V.I.R.A.L

"Get in now!" Alton yells, thrusting serval Moss away, holding the door open. Holding his hand out, he screamed to Sam. "Now!"

Sam leapt ahead, jumping over the Moss, using one as a stepping stoned crashing into the apartment complex. Slamming the door shut behind Alton froze the area, blocking off their attackers. Slumping down exhausted, Sam wiped her forehead, grumbling. "What the hell what that?"

"The Moss…. Pawns of the Garden controlled by Acceptance. They use people as vessels to consume their sin."

"Well, doesn't that sound peachy? A frozen dessert wasteland with those things wandering, just how much more has this guy got up his sleeve?" Sam questioned, pulling herself up giving Alton a hand.

Taking the offer, Alton was pulled up as he patted himself down of snow and sand. "This is nothing more than a game to Acceptance. He loves the idea of testing one's beliefs and power. He'll do just about anything to get under your skin. Enough of that though, we should look for the next gate."

Sam moved her arm around, turning to the door. "Can we take a short break? I'm exhausted."

"We don't have time for lunch breaks, Sam."

"I know, I know. However, we don't know how many more floors we'll have to pass to even reach the final boss. Do you really want to take on Acceptance at anything but your best?"

Alton paused, rubbing his face giving a slight nod of acknowledgement. "Yeah, I suppose you have a point. Let's make sure this place is safe before we do so." Walking ahead, Alton stepped over rubble and caved in floors finding the building familiar. Through the small cracks in the ceiling, crumbles of sand snuck in alongside the sound of footsteps over the building. Alton stopped staring onwards, frustrated. "So that's how he wants to play this game?"

"Is something wrong?"

"This place. I knew I recognised it. He's trying to mess with me bringing me to my apartment."

"This is where you live?"

"Yeah, I collect ice on this floor. My apartment is a floor down. That'll be a good place to lay low for now."

"Sure," Sam replied without much thought, idly following Alton. She didn't understand what had Alton so worked up or the past he has with Acceptance or the Garden. Still, little by little, he became unrecognisable to the young boy who wanted to be a hero like her. "What was it like, being a streamer again?"

Climbing down the stairs, Alton didn't reply until he was sure it was safe. "For a few months, close to a year, it made me forget—even just a little about the past. I felt like I belonged there. That Streaming was what I was always meant to, do you know? Together with Zinnia, Scarlett, Emil, Gale and Percy, we were like one big family. You would have fit right in, to be honest."

Pushing the door to his apartment over the place wasn't too severely damaged, with most of the building still intact apart from the bathroom had collapsed down serval floors. The glass was all shattered with tiny specs of sand pouring in, and the furniture was smashed and broken, but apart from that, it was still home sweet home for Alton. "Love what you've done with the place."

"Thanks." Alton chuckled back, kicking planks of wood out of the way. "Truth be told, I haven't seen this place in serval years. It was home, but I always hated it. Sitting there by myself in the evenings where I didn't have any work was torture. The empty silence was just…. Hard. I'd hardly spend time here working my ass off, only using this place as somewhere to sleep and wash." Slouching down, Alton fell to the floor, sighing. "I guess I believed, after all we went through, I didn't deserve a comfy living.

"Alice told me briefly about your past. A couple of years before you formed Team Rhapsody, you worked two jobs just to make ends meet. You slaved away, hiding away from the world."

"That was the plan. In between paying my rent and your treatment, I just thought that was all that was worth it in life. As long as you were being looked after, I didn't really care what happened. I was prepared for you to never wake up, and even if you did, I was expecting you to hate me. That would have been fine too."

"Like I could ever hate you, Alt." Sam scoffed at sitting opposite to him pressed against the wall. "Friends forgive each other no matter what."

Alton looked out to the wasteland frowning. "I wish you didn't. All of that at Sunset Peak was my fault. For the longest time, I had convinced myself my dad was to blame. It was all his fault; he was the reason it happened. That's what I told my team, V.I.R.A.L, just about everyone. I don't know what pisses me off more, that the world brought it, or I was quick enough to believe the lie. I killed everyone that day—the residents of Sunset Peak, my mother, your parents. Everyone died because of me, end of the story. That's more than enough reason to hate me."

Sam rested her head against the wall nodding. "I suppose if you look at it that way, yeah, you're a real cunt for that. I suppose I should give you some grief for that; I have every reason to hate the killer of my family. You took away my home and threw away everything I had that day because you lied. But I suppose I am to blame somewhat myself. If you had just run that day like your mother wanted, maybe Sunset Peak would still be standing."

Alton clutched his hands together, whispering. "Hey, do you remember the day we first met? I had just joined halfway through the year. I kept to myself for as long as possible, not speaking a word to anybody. I have petrified any little slip-up, and I would be found."

"Yeah, I remember; I found you crying by the school gate as you froze over the grassy area by the bike rack. You were terrified of your powers like nothing I had ever seen."

"But you taught me to embrace my powers and accept them for who I was. I never let these powers control me after that. Even when you were gone, I believed in doing the right thing. I suppose that's why I saved Zinnia all those years ago. Joining Team Rhapsody, fighting crime and making a difference. It all just came naturally, and I just forgot the traumas of the past. That was until we lost Percy until I lost control of my powers and let Ten take control. After that, it all changed."

Sam turned her head, looking around the room snickering. "Do you still keep that laminated poster of me I forced you to have?"

This got a chuckle from Alton as he went slightly red. "I wish you'd never bring that up. I kept in the bathroom just like you ordered. I can't even for the life of me remember what the bet was?"

Laughing alongside her friend Sam wiped her eye, trying to talk without bursting into laughter. "I don't even remember myself…. Team Rhapsody, they sound awesome, though. I wish I woke up a bit sooner to meet them all in person."

"You and Zinnia would have gotten along. She's the daughter of one of the legendary heroes, if you can believe it."

"Shut the front door, my dude… For real?! Like the legendary heroes of old?"

"Yup. The Phantom and Geostruction. She would always believe in doing the right thing no matter what. She'd throw us into life-or-death situations to save the day. Even if the whole world was against her, she didn't care. If she believed it was the right thing, she would save anyone no matter what. We would bump heads about its serval times…. But I wouldn't change a thing about her; it was one of Zinnia's little perks. I haven't seen her in years; I sometimes wonder what she's doing if she's still saving the world, one person, at a time."

Sam smiled briefly curled up. "You really like this girl, don't you? I don't think I've heard you talk so highly of someone like that before."

Alton fell silent, sighing. "I do. I suppose I might have even loved her at one point. But I betrayed her trust, got people killed. She must absolutely hate me now because of it. She ran Sam. She ran away, but I suppose that was for the best."

"I'm sure you two will meet again. If she is that important to you, you'll find her one day."

Alton smiled, nodding. "Yeah, I hope so. I just pray with all the crazy shit going on right now she's alright." Turning his head to the window, he yawned, feeling himself drifting off. "I hope everyone will make it out alright."

Sam waited as Alton fell asleep before standing up walking over to the window. Leaning against the window frame, she stared into the wasteland, seeing nothing for miles but snow and scattered destroyed ruins. Turning her head back over to Alton, she frowned, looking up to the pitch-black sky whispering to herself. "Just how much more do you plan to take from him, you cursed world? How much more until he breaks…. Stay strong Alton, you have so many people rooting in your corner. Don't forget that, don't lose sight of who you are. Not now, not ever."