Ausmerica — 80 years after being founded, which is in itself sometime set in the future of a distant universe.
“I’m about to find some for-real people in Ausmerica.” I said to my drone. It flew around on the busy street looking to find the perfect angle while making sure that my ‘Free Hugs’ sign was clearly focussed.
“As you probably know, unless you been like living under a rock. There’s this cool new pranking trend on Rabbitter. How it works? You stop a random stranger on the street, ask them to give you a hug, and if they say no, then you give them what they deserve. You use a levitating spell on a cranberry pie and aim it straight into the loner’s face. That’s how you know whether people are for-real of not. It’s called #TrialByCranberry. There’s a lot of fake people around, they aren’t like not real, but they are like not for-real. There’s a lot of people who live their lives out to exactly what the Rock Family wants. Keep your head down. Be a good corporate worker bee. They are like all cogs.”
The camera drone displayed a reflection of myself and through an earpiece I could hear exactly what I was saying.
“Right now, I’m here on Main Street, Central District. I’d just bought and downloaded the cranberry levitating spell from the BNP Spell Store. Most professional Creators from West Side would at this point hire a magician to help them set up and activate the spell behind the scenes, but you know, I have a Bachelors degree in Magic Science from Ausmerica University so I know my stuff.”
The pie was set up behind the street bench next to a box of 35 other pies that I was going to use for the rest of my day, and my first volunteer of the day; a drably dressed dude in an ill-fitting white collared shirt had just declined to hug me. I tapped a button on my mwand to activate the spell. The pie hesitated as the spell lagged for a split second before levitating and flying towards the loner. But the guy must have been a hobbyist magician or something because he took out his own mwand and deployed a shield spell that split the pie in half. One half splattering onto his face and the other half flying backwards towards the bench and hitting my box of pies with enough force that it ripped and scattered a stream of red sauce down the busy street.
“What was that for?” The angry man yelled.
“Hey I’m a professional Rabbitter, and this was a prank video! You just got…”
“I don’t give a crap what you do asshole! Go to West Side to film your crappy videos, you rich piece of shit! I got to go to work like this!” He raised two fingers at me and walked off. The entire day of scheduled filming had gone down the drain and the worst part is that I still need someone a little better looking to feature in my video.
“Get out of the way bud!” Another passer yelled out. “Dammit! This stuff is everywhere!”
I moved to a different location and spent the next thirty minutes filming an outro.
“So as you can see, people loved the #TrialByCranberry, me and the team got everyone laughing and smiling, and we will see you ClipFam peeps next week for a big challenge.”
I called my drone over, packed it into my bag, hopped onto my DI hoverboard and zipped off. The DI Hover Max. They’re good boards, you know. I don’t get sponsorship or anything, just wanted to give them a shout out.
…
In the world of social media, there are two types of Creators. Those who’ve made it, have billions of followers, millions of dollars of sponsorships and their own TV shows. Then there are those like me who are grinding our way to becoming famous. I shouldn’t complain though, my channel is mid-sized. It’s called FunnyClips B. The B stands for… well it’s a secret. Trade secret. You should check out my channel if you haven’t done so already. Give ya boy a like and a follow if you haven’t done so already. I’ve got a few hundred thousand followers at the moment. FunnyClips B is mostly just daily pranks. I also do vlogs and stuff, but pranks are like my bread and butter. I’m on both Rabbitter and MeCam, but Rabbitter is more of my go-to sharing site. It’s just got better immersive experiences, you could upload videos with feelies that enhances the viewer’s experiences. Mecam’s pretty good for info-documentaries but as to why anyone would want to create content on an outdated medium is beyond me.
It’s been really fun doing this, I was studying to be a magician at Ausmerica University, but three years into my four years there I kinda got sick of the prospect of getting a corporate or government job and slaving 20 hours a week just to keep my folks happy. Hell, even most magic technician jobs, you can’t even get your foot in the door with post-grad qualifications…
So five years ago, I quit and I’ve been hustling to get this to work. Just haven’t made it to the big Tiers yet. It’s hard you know, everyone wants to be like Neal Bull who pretty much exploded overnight with the Style Dawgz 15 years ago, but people don’t talk about how Shelley the Dog worked his tail off for 20 years before getting noticed. If I had to pick my inspiration, it would have to be Shelly the Dog. I remember watching a MeCam documentary about him and how he spent those 20 years unknown to everyone. People liked his videos, they loved his charisma, personality and the way that he was able to make you feel like he was the friend that you never knew you had. He grew organically into the biggest Rabbitter in the world. He always said that if you worked hard enough, anyone could become a Tier 1 Rabbitter.
I just wish my parents would get it. They’re middle class cogs in some corporate factory with barely a dream between the two of them. All they wanted for me was to grow up, meet a nice girl, get married and live the same kind of comfortable middle-class job that they have. To them, the idea of sacrificing a little for a big dream was beyond their comprehension. They were so deeply afraid of falling down to the lower class that they often worked overtime to make sure that they fitted into the company culture.
I entered my small apartment. Sometimes I wonder how I could be spending 80% of my 1 million dollar Universal Basic Income on this crappy space. I dropped my gear into my spare bedroom that I used as a studio, wiggled my way into the kitchenette to grab a bag of instant noodles, and leapt onto my futon still in my designer clothes that I wore for filming, ready to spend a few hours watching Rabbitter and reading comments from my followers.
“wannabe PranksterCrew without a crew. Go crap yourself.”
“Why make stupid videos you stoopid loner? Just give up you looser!”
I angrily typed a reply.
“It’s kind of hard to find good Creators to collaborate with. If you keep featuring mid-sizers then you end up being known for being Mid-size, and you can never break into the Tier3, and upwards. So that’s why I make these videos alone!”
It was stupid replying to a hateful comment, so I deleted the reply and kept scrolling.
“hey B, who’s the girl in the background?”
“Barista girl so cute!”
“Do a prank on Barista girl! She’s for-real!”
I was intrigued. I started zooming in on the timestamp and lo and behold there’s this kind of cute weirdo girl that just shows up right at the corner. She is dressed in her dark green barista uniform and would wait in the corner of the Main Street piazza to watch the Tier1 creator group Hero’s Up on the third billboard from the middle. I would be filming my own videos, and she would just be there in the frame.
Followers were curious about this girl. She turned up on my channel too often. There were many more comments asking me to prank her. Or just engage her in some way. I guess I got to do what the viewers want.
…
One day, I saw a Small Animal follow her around. A flipping ferret! It must have been asking her for money. Filthy Small Animals! Must have been bothering her. So I approached her.
