keys and pushing buttons. "There's gonna be an update to RS3 in a few minutes." Slick said, not glancing away from the main control monitor. "It's a patch to make all players forget any prior knowledge before they came to RuneScape 3. If I can't stop it now, Yuffie will never be destroyed." "Alright, what can I doerrSlick?" Slick Johnston's dreads whipped around as he looked into his backpack and whispered something. Nite heard something mumble back. Then Slick looked at the door. "Alright come ova here and press" he stopped in mid-sentence and looked behind Nite in a stare of terror. "What is it Sli-ohno" Standing at the door was someone armed to the teeth with not only RuneScape weaponry, but weapons that surpassed even modern technology. Nite, Slick, and a disembodied head that looked out of Slick's backpack stared at the figure who was seeping with power before them. It was N0valyfe. Part Two N0valyfe stood in the doorway of the cavernous base, his sheer power could be seen in a faint glow around is body. "Whaddaya want?" said Slick bravely. "Stopping the patch is your plan, hm? I can't allow you to do that," N0valyfe said as he began to unsheath a weapon unfamiliar to any avid RuneScape player. "This world, RS3, I couldn't ask for anything greater...You see, it's all I've ever dreamed of. RuneScape IS life here!" N0valyfe whipped his strange spear-like weapon around a bit, as if he was just taunting them before their certain doom. Nite decided he had to stop this new patch, even if it meant sacrificing himself. With this thought, he shoved Slick Johnston out of his way as he pulled a dagger from his sleeve. "Slick...stop the update." Nite whispered, although everyone in the room could hear him. Then The Old Nite pointing the small blade at N0valyfe. "You...You have no idea how many emotions this stupid game has cursed me with. It's supposed to be for entertainment, but this world actually becoming Runescape is a sick joke. I have nothing in the realm of the actual world. All I have here is the hope I can save everyone from this miserable existence." N0valyfe slapped Nite's dagger to the floor, and as Nite reached down for it, he found himself unable to move. He was Ensnared by N0valyfe's spell. "I couldn't care less about your pathetic whining and moaning. This existence is much better than real life, any true player of RuneScape could see that...but, I don't suppose you are on then, The Old Nite." "Personally, I think most people would agree I'm a much better player than you." Nite replied. This set N0valyfe on fire. During this time, however, Slick Johnston had been hard at work stopping the activation of the patch. Slick's slippery, gnarled fingers flew over the buttons and keys on the control panel. Unaware of what was going on at the control panel, N0valyfe could only think of how he hated anyone who denied his greatness. "OLD NITE!! Tonight, you dine in he-" A computerized voice from the base's control panel uttered "PATCH TERMINATED." N0valyfe raised his strange spear to strike Nite, but as he reached the top of his swing and was about to land a killing blow, he became encased in a block of ice. Then the block began to fall forward toward Nite, who realized the Ensnare spell had worn off and rolled out of the way just before it landed on him. "You know I cannot stand failure, N0valyfe." Yuffie spoke to the figure in the block of ice. Yuffie then walked over to the control panel and grabbed Slick on the shoulder, who showed no fear towards her. "Ya's nothin' compared to the chumps I had to live with in prison, girl. I ain't scared of ya." Yuffie didn't say anything, she simply touched Slick and he turned into a cloud of red particles that floated away in the air. Then she raised her voice "THE OLD NITE...YOU THINK THIS IS OVER JUST BECAUSE THE PATCH HAS BEEN TEMPORARILY DELAYED, HM? I have plenty of time and power to create another update...one to make this world undeleteable...inescapable." Nite, slightly shaken by the death of Slick and the head in his backpack, managed to noticed the ice had started to melt that was encasing N0valyfe. "Yuffie, all I have left is my life. Kill me now, don't force me to suffer with your long, boring lectures about your superiority..." Nite said in a glum tone. She replied, "Fool, I plan to make you another one of my slaves once I activate this patch!" Then she proceeded to cackle madly like all stereotypical villains should. Nite seized the opportunity. He reached down and broke N0valyfe's strange spear out of the block of ice N0valyfe was in. He then slashed it at Yuffie, but as the blade of the spear came near her the world faded around Nite. He was teleporting again. Yuffie and Nite appeared on a flattened mountaintop area, only the size of half a football field with sheer cliffs surrounding it. The ground was almost impossible to see from this height, yet oxygen was plentiful. Nite assumed this was where Yuffie liked to train in solitude...or something. "If you want to battle, you should have asked. You give me no choice but to destroy you, The Old Nite, and I can guarantee it will not be quick." Yuffie said. She was equipped with some sort of mystical plated robe armor, which Nite supposed was an unreleased item. All Nite had was N0valyfe's strange spear. "When I win, how do I get out of this place, Yuffie?" Nite quipped, with a grin on his face. Yuffie stared at him and just said "You won't." They charged at each other, Nite's spear at the ready, Yuffie brandishing yet another dragon 2-hander sword. As they neared one another, Nite thought of all the times he had had with his friends before RuneScape. Then he thought of Jonny. Meeting him as he fell out of the hospital window...fighting with Paul on the doomed plane...reuniting with him in RS3... His thoughts were cut short, as he knew what he must do now. Yuffie swung her sword at Nite, who crouched as it passed over his head. He thrust his spear at Yuffie's left leg, but she jumped over him before he could land the blow. Landing a few feet behind Nite, she turned around with her sword swinging in a full force spin attack that sliced Nite's left arm as he turned around to face her. Nite's spear cut through the air, and Yuffie's sword swung back at it. A shower of sparks fell around the combatants, who were fighting for their very hopes and dreams. Nite managed to lock weapons with Yuffie long enough to get in a few words. "This..." He said, using what was left of his strength as he struggled to hold Yuffie's sword away from him. "Is for a friend!" Yuffie then withdrew her blade, leapt back a few feet and thrust the red blade into the ground. Blood colored streaks shot through the dust around them to form a circular area of