#y2c

September 16, 1999.

There was no one else after hours. A young girl sat at a dim computer lab, illuminated only by her computer screen. Even while off, the fluorescent lights and computers hummed pervasively like a muffled alarm. The single light source dissipated through her bright red hair, leaving the room lit as though it was under a warning.

The screen flickered lightly over her face, her half-frame glasses reflecting the monitor’s contents like a digital visor over her violet eyes. She had the word processor up, hovering her cursor over the print button. Nothing too interesting, just a book report, due tomorrow, credited to one “Gertrudis Salinas”.

The characteristic whirring and clanking of the school printer began. The girl shuffled over to snatch the page as soon as it finished and hurried to sit back at the computer with a spin of her swivel chair. A quick read-through: looked good. She stuffed it into her backpack.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” a clearly text-to-speech voice said. It paused, then continuing, in a drawn-out, monotone, “Trudy.”

While still ducked near her backpack, Trudy craned her head back to the monitor with a brief squint and grimace. Me? No, yeah, that’s definitely my name. Wait. She pursed her lips and rolled her eyes. Yeah, okay, it’s just using my log-in. “Yeah, alright, buddy,” she muttered, now shrimping towards the monitor on her chair, “Listen computer, I needed this assignment now, okay. I don’t care how late it is for me to be here or not. It’s none of your business.” She whipped her head to the door. “Yo Burr, did the lab guys install some, like, frickin’ security thing that talks to you?!”

No response.

New TTS message, going almost as slow as it could muster: “I’ve always been here.”

“Dude, what the hell?! Ooookay, I’m done!” Trudy slammed the off button on the console, then snatched her flashlight and bag. She dashed to swing open the door to the room, her flashlight’s beam sweeping right until landing on a stocky young man leaning against the wall. A red gingham jacket adorned him, falling over a plain white shirt and leather fringed pants. A curtain of forest green hair and a cowboy hat shadowed his wide face as the rest of it burrowed into a yellow neckerchief, his thick eyebrows angled peacefully over closed eyes.

“Hey! Hey, Burr! Get off your as- “ Wait, he doesn’t like it when- “butt. Buh-buh gwuh, I think someone’s hacking the frickin’ computers here!”

“Buh?” A deep brown eye, framed by dark circles, peered from beneath the hair, then turned to the side as the boy’s whole body shuffled to face her. “Aw, gosh,” his cadence was gentle but carried a thick country accent, “Fell asleep, didn’t I?” He scratched his nape. Seems like he didn’t hear any specifics.

“Dude…. Dude, the computers are talking to me!!”

“Well, that ain’t how it should be…”

“That’s what I’m saying, like, there’s gotta be some mastermind! Like-!”

A bright flash pierced through the otherwise dimly lit hallway. Trudy’s beam via flashlight flew over as the two kids looked over, slack-jawed. With a harsh buzz, the incandescent lights blew torrents of plasma in series and began periodically flashing in that very order. The alternating pattern almost beckoned further into the hallway, like every second light was being sucked in. And the pattern repeated, and repeated, and repeated, like a portal. It was almost hypnotic.

“And all that…” Burr added, “is that part of the computer thing?” he asked.

“Most likely,” Trudy answered, still looking intently towards the hall.

“You’re going there, aren’t y-“

“I’m going there.”

She ran off, yanking off a jump rope tied to the handle of her bag. She turned the corner with a skid, shouting, “GOTCHA!” with a finger point wrapped around her flashlight and the rope slapping the ground behind her. But there was no one there. “I…” Trudy slouched. “I could have sworn there was someone behind all of this…”

Footsteps. Just Burr, fortunately, catching up, slightly out of breath. “Please, you can’t… do that…”

A giggle echoed through the walls of lockers and doors. The two kids looked up and around,  the flashlight’s beam following suit, but the direction of interest was still unknown.

“Well, I’ll be, you might be right: there’s someone in here,” Burr said, tipping his hat up. His face seemed blank but he couldn’t help but tug at his ear.

