RAF TAS: Novelized

[Grace]

You lost the whole thing? Wow. that's sad.

[Blocky97]

Wow, what a brutal buzz kill.

I had that happen to me in Halo Reach Forge.

[Horsefan1023 (Seal)]

Wow, Sealie, way to get on the ball with this. 

Anyways, in which Blocky has his ass kicked, the mods are epic by existing, and we muse on pink.

Episode Two

Demos crossed his arms.  They were both still at the Pokémon stadium, Demos perched on his platform, Blocky across from and below him.  “Do you even know how to fight?”  The demon asked him.

Blocky would have blinked if he had eyes, and said, somewhat sheepishly, “Er…not…really…”

Demos let out a sigh at his opponent’s ignorance and began to explain.  “Do you remember the list of special abilities you chose while creating your character?”

Blocky tried to nod in confirmation, gave up, and said, “Yeah.”

“Well, once the fight begins, you’ll have complete access to those abilities just by thinking about them,” Demos said, tapping his head for extra measure on the word “thinking.”  “But they do drain a lot of your energy.  That’s why you’ll be given enhanced strength, speed, and flight.  That way, you don’t have to completely rely on your special attacks.”

Demos paused for a breath, smirked, and continued.  “The fight ends when one of us ‘dies.’”  He made finger quotes in the air around “dies.” 

“What happens after the loser ‘dies?’”  Blocky asked, attempting to make finger quotes as well.  This failed spectacularly due to his lack of arms. 

Demos chuckled openly now, and despite himself, it sent shivers down Blocky’s spine.  “I wouldn’t know,” Satan’s Spawn confidently said, “I’ve never lost a match.  And I certainly don’t plan to anytime soon.”

Blocky rolled his eyes internally, not even bothering trying this time.  “Let’s just get this started already!”  he said impatiently. 

“We have to pick an area to fight in first,” Demos said. 

“We aren’t fighting here?” said Blocky in confusion.

Demos sighed.  “Does this place look big enough for us to have an ‘all out, no holds barred fight to the death?’”

As he was thinking this through, Blocky said nothing.

Getting impatient to start as well, Demos forcefully supplied an answer.  “THE ANSWER IS NO!”

“You have one minute to pick the stage, or you will forfeit the match,” the computer said sweetly in her robotic voice.

“I challenged you,” Demos explained, “So you have to pick the area.”

“What?” said Blocky, a little lost. 

“Just shout the first place that comes to mind,” Demos suggested.

Okay…um…fighting Satan’s Spawn…”Um…Heaven?”

The stage faded to white.  Demos was still standing on his platform, even though it wasn’t there, so it looked like he was just floating up there. 

Demos chucked demonically again.  “So you think fighting Satan’s Spawn in Heaven is gonna save you?”  He grinned crazily.  “Think again!”

Blocky said nothing, trying to ignore the shivers down his spine from Demos’ downright creepy expression.

Suddenly, “Heaven” faded into view.  Blocky blinked a few times.  It was nothing but a line of clouds stretching endlessly in every direction.  The clouds had smiley faces on them.

Demos thought nothing of it.  “Ya ready?”  He asked.

Blocky thought now might just be a good time to back out of it, or ask Demos some more questions.  “Well…” he began to admit.

“TOO LATE!” Demos shouted, suddenly vanishing.  He appeared right behind Blocky.  As the ice block was turning, Demos raised his hands.  “Chaos…” he said.

Oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap, how do I fight as a block of ice, what do I do?!  Blocky thought desperately.

“RUSH!” Demos shouted as he closed his hands into fists and pulled them close to his body.  A black-and-blue sphere of energy surrounded his body, sending Blocky flying into oblivion.

Demos grinned again, crouched, and leaped.  He began to fly until he was at the same speed as Blocky, then vanished again.

He reappeared, flying alongside the ice block.  He had maintained his momentum even during the poof, so he was right alongside the unfortunate teenager this entire trip.  Demos did a flip in midair, slamming his legs into Blocky and sending him flying off again.  He then raised a hand, a ball of energy pulsing into existence.  He sent it soaring away.

“Oh shiiiiiiIIIIIII—” Blocky shouted as the ball of energy came flying towards him.  His curse was never finished as it exploded right next to him, stopping his upwards climb and sending him shooting sideways.  Demos reappeared just above and to his right, kicking down viciously as the ice block passed underneath him.