“Hey peep, this folk bothering you?” I glared at the ferret. “Scat!” I told it off. It turned away, and muttered something about needing Transport money under its breath.
“I see you hanging around here a lot peep! What’s your name?” I zoomed my drone in for a closeup.
“Thanks… I guess. My name is Wizza.” She shrugged in a soft feminine voice.
“Hey peep, I don’t want nothing from you. Just want to make sure that you’re not being bothered or nothing.” I glared at the ferret. “Anyway, mind if I asked you a few questions? I’m a professional creator on Rabbitter. My channel is called FunnyClips B. I do daily videos and seen you around here quite a bit. My followers are interested in who you are.”
I pointed to my new 50 thousand dollar drone hovering in the air and showed her my channel.
The girl blinked at me. At this closer distance I could see that she was on the younger side. Heck, maybe even my age. If she wasn’t so slouchy and tried so hard to hide herself from the rest of the world, she’d probably be good on camera. Maybe even do like a weekly segment but she was so shy that I started getting bored. I’d have to find something else to make this video work.
“I’m Wizza… I’m waiting… ah for the Hero’s Up show to start.” She pointed at the screen.
I asked her why she was such a big fan.
“Uh… I dunno. I guess, my parents gave me up when I was little and I grew up in foster care. Hero’s Up was the only thing that I looked forward to every week. They are the only people I could really relate to, you know? Eeeek!” She violently dived into my arms.
I looked around for a projectile, but there was nothing.
“Sorry!” She gave a crooked smile, cocked her head, and blinked her adorable wide eyes at me while dusting herself off. “Bad habit. I get crouchy whenever I see a security drone.” She pointed at the police drone hovering around the corner.
“Don’t worry about it. They’re harmless. I remember a time when I was filming and one of those drones…”
“Shhh, it’s starting.” She raised a finger to her lips.
Yep, this girl was definitely just a big goofball. Excellent background. Underdog. Makes her way into stardom. I felt my heart beat faster. She had large wide blue eyes, a good figure, and warm glowing smile under her dirty locks. I actually really kinda felt sorry for her. She looked sad, but in a really sympathetic way. I couldn’t wait to get back to my apartment and edit this video. Part of me knew that I had accidentally struck gold. Maybe I could do a segment about growing up rough. Rags to riches. The whole Cinderella story. And because she’d already shown up in a few of my videos, she was mine and mine alone.
We stayed and watched the rest of the show. It was the usual typical BS Hero’s Up stuff. A bunch of peeps dressed in different coloured tracksuits fighting crime on a ‘normal average-day’ street near you, who almost always has a falling out at the 7 minute mark but realise that they must work together as a family to beat the bad guys.
“Doctor Evilman! You can never get away with this!” The handsome red tracksuit wearing leader of the group shouted as he jumped down from the second story of a building, landing in a superhero pose and raising his ruby red mwand in the air. He fired a red coloured blast of fire at the villain.
The moustached top-hat villain brushed it off and laughed manically.
“Rascal! You may be a naturally powerful magician! The most powerful sorcerer in all of Ausmerica! But you are no match for the powers that I have acquired from the Doomsday Dilation Device!!!”
“But he is not alone” A mysterious figure wearing a blue tracksuit walked up beside Rascal.
“Herma, glad you could make it!” Rascal nodded at her.
“Nooooo!!!! That is not fair! I will defeat you in the name of evil!” The villain drew a glowing black ball of dark magic from the matte grey metallic box, and threw it at the two.
“He’s too powerful!” Rascal said through gritted teeth.
“We can’t hold it!” Herma shouted.
Two more figures walked into the frame. One wearing a blue tracksuit and the other wearing a dark green robe.
“We’re here.” Xerxes, the rhino shouted.
“Yep! Sorry for calling you guys all those hurtful words.” Fineas, a squirrel said.
“Excellent!” Rascal said. “Everyone hold hands! Together we will use the force of light!”
“Ha?! What are you doing?!” Doctor Evilman took a step back. “I’ve never felt such power! I’ve shut down the BNP generators, where are you getting this power from?!”
“Never underestimate the power of family!” Rascal and the other members of Hero’s Up all collectively took a step forward as the entire screen was filled with a brilliant white light.
TUNE IN NEXT WEEK TO FIND OUT HOW DOCTOR EVILMAN’s SON JUNIOR EVIL TAKES REVENGE AGAINST RASCAL AND THE TEAM!
I don’t get how people watch this stuff, but I got to admire how successful Hero’s Up has been as a channel.
“And now we’re going to show you the best dancing videos the Hero’s up fam have sent us this week.” Rascal, the team leader of Hero’s Up clapped his hands.
It was then that something unusual happened. The girl started dancing. Sparks flew from her hands. Sparks of all different colours, and in my mind I could see rhythms playing out. Dancing to the swing of her hips. She wasn’t a very good dancer… actually she was a very poor dancer, but something drew me in. I registered in my mind that she must have been a natural magic user, possibly untrained, but she had to be extremely talented. Not many people could grasp sparks in their hands without getting burnt. I was totally engrossed. Hypnotic. Strange. Awkward. Out of this world. It was captivating.
“You’re a mage! You are able to do magic without a mwand!” I breathed excitedly. “That’s some unique stuff. I doubt most professional magicians could even do that!”
“We’re going to try this every week to bring some cheer to the world. Just send your best dancing videos to us, and we’ll include it in our Dance for 10 Seconds Segment. Catch y’all next week! And remember, anybody can save the day!” Rascal ended the program.
The billboard changed to an opinion news segment. “Every day hedgehogs are living below the poverty line through oppressive government affirmative actions. What I don’t get is how an Ausmerican trillionaire like Spikey Lui could sleep at night with all his money when his fellow species people suffer to that extent…”
The girl looked at me. “You’ve got video of that on your fancy camera drone right? Can you send it in for me please?”
“Of course!” I replied almost instantaneously. “By the way Wizza, you’ve got some pretty good moves. You want to do a few dancing videos with me? Oh and keep doing those sparks, they are awesome!”
…
Over the next few weeks, we filmed videos together after she finished work. There was just something about that girl. Some star factor that boosted up my viewership. It came out when she started dancing. I secretly thought that her natural mage powers must be psychologically linked. Even the people being pranked got less annoyed when they talked to her. Every day she’d ask me whether or not I had received word from Hero’s Up about that first dance. I was divided on that. On one hand, I knew that if they’d got their hands on the kid, I’d lose my one big asset that drove people to my channel. On the other, I could potentially make it big if I ended up being promoted by Hero’s Up. So I lied, I knew I shouldn’t have. I’m a good person, but I just got to protect my interests. Besides, we’d started up a new Dance Weirdly segment, and that’s been driving up views exponentially. We’ll be in the Tiers soon.
