Round 6
Team: Falmouth Falcons
Position: Chaser 3
Round Prompt: Matrix
Additional Prompts:
3. (quote) For every problem there is one solution which is simple, neat, and wrong. — H. L. Mencken
5.(word) bloodthirsty
15. (word) coast
Word Count: 2,996 excluding the Author Note.
Betas: Aima D. Duragon, Flyne Autumne.
Summary: It's a fantastic game, Matrix Reloaded: Hogwarts Edition. Tom is progressing by leaps and bounds using his Lord Voldemort avatar. But something tells him not everything's as it seems. Will he know the truth before it's too late? Press Enter To Begin...
Author Note:
"While making the Matrixfilms, the Wachowskis told their close collaborators that they had no intention of making another one after The Matrix Revolutions.Instead, they gave their blessing to the notion of gamers"inherit[ing] the storyline", and The Matrix Onlinevideo game was billed as the official continuation."
Taking this statement into account, this story uses the video game inheriting the storyline concept. after all, everything began from the machines taking over the world. What if the video games are just a ploy to disguise the Matrix trying to take over again?
Boom! Wham! Boom boom!
"Expelliarmus!"
"Avada Kedavra!"
Blast!
"Lord Voldemort wins this match," announced an electronic voice.
"Take that, you smug blond!" Tom shouted into his mic as he pumped his fist, his avatar on the screen doing the same.
"Shut up, you bloodthirsty cur! You may have won the war but you still need Lucius Freaking Malfoy to win this war! This was just a practice match!" shouted his rival of the match, Lucius.
Tom laughed as he removed his VR headset. "It's okay. No need to be a sore loser!"
"Screw you. Life is a pain," Lucius spat without heat.
"And anyone saying otherwise is selling something," Tom quoted.
Lucius smiled. He looked at his wristwatch and added in a softer voice, "Dude, I got to go. I have an early morning lecture tomorrow. So, we are still on for the raiding the Ministry tomorrow night though, right?
"Yeah, buddy," Tom replied removing his VR headset. He looked at his newest device and smiled.
Tom Marvolo Riddle had recently got his first VR video game and he couldn't get enough of it. He played this multiplayer game in the game room of his dorm along with other players. He is one of the best players in the Matrix Reloaded: Hogwarts Edition game. He had only been playing for a couple weeks but it felt like he was already a part of the Matrix.
Damn, wasn't he loving it?
"The One has now logged off, Mione," Harry replied removing his headphones.
"It's the best time to lock onto him now," Ron added.
"Tomorrow, everyone. It's D-Day tomorrow," Hermione replied.
Tom was running ragged. His team and he had finally reached the inner sanctum of The Ministry after pulling an all-nighter. He had finally broken the wards and was about to overthrow the government! Soon, the British Ministry of Magic would be under his team's control. Next stop, world annihilation. His Death Eaters and he were fighting the meager force of Order of Phoenix members and some foolhardy students level players.
But he couldn't help but notice how often his teammates acted more and more like their characters of this game. Lucius was a cautious player but as every level progressed he's becoming a scaredy cat, Bella becoming crueler with her targets, Antonin- more cold and indifferent than usual, Snape becoming more mysterious and Greyback acting like a damn animal with his targets. Once he made his werewolf character eat a child. What was wrong with everyone?!
This level was turning out to be harder than usual. The 'enemies' were formidable and this wasn't even the boss fight. Tom wondered for a moment how hard fight the boss would be.
"Holy Xbox! The boss is here," his Russian friend, Antonin cursed.
"Already? The boss fight isn't supposed to happen until we go attack Hogwarts school," Bellatrix, their only female gamer whispered.
Tom looked pissed. It had taken him a really long time to get to this point and he wasn't going to get his team get thrown out of the game just because the boss fight happened almost fifteen levels early.
He already had some recurring opponents team in this story —Harry Potter and his merry band of righteous warriors— who always managed to stop his progress to the next levels. He couldn't afford to fight the boss and lose just now.