Blocky went shooting into the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust on impact.  Demos dropped like a stone as well, slamming into the ground and sending Blocky flying a few feet away.  Satan’s Spawn jumped forward, rising into the air and taking Blocky with him using a blindingly fast series of punches and kicks.

***

“Wow.”  Back on the Bored Board, Seal and Blue were watching with considerable awe.  “Blocky’s really getting his butt kicked,” Seal continued.

“Hey Horsie,” Blue said, eyes still riveted on the screen.

“Yeah?”

“Do me a favor.  Remind me to never piss Demos off.”

***

Demos finished off his combo with another flip, sending Blocky into the ground again.  As the ice block recovered, the demon dropped to the ground a few feet again.  He raised his hands.  “Chaos…” he began.  Blocky gulped as he saw the red glow expanding around his friend.

“RUSH!”

Then everything was red.  Well, no, that wasn’t right.  Blocky could still see the clouds and Demos, but they were both silhouettes.  The red was starting to hurt his eyes.  No, everything hurt.  Oh, man.  Yeah, that hurt.

Blocky didn’t even know he was flying into the air until he exploded.

Demos rose from his crouch, grinning.  There was a flash of red in his eyes as he said in a gravelly, evil voice, “See you in hell.”

***

“Blue?”

“Yeah Seal?”

“Do me a favor.  Remind me to never to anything vaguely offensive anywhere near Demos.”

“Good plan.”

The TV screen had stopped on Demos’ grinning face and the words FATALITY in large red letters across the screen.  A bit unnerved, Seal turned the TV off.  She and Blue hauled themselves out of their comfy chairs.

“Okay,” Blue said to her.  “When he comes in, make it sound like he fought hard.”

Shifting her gaze to something over Blue’s shoulder, Seal paled.  “Uh, Blue…” she said quietly.

“Don’t even mention how he got his ass brutally kicked,” Blue plowed on.

“Blue!”  Horsie said more forcefully this time.

“Just keep complimenting him, lie, and say that even though he lost he did a good job.  That way no feelings will be hurt.” 

“BLUE!” Horse shouted at him.

“Shush!”  Blue said impatiently.  “I’m trying to tell you not to tell Blocky how badly he got his ass kicked!”

There was a small cough from behind him, followed by a huge shout of “I’M RIGHT HERE, BLUE!”

Blue jumped about five feet in the air and whirled around.  A very disgruntled Blocky was standing grumpily behind him.

“Oh, Blocky!”  Blue said, nervously and falsely bright.  “I, uh, didn’t see ya there!  Heh heh...heh…” His chuckle petered off into silence.

“Yeah,” Blocky said, definitely grumpy.  “I know.”

“Don’t be so upset, Blocky,” Seal said cheerfully.  “We honestly didn’t expect you to win anyway!”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?!” Blocky demanded.

“Yes,” Seal said forcefully, very sincere now.  “Demos has been Beta testing the forum for days, including the BattleDome.  This is only your first day.  You shouldn’t feel bad about losing to someone with so much more experience than you.”

“I guess you’re right,” Blocky admitted, “But he kicked my butt so badly!  I didn’t even get a single hit in!  He…he made me feel weak.”

“You just have to keep training,” Blue said encouragingly.  He had gotten over his flustered moment.  “Seal and I will spar with you whenever you want.”

“Yeah!”  Seal said.  “We’ll make sure that the next time you face Demos, you’ll be ready.”

Blocky would have smiled if he had a mouth.  “Thanks, guys,” he said.

“No problem,” said Blue, clapping him on the shoulder.  Or the left side of the top of his body, as that was where a shoulder would be.

“Now,” Seal said, clapping her flippers together.  “Let’s go check out those other boards!”

“YAY!” Blue and Blocky shouted together.

***

“So this is the Media room.”

The walls were yellow, like the Bored Board, but decorated with game and TV show posters instead of Animorphs ones.  There were several TVs, and a huge rack of DVDs on the wall.  Seal stayed where she was, still examining the room, but Blocky rushed to one TV and Blue rushed to another.

“WOAH!” Blocky shouted, considerably more excited than Seal.  “ALL THREE NEXT GEN CONSOLES!”

“ALL SEASONS OF HEROES!”  Blue shouted from his TV.

“THIS PLACE IS AWESOME!” Blue and Blocky shouted in unison.

Suddenly, three more figures appeared in the room.  “OMG!”  One shouted.  “Blue?  Horsie?  Blocky?”

