V.I.R.A.L

Zinnia yawned sitting on the wall of the orphanage waiting for the others to show. Although everyone had just met up the night before to celebrate her birthday, everyone was more eager than usual to stream. Since their sudden boom taking down, Vanguard Team Rhapsody had only grown like nothing they could ever expect. Hitting the top fifty streams almost every time none of them was going to pass on a chance at the height of their popularity.

Waiting Zinnia decided to browse V.I.R.A.L checking in on the latest. She scrolled down mindlessly through the trending feed seeing some clickbait crappy videos and thumbnails. A few videos still about Vanguard while others are a deep dive into the 100th anniversary of V.I.R.A.L, one other video. Summoning P4R4D0X at 3 am.

"Hey, Zinnia!" Gale yelled out, waving. Both Emil and Percy were with him. "Alton not here yet? That mad lad, haha."

"Excuse me?"

"Ah, nothing. He's probably with Scarlett. Should we wait around?"

Zinnia looked at her phone, texting him. "Still no response… how bothersome."

Emil climbed up on the wall, balancing himself trying to get a good look at the message. "So come on, what's the deal with you two? You lived together. You're always texting each other and are quite happy to tell him your secrets. You guys are dating yeah?"

"No."

"Shut it down that bluntly…"

She scrolled over the feed only to stop shocked. "Jesus… Famed streamer Alton Brantley arrested for train derail. No deaths…"

"Alton is doing what?!" Gale blubbered sticking out his phone. "How come he gets all the fun? Being in a train accident was on my bucket list."

"We should get down to the station," Percy ordered already on the move.

****

Alton and Scarlett were finally let out of the station. After serval hours of questioning the police had given up and agreed to let them go. Scarlett leaned back stretching as she sighed. "That was all so unnecessary. It was undeniable that we weren't the culprit. Wait till my father hears about this…"

Rubbing his bandaged arms slightly uncomfortable Alton coughed as the sunlight blinded him. "Even so, whatever did do this is still out there."

"Ooh, you want to find out who it was yes? How very exciting. You are most certainly going to serve that creep a good serving of justice!"

"How can you be so excited about all of this?"

"I just find the whole ordeal rather scary. An unknown villain wanting to kill us does sound rather mental. I do not get to see this sort of action often."

"We almost died last night, and you're getting off on this?"

"Now I wouldn't go that far."

"Alton?!" Zinnia yelled. "We were just about to see you."

"Tch, I had a whole breakout planned." Gale sulked.

"What happened?"

"We got attacked by some Antihuman. Can't say anything else apart from that." He recalled glancing around sighing. "I guess we got some guests."

The paparazzi were starting to round up; everyone agreed to get out before too many questions were asked. They hid out in their usual spot—the karaoke bar.

"It took over the train?"

"Yes, it was quite frightening. All the screens taunted us denouncing Alton. We could not stop the train no matter what we do."

"That does sound worrying. And it was targeting Alton?"

Alton chuckled cracking a can open. "I'm not going to let it bother me. Does some villain want to troll me? Say I'm not worthy of being a streamer. Give me a break. Paradox, funny."

Emil began laughing at Alton's remarks, every time he almost stopped; he went back into another laughing fit. "Paradox. As in the Paradox. You're a real jokester." Everyone looked at him, confused. "What? None of you seriously heard of Paradox?"

"A time paradox?"

Emil plugged his phone up to the tv, pulling up an older looking forum. All of them still looked lost as he shook his head. "How can any of you call yourself streamers without knowing the urban legend of P4R4D0X."

"Seriously? An urban legend?"

"Yeah, it said a Streaming account suddenly appeared dozen of years ago. The account has no videos. No streams. You cannot follow them nor can you look them up on V.I.R.A.L."

"So, it's a fake account?"

"Well, there's the thing. Although you can't look the account up, many people have reported the streaming account appearing in their stream chats or even an empty donation. P4R4D0X targets streamers who seemly are greedy and corrupt. Stalking them over the web. Watching everything they do. Following you. Using any sort of technology to attack the victim. The streamers are sent into madness. Many cases falter into suicide."