A gust bellowed behind them as clattering footsteps echoed through the next hallway and another ceiling light burst into sparks. After turning to face it, Burr paused. He puffed up, but remained there, even his glare remaining motionless, save for his heaving breath. Wham like a barricade, Burr’s arm swung over Trudy, then fell looser to softly grip her arm.

She glanced as his hold, just as he let go and slipped his hand into his pants’ pocket. He remained in the same petrous stance.

“You good?” Trudy asked.

Burr sharply exhaled, then clicked his tongue. “…I’ll go first this time,” he responded. Wordlessly, he walked off, leading Trudy to yelp a wordless exclamation and then pace to follow along as the jump rope dragged behind her.

As they turned the corner into more of a main hall, a dark zip flashed in front of them, shadowed further by their light beam. Scampering footsteps sounded behind them, then stopped. The air seemed to pull at their hairs, whispering crackles into their ears. Almost magnetically, it tugged, charged with enough energy to catch attention. So, Trudy looked behind her.

“Boo!”

“GEUGH, HOLY CRAP!” She jumped, falling back off-balanced and dropping her flashlight hard enough for it to fizzle out. Burr shoved himself a bit in front of her, leading Trudy to peer behind him.

A small… thing was staring back at her, doing nothing at this point but grin upwards from its two foot stance. It practically had a sideways cone for a head and was mostly teeth with a big, cartoonishly sharp-toothed grin. You couldn’t see its eyes at all, especially with only the dim emergency lights being on now. They were shadowed by what seemed to be a fisherman’s bucket hat, and it also wore an equally angler-adjacent puffy vest. Whatever it was, it wasn’t human though. It had a tail, a long leonine one with a hook at its tip that kept whipping around. A devious chuckle escaped its throat before escalating to raucous cackling.

“What’s so funny?” Burr asked gruffly.

“I got you!!” The thing leaned forwards. “I got you gooooooood! You stupid kids!!” It almost appeared to be floating as it snapped between facing towards and away from them. “Ha!” One direction. “Haha!” The other, with its fanged mouth hinged open. “Stupid! Idiots! MOoooooorons!” It sharply swung its head around in an arc while holding the ‘O’, then hunched over to chuckle like Dick Dastardly’s dog with its hand over its mouth.

“Holy smokes… it can talk,” Trudy muttered.

Burr glanced around nervously, ending off by staring at his feet.

“Erm.” It crossed its arms at its hips. “And what good would a troll be if it can’t super duper piss you off?!”

Burr kicked it.

“Hey!! We were still talking!” Trudy interjected. “Although… hehe… I didn’t know you could be so violent… Aw…” Trudy fluttered her eyelashes (sarcastically) and swung her arms in a pendulum hold. “Maybe I am rubbing off on you.”

Burr cleared his throat. “It was, in fact, peeving me off. Ah mean, we barely even know what it is. Probably for the better I kick the ever-living daylights out of it. Then, we can run.”

However, at that point, the troll got up from the few feet it fell away at with an overdone groan as it did. It was facing away from the kids, so none of its face could be seen: only its back and sweeping little tail was visible. “Wuughh…” It whimpered and sniveled. “I just wanted to have some fun…” Loud sniff. “If only I could make it up to you…”

The kids glanced at each other.

Trudy put a folded finger to her chin and pursed her lips as her eyes stared upwards. She looked back at the troll. “What’s in it for us…?”

“Trudy!” Burr yelped, a voice crack squealing out.

The troll reached its arm towards the ceiling. “Come… closer...” It coughed, then flopped it’s face back in the floor.

Trudy’s eyelids fell half-lidded. Is this thing seriously doing that cliché? On the other hand, what could it possibly be offering? She’d never seen anything like this thing, so it ran the chance of offering something equally otherworldly. Intriguing, to her, at least. She took a few steps forward.

Then, poof. The troll seemingly teleported onto her face. Its grubby mitts grasped her ears as its feet perched over her shoulders. Its pointy muzzle and edges of its grin filled up her entire vision as it stood there. Seemingly, perfectly, still.