“JESS?!”  The three RAFians yelped in unison.  Jess grinned. 

Jess was an elf-like character, with pointed ears and long green hair, which strayed into her face.  She had a green dress cinched around the waist with a band of gold, along with green shoes with golden details.

“Oh, thanks for my warm welcome,” the figure behind her grumbled.  Seal leaped forward with a yell of “FAERIE!” and promptly tackled-hugged her to the ground.

“Gerrof!”  Faerie Larka yelped, pushing Seal off of her.  She stumbled to her feet.  Faerie was wearing gray armor that covered her whole body, minus her head.  She had gray eyes and very light gray hair, which was done up slightly sloppily.  She was toting a huge gray battle ax, which she now hefted over her shoulder.

“Wow…Estrid…you’re…pink.”  Stammered Blue.  It was true.  Estrid, the third newcomer, had a pink shirt on, a pink skirt, pink tights, pink shoes, pink hair, a pink headband, and pink gloves.  Even her pointed ears had a pink something or other on them.

“Uh, yeah…pink.”  She said, looking down at herself.  “Heh.  I am very pink, aren’t I?”

Everyone else in the room glanced at each other, then chorused, “yes.”

“This new RAF is great!”  Faerie said excitedly.  “We just left the fanfiction section.  They have a whole stage for somebody to read their fanfics aloud.”

“Yeah,” Estrid said.  “It’s awesome.”

“Horsie, you should go there and read your story!”  Fae said with a grin.

“Yeah,” Estrid said.  “It’s awesome.”

“That sounds cool!”  Horsie exclaimed.  “I’ve always wanted to read Revenge of the Banned in front of a live audience.”

“Let’s go there now!”  Blue said, already running from his TV for the door.

Blocky jumped up and followed suit.  “Yeah, let’s go!”

Seal laughed, and Jess grabbed both boys by their arms as they ran by, tugging them to a halt.  “Hold your horses!”  The little Spheal said.  “It’s late, and I’ve gotta get to bed soon.  Before I leave for the day, I want to see if I can find some more people.”

“We saw Morf and Spartan hanging out in the Animorphs board,” Jess offered. 

“Oh!  Let’s go there!”  Horsie said, and Jess released Blue and Blocky.

“YAY!”  The boys yelled, charging for the door again.

The girls smiled fondly and followed, Estrid pausing to mutter, “Pink…” before leaving the room.”

***

Elsewhere in the forum, the black matrix of space seemed to stretch for eternity.  Four rocks, flat on the top, floated in the void.  It was there that five figured appeared, four of them on the rocks and the fifth floating in midair.

“Thank you all for coming on such short notice,” Richard, the floating figure said.

“No problem, Rich,” Claire said.  She was a human, albeit one who had green skin, with a gray top and a brownish skirt.  Her hair, a slightly darker shade of green, was done up on top of her head, and she held a staff in her hand.  “To be honest, we were all kind of expecting this.”

“Yeah,” Phoenix added.  “This is RAF’s reopening.  Of course you’d call a staff meeting.”  Phoenix was also a human, with spiky red and orange hair.  He wore dark yellow armor over his entire body and a red cape, as well as red gloves. 

“Yes,” Richard admitted.  “I guess it was rather obvious.”

Russell looked up.  Most of his body was covered by a cloak he wore.  It was mottled green, brown, and black, and draped across his body more than Richard’s fitted cloak.  Only Russell’s hands and face were showing, and those were both blue.  “So was there anything in particular we need to discuss?”

“Not really, just a typical meeting,” Richard said.  “Has everyone been enjoying the new RAF?”

“Yes,” the rest of the mods chorused. 

“Good.  No problems to report yet?”

“Had a few disrespectful newbs,” Claire said, waving her hand (the one not resting on the staff) dismissively, “but they’ve been dealt with.”

“I got a BattleDome challenge,” Russ said, amusement on his face.  “Some Warcraft obsessed nerd.  Needless to say…his ass was kicked.”

Richard chuckled.  “Of course.  Otherwise that ‘nerd’ would be standing in your place right now.”

Russell laughed heartily.  “I’m not giving up my mod powers THAT easily!”

“So,” Richard said, folding his arms into his sleeves in a thoroughly mystical fashion, “other than some out of line newbs, everything’s been going smoothly?”

Goom, who had remained silent until now, spoke up.  “Actually Richard, I believe I’ve spotted a problem that needs immediate fixing.”

