*I'M SO FREAKIN SORRY AHHH THIS TOOK SO LONG FOR ME TO WRITE/POST CAUSE SCHOOL AND EXAMS TOOK OVER MY LIFE FOR LIKE,,,3 WEEKS?? AAHHHHH-
*this is rather long, compared to the first chapter, so i hope that makes up for the kinda hiatus?? aaaahhhh--
*dun hate meh pls

Chapter 2:

[TBNRFrags] was shot by [Lachlan]

"Lachlan?!" Preston screams at the device on his wrist –amongst the chatter of the others in between- as he joins the group chat with alarming speed. "What the fudge was that!? You, of all people, KILLED ME, with a BOW." He huffs angrily and seats himself in a cross-legged position, transparent and seemingly floating in mid-air near Lachlan as he was now in Spectator Mode.

Lachlan won't admit it but he couldn't believe that he managed to shoot Preston either. "-and from THIS distance too?! No way-" He could hear Mitch's uproarious laughter in the call with Rob's muffled snickering in the background.

"Well, mate," the blond grins, "it's called skill-"

"No, it isn't. It's called mad hacks," he cuts in. "Now turn off that hack client."

("Should we tell him, Rob?"

"I would say 'no'," a chuckle, "but that won't be much fun now, would it? Besides, even if I said 'yes' you still wouldn't."

"Hah," an amused grin, "touché.")

Lachlan turns from the high ground to get down to a safer area, the device on his arm near his grinning mouth while he continued his banter. "-I told you, I ain't using any-" A brown and black blur passes his vision and he gets hit hard. He gets pushed back by the sword and the Aussie finds himself not touching any ground at all.

("You mind if I dip? I wanna check on how Icky Vikky's doing. See 'ya!")

As if in slow motion, an obnoxious grin is thrown at him right before he succumbed to gravity's inescapable hold. Lachlan grits his teeth, a curse at the tip of his tongue.

"You sly bast-!"

"Have fun free-falling, Lachy-boy!"

[Lachlan] was doomed to fall by [JeromeASF]

"Oh that so was NOT fair, dirty stinkin' bacca-" the blond grumbles into the call.

"HAH, take that Lachlan-"

"Shut your damn mouth-"

"Heeeyy," Jerome interrupts, casually twirling the glowing wooden sword in his hand, "language, Lach. Kiddies are gonna be watching this, remember?" He reminds him, looking pointedly at a flying -floating?- object just a little ways above him. It was a camera shaped like a ball with mechanical wings fluttering as fast as a hummingbird's wings would.

[The light shined on the device ominously.]

---

He lets out a tired and frustrated sigh, slamming his fist onto the table. The holographic keyboard distorting from the movement. In front of him, the monitor flashed the error message with large and bold letters, as if mocking him.

/::UNPLAYABLE FILE::/

/::ERROR-FILE NOT FOUND::/

"Just great..." he groans, burying his face onto the desk. The videos he had stocked up wasn't going to last forever-

And he still wonders what exactly had happened in the last few moments of that earlier game-

"It happened again, huh?" The voice comes from his back, he doesn't need to turn to know who it is. Hard not to know, when they've known each other for years.

"Yeeeuupp," it's muffled and miserable, and Jerome can't stop the chuckle from escaping his throat. Mitch's head is lifted in an instant, glaring a hole through his childhood friend's head. The disgruntled expression on the other just makes Jerome laugh a little bit louder.

"In all seriousness though," he strides towards the moping Canadian and gently pats his back, "you should probably get your cam checked out. It's been acting up since a week or two ago, I don't think that's normal."

Mitch spares a glance at his best friend and sighs in defeat, he had tried fixing it himself, checking the camera's recording function and tinkering with it. Nothing had seemed out of the ordinary back then. Yet considering how well things have been going with him, he guesses that taking the advice would be the best choice, loathe he was to admit it.

"I guess it can't be helped," Mitch absently fiddles with the circular camera as it's still plugged into its connector, drawing invisible spirals on it.

"I'll go to TechHub** tomorrow then," he purses his lips, "think you could lend me a camera to use? All of mine keep doing this," he gestures to the error message, "as you probably already know. Maybe then I could, y'know vlog here and there, 'splain the situation to my fans and stuff."

"'course, I'll lend ya, biggums," Jerome rolls his eyes. "What kind of friend would I be if I didn't?"

"Why, the kind of friend you usually are," the checkered-clad male retorts, turning off his computer as a cheeky grin forms on his lips. He then abruptly stands up and weaves his way around Jerome, making his dashing escape as the other is left looking confused. Realizing what just happened, he chases after Mitch –who cackled loudly in joy- with a shout of, "What's that supposed to mean?!"

[Mitch's camera pulses with crackling, white electricity. The table shakes, and then it stops as soon as it comes. But now the white lining isn't the same anymore.

It's become red.]

---

Mitch's transparent body popped into existence right next to where Vikk was, who was currently checking all the chests near his location. Chocolate brown eyes periodically observing the surroundings, cautious as ever. He opens and looks at the tab, and sees that only three players were left. Vikk, Jerome, and some other guy named "Al0ekCri3s951".

There's only about 30 more seconds 'til deathmatch, so Mitch supposes he'd take to watching his British friend for now what THE FUC-

The ground starts to glitch, shaky pixels dancing in his vision and slithering towards him. "Uh, Vikk? You seeing this too or-?" Wait, hell, that's right. How did he even forget, not on the call-

The blurry and pixelated form of Vikk catches his eye and he seems to be unaffected by this all this weird phenomena, not noticing the fucking gaping hole lined with codes of HOLY FUCKING SHIT, EVERYTHING'S FLASHING RED, 1s AND 0s CRAWLING UP HIS ARM-

STINGING, TINGLING, PRICKLING, LITERALLY ELECTRIFYING-

Then it all just...

Stops.

And he's teleported along with Vikk to the deathmatch arena. He's breathing hard, oh god, this isn't normal. You aren't supposed to feel physical exhaustion –or physical pain, physical hurt, physical anything- when you're in the game, so how did that even happen-?

He brings his hand to comb through his hair when, instead of the usual ashen skin color, he sees red pixels making up his hand holy fuck-

Mitch closes his eyes, willing the sight away. It's probably futile but it makes him calm down and hey, look, it worked, he's back to normal-

[VikkStar123] won the game

Oh. The game was over. He breathes a sigh, hands already tapping away on the comm –as he and The Pack had come to call it- and rejoining the group call to film the outro. As he waits for the call to connect, Mitch wonders if he should tell the others what just happened –as well with the other little incidents he's been witness to. Like that one time-

"-m dying, tell-" an obvious fake cough, "tell Lachlan that- that I hate him." A wheeze and a rather comical sound of one dying.

"I'm literally right here."

"Hey, wait, Preston-! Can I have your channel-!!"

The brunet lets out a loud breathy chuckle, earlier events fading away from the forefront of his mind. "Hey Mitch!" came Rob's voice. "What took you so long?"

"Ah, it's nothing," he replies. "The comm just took a while to connect, nothing big."

(At least, not yet. Nothing that they know of, for now.)

_CHAPTER_2_END_

**not a real thing as far as I know, I just made the name up on the spot

*so far, no theories of any sort but i suppose that's understandable, this story isnt that known and it's only been 2 trailers and 2 chapters, so i guess there's that lmao
*well that and i'm pretty sure i suck at giving story hints and other stuff like that haha

*btw what you guys think of the new cover??
*was made by me, but it probs shows lol, considering how crappy it looks haha