He had his wand raised when a bushy-haired, bloodied and bruised brunette came in front of him. Tom rolled his eyes. Righteous, female warrior of the Golden Trio, Hermione Granger, ready to spoil everything again. His avatar raised his wand to shoot Granger down when she spoke, "This isn't just a game, Tom. For everyone else, this is a matter of life and death."
"Get out of my way! I'm almost at the end of this level, girl!"
"Remember, Tom. You kill someone here, they die. They really die," she looked straight into his eye as she said it.
"What do you mean?"
"Open your eyes, Tom."
"What?"
"Open your eyes," she whispered.
Tom woke up with a gasp, his heart pounding as if it was trying to burst out of his chest. He wiped his sweat drenched face and fumbled to get his glass of water by the bedside.
As he gulped down his water, he couldn't help but wonder when he had gone to bed. He had been playing his game! How did he get to his bed? Where were his friends? Where was his VR headset?
He switched on the bedside light only to see a note, attached to his wall, fluttering lightly in the breeze that came through the open window.
One minute! Who had opened his window?! It had been closed! He always kept that creaky window closed!
He jumped out of bed and rushed to look out but found the coast was clear in the middle of the night.
Did he dream it all then? And so vividly?
He shook his head as if it could dispel the erratic thoughts in his head and went towards the note. He ripped it off the nail that fixed it to the wall and read,
"If you care to know the truth,
Meet me at the Whomping Willow,
on the edge of the campus.
8 am sharp. Don't be late
-H.G"
Tom slapped the card against his palm wondering about the offer. But there were only a couple questions prevalent on his mind. How in the world had Hermione Granger found out where he lived? And most importantly, how had she entered his dorm?
Tom raised his coffee to his lips as the three people sitting before him on the grass looked at his face expectantly. They had explained their theories and were taking in how he was taking in their theories. He took a deep gulp of his coffee, only to find that it was so hot it almost liquefied his mouth off. Somehow he managed not to make a noise. He coughed a little and spoke hoarsely, "You mean I killed your parents? I? As in, I, Tom Marvolo Riddle?"
"Yes," the raven haired young man sitting before him answered tiredly.
"Let me get this straight. I killed your parents using a game that everyone plays?" Tom asked incredulously.
"Yes, Tom," the brunette replied.
Tom dropped his now empty cup near him and threw his hands in the air and huffed out, "I don't fucking believe you."
The ginger headed guy placed a couple newspapers in his hand and pointed his chin towards them. Tom angrily opened the newspaper only for the front page headline to tell him that a family of newly turned parents in Godric's Hollow were murdered in their house on the eve of Halloween under suspicious circumstances. Luckily, the baby boy survived with only a scar to mark his survival. Harry Potter.
Tom looked up from the newspaper only to have the raven-haired guy to move his bangs from his face and expose a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead.
"You are Harry Potter?" Tom stated disbelievingly.
"Yes," Harry replied.
"Huh… I imagined you would a little taller," Tom said nonchalantly.
Harry merely rolled his eyes at Tom's comment.
"If you are Harry Potter, then that makes you," Tom pointed towards the brunette, "Hermione Granger and you," Tom pointed towards the ginger headed guy, "Ronald Weasley."
"Just Ron works too, okay?" Ron replied resignedly.
Tom nodded and handed over the newspapers. "I still don't believe you."
Hermione pulled out another newspaper and opened a specific page for him to read.
"A family in Little Hangleton found dead in mysterious condition," Tom read out. "Yeah, so? What's that got to do with me?" Tom asked Hermione.
She pointed out to a certain paragraph.
"The Riddles of Little Hangleton were found dead this morning under—" Tom again read out before he spotted abruptly. "Yeah, so they share the same name with me. So what?"
"Your mission…sorry, Voldemort's level 3 mission killed this family," Harry explained.