“Oh?”  Richard questioned.  “And what might that be?”

Goom turned to his left, and the space between the rock he was standing on and the one Russell was standing on flickered.  An image of the forest section of the chat flickered to life, enclosed in a hovering square.  “It all started a few hours ago,” Goom said.  “This is security footage.” 

The camera panned across the chat to two RAFians, both represented by Shy Guys, running forward and ramming into each other.  Fighting, for lack of a better word.  “I was walking through the forest section of the chat when I noticed these two fighting,” Goom narrated.  “I didn’t think much of it since they can’t do any real damage to each other outside of the BattleDome, that is, until…”

Goom’s voice trailed off as the footage continued, a huge explosion filling the entire “screen.”  When it cleared, the newbs were gone.

“They killed each other?!”  Demanded Russell.

“Yes,” Goom confirmed heavily.

Claire shook her head, denying it.  “That’s impossible.  They’d have to be in the BattleDome to die.  That’s how you and Richard designed the game!”

“Yes,” Goom said.  “Richard and I did make it so that users can only kill each other in the BattleDome.  But…something is rewriting the forum’s configuration.”

“What?!”  Richard demanded, floating a few feet higher.  His stiff stance showed his anger.  “WHO THE HELL IS MESSING WITH MY FORUM?!”

“I’m getting to that,” Goom said as the video showed himself running onscreen.  Suddenly, a green ball of light descended, much like the ones when the RAFians logged in.  But this one was larger, and surrounded by a black haze, not a white one.  “It was some type of virus,” Goom continued.  “I tried all my anti-virus software, but nothing worked.  Normally this wouldn’t have been a big problem, but this virus seemed to be…”

Goom hesitated, as if he was having trouble believing what he was about to say himself.  “…alive.”

“Excuse me?”  Claire said, startled. 

Goom nodded.  “It even spoke.  It told me to deliver a message to Richard.”  The goomba looked the Father of RAF in the eyes.  Or hood.  “It said…‘Enjoy ruling RAF while you can.  Because your days are numbered.’”

The screen next to Goom vanished.  “This is serious!”  Russell exclaimed. 

“Very,” Claire agreed, tapping a finger on her staff.

Phoenix looked at the floating figure next to him.  “What should we do, Richard?”

Richard was silent for a while, bobbing up and down.  “I’ll look into it when I get the chance,” he said eventually.  “For now, it’d be best if we didn’t make a big fuss over this.  And whatever you all do, DON’T tell any RAFians.  The last thing we need is RAFwide panic.”

When the mods murmured assent, Richard continued.  “I have a family reunion to go to in the Bahamas and I won’t get back or have access to a computer for three days.  But when I get back, I’ll look into this problem immediately.  You all have my phone number, right?”

The mods nodded.

“Good,” Richard said.  “If this virus’ rampage accelerates in any way, let me now immediately.  But for now, everybody get some rest.”

He paused before adding a slightly chilling final thought.  “Something tells me we’ll be needing it.”

“Yes sir,” the other mods said.

“Meeting adjourned,” said Richard.

The mods vanished one by one, leaving Richard alone.  He hesitated for a moment longer, then vanished as well, leaving only the blank space and four lonely rocks.

[SuperBlue]

Sealie, you are wonderful!

[Blocky97]

*applauds the new chapter* Good work yet again!

[A ghost you know]

Yay, a new chapter! Very exciting!

[Horsefan1023 (Seal)]

OH MY GOD I HAVE A DRIVE TO WRITE SOMETHING RAF RELATED

I just finished the fight scene for episode three which means chapter three is almost here!   

[Blocky97]

Yes, good. Amazing! AWESOME!

[Horsefan1023 (Seal)]

I astound myself...Chapter Three!

Episode Three

Faerie’s hushed voice carried easily across the enthralled audience.  She was sitting on the stage of Estelore’s Poetry Corner, telling her story.  Morfout, Claire, Blocky, Seal, Jess, Cloaky, Estrid, and Blue were listening as she spun her tale.  Faerie was sitting on a stool in front of a microphone, battle axe across her lap.

“And as I watched Mr. Bojangles’ shadow disappear into the Onion of Twilight,” she said, nearing the ending, “I knew that I would never see him again.  But his teachings would live on in my heart, and the hearts of the other children in the orphanage. 

