Captain Gamer: Digital Defender

Episode 5: A Gamer’s Nightmare

            Digital Reality was off to an admittedly rough start. Thrice now the world faced danger from digitally realized beings and each time other digitally realized beings stepped in to end the danger. The fact that these being happened to be based off of video game characters worked for and against the Institute of Digital Reality. The public viewed them as video game characters being video game characters and clashing. Many a star-eyed fan got the impression that the characters were ‘taken out of their world,’ but it was quickly and often stressed that the characters were created. No such worlds exist.

            “…Yet.” A fan once joked.

            The public was not in a panic over video game villains running amok, but that stereotype and mindset made people not give them a second thought. In fact, the public became lax and did not think or hope but knew that the heroes would run out and save the day. This security caused the common person to unhinge her inhibitions. People found some inexplicable confidence despite the fact that only new threats were taken care of and the common everyday maladies had not lessened at all.

            Maladies like nightmares.

            This reality first hit Katherine Gaines on a night some time after Albert Wily, the villain of the Mega Man games, had been realized and betrayed the IDR to become a villain. She has tossed and turned for a while until she broke the barrier to the waking world with a scream so reserved it could also be described as a squeak.

            “What an awful dream! I dreamt that I was in my house and aliens blasted it down, abducted me, and forced me to take my History final in my underwear!!”

            Tonya Alvarez, Kate’s as-of-yet seldom seen roommate, looked up from the book she was reading in the lamplight. “That’s harsh. They didn’t even let you study.”

            Kate hugged the sheets to her chest. “Aww, you NEVER take me seriously!”

            Tonya coughed. “That WAS taking you seriously. Can’t you can’t take anything without seeing it as an attack?”

            Once again Kate tightened the hold on her sheets, this time out of a protective instinct. She had always been at the brunt of jokes because of how she liked video games, but her recent stints with Cal Graham had made her all the more paranoid and quick to be bitter.

            Kate had also come into a new extracurricular activity as of late, managing her website ‘Kaines’s List.’

            In fact, ‘Kaines’s List’ shortly became an internet hotspot. The website featured forums, chat rooms, guest books, and most importantly the feature attraction, Kaines’s List itself. The list in question was a compiling of suspects for the secret identity of a certain aloof but still mysterious super hero under the name Captain Gamer. The one who started the list was Kate herself. It started as a humble contribution to the Captain Gamer speculation, but an individual going only under the name ‘Gamerfans’ helped Kate get her list into public eye. Many other lists popped up around the internet and all of them claimed that they came up with the concept. Every time Kate prepared to defend herself, it was Gamerfans who kept setting things straight. Kaines’s List continued to be the foremost source for Captain Gamer speculation

            “I thought so!” Came a laughing boom from behind Kate as she sat in the computer lab. She was reminded of the first time she heard that voice while in the computer lab. She calmly turned around to see the condescending Calahan Graham looking at her screen, which showed the homepage for Kaines’s List. “Hey, at least you’re sticking to your guns instead of just up and becoming depressed. Kudos to you. I knew as soon as I heard about it that you would fly to Kaines’s List like you would to the newest video games.”

            Kate really did not want to deal with Graham right now. She hadn’t had a good night’s sleep. “Just honk off, will you? I just got done with all my work. I think I can afford a little… what did you call it? Indulgence? Lots of people respect your opinion just because you’re so pretentious, but I see through it. You’re just an idiot.”

            Graham laughed, a little loudly for being in the computer lab. “Well look at you! Confident enough in how you live your life and actually calling me out on some mannerisms! You did a little growing up since we last talked!”

            Kate shifted nervously. What was with the compliments? It was time to reverse the tables. “Yeah. Whatever. Do you have something to say besides that you want me to toss my game systems out the window.” She pointed out a window. “‘Out there?’”

            Once again Graham laughed. “Are you misrepresenting my words, Gaines?” Saying Kate’s last name made his pause. He looked at the banner for Kaine’s List. Whatever gears he had in his head worked. He could barely find the discipline to understand his classmates, but he was finding connections now like any popular pretentious teenage television detective. “Okay, answer me this truthfully if you value our relationship. You’re Kaines, aren’t you?”

            Kate opened with a scoff, “I don’t know about that stipulation… but what if I am?”

            “Okay, let me look at this.” Graham clicked a few times and indicated a line of text, the one reading ‘an idiot from my class.’ “Unless there’s somebody else who has reason to call me that, that could only be you referring to me.”

            Kate turned her head to look at the screen. It was the best way to call Graham a name without actually saying anything. She turned her head back and smirked, “What if it does?”

            “Un-freaking-believable. You!” The boy paused to make gestures, “You think that I am Captain Gamer? THAT immature flavor of the month??”

            “Why not? Who would believe that the most popular guy in the freshman class, a video game-hating denizen of the real world would actually be a real live super hero?”

            “What the hell are you talking about!? I hate the whole super hero thing! I even hate Digital Reality! Maybe not Digital Reality itself, but the way they’re ‘testing’ it! They could have brought back the great minds of history and they waste efforts on fantasy people! God, what is this world coming to!?”

            Kate folded her arms, “Why are you changing the subject? Not getting a good night’s sleep either?”

            “I’m sleeping fine, thank you! And there’s no subject to be on!!” Graham cleared his throat and stopped gesturing wildly. “You know what? You’re brain’s damaged. That’s all I have to say.”

            “Aha!! You tell me that I’d rather ditch effort than deal with my problem. What are you doing!? You’d rather dismiss me than step up and show me why I’m wrong? Hypocrite!” What a great feeling it was to have something to say. At last Kate could finally stand up to Graham and say what was on her mind in a concise way. Graham shook his head. There he goes again. It was time to go for the kill. “So… how did it happen?”

            “How did what happen?”

            “How did you get the ability to ‘link’ with video game characters?” Kate stood up which caused Graham to take a step back. “Did you get electrocuted by your NES? Get your hand caught in your Playstation while it was on? Maybe you were stabbed by a radioactive stylus!” With every accusation and theory, Kate took a step forward. Graham, with a nonspecific fret, could only keep stepping back. “Now that you’re a super hero, everybody you know and care about could be at risk! Your followers, your family. Why, even me! I didn’t know you cared, Cal. Or should I say… Gamer!!”

            “Shut up!!” Graham yelped back. “I refuse to respond to any of what you just said! None of it made sense and it was all too absurd to even consider taking seriously! You are just being a little baby and I will not feed into it! Have a nice life!” The young man took his leave.

            Kate leaned back in her chair and watched the huffed exit. She balanced a pen between her teeth until she plucked it out. “You couldn’t just say ‘I’m not Captain Gamer,’ could you? The more you deny…” She grabbed a nearby leaflet of paper and began to jot down notes contentedly.

            Speculations and feelings ran wildly all over the world. The non-internet hotspot for investigation was the IDR. After all, hero or no hero, Captain Gamer was somehow harnessing information from their digitally created beings. Unlike in some television show, there was no magic at work. There were no specific forces at work. Scientifically speaking, Gamer was able to copy and use specific aspects of digitally created beings, which had a logical rhyme and reason to it, which is why it absolutely baffled coders and programming mappers. Of the most curious staff at the IDR, the woman scientist Jordan had her reasons. She was actually able to be in Gamer’s presence for all of a few seconds. The answers were so close, but she let him get away. She felt that it was her fault she messed up her to-date only chance to get some answers and help bump along new innovations in Digital Reality.

            Jordan had her own hunches based off of what she experienced during the Dr. Wily incident and some research which she found to be surprising. She accordingly submitted a vague generality to a website she just discovered called ‘Kaines’s List.’ She also lurked in the forums to check the newest gossip. Any little hint could be a smoking gun. All the snooping and sleuthing gave her a rush of feeling like a detective. She did not hold being an IDR scientist as boring, but anything different was always exciting. On cue, the Professor passed by her office.

            “Ahh, Jordan.” He sounded like he hadn’t expected to see her, even though he walked into her office. He was known for his arbitrary visits. It made him seem like less of a ‘boss’ figure. He also looked fatigued. Jordan couldn’t point fingers since a string of bad dreams had kept her up as well. “Hack out any effort in the Captain Gamer mystery?”

            Jordan was an archaeologist who just discovered unseen dinosaur bones. “As a matter of fact I have! I’ve even made my contribution to Kaines’s List! That, uh, that website that has all that Captain Gamer stuff.”

            “I am aware of Kaines’s List.”

            “Oh. Okay. Well check this out!” Jordan double-clicked a few times and brought out a file. “We all didn’t like it when Wily became a villain. But Cruise, he acted like it was something personal and even took action against Wily! It was a robotic duplicate in the end, but Cruise still did something when we all just stood there! Don’t you find that odd?”

            “If I didn’t know better, I would say that you’re adopting a child-like flair for making this investigation into a game? You realize you’re at work, Jordan?”

“It really doesn’t feel like work. You’ve made sure of that.”

The Professor popped a single laugh. “Just the answer I was looking for! I’d say our inaction in your latest case was singular and not Cruise’s action, but please continue.”

            “Before this all happened, I saw Captain Gamer with my own two eyes! He worked with Proto Man, who knew that Wily was going to turn evil, and that was when he obtained that new Game Card we saw. You know, the Proto Shield? Anyway, how did he get into the IDR? The only way would be to accost one of our own and we have too good of security for that. We would have known if that had happened! The only way would be for him to have been in the IDR at a previous time!”

            The Professor’s expression did not change even when Jordan finished her thought. His eyes looked past Jordan, past her computer, into blank space. He’s thinking! Jordan thought to herself. He must be putting two and two together! Now for the best stuff.

            “Now get a load of… this!” She scrolled down to a profile. Cruise’s picture shown in the upper right corner. “Look! ‘Cruise’ is his actual last name! And if you look here, his first name is ‘Gregory.’ That makes his initials ‘GC.’ Everybody is looking at people with the initials ‘CG,’ but for a super hero trying to hide his identity, that’s what he would want people to be looking at! We wouldn’t figure him out in a million years!”

            “Jordan…” Her superior began with a pause. What was he going to say? That she busted this case wide open? That she was a master of thinking outside the box? “Delete that file right now!” Jordan looked back with wide eyes and was struck by the Professor’s harsh, narrow ones. She quickly complied while he continued, “You don’t know the risk you’re putting Cruise in by having this information on an Institute-owned computer! Make sure you shred that in your recycle bin… and do the same to the auto-back file in your computer’s disk drive! Where did you obtain this information? You know what? No. Don’t tell me.”

            Silently and with a trembling hand Jordan carried out the deletion of all traces of Cruise’s file. At the Professor’s command she turned around to hear him out some more. She held her head characteristic of a subordinate who had been caught; hung low with her eyes rolled up so she could see at least the chin of who she was being scolded by.