Tom pursed his lips. "Naah. You guys are bluffing me." Tom started to get up when Hermione placed her hand on his wrist and a current ran through him.
"What the fuck!" Tom cursed as he shook his numb hand to get rid of the pins and needle feeling. "What did you do to me?"
"My hand is bare, Tom," the brunette showed him her bare hands. "I know this seems like a big, fat lie to you but tell me one thing. Don't you sometimes feel like there's something wrong with everything here? With everyone here? As if there's something you are forgetting, that's at the corner of your mind but it always eludes you?" the brunette asked him.
"Too many video games does that to you," Tom countered.
"Have you ever had a dream, Tom, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the dream-world and the real-world?" Ron spoke for the first time.
"Sleep deprivation," Tom answered flatly.
"Do you ever feel an undercurrent running through your skin only to get exhausted and go to bed despite waking up just moments ago?" Hermione implored.
"All-nighter side effects," Tom snapped without even paying attention to what she was saying. "Alright, look, if you guys are video game vegans or something please, you are wasting everyone's time. I have to grind some more to get enough points to face the boss," Tom said as he got up dusting his track pants.
"We are trying to free your mind, Tom. But we can only show you the door. You're the one that has to walk through it," Hermione told him. For a moment, it felt like a déjà vu. As if he had heard that before. But he didn't pay it any attention.
"Toodles. Hope to see you never." And he walked off towards his dorm.
"What do we do now, Hermione?" Harry asked Hermione who was watching Tom's figure get smaller and smaller as he walked further away.
"Never forget that for every problem there is one solution which is simple, neat, and wrong," Hermione quoted.
"Which means?" Harry enquired.
"Plan C, aka Rock-His-World."
The next day, Tom had started grinding to up his already high game points even higher to get upgrades. His yew wand was supposed to turn into the Elder Wand before he had to fight the Boss, Albus Dumbledore. He knew it was just a computer generated 'enemy' but something about the long bearded 'wizard' gave him chills.
It had been a couple days since the freaky Trio incident. He hadn't been able to completely shake off the brunette's words either. As a result, he had even started seeing things too. His dorm wall once flickered! And last night when he was working on an assignment, his computer seemed to be melting into itself. But when he poked his pen at it, it went back to its previous self — complete with dust stains in the corner of the display to the regularly abused Q, W, A, S, navigation and Shift with faded tags.
Those three had planted such a doubt in his mind that he was questioning his whole existence! It was one reason why he had gained a mere 20 points in the past two hours of grinding. Tom huffed and was about to remove his VR headset when he saw a familiar head full of bushy brown hair out of the corner of his eye.
He thought better and chased after her, abandoning his team in the beautiful parlour of Malfoy Manor. He had thought it was a huge coincidence that his friend shared his last name with a full family of avatars. Yet now, it all seemed like pieces of the puzzle falling into place. No, he still didn't believe what those three had sprouted at him but that nagging voice at the back of head made him look twice at everything. He had poked his cat, Nagini, in the morning too when she did her usual 'feed-me-my-world-is-ending' dance. That had ended with a nasty glare along with a hiss thrown at him. He had apologised, but cats…
He was running down the labyrinth of hedges when he came face to face with Hermione.
"Wake up, Tom. This is the last time I can meet you like this. Please, wake-up. Hundreds of lives are at stake," Hermione pleaded him.
"How can I wake up when I am already awake?" Tom snapped at her irrational request.
"Wish for it, Tom! Are you a wizard or not?" Hermione replied cryptically and somehow her avatar dissolved into nothing.
He opened his mouth to question her when Bellatrix huffed at him.
"Tom, we are at a very important point of this game. We need to win."
"Why?"
"What do you mean why, My Lor—" Greyback, their reserve player for Snape — who was apparently having a lie-in that day — began when Bellatrix jabbed her elbow into his ribs to stop him from saying something.