“‘Big sister,’” her voice became high-pitched as she imitated the little boy’s voice.  “‘When is Mr. Bojangles coming back?’ Jacob asked me.”

Her voice returned to normal.  “‘I don’t know, Jacob.  He may never come back at all.’”

Faerie shifted slightly on her stool as she resumed narrating.  “I could feel the sadness in my brother’s heart.  But he’d be fine, he’s a tough kid.  As we walked home, I wondered where Mr. Bojangles was now.  And if he’d remember us, like how we would all remember him.”

Applause erupted in the room as Faerie slid off the stool, and Blue wiped a tear from his eye.  “So beautiful,” he whispered as the storyteller went backstage.

Estelore, who was Wakko Warner, jumped onstage and onto the stool, standing on it in order to reach the microphone.  “And that was Faerie Larka, reading ‘The Taste of Music.’  Unfortunately,” she continued, “It is now time to close Estelore’s Poetry Corner for the evening.  I hope you all enjoyed yourselves tonight, and I hope to see you all tomorrow so that we may continue to appreciate the stories, art, and poetry from our fellow RAFians.”

Este held up a hand as several people rose from their chairs.  “Now, before you leave, let’s have one more round of applause for today’s three readers, Faerie, Spartan, and Jax!”

Applause and cheers rose up once again as Estelore grinned and left.

***

Still backstage, Faerie was talking with Jax and Spartan, sometimes known as Parker.  Jax was a man in red robotic body armor with blue and white pieces here and there, and a red helmet with blue accents.  An extremely long blond ponytail flowed down his back.  Spartan was one of the Spartans from the HALO universe, with green armor.

“You did great, Faerie!”  Jax said cheerfully.

“Yeah!”  Spartan agreed.  “The part where Dr. McNugget had to fight the flying cabbage literally had me on the edge of my seat!  And then Dr. McNugget was actually Mr. Bojangles!”

“Thanks, guys,” Faerie said modestly.  “Your fics were great too!”

“So…” Jax said.  “What do you guys feel like doing now?”

“Well,” Faerie said, stretching.  “It’s Friday, so I don’t have to wake up early for school, soooooooooo….we can just chill in the Bored Board all night.  Maybe catch a few BattleDome fights.”

“Sounds good,” Spartan said.  “Let’s go.”

***

The desert glistened under the blazing sun, though rocks dotted the sand here and there.  One of the rock formations, highly unusual for a desert, was promptly destroyed by the impact of a block of ice, who stuck in the wall for a few moments before sliding to the ground.

Blocky’s assailant landed a little ways away.  It was an orange Meta Knight with green feet and a blue sword, which was outstretched towards his opponent.

“Come on, Blocky!”  CloakedFigure said impatiently.  “You can do better than that!  When Horsie and Blue paid me to train with you, I thought you’d at least be some sort of a challenge.”

“Gimme a break!”  Blocky said resentfully.  “I’m doing my best.  And what do you mean they’re paying you?!”

“That doesn’t matter!”  Cloaky shouted impatiently, waving a dismissive gloved hand.  “What does matter is that your best sucks!  If you want to beat Demos, hell, if you want to beat ANYBODY you need to step your game up!”

With that, he spread his wings and shot towards Blocky, who was still laying on the ground.

Time seemed to slow down for the ice block.  “NOT THIS TIME!”  He shouted, stretching back and slamming into Cloaky.  The impact was surprising, and Cloaky couldn’t stop a yelp of pain as he went flying backwards. 

“I’m impressed,” Cloaky quickly covered up, rubbing his forehead.  “You’re pretty fast for a little guy.”

“Whoa!”  Blocky exclaimed, sounding mystified.  “I actually hit somebody!  That felt…good!”

His voice suddenly deepened a little, sounding almost…sinister.  “It felt REALLY GOOD!”

Blocky laughed openly now, and that was definitely sinister.  Downright freaky.  “So good, I think I want to do it again!”

“Uh, Blocky?”  Cloaky asked nervously.  He fidgeted nervously.  “Are you okay?”

“I THIRST FOR BLOOD!”  Blocky suddenly shouted, his new demonic voice sending shivers down Cloaky’s spine.  Suddenly, there was a blur, and Cloaky found himself flying backwards yet again.  He had barely seen Blocky move that time…and OW HIS FOREHEAD HURT A LOT.

“Uh, Blocky, I think we should end our little training session now,” Cloaky said quickly, hauling himself to his feet.