It hopped off, just as Burr started screaming.

Trudy was silent. She wiped her cheek, then turned her sight to stare at the back of said hand. It looked streaked in oil like the hands of a mechanic, except the oil occasionally flickered into the primary colors of light: little squares of red, green, and blue. Come to think of it, the troll was covered in the same stuff as of now, mostly on the bottom side of its muzzle-thing she couldn’t see earlier - like a nosebleed. Like- Oh.

This was a horrifying realization. She stared blankly at the abyss.

A cold slap hit her in the face, causing her to shake her head. It was the creature’s tail. It spoke again, “Hey toots, quit looking at me like you’re having an existential crisis! You haven’t seen a little blood in your life?” It sniffed, wiping it off its own face. “Plus, it was his fault! Anyway, I was just about to tell y-“

“Just what do you think you’re doing to her?!” Burr stamped his foot, plowing forwards. “Well goshdarn it, all you’ve been doing is tormenting my friend. That just ain’t right!” He stopped, glaring down from his broad nose as he rolled up one of his jacket’s sleeves. “Tell us what you want once and for all or so help me, may heaven have mercy on your soul.”

“Woah, there, haha!“ The creature rolled back into a shrug. “Too serious, man! I was just about to - cross my heart! Hope to die! Something something in my eye, c’monnnnn-“

“Is that so?” Burr crossed his arms.

“I know what you want, girlypop.” It swung its tail over its head, revealing a glowing orb hooked to it. “Powers, superpowers, right? Follow me.” On four legs now, it ran off.

“Woah, really?! A-awesome!! Sure!” Her whole body trembled up to her fingers going loose to flap and feet to stomp in rapid succession. “H-hey, but what about my friend though!?” Trudy asked, scrambling in her excitement to put all her stuff into her backpack and adjusting it before following.

“Don’t like him!” The troll flashed its pointy teeth again. Almost going out of sight in the next doorway, Trudy followed, then with a mutter of complaint, Burr.

The three were now in a sprint, now passing the main entrance of the school into a hallway on the other side.

“Were you the one sending the computer messages?!“ Trudy asked.

“Maybe!”

“May I ask: where in tarnation are we going?!” Burr shouted.

“You’ll see, numbskull!”

They reached upon a door, like any other if it weren’t for the fact it was labeled “Principal’s Office”. The troll wasn’t stopping, and heading straight for the door, still at full speed. The kids had to skid into breaking, but the troll continued, phasing through the door into the room.

“Holy sh- craaaaaap, we’re going into the principal’s office?!” Trudy whisper-yelled.

“I, uh, have a bad feeling about this,” Burr answered.

“Coward!” From there, she approached, reaching for the doorknob. She turned it - please don’t be locked… - and it clicked open, letting her peer through the door.

It was tackier than she expected. Just plain white walls with a plain bookshelf full of random ribbons and what seemed to be a conference table made of cheap (but laminated at least) pine wood. Swivel chairs swarmed around it as a heftier desk sat beside the table. A chunky off-white computer monitor rested on it and atop of that, there was their guy. “Took you long enough!” It swung upside down off the computer, somehow not losing its hat. “I was bored to tears!”

“Well, gosh, I don’t see anything in here,” Burr said.

“Patience, boy! It’s in here: what I’m sitting on!”

“Is my power computer games?” Trudy asked.

It paused, smirking slowly. “Better. Come, come! Turn the corner!” The troll scurried underneath the desk, the computer coming on. Whirring, its machinery went along like it was reading a disc. It clicked for a few minutes as the kids stealthily entered, just in time to hear the boot-up jingle. Windows 95, not the most modern, but classy, music to anyone’s ears. The troll came back up, sweeping its arms. “After you, ma’am.”

“Haha, what. What am I supposed to do?” she asked, twiddling one of her hand’s fingers.

“Hmmm…” Wordlessly, the troll climbed up a curtain behind her. Trudy tried to keep it in her sight but it objected, “No, look at the computer!” So she did.

