Disclaimer: How I wish I owned Virals and WTNV.
Disclaimer 2: I apologise profusely for any inaccuracies.
"What?" The Virals stared at Han, shocked.
"Join me." she repeated calmly, eyes shining a tranquil aquamarine. "C'mon, I can't do this alone!"
"But you...you..."
"Kill people?" The blue disappeared for a moment, replaced by the ruby-red of irritation. "Shelton, if I could change the world with my voice, don't you think I would? Why do you think I hack into the DBRI signal all the time? Okay, I guess it's partly cos Kevin makes me sick, but mostly because I still hold out some hope that maybe I can undo whatever StrexCorp did to my home without having to use either of my guns." Either?, Shelton thought, slightly panicked. He'd only ever seen one: the handgun strapped to her thigh. "Maybe if there's seven of us I won't have to."
"Six teenagers and a dog can't take down a corporation big enough to buy out two whole cities and have its own radio show." Hi countered. "That's crazy."
"Even if five of them have superpowers, the dog is half-feral and the one left over has had a lot of time to work on her aim?"
"Even if."
"That doesn't mean we can't try." Ella said defiantly. "Something is very wrong here and I, personally, feel we should do everything in our power to make it right."
"One entity is not a rebellion. Seven might just be enough to form the basis for one." Han added.
"I'm in." Ben shrugged.
"Me too." Tory agreed. "Han's in danger, and even if we can't save Night Vale we can at least save her."
Hi and Shelton looked at each other, then at the group the former would later nickname the Rebel Alliance, then back to each other.
"I'll do it," Hi sighed, "as long as I never have to listen to The Kevin And Lauren Show again."
"Deal." Han smiled.
"I'm gonna die here." Shelton muttered, miserably. "I'm gonna die in the middle of the Nevada Desert on the outskirts of a town that doesn't officially exist, fighting against an evil organisation that also doesn't officially exist."
"That's the spirit! Nothing really exists anyway."
And so, listeners, it came to be that Haneet Dhillon joined the Virals - or, more accurately, the Virals joined Haneet Dhillon - to make one last, glorious, stand for her beloved Night Vale. Tory, Hi, Ben, Shelton, Ella, Han and Coop. The Magnificent Seven. Or, alternatively, despicable criminals. It all depended on whether or not they won, really.
"Hi, did the TV people leave a number?" Tory asked.
"Yeah."
"Well, call and ask if they'll pay for this place rather than the hotel in Vegas." She knew they wouldn't be able to leave Night Vale now they'd committed themselves to Han's cause.
"Ella, Ben, can you go get more food and bullets? I'm running low." Han paused, then added: "Oh, and I'll need purple and white thread and some black material."
"And what am I doing?" Whatever it was, Shelton was certain it would be unpleasant and most likely dangerous.
"Research." Tory decided after a long pause during which she and Han had both realised they didn't have a clue and had therefore mostly just said 'um'.
Han looked around the unimpressive room at her newfound allies. This is really happening, she thought, elated, we're going to take down Strex. Together.
By the end of the day, they'd acquired more supplies and Han and Ella had fashioned five duplicates of the armband Han wore with pride. Shelton's research had hit a dead end, with the Google home screen being replaced by an image of an orange triangle on a featureless, sterile white background as the message from the radio scrolled across it ominously, shortly followed by his laptop exploding - but hey, you can't have everything. (Han winced at his shouts of anguish before attempting to placate her old friend by informing him that, whilst the StrexCorp thing was definitely new, exploding technology was a typical Night Valean event and really, it was only to be expected when you Google something you shouldn't know about. It didn't help.)
Pretty soon, night fell. The boys trekked back to their own room, and Tory and Ella hit the sack.
Han, however, stayed awake. Ignoring the protests of her brain, telling her it was safer for everyone if she stayed indoors, she made her way outside. The moon and stars hung suspended in the void above her as she sat on the dusty ground, illuminated in her own pool of light, a muddle of yellow, violet and indigo.
She didn't register the presence beside her for a few moments.
"What's with the glowing?" At the sound of her companion's voice, Han had a minor heart attack, cursing herself for letting her guard down. It was only Shelton, though. She could trust Shelton. Probably.
"Bioluminescence." She shrugged. "From the radiation. I'm used to it by now."
"...It's...really pretty..." He replied awkwardly.
"...Thanks..." Han's response wasn't any smoother.
They sat in silence for a few minutes after that - not companionable silence; the kind of silence that falls when neither party is really sure what to say to the other.
"What are you doing up?" Haneet asked, trying to restart the conversation.
"Couldn't sleep." Shelton didn't need to elaborate. She understood. "You?"
"Same." Han sighed. "You see that light over there?" She pointed off into the distance at what looked to be a patch of midday in the blanket of darkness.
"What is it?"
"The Greater Desert Bluffs Metropolitan Area." There was no trace of venom in her tone for once, merely sadness. "When Strex took over, the sun just...stopped setting."
"That's not possible." Her friend scoffed.
"Maybe not in Charleston."
"How can the sun stop setting without anywhere else noticing?"
"I don't know. I'd ask Carlos, but he's...missing." Missing. That would make more sense than 'trapped in a bizarre alternate desert dimension' to an outsider, even if the reality of the situation was perfectly simple to a Night Vale resident, even a non-native like Haneet. "Maybe they don't even have a sun anymore. Maybe it's something else."
