Chapter 48: The Legend of P4R4D0X (1/2)
Zinnia yawned sitting on the wall of the orphanage waiting for the others to show. Although everyone had just met up the night before to celebrate her birthday, everyone was more eager than usual to stream. Since their sudden boom taking down, Vanguard Team Rhapsody had only grown like nothing they could ever expect. Hitting the top fifty streams almost every time none of them was going to pass on a chance at the height of their popularity.
Waiting Zinnia decided to browse V.I.R.A.L checking in on the latest. She scrolled down mindlessly through the trending feed seeing some clickbait crappy videos and thumbnails. A few videos still about Vanguard while others are a deep dive into the 100th anniversary of V.I.R.A.L, one other video. Summoning P4R4D0X at 3 am.
”Hey, Zinnia!” Gale yelled out, waving. Both Emil and Percy were with him. ”Alton not here yet? That mad lad, haha.”
”Excuse me?”
”Ah, nothing. He's probably with Scarlett. Should we wait around?”
Zinnia looked at her phone, texting him. ”Still no response… how bothersome.”
Emil climbed up on the wall, balancing himself trying to get a good look at the message. ”So come on, what's the deal with you two? You lived together. You're always texting each other and are quite happy to tell him your secrets. You guys are dating yeah?”
”No.”
”Shut it down that bluntly…”
She scrolled over the feed only to stop shocked. ”Jesus… Famed streamer Alton Brantley arrested for train derail. No deaths…”
”Alton is doing what?!” Gale blubbered sticking out his phone. ”How come he gets all the fun? Being in a train accident was on my bucket list.”
”We should get down to the station,” Percy ordered already on the move.
****
Alton and Scarlett were finally let out of the station. After serval hours of questioning the police had given up and agreed to let them go. Scarlett leaned back stretching as she sighed. ”That was all so unnecessary. It was undeniable that we weren't the culprit. Wait till my father hears about this…”
Rubbing his bandaged arms slightly uncomfortable Alton coughed as the sunlight blinded him. ”Even so, whatever did do this is still out there.”
”Ooh, you want to find out who it was yes? How very exciting. You are most certainly going to serve that creep a good serving of justice!”
”How can you be so excited about all of this?”
”I just find the whole ordeal rather scary. An unknown villain wanting to kill us does sound rather mental. I do not get to see this sort of action often.”
”We almost died last night, and you're getting off on this?”
”Now I wouldn't go that far.”
”Alton?!” Zinnia yelled. ”We were just about to see you.”
”Tch, I had a whole breakout planned.” Gale sulked.
”What happened?”
”We got attacked by some Antihuman. Can't say anything else apart from that.” He recalled glancing around sighing. ”I guess we got some guests.”
The paparazzi were starting to round up; everyone agreed to get out before too many questions were asked. They hid out in their usual spot—the karaoke bar.
”It took over the train?”
”Yes, it was quite frightening. All the screens taunted us denouncing Alton. We could not stop the train no matter what we do.”
”That does sound worrying. And it was targeting Alton?”
Alton chuckled cracking a can open. ”I'm not going to let it bother me. Does some villain want to troll me? Say I'm not worthy of being a streamer. Give me a break. Paradox, funny.”
Emil began laughing at Alton's remarks, every time he almost stopped; he went back into another laughing fit. ”Paradox. As in the Paradox. You're a real jokester.” Everyone looked at him, confused. ”What? None of you seriously heard of Paradox?”
”A time paradox?”
Emil plugged his phone up to the tv, pulling up an older looking forum. All of them still looked lost as he shook his head. ”How can any of you call yourself streamers without knowing the urban legend of P4R4D0X.”
”Seriously? An urban legend?”