Some characters are based off of users on the BBS. If you would like to be included, and I feel that I can give you a place in the story, then drop me a pm.
Of course feedback and criticism are welcome, so feel free to compliment the writing/rape my self esteem.
And also be warned that this chapter might be a bit boring but it's also necessary to setting up the main story, so hang with me on that.
The Call to Arms (A BBS Story)
Chapter 1
The rain was coming down hard that night, and you could hear the loud boom of thunder every so often. In the darkened room, lit only by the computer screen, I sat in my swivel chair, browsing around the internet. Tonight was just like every other night; I had checked the email, Facebook, ESPN, fantasy baseball, and finally I arrived at Newgrounds to deposit my experience for the day.
As I mindlessly voted 5’s on a few entries in the portal, I glanced over to the clock.
“Damn” I thought to myself, “It’s already 1 in the morning.”
As I reached for the mouse so I could click on the big X button in the corner, my eyes glanced up and saw the forum button. I knew I should have just forgotten about it and gone to bed, but regardless of what my logic told me, I still clicked onto the general forum. It didn’t take long for me to notice that the topics on this night were not interesting.
“Damn, none of this shit is good. ‘My Brother’s Girlfriend’, ‘Ninjas vs. Samurais’, its all crap tonight. Well geez no wonder; none of the good users are on right now.”
With nothing better to do than go to bed, a big need to yawn overcame me, and I stretched my arms up high, but just as I was reaching down for the mouse, out of seemingly nowhere, a tremendous boom filled the air around me. It was so loud that at first I thought there had been an explosion, and the shock from it had caused me jump out of my chair onto the ground. All I remember hearing right after the noise was a big crash.
I stayed on the ground for a few seconds before I even thought about getting up. Finally when it seemed that any danger had passed, I got up and looked outside. A lightning bolt had hit one of the power lines on the street outside my house, causing it to fall down and strewing the wires all over the street.
“That must have been the crash I heard after the lightning hit.”
“Jeff? Are you alright?” I heard my mom yelling from downstairs.
“I’m fine mom!” I replied
“Well come down here and help me light some candles, the powers gone out!”
“Ok!” I yelled. “Just a sec!”
I put on a hoody, and just as I was heading for the door I noticed something strange. It started smelling like something had been burning in my room, and I also noticed that my computer was still on, even though the power was out in the house. Normally it wouldn’t be a big deal to me since I usually use my laptop with the reserve battery, but this was a desktop with no such feature. I went closer to the computer, where the smell was especially evident, and started looking around the wires to see if something was out of the ordinary. I did find something, as I saw that many of the wires had been fried out of their circuits, probably from the lightning blast.
“Damn! Now I’m gonna have to go spend all my birthday money on computer wires!” I mumbled angrily. “But wait. If all these cables are destroyed, then how is my monitor still on and connected to the net? Bah, whatever. I better just disconnect these cables.”
As I grabbed the monitor to get behind the computer to the wires, a part of my forearm touched the screen. But as I tried sliding it up to reach farther with my other hand, I realized that I couldn’t move it.
“What the fuck!”
As I tried pulling, I noticed that with each tug, the surface of the monitor actually rippled like water. I continued to pull and tug, while still keeping the monitor on the desk, but nothing seemed to be working. In fact it seemed the harder I tried to pull, the more of my arm was getting stuck to the screen. I finally gave a huge pull that knocked me off balance, sending me and the monitor to the floor. It only took me a second to realize that my hand was not only stuck on the screen…it was now in the screen!
“WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT!!” I screamed at the top of my lungs
“Jeff!?! Are you alright!?” I heard from downstairs.
But I had no time to answer as, I felt a strong tugging sensation on the arm inside the monitor, and the next thing I knew, my body was being pulled very forcibly into the monitor. Soon my arm was being pulled in, and as I wriggled and struggled, and in all the chaos, I noticed that the substance from the screen seemed to be expanding to allow my entire body to enter. I also noticed for the first time that the substance was very cold and had numbed my hand, as it continued to envelop my arm up to the shoulder. It only took another second before that was inside the substance, and I tried with all my remaining strength to get out its grip as my head got closer to the threshold, but to no avail. In another second my face was forced through the substance, and for a second everything was black.
I awoke what seemed like a second later, only to find myself lying in a bed, in a semi-lit room. There were tubes stuck into my arms, and a heart monitor next to the bed beeped slowly as I realized that I was in some sort of hospital. As I tried to sit up, I felt a pain in my side, and was forced to lie back down.
“You shouldn’t exert yourself like that. You need to lie still for a bit more” said a voice from the doorway.
I looked over and saw a young looking female doctor with medium brown hair and glasses, about in her mid 20’s. She was wearing a lab coat with what looked like medals pinned to them. One of them looked like an iron fist, while the other could be described as a gold star with a crown on the top, and a blue area in the middle. She casually walked into the room, as I tried to get my head straight.
“Wh-where am I?” I asked weakly.
“Why you’re in the BBS hospital, and you’ve been here for about a week now.”
My mind did a double take at the two things I had just heard.
“Wait I’ve been here for a week?! And what do you mean BBS hospital?”
She gave me an amused look
“All will be explained in due time. For now all you need to know is that you’ve been here a week, and this is the BBS hospital in Fulpton, the capital of the world of Newgrounds.”
“SAY WHAT!!?” I exclaimed. WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE WORLD OF NEWGROUNDS!!?
“Calm down boy!” she said, placing a calming hand on my shoulder. “You need to save your energy. I already told you everything will be explained soon, but for now you have to get some rest. I heard that was some fall you took, and you're fortunate to have only sustained a few bruises and cuts. It's lucky that you landed in a tree and not in the middle of the street.”
With that said, she turned and started walking out the door
“Wait! What’s your name?” I asked.
“Well around here they call me TheDoctor.” she replied with a wink. And then she was gone.
My mind was racing, but it seemed that my injuries had fatigued me, as I suddenly felt the urge to go back to sleep. “TheDoctor huh?” I said as my mind drifted off to sleep. “Where have I heard that name before?”