Chapter Text
Kevin’s phone hadn’t stopped ringing.
Over the past week, he had received what felt like hundreds of calls from potential customers.
The messages had come slowly— at first. Reports from frantic clients about something lurking in their single-player world. Nothing too out of the ordinary, from one or two people.
But fifty-three calls? In less than two weeks?
And that wasn’t even counting the emails.
Kevin had taken on the first few cases. A player here, a player there, investigating each world only to find: absolutely nothing.
No creeping entities lurked around the corner. Nothing terrorized the client in the night. Nothing hid deep within a cave waiting to steal their skin.
But they had all insisted; they were adamant that something had been there, they had seen it! And their world hadn’t been the same since, they claimed. The air felt wrong in some areas, shadows seemed to glitch and fray, the nights felt a hair too long now, and the days just a minute too fast.
Paranoia, Kevin had thought, a new player in a new, unfamiliar world.
He didn’t take their pay. Instead, he had simply told them to go home. To get some rest.
“Your eyes play tricks on you when you’re tired, you know,” Kevin had said to one, whose face was already scrunched in dismay. “Your whole body does. Just runnin’ on fumes. Get a good night's sleep; that should fix it.”
But the calls kept coming, from one world to the next.
And the next.
And the one after that.
What the hell was going on?
Each player Kevin met spoke of something different: some mentioned a low, droning buzz that came and went, a hum that sent goosebumps sprawling over their skin, while others were unsettled by those strange slips in time. Kevin would’ve shrugged it off as just another bug if it weren’t for one, single thing.
Everyone had described seeing two figures. It looked like players, the client would say, but it couldn’t have been; they weren’t on a multiplayer world. They hadn’t even been notified that someone had joined. They had just seen two silhouettes on that hill over there, one had told him; heard two voices in the wind late one night, said another player. Then, they were gone.
This wasn’t a bug, he realized. This was something else entirely.
And it was well above his normal pay grade.
Kevin rubbed a hand over his face. He was going to need backup.
With a sigh, he picked up his phone, punching in a familiar number.
“Hey, Vitri,” Kevin started, “you mind helping out an old friend?”
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“You look terrible.”
Kevin huffed. “Nice to see you, too, Vitri.”
Vitriolic flashed him a toothy grin. She was leaning against his front door, her winter coat bunched where it met the frame. Kevin watched as dark eyes, near identical to his, looked him over worriedly. Her gaze softened.
“Seriously, you should have called sooner,” Vitriolic said, straightening up. “Could’ve asked for help before whatever haunt you’re chasing now started haunting you,” she pointed at the bags beginning to form under his eyes. He turned his gaze away.
Kevin hadn’t taken his own advice. Between calling back clients to tell them— “Sorry, not taking on any more jobs at the moment. I— no, it’s not a ‘life-threatening situation.’ If it were, you wouldn’t have time to complain like this,” —and attempting to track these entities down, he had barely slept. He hadn’t realized how much it showed.
“I don’t usually need a second pair of hands,” Kevin said. He gestured her inside.
Vitriolic raised a brow, adjusting the bag slung over her shoulder before walking past. She glanced around; it had been a while since she’d been here. “You said on the phone something about removing a couple of entities— is that not your entire thing?”
Kevin shuffled his way into his office and slumped down into his desk chair. “It's one thing to remove entities, it's another to catch them. These ones…” he began flipping through something on his desk, “they jump between players’ worlds. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Vitriolic had meandered over to stand by his desk. Kevin glanced up at her. “They keep moving. A lot. And when they do, I get another call about it. It's getting ridiculous.”
She crossed her arms. “And this isn’t, like, I don’t know, a virus or something? Or a couple of players deciding to have some fun hacking into other realms?”
He shook his head. “People have seen these entities firsthand— it's not a virus. Not hackers either, what’s going on doesn’t add up to that.”
Kevin swiveled his chair to face her directly. “I told you all the players I met up with only talked about weird shit happening after these entities left their world, right?”
“Uh-huh,” Vitriolic murmured.
“Well, in the middle of everything, I actually got an honest, normal call. Some kid wanted my help getting rid of a mimic entity. Didn’t even know those things actually existed. He said it so casually I thought it was a prank, but he genuinely wanted my help.”
“And?”
“I asked if he had any other problems. The mimic felt too easy. ‘Oh yeah, plenty,’ he said, ‘This one’s just the most annoying. Doesn’t help that I had my stuff stolen by some creep about a month ago. Took half of my supplies, then up and left my world with his buddy. But hey, can’t do shit about it now.”
Vitriolic’s lips twitched into an amused smile. “You’re joking,” she gawked.
