AN: Warning - the following chapter depicts underage drinking, much like Homestuck itself. If this bothers you somehow, skip everything after the horizontal line.

Thanks.

Jade: Take notes.

With the arrival of John, Vriska, Nepeta, and lastly Roxy, the entire New York cell now sat in the living room chatting amongst themselves. Jade was not chatting, but looking down at the tabled PC in her lab which displayed the camera feeds.

"Everyone quiet, we're getting started!" She raised her voice to them, before making a flicking gesture from her tablet to the large TV screen, transferring the images. She made another quick gesture, as if her hand was holding a pen, and the sleek black gloves on her hands registered the motion, opening a word processor. Holding both hands up, she began to type in mid air above her tablet.

September 1, 2030

The gloves, it's sensors wirelessly linked to the operating system, allowed her to manipulate and control multiple devices in the household using hand gestures. The keyboard function worked well enough, but was nowhere near as nice as the holographic keyboard she used to have on her lunch tops. Sadly, those didn't exist in the "real" world. Mental note: invent that some day. As the conference call started rolling, she started taking notes: instructions they were given, ideas put forth, ectera. Elsewhere, she knew someone in each cell was doing the same.

"As of today..." Scratch began, "we have four months remaining until the release of the consumer model of the Reality Anchor. Once it has reached the market and achieved a particular level of market penetration, Skaianet will initiate Phase 3. At which point, we are fucked." He paused, as if to give emphasis to the fact that he, the great Doc Scratch, had just uttered such vulgarity. The kids were unfazed. "Completely and utterly, fucked."

"Have we figured out what Phase 3 IS yet?" John chimed in loudly.

"I think you meant to say..." Scratch returned in a condescending tone, "... have I figured it out? As currently, none of you have been contributing to that effort."

"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO TOLD US NOT TO DO ANYTHING YOU PRICK!" Karkat fired back with venom.

"This is true. I anticipated at least one of you would get impatient and violate this request to satisfy your own curiosity. However, as we are no longer living in a simulated reality, my predictions are no longer 100% infallible." Even with no face, the elaborate S on the screen oozed smugness. "To return to the original point, no, the detailed nature of Phase 3 is still unknown. I do know that it in someway involves the Memetic Suggestion Software, for which we were Skaianet's original guinea pigs. If I had to guess, I'd speculate they plan to spread the hardware as widely as possible before deploying it in some sort of mass brain washing attempt. Though in the long term, that is hardly an effective business model. I'd also speculate that this is why AH-4 included mind control as a prominent element in the simulation. Vriska." He added the her name disapprovingly. "Jane. Aranea." He added added the names of other ex-users of nefarious mind control.

"4R3N34 1SN'T H3R3." Terezi interrupted.

"Oh." Scratch paused, and there was an awkward moment of silence in which Jade assumed he was now looking at their cameras for the first time. "And Meenah?"

"Ditto." Jane replied.

"Equius?"

"H3 FOUND 4 JOB."

"The Noir Twins?" Terezi and Jane shrugged. "I am beginning to question my own judgment regarding cell assignments." Scratch became audibly flustered for the first time any of them could recall. "No matter, on to the task at hand.

"I placed the cells in three specific locations to wage a three-fronted battle." Scratch told them. "First, New York." He began to address Jade's party directly. "Now that you have sucsessfully established your cover and blended into the enemies' back yard, you will wage the physical aspect of the war. Infiltration and sabotage. Do anything you can to acquire information or proof about Phase 3 and the rest of their plan. With proof, we could publicly out the company and stop them out right, or at least slow them down. Pass what you can on to me and I'll see it gets to the right hands."

"Chicago. You will be dealing with the political and criminal front. Skaianet bankrolls politicians and lobbying groups to prevent any government interference. If you can uncover evidence of their money trail and dealings, we can force an investigation. Additionally, I've tracked a criminal connection to Skaianet as well. A crime syndicate, known as the "Shibas" are part of Chicago's criminal underworld, and I've recently learned that they were involved with us."

