It didn't take long. Already he glimpsed the wayward players walking down his deathtrap, walking so casually that he wonders if they even care what is ahead: Notch's "glitch."

The intercom system crackles to life, "Attention, students, please shut down and unplug all electronics until the lightening storm passes. Thank you." before quickly shutting down again.

Ranger's eyebrows arch upward as a smirk curls to life on his face. Herobrine silently moves ahead of Notch in the tunnel, only to stop and allow the famed player back up front again. So, I get my second-chance after all - Herobrine isn't the wimp I thought he was. Only...

He mutters something and shifts away from his spot on the cavern wall to get a closer look at the pair. "...why isn't he moving?!"

"Why isn't who moving?" Tony says softly, attention tight to Ranger's paper.

"N-no one!"

His roommate cracks a thin half-smile. "Heh. Sure, Ranger. Just be quiet, okay, I'm still worried that Professor Fresco'll hear you."

The college student suddenly blinks hard and whips around. "When did you get here?"

He only gets a stare in response. "Since you started muttering something about 'Herobrine'...? Are you sure I don't need to call the police on you?"

"Shut up!"

"It's true." Tony shrugs, then glances back out the window, shoulders hunched nervously. "I'm honestly surprised we haven't lost our Internet yet. It's really bad out there. Though..." Very quietly, he mumbles to himself as he mindlessly stares at the window, his hands frozen at the keyboard.

Ranger scowls in growing annoyance. "Though?" he asks acidly.

"You should really get off," was the only thing Tony could manage out in a frail voice. "Look, doing your stupid paper, I've learned already that lightning strikes whilst on technology," His eyes whip up to Ranger's computer, "never result in positive affirmations." Now it was his turn to get a scalding, seething tone. "Get off."

"I'm not..." the roommate replies, unnervingly calm. "...getting off." One eye consistently trailed on the laptop screen, the other fiercely boring into his "friend," Ranger finally turns away to give doting attention to the sudden change in ambiance in Minecraft: his victims have arrived.

Chuckling to himself, Ranger nimbly dives into his inventory bar and pulls out a wicked diamond sword, gleaming in the light of the hot lava, as DiamondShiner74 turns around dramatically; the warm orange light casts dark shades over the cunning avatar - the mirror of its controller - and for just a moment, their smiles are matched.

He watches with sharp interest as Notch supplements the horrible failure of a player with a pathetic sword, then pulls forth his own blade and steps in front of Herobrine. Something in that motion makes the small, fragilely-thin pillar of sanity in Ranger's mind crumble a little, and he screams, a bitter, broken noise that snaps both Tony's head up and Ranger's pillar down.

The swords collide in sparks. Grinding together as one attempts to get ahead of the other, the two finally decide that no winner is in store and they break away. Gasping for every shaking breath, Ranger slams his own weapon deep into the shoulder of his enemy, holding it and pushing it deeper until he's suddenly hit - hit with blow upon blow upon blow of utter torment for DiamondShiner74, hitting him back dangerously close to the edge of the lava pool. As if he was the one inside the game, not his avatar, Ranger feels every slice of the sword carve its way through his lanky body, cutting him up inside until Notch finally stops. His feet dig into the soaked carpeting in anguish, legs stiffening.

"R-Ranger, what are you doing, why'd you scream?! It was just thunder!" but despite Tony's comment from his spot on the bed, he never gets up to see Ranger cry.

His hands shake. His right hand, choking the mouse, trembles so violently that DiamondShiner74 trembles as well. And then, with the left hand stepping a finger up on the keyboard, the avatar shoots forward like a loose cannon, past Notch, past the depths of Madness, and crashes a critical blow onto Herobrine

just as his laptop crashes a critical blow onto Ranger.

Tony shrieks as Ranger's chair flys backward to the carpeted floor, a shock-eyed Ranger shaking in the middle of it, straw-yellow hair burnt upward, hands frozen out in front of him as if he could still play Minecraft dead.

"Ranger!"

As Tony bends down to ease his friend to the floor, as his hands curl into a fist and slam down on his chest once - twice - Notch cuts down DiamondShiner74, and the computer screen crackles black.

"Ranger-!"

The world becomes a murky siege of sound. Ranger wheezes out a thin, weak cough, trying to move his hands, trying so hard to open his eyes only to find them stuck.

"Ranger, I-I'm c-c-calling 911, so, so just relax, okay?! It'll be alright!" The confidence in Tony's voice was anything but "alright." Without really replying, Ranger nods his head to the right and submerges himself away from the horrible torrent of noise drowning him, away to a black pit where he can at least have some quiet.