We were practicing for one of those videos one day at my cruddy little studio in Central. My channel, recently renamed as FunnyClips B and Wizza the Barista had just reached 3 million followers and thirty million views. I felt like I was working well with Wizz. It was close to the end of the session. Wizza was great, she’d learn new moves very quickly, and would offer suggestions on how to make the video even better. But as we finished up one routine, I saw a little sadness in her.
“Hey Wizza, ah personal question?”
She looked at me with questioning eyes and sighed.
“Are you happy working here?” I asked her.
She paused.
“Yes! Very much B. All my life I dreamed of being something more, and doing something exciting. Now here I am, on my way to becoming Creator.” She smiled widely.
“You know, you’ve got a big talent. You’re really lovable.” I started.
“Thanks…” She smiled at me coyly. She brushed a lock of her hair behind her ear.
“And you know from what I learnt at university, people who have a stronger affinity to controlling magic, especially people who are natural mages tend to be proportionally stronger with their willpower. More stubborn, but I find you to be so agreeable.” I continued.
“I really like it when you talk like a nerd.” She smiled. “You really should do it more often instead of using your camera voice!”
“It’s measured in milliwills, you should get tested. I reckon you’ll be at least 50mWills, while I used to top out at maybe 10mWills. I wish I had magic like yours, after dropping out of university I kind of just stopped being able to do it properly. It feels like I’m only on 3mWills, I don’t know why.”
“We sync really well, and make a great team!” She leaned over and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek.
“Keep it up and you’ll be able to quit your barista job.” I promised. My cheeks glowed.
A sudden knock came from the door. I looked out and down onto the street. Who was it? They came in their colourful armoured limousine. The Heroesene. A testament to the weird and wacky world we all lived in that even their vehicle was a character in their world. I tried stopping them from coming in until I noticed that Hero’s Up had a film crew and they were filming live.
Hero’s Up? Rascal, Herma, Xerxes, and Fineas. The greatest Creator superhero group! In my mind, I remembered them by the colour of their tracksuit. I guess the tracksuit colour branding worked.
Hero’s Up glided through the doorway and onto my studio floor. Standing around in a half circle reminiscent of the pantheon of the Greek gods. I was taken aback, why were Tier1 Creators doing in my studio?
“Hey, Hero’s Up! Glad you could make it!” I gave them my biggest friendliest grin.
“FunnyClips B and Wizza the Barista! Good to see you.” Rascal waved at us.
“We’ve been watching you for a while now, we’re probably your number one fans! Especially of your dancing segment, and we’d like to ask you if you want to be part of our super secret project coming up.”
Rascal motioned for his camera crew to end the live-stream.
Wizz was ecstatic. She bounced around like an excited tiger.
“I’ve been your biggest fan since like forever. I… I mean… we would love to be part of your project.”
Herma beamed at Wizza. “I’m glad you like our videos, we’re just trying to make everyone feel like they are part of something bigger.”
I was naturally suspicious. I frowned with my arms crossed.
“So what is your secret project?”
“Dude, we’re offering you to fully upgrade your channel. Like give it an astronomical boost! Big! Massive!” Xerxes boomed.
Rascal continued.
“But we got to keep it secret so we got to continue this conversation back at Hero’s Up HQ. Interested?” He put out his hand for a handshake.
Wizz and I glanced at each other. She was beaming ear to ear.
“Let’s do it.” I nodded. We left my apartment and jumped into the Herosene.
…
Ausmerica is one of the largest creator hubs on the planet. It’s a utopia for creators and creatives. Just in our city alone, the top Tier1 creators that live here have a total of 10 billion followers. At the top making tens of billions of dollars are channels like Shelley the Dog, the Style Dawgz, and Hero’s Up who have billions of followers each. They mainly live in West Side, along the beach in shiny and glitzy tower blocks that house a Creator or Creator channel on each floor. Wizza and I, we live and work a few kilometres away in Central South. It’s more plain looking, but while it’s still in SouthSide City, and still heartbreakingly expensive especially for the amount of space we got, it’s more affordable and close to the university where we could easily prank university students. In a way, our location made us small timers.
We pulled up outside of Hero’s Up HQ. We walked past giant golden statues of each of the Hero’s Up members striking heroic poses as we made our way through the lobby. Even the elevators were given the same colours as their tracksuits. The Hero’s Up members strode through their building unfazed by the looks and glances that the general public gave them. It would have been an understatement to say that we were awestruck by the fame and wonder of this world. I gave Wizza comforting squeeze on her arm, and whispered to her. “We’ve finally made it.”
At that moment, I also felt a bit foolish as well. I should have sent them our dancing videos right from the beginning instead of procrastinating.
The Hero’s Up HQ was the penthouse of the building. Of course, they’ll be at the top. Their office space was a bustle of energy. They had staff members, and camera crew rushing around. Pulling deals, creating sets, and organising new events. As we walked through all of this, everyone would stop what they were doing and give them a deferential bow. The space where Hero’s Up personally resided wasn’t with the crew. Oh no, it definitely wasn’t. It was a place that they called The Sanctuary at the end of the office space. This wing was minimalist, with soft coloured furniture and a view overlooking the entire City Park. I could even make out the silhouette of the Ausmerican Convention Centre in the middle of the park.
“Welcome to the Sanctuary!” Xerxes exulted. “Make yourself at home.”
They showed us the guest rooms for when we would be staying for the next few nights. Neither Wizza and I were really accustomed to the luxury that we were now thrust upon. We hadn’t even brought a change of clothes, but they assured us that we could take anything from the wardrobe and if we needed anything else that they would just purchase it. In the middle of my own room was a waterfall feature filled with goldfish. I could see the trees in the park swaying gently in the wind from the floor to ceiling windows. There was even a bonsai tree on the bedside table. I suddenly felt a calmness to this kind of lifestyle, a serenity, of knowing that you had finally reached success. A loud knock on the door shook me back into reality. It was Xerxes.
“Hey dude, we’re going to go through the plan in ten.”
“I’ll be there soon” I responded.
We sat around a big long wooden table. Rascal of course was seated at the head of the table. He gave a cough, and looked at his notes.
“Let’s begin to talk about our super secret project… You might have heard of the Rock Conspiracy?”
We nodded. Every Creator worth their salt has heard of it, and have made memes of it. It’s basically a conspiracy theory that the entire world is run by the Rock Family who owns a stake in nearly every major corporation.