            “I’m disappointed in you, Jordan. I’m not just saying that. We at the IDR completely trust each other to not go behind each other, and we further trust each other to not betray that primary trust! Without that trust, we are no better than any of those organizations that claim to have trust and embezzle funds or hold down employee advancement with the other hand! On a more personal note, you are also promoting a hostile work environment by seeing your colleague and thinking low enough of him to just go ahead and point fingers without considering his feelings and reaction! And to my newly appointed apprentice, no less! The 1400s were a long time ago and even though we are in an undisclosed location, we sure as hell are not in Salem, Massachusetts!!”

            The Professor truly was in a rare form. He often conveyed that scolding and criticism were last on his list of management tools and he often apologized for saying the word ‘darn.’ Only an exceptional case could make him both lose his temper and use a harsh word at the same time. Jordan’s thoughts had turned 180 degrees from thoughts of a promotion to ulcer-inducing worry as to whether she would still have a job, and more importantly the respect of her dear friend and employer! The worst part of it all was she respected the Professor too much to fight him with her words. No, that wasn’t it. When she actually popped her gaze up and looked up into his eyes, she saw something that his voice did not show.

            Jordan got worried when the Professor stopped talking. She lifted her gaze just a little bit. She questioned whether he had been yelling or just been yelled at. His glazed eyes and restricted lip looked exactly as hers felt.

            “However…” the Professor sighed with frailty, “However, your mind was in the right place. You only pursued your search in terms that you thought were perfectly legal. I know you. I know everybody here. We are all good people.” He cleared his throat, “Ahh, god. I’m the pot calling the kettle black. I shout to you about hostile work environment? Preferential treatment for IDR employees? What kind of leader am I?” He then sighed and looked off.

            “No!” Jordan responded to keep the Professor from wandering too far off, “Don’t think that way! You are a great leader! I’m sure that the IDR wouldn’t have made a fraction of its current progress if any other individual had been at the helm!”

            The older scientist’s gaze softened and let age show in the crow’s feet on his temples. The other scientists at the IDR were all aware of the Professor’s age, but really never believed in it. The man was so vibrant and took so much effort to make others feel human instead of just data processors that not even young men in power care to undertake. When the Professor willingly scrunched a bit of skin or even vocally expressed a sore limb, it was a sign that he was comfortable. “You are sweet, Jordan.” He inhaled and exhaled to decompress his tight chest, “That is why I am sorry. I have been caught in a vice of my own construction as of late. Digital Reality, my- Excuse me, the IDR’s Digital Reality took years to just get off the ground. Without any warning, a young man…”

Another pause. Whenever it came to Captain Gamer, the Professor seemed to fight with himself about something. But of course, despite his intent and the things he does for the free world, he is still taking the Professor’s brainchild and bending it over his knee as if it were a common tool worth violating. Even though Captain Gamer didn’t have the concept down entirely and only interacted with it through the video game characters, digitally created beings, his passive disregard for Digital Reality still cut through. It was a new concept, not a plaything or weapon to be exploited! Then again, those were only Jordan’s thoughts on what the Professor could be thinking.

“That Captain Gamer goes around and grabs what he needs to keep saving the day. Contrary to what some may believe, I’m not annoyed. In fact, I am interested. That device that he calls the Gamer Station, I would like to see it. It may hold the key to better understanding of this technology we created.”

“Those are my thoughts!” Jordan responded as soon as the Professor had finished his talking. The earlier scolding never happened.

“Not just you, Jordan. Everybody here! Captain Gamer has leapt ahead of us somehow and we only want to catch up! Plus… well, you all know I don’t get much sleep. I’ve been getting even less nowadays. Others, too. Maybe we need to light out earlier.” the Professor said this in a way characteristic of a leaving salutation. Before he took his leave he paused at the door. His exit was blocked, however.

“Oh! Professor! Sir.” Cruise, the Professor’s fresh apprentice, stopped and showed respect for the leader of the IDR. “I just wanted to stop by and ask if anybody heard the news on the most recent realization!”

Cruise spoke with a vitality that clashed with the other two. It was almost irritating. The Professor and Jordan were silent also because of the tense moment they shared, not to mention the moment had been because of him. At the moment, though, Cruise’s energy stood out most.

“Morning people…” Jordan muttered.

There were people who were disciplined enough to do their paperwork ASAP and love it. Some can only do it ASAP, some can only love it. At the moment, Jordan was none of those. Like many at the IDR, Jordan took to wandering around the cavernous halls of the institute. She felt just like an extra on the set of some science fiction show. Maybe all those extras just felt like walking around, too?

She stopped at one of many snack rooms in the IDR. Even though it was near noon, she could still use some coffee. By pure curiosity she leaned forward and opened the resident refrigerator’s door. She found her coffee, but in a different form. A slice of coffee cake sat like a treasure that would trigger traps if taken. A policy deep in the IDR rulebook stated that if any food in a refrigerator had no label on it, any personnel could take it in the absence of the rightful owner. Jordan rotated the plate for any sticky notes. She took it out and checked the bottom and looked carefully to check for a name under where the cake sat. No name stood in her way.

Jordan felt awful about taking such a delicious-looking piece of cake from whoever could not finish it, but all was fair in love, war, and nourishment… and she was hungry! Feeling blameless and guilty all at the same time, Jordan set the plate with the cake on it down and reached over for a fork. When she had the silverware in her hand she heard the plate begin to wobble. Jordan looked to her side. The only traces of the slice of coffee cake were some crumbs.

The stunned woman scientist doubled over the plate and examined it. Where did the slice go!? There was nobody else in the room. To verify she whirled around. Not another white lab coat in the room. She once again wondered where the cake had gone and the second time was the charm. Entertaining the thought of rodents, even though the IDR was an island, she looked to the ground. She saw not a mouse but a pink ball with eyes.

Jordan emitted a high-pitched “HEEP!” and hopped backward, landing in a sitting position on the counter with the silverware. She got a good look at whatever was on the floor. It was some critter that was shaped a lot like a ball and pink in color. It had blue eyes that were tall and for its size, rosy ovals that were like blushed cheeks, stubby arms and floppy shoe-like feet. Its mouth currently chewed on contraband coffee cake.

“H-hey!” Jordan called out weakly, “Somebody brought that! Whoever it is will be angry with you!”

Instead of looking guilty, the walking ball exhaled merrily and looked up at Jordan with those relatively huge eyes. Well, gee. Now it’s going to be harder to feign anger.

On cue, Cruise grabbed the doorframe and swung himself into the room. “There you are!” he gasped at the pink ball before scooping it up. “Good catch, Jordan!”

Jordan pushed off the counter still keeping her distance. “I only happened to be holding the bait…”

“Whatever the case, he’s not running around any more! As the Professor’s apprentice, I get to be present at the newest realizations! As soon as we looked away, the little guy just sprints off. Judging by this… for something to eat!”

Cruise looked up from the pink ball to see that Jordan was outside the loop and her expression knocked to get in. “Oh! Jordan, meet Kirby!” The scientist held up the pink ball known as Kirby. Kirby made a mouth noise that sounded vaguely like a cooing ‘hi.’ “This is what I wanted to tell you guys about before! The IDR’s research teams looked into the most popular video game characters, and we’re looking for the ones with the most basic, but most interesting abilities. Kirby here has a dedicated following, and he’s not that complicated to design! I even asked a guy and he said his recent string of bad dreams made him think about Kirby, whose games have him live in a world called ‘Deamland!’”

In all truth, Jordan knew who Kirby was once Cruise said the name. She stayed silent for the explanation and to lean in and examine Kirby up close. It was one thing to be involved in the creation of a digitally realized being and see it interact in the real world, but to actually be close to one was another. Kirby returned the intent gaze in his own curious way. He was especially fascinated with Jordan’s glasses. Kirby reached up and pushed the glasses further Jordan’s nose. Jordan couldn’t help but give a closed-mouth giggle when she pushed her specs back up. The feeling of Kirby’s pushing her glasses down was a sensation she wouldn’t soon forget.

“O-kay!” Cruise cut into the moment. “Well! I only came here to get Kirby. We still need him for some testing of the, eh, unique talents he was realized with.”

This thought made Jordan think about the coffee cake that Kirby just ate. Would he become ‘Coffee Cake Kirby?’ The thought made her giggle, then snort for a nanosecond.

Cruise hopped out of the room to respond to a voice saying that he found Kirby. He turned back, “Even though he’s really friendly, he’s also a really big taskmaster. I chased Kirby just to keep from writing another report!” On his way out carried by Cruise, Kirby looked past and waved ‘goodbye’ to Jordan with a wide smile that took up most his face, perhaps his body. Jordan meekly raised a hand in response. So kind-hearted and benevolent in intention… is that what a sentient being is like without the influence of culture? Good by default? Maybe she ought to look more into the ways of other cultures before making such a presumptuous claim.

In any case, Jordan was left once again with the task of finding her nourishment. That coffee cake was the only moderately desirable morsel in that refrigerator, perhaps that entire room. With a resigning expression she soberly approached the coffee pot

The controversy and violently pursued speculation spilled into organizations such as schools, newspapers, and even television and film. The television host who had interviewed Mario a long time back had finally made his triumphant return to his daytime television. During the first day back he and his hostess partner, fresh off of a string of temporary replacement hosts, welcomed the actor Cyrus Grant to their studio.

As much as they could, the subject stayed on Grant’s new movie, due out Wednesday as he repeatedly mentioned aside, but a simple call for an opinion thrust the conversation into a direction that has been visited before and kept a hold until the end.

“Now Cyrus,” the host began gingerly, “I’m sure you’ve heard about the government and anything else on two legs going on the warpath about your favorite guy, Captain Gamer.” A common joke in the talk show scene, day and night, was the disdain that Grant held Captain Gamer in. “Have you seen any effect of that down in Tinsel Town?”

Grant gave a typical closed-mouthed smiling ‘hm-hm’­ laughter with his hung followed with the intake of break through the right half of his teeth and whipping his head in approximately one half of a head-shake. He was an actor even outside the studio. He addressed the host by nickname and spoke. “I think a better question and more rare circumstance would be if anybody down in my neck of the woods has NOT been stopped, dragged into a dark alley, and punched in the stomach until they admit to being or knowing Captain Gamer.”

Grant followed this with an anecdote about being inquired on the set of his new movie, out Wednesday, when his role called for him to wear a blue jumpsuit. Through some twisted disambiguation of reality, some Swedish tourists thought he looked like Captain Gamer. Grant claimed to share a laugh and gave an autograph when in fact he had violently told them off. He had to reassure cast member that YES, he was getting enough sleep. When a guy is backed by Los Angeles lawyers, why be nice?

“I personally think it’s ridiculous.” the actor continued with wide eyes, “There are identity thieves, internet predators, gangs that perpetuate stereotypes, organizations that hate freedom individuality, and who knows what else out there!? So who is the enemy to the free world and deserving of taxpayer money to find and expose? Captain Gamer, of course! I’d love to get myself stranded on a desert island just to keep from hearing that damn name for five minutes!”