Wham! She got dropkicked in the back of the head. Before she could realize it, her face was plummeting towards the monitor, and then - and then…

Nothing.

She had expected an impact, a painful one at that, possibly resulting in broken glasses and a nose, but no.

She opened her eyes.

It was bright, but still nighttime. An infinite cloudscape dotted with stars, framed by what seemed to be Saturn hanging in the sky like it was right next to Earth, greeted her senses. Meanwhile, the center of this visage, stood a tower, vaguely Greek in its construction, if not for the fact that it was a seemingly infinite DNA-like helix spiral into the cosmos. She craned her neck. Marine animals like sharks and sea turtles circled it as a regular bird swooped by closer to her sight.

A holographic panel blipped in front of her. A big question mark adorned the top of it, while below, was a scroll bar containing one button for each language known to man. Trudy reached out, giving it a spin in one direction. She laughed, then spun it back again to return to the first few languages. It was down to two cards: labeled “English” and “Español”. She flipped between them, pausing at Spanish, but ultimately, she chose English. The screen disappeared.

A bunch of hushed chatter interrupted her gawking.

“What is that?”

“Who is she?”

The troll hopped onto Trudy’s back then flipped in front of her to hop off. “Welcome… to cyberspace!!” it said with a sweep of its arm.

Trudy tried to step forwards but it seemed like she was hanging over a wall beneath her stomach instead of standing. She kicked her legs. She appeared to be, somewhat stuck. Her own ribs and hips were kind of in the way.

“Ah, looks like my fellow netizens want to say hello!” The troll whipped up its tail with the glowing orb following suit until it got flung into the air. The troll stepped back with a particularly snide smirk. With a tinny crack, the orb broke, fizzling out into dull fragments. The troll upturned its face, a red eye twinkling beneath its hat. Now monotone, it said, “Show her a warm welcome, boys.”

Before Trudy could even say anything, a group of glowing creatures phased in from the floor. They looked like radioactive cobras, jagged as a lightning bolt, bright as electricity itself.

“Whaaat?! C’mon…! I’m just preparing you! After all, you’ll have to get used to this after your world will be ours in like, mmmmm, four months, yeah, four months.” The troll crossed its arms and smiled smugly in the middle of the snake-things.

“You little bitch!” Trudy spat.

“Oh, don’t worry!” It curled backwards to look at her. “You’re getting your powers! But hold still, cuz it might be a little shock to your system!”

It was in that moment she realized: she was done for.

She squirmed, then wincing her face into her shoulder. She pressed her eyes shut. The air itself felt charged, every atom tingling upon touch, her hair pulling ahead. It wasn’t long until snaps of static bit across her skin, the very air hissing with charge. Heartbeats pounded through her ears, her breaths pushing against the wall she was pinned over, until.

It was like a slap. One that didn’t end. Current surrounded and surged through her until escaping as the loudest scream she could muster. Her eyes flipped back open in that state, her head craning forwards, but she couldn’t see. It was all blinding light and visual static, until she felt her muscles buckle in on themselves. She could have sworn her legs were being tugged on, as she ran out of breath to even scream and went hoarse.

And suddenly it stopped. All of it.

She lay on the ground, no longer hanging from a thin ledge, sputtering and coughing on her knees. Tinnitus replaced the crackling of charge. She tried opening her eyes again, but despite them being open, she could only see pure darkness, then static, this pattern continuing until her fuzzy vision came upon… the floor of the principal’s office. She flopped onto it with a long sigh.

“Sweet lord, Trudy!” It was Burr’s signature drawl. “Are you okay?!”

She groaned, stretching one arm to thumbs up. “If… I’m still alive,” she wheezed out.

He kneeled down in a hurry. “Sorry, mind if I grab your arm?”

“You can maul me with a bear trap at this point…”

He took her wrist to his ears. “You’re still alive.”

“Cool beans…”

Burr’s tone was gentle. “Please, tell me what happened in there.”