Blocky chuckled deeply.  Cloaky was very glad his friend had no face, because he had no doubts that if the little ice block had one his expression would be terrifying.  “Now why would we stop when I’m having so much fun?”

“Because,” Cloaky said, taking a step backwards.  “You’re starting to freak me the hell out!”

“WE SHALL CONTINUE OUR FIGHT!”  Blocky yelled.  “AND WE WON’T STOP UNTIL I AM VICTORIOUS!”

“This is gonna be a loooooooooong night…” Cloaky whispered.

***

Back in the Bored Board, Spartan, Faerie, and Jax stared at the screen, mystified.  Cloaky was repeatedly jumping up and down on Cloaky, who was yelling each time Blocky fell on him.  “Block-y-you-should-stop-now-ow-that-hurts-stop-it-come-on-stop-ser-i-ous-ly-STOP!”

“Er…” Faerie began.  “Is it just me…or does Blocky seem a little…off…?”

“Hmm,” Spartan noted.  “Now that you mention it, he does seem a little more aggressive than usual.”

“A little?!”  Jax demanded.  “He’s using Cloaky’s face as a trampoline!  I think that’s more than a little aggressive!  You think we should help?”

“Are we allowed to interrupt BattleDome fights?”  Faerie wondered.

Jax shrugged.  “Only one way to find out.”

***

Back in the BattleDome, Blocky was indeed “using Cloaky’s face as a trampoline,” as Jax put it.  The Meta Knight was lying prone beneath him.

Suddenly, an axe flew out of nowhere, slamming into Blocky mid-jump and sending him flying.

Blocky soared away, slamming into the ground, bouncing, and skidding away.  Faerie reappeared in front of him, swinging her axe again in an upward sweep.  This naturally sent Blocky flying upwards, until he was stopped by Jax’s armored palm.

Before Blocky could do anything, an energy sword appeared in Jax’s hand, and Blocky was tossed around by that before he went flying away again courtesy of a horizontal sweep from Jax’s sword.

An explosion sent him flying again as Spartan lowered his rocket launcher.

Faerie ran over to Cloaky, who was sitting on the ground, dazed.  Jax appeared a moment later, and Spartan switched his rocket launcher out for a large gun as Faerie spoke.

“Are you alright, Cloaky?”  She asked, concerned. 

“Ye…yeah,” Cloaky stammered.  In reality, his whole face (which was pretty much his whole body) hurt like hell, and he was seeing a few stars.  “I’m fine.”

“What’s wrong with Blocky?”  Jax demanded, kneeling next to his comrade. 

“I have no idea,” muttered Cloaky.  “One minute we’re training.  The next he’s attacking me and shouting random stuff like ‘You will inhale the stink brought upon by the armpits of defeat,’ and…”

Cloaky’s voice trailed off as Blocky’s interrupted.  “YOUR BLOOD WILL PAVE THE STREETS OF MY VICTORY!!!!”

“That too,” Cloaky sighed.

Blocky suddenly jumped in, soaring over Spartan’s head, who backed up.  Blocky jumped again, slamming into Jax and sending him skidding away.  Spartan was next as Blocky sent him flying.  Faerie and Cloaky quickly teleported away, not wanting to risk the same happening to them.

Faerie reappeared behind the ice block, swinging her axe in a horizontal sweep with a grunt of exertion.  That grunt gave her away, and Blocky jumped away, landing nearby and jumping again, ramming Fae.  She tumbled away as Parker pulled out a huge gun.  “This should do it,” he muttered, hitting a button.

A huge green-and-orange energy blast came shooting towards Blocky.  It came closer and closer…

And he jumped over it.  There was a pause.

“Dammit.”  Parker said quietly.

Cloaky flew up behind the Spartan, lobbing a couple of fireballs that he conjured.  Blocky dodged those too, dancing between them with inches to spare.

“He’s too fast!”  Parker complained.

“I’m faster,” Cloaky insisted quietly, spreading his wings and flying forwards.  He swung his sword, but Blocky jumped over him, avoiding the attack.  Cloaky vanished, and Parker appeared just as he landed.

“GOTCHA!”  Parker yelled as he swung his energy sword straight into the ice block.  Blocky went flying.

However, Blocky finally managed to figure out how to fly, and stopped himself midair, sending himself shooting downwards a few feet as Faerie came zipping out of nowhere, axe mid-swing. 

