I'M ALIVE! I'm super sorry about that very long break. I've been recently engaged which is super exciting, but I've been going out of my mind with planning my own wedding and I wasn't able to focus on much of anything. But getting back into my FanFiction writing has helped with my stress a little bit…so here you go! I might actually be updating more frequently now since I'll be stress writing. heh heh.
Warning! Brothels, mild sexual content, and nudity ahead…I told ya'll I would have a hard time keeping this rated T…
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Chapter Six:Pain
There were Leaches, and then there were the thirsty pervs. They were two different groups that were equally not tolerated in Bad Omen. Instead of getting a thrill off from killing other players in-game, this group thrived off simulated pleasure and sex. These players would make 'brothels' in the game where players would come together to explore more sensual experiences with modded sensory codes to intensify pleasure. Kory was particularly not a fan of these brothels because it was not what the game was intended for and she made sure to put an end to any that were reported.
"You know we're going to have to talk about it at some point you know," Raven said as she followed Starfire to the most recent reported brothel.
"Talk about what?" Starfire asked, trying to pretend that she had no idea what Raven was talking about. "I do not believe there is anything to talk about. Unless it is about planning your wedding."
Raven rolled her eyes. "You can't keep holding back your emotions Star. It might literally kill you."
"Everything is fine Raven," Starfire told her. "You do not need to worry about me!"
"So we are not going to talk about the fact that you know who is here and how you are currently coping with that?"
"I think I am coping with it just fine!" Starfire defended. "As long as he stays at the Tower and I am doing the business of my own mind, it will be fine."
"You mean minding your own business?" Raven corrected her. Starfire was clearly not ok because she was reverting to factory settings.
"Yes," Starfire said and then quickly changed the subject as they reached their destination. "And we are here!" She said all too enthusiastically and ignored the current emotional rollercoaster she was putting herself on.
Raven sighed. It's been two days since Dick had arrived in Jump City, and not once did Starfire want to have 'the girl talk' about how she was feeling about the situation. Which was very unlike her and was concerning to Raven. "Fine, have it your way." Raven droned, "I can't believe I'm saying this, but when you are ready for 'the girl talk', you know how to reach me."
"Of course!" Starfire replied with fake enthusiasm, "And right now, I want you to help me do the one thing that helps cheer me up."
"And what's that?" Raven smirked, knowing where this was going.
Starfire gave a wicked smile while approaching the entrance of the brothel. "To do the busting of orgy parties in my game!" She then effortlessly kicked down the door and then heard a few startled screams from inside.
The two moderators stepped into the building full of both naked and half-naked players in various promiscuous positions. Most of the players stopped their stimulating play once they realized who was there. There was an "Oh shit! It's Starfire!" and then a mass scramble of players who quickly were all trying to put their clothes back on and run out of the building before the lead moderator could restrict their accounts.
Starfire chuckled. She loved the fact that she didn't even have to say a word and her presence alone sent a clear enough message. "You all know that all sexual activities are prohibited in Bad Omen and not what the game was created for," Starfire announced as the players tripped over one another to rush past her, faces beat red. "You will all receive a warning on your account for now, but next time you are reported to be participating in a brothel, your accounts will be suspended."
The majority of the players had already left, but Starfire stopped a busty corseted young woman and asked. "Sweetheart, can you tell me who the creator of this establishment is?"
"Uhh, yeah," She started nervously. "His handle is controlfreak69. I think he's in the grand private room with a couple of other players now."
Raven made a gagging sound and muttered under her breath. "I really hope that's not the Control Freak we know."
"Thank you," Starfire said to the girl kindly and released her. Everyone had left the main bar area of the brothel, but there were still sounds of moans and wooden bed frames creaking coming from the private rooms. Lost in their own pleasure and not getting the memo that the brothel has been shut down.
"If this guy is Control Freak, I don't want to know what could be going on behind those doors," Raven said while casting a demon creature to materialize through one of the closed doors. Sultry moans turned into screams as a man and a woman came scampering out of the room with their clothes trying to cover themselves up.
"I am sure he has a skin equipped to attract females to virtually copulate with him," Starfire said while kicking down another door. Two female players instantly stopped feeling each other up.
"Hey! What's the big idea?" One of the players said, clearly not a woman in real life.
Starfire entered the room. "This establishment has been shut down. I now must ask you to leave."
"Aww, babe," The other female said with an actual female voice. "I thought you said this place would be moderator free."
The other couple left disappointed that their kinky role play was ruined, and then Starfire and Raven turned to the last door they had to investigate. The two stared at each other, mentally debating who was going to be the one to open the door. Raven finally said. "It's your game."
Starfire took a deep breath and then used the side of her fist to force the door open. Two girls were giggling on each side of a handsome unclothed muscular man and then screamed while rolling away from him. Trying to cover themselves with the blankets on the bed. However, the man had no shame and continued to flaunt his avatar's appearance.
