V.I.R.A.L

The steam erupting from Alton's coffee cup woke him from his muggy state. He yawned glancing around the small café he stopped at being too early for the weekly Rhapsody meeting. The place was reasonably busy packed with businessmen slaving away to work. Alton shivered at the thought of him one day living such a life. He found it hard sticking with one thing. The idea of working office jobs all day five days a week honestly scared him, to him it was as if his life would mean to nothing, that he just kept to a tiring routine with no change for his whole life. He no matters what wanted to feel like he had achieved something in life. This train of thought which had flooded Alton's mind came to an abrupt end when he spilt a small portion of coffee on his hand. Alton jumped, retracting his hand in shock and sudden pain. Letting out a little sigh, he sucked the tiny droplets of coffee off his hand as he wiped the spillage with a tissue. Throwing it aside, he leaned back in his chair watching the world go by.

Yawning once more he rested his head on the table, not giving too much thought or attention on really anything. He had a reasonable amount of time to kill yet he really couldn't be bothered to use any of it up. As he began sipping his drink; the coffee still slightly too hot. He surfed through over his phone checking in on V.I.R.A.L. Truth be told he hadn't checked in on the app for so long that he had to redownload the thing altogether. If his new persona, Dauntless, and team rhapsody were going to kick off, he wanted to check in on what the new streamers were doing. Even with how early in the morning it was, there was still plenty of people streaming. None of the big streamers like vanguard was on, but it always gave Alton a chance to check in on some of the lesser-known streamers.

One, in particular, caught his attention. A streamer going by Pokiero. She at the time was the most-watched streamer with just under nine thousand viewers. It was the title that gained Alton's interest. Let's talk about your day. A strange title but one which he couldn't help but be curious about: it wasn't the type of clickbait title just to draw people in. He could tell it was something else, at least he felt like something else. It almost resembled a caring person who he wanted to talk to. Clipping in a small pair of earbuds he clicked on the stream.

The stream was elementary. There were no fancy borders, no made-up graphics. Nothing that the top of the line streamers would always rock. It was just the chat and the stream. Pokiero, a young girl looking to be in her early twenties. She had short green hair with one side shaved, her eyes were matched with eye contact making her pupil a star shape mixed with the blue colour. She was sitting curled up on a park bench nibbling on a breakfast wrap as small oozes of cheese slithered out. She began licking her lips, paying little attention to the stream. For something so minor and ordinary Alton oddly found himself hooked. This, to him, was unlike anything he had ever seen. He found he couldn't take his eyes off his phone even for a moment. The best he could do was a glimpse at the chat.

It was lively as to be expected. People continually bombarding her with compliments and desperate cries for attention. There wasn't a single person in chat going against this sort of trend at it was just the same thing said over and over. Eventually, Pokiero finished her breakfast as the drone moved around her. Alton's heart stopped for a moment. He recognised the park; in fact, he had just passed it that very morning to get his coffee. For the first time, his eyes left his phone as he poked by the window with hopes of maybe seeing her outside.

A pause.

Alton sat back down, generally feeling quite stupid. He smirked, trying to play off the act. Why should I care if that streamer is outside? Makes no difference to me, he thought playing the act off. His eyes drifted back down to his phone as he was trapped in the moment once again. Pokiero was now slouched over reading the chat through her phone. She gave a soft laugh holding her hand under her chin. "You guys are all too sweet. You flatter me too much." The voice was like an angel whispering sweet nothings in Alton's ear as he was flustering up just over it. Pokiero scrunched up the rubbish tossing it in the bin as she stood up stretching. She wiped her mouth almost suggestively making the chat go wild. That's when it happened—the first sound of a ping. Pokierofan111 donated $20. Another ping. Viral_lover77 donated $45. The pings kept coming in like a bell as the donations kept piling up each outdoing each other until the latest one. Rougebeast543 donated $350.

Pokiero glimpsed down at the donation giving off a look of glee as she turned around smiling. "Oh my. Rouge another large donation. Are you trying to beat your high score again? Well, you know how about I apricate you for the thoughtful means. I just love knowing you guys enjoy my streams. Remember, my donation only streams are on every Wednesday and Friday. Only my tier three donations can view my very special streams, hehe."

This only fuelled the fire as the donations yet again flooded in with Pokiero making well over one thousand in just a matter of minutes. Alton thought the idea was stupid. Desperate people who wanted attention. But that is when it hit him. What were her unique streams like? What made them, so 'special' apart of him just had to know. His finger hovered over the donate button with an absurd amount lined up.

A pause.

His eyes left the screen as he came across the girl he met at the V.I.R.A.L signup, Iris. She looked quite surprised to see him as she walked over, giving a wave. "Didn't expect to see you here at this time Avalanche. Oh, sorry its dauntless now isn't it. What are you watching there?"

Alton switched his phone off sighing slouching over. "Nothing really. You did stop me making a dumb purchase so thanks for that."

"You're welcome, I guess? Say where is your streamer friend? Zinnia yeah?"

"I'm meeting up with her and this new guy later today. Discussing how we are going to tackle our first stream at our hangout spot."

"No way you already have a secret hideout?"

"Easy girl, it's only a karaoke bar. I keep saying to Zinnia we should hang out somewhere else, but she insists that and she has coupons for the place."