Kevin met her grin. “None of the other players I met with actually had any close encounters with these entities, let alone this early. Except for this one. Come look at this,” he waved her over.
“I asked him to send over his logs folder to see if the game was tracking them somehow. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner,” Kevin opened his laptop and tapped the monitor with a claw.
“Bingo,” he crowed. Vitriolic moved closer to see the screen:
[World 26] AndreW2002 joined: 011.805.2.515 (212 309 200 813 05?) (08-31-2025 17:34:05)
[World 26] Assimilation joined: 011.223.0.125 (19,0 114 041 805) (08-31-2025 17:34:06)
Kevin had leaned back in his chair, arms crossed. “Whether they know it or not, these entities are leaving behind breadcrumbs. Literal, digital breadcrumbs. First record of their appearance, too,” he continued. “Reached back out to some of those other players for their world logs, and guess what?”
Vitriolic smirked. “Breadcrumbs?” she asked.
“Breadcrumbs,” he nodded. “That kid, Collin, that's whose world we're gonna head to first. Thought it might be best to talk in person. Didn’t say much on the phone.”
“Well, shit,” she said, “I guess we’re chasing these things down, then.”
As Kevin nodded, Vitriolic shrugged the backpack off her shoulder and tugged open the zipper. She rummaged inside, then pulled out what she was looking for and handed it to Kevin.
“Best to be prepared. Thought a pistol might suit you,” she said.
Kevin turned the gun over in his hands. “I don’t think bullets will do much against the supernatural.”
“You’d be surprised.”
Vitriolic let the bag fall to the floor and began unpacking the rest. From inside, she drew out the disassembled pieces of a shotgun and began fitting them together as she spoke.
“Did Collin mention anything else?” she asked without looking up.
“Not much,” Kevin said. “Just to bring an umbrella.”
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Something was deeply wrong with World 26.
The ground where Kevin spawned in was soaked and muddy under his feet; a clinging fog drifted down from the mountains nearby. He didn’t see a single mob: no movement, no sound, just the steady drumming of rain. At night, in weather like this, the field he and Vitriolic stood in should have been crawling with monsters.
It wasn’t right.
Kevin shivered, the fur on the back of his neck raised, and quickly opened his umbrella. He looked over to Vitriolic, who seemed to be in a similar state. Her shoulders were drawn tight, and a low hiss slipped out from between her teeth.
“His house is just down there,” Kevin said. The light from Collin’s house glowed invitingly not too far off.
“I gathered,” she grumbled. He lifted the umbrella a little higher to cover them both as they walked the short distance down the hill toward the cabin. At the door, Kevin knocked once, twice.
It creaked open.
“You Big Kevin?” Collin squinted at the mercenary.
“The one and only,” Kevin grinned and handed him his business card with a practiced flick. He heard Vitriolic give a small snort.
Collin’s gaze shifted to her. “Who’s this? Your website didn't mention anything about multiple people.”
Kevin paused. “A…business associate,” he decided.
Collin’s eyes flicked between the two of them. “Right…” he muttered, stepping aside. “Come on in.”
The air changed the moment they walked through the door. It was warm, dank, like the rain outside was aching to get in, already seeping through the walls. The faint odor of woodsmoke from a lone furnace cut through the damp. Well-weathered floorboards creaked as Kevin stepped forward.
“Before we talk about the clone,” he started, tone steady, “would you mind telling me about the entities you encountered a few weeks ago?”
Collin frowned. “Which ones?”
Kevin froze mid-step. “What do you mean, which ones?” His voice tightened. “There should’ve just been two.”
“Oh yeah, those two?” Collin didn’t look up as he began rummaging through a chest. “They came here one night, a couple of weeks ago. Didn’t stay long,” he said. “That entity— I think it called itself Assimilation? Scared the ever-loving shit out of me, and then they gave me this,” he pulled out a stack of neatly stapled papers and handed them to Kevin.
Kevin let out a surprised hum. Collin continued. “The blue-haired one stole like, all of my shit. Then they both left. Don’t really care if I see them again,” he slammed the wooden lid down with a thud. “I have enough to worry about around here.”
Kevin thumbed through the documents. Vitriolic leaned over his shoulder to read them. World 26, the title read, pestilence: recessed… yersinia: none… contagion: minimal;
“You know it calls you a bitch, right?” she said.
Collin deadpanned. “I’m aware.”
“They’ve been reported in multiple worlds,” Kevin spoke. “Never causing too much trouble, but trouble nonetheless. You got any idea what they were doing?”