The word ‘damn’ had been bleeped from broadcast by five-second delay.

The host and hostess share a wide eyed-raised eyebrow look of surprise after that little burst of the dam. They covered up the shock with a laugh that rippled through the audience. The host braved a response. “Well! I never know what to expect from you, but I guess somebody needs to be hostile towards SOMETHING, right Mr. Grant? Lord knows my wife has ME in her crosshairs all the time!” The studio shared a laugh. The host jovially pointed out a man in the audience who had gestured to his own wife.

The hostess rode the joy of the joke to get her word out. “Can you imagine, though? Stirring up so much commotion and being a hero, then your movie comes out? I would want to see it all the more!”

Grant froze at that thought, which could have been taken as an accusation. “I am way above publicity stunts!!” He growled. A tense moment reigned, then Gray quickly pointed and smiled widely to give the impression he was only messing around. The trio behind the desk palled around. “But seriously, if I were to adopt a new persona to get attention, I would choose something, you know, respectable. Not somebody who gets tossed by monkeys, bullied by robots for lunch money, and gets his kicks by beating up little girls.”

As Grant took a swig of his drink, the host furrowed his brow. “Little girls? Now when did that happen?”

Grant spat what was in his mouth into the cup and made a gurgling splash sound. He put the cup down and wiped his mouth. “Yeah! During the Dr. Wily incident a little while back.”

“I heard there was an incident, but I thought no specific information had been released.”

“Oh.” Grant looked from the host to the various faces in the audience. He snapped back when he saw the red light atop the camera. “Kaines’s List! Have you guys heard of a website called ‘Kaines’s List?’”

“No… But I’ve heard. What is that?”

“It’s, uh, it’s a website. Obviously.” Grant paused. If there were any crickets in the audience, they would have been heard chirping. “Yes. It’s a website dedicated to Captain Gamer centering around a list created by some user calling him - or her - self ‘Kaines.’ A lot of people go there.”

“Interesting. That would be ‘Kaines’s List’ dot com?”

“No, as a matter of fact it’s ‘Gamerfans’ dot com. Gamer, fan. No space between.”

“Well!” the host was signaled from offstage that the allotted time had reached a close. “We’ll break for commercial…”

The theme music for the talk show played as the host described their next guest and their musical act at the end of the show. Grant stayed in is chair. He waved to the audience with one hand and took a sip of his drink with another. His eyes shifted back and forth as he did this.

The driving force behind Kaines’s List, Ms. Gaines herself, found herself watching the broadcast premier of the program in which Grant talked about her website. She could only stare ahead at the blinking lights of her television, cross-legged on her bed, and her mouth wide open.

The jingle of an instant message ringed off of Kate’s speakers. Kate hopped off her bed and crossed over to her computer. The instant message was from Gamerfans. It read “Holy crap! Did you see Grant? We’re celebrities!”

Kate sat down and typed her response. “I dunno. You aren’t mentioned on the site besides your name in the URL, and that’s hardly crediting you if I don’t tell anybody!”

There was a wait as the message box indicated that Gamerfans was typing. Finally the message appeared. “Okay, so YOU’RE just a celebrity. I only provided the web space. It’s your list.”

“I feel guilty. If not for you, Kaines’s List wouldn’t have its own site! Maybe I should credit you in the next update?”

Gamerfans was typing. “I don’t want to steal your thunder! You’re much more interesting. You write well.”

Writing? Kate paused with her finger above her keyboard. She glanced down at the constant time display in the corner of her screen. With a start she saw the time and prepared a different response. “Hey, I’m sorry but I have to go. School stuff.” Without waiting for a ‘goodbye’ Kate pulled up her away message, grabbed a book and some papers, and flew out the door.

Kate beat a brisk jog over to Professor Grisam’s office. The rough draft of her essay had been returned to her fully marked up, ending with a note to meet him in his office to discuss his markings at this time. The prominent feature of her essay, despite all the notes of ‘good point’ and ‘great example!’ was a big blue ‘C.’ Kate remembered when she showed her report to Tonya streamed overly dramatized tears.

Tonya went along with the act and gave Kate an equally dramatized hug, then poked the paper, “He’s just trying to get you to do a rewrite.”

“It’s still not fun to see.” Kate whined.

Grisam’s office door was half-closed, meaning he was in such a meeting with another student. It was the only time during his office hours when his door was not as wide open as a church on Sunday. Kate checked her watch and clocked ten minutes until the specific time she was supposed to meet with her professor. She sat down and decided to take out her paper and try and decode whatever she could of her professor’s cryptic messages before she was called in.

The voiced emanating from the ajar door grabbed her attention. She recognized the English professor, and even more she recognized the student he was in conference with.

“Just tell me why.” came the voice of Cal Graham. Grisam had called Graham in to his office too? Kate thought that Grisam predicted that Graham would NEVER have to visit for paper revision - therefore not at all - due to his way with words. Did Graham not stack up to the professor’s expectations?

“Well, at the very least I know that you are passionate about your position. That is good.” Grisam always talked in terms of his students before saying anything about himself. What a good listener. “You certainly have given me an earful to consider! Here comes the ‘but,’ Mr. Graham. Like many things, having a passion for an opinion has been misinterpreted as not only believing in your side, but showing a disdain for the other side. Refusing to take the opposing argument seriously or, even worse, refusing to hear the other side outright.”

“Of course I shouldn’t take her side seriously. I know she’s wrong!!”

Wait a moment. ‘She’s wrong?’ Graham and Grisam were not talking about the essay, Graham had run to Grisam to talk about the discussion that he had with Kate earlier! Why!?

The sound of Grisam clearing his throat and cutting off Graham’s train of thought floated through the door. “She’s completely incorrect in every way? You mean to tell me that her views and intentions go against human interests in all the most adverse ways? What were her reasons for her perspectives?”

“I didn’t get to hear any.”

“Hmm. So why is she wrong?”

There was a pause. Graham could have gone into a fit of random gesturing to illustrate the ridiculousness of the situation that he perceived. “She has no grasp over what is real and what isn’t! She wouldn’t last five minutes off this campus, which actually lifts a finger for her and she is surrounded by middle-class white kids! Nothing like what is really out there!”

Kate tried to imagine Graham pointing out the window for those last two words, but she knew he was too sensible to do anything so condescending to a college professor.

“You don’t know that. Even if that were all true, it is all irrelevant to considering her argument. Imagine if somebody who isn’t her, somebody you perceived to have reality down and straight, made this argument. How are they wrong? Vague generalities prove nothing.”

“Nobody who knows reality would think that way.”

“Mr. Graham, if ever it were permissible to step out of reality for a moment, this is it. I’d go as far to say that there are plenty of people who are sensible yet they enjoy indulging in fantasy worlds. Unless you are too bitter and stubborn, look at the scenario again and only think of the scenario. Do not take a transcendental point of view. In fact, I will not let you leave this office until you take me seriously. Footlog, humor me.”

“Footlog?”

“Oh. It’s, ahem, it’s a saying I had back when I was on the other side of the teacher’s desk. It’s short for ‘for the love of God.’ See, F-T-L-O-G? So, Mr. Graham. Footlog, humor me.”

Graham’s scoff erupted through the door. It was followed by a resigning sigh. “I don’t know.” His following tone of voice indicated the following words were forcefully ejected. “I would need arguments to work with in order to prove that person wrong.” Grisam had that way of making the other person say back what he was teaching. “But Mr. Grisam, Kate didn’t make any points! She just stood there!”

“She had ample opportunity to speak?”

No.

“Yeah, after I was done talking.”

More like ‘venting.’

“How much talking did you do?”

Too much.

“I got out my whole point. I gave her a lot to work with!”

Too much. It was overbearing.

“Have you ever considered that your thoughts and opinions were too numerous in weight to manage? That you were overbearing to her?”

Huh?

“Excuse me?”

“You sought a debate with Ms. Gaines, am I correct?”

“Yeah.”

“I see. Lean forward, Mr. Graham.”

“Huh?”

There was a pause, probably Graham leaning over, until Graham’s voice boomed out. “OW!!” It made Kate jump. “What was that for?!”
            “You’re overreacting, Mr. Graham.”

“You flicked my forehead!!”

“Yes, so you wouldn’t forget what I have to say next.”

Graham did not respond. Grisam was right. Whatever he had to say next would link to the flick on the forehead, and Graham was not likely to forget the flick, and if Grisam’s words were associated, they would get engraved as well. What an effective tactic.

“When you want to learn a certain perspective or argument in its entirety just to hear it, you listen with opens ears and an open mind and never with an open mouth. In example, a lecture. When you want to learn a certain perspective or argument with the intention of understanding and perhaps refuting it, you debate. You take turns and go back and forth on individual issues with acute attention. You may not agree as you go, but at least both sides know why they think the way they think… besides stubborn immobility.”

“Uh-huh.”

“When you sought to debate Ms. Gaines, you ended up tossing everything at her. She neither expected nor wanted such a load. Do you see what I’m saying?”

Graham’s words once again felt forced and taught. They came out very cynically and sarcastically. “I ended up lecturing her instead of debating like I wanted. Okay, you know what? I tried to sound noble. I was just giving her a hard time like I always do!”

You’re telling me, Kate rolled her eyes, landing on a pinned-up comic strip. Professors sure enjoyed pinning up comic strips, don’t they? When she was finished with it, she noticed that nobody said anything during that time.

“What?” Graham broke the silence, “What’s that look?”

A smile could be heard in Grisam’s words. “It has long been since noted that in human behavior, children tend to bother those they like to garner attention from them. Many say it is a habit that sticks with a person if it works…”

“Hold it, HOLD IT!!” The unattractive groan of Gisom’s desk being pushed forward was heard. Graham’s voice was outraged. It did seem to crack at the loud part.

Kate’s reaction was equally as violent but silent. She opted for falling backwards off her chair. Nobody else noticed.

“You know what? No. I’ve let you crack my head open enough for today. First SHE calls me Captain Gamer and now this…”

“Captain Gamer, you say?” Grisam’s voice floated in a childlike way that betrayed his aged voice. “If you seek a change of topic, here it is.”

Kate’s intent listening intensified. This ought to be good.

“Okay, fine. Captain Gamer. You don’t buy into that guy, right? Some kid who’s completely slipped into his own mind somehow gets the real world on his side and suddenly he’s a celebrity. Has the world gone insane!?”

“If you so cannot stand the sight of an individual who enjoys the exploits of Captain Gamer, I advise you to drop my course. I hear Reed offers a lovely curriculum…”

“Wait, wait, wait. You too, Professor!? But you’re…”

“Intelligent? Should my belief in the purity of Captain Gamer throw all of that off?” Grisam’s voice was softer but Kate could still hear it. “I told you that there were sensible people out there who enjoy what is unreal. I DID ensure my point’s validity by being one of those few, but that goes to show you shouldn’t mess with a man in control of the circumstances…”

“Stop rambling and tell me why!” No sound came from the room until Graham softly said “Sorry.”