"Hey, a hideout is a hideout. I'd love a hideout. Best I can get is my shared bedroom." Iris plays off looking at the menu. "I can only wish you the best. It's hard out there gaining followers and attention. Vanguard and the other streamers have taken that lifeline from us. I luckily have my sister to help me. Once my father thinks I'm ready, he'll allow me to join her in streaming."

"Your father is in charge of your streaming career? Bit strange, isn't it?"

"Yeah, well, he's earnest about the matter. I see him as more of my manger than my actual father, to be honest. He knows best, though." Iris stated. "But hey, forget that. I'm looking forwards to your return streaming. If you want, I can ask my sister to give you a shoutout? I'm pretty sure a lot of your older fans would be ecstatic to know you've returned."

"Thanks, but no thanks. I'd rather not draw that much attention. Bad things happen when I draw too much attention to myself. Just doing this streaming gig is risky."

"Because of what happened with your old streaming account? You want to talk about it? What happened to them? One day your streaming the next poof. Pretty sure I saw a video documentary trying to find the answers."

Alton stood up gulping the last of his now lukewarm coffee. "I've got to go, don't like to keep the boss waiting."

Alton was a foot out the door as Iris spoke up in a worried tone. "She's going to find out eventually. You can hide it from your team, but they are going to find out one way or another. Why run from that?"

"It's not what I'm hiding its who I'm running from." Alton slurred back leaving Iris in the shop now even more lost and confused.

****

  "So, I was thinking for the first stream we go all out. Make a huge save, get people's attention and market ourselves. Get our foot in the door, you know." Zinnia exclaimed jotting ideas down on a small whiteboard. "Think of the big ones. Where can we save people?"

"Burning buildings. Saving serval people at once, don't have to fight anyone, skippy here can spray the place down with water and we all win." Gale suggests rubbing his chin in deep thought, getting a clear snarl from Alton. "Or maybe we stop a bank robbery? Classic right? That would get a lot of coverage."

"Ooh, I like that. If we are going down the hero route, we need like a good origin story. Making a name for ourselves through the public's eyes is great. Oh, I know. Save a bus full of school children from falling off a bridge. Alton could be holding the bus full of kids with a rope on one hand while holding the love of his life in the other. The evil supervillain forcing him to choose. Then the people step in helping Alton save the day."

"Classy! A heroic act will turn heads like nobody's business. Make sure you do it with a smile too. A hero who shows no fear will prove they always will prevail."

"Oh, my God. I got it. Alton sacrifices himself to save the city. Think about it every heroic sacrifice goes down in history. We would be the talk of the town for years. Bringing the idea of heroes back into the light once and for all!" Zinnia boldly yelled, proud of her idea. This was met by another tut from Alton as Zinnia pouted. "You know chipping in with these ideas would be a good thing too Alton. We only have this karaoke room for another ten minutes." Alton gave her another dull look as she frowned. "If this is about the whole sacrifice thing you wouldn't die. If you did, I promise I'd find a way to bring you back to life!"

"You don't get it, do you?" He grumbled. "That's not how you grow as a streamer. If you want to get big quick, you need to play it dirty. Expose another Streamer. Clickbait. Fake giveaways. Controversies. Most big streamers are hated by most viewers. It's the younger generation who watches these scumbags as they know no better. Fancy lying and cheating to get your way to the top?"

"Hell no! Why would I ever want to do something like that for?! Those sorts of people are no different from the bad guys who takedown."

"Streamers don't just take down bad guys Zinnia… most streamers don't even fight crime." Alton points out. He pulls out his phone, bringing up their stream page. "Look, zero followers. We will stay that way for a while no matter what we do. No matter how much we stream unless we get a sudden breakout, we will stay at zero followers. Why do you think you never see many new streamers these days? It's almost impossible to get noticed these days."

"Zero followers? Well, I see that as zero problems!"

"Wow, nice."

Gale looked at the stream humming. "I agree with Zinnia. We will be just fine. We do enough good people will come."

"If you say so, you're the boss. Let's just leave the whole self-sacrifice concept for a while yeah?"

Zinnia adjusted her hair, fluffing it up as she firmly planted her mask on making sure it fits perfectly. She gave a giddy laugh of excitement as she turned on the drone. It powered up scanning the room. Each of the three streamers was registered as the stream started. Zinnia looked at her phone to confirm she was live. "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen! My name is Zinnia and welcome to our first stream! I hope you enjoy your stay as we take down crime!"

"Ugh, like who you are you talking to? No one is watching the stream?"

Zinnia gave a cheeky smile looking like a child on Christmas morning, unable to hold her excitement in. "I'm staying in character. I don't want people's first thoughts seeing us be these lot look boring. If we keep the energy up, we will receive viewers!"

"Sounds like a lot of work with no real payout."

"Always money with you, isn't it? Hang on, oh my gosh, we have our first viewer!

"Oh, sorry, that's me. Just wanted to see if we gained a viewer if I logged into the stream." Gale admitted. "I'll back out."

Zinnia took a deep breathtaking the blowhard. She nodded, obviously broken. "That's alright, silly me for expecting someone so soon…" She began fiddling with her fingers mumbling under her breath. "Gale, could you log back onto the stream, you too Alton. I don't like having zero views."

"This is going to be a long stream…"