"Like what?"
"The Smiling God."
"The what?" Shelton remembered hearing something about it on the radio, but it didn't make sense in context. It seemed sinister and cult-like, sure, but not something that could cause something like this to happen.
"The Smiling God. It's not as benevolent as it sounds." She sighed heavily, eyes still fixed on the light on the horizon. "Y'know, I've been told my whole life that light is good and darkness is bad, and that the light will always defeat the dark; that's sort of why we have Diwali. But this light, it's not good or wholesome or safe or pure, and it's like everything I've ever known is backwards. For a while I didn't even know what think." The last traces of gold faded from her aura of light, replaced by scarlet. Even that quickly dissipated, along with the deep purple of fear. "Everything's messed up." Only sadness was left, and her voice cracked.
Okay, Shelton, there's a beautiful girl sat next to you on the verge of tears. Do something, man!, yelled the voice in the back of his mind. (It is worth noting that the voice in the back of Shelton's mind sounded a lot like Hiram Stolowitski.)
"Umm..." Yeah. Real cool, bro. "What would you be doing right now if there was no StrexCorp?" That could work, I guess. Or maybe it'll just make her cry even harder than if you'd said nothing.
"Well, Cecil's show would have finished by now, and there's nothing on after that, so normally what I do is I stay behind to sort everything out for tomorrow- usually Intern Damien can't be bothered, Intern Maureen has other things to do and any other interns are too dead to be of any use to anyone. When I go in in the mornings I pack a sandwich, so I'd eat that to avoid going home and listening to Sanjay whining." Han had never gotten along with her little brother. "I'd throw part of it down the bottomless pit in the break room on the off-chance Intern Leland's still alive down there and needs food, then go back to the booth, check the mic-" she stopped. "Never mind."
"Go on."
"No!" She blushed. "It's too embarrassing!"
"I won't tell anyone, I swear."
"Okay. You know how little kids decide they're going to be a singer or a vet or a police officer or a hooded figure when they grow up, so they go off and make believe they already are?"
"Yeah..." Shelton wasn't too sure about the 'hooded figure' part, but decided not to think about it too hard.
"I...I do that!" Han pulled her knees up so she was curled into a small glowing ball and concentrated very hard on being made out of void.
"You do what?" Shelton laughed.
Internally, Han swore. Clearly it hadn't worked and she was still made up of meat and blood. Her humiliation was still plain to see. "I knew I shouldn't have told you!"
Nice work, dumbass, Shelton said to himself, now she thinks you think she's an idiot. "I didn't mean it like that!" He backpedaled frantically. "I just meant..."
"I know what you meant. It's a stupid dream anyway. It'll never happen."
"Han, working in radio isn't a stupid dream. And who says you can't do it? I'd rather listen to you than Kevin or Lauren!"
"I don't just want a job in radio, though, Shelton; that's the problem." she said miserably. "I've never actually told anyone this before, but...I want to be the Voice of Night Vale. Now shut up and leave me alone!"
"You are the Voice of Night Vale."
"What?" Han turned to stare at Shelton, who hadn't shut up or left her alone. "That's the craziest thing I've ever heard. Next thing I know you'll be telling me mountains are a thing!"
"They are."
"See? You've lost it!" Huh?
"What I mean is, without Cecil the city's stuck with those two creeps, right?"
"Right."
"Well, you said that's part of the reason why people started giving up. They had no alternative but to be silent. They get their opinions from StrexCorp, period."
"This makes me feel so much better."
"Just listen. Strex tried to take control of the whole city, but you fought back, Haneet. You started disrupting their broadcasts, trying to let people know StrexCorp wasn't their only option. You actually care about Night Vale, and that's more than can be said for Kevin."
"So you're saying-"
"Even if you're not supposed to be the Voice, you're the closest thing they have."
Han smiled a little at that. "You know what? You might just be right."
"And like I said, you're better than Lauren or Kevin."
"Anyone is better than Kevin, and Lauren's not even a professional! She's completely irrelevant!" An idea struck her. "Shelton?"
"Yeah?"
"Wanna help do a radio show?" The air around her shimmered from indigo to buttercup yellow and the occasional mist of purple.
"You...want me...to-"
"Sure." She continued. "There's something I've noticed about DBRI. Welcome to the Greater Desert Bluffs Metropolitan Area! broadcasts from our station rather than the one in Desert Bluffs, but it doesn't use the same frequency. Everything else works, except that show. Then all you hear is static."
"So..."
"So, maybe whatever phenomenon is causing this can be overridden somehow, and everyone knows the old frequency. I have equipment of a sort, and everything else I'd need is on my phone..."
"Then we're in business."
Diego had never seen the Dhillon girl as a threat, more like an inconvenience. Flynn and her little militia had been a threat. Palmer very nearly became a threat. But Dhillon? Just a little girl meddling in affairs she didn't understand. No, not a threat.
Flynn had only been classified as a threat because of the bookish army she commanded. Dhillon had nothing of the sort.
Until now.
He didn't have the names of her little friends yet.
But he would.
Dhillon's perseverance and bravery were admirable, but she could not outrun a Smiling God.