“Well,” Rascal continued. “We have gotten new highly exclusive evidence that suggests that the Rock Family will be attempting an assassination against the Prime Minister of Ausmerica, Hatticus Seal, at RabitterCon next week. I know, it sounds crazy, but we’ve done our own independent investigation into this theory and more importantly into the security of RabitterCon, and we have strong evidence to believe that it has been compromised. I’d even pulled some strings with the Prime Minister’s security detail to be stationed at the South Eastern gate at the Convention Centre.”
“There will be thousands of Creators at RabitterCon. Attacking the Prime Minister would literally be trending everywhere.” Wizza frowned.
Rascal raised a finger. “Incorrect! There’s going to be 1 million Creators at RabitterCon this year. It’ll be chaos.”
Wizza’s voice trembled as she asked with anticipation. “So what can we do to stop this?”
“Wait,” I frowned. “Why would the Rock Family want to attack Hatticus Seal? It doesn’t make sense.”
Fineas broke his silence for the first time since we saw him today.
“Mr B, man, you thick or somthink man?”
Yep, I really don’t like him.
“Rock Family man, they bought the Big Number Co which owns the second largest streaming service in the world, MeCam. Ausmerican Creators don’t use that. We use Rabbitter, it’s local. Ausmerican Made. If anything happens to the PM at RabitterCon, corrupt politicians will want to shut Rabbitter down and hunt through Creator subscribers lists to find the culprit. Everyone will want to unsubscribe from every creator! Destroy our audience, destroy our platform. They completely want to wipe us all out!” He gave a small dab, and sat back down.
“There was a short conspiracy thread on it on NewsFeeders.com so we think it’ll be front page within a week.” He added.
“AI, show me a picture of The Spiral.” Rascal continued.
The AI responded with a 3D image of a large conch looking house.
“Not many people know this, but Spikey Lui has a house in Elysium Islands. Our mission for you is for you to pretend to be journalists and attempt to interview Spikey Lui…”
“Hold up. Hold UP!” I raised my hands and voice at them. “You want us to break into Spikey Lui’s house? The war hero? The Spikey Lui? Captain of the Impossible? One of the Protectors of Ausmerica?! An actual military guy?” I almost screamed that last part.
“Yes, that’s why we’re giving you this job. You’re going to be filming, we’ll be giving you recommendations on our channel, you’ll have the biggest surge in viewership out of this, and we’ll throw in a million as well.”
“I… ah don’t think money is the main issue here. I mean, he’s a hedgehog but you’re suggesting that we walk into the most heavily guarded anti-journalist anti-paparazzi gated communities in Ausmerica, and then break into Spikey Lui’s private island. The Spikey Lui who supposedly helped stopped the Necromancy War, and punched the Devil in the face in the movie Spikey Lui Return of the Demon Empire?”
Rascal hesitated. “Errrr… well for one, you shouldn’t believe everything you watch in movies and secondly you’ll be handsomely rewarded.”
“This will be the video of a lifetime. We can’t go in ourselves, because we are too famous, and we might alert the Rock Family that we know about their plans. But our analysis found that you two both fit the category of being too obscure for anyone to be suspicious but not too much that no one will watch your video.” Herma explained.
“I’ll have to think about this with Wizza.” I paused.
I turned to her.
“This is the most hare-brained…” I whispered.
“and greatest thing I’ve ever heard!” She squealed. “Let’s take it!”
“I think this is dangerous…” I continued.
“Come on Brian…” She cooed.
“I really don’t think so…”
“If you don’t agree with it, then you’ll have to find a new Wizza for Wizza and FunnyClips B.” She glared at me, and then her face softened.
“Imagine if this is all true, and we end up saving the day as FunnyClips B and Wizza, heroes of Ausmerica!”
I huffed and folded my arms. “Okay. I’ll do it.”
“Awesome Brian! Let’s do this.” She squealed and hugged me.
We turned to face Hero’s Up.
“We’re gonna do this.” I said to them.
“Awesome! I think you’ll be great!” Rascal smiled.
“You’re going to be the best.” Herma beamed.
“I look forward to having another two members of Hero’s Up.” Xerxes laughed.
They turned to look at Finneas.
“Yeah, this will be good.” Finneas sighed.
After signing some forms, we went back to our rooms. As I lay in the bed, I tossed around nervously. The darkness of the park enveloped the view. An ominous feeling gnawed at my stomach as I slipped into sleep.
In my dream, I saw the face of the devil himself. Zuachaun. His face was hidden behind a deep red glow. Its two black horns protruding out towards my face. Cackling at me. I felt two rough hands grip my shins. I struggled to kick myself out of his ugly sinewy grip. But his long talons bit into my flesh. I screamed uncontrollably! I pleaded with him to let me go, but he told me that it was too late. That I had already signed my life away. It was then that I saw a hedgehog shape creep beside me. I turned to look at the extremely tall looking buff hedgehog. It was Spikey Lui! Spikey pulled his arm back, and punched the devil in the face.
I woke up in cold sweat. What time was it? I turned to my clock. 4:00am. Heck, it was damn too early. I put on a jacket and went to the ground floor.
The wind howled in my face as I walked into the shadowy park. The park was empty at this time. Typically, it would be filled with people picnicking with their families, painting, writing, or hustling on their dreams, but at this hour of the night I could only hear the leaves rustling against the lamps that broke the darkness every few meters.
I took the main path and asked myself what was going on. How had my life changed so rapidly? Wasn’t this what I’d always wanted? I turned to the sky for guidance but it gave none. Heck, what was I doing? I never prayed. It had always been me against the world. I took out my camera and zoomed in on the clouds, I may as well make this walk worth it. My ears picked up rapid footsteps behind me.
“Get out of the way idiot!” Something shouted in my ear.
What was it? I turned to look at it, but it was so fast that I only saw a blur as it blew past me and over the horizon. My arms start burning. I looked down at them, and saw that they were lightly scratched. Darn, I’d have to make a trip to the medic room. It must have been a filthy hedgehog. Those things can be so fast.
I picked up my broken camera whilst shaking my head. Dirty Small Animals. Yep, I’m going to break into Spikey Lui’s house.
…
Our briefing started earlier than I expected. By the time I had gotten back, I only had 4 more hours sleep before we started at 8:30am. Hero’s Up weren’t slouches. Every day we were given briefings. To my great annoyance, we were also given training on camera work after these briefings. They treated us as though we were amateurs. On the last day they rattled us with reminders on crucial points of the mission.