“No, no. If you ever went easy on me just because I’m your teacher and I could fail you on a whim – I’d never do that, don’t wear that look – I would never forgive myself for abusing my position just to keep from defending a point.” Grisam cleared his throat. “Now, then.  Captain Gamer. You wish to know why I and people of a likewise level head would ever find Captain Gamer amusing or relevant?”

Graham crossed his arms. “Yeah. I’ll humor you with my interest. Footlog, or whatever.”

“Now, now. Don’t go and take my lingo as a symbol of submission, now. I’m sure you wouldn’t like your words being misrepresented. Just because I will not hold anything you say against you doesn’t mean you should still listen with some humility.”

More silence. It must have been the young man relaxing his position due to what was said next.

“There. Does that feel so wrong? All slips of the tongue aside, I enjoy following Captain Gamer because he is very much like a student. He enters himself into the world equipped with nothing more than the determination to fight and an open mind to learning about how to carry himself best when helping others.”

“Professor… you can’t honestly believe that? That Captain Gamer wants to learn? Looks more to me like he just wants to be cool. He didn’t even do that! The whole Donkey Kong incident was a disaster for him!”

“Correct, Mr. Graham. The absolute first time Captain Gamer appeared to us he was foolish, childish, and gave us all the impression he had no idea what he was doing.”

“I, uh, I don’t understand where you’re going if you’re arguing for him.”

“Simple! Did his disastrous introduction keep him from staying down? If you recall, he stuck by his intentions. We all had no choice but to keep seeing him in action. Without bias, tell me ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ Has Captain Gamer made less underwhelming showings in the following incidents?”

“I- Oh, just a word.” Graham paused to swallow his pride. “Yes.”

“If you need explanation as to why I make the statement that Captain Gamer is learning, the evidence is in the coverage. At the absolute least, he has some improvement to lay claim to.”

“What about when he started rattling off everything that his Gamer Station thing can do? He was like a little kid explaining a toy! How is that ‘getting it together?’”

The familiar sound of Grisam shifting around stalled before his answer, “I will give you that. Captain Gamer does take to what has been given to him with an overbearing child-like optimism.”

Kate could just see Graham’s smug face.

“However, I fail to see how that can be a bad thing.”

The alleged smile turned upside-down.

“I say that for the task of keeping down those who wish to cause others harm, an individual who is not sobered by the realities of life is perfect for the task. They keep in mind possible consequences, but never do they see reason to falter, much like how I see the child-like demeanor and see no reason to believe why it matters at all as long as he does some good in the ultimate end.”

A frustrated and almost constipated growl flew from the doorway, “You keep on taking what I say and using it against me! It’s…!”

“Not fair?” Grisam cut in.

Silence. It was the sound of the gears in Graham’s head working, making connections from what the conversation started with to what just happened.

“I get it now.” Graham resigned.

Grisam chuckled, “I can see that lawyer game I purchased for my handheld paid off!”

“So,” came Graham all business-like, “you are telling me that by being so selfish as to talk to Kate just to fatten my ego, I ended up flattening hers?”

“That may be a rather… blunt way to put it. I wouldn’t say you outright flattened her, but as far as understanding goes, it was no step forward and two steps back. You must understand, Mr. Graham. You can make the most brilliant and unapproachable argument in the world. However, if you do not give chance for refute, you will not understand how your argument holds water or not. Isn’t that what you’ve been trying to teach her, Mr. Graham?”

Somehow, both teacher and student decided that Captain Gamer was found ‘not guilty’ of being stupid and decided to make closure on the last loose thread. Graham’s response came, “It is.”

“All the same, coming off as pretentious and condescending, no matter how good your argument, will make your opponent in the argument not take you seriously. I don’t care if you’re in the House of Representatives or an internet forum, patronizing is no good.” A knocking sound came with every word. “Making bold, personal accusations, or just tacking on silly suffixes is enough to constitute patronizing. Even if you are taking your opponent seriously, the opposite will not be true. You see, Mr. Graham, tact is a most valuable tool, and the bridge in which a point gets across. Otherwise, you are just tossing points around and none of them end up where they’re intended to go.”

“Hum. So you’re saying that I can have irrefutable evidence, but my language can blow that all even though I mean nothing by it. It would make someone not want to take me seriously just out of subconscious spite?”

“Precisely. Reminding her of her passions is one thing, but being a malicious foil is just plain counter-productive to her intellectual development and to yours. The next time you see that girl, I want you to apologize for being so antagonistic.”

“Me apologize? What kind of Saturday morning video do you think we’re filming, here!? I concede to a point or two and suddenly I’m in the wrong, she’s a saint, I learn my lesson like the misguided villain I am, and shuffle off with my tail between my legs?”

“Mr. Graham, I never-”

            “No, no-no-no-no. You left no room to think. I’d done wrong and I should apologize; that’s what you said. Give me some credit, here. You, you flicked me as if wielding some godly weapon on blamelessness. You smote me, that’s what you did. You smote the evil satanic Calahn Graham. Ugh, talk about patronizing.”

            Typical Graham, and in prime form, no less. Leave it to him to take that great speech, which ought to be lectured to one of these days, and make it seem wrong due to a technicality.

            “What?” Asked Graham suddenly. Something must have happened.

            The response came just as calmly, but resigned. “You know… I never thought about it that way. How easy it is to think that you’re driving your point in when you’re just being judgmental, hmm?”

            “You certainly were.”

            “Yes, yes. I apologize for that. But I guess now we’ve both gained a greater understanding of the folly of elevating oneself in a debate, yes?”

            There were some final parting notes about a matter Kate hadn’t been present to overhear, shortly followed by shuffling from the door. Graham was leaving! Kate was so used to sitting and listening that she didn’t decide if she wanted to say something or if she wanted to hide or ignore Graham or…

Too late. There he is.

Graham stood in front of the entrance to Grisam’s office, his face an inexplicable flush. Maybe it was the command that he had just agreed to. Maybe it was the accusation Grisam made of him earlier. Either way, Kate was there and Graham was there. Neither looked like they knew what to do.

If the circumstances placed them on equal ground, this would be no big deal. However, since Graham was arguably quicker to the wit trigger, the mutual apprehension worked against him.

Kate saw Graham holding a copy of his entry to the latest essay. Grisam must have used his essay as a means of summoning, too. Was this whole extracurricular lecture what he wanted out of the whole deal?

She remembered how Grisam proposed he give her an apology and asked, trying to come off as coy, “You… have something to say?”

“Something to say…” Graham echoed slowly. How interesting that he had a supply of ways to reduce somebody to a fraction of their size, yet when it came to apologies, he ran on fumes. In his defense, nobody really sees the need to give an apology coming until that last minute. “Well, now that you- Wait a…” Uh oh. Disarmed Graham slid down to classic Graham. “Were you eavesdropping?”

“Eaves-!” Does waiting for her turn to discuss an essay count? Maybe if Kate weren’t listening so intently… but anybody sitting on that bench would have heard them! Then again, there are plenty of ways to not listen. Eh, let’s round down. “I was not!”

The young man met that answer with a non-specific scrutinizing look. What was he thinking about this time? The eyes had it. Graham noted the paper in his hand, then the paper in Kate’s hand. Two plus two equaled a resounding four. He looked past Kate to the doorframe for Grisam’s office and called to it, “Nice try, Professor Grisam.” before turning and beating a retreat.

What was that about? Something didn’t add up. He just learned about how he treated her wrongly before, what was with the brush-off? “Come on!” Kate demanded after Graham, “Don’t you care at all about what you just talked about!?”

Though he was already around the corner, Graham’s voice answered back, “I’ll think about it!”

Huh. Yeah. ‘I’ll think about it.’ Everybody’s heard that at one point or another.

“Ms. Gaines?” called the doorframe she turned away from, “I believe we have an essay to discuss!”

“Uhh…” Kate snapped to attention, “Yes, Professor!” Grisam sounded all business, so there would be no use bringing up Graham at this meeting. All of Kate’s mind wanderings and concerns peeled off and remain outside as she crossed that doorframe into Grisam’s office.

Grisam wasn’t the only professor to be giving counsel at this time. The investigation of FantaCorp was still underway. Thus, Shane Barr Senior allowed himself further visits to the IDR, if not just to get away from the government agents from every nation. Seeing Kirby and visiting with a pink ball proved more than relaxing for the CEO. Afterward he and the Professor took to walking the halls like they do when they wish to truly converse.

“The stress has been getting to me.” Barr complained in his own direct way. “I’ve been losing sleep over it.”

The Professor chuckled, just to contrast with Barr’s mood. However, he noticed certain reluctance from Barr to say what he did. He supposed that in the high-speed business world, showing weakness was the first step towards bankruptcy, or being bought out. “You aren’t the only one, friend. The Institute has been recruited to help in the hunt for Captain Gamer. The absurdity and injustice alone have given me a headache and less logged sleep.”

Barr made a mouth noise in concurrence. “It’s only a matter of time before the investigation finds my son. That will be the real trial.”

“Son?” the Professor asked two seconds before something hit him. “Ah! Why didn’t I see it before!? Shane Barr Jr. the playboy heir! He’s your son!”

Barr cleared his throat.

“Ahh, no offense to your name. I’m just remembering what I’ve heard.”

“No, no. It was merely a statement of what’s true.” At this Barr’s eyes opened to a slit-sized glare. “He recently learned about the investigation and is has been going around making appearances, despite the fact my corporation is being investigated for a crime.”

“Ohhh, I see.” the Professor winced, “The CEO to a new public company is revealed to be in the same bloodline as the socially active Shane Barr Jr. who’s known for his grossly extroverted ventures. I can see how this could be a problem.”

“To reiterate what I’ve said on-camera, it’s a wretched state of affairs when I take all my effort to raise the boy to appreciate what he has and strive for the betterment of the world at large, but our culture has pumped him full of materialism and intolerance disguised as pride that no amount of my methods and lessons would get through to him. He’s bright and educated, but what good is it when he also has a sense of entitlement?”

“Hmm, hmm,” the Professor decided to remain tight-lipped about his experiences with materialism and intolerance for now. Besides, he wasn’t so sure that Shane was that ridiculously misguided. Then again, he wasn’t the boy’s father. “Have you tried making it where he needs to make his own money? Forced – well, maybe not forced – him to get a job?”

Barr emitted what was a cross between a laugh and an out-loud scowl, “Tried. Somehow he’s able to enlist every backdoor method to live the high life. That boy will take every effort to make sure he never experiences a day of work.”

