==== Deploy

I surveyed the land around me. To my surprise, there actually wasn't much land at all. At the end of my yard, it seemed to drop off into nothingness. To be honest, I didn't wan to see what was down there. I looked about. It was night, it was cold. I wondered if it was ever day here. It probably was, but still.

Ah, sure enough. Glowy imp looking things. Just what I was looking for! They definitely weren't hard to spot. The stuck out of the darkness with ease. Some were glowing blue, others red. Green, purple, orange, white, and one was even pink. So, pretty much every color that the orb was capable of, except for the flashing colors.

I saw one coming up the stairs, so I quickly ducked and hid. I was going to surprise it. Sure enough, it got to the top of the stairs and I jumped out, surprising it. Quickly, I shoved one of the knives into it and sliced it with another, afterwards quickly drawing back. It did not look happy at all and quickly retaliated by running toward me. I jumped out of the way, but its punch grazed my leg. These things were short and weak looking, but I still didn't want to get hit by one.

I suddenly darted to the side and sliced at it, and to my surprise it exploded.

Ok, it didn't actually literally explode, but that was the closest thing I could think of to describe what it did. It fell on the ground, dead, and puffed out from existence. A few small-medium sized blue fruit gusher looking things popped out and landed on the floor where it was previously. Curious, I picked them up.

They were hard, but easy to lift up. I decided to carry them to the Alchemiter and put them on it. Immediately, they disappeared in a flash. Alright, so I guess that was what I'm supposed to do with those things then.

I waited for a few more to climb up the stairs and repeated the procedure. Attack, dodge, attack, and dodge until I killed them. I got hit once, but to be honest it only hurt a little. I put all the weird fruit gusher things on the Alchemiter and they disappeared as well. I decided I was comfortable with how combat worked in this game thing and went back inside, locking the door behind me. As long as those things don't get inside, I'd be fine.

I got back on the computer and looked to see if Jeremy was online yet. He wasn't.

Well, that was worrying. I really hoped he's still alive.

I decided it would be best to call him. After all, I wasn't even sure it was possible to progress without a server player connected to you, so I should at least figure out what's up.

The phone rang for a while, but nobody picked up. Ok, this was really troubling. What in the world happened? I tried again.

Finally, when he didn't pick up, I pulled out my iPod Touch, and texted him. Surprisingly, I had wifi and internet connection, even though I was pretty sure I wasn't even in the same plane of reality with Earth anymore.

This is Jacob. What happened? Text back if ok.

I decided that was that, and put it back into my pants pocket. It was getting kind of warm, so I took off my hat and unzipped my heavy jacket. The scarf was fine.

I wondered if Austen had gotten in the session yet. No matter, I still needed to contact the others. It would probably be best to get Jeremy in the Medium before he was killed, if he wasn't already. Oh man, I really hoped he wasn't.

I took the phone off the receiver once more and dialed Jay's number. It was ringing when I remembered that he said he was going to be in Clair's session. However, before I could hang up, he picked up the phone.

"Hey Jacob." He said. Well, might as well ask him how the session is going.

"Hey, I have a question. Hove you managed to enter the medium yet?" I already knew what he was going to say.

"No, actually. Clair decided to ditch me for some other session with her online friends." Oh, never mind. Was not expecting that at all. Wow, he sounded really dejected. I wondered if he wanted to join our session.

"You can join our session if you want." I said. Man, I hoped he said yes.

"That would be great. I already have the game downloaded and I was about to install it when Clair texted me."

Alright. Looked like this was going to work. Sweet! Besides, I was pretty sure that Clair would screw over whatever session she was in anyway.

Jay spoke up once more. "Hey, wait. Someone's calling in. Could I call you back? It's my grandma."

Oh, great. This wasn't good in the least bit. Her grandma was never good news. Usually, when she called Jay, it was to complain about something, demand something, or something like that. I seriously did not envy Jay for living with her grandma. That lady was bad news, and bad for your mental health. Kara, his cousin who also lived with their grandma was ok though. Not the best, but at least ok.

I pressed the off button on the phone and placed it on the counter. I wondered if Jeremy had texted me back or not. I really hope so. I pulled out my iPod and looked at it.

Crap, not a single notification. This was seriously bad. How was I going to contact him? I couldn't believe that he had been hit. It couldn't have happened! I tried calling once more, but to no avail.

That's when I decided. I couldn't let anyone else die. It just couldn't happen! Quickly, I swiped up the phone and began pacing as I called Jessica.

We had planned for her to be my client player, but I had wanted to get the hang of the game a little before I connected to her. From the looks of it, I didn't think I any longer had time.

The phone rang only twice before she picked it up.

"Hello?" A sleepy Jessica asked.