“So when you go to his house, you’ll leave a camera here, here and here. Camera angles are of the utmost importance.” Rascal pointed at the model. “Don’t forget that if he asks you what you are doing. Just tell him that you work for ATV. He’ll chase you off his island, but he’s dealt with enough paparazzi to know that you mean no harm.”
We nodded.
“Remember, to turn on your cameras once you are on the island. They can’t be on going through the Elysium Islands checkpoints, so you need to physically turn them on.”
“Got it” Wizza jotted furiously down in her notes.
“Okay, you’re ready.”
…
It was noon when we set off. Hero’s Up had organised for a hover-yacht to pick us up. The wind was cold and damp and it looked like it might storm at any sudden. The waves crashed against the hull leaving us with the sinking feeling that we might be making a mistake. My stomach felt bloated as though I was about to throw up.
I looked over at Wizza who was sprawled over her pool lounge prepping over her notes. Hero’s Up weren’t coming along with us, but they had asked one of their personal friends to accompany. What was her name? A cow called Trix Bull; I think she’s a cousin of Neal Bull from the Style Dawgz. I walked over to her.
“How are you doing?” She asked me.
“Great, I feel ready. We’re just going to go into Spikey’s island to ask him what he thinks about the RabbitterCon.”
She looked pensive for a second, “and what do you think Spikey will say?”
“I… ah dunno, I think the plan was to capture footage of Spikey saying something suspicious and then post it online. I’m pretty convinced that something is up.” I stumbled on my words. What had I been thinking?
“Sure… you know that all this began on a conspiracy thread? It’s not really real.”
Those words stung.
“Yes it is. Hero’s Up personally told us about it. They’re the second biggest hero group in Ausmerica!” I exclaimed.
“and the biggest hero group on TV and number 3 on Rabbitter. They are just content makers. You’re being duped.” She sighed.
“Look, I know you’re starting out. I’m in the same boat. That’s why I’m helping you guys out, I want a recommendation from Hero’s Up to boost my history channel Trix’s War Facts. But you’re making a big mistake with helping them out like this. Spikey is not the typical Elysium resident. He doesn’t come to our BBQs, socials and balls. He’s a loner, he’s paranoid, and he is magically powerful. They say that he meditated for a thousand years to reach the level of strength that he has. You could end up dead. I don’t want a bunch of peeps dying trying to get a few million views on my conscious.”
I didn’t want to argue with her. She’s stupid, pathetic. Probably only has a few thousand followers, what does she know about hard work and the grind anyway?
She paused.
“I think we’re arriving soon. Get ready, and don’t forget that you can get out of this at any time.”
“Sure.” I replied.
The boat stopped at the first entry point, and we waited for our passes to be cleared. From this distance we could see the shapes of some of the island houses in Elysium. A couple of minutes passed before I ventured into the cabin to ask what was going on. Wizza was already there demanding answers.
“What do you mean that there is a problem? You live here!” Wizza shouted at Trix.
“I don’t know what’s going on.” She stammered. “Normally we would have just gone straight through this checkpoint without stopping, but they’ve closed the gates on us for some reason.”
“If this is some sort of practical joke, you’ll definitely regret this!” Wizza snarled at Trix.
“Hold up!” I ran between the two. “Let’s not fight, it’s not productive.”
Wizza pointed a finger at my face.
“I see what’s going on here, you must have convinced Ms Bull here to come up with a stupid reason as to why we cannot continue with our mission. She must have told security to cancel her boat clearance.”
Wizza glared at me before suddenly punching my face.
“Ow!” I cried as I fell to the ground.
“You never cared about us getting famous. You just want to spend your entire life being some mediocre amateur!” She hissed at my burning face.
“Brian had nothing to do with this!” Trix broke out. “I did this. I didn’t want you two causing any trouble for yourselves so I temporarily cancelled my security clearance for today.”
“You bitch!” Wizza roared at the terrified cow. She pulled back her arm for another punch, but her anger was broken by the shadow of another vessel waiting in line to get into Elysium. We were completely enveloped in its wake. This boat… it was big, humongous, gigantic! Actually it must have been more of a ship, it was the largest private ship that I’ve ever seen. And flying on top of a flag mast was the Rock Family insurance logo. It must have been the Rock’s private yacht!
Trix moved our boat out of the way and allowed them to go pass us, as the ship stealthily slipped through the Elysium gates.
“What was going on? The Rock Family were old money, they didn’t associate themselves with new money. Why are they here?” I asked.
“I don’t know… I’ve never seen them in Elysium.” Trix replied in a hushed voice.
“Can you say that again?” Wizza murmured.
Was it actually all true? Is the assassination actually going to happen? Was the Rock Family out to assassinate the Prime Minister of Ausmerica?
Wizza sat down on one of the lounge chairs that were now strewn along the deck of the boat.
“At least this entire trip was not a waste of time.” She muttered to herself. “I caught all that on camera.”
We suffered in silence on our return back to the Hero’s Up headquarters. I wanted to ask Wizza what the big point of it was, but she was hunched over and still furious at me. When we returned to our rooms, I saw that she had edited and uploaded her video on her own channel. It was already blowing up with a million views.
I rushed over to her room to congratulate her but she wasn’t there. I flicked to the Trending page. People were releasing videos and livestreaming about the entire conspiracy event in response to her video.
THE BIGGEST ATTACK ON AUSMERICAN SOIL?!
“What we are seeing here might possibly be one of the largest attacks on the Rabbitter community…” — ConspiracyNet — 980 million followers.
I ate a grandma…
“We are not looking at just a possible normal assassination, we’re looking at a history changing event like nothing we’ve seen since the assisination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand that sparked World War 2…” PranksterCrew — 1.2 billion followers.
Daily Vlog 9820
“I can’t wait to see you all at RabbitterCon! Don’t worry, I’m taking a lot of precautions to keep you all safe against the possible attack on the Prime Minister.” Shelly the Dog — 9.8 billion followers.
Be Prepared.
“We’re heroes. The greatest superhero creator group in Ausmerica, and today we have the creator Wizza who so bravely captured the footage of the Rock family’s private yacht entering into Elysium. Why is this important? Well, unless you’ve been living under a rock… To convince Spikey Lui to stay out of the entire debacle. Fear not though! We will step up while the Protectors step down. But first, let’s interview this brave hero Wizza…” Hero’s Up — 7.5 billion followers.
Where were they? My heart started beating rapidly. I ran over to their studio. The door was locked, but I banged my fists on it trying to get their attention. I could see them through the glass but they either didn’t notice me or were actively ignoring me. The entire room was soundproof but they could still see me.