Collin shrugged. “The one is like, a speedrunner or something. He wanted to beat the game. Not sure if the two of them had any other plans, though. I only spoke with Assimilation.”
“You spoke with it?” Kevin blurted out.
“Yeah?” Collin turned. “How do you think I got those papers? I told Assimilation there was no way in hell they’d make it to the End on this word, clearly,” he said, gesturing to the documents.
Kevin exchanged a glance with Vitriolic.
“Anything more you can tell us about them? Anything at all?” she said.
Collin crossed his arms. “Not sure what else I can say. I got my stuff stolen by that AI-robot thing— caught its name, Andre, at least that was part of it— and before I can do anything to stop him, some creepy-ass one-eyed entity shows up, vaguely threatens me, and then gives me those documents,” he sniffed. “They seemed close.”
Kevin’s head was beginning to spin. “You said an android? From where?” he pressed.
“I literally have no clue, dude. Now, are you two gonna help me get rid of that thing?” Collin jabbed a thumb over his shoulder at the figure in the window behind him. It blinked stiffly at Collin’s raised arm before attempting to lift its own the same way. It somehow managed only a crude imitation of a thumbs-up.
Kevin grimaced. He didn’t feel like dealing with that right now.
Vitriolic’s eyes flicked toward him, catching the tension in his jaw. “We’ll be back,” she said with a thin-lipped smile, before grabbing Kevin’s arm and pulling him out the door.
“Hey!”
She slammed the door shut behind them as they stepped out into the pouring rain.
“So, they could be anywhere?” Vitriolic asked, huddled next to Kevin under the roof’s small overhang.
Kevin hummed. “They could, but I think I know where their next ‘anywhere’ is going to be. Meeting with Collin gave me a better idea of what we’re dealing with.”
He reached into his jacket, pulling out his phone and wiping away the raindrops that had already gathered on the screen.
“There’s a pattern— in the world logs, I mean,” he continued. “I wasn’t sure of it at first, but right before you showed up, I reached out to the owner of a world. World 411. Told ‘em to give me a heads-up if anything strange started happening.”
Kevin’s lips twitched. “And guess who just pinged my phone?”
The rain seemed to fall harder. “He’s already sent us an invite to join. Gave us administrator privileges too— which means these entities,” he said, tapping something on the screen, “aren’t going anywhere. We can join; they can’t leave.” Kevin glanced up at her. “Don’t ask me how that works.”
Vitriolic adjusted the strap of the shotgun on her back. “Well,” she said, “the hunt finally begins.”
She met his eyes. “Ready when you are.”
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They arrived at a desert’s edge, a thick expanse of jungle sprawling out before them. What daylight remained was caught by a dense canopy, shrouding the understory in shadow. A wild cat yowled from somewhere deep within. The nervous chitter of insects in the trees above pealed through the humid air.
Vitriolic grimaced. “And that player said these entities were last seen here?”
“…Yes,” Kevin said. He didn’t seem too thrilled about it either.
She took a deep breath, slipping off her coat and tying it around her waist. “You got a flare or something? I can’t see anything.”
Kevin reached into his jacket pocket and pulled one out, quickly setting it alight.
“They’re stuck here, remember? Can’t get out of this world unless we let them,”
“Yeah, yeah,” she conceded. “It’s just one strange world after another, isn't it?”
“You’re telling me,” Kevin agreed.
They pushed into the jungle, the light from the flare catching on leaves slick with moisture. Colors shifted and dazzled around them, casting strange, trembling shadows as they walked. The air was heavy, too heavy, and thick with the choking smell of earth. Water dripped from the canopy in a constant patter.
The whine of insects oscillated around them; a tinny, wavering wail. The ground dipped and swelled with roots that twisted like veins beneath the soil. Vitriolic shook her head. The deeper they went, the stranger this place felt.
She and Kevin had been walking for a while when, from somewhere ahead, something moved. Vitriolic froze. Kevin held out the flare, its light stretching between the trees.
For a moment, she almost mistook it for a macaw; the torchlight catching turquoise bright enough to belong to feathers. Then it moved, and she saw it wasn’t an animal at all.
A figure stumbled out from behind a copse of tangled trees. His footing slipped in the mud, hands catching against the bark to steady himself. It almost seemed as if he’d been watching them, only to give himself away by accident.
He blinked against the flare’s harsh glow. Vitriolic noticed he looked young. Human enough, but there was something about the way he stood— too still, back ramrod straight.
Vitriolic took a step forward. “...You’re… Andre, right?” she asked, the damp air pressing against her back as she spoke.
