Ever since his mother had mysteriously disappeared Adrien had become desperate to escape the now toxic life at the Agreste household. However, escaping a toxic lifestyle isn't as black and white as the movies make it out to be. It's not as simple as just grabbing a bag and running away. You actually need a plan. As much as he wanted to just up and leave he knew that it wasn't that simple, he needed money so he could buy food and warmer clothes, he needed a place to go, none of which he would have if he left.

Then he found out about 'Nerve.' Nerve had seemingly been around for years but had somehow managed to avoid the public eye despite the trillions of people who played and watched it.

While the game sounded like the perfect way to make money in order to fund his escape, something about it seemed wrong to him. He pushed down the feeling and searched the game. When he found it he pulled it up onto the home screen that asked 'watcher or player?' The mouse hovered over the player button before he clicked player.

Rules:

1. The game must not be reported to law enforcement

2. If you fail or bail from a dare it's game over

3. dares must be recorded on the player's phone

The first rule is what really made him doubt the game. It didn't sit right with him that one of the rules was not to report the game to law enforcement because it just created more questions and fears in his head. The biggest one being why, why couldn't the game be reported. If the game was just a simple dare game then surely the dares wouldn't be so bad that they'd need to be reported, right?

He scrolled down to the bottom of the page in hope that it'd show when the game was created. Fortunately it did, the game had been created 3 years prior on the 9th of February. 3 years ago the whole thing had started.

He opened a new tab and quickly googled the game. Google did not have much more information than the site did, but at least he now had something. The game had started off in Paris and had been created by someone who kept themselves anonymous, without so much as a screen name, who had never been seen by the public. Since it's creation the game had spread worldwide, city by city, country by country until the entire world had been overcome by the game.

Who created Nerve? Adrien wrote onto a piece of paper that sat on his desktop. He sighed and clicked back to the games website. As he was in fact smart unlike what the public thought of him, given he was 'just a model' and society didn't expect model's to actually have brains, his fingers flew across the keyboard as he typed some code into the site. Within minutes he was viewing participants pages. The participants all had seemingly strange usernames.

Princess_Fragrance- Joined 23rd August 2016. He clicked on the page and was immediately led to the final video that had been posted from the girl's phone. It featured a girl dressed in black and pink with her skin painted green. Her hand was shaking as she held her phone out so that the watchers could see her full body. She was standing alone in a room with a closed window behind her holding a vial of a pink gas.

"Here we go watchers," she whispered as she smashed the vial on the ground. The room she was in quickly filled with the pink gas which Adrien guessed was perfume. She took a deep breath in, the camera shaking like mad. She put the camera down on a table so that it was facing her. With tears in her eyes she pulled a match out of her pocket and lit it. The recording then stopped.

He searched through her page to see that the video had been posted in September and no content had been posted since then and the account been deactivated, the game being deemed as over for her. He knew what the reaction between the flame and perfume would've caused to happen, he just hoped that she had gotten out in time but judging by when she'd last been active and that her follower count had dropped dramatically since the dare he knew that she'd likely failed to make it out. He pushed down the anxiety welling up in his chest and clicked another account that showed up at random.

StormyWeather- Joined 5th September 2014. He clicked on the last video that had been posted by her account and noted that it had been posted back in June 2015. The video began with a young girl dressed in a dark purple dress with pig tails that were striped light purple and black. Her phone was seemingly attached to the inside of an umbrella as the circular outside of the umbrella was caught by it. A gigantic fan stood behind her. She turned so that the fan was no longer in the shot and gave a thumbs up to the camera with a confident smile. Then she disappeared from the camera's view in a blur of motion. A scream was heard off camera and a girl rushed over to it and picked it up. She didn't give the same smile the other girl had given it, she just quickly fumbled to turn it off. After that video nothing had been posted on the girl's account with the game also being deemed to be over along with the quick follower drop after the video.

The pattern continued as he dug deeper into the website's archives.

Dark_Cupid- Joined 14th February 2015, last active 14th February 2016.

TheGamer- Joined 30th June 2014, last active 3rd July 2015.

MrPigeon- Joined 3rd March 2014, last active 1st January 2017.

TheEvillustrator- Joined 8th September 2016, last active 3rd January 2017.

Stoneheart- Joined 9th May 2015, last active 4th April 2016.

Horrificator- Joined 31st October 2016, last active 2nd November 2016.

Puppeteer- Joined 19th November 2014, last active 24th December 2016.