The Professor exhaled at the contradictory thought. “Amazing how the system doesn’t work sometimes, hmm?” He then caught himself. Pessimism was unbecoming of him! He had to turn this conversation around.

“I suppose it’s a test of my boundless optimism, though.” Barr noted. The ‘optimism’ remark caused the Professor to raise a lone eyebrow. “Every day I wonder if my wisdom or fatherly graces will be enough to impact Shane. So far, the score is two decades to zero. Well, I’m thinking that the corporation going public may teach him the value of hard work. The fact there hasn’t been camera crews trying to squeeze in through the gates to my manor recently is a good sign. Either my son is calming down or planning something… here’s to hope.”

The Professor gave a strong look, “Hoping is what a person turns to when there’s nothing left to do.”

Barr raised his gaze and looked ahead as they walked. His eyes seemed to glaze over for a few seconds. No doubt he didn’t expect any votes of confidence from anybody. He looked several times like he was going to turn around and thank the Professor profusely, but instead just settled for saying “Well said.”

The Professor smiled discreetly. Barr was actually a very good person. He cared for his employees and was not entirely shy about sharing what he was feeling. The only thing off about him was his intense demeanor. It seems intimidating at first, but coming to know the man better, it was just his way of feeling strongly. It certainly was in interesting way for the man to carry himself about, but in the end it commanded respect, and a positive one at that. “Not a problem at all, Friend. Not a problem at all.”

For a while, each and every case of interrupted or short-lived sleep went unnoticed or dismissed. Times between video game character realizations, however, were usually slow news times, so the press picked up each and every story they could find. One report that spoke to Kate came to her when she returned from the before described meeting with Grisam. She attributed her need to nap either to the strenuous process of going over her paper and turning the wounds to her pride into life lessons, or to her recent string of nightmares.

As she entered her room, she noticed that Tonya was thinking the same thing. Her roommate’s occupied bed sat directly against the wall opposite to the door and her own bed was directly to the right when she entered the room. Tonya usually wasn’t in any particular mood to interact when involved in something, especially in bed, and triply so for when she showed the raven back of her head to anybody coming in. It was understandable.

For the most part, Tonya could sleep through a boy band concert, so Kate never had to tread lightly with what she did. She regularly turned the TV on when Tonya was around and napping.

“This country has experienced shortages of many kinds before,” An anchorwoman’s voice spoke before the picture fully faded in, “but a shortage of sleep?”

Kate’s eyebrows lifted. She had to hear this.

“Recently, the highly-pressed newly public corporation FantaCorp’s investigation has turned out reports of decreased productivity. A mass survey of the corporation’s uncovered testimonies such as ‘I’m just not getting a lot of sleep’ or ‘I get to sleep later.’ Suspicions rose until the CEO himself turned those suspicions onto other companies. Fate ruled in Barr’s favor. The latest status reports of all major businesses report a severe drop in productivity in the last few weeks or so, all allegedly due to sleep. While most congressman are passively attributing this to the irresponsibility of corporate America, some others are motioning to pass legislation to push back closing hours and a ‘mandatory quitting time.’”

“The problem is simple.” a standard congressman, his affiliations indicated in a bar at the bottom of the screen, said, “People are not holding themselves to high enough standards and instead of bosses motivating workers, they let late hours allow for slower progress. All facets need this wake-up call.”

The camera switched over to a man of the opposing party. “I am all for human compassion, but these men calling for less work time are completely out of touch with the modern worker. When was the last time a man smiled in the face of a job made harder? Fewer hours just makes the work day more claustrophobic. There is a problem here and therefore a solution, but a plan that simply changes one variable and leaves things to ‘see how they play out’ as if the constituency is just a bunch of lab mice just counter-productive and will only breed hostility; hostility toward congress, and no doubt hostility in the workplace.”

Politics, Kate thought to herself, big stuff.

“Dios MIO!” Came the lightly accented voice from across the dorm room, startling Kate. Tonya lifted herself up, “What have I got to do to get some SLEEP around here!?”

Kate turned around apprehensively, “Oh… was it too loud?” The mention of no sleep probably inspired Tonya to express her own inability to get to sleep.

Tonya sat up, propped herself with one arm, and waved another with a hand that flopped around apathetically, “No, no, I just can’t. By myself.”

Was whatever this is contagious? Tonya’s sleep record of going down at the latest midnight and rising at the latest eight o’clock with a few nap times in between went relatively uninterrupted the whole year thus far. In fact, this frequent napping was the most she has seen of her roommate all year. The relationship between the two was a good mutual understanding, but other than the standard how-do-you-dos, there wasn’t much there. Kate supposed it was because Tonya’s interests were ‘standard’ for a girl; clothes, boys, music; just not as fervently as other girls. Being a gamer never really let Kate be a part of that leg of the female community.

For a few awkward moments, Tonya just looked around the room, caught up in a sort of waking stupor. It was weird, so Kate spoke. “Are you… just going to sit there?”

“Mmh,” Tonya muttered, “Ah, I should be sleeping, but I’m not. I see you up at all hours of the night on your computer, how do you deal with it?”

Kate paused to remember the last time Tonya actually asked her about anything about her. It would have taken too long, so she decided to just go ahead and answer. “Actually, if I can’t get to sleep and I know it, I don’t even bother. I actually go ahead and do something.”

“‘Something?’ Like what?”

“Do you REALLY want to know?” Kate remembered something that Graham had said a long time ago about ‘her kind’ not knowing the difference between opportunity and a chance for opportunity. Well, Kate sure saw the chance and the opportunity in this because Tonya had asked her. In addition, the failed attempt and napping disarmed some of Tonya’s skepticism. The answer Kate had made her lower her gaze playfully.

“Uhh… yeah.”

Still carrying a sense of forbidden mischief, Kate leapt up from her chair and grabbed two game controllers, tossing one of the wireless ones into Tonya’s lap. Before Tonya could adequately express a reaction, Kate looked aside to toss Tonya a silky glance. “You KNOW you want to.”

“You gamers only think about one thing!” Tonya picked up the controller awkwardly, but found surprise in how easily it fit in her hands, as if anybody was meant to pick up and play. Kate was inviting her just to play video games, not something that she could get in trouble for! Why was she making such a big deal out of it? The fatigue of no good night’s sleep in a while disarmed the society-made intolerance, but it was Kate’s act that made Tonya’s subconscious went along with Kate’s quasi-suggestive methods with a tinge of red on her face.

That night was no different for the IDR. Then again, all exceptional moments begin as normal, standard times of day.

Tragically for the Professor and his apprentice Cruise, the night was too standard to bear. Behind on paperwork, scheduling, memos, communications, and all related, both men filed and filled and sorted fervently to meet a deadline.

“I’m… sorry, Cruise.” the Professor admitted sheepishly, “This is no test or lesson for your learning. I’m afraid I’m using you to compensate for my procrastinations.”

Cruise hopped to grab a box of ill-organized papers on top of a cabinet. “Ah! Uh, no problem at all, Sir. I think becoming familiar with these forms could be good for me!” He looked at one and felt his optimism drain into it. “Then again, I may not find it a good thing right now… The only thing I’ve learned from this right now is that perhaps a man in position of the head of the IDR should have a secretary.”

The Professor tilted his head with an expression of comprehension. He kept it when he heard the approach of a pair of high heels. Almost predictably, Jordan appeared at the doorway to behold the sight of both men on the floor, without coats, all four sleeves rolled up, and sitting cross-legged, trying to make sense of all the backlogged work.

“I saw the door open and wanted to say ‘good night,’ but it doesn’t look like one for you guys.”

“Your observations are quite astute, Jordan.” the Professor mumbled through his pressed palms.

Cruise held up a completely arbitrary piece of paper. “Want to help out?”

“I’m sure that the Professor wouldn’t be one to delegate-”

“Actually, Jordan, I’m afraid I am one to delegate responsibility. Just this once. I never was good in dealing with insufferable paperwork. You are one of the data processors in the institute, correct?”

“Oh, yes. I know it’s not exactly one of the most glamorous of jobs, but I think it really is vital that the data and stuff is sorted and made sense of so that the programmers and designers and whatever else we have here can work without having to muck through what it all means.”

It was a noble sentiment. In this case, it was the pillar of light parting the clouds that the two men were waiting for. “If that’s the case, then I’m afraid that I’ll be assigning you some overtime, if it does not inconvenience you.”

“For anybody else, I would have just laughed and walked away. But you guys…” Jordan did a full sweeping view of the IDR head’s office and could not find a spot at least partially covered in paper and ink, “You’re in it deep. Literally.”

The woman dropped her bag and made herself comfortable for a night of sorting. Her presence was not deterred by the two men at all. In fact, they displayed for her one form that just had the two of them baffled out of their wits. She immediately knew what it was and began to explain it from the top.

Kirby used that opportunity to sneak by the door.

The rotund pink character quickly darted from one side of the doorframe to the other. Cruise looked above his coworkers because he thought he saw something unusual, and then looked down when quickly prompted to. Kirby hadn’t been around to see that, so the moment wasn’t tense at all. In fact, Kirby kept his pace. By now he had taken off to run around the IDR many times, so he was a little familiar with the hallways. The last corner rounded led to the expansive area where the transports were located. Kirby’s limited knowledge included what these transports were, how they worked, and how to find out where they went.

Wasting no time, Kirby ran alongside the front of every transport, making a short hop periodically to see where each one was destined. It took a little bit for him to register the one he was looking for labeled ‘Ontario,’ tried to stop, but only ended up on the front of his feet and falling over. Not thinking about the tumble twice, Kirby ran back and to the door of the transport. The transport detected a presence in front of its door and opened up.

Having only done it in reality a single digit number of times, Kirby inhaled a large pocket of air. His mass expanded over a less concentrated area, so even the remnants of a gust from air conditioning would lift him. Kirby directed his ‘flight’ with his arms until he was directly in front of the transport’s control panel. He opened his mouth, which ejected the air he held in all at once, hitting the control panel with the force of a fist. Whatever button or combination of buttons he pushed, it worked. A recorded voice announced the startup of the transport. The doors to the transport closed and began to shuttle Kirby off to Canada.

When it came time to devise a transport system to and from the IDR, the task was entrusted to Japanese engineers and mechanics. Because of that, the transports themselves were designed reminiscent of Japanese trains. These high-speed shuttles followed one of hundreds of tracks that start from the IDR and branch out to several locations in every continent. The tracks were all underground and lead to nondescript locations such as alleyways to avoid detection.

The transport halted and opened up to a frame leading into a snow-blanketed park. When he stepped out of it, he looked back to see a log house wall. This wall was actually created with Digital Reality, rigged to let anybody out, but act like a log house wall unless the one coming into contact with it had clearance. Kirby had no clue if he held any such thing, and would rather not bother with that, so he walked out into the frosty landscape, making oval footprints into areas that hadn’t been walked in a while.