"Hey Jessica." I responded with a sigh of relief. She was fine so far at least.

"Oh, hey Jacob." I could hear her stretching on the other line.

"Hey, I'm sorry for waking you up, but this is really important."

"That's ok, I love talking to you. What's wrong?"

"I need to connect to you right away. It's really important."

"But you already are connected to me, you're talking to me right now." She responded groggily. Dang it, I needed to wake her up.

"No, seriously. I'm in the game right now. You need to get in here to. Our neighborhood is on fire."

"What?" She asked, woken up quite a bit from that. I heard her shift, likely to the window to see.

"I'm not sure if it's gotten to you yet, but you really need to enter the game as quickly as you can!"

"I don't see a fire." She said.

"Ok, I know, but it was the only way I could think of getting you up. Sorry."

"Jacob, why would you-"

"There still isn't much time. Look into the sky. See all that?" I asked her.

There was a pause, and a gasp. "It's beautiful!" She said.

"No, those meteors are hitting houses! I've been trying to get a hold of Jeremy, but I'm afraid that he might already have been hit!"

"What?" Jessica sounded like she suddenly sat up. "Are you sure? No."

"I don't know, but soon after I entered the medium he completely lost connection and I haven't been able to get hold of him since! A meteor hit next to his house earlier, and this really isn't good. You need to get into the Medium!"

"I'm going downstairs right now!" She said hurriedly.

"Alright, have you bought the game yet?" I asked.

"Uhh…"

Never mind. Just get the game on your mom's account. It's only ten dollars, and the economy doesn't matter anymore considering we're in the middle of a freaking meteor apocalypse!"

"Alright."

I installed the Server, and after a while she had downloaded and installed the client as well. Almost instantly, we established a connection, and the screen opened up her room. Hey, now I could finally see what the server controls looked like!

"Hey, I'm going to start deploying stuff, alright?"

She said it was ok, so I began to deploy. I put the Cruxtruder in her backyard, as well as the Alchemiter in another corner, and the Totem Lathe against her fence.

"Alright, go to your backyard, alright?"

"You can't tell me what to do!" She said, but then went anyway. I smiled, she was usually like that.

When she went through the back doors, she stopped. "Holy crap, what are these?"

"Calm down." I said, "I'll tell you how to use them. You see that machine?" I asked, pointing the cursor at the Cruxtruder, "This is the Cruxtruder." Dang, how many times would I have to explain this to people? Oh well. I picked up her fridge in the kitchen, unplugging it, and brought it over the Cruxtruder. Dropping it, it fell and smashed against the top of it and tumbled over. The top of the Cruxtruder popped off and a Cylinder thing popped out along with another one of those glowy orb bubble things.

"Alright, now throw something into that bubble, alright?"

"Oh, I know just the thing!" She squealed and ran upstairs.

I followed her and watched her grab her Beatles Anthology book and run back down.

"Wait, you're going to have to- Fight things like what you throw in…" But it was too late, she had already thrown it in, and with a flash the bubble was prototyped, with a Beatles Anthology book. Wow, that was just great…

"Oops." She said. "Sorry."

I sighed. "It's alright. Pick up that cylinder." She did. Interesting. This one was a light red color, almost pink. "Alright, walk over to this machine." I pointed my cursor at the Totem Lathe, "And put the thing in there.

"Alright." She slid it in. alright, this was going to be very simple!

I leisurely looked at the timer on the Cruxtruder.

0:40, 0:39

Oh, Shit!

"Ok, quickly slip this in that slot!" I said, giving her the pre-punched card.

"Which slot?" She asked, trying to put it into the same place the cylinder was.

0:30, 0:29

Gah! Crap, hurry the freak up, Jessica!

"This one!" I said, pointing to the slot with my cursor. She slipped in the card and the stupid Totem Lathe decided to take its merry time. Come on!

Finally, it was done. "Hurry up and take that!" I Demanded.

"You can't tell me what to do! You're not the boss of me!"

0:15, 0:14

Would you just shut the fuck up? You're about to die!

"Jessica, please hurry up! Take it and run to this thing!" I pointed to the Alchemiter.

She quickly obeyed and ran over to it. I guessed she finally heard the urgency of my voice.

"Put it in that slot!" I hollered, pointing to the slot you put it in. Thankfully, she complied, and it scanned it.

Suddenly, a tower appeared on the Alchemiter, and it dropped a music not made of the same material as her cylinder. The tower disappeared. And she turned around.

0:06, 0:05

"HOLY SHIT THAT METEOR IS GOING TO HIT ME! FUCK-"

"JESSICA BREAK THE DAMN MUSIC NOTE!"

0:01, - SMASH!

And with that, the whole screen turned black.