V.I.R.A.L

The third bag of crisps ripped open as Zinnia sat curled up yawning. "This is so boring. This is not how I imagined spending my summer."

"Vanguard never did anything like this…" Percy argued.

"This feels like something a villain would do." Zinnia argues. "I don't like villains… we should be out there facing evil head-on not hiding in the shadows!"

"Doesn't batman do that?"

"Huh?! Crap he does… I take that back this is epic!" Zinnia gasped.

"Quiet!" Alton barked watching Iris' Livestream from his phone. She had about twelve thousand viewers at that time, and she had only been streaming for an hour. "She sure gets the numbers to back her up. Now we just wait."

"Why didn't we just use her sister? I'm sure she gets hundreds of thousands of views, right? Vanguard gets upwards of a million. How do we even know someone is going to turn up?" Emil argued.

"It was a hunch of hers. I have no reason to doubt her."

"Oh, so we are wasting our time where we could be growing as streamers to watch a little girl take away our fire on a hunch?!"

"Hey, Iris is our friend. I may not be thrilled by this, but if Iris is worried about something, we should be there to help her." Zinnia said.

Emil turned to her with a smug smirk. "Of course, that's what we are right? Good people who do good things, right?"

"What's that suppose to mean?" She bites

"Oh, nothing. No wonder you guys haven't done so well till now. Falling numbers, lack of subs or donations. I'm quite surprised you've lasted this long-playing hero."

"If you're not happy with the way things are done, you can always leave."

"Won't make much difference, you'll be finished before then."

"Alton, can you believe this guy? Acting all proud and mighty, but here we stand together while you were tossed away."

"Bit rich coming from a leech."

"Leech? What does that mean?"

"Oh, I think you know deary. Everyone here pulls their weight. I haven't had the chance yet, but we all know I'm more than capable of bashing a few skulls together. Alton is the one to take down Pokiero. Gale took me down, and Percy took down the phantom streamer. All you've done is force this group to follow you into your dream world. If you weren't apart of this team, I'm sure we could easily be on Iris' level."

"Will you two just pack it in?!" Alton cried, turning around distracting by the bickering. "I don't have time for you two acting like a pair of dogs yapping at each other. Just leave it alone, Zin."

"Me?! This imbecilic here is the one attacking our team and me."

"I don't care…" He shot down, looking at his phone. "Nothing. Not even a sliver or sign of an attack… maybe you're right Emil, Iris just being paranoid. It's getting late, let's go home." Alton stood up from their hiding spot walking over to Iris, who was chatting to her viewers. "Yo I. We're heading out. Seems your hunch was a false alarm."

Iris frowned nodding turning the camera off. "Yeah, probably. Sorry for dragging you lot into this. I promise to make it up to you." As Alton turned around ready to tell the others to pack up, Iris caught wind of something flashing in the distance. Before she could react, it was already too late. The sound of a sniper screamed through the streets towards the courtyard. Alton turned only to be shot directly in the neck. Pulling the small dart out he held his neck, he stared at it before feeling faint and dizzy. He stumbled back falling to one knee coughing. "Oh shit!"

The other members of Rhapsody soon took wind of what happened. "Jesus Christ, what happened?!"

Iris looked overseeing the sniper making a break for it. "Gale! Sniper eleven o'clock!"

Gale turned, seeing the escapee nodding. "On it!"

Alton fell to his other knee gagging as he was hunched over, struggling to breathe. Iris and Zinnia held him down as his veins began glowing a faint purple. "Oh, God! It's happening. Jesus, Iris. Alton, he's having a mental breakdown!"

Iris had that same panicked look in her eye as she held Alton down who was struggling. He began whispering. "Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance, salvation… the garden…"

Emil pulled them back. "You know what happens next! Get back!"

Zinnia looked distort "No! No! We can't just. He'll die!"

Alton slammed the ground coughing up purple haze as the ground began to freeze over. The air snapped at them with a sharp cold breeze. The once sunny bright day erupted into clouds which were followed by small drops of snow. "The Garden always…" Suddenly as quickly as it started everything went back to normal. Alton didn't move as Zinnia slowly approached him. Standing over him, she prodded him faintly with her foot.

Alton rolled over, making Zinnia jump back. The two looked at each other as Alton looked clean. "You're, you're fine?"

Alton looked at his hands before feeling his neck looking just as confused. "I. I think I am…"

"You're not going to explode on us, are you?" Emil yelled from across the street.

Zinnia helped Alton up as he looked lost. "I don't understand."

"What happened?" Iris asked.

"I… I felt power. Something dark swell through my body. Taking me. But then it just stopped." He admits looking at the dart that shot him. A small case of the purple liquid was still captured. "That power… it felt familiar, I've seen it before… a long time ago."

Zinnia pushed him lightly, still startled. "I thought you were done for." 

"Me too."

Iris fell to her knees, taking a long breath. "You all gave me a heart attack! I really thought I had to kill you, Alton!"

"Hey, no one is killing me anytime soon. I plan on dying of old age!"

"You picked the wrong occupation for that." She joked. "But this proves part of my theory. Someone is causing mental shutdowns. But this doesn't make sense. They were targeting big streamers. Why attack Alton?"

"Maybe they messed up the shot?" Zinnia suggested.

"No, that can't be it. They had all that time to take me down. But they chose the moment when Alton showed up. Like they were waiting for him."

"Where did the sniper go?"

"Ran at first sight. Gale chased after him."

"I hope he catches the fucker."

Emil, who was still half a block away, yelled out again. "You sure he ain't gonna go boom?!"

"I'm sure!" Alton yelled back getting a notification on his phone. He peered down gasping. "No fucking way… you've got to be kidding me."

"What? What is it?" Percy asked.

"Team Rhapsody… we've been banned."

****

Gale leapt over the roof side, giving the sniper chase. He had quickly caught up to them, making it clear the sniper was in no way near capable in fleeing at this rate. Gale dived forward causing the sniper to turn trying to fire on Gale. Before the moment could pass, Gale threw a punch knocking the escaper onto his backdropping the sniper. Gale landed safely on his knee, looking at the sniper who was curled up, making it impossible for any features to be known. "You the one causing the mental breakdowns yeah? Tch, pathetic. Happily, let others fall apart, but when it comes to it, you're nothing more than a coward. Who are you?!"

"You know who we are… but you won't live to tell anyone."

Gale held the sniper over the side of the roof, letting his feet dangle. "I should just let you fall. You die the mental breakdowns stop!"

"They will never stop; you don't get it the Garden is awake. Everything has changed now. Your friends are no longer safe!"

Feeling angrier Gale jerked the sniper back slamming him against a wall. "Why did you target Alton?!"

"It doesn't matter. Your friend is as good as dead. Another streamer fallen to madness. Thank God too. Alton would've been a huge problem for us."

Gale lifted the sniper tightening his grip. "He was innocent! He did nothing wrong."

"Is that what you truly believe stream sniper? You've lost your way. So much so, that you don't know someone evil and twisted in front of you like Alton."

"He may not be the best guy, but Alton is not evil."

"That's what he likes you to think. If left unchecked, he would be too powerful. Better take him out now before he messes with our plan."

"Our?" Gale questioned. As the last letter of the word crept out of his mouth, he felt an overpowering force strike him. The impact was so blunt and powerful; it knocked him off his feet in a single blow. His hand was ripped from the sniper as he was launched from the roof of the building. Falling to his doom Gale glanced up seeing another figure with the sniper. As he managed to get a better look, he knew who it was. But before anything could be said and done, he hit the floor and blacked out.