Kirby unbeknownst had walked into Algonquin Provincial Park, the oldest park in Ontario brought under protection in the nineteenth century due to potential dangers of logging. Of course, Kirby can’t be expected to know this, but it didn’t keep him from enjoying the sights. The normally vibrant and bright trees were coated thinly while the snow that did not land on a tree covered the ground, and were additionally covered by foliage and pine needles. Genuinely unaware of the parks massively numerous wildlife, Kirby carefully crossed over a beaver dam, but did not make it all the way across gracefully when a certain component did not prove as firmly attached to the rest of the dam as it looked. The stick fell, and so did Kirby, down an incline. Thankfully that one stick did not bear any big load and its removal did not harm the dam as a whole.

The snow provided a comfortable slide down the incline leading to a somewhat hallowed area next to one of the park’s many rivers. After he brushed all the snow he accumulated on the fall, he never would have expected to see what he did on a casual glance. It was something to see a person out and on a park trail in this dead of night, but even more so to see the young man that you couldn’t turn around without hearing about nowadays.

Indeed, Captain Gamer sat against the incline, looking out at the lake, eating a sandwich.

Kirby approached the yet-to-be-familiar person in his own eager way. His footfalls in the snow made a bit of noise which made the teenager of the two look to the side and down. For a brief moment they just looked at each other. Kirby the video game character and a young man calling himself ‘Captain Gamer,’ the latter eating a sandwich, having a chance encounter at a shore in Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada. With the vast imagination of late night talk shows, there was a joke in there somewhere. An optimistic mind would attribute the moment to one of awe.

Kirby broke the ice with his recently signature long-lingering ‘hi.’

Gamer lifted a hand and pointed a finger. “You’re Kirby! From the games! Now where did you come from? Heh, I guess there could be only one place you could have come from.”

The pink one tilted his body in thought. How interesting that the very same question was being asked of him all over the world right now.

“Shouldn’t you be in the IDR, anyway? I never heard anything about you being realized.” Gamer looked at his sandwich of non-important origin. “Want some?”

Whatever thought process Kirby had been running through stopped and died for the want of food. The character nodded his body eagerly.

All possible absurdity of the situation out of the way, Gamer tried to rip off a piece of his sandwich for Kirby. The complete separation, bread, ingredients and all, proved difficult. With a yelp of “Oops!” the entire sandwich fell. None of it hit the ground for Kirby solved the problem the only way he knew how. He inhaled and the ingredients of the sandwich were all caught in the vacuum and he ate the cascade all at once. To see it done in a game is nothing new, but to see it in real life where physics takes hold, it truly was amazing. “Nice catch!”

Kirby nodded, but seemed to enjoy the food more than the compliment.

At this point, Gamer knew that he and Kirby were two non-confrontational people in a mutual respect, but he honestly never expected his visor to ring to life with those familiar words, ‘Link Established. Coding Game Card.’ Immediately after the black object ejected from the Gamer Station and landed in Gamer’s hand. He held it up and looked at it with disbelief. “All this… just because I shared my sandwich?”

The fact that Kirby swallowed to the food in his mouth rather than respond properly was enough of an answer. Gamer scratched the back of his head. That must have been GOOD sandwich that he had lost all at once.

Like a large pink bullet Kirby took off. Gamer’s head whipped around to follow. “Whoa! You’re just going to dine and dash like that!?” He called forward and gave obligatory chase.

Kirby ran down the shoreline some, then up and incline into the frosty woods. Now were they good enough friends to randomly play hide-and-seek? Gamer grabbed onto some trees for leverage and pulled himself up the incline after Kirby. After a turn on a dime, Kirby traveled only in one direction. A little bland for trying to lose someone, isn’t it? The reason for Kirby traveling in such a way and arbitrarily running off in the first place, became slowly apparent. In the distance, between the trees directly ahead, Gamer could make out a large solid object or structure; something that shouldn’t currently be in Algonquin Provincial Park.

Both runners stopped at the same location. They had entered a clearing where a circle of trees had been literally uprooted. Not a trace of them remained under the fallen snow. In the middle of this clearing was the solid structure, which bathed the area in glows of every color of the rainbow. The bottom was a large circular stone base with raised walls holding in sparkling clear water. Up from the middle rose a pillar with a flat top adorned with a star. Standing upright in the middle of this ornamental star was what appeared to be an archetypical magical wand, but the purple stripes and glowing star on top gave it all away. That wand was the Star Rod of Kirby lore and the structure in front of them was the Fountain of Dreams; definitely things that were not native to the park, Canada, or even this world, save Digital Reality.

The fountain emanated a soothing and relaxing aura sure to put any onlookers at ease, but floating above it was something, rather someone who negated the feeling and soured the mood. His appearance was like that out of a silent film, one of those dastardly villains who tied damsels to train tracks. A cape wrapped around a hidden body that simply thinned and met at a point at the bottom. His head held host to every sinister trait, a long, crooked nose, a large dimpled chin, half-circle beady eyes, and a golden crown with long horns. Both Kirby and Gamer recognized this figure as Nightmare, a predictably named but very malicious fiend who causes bad dreams.

Nightmare floated down in font of Kirby and Gamer, prompting them to adopt battle-ready stances, but he simply turned his back to them and looked at the Fountain. “Curious things, nightmares.” the villain said in monologue to those behind him. His voice was low, collected, and chilling. He raised a hand from beneath the cape, “The only time when the mind can escape the rules and laws of the real world… turns on those who rely on them so much. What masochistic part of the human subconscious actually finds it worthwhile to treat the mind to images that terrify and humble? Whatever it is, it sure has been given a good workout lately.  I’m sure you’ve had trouble sleeping lately.”

“You mean… nightmares?” Gamer looked past Nightmare to the Fountain of Dreams. Nightmare gave a look that his foe was indeed a formidable one. He had heard and seen every indication that Gamer wasn’t exactly the most seamless of the defenders of ignorance, but a few real-world version experiences may have toughened him up. Gamer looked back to Nightmare’s back and stated matter-of-factly, like one states their travel plans over a holiday vacation, “I don’t do the ‘nightmare torment’ cliché.”

For a split second, Gamer’s removal of himself from the situation caused Nightmare to scowl in a way that said he ought to smear Gamer over all the trees in the area right now. It may have been too much to expect for a kid calling himself ‘Captain Gamer’ to be competent. For his own reasons, he continued to monologue. “Hmm-hmm… I’m sure you’ve had the occasional nightmare, the showing of anything you most don’t desire.”

Kirby perked at all the mentions of nightmares and pulled on Gamer’s pant leg. He pointed at Nightmare. Gamer looked from Kirby, to Nightmare, to the fountain. No locks burst in his mind, but he certainly came to a realization and hard. “OH!” He yelped and pointed with Kirby, “He’s causing that nightmare epidemic that’s all over the news!!”

Nightmare turned around with his eyes narrowed sourly. “You must have the thought process of a gnat.”

“Hey!” Gamer shot back, “Plot points that are obvious are because they are presented to the players! In-game characters don’t have that luxury! That’s why so a lot of accusations of characters being especially oblivious are actually unfounded.”

The darkened expression on Nightmare showed his disdain, “What are you talking about!? Do you waste your time coming up with these ludicrous analogies to stay ‘in character!?’ What a poor excuse for a human being!”

Gamer seemed offended at first, but by now he must have seen enough jest and slander about him on the airwaves to develop a tolerance, especially in the presence of an enemy. “Say what you will about me, but what you’re doing is just plain wrong. Dreams are something that shouldn’t be messed with! Without them, mankind would never be shown images that inspire them! This is why that word ‘dream’ is used to describe ambitions and goals and things like that! These types of experiences keep people going, offer solace, and ignite the imagination to strive for a better world! Don’t you understand what you’d be doing if you took those away?!”

“But of course. Dreaming will become… undesirable. Either stay awake in the cold, hard real world, or try to escape into your dreams where only greater horrors await you! Pretty soon the undesirability of dreaming will seep into its definition as aspiration. Creativity and effort towards decency and innovation will not only cease, but those who still strive for it will be seen as foolish. Finally, the true nature of your kind will be exposed without your dissenting idealism to block it off!”

The enthusiastic gesture Nightmare made highlighted the sadistic nature of what he was saying. Kirby held steadfast but Gamer couldn’t help but break stride. There were some pretty morbid things for a cartoonish villain to be saying. All the same, he was a villain. “You’re nuts!” was the only thing Gamer could find to say before his stock of hero banter came back, “I can see there’s no reasoning with you. We’re going to stop this operation!”

Kirby made a determined mouth noise and nodded his body.

Nightmare scoffed and hid his hands underneath the cape again. He turned his head toward the fountain. “As long as that funnel, shaped like the Star Rod, is attached to the fountain, I will be able to change the good signals that come from the fountain into bad ones that stimulate the brain to present nightmares instead of dreams… And I stand guard at it.”

That sure set off something in both Kirby’s and Gamer’s minds. If Nightmare was trying to intimidate, he slipped up and now his was playing with his cards facing outwards. Gamer turned his head toward Kirby and the pink one took it as a sign they were thinking the same thing.

“Hold it!” Gamer stopped, “Those things are Digital Reality! How can they cause people to have bad dreams?”

Nightmare’s hands emerged to give a nonmoving shrug. “I’d have thought that you of all people would think to just find it magical or just say it’s science and move on. It’s quite simple, actually. Signals are sent up to a satellite fixed directly above. The signal is spread all over a widening radius, but cannot affect everybody. Imagine the resentment. The sheer lack of sleep alone will cause intolerance. Slowly the world will turn short-fused and devoid of culture. Once the tension boils up and affects worldwide relations…” The hands clasped together like smothering out a flame, “You can use your imagination.”

The villain opened his eyes for effect. He saw the one he was explaining all these things to, but no pink main character. With a cross between an exasperated groan and a grunt Nightmare repeatedly and exaggeratedly turned to look for Kirby until he rotated to the Fountain of Dreams. Perched on the top of the pillar and just having put his hands on the Star Rod. “A distraction!” Nightmare howled, causing Kirby to flinch and look sheepishly to the speaker, “You little pink phlegm!!” His hands swept outward and caused his cape to billow out. Beneath the cape was a cosmic tornado ending as a tip like the cape did. Nightmare pointed and produced a projectile that looked to be an empty white frame in the shape of a star symbol. Kirby decided whether to just try and yank out the Star Rod or cut-and-run when the decision was made for him by the star frame. It landed below Kirby and launched him airborne like a limbed dodge ball.

Gamer shouted the obligatory call of concern and made to act. Nightmare’s hands were up again, meaning he was preparing another shot to Kirby in mid air. The hands instead folded to either side of Nightmare’s head and pointed directly backward. A pair of stars shot from the fingertips and took Gamer by surprise. One nailed him square on the chest, making him lean back, then another on the stomach to make him keel over. The whiplash mustn’t have been pleasant.

