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The sky was dark. It was just before morning, but flashes of light fell continuously across the sky. The meteor shower had apparently been going on since about midnight. Not only that, but according to the internet it was a worldwide occurrence. Seemingly coming out of nowhere, the meteors had quickly begun to fall, and there were already reports of multiple catastrophes and explosions all over the place. However, I think I know what happened.

A game called SBURB had been released that midnight. I knew it sounded strange, but somehow I felt that it wasn't a coincidence. Regardless, a few of my friends had agreed to play the game. We were planning to start in the afternoon, but with this development, Jeremy and I decided it would be best to start now. I don't know how, but I had a feeling like it was the best thing to do. Somehow, it could save us.

What we were going to do was simply set up a server-client connection between us, and figure this thing out as fast as we could. Jeremy would be the server player, me the client. Thankfully, he was happy to start the whole thing early.

He had given me his phone number a while ago, and I had called him as we both installed out respective parts of the game. Thank goodness for! I had a feeling that stores would be completely sold out of it by now. What made it even better was that SBURB had a great online release date deal! For only today, you could the Client and Server games for $5.00 each! It was a ridiculously better deal than the original $20 dollars for each. A 75% off sale? There was no way we were going to pass that one up!

Anyway, we decided to retire our phones for a little bit, and instead used the Microphone feature on Steam. That client really was handy!

"Alright, let me just connect to you, and… There!" Jeremy's voice echoed into my headphones. A three dimensional cursor appeared next to me, startling my attention. "Whoa! I can see you!"

"Great! That means it's working." I responded. I was looking up on the internet for anything on the game. Surprisingly though, there were very few guides, and none of them were very good. I guessed I would have to figure this out on my own. Ah well.

I got up and unplugged the headphones from my desktop. I really wished I could just use that Laptop that was suppose to me mine. It would make things so much easier!

"Alright." Jeremy's voice resonated from the speakers. I had it on normal volume. After all, my parents were out doing something, so I didn't have to worry about waking them. "So apparently I can deploy stuff into your house? This is odd. Here"

I heard a sound coming from the other side of the glass door next to me, on the deck. I looked over to see what it was, but the doors internal blinds were closed.

"What was that?" I asked, inquisitive. I guess I still didn't fully believe the game could literally alter reality. After all, that was kind of abstract.

"I deployed something called an Alchemiter on your deck. It looks kinda funky. You should look at it!"

I decided that was a good idea and slid open the door to look.

Ok, I have to admit. My first response was "Holy Crap!" and if you've ever played the game, you would probably agree. There, standing on my deck, was a huge square shaped platform, with a circle platform on top of it. A pole-like thing rose from one of the corners that looked like you could place something into a part on it. I seriously didn't know what to think about this. However, no longer was I skeptical about the reality altering effects of this game. Needless to say, I was intrigued.

"What else can you deploy?" I asked.

"Well, there's all sorts of stuff in here, but only a few are free. The rest need something called grist to make."

He paused for a moment, likely shuffling through the options as a server player. I wondered what the GUI looked like for him.

"Hey, how about this?" He asked. The cursor thing came over to me and dropped some sort of card onto the deck below me. I picked it up and looked at it.

It seemed simple enough. It was a plain looking card, but it had a few rectangle shaped holes punched in it. I shrugged and pocketed it. If it was free, it was probably important to the game somehow. Maybe it was used in entering it? I wasn't sure.

I decided to step back inside and close the door. I didn't want to let out the warm air. It was cold outside, being winter and all. Besides, I found the meteor shower sort of unsettling. It was as if I felt a sort of urgency that I must enter the game quickly, or else a meteor somehow causes the end of me.

"Are there any other free machines on there?" I asked. There was a small pause, likely him looking through the options once more.

"Two, actually." He answered, "Here, check this one out! It's called a Totem Lathe."

With that, the cursor came down with this odd sciency looking devise and placed it on the floor in front of the bookshelf in the living room. It resembled a Microscope of some sort, except it was thin, long and tall. It had a bunch of confusing levers and dials on it, and a space that looked as if something fit inside. On closer inspection, I saw that it had a slot on it. In fact, it looked like it was the perfect size for that card I had in my pocket!

Carefully, I took it out and slid it into the hole. It didn't do anything though. Perhaps I needed to place something into the machine first? I took it out and once more put it in my pocket.

"I deployed the other odd looking machine in your basement." Jeremy said, his voice flowing from the computer in the room next to me. "You should check it out!"

Still captivated by this odd looking machine, I wondered what the other one was like. "Alright." I replied, loud enough for the microphone at the computer to pick it up, and with that I began to climb down the stairs.

Sure enough, the first thing I noticed when I reached the bottom was yet another odd looking machine. However, this one looked like a box-like platform with some device on the top. However, at the very top, there was a wheel-like dial below a part that looked like it could screw off. Problem was, the whole thing was trapped behind the pool table.

"Sweet! What is it?" I asked, "Also, is it possible to move it? The pool table is blocking the way."