"Tch, seriously? That was the best you could come up with? The internet version of slender man? Come on, man, if you want to scare me try something more believable." Alton snapped casting aside the whole story.

Zinnia, on the other hand, was more freaked out. "You think this thing is what attacked Alton last night?"

"Ha, of course not. P4R4D0X isn't real."

"I don't know Alton this sounds scary… we should probably throw out all your tech. P4R4D0X is after you."

"Give me a bloody break!" Alton cast aside, refusing to let Zinnia talk. "You expect me to freak out over a shitty creepypasta? So, you expect me just to stop streaming. Throw out all my tech, my TVs and game console over the possibility of a streaming ghost trying to kill me."

"I must admit it does sound like a premise for a rather rubbish horror film." Scarlett nodded scrolling through the forums. The participators discussed their encounters with P4R4D0X each sounded more over-the-top. The latest was just two days ago. She opened it up, finding it slightly startling. "It won't leave me alone. I'm not worthy. Forgive me. I'm not worthy. You cannot help but find this slightly creepy."

Percy kneeled looking at the username. "Hey, I recognise that streaming name. Crystal_Wasp. Vanguard did a joint-stream with them once." Percy opened a new tab looking the streamer up. They came across the account which had deleted every video and past stream. Percy had recalled only watching the streamer a few weeks ago going through a nostalgia trip which had all the videos for his viewing pleasure. "I don't understand. What happened?" Percy kept refreshing the page over and over again. On the seventh refresh, something changed. A new video appeared. It had no title.

Percy opened it as the video began loading. It was at first only a black screen. That was until the video suddenly changed, showing everyone in the karaoke room looking confused. They were looking at themselves. No one could speak thrown off by this. Percy was licking his lips, making sure it wasn't a Livestream by accident. It was a regular video with only thirty seconds left. As he stepped back, a dark figure appeared being hung from the ceiling from behind them. Everyone shot their head behind to see nothing. As they looked back, the body was still there. It moved its head, looking directly at the screen before speaking. "You are not worthy."

The video stopped as the page closed. Everyone was left gobsmacked. Percy tried getting the video back up, but the account was deleted.

Emil smacked his lips together, trying to think of words to come up with. "So, umm, maybe the urban legend isn't so fake…"

"Alton you are so dead." Zinnia whimpered.

"Oh, thanks."

"What should we do?"

Scarlett stood up, closing the website, shaking her head. "We are not going to let some stupid wannabe legend take us. We are streamers for cry out loud. You all took down Vanguard. I do not think such a feat could make you falter. I say we find out who this antihuman is and take them down."

"Scarlett is right," Alton yelled, casting off the fear that consumed him. "I am so close to paying off my debts. We are only starting to get big. I'm not letting some troll stop that. Suppose this person wants a fight. We'll give it a fight."

"Ha, think about how big we'll be taking down P4R4D0X! Hell, yeah I'm in." Emil barked.

Gale smiled smugly cracking his knuckles. "Beating the shit out of a ghost has always been on my bucket list. Let's do this!"

"What the hell, I'm with you guys."

Zinnia looked at them all horrified. "Are you guys insane?! How can we defeat a nameless entity who has taken the lives of dozens of streamers?!"

"Because you will have another ally to help. Alton the thing I wanted to discuss in private."

Alton jumped, turning to Scarlett's remark. "Huh?! What did you ask?"

"I was hoping to join your group as an official streamer." She requested.

"You want to join Team Rhapsody?"

"Indeed, that is if that is alright? I hope you can accept my offer."

Zinnia grabbed Scarlett's hands, holding them as she was starting jumping up and down. "Oh my God, yes! Of course, Scarlett! You are in."

"You heard the leader. She seems more than happy to have you aboard. I guess we did need more female members for her sake." Alton laughed off, looking pleased with the new member. "I wish you luck; however, she is a handful."

"Am not! I'm the cutie pie mascot of Rhapsody. Everyone loves me!"

Scarlett blushes slightly enjoying the company as she nods firmly looking determined. "I will not let any of you down. You can count on me."

"I wouldn't expect anything less. Welcome aboard Scarlett Dawn."