"Wait..." Jade stopped him. "What do you mean US?" Scratch paused for a moment, seemingly at a loss for words for the first time. "Scratch?"

"To put it gently... they, "acquired" us on Skaianet's behalf. Before we were re-written." Everyone in the various rooms with a "human upbringing" felt very uncomfortable. Karkat noticed the disturbed look on her face.

"JADE? ARE YOU OK?" He tried to pull her attention back.

"... uh... yeah..." She paused, squinting her eyes to shut out the bad thoughts.

"So... we weren't all kidnapped from different homes or something." Rose questioned her former mentor. "Before Skaianet messed with our memories we were..."

"Correct." Scratch interrupted. "Slaves. The Shibas are part of an international human trafficking ring and Skaianet... purchased all of you from them." He seemed to have grown impatient with attempt sensitive phrasing. Rose felt slightly nauseous. Jade stopped typing. John and Roxy looked at them worriedly. The trolls all looked rather confused. This topic... was not something that had ever come up in discussion... someone would have to explain the... implications, to them at some future time. "My point is..." Scratch broke the silence. "If we can find evidence of the tie between Skaianet and the Shibas, it will help turn the public against them and give us leverage with which to take our story public. We find them, we find proof about our pasts, and tools for our future." And then Scratch moved on, as everyone tried to put it out of their mind.

"Lastly, L.A. I've placed you in the entertainment nexus of the world. Guess what I'm about to tell you?"

"Media." Dave replied from the monitor, his poker face holding strong. Jade couldn't tell if he even cared about the bomb Scratch had just dropped on them.

"Correct. You are there to network, produce, or anything else you can think of to turn the public against Skaianet and the Reality Anchor. Perhaps you could find celebrity allies or make a scare-film turning the public against virtual reality. Lay the ground work so that when we get our hands on proof, the public will already have a bone to pick. There are eight of you there, and Skaianet has one of the largest P.R. Machines in the world. Have fun with that."

"Challenge acceptted mutthafucka." Sollux grinned and Dave nodded. Jade wasn't sure what they were thinking of, but she knew Dave would come up with something. Dave always surprised her.

From that point on, Scratch talked less and less as the four-sides began to bounce ideas at each other. Plans were hatched. Others were rejected. Cahoots was established. Over the next hour, Jade took fewer and fewer notes as her false ears dropped and she sank further and further into her chair. None of them ever predicted this to be easy, but with everything laid out in front of them now, it seemed more insurmountable than ever. How badly the deck was stacked. Twenty teenagers and a handful of grown-ups against one of the world's most powerful corporations.

"C'mon Jade..." Roxy leaned against the back of her chair. "Cheer up. Ish not so bad." Jade noted the drink in her hand.

"Roxy are you..."

"Yeah, but I'm juust having a couple. Moderasshun." Jade was unconvinced. "Like I said, we beat Lord English, rigt? This is nothin."

"We were kinda gods at the time." Jade replied. "Plus that was all just a story Andrew made up for us. This is real life!"

"Or is this just fantasy?!" John jumped in from across the room.

"Caught in a landslide..." Dave chimed in through the conference call, adding a touch of rap flavor to his line.

"No escape from reality." Scratch finished the lyric, which no one expected. "I will however, escape from this call, before everyone engages karaoke mode. Good luck everyone. I'll be in touch." Scratch's feed closed, leaving the three groups to their own devices. In place of his S-emblem, a text message appeared.

Pose as a team. The world is real.

And we won't let them take it from us.

As Jade looked around the room, she noticed that some of the others had drinks as well.

"Roxy, did you buy a whole bunch of booze?" Jade asked her.

"Kind of... I mean, I though we'd be celebratin the start of our revullusion, but then we got that heavy news so..." Roxy shrugged. "It's jus for one night."

"You sure that's a good idea?" Jade questioned.

"John and Kanaya: desughnated sober peoples." Roxy gestured at them, who were both clearly drinking water. Roxy saw the hesitation on Jade's face, before holding a drink out for her. "sup to you." She told her. Jade hesitantly reached out and took it from her. She needed to get her head free from Scratch's revelation earlier. Just this one night.