“Open up! Please! I helped with this. I was there!” I screamed but it did no good. They continued with their filming. Deflated and dejected, I sat down out the studio and watched their livestream.
“It was dangerous, and throughout the entire ordeal I felt that my life was in constant danger.” Wizza’s voice quivered sincerely. “But I had to do it, to find out if it was all true. When the Rocks found out that we were on to them they nearly rammed into our boat.” She started sobbing.
Rascal gave her a small comforting pat on her shoulder.
“It’s okay, it’s okay now. You’re safe. We won’t let them do anything to you. Right everyone?” Rascal soothed.
All the others nodded in agreement.
“But I had to do it for all the people who supported me throughout my Rabbitter journey. You gave me life when you started watching my videos on FunnyClips B and Wizza, and now I’m both sad and happy to say that I’m going to set off and upload only on my own channel Wizza.” She paused.
Rascal looked at her admirably and nodded.
“What you did was amazing. Heroic. Brave beyond measure. So we’re going to do something that we’ve never done before. This is going to make Rabbitter history, but we are going to do it just for you. We want to invite you to become the 5th member of Hero’s Up. If you’re willing to accept.”
“WHAT?!” Wizza gaped. She covered her mouth in amazement. “Of course, I accept. I accept. I accept. I accept. I accept! YES!”
“Then it is done! Welcome Wizza, the fifth and latest member of Hero’s Up!” Rascal roared as the other Hero’s Up members stood up to embrace her, and fire celebration streamers were fired around the room.
I admit it. I waited outside their studio for the rest of their entire stream. Even for their stupid dance segment. Some part of me already knew what their reaction was going to be like, but I stuck around like a lost puppy abandoned by it’s owner waiting upon false hope that it was all a mistake.
When they had concluded their stream, I rushed to them. At first I was glad that they acknowledged me, but I grew suddenly angry. More angry than I had ever felt. How dare they!
“Hey! What just happened in there?” I demanded.
Rascal pushed past me without a word, but Xerxes shoved my disheveled pathetic self onto the ground.
“Why are you still here?” He growled. “Didn’t you get the memo? You messed up. You’re out dude. Fired. No longer wanted here. Get lost.”
“No!” I yelled up at him. “Please give me another chance…” I pleaded with them, at Wizza but she glanced away. I grabbed her hand refusing to let go.
“Why?” I asked her. “Why did you betray me like that?”
“Look Brian, I wanted us to both get in but you messed up. You couldn’t follow through. You’re just not dedicated enough.”
“Security!” Xerxes yelled.
“Hey man, let me help you up.” Fineas offered.
“No! I don’t need help from a stupid Small Animal!” I smacked his small hand away.
“That’s it, you fucking speciest!” Xerxes shouted as the rhino charged into me. I pulled my mwand to cast a protective shield. There was a feeling of pain in my chest, a feeling of lightness and the sudden sharp pain of my body breaking through the plaster walls with my spine.
“He was too ugly to be on camera anyway…”
I woke up not in my own bed, nor in any bed that I had ever woken before, but lying on the soggy ground of a grim alleyway. My head was still spinning. My back was sore but not broken. It felt tight, as though it was rapidly repaired. In my agony, I dreamt about that time that I had broken my arm during karate camp when I was 9 years old. The doctors had told me that it wouldn’t have been healed in time even with an accelerated muscle repair nanobot serum procedure. It would cramp and hurt too much. Instead they shot me with the regular serum every 12 hours over a three day period until I recovered enough just to get back home. The whole thing ended up not hurting too much. Back then I pleaded and complained to the doctors. What good was modern medicine if you couldn’t even fix a fracture in one day? Stupid doctors, what did they know about anything? Back then I thought that I should have just repaired myself using a spell from the Spell Store instead. I started to have doubts about this attitude of self-independence. The assholes at Hero’s Up must had just shot me with the full dosage of the serum, driven me out to some alleyway and thrown me out.
I lay on that street for what seemed like weeks and months contemplating at how much I messed up. Every so often I would try to get up, but my lower spine would spasm and I would fall back onto the ground.
“Help me! Please somebody! I’m hurt badly!” I cried out to any soul that would listen but the few people who heard my pleas walked past as though I was just part of the scenery. A living scar residing in this engulfing metropolis.
Eventually I found feeling in my fingers and toes and I slowly painfully got onto my hands and knees. This took a great deal of effort but I was able to do so on my own. I finally understood the one singular message that the universe was trying to tell me. I needed nobody else. I was going to be the most famous goddamn creator in the world even if I had to assassinate the Prime Minister himself. If I can’t be famous, then I’ll be infamous!!
Assassinating the Prime Minister of Ausmerica was not going to be easy. I knew that he would be surrounded by bodyguards, but I also knew from the Hero’s Up briefings when he would be at his most vulnerable. During his grand opening speech. I knew exactly where he would be, and I even knew who would be covering the South Eastern stadium door to the field. Rascal had personally bribed one of the Prime Minister’s security detail to swap places so that he could get some of his marketing ideas into the government. The advantage that I had over everyone else was that only Wizza, myself, and the rest of Hero’s Up knew about this little bribe. The only problem was that I didn’t know how to take out a fully powered superhero magician, but I knew that I just had to do it.
For the two and a half days before RabbitterCon started, I took notes. I surveyed the area, and I spent as much time and effort trying to get as much information as I possibly could about the entire convention. I learnt through studying the flight patterns of the security drones that the police hadn’t taken any of the assassination theories seriously. To them it must have just been a bunch of wild stories dreamt up by overzealous and story-hungry creators. I worked this into my plan. I joined conspiracy forums online, and left anonymous comments about a possible assassination and how they should congregate close to the South Eastern hallway to stop it. I needed distractions to get in and these foolish gullible people were to be my sheep to my shepherd.
I worked out hard. I did push ups; even reaching 20 in one go on my second day, and became physically stronger. I no longer thought about making videos. No, it didn’t matter anymore what I said online now. The results were going to show through actions alone. My actions alone.
When the day finally rolled over. I was stronger than ever. I even cracked the Operating System on my BNP Magic Company mwand after watching a few MeCam videos on how to remove the safety protections preinstalled, extra warranty be damned, and I had my army of peeps ready to do my bidding.
It was a cold 8am when I left my apartment. 8:15 when I arrived at the packed convention centre. People were huddled outside wrapped up in thick dew encrusted garments. Thousands of creators and fans of Rabbitter… millions… I corrected myself. The Heroesene was already parked beside the great lawn that led to the convention centre. People were taking selfies with the limousine. Not too close because security rhinos and gorillas would push them back. I tried checking in with my Hero’s Up VIP pass would still work, but it must have been cancelled. I had expected that as I waited patiently with the almost endless line of people outside.