The list went on. Identity after identity, one dangerous dare after another. Every Time after the video had cut out or got stopped the person's follower count would drop dramatically and the game would be declared over for them. It was the final video that finally made him realize what was happening, it had been posted to an account dubbed The_Peacock.

He froze in shock when he clicked the person's video. In the video stood his mother dressed in a deep blue dress wearing a mask to cover her identity. He paused the screen and stared at her image in shock, his hand reached out to stroke the image before he pulled it back. He looked at the last active date and froze when he saw it. There was no doubt about it, it was the date she'd died, November 13th 2016, the day his life had turned to hell. He paused before he gathered his wits and clicked play on the video.

She was smiling at the camera and read out what her dare was, "all I have to do is jump? Please give me a challenge," she joked to the screen. Despite her bright and cheerful smile Adrien could tell that she was in face terrified to do the dare. Despite the obvious fear that shone in her eyes the camera in her hand did not shake and was held perfectly steady. Somehow when she walked to the window of the building she was in she managed to do so without causing the camera to shake. She smiled at the camera before she jumped out the window, camera in hand. The view of the jump wasn't caught very well by the phone but the aftermath certainly was.

The phone lay discarded on the ground, still recording but pointed up at the sky. A loud gasp was heard in the background and a young woman appeared. She began to gasp for breath as she stared at something that was just out of the shot. "I'm going to get you help, just stay awake," she said.

A series of "oh shit" was heard from the woman as she frantically searched through her pockets and her bag until she managed to find her phone. "I need an ambulance ASAP," she yelled into the phone. He heard shuffling before the woman yelled again, "you don't understand this is a matter of life or death. There is a woman who is bleeding out in the middle of the street, I need an ambulance now!" She then noticed the phone that was still recording and shut it off, therefore shutting off the video.

Adrien shut the webpage with tears in his eyes. Reality came crashing down on him as he realised what had happened, she'd died for that stupid game. He wanted to throw something or to scream, it was all the games fault that his mother had been taken away from him. He then realised that like the others her account had followed the same pattern. After the final dare the follower count had dropped and the game declared over, he then realised what had happened to the others. Like his mother they too had died.

He shakily picked up his phone and dialed 112. He had to report the game, damn the rules. It was taking people's lives, it'd taken his mother's life. The creator had to pay for what he'd done.

"112, what is your emergency?"

"I need to report a game," he choked out.

"Kid this number is for emergencies only, a game is not an emergency."

"It is though! You have to shut it down," he frantically yelled into the phone.

The person on the other side of the phone sighed, "kid I'm going to let you off with a warning but please refrain from calling this number in the future unless there's a real emergency."

"But there is!"

Before he could say anything else he heard the telltale dialtone that signified the end of the call. He threw the phone across the room in outrage which caused it to smash against the wall. The many computers on his wall suddenly went static before they all became clear at once and displayed one message.

'Snitches get stitches.'

That was all he could read before he suddenly blacked out.

He woke up in a dark room with his head feeling fuzzy. The lights all switched on at once to reveal walls that had been coated with the words 'Snitches get stitches' written in red. God he hoped that it wasn't blood. In the middle of the room was a TV that began to play a video.

"Hello Adrien, you broke the number one rule of Nerve, now you belong to us. Don't try anything, we control everything about your life. If you try anything we will kill your family and friends, don't test us."

"What else is new, my life has always been controlled," Adrien yelled into the empty room. He just wanted to get out of there, to wake up from the nightmare.

"The only way out is to win. The only way you can save your friends and family is to play the game, do you accept?"

He spotted a phone resting on the top of the tv screen and walked over to it cautiously. He caught his reflection in the mirror and recoiled in horror. His green eyes were very different now, the sclera was now coloured lime green and the iris was a darker shade. He almost didn't recognise them as his own given their unearthly nature. His vision had a hint of green to it now, which struck him as odd but he could still see colours clearly, it was sort of like someone had tried to put a green filter over his eyes. Other than the eyes there was one other thing that stood out about his appearance now. Very clearly stitched to the top of his head were a pair of black cat ears. He panicked when he say them and desperately clawed at them to get them off. They wouldn't budge. He guessed that their dumb saying was true, snitches get stitches.

Panicked thoughts spiraled out of control in his mind. He couldn't go home now, not looking like this. His father would flip, the public would flip, he would be even more of an outcast than he already felt. He would no longer be able to model, not that he minded that fact. He knew that his father would be less than accepting of the new addition to his appearance. He would be a freak. A freak. He couldn't go home, not now, not ever.

