V.I.R.A.L

48 hours earlier

"Tilly could you please check the perimeter something feels very wrong."

"Right away, Miss Dawn, might I ask what I am looking for?"

"Me." A voice gurgled snapping the maid's neck. She collapsed to the ground as the person who entered threw Scarlett off entirely. It was Zinnia. She moved her neck around, laughing in a distorted tone. Her head snapped towards Scarlett as she began giggling with a blood-curdling smile. "Your anguish I can taste it. This shall be so much fun. Round one, fight."

Scarlett stood in front of Alton, holding her hands out. "You better have a good fucking explanation for this Zinnia…"

"Zinnia? Oh, is that who I'm copying. I see Zinnia. I like that name."

"Alright, if you are not Zinnia. Who are you?"

The fake Zinnia took a look around the room as matter began sprawling from her hands. "Your one true reality." The entire room fell apart as Scarlett fell through the floor. Collapsing, she found herself in a nursery. The classroom was rusted and seemly abandoned with the windows boarded up with little light coming through. Scarlett pulled herself up, gripping onto one desk panting. Looking around, she felt uneasy recognising the place very suddenly from her own childhood. "Be reminded of a horrid past." The voice hissed.

Scarlett heard a faint whimper behind her. Her eyes widened as she saw herself as a child, no older than six or seven sitting in the corner crying. Her face was bruised, and she had many cutes dug deep into her hands. Scarlett was shellshocked by this almost falling over the set of desks behind her. The horrors she had piled away were coming back all at once. The door to the nursery opened as her father walked in, staring at her. The little Scarlett dared not make eye contact back as she looked down at the set of pencils trembling. "I can't do it. I keep trying but I just can't."

"Can't or won't? We cannot accept anything but success. The survivability of this family depends on it, so move those pencils."

Scarlett gripped her teeth whispering to herself, knowing her younger self wouldn't. "Stop it. Stop it. I said, stop it!" Energy rippled into Scarlett before exhaling and exploding everything around her.

"If only you were that powerful back then. You wouldn't have been seen as such a disappointment. Maybe the pain would have stopped." The whole room zipped past as Scarlett stumbled finding herself standing on a rooftop overlooking Rhinefield burning. "Your past will forever lead you here unless changed. Are you ready to accept what you will become?"

A lightning strike blasted behind Scarlett, causing her to turn before her was a pile of bodies each piling up towards a throne on the top. In a pile were her friends and members of Team Rhapsody. Her family stood around her as Scarlett began walking down the aisle of dead bodies with each family member bowing to her. Climbing over the dead, she sat on the throne with uncertainty. "This is all I have? That's what I was told."

"But are you happy with your chosen path? It will bring only death." From the pile of dead bodies, the Demon Mask ripped out gripping Scarlett by the neck strangling her. Scarlett struggled to break free as she stared the Demon Mask in the eyes screaming. "Who is Scarlett Dawn? Hero of Team Rhapsody? Or Anarchist to your own accords?"

"Miss Dawn! Miss Dawn." Scarlett snapped her eyes opened, screaming finding herself back in the manor lying in the corridor outside Alton's room. Her maid, the one who apparently just died, was kneeled to her level looking worried. "Are you alright?"

Scarlett pressed her back against the wall, unable to crank out a single word as she looked horrified. Her maid Tilly looked more concerned as Scarlett licked her lips calming herself. "We, we are under attack. We're under attack! Search the permitter someone is trying to get to Alton!"

Tilly stood up nodding. "Certainly Miss Scarlett, but might I ask how can I help when you are in a battle against yourself?"

"What?" Scarlett whispered as Tilly morphed into her giggling. Soon every door in the corridor flew open as dozens of Scarlett began running at her. Each jumping on her leaving no room for escape. Scarlett held out her arm, seeing the light of day fade. The floor caved in as she began free-falling into the abyss.