destruction. Pieces of earth were blasted into the air around Yuffie, who focused here energy into the sword. A red explosion then engulfed everything she could see around her. When the dust settled a few seconds later, Yuffie saw no sign of Nite around her on the dusty mountain battlefield. She was about to teleport, and as she turned her head to the sky she saw Nite holding his spear, which had some sort of ability to hover about thirty feet above the ground. Nite hurled the futuristic weapon straight down at Yuffie, and as it left his hand he also fell towards the ground. The point of the spear hit the top of Yuffie's surprised head, embedding itself. Lilyuffie88 fell backwards, spear sticking from her head, and landed in the dust, a cloud of dust floated into the air. Nite approached her and searched her inventory for some runes. Instead he found a device to teleport him to Yuffie's base, where he promptly went. All that was left on the mountaintop was Yuffie's body and the spear. Nite appeared outside of Yuffie's base, where he had seen Jonny meet his end less than an hour ago. He walked into Yuffie's base, down the halls, and into the control panel, where N0valyfe still lay half-frozen. The control panel that would end RuneScape 3 was in front of The Old Nite. "Goodbye, RuneScape," he said to the control panel. "What happens next, I cannot guess..." Nite reached for the large button that read "END GAME", under a small glass case on the control panel. His finger wavered over it for a second, as he had some slight hesitation. He could control this world now. Everything was RuneScape, and RuneScape was now his. But then he remembered what he had to do. Not knowing what the world would be like after something of this magnitude and sheer surreality, he finally made up his mind. The Old Nite pressed the button, and a warm sensation filled the room. Everything started to go black, and Nite smiled. RuneScape faded from history, and Nite found himself in a familiar place. The Conclusion After playing football for what seemed to be hours on end, a young teenage boy named Jonny said goodbye to his friends and walked back into his house. We'll start this story out with Jonny sneaking into the kitchen and scaring his mom, who had been cooking a Mexican dish for the family this evening. Jonny was a good kid, never neglecting any part of his life for another part. Friends (he had many, being one of the most well liked kids in his school), parents (who loved to spend time with their son, even if he didn't think they were as cool as they used to be), school (He had A's in every subject except Math, which he had a high B in), and fitness (Now 5' 10" and able to bench what seemed like 327 lbs). That night, after having a bit of gas from the burritos and enchiladas his mom made, Jonny fell asleep and had a strange dream. In the dream he imagined he was addicted to some game and tried to transform the world into that game so he could rule everything. The teen figured it was just any other dream, so the next day he went to school as usual, came home, and did his homework. Then he decided to get on the computer and go check out some funny videos his friend told him about on Youtube. As he was typing in the URL for the site, Jonny thought he remembered someone telling him to visit a site for a fun game. RuneScape, the game was called. Jonny learned about the game, made himself an account, and played for about an hour that day. A few weeks later, Jonny was still playing RuneScape on and off, but he was no where close to being addicted like some people he knew on that game. He saw this one girl in the game named "Lilyuffie88" who bragged about being such a high level to all the "noobs" who followed her around. Jonny, whose account name was "Zezima", thought this was pretty stupid altogether. As the amount of RuneScape he played started to decrease (although he never played more than an hour at a time), he finally decided to quit playing after reaching level 59. Jonny continued living his life normally, like any good kid his age would. A few days after quitting RuneScape, after his mother had brought him home from school, they saw a UPS truck pull up in their driveway, the delivery man drop off a package, and leave as quick as he came. Jonny's dad, who was watching a pretty intense NFL game on the plasma screen TV, reluctantly removed himself from his cushiony chair to pick up the box. "Jonny!", his dad called to his son, who was in the kitchen eating some leftover Chinese food to replenish himself after school. "Sir?" Jonny replied. "You got something in the mail!" Jonny walked into the living room and his dad handed him the brown box. "Hmm...It's from P. Gower, in Cambridge, UK..." Jonny repeated what was read on the box's return address. "I'll open it later." Jonny told his dad. Jonny brought the box up into his room shortly after this. He grabbed a pair of scissors from his desk next to his bed and cut the tape and cardboard sealing the box shut. After opening the box, he sifted through some styrofoam packing peanuts and saw a foot long, polished, wooden box amongst the styrofoam. He lifted it out, shook of a bit of dust from it, and opened the lid of the box, which was held to the bottom with a red lacy string. Inside of the box, sitting on a silky cloth, was a dagger made of some mysterious red metal. Then, Jonny remembered everything, and as he did, he realized he had been taken back in time after the deletion of RS3, a time before he was introduced to RuneScape. He had been given a second chance. And he wouldn't make the same mistake twice.

Heh that's a snazzy little guide. I like the captions. You should submit it!

A rune helmet, a dragon dagger, and amulet of glory. I was feeling nice, though, and gave the glory ammy back. Wow...weren't those the good old days.

Lol I support 110% it is incredibly pathetic...I saw some dude asking a girl to go out with his pure mage...lol. Then there was this guy who was talking to his girlfriend apparently and he goes "ur so hot"...its pixels. Wow. Anyway I think its hilarious to watch these nerds "go out" on an online game and compliment each others' pixel resolution, but its gotta end. Well hopefully, if they really are married, they can just talk to each other in real life...what kind of a couple is married and don't live with each other? They shouldn't have to resort to talking on RuneScape.

Lol...that's so realistic its...scary. Good job dude

Lol of course guys can cry...what do you think you were doing almost 24/7 as a baby? Laughing?

I know I'm a noob but here goes anyway... I am from: the United States And I currently live in: the United States Additional Comments: I live in South Carolina now.