"Well well well," He greeted the newcomers and revealed himself to be the actual Control Freak. "Have the two Titan hotties come to join the party?"
"You are disgusting Control Freak," Raven told him and then crossed her arms. "That last I knew you were supposed to be in jail. How are you able to be in this game right now?"
"Oh I'm still chilling at the joint," Control Freak said. "I just know how to talk my way around to the guards so that I can get some game time in. As long as I behave myself that is." He winked at Starfire.
"More like business propositions, I suspect," Starfire replied.
"Meh, you can call it what you will. At least I'm not causing crime in Jump now. I'm finding my own ways to entertain myself."
"I can see that," Starfire said noting the two girls who were cuddled up next to him. "Nonetheless, you are still breaking the laws within Bad Omen and there are consequences here."
"Are you going to punish me, Star?" Control Freak asked, waggling his eyebrows at her. "Because I might like that...and since you and Robin are no longer a thing..."
"Your account is to be suspended, Control Freak." Starfire interrupted him. "I do not know how you were able to get access to this game, but you are longer able to play it and you now have to find other ways to amuse yourself in jail."
"Not unless you can catch me!" Control Freak said and jumped from the bed and the girls squealed as they both tumbled off, and then Control Freak escaped through one of the windows in the room.
"He does realize that we don't need to catch him to suspend his account, right?" Raven asked.
Starfire shrugged. "I think he might have forgotten that he is in a game world, and not in the real world."
"So should we go after him?"
Starfire paused to think about it. "I suppose we can. It has been a while since I took down a bad guy."
Raven smiled at her best friend and then motioned toward the room exit. "Lead the way."
Even though Control Freak's avatar looked like a fit man with the body of an athlete, he was not athletic in real life. With several years of experience being a couch potato and plotting his evil schemes through television shows, Control Freak was probably one of the least fit villains that the Titans had ever faced. And with the game being able to measure the player's actual endurance and strength, Control Freak wasn't going to get very far.
He ran towards one of the village's neighboring forests and could only get about 30 feet away from the brothel when he started to get winded. Control Freak felt cold, and then remembered that he was still naked. He had left his clothes in the room. He quickly tried to navigate through his inventory to see what clothes he had.
"Here," A kind voice said as a fur coat was handed to him.
"Gee, thanks!" Control Freak told his gift-giver as he wrapped himself up with the coat not noticing who gave it to him. Once he did, he fell backward into a pile of snow.
Starfire looked down at the pitiful villain and smirked. "You are welcome!"
Control Freak tried to make a run for it again and then was instantly stopped by a wall of dark energy that Raven conjured from the ground. Control Freak let out a little growl and then opened his game menu in an attempt to fast travel to a different location. "You'll never catch me alive, ladies!"
His fast travel failed. Starfire already disabled the fast travel functionality from his account. "Thank you so much for playing Bad Omen. Goodbye!" She said, and with a flick of a wrist Starfire had disabled and suspended Control Freak's account while he let out a dramatic "Noooo!" then flickered out of the game.
"I don't think that's going to keep him away for long." Raven pointed out the obvious. "He will find another way back into the game."
"Most likely," Starfire said. "But at least we had fun booting him out."
"I guess it was kind of fun," Raven smirked at Starfire. Happy to see that she was lightening up a little more.
"Speaking of fun!" Starfire perked up. "You have not told me what you would like to do for your Bachelorette party! I have read somewhere that it is tradition for the bride's bridal party to have one wild night of fun before the bride is married!"
"Honestly, I would be happy to just chill and watch some horror films and drink tea with my bridesmaids," Raven replied.
"That is boring!" Starfire made a face her, "That is not at all what my maid of honor handbook suggests."
Raven chuckled. If this was what it would take to get Starfire out of her high anxious state, she would agree to any sort of bridesmaids nonsense Starfire had up her sleeve. "Fine. But no strippers!"
"But that is number one on the bachelorette party to-do list!" Starfire said, "Next to the excessive amount of drinking alcoholic beverages."
Raven laughed at Starfire's modest wording for getting drunk. She missed this Starfire. But it didn't last. A notification popped up in Starfire's vision and she was back to being CEO Kory. Her face went from excitement to concern in only a matter of seconds.
"Everything okay?" Raven asked.
Starfire blinked a couple of times to refocus her vision on Raven. "It is fine," She said. "I just need to check on something." And Kory Anders was back.
"Star," Raven started. "I'm sure whatever it is, your team can handle it. You have been working way too much and I'm getting worried about you."
"I do not think they can fix this," Starfire muttered, ignoring Raven's concerns.
"Well, at least let me come with you." Raven persisted.
"No, Raven." Starfire shook her head. "You do not need to worry about this. Spend time with your fiancé." And before Raven could protest, Starfire fast traveled out of the area.