Another pair of stars came Gamer’s way but this time he was prepared. “Proto Shield!” He called out, slammed the Game Card in, and the shield materialized over the Gamer Station barely in time to catch the first star and move to block the second. “That’s what I’m talking about!”

Too busy admiring his quick thinking and reflexes, Nightmare’s next tactic went right over his head. Actually, it hit him dead on. Nightmare positioned his torrent of a body toward Gamer and thrust forward like a drill. Time slowed down as a crack appeared in the shield, and then the entire thing burst open and apart. The attack had been slowed down by the interruption, but it was still plenty to at least knock Gamer back and out of the hallowed-out circle. The trees swallowed him visually, but Nightmare paused to hear the “Oof!” of Gamer’s landing. His grin spread as he whirled around to deal with his greater perceived threat: A little pink orb.

Meanwhile Gamer painfully picked himself up. What little of the blow he took from Nightmare’s drill attack was plenty more than those stars. He took to his feet looking annoying and determined. After all, anybody who’s studied up on his battle ethic would noticed that this would be the second debilitating hit he took to the stomach, and more that ‘It’s game time!’ hadn’t been properly declared. He took a vantage point leaning against a tree and looked at Kirby’s status. He was making none. He performed a terrified dance to dodge Nightmare’s projectiles while the villain laughed in great amusement.

“Why is he just running around there?” Gamer wondered aloud, “He has so many powers!” The wheels in his head must have turned to cause him to bump it lightly on the tree, “… When he eats something!”

Gamer looked around for anything that Kirby could eat to gain powers, but being in reality, there really wasn’t much resembling anything Kirby eats. All he could see was a bunch of trees, leaves, and all over the ground… gave Gamer an idea.

The idea came no sooner, as Nightmare relented. “Hmph, this is proving mundane. I should finish this before your type’s annoying ingenuity causes you to make…”

“TIME OUT!!” Gamer shouted from far away. The could-be hero approached with his hands behind his back.

“… A comeback…” Nightmare muttered scathingly.

Gamer stepped between the Dreamland rivals, still keeping his hands from Nightmare’s view. “Sorry to interrupt, but the field just wasn’t level. I have with me our secret weapon!” In a way imitating Nightmare he brought his hands out, a snowball in both.

Nightmare growled, “I’ve had about enough of your juvenile tomfoolery. Such shenanigans may work in a video game, or a poor children’s fable…”

“Oh, they’re not for you.” Immediately the snowballs were thrown upwards. Nightmare looked up at them, expecting something out of the ordinary, but the focus of his attention ought to have been on Kirby and Gamer.

“Game Card… Power Copy!” Gamer slammed the Game Card that Kirby had just produced for him into the Gamer Station. The snowballs began their descent back down, one falling toward Kirby and one toward Gamer. Kirby watched in interest how the information for how to use the Power Copy flashed on Gamer’s visor. Gamer acted upon his instruction and brought the insides of his wrists together and opened his hands out in a way that replicated Kirby’s open mouth. Kirby caught on to the act and began to inhale upward. The snowballs landed in Kirby’s mouth and Gamer’s palms at the same time. When Kirby swallowed the snowball an amazing transformation occurred.

An icy blue jewel appeared on Kirby’s forehead which traced two lines and met in the back. From these lines small mounds of ice sprouted up and formed a spiky ice hat with the lines as supports. The hat chilled Kirby until his skin turned a shade of blue. The snowball had endowed Kirby with the ‘Ice’ power.

If he were going to undergo a minor transformation, Gamer might as well add his flare for the dramatic to the mix. After he grabbed the snowball into his waiting palms, he drew his hands back and then brought them out holding a pile of frost that wasn’t in the previous ball form. He tossed the frost up and it landed on his head. When the frost dissipated, the same hat as Kirby’s appeared on Gamer’s head except the purpose of the ornamental ice was played by Gamer’s hair which froze in an arguably stylish spikiness and turned blue.

Gamer resumed his normal battle stance and cracked an arctic grin, “It’s game time!”

Nightmare folded the cape over himself defiantly. He was not going to let this display intimidate him. “So?” He muttered, “You’ve adapted to your surroundings. I’ll give you credit for doing what humankind normally refuses to do, but it hardly changes disparity of power. Now just die!”

Kirby shoved off as soon as Nightmare produced his hands again to fire off stars. Instead of a run, Kirby more slid forward as if he were ice skating. It wasn’t the ground that lost friction, Kirby’s feet were what became slippery as ice! Kirby leapt to meet the incoming star and spun. As he spun he generated a stream of frost that encircled him. The star passed into the stream and came out completely covered in ice. Kirby came to a landing and bounced right back up. The frozen stars lost momentum and fell to where Kirby intersected them with a kick. The frigid stars traveled toward Nightmare only to meet a matching pair blocking the counter-attack.

“No more of this foolishness! The Star Rod stays and you shall perish!” Nightmare’s cape billowed out again as he readies his drilling attack. Kirby passed under him and the villain gave chase.

Gamer watched the foes move away. It hit him that while Nightmare was too busy trying to end the bigger threat, he could go ahead and grab the Star Rod! Nightmare was giving chase too ferociously for this to have been another fake-out. Curious, Gamer checked under a shoe and saw a layer of ice over the sole. “Time to make my entrance to the skating world.”

The to-be hero rotated his neck and moved his leg. Unfortunately, there was less friction so his foot didn’t stop. Gamer tried to bring it back by stationing his other foot but that didn’t have desirable friction either. To avoid doing the splits he moved his feet around and ended up doing a magnetized dance until having had enough of being out of control overpowered the lack of friction and he brought his feet together again. A quick note passed through the visor, probably mentioning how to control when his shoes get ice on them or not, for he shoved off again like Kirby did and began skating naturally.

Speaking of which, Kirby had his nub-like hands completely full as Nightmare launched a flurry of stars at him while charging forward drill-like body first. Kirby’s nimble skating ability helped him avoid being hit but Nightmare’s mounting frustration made the chase’s end only a matter of time.

“…And you..!!” Nightmare howled and rounded upon the Fountain of Dreams where he knew Gamer was headed. He shot another round of stars in Gamer’s direction.

Gamer yelped and came to a stop. Two of the stars passed him, but the third was coming right toward him. With nothing better in mind, Gamer acted out of doomed instinct and made an overblown clap of his hands. His eyes squeezed shut for he thought his hands were about to burn up or something, but he had actually caught the star! The coldness of his hands caused ice to form where he caught it. He chuckled in that he could do that and in that he actually pulled it off. He thought about throwing the star right back, but then he considered what Kirby would do. Gamer popped the star up and caught it in his palms. The star vanished into his hands in time for Nightmare to see no discernable weapon. Gamer proved him wrong and released the star, which had become a head-sized ice cube.

Nightmare knew better by now. He whirled around and in the same fluid movement reached out an arm and grabbed Gamer by the scruff of his neck. Unfortunately for Nightmare, this brought a strategy to mind. Gamer held his hands together and brought them down but not all the way. A torrent of frost swirled around his combined fists and bit at Nightmare’s face fiercely, forcing him to drop Gamer. The teen tried to make a getaway toward the Fountain, but turned around to see if Nightmare was still occupied. He was not and sent a star that was the fasted and most volatile yet. In a flash of pink tinged blue, Kirby made an acrobatic jump up and took the hit. The space Kirby occupied exploded.

“Kirby, no!!” Gamer called out for the second time. A different star, one that represented Kirby’s power after it was knocked out of him, flew through the air and disassembled on the ground. From the cloud of smoke a thin line following Kirby shot out and past the Fountain of Dreams.

“Taking the hit!?” Nightmare jested, “How noble!” The horn-crowned villain let out a laugh, but it was short lived. “What…?” He slowly breathed in fury.

The Star Rod was no longer on top of the Fountain of Dreams. Kirby, back to his normal pink self, jumped on top of the Fountain and waved the Star Rod around in his hand. A sports camera slowed down and zoomed in would have seen that Kirby took the hit not only to defend Gamer, but to gain momentum toward the Fountain of Dreams. Kirby was shot toward the Fountain, repositioned himself, and used his momentary bullet-like speed to pull off the Star Rod as he went.

“Yes!” Gamer hissed and directed a point triumphantly toward Nightmare, “That’s the end of that!”

Nightmare was not angry or dismayed that the Star Rod had been pulled. He was not seething at all. His head bowed slowly bobbed back up until a maniacal laugh ripped through the normally silent Ontario air.

Not as slow to figure the plot points as before, Gamer looked toward the fountain and saw Kirby hop around a billowing blackness. “Uh oh… We weren’t supposed to do that… were we?”

Nightmare leaned forward, “Oh, you were. You were. It was anticipated that you heroes would succeed in your valiant efforts to remove the Star Rod from the Fountain of Dreams! Tragically…” Nightmare’s voice dropped, “You were misled.”

The darkness from the Fountain ceased to flow freely and directed toward Nightmare. The darkness surrounded the sinister form and entered through an opening in the cape.

“‘It was anticipated…?’” Gamer echoed, “You’re talking about the people who realized you, aren’t you!? Who was it?!”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Nightmare calmly inquired before continuing his explanation, “You see, the Fountain of Dreams really is an object of the good and benevolent. It is so in order to contain something within it. The cap, the gatekeeper of what the Fountain contains is that rod.” He indicated the Star Rod, which made Kirby look at it as if it would further betray him by exploding. “What the Fountain contained… was me. You see, if I were whole, I would cause disorder, but enough to merit attention. If any heroes were to be eliminated, they would have to come based off a passive signal that only digitally realized beings could sense.”

“That must be why I got the sudden urge to come to this place… and Kirby, too! This was a trap!”

“Finally, a little speed on the uptake. The remainder of my power and I were created apart and I was too much of a nightmare to touch the Star Rod. But you, you heroes were just enough to pop the cork and set me free! I am the one causing the nightmares, and as soon as I am complete, I will orbit this planet and bathe all in the darkness of the bad fantasy. But before then, I must eliminate all traces of resistance. You two, without any assistance or anybody knowing your fate, will be the first.”

The darkness had completely drained from the Fountain of Dreams and had all siphoned into Nightmare. As the last strand of it disappeared, Nightmare keeled over in midair, then tossed his head back to bark out a laugh with several contrasting demonic voices at the majesty of his newfound power. “After all your determination, your optimism, your belief, you’ve FAILED! Now I shall wipe those things from sentient thought and watch the descent of this planet into a man-made HELL!!!”

This was one of those times when wearing a completely obscuring visor worked for Gamer. He’d been in peril before, but the demonic voice, monstrous expressions, and promises of global disorder were a bit too… real, for a lack of any better fitting word. Gamer backed up and may have contemplated running away. Perhaps thankfully for Gamer, Kirby spared him the duty of a full and official reaction to Nightmare’s threats. The pink hero stepped up brandishing the Star Rod.