He shook away his panic at the cat ears and picked up the phone. It was open to the Nerve home screen. In a heartbeat he clicked the player button and filled out the sign in process. He was now part of the game that had caused his life and no doubt many others lives to turn to hell. He was now a slave to the game, but he wouldn't let it control him. He was determined that as soon as he had the chance he'd take down the entire game, all so nobody else would have to go through the same hell as him.

Chat_Noir has joined 27th January 2017

Ever since Alya had signed up for Nerve she'd been on her phone almost nonstop. Every five seconds she was checking her follower count and groaning that it wasn't high enough. She would ask the Nerve-verse for the most outrageous dates just so she could gain a few more followers. So far Alya as LadyWifi had gained 1 million followers on the site but apparently it still wasn't enough. She kept grumbling about how it wasn't enough, 1 million followers seemed like a lot of followers to Marinette though.

Alya had nonstop bugged Marinette about joining the site since she'd signed up as a player. She constantly went on about how Marinette was playing it too safe by refusing to join and how she was being 'a wet blanket' plus various other names that she would not repeat. Marinette still refused to join the game as something about it made her feel uneasy, perhaps it was the amount of friends she had who'd become absorbed in the game to the point where all they did was accept dates and watch their follower count. They were practically willing to accept any dare provided it would gain them either followers or money, it was crazy.

Alya smiled at her as she gave her her phone. She knew what she was going to have to do, she sighed and set Alya's camera to film mode and gave her a thumbs up. She had no clue what Alya's dare was but could only watch as it was completed. Alya grabbed Nino by the wrist and pulled him to the front of the classroom. Their class stared at the couple in shock similar to the shock Nino had on his face as he stared at Alya.

Just as he opened his mouth to say something she pulled him in for a kiss which caused the class to erupt in cheers. When Alya broke off the kiss the two of them stared at each other with reddened cheeks. Marinette laughed at her two friends interaction.

Alya ran up to the camera and gave it a mock salute, "stay connected," she said before signaling her to shut off the camera. She complied with a laugh as she smiled at Alya.

"So you and Nino huh," she said with a cheeky smile on her lips. Alya shoved her playfully, "shut up," she said but the words held no heat as she couldn't stop laughing as she spoke.

Nino was still standing at the front of the classroom staring at Alya shellshocked. He kept blinking his eyes as if he expected to wake up from some sort of dream. Finally Nino seemed to realise what had just happened and his blush increased tenfold. Alya winked at him as he returned to his seat. He sat down and immediately his phone came out, seconds later Alya got a text.

Wanna team up?

If it was even possible her smile grew even bigger as she typed her response, Absoloutely.

The happy moment was instantly ruined when Chloe, or as she was better known on Nerve 'QueenBee.' She thought that she was entitled to act like the world's biggest bitch just because she had the most followers in their class along with the fact that her father was the prime minister of quite honestly just wanted to put Chloe in her place but she couldn't due to Chloe's practical immunity from any and all confrontation.

"Why look, if it isn't trashinette," Chloe sneered at her. Marinette shifted uncomfortably but refrained from responding. A response would only let her know that she'd gotten to her. Everytime she talked Marinette's hatred for her grew and she just wanted to punch the girl more and more. She still didn't know what Chloe even had against her in the first place.

"The only girl in our class still not on Nerve," Chloe continued much to her annoyance. "Why haven't you joined it yet eh? Are you too much of a loser, a coward, a weakling? I bet that you'd fail the first dare, that is if you even accepted it in the first place."

Marinette gritted her teeth and clenched her fists. She couldn't believe Chloe's words. She desperately wanted to prove Chloe wrong but she didn't want to join the game just to spend ages completing pointless dares. "I'm not a coward," she growled.

Alya gave her a sideways smile. "You've got to admit that Chloe does sort of have a point, you are too scared to join Nerve after all," she said with a shrug. Marinette glared at her best friend, but the glare failed to effect Alya in anyway.

"You too Alya? I thought we were friends!"

"It's just, like you always say to me, 'it's just a bunch of stupid dares,' so really what's the harm in playing? Come on, I dare you," Alya said.

Marinette angrily pulled out her phone and mashed the buttons until she pulled up the home screen of the game. "You want me to play so badly? Fine, I'll play," she yelled as she smashed her finger onto the player option. She didn't even read the rules as she signed up.

Ladybug has joined Nerve on March 3rd 2017.