An hour of waiting without moving forward much started making me feel queasy. I needed to be inside before the Opening Ceremony started. Before the Prime Minister started his opening speech. I started sweating profusely. Was my chance of fame going to be over because I just couldn’t get myself into some damn convention?
As luck would have it, a voice called out my name.
“Brian? Is that you?” Trix’s voice broke through my meltdown. I knew instantly that my prayers had been heard.
“It is you!” She yelled out to me. Ar that moment, the entire line went silent for a split second before going wild.
“Neal Bull! Neal Bull! Neal Bull! Style Dogz Forever! I love you! Can I have your babies!” The crowd cried in ecstasy.
I felt a gush of wind over my head as The Style Dogz flew over the crowd on their hoverboards and onto the red carpet while their signature theme song played on the background speakers. Neal Bull waved at us and blew a kiss to a fan who promptly fainted on the spot, while the Style Dogz made their way through the VIP red carpet.
Trix lifted the rope that separated me from the red carpet.
“Come on through!” She grinned mischievously. I ducked underneath the rope and joined Trix and the Style Dogz as they walked up the steps and into the Grand Lobby of Ausmerica City Park Convention Centre.
When we got inside the building, Trix bid me farewell and told me that she needed to get prepped for a panel that she was doing. Neal Bull however hung back and pulled me aside.
“Hey dude, Brian right? I heard what you went through with Hero’s Up from Trix. Hero’s Up are just a bunch of a-holes man. Anyway, if you want some help getting back on your feet after this assassination crackpot conspiracy theory is over, then give me a call. You’re a true legend man.” He left me with his phone number and walked off to greet his fans.
I hurried my way to the South Eastern section of the centre. My heart was beating heavily. Thundering in my ears. Every fibre of my body wanted to turn back, but I knew that if I had even glanced back I would return to my life of making mediocre videos. I’d done this for 5 years and I knew that my big break wasn’t coming along. Wizza’s words had given me clarity. I was a nobody. I was nothing. My pain fueled my rage and quenched my fear. I snuck into a storage room to meet one of the NewsFeeders people I had manipulated.
“Wait, you’re anonymous 97323?” The stage hand said. “You’re FunnyClips B! I’m a big fan of yours. I really liked your work out videos these past few days.”
The exuberant bearded guy scratched his head. “I actually thought that this entire thing was crazy, and that I was dealing with a crazy person. Now that I know it’s you, and that you really saw the Rock ship I know I’m not crazy. Gee, I’ve never really talked to a famous person before.”
He frowned. “What happened between Wizza and you?”
“We had a bad falling out.” I shrugged my shoulders.
The stage hand came to his senses. “Quick, we don’t have much time. I’ve asked some of the other NewsFeeders people to meet us backstage. Together we might be able to handle any threat that comes our way.”
We paced underneath through the storage rooms, through the makeup rooms and found our way to a room filled with stacked chairs that lined up to the ceiling. It was the waiting room behind the main stage. A group of thirty of so lanky looking people were waiting for us. On the other side of the room was Rascal waiting with a dossier of ideas at the door to the stage.
“Like you said boss, nobody else is allowed to be here. The Hero’s Up guy made sure of that.” A hairy man wearing flip flops said to me.
Another turned to me seeking guidance. “So you saw the Rock family. Who are they sending to take out the Prime Minister?”
I pointed at Rascal. “I don’t know exactly who the Rocks have sent, but I think it might be Spikey Lui or Rascal himself. You peeps make sure that nobody comes in and out of this room, and look out for Spikey. I’m going to deal with Rascal.”
“You won’t stand a chance FunnyClips B.” They looked worried, but I needed to make sure that I was the only person getting on that stage.
“He’s powerful but not invulnerable. I’ve learnt from my time with him that tungsten is his weakness. He can’t use his magic powers when there is tungsten around. I’m going to sneak up behind him and wave the stuff in his face.”
It was ridiculous now that I think back to it.
“That’s smart!” One of the NewsFeeders said. “I read in a thread that his one weakness is tungsten spoons!”
I kept a straight face and paused for emphasis.
“But I need to do it alone so he doesn’t get alerted. Make sure you keep this place secure.”
They split up into groups and left me.
I activated my mwand, and tiptoed over. Rascal was now listening intently to the MC.
“My name as you probably know is Joe Bull, the founder and CEO of Foodcorp. As Chairman of RabbitterCon, I’ve been a massive fan of everything Rabbitter! I cannot believe that Foodcorp has been a proud sponsor of RabbitterCon for 15 years! Together with the Creator Fund we have helped thousands of new creators get off the ground. This year we’re inviting a new addition to our sponsors list. The Ausmerican Government! So please give a big round of applause to the Prime Minister of Ausmerica!”
My stun spell was ready. I just needed to deploy them. I aimed the mwand at Rascal and whispered the spell. Please don’t fail me this time!
‘Stealth Stun 5.’
With a slight flash the mwand and rippled through the air towards Rascal. I blinked, it was more powerful than I expected. It narrowly missed his head and struck a stack of chairs leaving a small charred mark. He ducked and rolled away. My sneak attack was over. Time to go for the direct offensive.
“FunnyClips B? What the hell are you doing here?” He panted.
I didn’t answer him; instead I threw my mwand back into my pocket and drew my knives. Mwand magic was too slow now.
“Oh I see, this is revenge right?” He snarled. “You’re an idiot for going against a superhero.”
“Superhero actor and well, I’ve did a Train Karate for 30 Days video.” I replied.
I tackled into him and we tumbled onto the floor. He threw a punch but it was clumsy enough that I easily blocked it with my forearm and grabbed his other wrist as he tried to sucker punch me on the chin. He then tried to break out of my grasp with all his strength but couldn’t.
I did a spinning heel kick at him and fell back into a back stance. He backed away.
Have we spent all these years worshiping a ‘superhero’ who couldn’t even beat up an average guy that gave up practicing karate after getting a green belt on his 16th birthday?
Rascal took my hesitation as an opportunity, and headbutted me. One of his punches collided with the place of my back injury. I fell off him and onto my knees as I starting losing consciousness from the pain.
“Oh I see, still not healed yet?” He shouted savagely, as his fist repeatedly collided into my spine.
He pulled my mwand from my pocket and aimed it at me.