"He gets a little into the depth of the character, Lord Voldemort," Bellatrix explained for him.
Suddenly, a red light hit Tom making him fly across the Atrium and hit the wall. He groaned, falling into a heap. It didn't hurt much but his back was surely going to bruise later. That was one hell of a fall. He knew what a VR game could do and what it couldn't do. And getting a player to slam the wall and get hurt is definitely something it couldn't do.
"I'm getting outta here."
"What you mean?"
"I'm done. This game is getting into my head," Tom explained as he tried to get the VR headset off. But he couldn't do it now.
"What the hell?" Tom cursed.
"Tom, why are quitting now of all times?" Antonin asked him.
"Don't you get it? This game is sick! I can't wake up. I can't! This game has merged with my reality! I'm done with this," Tom shouted frustrated throwing away his 'wand' on the floor.
"He's right, you know," Lucius told Bellatrix who was staring at Tom in disbelief. "I can't make out what's real and what isn't either. This game has taken over my life. It has made Narcissa...made Narcissa disappear!"
"What utter bull!" Bellatrix cursed. She raised her 'wand' and cast a spell at Tom.
Tom looked in disbelief as he took in his teammate cursing his avatar. But the curse never reached him; instead, it bounced off a transparent shield.
"Started showing your true colours already, Bellatrix?"
Tom watched Hermione taunt Bellatrix. She snarled and ripped off the headset. Much to Tom's surprise, Bellatrix's avatar still remained in the gaming area. She did not log off. Tom watched through his headset as his friends one by one removed their headsets yet remained in the gaming area.
Somehow, his own had dissolved away and Tom watched as the walls of the game room rippled like a stone dropped in still water. And then in the blink of an eye, he found himself standing in the halls of the Ministry of Magic.
He looked and found himself wearing the clothes of his avatar. He quickly checked his face with his hands. He knew his avatar was...horrible, but there was something undeniably nauseating about being able to feel that reptilian flesh with his hands. Had he always been so vain about his good looks? If so, he was sure that was his only vanity. Well...one of the top five.
While he was lost in his musings, Hermione and her friends faced off against some of his friends. Lucius had given up fighting and was hiding behind a statue. Antonin seemed to be sparring with Ron of the freaky Trios whereas Greyback and the Lestrange brothers seemed to be fighting a battle to the death with, Tom guessed, the members of the Order of the Phoenix.
Then he heard Hermione's voice right next to his ear, despite the fact that she was quite far away dueling with Bellatrix.
"Remember how freaking good you are at dueling, Tom? It's time for you to do that again."
Tom concentrated and willed his wand to come to him. As soon as his yew wand came into his palm, Tom was a sight to see. Tom fought every offensive dueller, who were ironically his own team mates- The Death Eaters, with the grace of a dancer. He never stayed in one place more than a couple minutes. And when he left, his opponent was found bound in ropes and unconscious.
After every opponent was incapacitated, Tom the storm took a breather.
"What…ju-just happened?" He panted out the question.
Hermione handed him a towel and a glass of cold water, "You have jumped down the Rabbit Hole, Alice. Now follow the white rabbit," Hermione told him cryptically which seemed like a habit that Hermione had.
"Easy for you to say," Tom wheezed out as he sat on the floor resting his sore legs.
"Tom, today you chose a side. You chose to save lives. You really did a good job," Hermione told him with a warm smile.
"Can you just tell me what actually happened? What happened to Bellatrix? What happened to everybody? It's like they forgot who they were and turned to be their avatars!"
"Long story short, you are The One, Tom. Only you can show people what they can do. Only you can show us a world without the Matrix controlling us. Only you can show us a world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries. A world where anything is possible."
Tom blushed. "So…uh…ahem…can you tell me where are we exactly?" Tom fumbled a bit not being used to such glowing praises that too from a girl…a beautiful girl…no...warrior.
Hermione smirked. "Welcome to the Matrix."