"Oh, sorry." He responded. "It's a Cruxtruder. Here, I'll just move the pool table."

"Alright." I said. I decided it would be best to sand back. After all, he was going to need someplace to move it, and it really wouldn't help if I was in the way.

The cursor came down ant touched the table. Suddenly, it began to float into the air! To my surprise, it looked as if the heavy thing was being moved with ease. It floated over the device, to the other side of it. However, right before it cleared it, the cursor disappeared. I could only watch as the table fell, clipping the top of the Cruxtruder before clattering to the ground.

Instantly, the top of it popped off, and out came some floating glowing orb! Needless to say, I really had no idea what the crap was going on, so I just stood there, gaping.

The orb flitted about. What even was it? Suddenly, something grabbed my attention and I looked down at the machine once again. To my surprise, a timer was counting down on the side of the box platform at the bottom. 6:34. 6:33. 6:32. 6:31. Was that there before? I didn't think so. It made me slightly uneasy though. I felt as if whatever it was counting down to, I needed to figure out what I was supposed to do before it reached zero.

The glowy orb flew into the storage area and around the corner to the music room. Not knowing what else to do, I followed.

When I arrived, it was flitting about frantically, as if it wanted me to do something. From the guitar, back to me. To the TV, back to me. To the Water bottles, back to me. What did it want me to do?

Slightly confused, I picked up one of the orb lights we keep down there. It was one of those fancy orb lights that changed colors each time you turned it one. There was even a setting that it would flash through all the colors. I decided to just turn it on to a random one. Blue, ok.

I looked back up to see that the glowing orb thing that came from the machine was flying around once again. Would it stop? It was getting sort of annoying, to be honest. I chucked the orb I was holding at the thing.

When it hit it, a blinding flash of white light filed the room for a brief instance, forcing me to shield my eyes. When I opened then once more, the orb looked different. Instead of its designs it had recently, it now looked sort of like that orb I threw at it, encased in a bubble. It wasn't flitting about anymore, so I just let it be and walked back to the Cruxtruder. It could follow me if it wanted, I just didn't want it to be flying around like crazy again.

Inspecting the machine, I noticed that something else was sticking out of the top. Carefully, I removed it. It was not very heavy, so I lifted it up and held it for inspection. It was curious, to be honest. A cylinder made out of some unknown material. It was a sort of bluish emerald color, which to my surprise was quite pleasing on the eye.

I looked once more on the timer before I left to go upstairs. 3:57, 3:56. Looks like I used more time than I wanted. I needed to hurry up.

When I went back upstairs, I put the card back into the Totem Lathe. It looked as if the cylinder thing would fit perfectly into the crevice, so I placed that in there too. With a simply punch of a button, the cylinder started spinning, and a laser beamed from the top of the Totem Lathe onto the whirling object. Both of them stopped, leaving a carved cylinder thing behind. Well, it no longer looked like a cylinder, but I just decided to call it that anyway.

Just then, my phone rang.

I picked it up and answered immediately. According to the Caller ID, it was Jeremy.

"What happened?" I asked.

"A meteor just landed next to my house!" I heard a voice on the other line. Jeremy sounded frightened, perhaps even panicked. "I don't know, there was an explosion and the power went out briefly. It just came back on, and I'm rebooting my computer."

He sounded really worried.

"Did you see where it hit?" I asked. I was really glad he was ok. We really needed to get into the medium. Maybe this waiting to call everyone was a bad idea. I should have informed them of the change in plans right away.

"Yeah, but the smoke wasn't cleared away yet. It might now though."

"Alright. I'm glad you're ok!" I said, trying to cheer him at least slightly.

"Same. We really need to all get into this session soon."

"Agreed."

I walked over to the class door and opened it. I think I knew where to place this thing. However, after that I seriously had no idea what to do.

When I walked outside, I was met with a sight that almost made me drop the cylinder object. There were more and more meteors dropping, and I could swear it looked like one of them was coming directly toward me.

I admit it, I almost panicked.

Immediately, I placed the cylinder in the tower thing on the Alchemiter. I quickly searched the machine for any way to activate it. It would have made it so much easier if one of those guides weren't a piece of complete and utter crap!

I heard a whirring and quickly looked up. To my surprise, the Alchemiter had automatically scanned the cylinder! There, on the circular platform was a huge machine. I only got a glimpse before It disappeared, dropping a gear made of that same weird emerald blue material into my hands.

I was really bright, and a feeling of dread enveloped me. What did I do now? I looked up into the sky, and was suddenly hit by shock. The gear fell from my hands as time seemed to slow down.

The meteor was getting much, much bigger. It was growing closer.

I don't know how, but it wasn't until then that it occurred to me. I was going to die. I couldn't do anything to escape. It was already closing the distance between me and it. It flew closer, and I wondered what the afterlife was like. I honestly did. It was only a moment until I would be smashed by this thing.

The gear smashed to the ground into a hundred pieces just as everything went black.