Any climactic moment he would have provided from there was immediately cut off when Nightmare opened his cape. From the cosmic winds underneath several strands of star dust behaving in a liquid manner stretched out and surrounded Kirby. The small hero lost track of which strand to defend against first and found all of them assaulting him.

The Star Rod was tossed up and tumbled over the ground until it bumped into Gamer’s leg. Perhaps going off of the events of ‘Kirby’s Adventure’ or the Star Rod’s functions in the Super Smash Bros. games, Gamer stepped in front of Nightmare and swung the Star Rod vertically downward. In ‘Kirby’s Adventure,’ the Star Rod generated a star composed of light when swung, which was the only way to damage and defeat Nightmare. When Gamer had swung the Star Rod, not so much as a spark was generated.

Nightmare’s expression, however, did not change. He was still wearing the grin of concealed ecstatic joy. “…And what are YOU going to do? Wave your magic wand and make disappear the bad person saying things you’d rather not hear!? Or perhaps you’ll keep with your delusions? Hope that you can will me to the ground? Perhaps your boundless imagination will manifest in a way that is ACTUALLY FEASIBLE!”

The strands of star dust had gained figurative upper ground on Kirby and began to pull him. No doubt something untimely awaited him if he was pulled into the source. Nightmare made a passive sweeping motion that kicked up a gust of force that knocked Gamer back, which caused him to lose grip of the Star Rod and send it into the trees.

Nightmare made sure he never gave the terror a chance to subside. When he saw Gamer look up again, he opened his cape again. Under the cape, star dust took a form of every skeletal and serpentine form as if trying to emerge from the cape and rip the nearest living things to shreds. Behind these monstrosities, human figures writhed. Faces contorted in pure horror, limbs outstretched and reaching for the helping hand that does not exist, and the eventual pushing under from another body, placing the former figure deeper into the sea of bodies; the very image of Tartarus itself.

Among the artificial screams, Nightmare could not be sure if Gamer had released one at the sights he beheld, but his body language more than satisfied. A single look into the pits of a stellar damnation caused the once bright hero to turn his visor to the ground and hold his head. He may have been trying to block out the sounds of the screams, but Nightmare knew a look of terror. He was terror.

“Yes!” he barked, “Turn your eyes from the nightmare! Run!”

Kirby was almost his. When he got that struggling bubble gum wad past the Star Rod, he could bring him into his tornado-like body which would literally break Kirby’s structure apart and separate the programming keeping the body and innate powers together and free to absorb into his own being. When the digital incarnate of dreams became his, no amount of monologue-sputtering heroes would be able to stop him.

Gamer was standing. He was going to run already? Much to Nightmare’s chagrin, Gamer looked up again. The contortions of his jaw indicated great effort. Was he about to gain a second wind again?

“You are a nightmare.” the hero barely muttered, his voice literally forming hills. He sounded like he had something else to say, but he ended up turning right into the circle of trees. Was that an attempt at an insult before departure? All Nightmare heard was a statement of the obvious.

The night was dark, but the illumination from the Fountain of Dreams and a convenient parting in the strands restricting him allowed Kirby the sight of cobalt vanishing into the green and white. Kirby continued to bob around and try to find Gamer. The fusion was already beginning. Kirby’s despair and betrayal played in Nightmare’s mind, as well as the desperate hope.

It all vanished when Kirby caught sight of a bouncing light among the trees. Nightmare took a look for himself. The light parted the trees and it was the Star Rod. Trailing behind the luminous weapon, Captain Gamer, the Power Copy taken off and his body in every original color, took a full run toward Kirby to hand off the rod like a torch. Irritably, Nightmare once again swept toward Gamer.

“Game Card, Mega Slide!!” Gamer called in as tight a frame a time that one could say that collection of words. In a matter of seconds, if it even took a multiple amount, Gamer called the Game Card, inserted it, and let it work. He dropped and traveled underneath the burst of force that Nightmare sent toward him. “Catch!!” He then shouted to Kirby and passed the Star Rod underhand. Kirby caught the rod with the fluidity of a hand receiving a falling glove.

The Star Rod was thrust into the air and radiance emanated from it. The strands around Kirby attempted to retreat, but were all dissolved into bits of star dust before they could. Despite having a powerful tool, Kirby still scrambled to be as close to Gamer as he could before turning back to Nightmare.

Gamer balled a fist in momentary triumph, “I knew it!! A force of nightmare cannot exist without a force of dream! You were reunited with the extension of your ability, and now Kirby has been reunited with his! As I was saying, you are a nightmare, but as a wise man once told me, ‘Fear is an emotion, courage is an action!’ You say that you’ll rid the world of inspiration and creativity. Judging by what just happened, those things aren’t gone yet, and as long as there are good, honest people with good, honest values, those things aren’t going anywhere and using technology magic to try and rid the world of them is the sloth’s and the coward’s way!”

“‘Sloth?’” Nightmare repeated, his face still fallen from Kirby’s release, “‘Coward?’ I do not suffer from cowardice, I CAUSE cowardice!!” The villain opened his cape and let his ghastly images out to assault his enemies.

Captain Gamer called forth his Beam Sword and inserted the weapon’s Beam Sword. The weapon materialized in his hand in time to rise up and cleave a snake’s head into dispersed stardust. A skull couldn’t even get within a few feet of Kirby before dissipating. Nightmare quickly looked back and forth at the two heroes watching his attacks fail. “What… what is… this…?” The question compounded when he noticed the last word was said in the voice he held before, and not in his fear-inducing tone.

Gamer held battle-ready, but felt that Nightmare’s question should be answered as well. “You’re not as strong as you think you are! All that ‘boost’ did for you was give you a new look. Your power came from the fear you sensed in Kirby and in me. Without that fear, you’re slowly becoming nothing!”

Nightmare was furious. “What!? You can’t… you can’t be serious!! That’s too cliché to work!! Delinquent!” he spat back in a different tone. “You’re trying to intimidate me! You cannot intimidate me! You cannot make me fear! I am intimidation! I am fear!!”

“You lie! How can you know fear when you’ve never felt it yourself!?” Gamer looked down and saw Kirby patting the Star Rod into his opposite hand, ready to use it. “I think Kirby wants you to learn now.”

On cue Kirby leapt to the Fountain of Dreams. He jammed the Star Rod back into the Fountain’s top and the world turned white.

The light from the Star Rod bathed a large radius in the park in light. Since it occurred somewhere central, the worst side effects were that some animals lost some sleep. Nightmare shut his eyes and emitted an under-worldly growl as the light overtook him. When he dared to open his eyes, he saw no light.

In fact, there was only black as far as he could see. He couldn’t even see his own hands. He didn’t mind, though. The darkness was comfort to him. That meant nobody could see him, either. As long as he kept anonymity, all was well. Whatever just happened, those brats with their Star Rod were gone now. They may had gotten the better of him with their false hope, but the next time he saw them he would conjure up an image so terrifying…

A light.

Two lights, actually. One was a small white rectangle and another was a tube of a lighter shade of pink. What form of light dared penetrate this world of absolute darkness? Nightmare approached the two lights. The lights got closer and the white one slowly changed. The middle of the bottom of the white light – growing more silver as Nightmare got closer – began to cave up. When the lines focused, Nightmare knew what the silver light was, and in effect what the pink – now lavender – light represented.

The white light was a visor.

“No… no!” Nightmare vented, “I was just rid of you!”

If the visor was there, so was the one wearing it. Nightmare swiped forward with his hands to grab the visor’s wearer but only hooked air. The lavender light moved forward and struck Nightmare as if punishing him for trying to defy the light. Frustration turned to concern, Nightmare moved back and away from the light.

Nightmare could feel air rush underneath him indicating he was moving backwards, but the two lights got no farther. To great dismay a third light appeared following a click. This newest light was yellow in color and grew in size until it reached a maximum size. “Charged Shot!” Said the visor.

‘Shot?’ An attack? From the light? That was exactly what was happening. The yellow light charged forward from where it was stationary. It would have closed the gap between Nightmare and itself if the villain hadn’t began to up the pace of his retreat. Despite his efforts, Nightmare didn’t get any farther from the ‘Charged Shot.’ Trying to escape it was pointless! Nightmare faced the incoming yellow light to see if it was still coming, and saw it was upon him. He raised his hands, palms out, and shrieked.

The light’s descent felt like a slap from fire. As trite and overdone as it sounded, the light burned him. The light initially exploded into a concussive strike, but the light itself ignited fires on his body of physical nightmares. As if it were tissue paper, Nightmare’s cape suffered the fire’s travel up to the collar and was gone in seconds. His tornado body, and one big weak spot, were completely exposed.

The strike also returned Nightmare to reality. He was returned to Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, planet Earth. The silver white was indeed Captain Gamer’s visor, the lavender light was the Beam Sword, and the yellow light was a Charged Shot from the alleged hero’s signature finisher, the Super Scope. The projectile weapon had done its job. Nightmare barely could muster the effort to stay afloat; forget actually launching an attack.

Kirby lifted the Star Rod, its glow as bright as ever. The Dreamland hero leapt into the air in front of Nightmare and made a grand sweep down with the Star Rod. The Star Rod’s radiance produced a glorious white projectile star, which traveled the distance between its point of creation and its target. The star penetrated Nightmare’s body and sent the villain reeling back, howling.

As all the digitally realized life leaked from the Star Rod’s puncture, Nightmare remained still and collected, simply casting a look to the sky. “So this… this… is fear. Strange, I would have imagined myself in an absolute panic. Yet knowing it like this makes it not so terrifying. Fascinating.”

Nightmare’s damage intake peaked and he burst into an explosion of star dust and smoke. These elements snaked away in an organized billowing.

Kirby and Captain Gamer stood, suddenly not knowing how to react. Celebration was a given, but the whole ordeal of the world’s livelihood truly having been immediately at stake, and all the horrific experiences they just had, were allowed to play through in a summary of all that just transpired. Rather then let it play out, scary parts and all, Kirby relished in the disaster averted and fell back to rest. Gamer seemed to take a liking to the idea and kicked up to land on his rear himself.

Kirby merrily walked the halls of the IDR after his departure with Captain Gamer and his transport ride back. All negativity aside, in the long run he had done a tremendous thing and no amount of the world being threatened would damper that. The lights in the halls were dim to conserve energy during inactive hours, but the lights to the Professor’s office were still on. Footsteps from behind made Kirby turn around and see Cruise, perhaps returning from the restroom, headed in the same direction.

“Hey, Kirby! What are you doing up at this hour?

For once, Kirby was glad he couldn’t talk. Cruise scooped him up and continued to the Professor’s office. The sight that awaited him caused his jaw to drop.

“Welcome, Cruise!” the Professor greeted jovially. “Pull up a seat!”

The entire office was clear of