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Starfire had received a report of strange activity happening on another server. The message was from an anonymous sender. She didn't think twice about it since it might have been someone from her developer team that sent it. Starfire plugged in the coordinates from the message and transferred her consciousness to the server and location where the activity was reported.
When she arrived at her destination, she found herself on one of the large battlefields that were used for larger PVP events. Usually, these fields would be bustling with players who would try to outsmart one another with their combat skills to collect the awards for the highest rank in the event. Since there weren't any battles currently happening and the fields didn't spawn any monsters, the fields were ominously quiet. With the weather cycle being at a full cast and the only sound heard was the whistling of the wind, the field almost felt haunted.
Starfire looked around to check for anything out of the ordinary. For a brief moment, she felt like she had spawned into an empty field until something caught her eye in the distance. A deep red in contrast with the grey surroundings. She approached what looked to be blood on the ground. Starfire knelt to better inspect it and concluded that it was indeed blood. It was fresh as well since blood from kills would only stay on the map for two minutes until it would fade away.
Starfire's warrior instincts set her on high alert as she instantly started scanning the area for anything that could be nearby. She equipped her bow and knocked an arrow to be ready for anything that might attack her. She stayed completely silent and still. Listening for any movement within the trees that outlined the field. Starfire didn't have to wait long, there was a quick and heavy rustle of brush and leaves and she instantly drew her arrow toward the sound. As soon as the creature emerged from the tree line, Starfire released her arrow at her oncoming attacker. Gasping once she realized what the creature was.
It was the same spider-like creature she spotted the other night on her computer. Only this time it wasn't moving slowly. It was coming at Starfire at full speed. She jumped out of the way to avoid it from running straight into her. The creature quickly turned back around to run toward her again. Not giving Starfire enough time to analyze what this creature was. All she knew was that it wasn't anything she created.
The creature's long white legs stabbed at the ground as it made its way toward Starfire. She dodged it again and barely gave herself enough time to enchant her arrow and release it at the arachnid. The arrow didn't seem to phase the creature as it struck Starfire with its thin legs, cutting through her armor. Starfire fell to the ground from the creature's attack and quickly tried to get back up to defend herself, but she found herself struggling. Was she feeling actual pain from where this creature struck her?
Starfire forced herself back up while holding her side where she was hit and staggered her way over to some thick brush against the tree line to take cover. She looked at her hand and found that it was covered in blood. How could this be? The monsters in Bad Omen were not supposed to cause sensations of pain to the players. Only mild vibrations when they were hit. Whatever this creature was, it was coded to cause pain that mimicked what it would feel like in real life.
Starfire gritted her teeth and pulled a health potion from her inventory and quickly drank it to get her health points back up. That one hit nearly depleted all her health even when she was at the max level of health points she could have. The creature let out a terrifying screech so ear-piercing that Starfire had to cover her ears. What was this creature? And what was it doing in her game?
Starfire switched her weapon so that she was equipped with her dual blades. The impatient creature who no longer wanted to wait for its prey to come out from its hiding spot ran at Starfire again. Only this time she expected it to come charging at her. She sliced through two of its white translucent legs and then ran from her hiding spot to create some distance from it. She hoped that she injured it enough to slow it down, but as it appeared from behind the brush, its legs had respawned from where they were cut.
How could this be happening? She had not approved of this type of creature to be in the game, let alone she had never even seen it in a testing phase. Then how could a creature like this be running around live in her servers?
With anger and fierce determination, Starfire ran at the monster with both blades in hand and aimed them at their legs. If she could take out all of its legs at once, she might have an opening to make her finishing move. Moving quickly, Starfire did her best to slice through each leg without getting caught within them. Just when she was about to cut through the last leg, the creature managed to dodge her attack and rolled itself away to avoid her.
A very strange move for a programmed monster to have in the game. It was as if it had a mind of its own. Trying to calculate its next move against her. It began to regrow its legs quickly again and Starfire knew she had to take it down before it got back on its legs. She charged at the creature as fast as she could and jumped high enough in the air to land on its spiky back and drove her blades through its flesh. It screamed and tried to throw her off, but she held on. She dragged her weapons deeper down its back, blood flowing from the opened flesh. The creature continued to scream and thrash around until it went completely still.
Starfire let out a sigh of relief when it was finally dead. She returned her weapons to her inventory and then opened up the area's code base so that she could finally see what was causing this monster to spawn, or what it was. While going through it, there was nothing out of the ordinary. No objects of monsters or any action sequences were found. Just the codes for the environment.
"This does not make any sense," Starfire told herself while double-checking the code and files one more time. Desperate for any clue that would explain these strange appearances and who could have created such a monster. If players were feeling actual pain in the game, it could mean trouble for Bad Omen.
While she was looking through the area's backend, she heard the rustle of leaves from above her. She immediately closed her developer tools and equipped her bow again. She was beyond paranoid now. Before she could aim at who caused that movement, another player had fast traveled out of the area before they were noticed.
Someone had been watching her.