The voice of the attacker echoing around her mocking her endlessly. "Who is Scarlett Dawn? What does she want? What are her goals? Her ambitions? What does she like and what does she dislike? None of it is clear. Is it all her own thoughts or ones programmed and pre-determined for her? Scarlett Dawn, daughter or puppet? Or perhaps it's all the same thing? When you doubt even yourself look how easily you fall over like a domino. My reality is yours, and your anguish is blissful."

"This isn't real. None of this is real!" Scarlett roared covering her face.

Her hands were ripped away as Alton was floating in front of her digging his fingertips into her arm. "Not real? How do you even know what's real anymore? You're in my reality now Mistress Justice. Who decides what's real anymore?" She began to squirm, unable to break free. "Fight it all you want at the end of the day you can't fight reality!"

The villain soon jerked back as he stared blankly forward, seeing his hand bleeding. The whole illusion faded as Scarlett fell to the ground. A cold shiver ran through the room as she started to come to. Standing in front of her was Alton, out of bed and staring out the window, small trickles of snow trickling off him. Scarlett pulled herself up as she walked over to him. She looked out seeing Eyes Over Reality staring up at them from the shadows. He was holding his hand as drops of blood fell to the floor. Alton had his hand out ready to attack again only for the villain in his jester outfit to flick out a tissue. Wrapping his hand around it, he bowed, walking away. Alton gripped his hand attacking hitting him directly only for Eyes Over Reality to shatter into glass vanishing. Alton closed the window panting. "Are you alright?"

Scarlett was still dazed feeling dizzy as she nodded slowly. "I think so, thank you. What are you doing out of bed?"

Alton pulled her closer, pointing to the ceiling. Scarlett looked up seeing digital clouds of matter dancing over them, in the cloud's snakes hissed biting at each other. On the floor was one such snake frozen solid. Alton froze the rest of the trap. "I felt something was wrong. I woke to see you on the floor under that thing's control."

"I didn't even realise. It got me deep down. I couldn't break free of the illusions. They looked and felt so real." She muttered shocked. "What were they after?"

"Nothing. He didn't want to kill us. Not yet, anyway. That was merely his calling card letting us know he's coming. He got me at the apartment complex. Think he got into Emil's head too."

"Who was that?"

"I have no idea. But whoever he was he's confident. Attacking us like that so openly. He wanted us to see him. To know what we are up against and if took us both down so effortlessly he's not someone to mess around with." Alton groaned falling into the wall shivering.

"Alton! You're straining yourself again!"

Alton began coughing, struggling to breathe. "It was worth it. You're safe after all."

"You big idiot." She scolded. "I need some help in here!"

Her maids and a doctor rushed in, helping Alton back in his bed reattaching him to his life support system. Alton lay around in pain coughing, but with his amount of energy, he pointed to the window. Scarlett looked, noticing a small card on the floor. Picking it up, Alton forced out his last breath. "That's why he came. This wasn't just a warning. It was a challenge."

"Team Rhapsody, the twisted misfits of destiny. You expose people to the masses for your own gain, yet you are just as corrupted with your hidden lies and agender. Your power is nothing more than a cheap magic trick compared to me; therefore, I will prove it to the world. I will be participating in the V.I.R.A.L league where I will expose your darkest secrets. Think you can stop me? Go ahead and try. From Eyes Over Reality. This is almost like our exposing threats we took against Pokiero and The Phantom Streamer."

Alton nodded wincing. "He's had out at the end of the line since the very beginning. This Eyes Over Reality is the real deal. I have to stop him. I have t-."

Scarlett rushed over to him putting the card down on the side. "Easy, easy. You need to rest. Keep overworking yourself, and you'll be in more trouble mister!"

"I have to stop him. I can't let him find her…" Alton passed out as Scarlett sighed.

The doctors went over his vitals nodding. "He's stable, for now. But we have no idea how much longer he will last. There is nothing we can do. I'm sorry, Scarlett."

Scarlett folded her arms, shaking her head. "No, no, you've done enough. I'd like to be left alone with Alton if that's alright?" The doctors left as Scarlett bit her lip worried, she looked down at her arm seeing the marks where she was clawed during the illusion bleeding. Looking out the window, Scarlett whispered under her breath worried. "Please Zinnia hurry."