I raised my hands high in the air. It was no use now, he was a master magician and I was defenceless. I couldn’t do magic without a mwand. Unless, he also wasn’t that good of a magician…
He activated the main menu controls. “Not even a password on your crack, you really took the safety off.” He smirked.
I charged at him.
“Travis!” He yelled. That was one of the most powerful illegal blasting spells! The mwand shot out a green glowing ball that hit me squarely in the chest. I went flying across the room, and through the stacked chairs. The explosion wasn’t as big as much as I had expected, but I still felt bruised and dizzy all over. The spell mustn’t have deployed properly because I could see Rascal knocked out next to the broken pieces of my mwand. I felt a shuffling behind me. What the hell? I picked myself up and saw that it was the bearded stage hand from before.
“Errr boss. I’m just here to help.”
“Thanks..” But then I saw that he was holding two knives. They weren’t mine. “Wait… You’re not here to help.”
People were shouting all around. I couldn’t tell if they were the NewsFeeders people or the police.
“Help! I found the assassin!” I yelled out. I reached out to punch him.
“I’m not the assassin from the conspiracy, I’m just a Creator who wants to get big.” He punched me in the lip, knocking me out.
…
The bearded man stood up. All around him there were people screaming and shouting in their seats. They were explaining to billions of people around the world what was going on.
“Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god!!! Today, we are watching history. An unprecedented event where we might be seeing the assassination of the Prime Minister Hatticus Seal himself!”
1 million people all streaming about the exact same thing. People all around the world feeling the same shock, awe and dread. The conspiracy to assassinate the Prime Minister was becoming true, and it was going to be the bearded man who was going to do it, not the loser FunnyClips B. He breathed and felt a chill through his body. Today was going to change his life forever. He took a step onto the stage.
…
I woke up to the panicked voices of my NewsFeeders crew.
“What are we going to do?”
“We got to charge.”
“We don’t have any abilities. We aren’t good enough at magic.”
“We just got to do it.”
“Let’s do it.”
There was a scream as the bearded man stepped into the limelight waving his knives around.
“Well hello everyone! It’s me BeardedDadJokesGotYourWifePregnant!”
“We don’t know who you are!” Someone shouted out. “Can you repeat the name of your channel again?”
“BeardedDadJokesGotYourWifePregnant!” The bearded man yelled back.
“He’s nobody important. He only has 100 followers.” One guy yelled out.
“Actually, it’s gone down to 99.” Another person shouted back.
“Dude, you got to get a shorter name! How am I supposed to search your channel up.” A frustrated audience yelled out.
“I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t matter how many followers you have. Every one of us is important. It doesn’t matter if people watch your content, as long as what you are saying is true and honest to who you are!” The bearded man’s passionate voice echoed throughout the hall.
“Nah, this guy’s a joke. Can we bring out someone a little more famous please!” A Rabbitter quipped.
“I am not a joke! I’ll give you a joke. You are all just jealous of my genius!” He ran up to the Prime Minister, and grabbed him by the necktie. There was a gasp and then silence as everyone waited for the worst to happen.
The Prime Minister to his credit was calm.
“Um sir Mr BeardedDadJokesGotYourWifePregnant, you haven’t told a joke yet.”
BeardedDadJokesGotYourWifePregnant looked confused for a split second but regained his composure. “Oh yes, well… what do you call a cannibal social event with a dead Prime Minister?” He waited before giving the punchline.
“Prime meats!”
Nobody laughed. Agony. It was the end.
Hatticus Seal’s face’s expression changed from solemn to joy. He grinned, and then started laughing. Tears streaming from his eyes.
“Prime meats! Good one! What a hoot!” He roared with tears of laughter. “I wish my Ministers had half the humour of that.”
I tugged at one of the NewsFeeders. “We got to do something. Help me up.” She pulled me up and we walked onto the stage. The others started following me.
Hatticus Seal wiped tears from his eyes.
“Bearded man, did you know that Spikey Lui is standing behind you?”
“What?!” He looked back. Hatticus Seal pushed him over and ran to the Northern entrance. Back to his bodyguards.
We charged out like warriors from one of those ancient armies in the past. We were a magnificent sight. Well, the NewsFeeders all charged. I didn’t. For the first time in my life, I suddenly saw the ridiculousness of it all. The rush for fame and importance seemed so trivial compared to the mess we had made out of nothing. The Prime Minister was safe, and the security drones would be here in any minute. My legs wouldn’t move, they were as exhausted as my heart, and the NewsFeeders all ran past by me without even noticing that I wasn’t with them. Shouting their slogans, and waving their fists in the air.
I heard a crash above me as the glass ceiling cracked open and Spikey Lui landed in the centre of the stage. He glowed a golden light with the extraordinary amount of magic channelling through his body. The bearded man stepped up to stab the hero, but with one wave of his hand, the knife blade melted and the bearded man was flung into the wall behind us. Spikey looked at the charging group of NewsFeeders and before they could even protest, they too were flung past me and were knocked out on impact. He didn’t stop until all of them were out cold. Why would he? He wasn’t part of this world. He didn’t know who was good and who were bad. I watched in horror and amazement at the power that he wielded. He looked at me, and luckily decided that I was not a threat. I briefly recognised the face from my night in the park.
The crowd gaped in shock, until they collected themselves. “Spikey! What is your opinion of the Rock Conspiracy?” Someone finally asked.
“Spikey! How do you feel about saving the day once again?”
“Spikey can you do a collab with me?”
“Spikey?! Spikey?! Spikey?!”
The social media stars rushed towards the stage with their arms outstretched reaching to be a part of the spotlight.
Spikey looked up towards the sky and disappeared without uttering a single word.
…
People talked about the Rock Conspiracy event for an entire month afterwards. After that, they talked about other things. They moved on because people break up. People fall out with each other. People start relationships, have babies, and start Rabbitter channels for them. Life moves on and I was done with that world. I don’t care about fame or power or riches anymore. All I care about now is my mental health and self-love.
Did I ever see Wizza again? I wish that I could say that we met up and worked it out, that we became good friends again, but I never heard from her. Good riddance, you might say. You don’t need someone with so much drama in your life Brian. Someone who would give up everything to be famous. To be loved by many.
But I was like that once. I knew what was it like. I only wish that we could one day work it out, and say our apologies to each other in person.
I smiled at the sunset, while soaking in the salty air of the ocean, glass of wine swirling in my hand.
“So how do you like my story?” I asked my new friends.
“It was pretty good. It could make a good historical documentary. Maybe make it a little shorter? We could edit it down.” Neal Bull replied.
“It was perfect.” Trix Bull beamed.