Suddenly, bullets rammed into him, sending him sideways from the impact.  Parker hovered there, gun aimed.  However, Jax beat him to it, and with help from a small explosion Blocky went soaring upwards.

Cloaky went zipping by them, flying straight towards Blocky.  The ice block stopped himself midair, but this proved to be useless as Cloaky caught up.  The Meta Knight angrily whipped his sword forward, bashing it into Blocky repeatedly before kicking him sideways.  Everything froze as Cloaky raised his sword.

He lowered is sharply, and a huge bolt of lightning came out of nowhere, slamming into Blocky, who promptly exploded.

“FATALITY,” a dark voice said.  It was a new feature added to the BattleDome after the victor was decided.

The BattleDome hologram went dark around them, and when the lights came back on Cloaky blinked.  He, Jax, Faerie, and Parker were standing just outside the door to the BattleDome, the door shut behind them.

Blocky was passed out cold on the ground a few feet away.

The fighters glanced at the ice block, then at each other, then back at the ice block.  Eventually, Faerie voiced what everyone was thinking.

“…what the hell?”

***

“Well Goom?  Have you figured out what’s wrong with Blocky?”

The five combatants from earlier were in the RAFhospital.  It was a simple blue room with a few beds in it, one of them occupied by Blocky.  An Employee of the Month sign hung on the wall, bearing a picture of everyone’s favorite Goomba.

Goom, who was wearing a white coat in honor of his current position, nodded.  Jax, Faerie, Cloaky, and Parker were gathered around Blocky’s head, taking care to avoid the machine that he was hooked up to.

“I knew what was wrong the minute you brought him to me,” Goom admitted heavily.

Jax narrowed his eyes.  “What do you mean?”

Goom hesitated a moment longer before relenting.  “Blocky was possessed….by a virus.”

“A VIRUS?!”  Cloaky demanded loudly.

“Yeah,” Goom said.  “The mods and I were hoping to get it all sorted out before it did any real damage to the forum, but…apparently we’re too late.”

“Is Blocky gonna be okay?”  Parker said, concerned.

“Being possessed so long has drained a lot of his energy,” Goom explained.  “So he’ll be in a coma for a while.  But other than that he’s fine.  He just needs to rest.”

Faerie let out a huge sigh of relief.  “Good,” she said.  “I didn’t want to be the one to tell Seal that Blocky is dead.”

They all paused a moment to consider Seal’s rage at that, and shuddered despite themselves.

“Nope,” Goom said quickly.  “Nobody’s dead or dying…at least for now,” he added grimly.  “If this virus continues possessing RAFians it’s gonna get stronger, it may even be too strong for the mods to stop.”

“Crap,” Spartan murmured at that thought.

Jax nodded vehemently.  “Sounds like that thing needs to be stopped ASAP.”

“And it will be,” Goom reassured, “but for now I think it’d be best not to worry about it.  What matters now is that Blocky is safe and he’ll regain consciousness in at least two days.  I’d also like to thank you guys for your courage, not many people can hold their own against a possessed block of ice.”

“It wasn’t really that hard,” Faerie mumbled under her breath.  Goom didn’t hear, however, and continued.

“Oh, and…I’d think it’d be best if we kept this little conversation to ourselves.  No need to worry the other RAFians with this whole virus business.”

“Our lips are sealed,” Cloaky promised.

“Good,” Goom said, satisfied.  “Now, if you’ll excuse me, Claire is throwing a party at her profile page and anybody who’s anybody is gonna be there.”

“OH!”  Faerie shouted, perking up instantly.  “A PARTY?!  CAN WE COME?!”

Goom chuckled at Fae’s excitement.  “Sorry, but it’s invitation only.  Maybe next time.”

Faerie visibly deflated, slumping sadly.  “But…”

However, Goom vanished from the hospital.

“….dammit,” Faerie said, staring at where he had been a few seconds ago.  Then, in a whining voice, she shouted, “I WANNA GO TO THE PARTY!”

Jax patted her on the back.  “It’s okay,” he said soothingly.  “But I hear Horsie is about to go read some more of her story.  Wanna go?”

“Fine,” Faerie muttered grumpily, sulking out of the room.  Parker and Jax followed, but Cloaky paused in the doorway.

With a sigh, he rubbed his forehead.  “That hurt,” he informed the prone ice block on the bed, before leaving, closing the door softly behind him.

[SuperBlue]

Lulz. A goomba dressed like a doctor. Doesn't get much more adorable than that.