Kevin stepped up beside her, and Vitriolic’s shoulders sagged in relief. Andre hadn’t even said a word, and she was already on edge.
“You and I both know you’re not supposed to be here,” Kevin put his free hand in his pocket. “You can’t be messing around in other players’ worlds, you know. You and your friend are giving people quite the scare,” he said.
Blue eyes stared back at them. Andre didn’t say anything.
“Where’s that other one of yours?” she asked, half thinking aloud. Vitriolic spun around to face Kevin, “You did just say there were two, right?” she hissed. “Now, where the hell is the other one?”
Kevin didn’t say anything, didn’t even look away from Andre. Vitriolic stepped forward, about to ask again, when suddenly a voice rang out from behind her.
“Right here.”
She turned.
Vitriolic couldn’t even make it all out, only an unsightly, gaping eye that glistened just above Andre’s head, staring her down with an animosity so visceral that her next breath caught in her throat. She watched as a hand, gaunted and ghastly, crawled its way up and over his shoulder, before settling on his upper arm. A low buzzing rattled the air.
This was Assimilation? Vitriolic thought, this was the entity some wayward AI was galavanting around with?
She swore she saw Andre’s lips quirk. Vitriolic bit the inside of her cheek. She couldn’t believe it— he was trying to stifle a fucking laugh!
Vitriolic shot Kevin a look. His brow furrowed.
“Hey, Kevin…” she growled under her breath, “what exactly is the plan here?”
“Your guess is as good as mine,” he muttered.
A flash of annoyance crossed her face. “Whatever,” she unstrapped her shotgun. “I think I know.” A click sounded as she disengaged the safety.
Andre’s head turned slightly, and Vitriolic saw his lips move. He was saying something to the entity, but she couldn’t make out their conversation. The entity glanced between her and Andre, then nodded.
A pause.
And then panic flashed across Andre’s face. He spoke again, louder this time, and she caught the words.
“...Not working…”
“What?”
“...I said it’s not working!”
Vitriolic shifted the gun in her hands. “Dead or alive?” she asked Kevin. She wanted to get this over quickly.
He blinked. “I don't— Hold on, this doesn’t look—”
The crack of gunfire cut him off mid-sentence.
Assimilation’s eye widened, and they tightened their grip on Andre’s shoulder as the bullet flew toward them. Suddenly, they were gone— the shrapnel burying itself in a tree somewhere behind where they had just stood.
Vitriolic could hear a crash from somewhere a few yards ahead as the two made a break for it.
“Vitri!” Kevin snapped. His face flickered with annoyance.
“What? It’s not like they’re getting far in all this.” She gestured toward the dense tangle of undergrowth surrounding them.
“Vitriolic,” Kevin took a deep, steadying breath. "One is a speedrunner,” he growled, “and the other just teleported.”
Realization hit her suddenly. Gritting her teeth, she whipped her head in the direction they raced off in.
“Shit!”
Kevin shrugged his pistol out of its holster. “Goddamnit,” he growled. “Come on.” He took off at a sprint, and Vitriolic followed.
They trampled through the thicket, branches snapping underfoot. Up ahead, they could just barely make out two figures.
“We need to get them apart,” Kevin said, raising his pistol. Still running, he pulled the trigger. The bullet hit the ground between them, sending a cacophony of detritus into the air and driving the two apart.
“You take the android, I’ll take Assimilation,” Kevin managed out.
Vitriolic nodded. “Good luck.”
She veered sharply to the left. The jungle was growing thicker here, and she fought to keep her footing, ducking around giant trunks that blocked her path. Vines clawed at her arms, snagging on her skin as she forced her way through.
Her breathing turned ragged, lungs beginning to burn and boots sinking into the soaking forest floor with sickening squelches. Then, at last, the trees began to thin.
About a dozen meters ahead, the jungle gave way to a steep drop. The roar of rushing water echoed up from below. She saw Andre slow, throwing a look over his shoulder. Moonlight glinted off his skin as he glanced back at her, then down into the gully, hesitating.
That was all the time she needed.
From around her waist, she yanked her grappling hook free, the line whistling before snagging on a branch somewhere overhead. Vitriolic leaped, crossing the distance and slamming her weight into him, knocking them both away from the gorge and to the ground.
She didn’t waste any time. Vitriolic quickly drew up her leg and shoved a hand to Andre’s chest, pinning him down. He thrashed beneath her, feet slipping helplessly on the undergrowth. With her free hand, she grabbed for her shotgun.
Andre howled.
Before Vitriolic knew it, her world was snapped sideways; a flash of white-hot pain rang through her skull as something rammed into her cheekbone with a reverberating thwack.
She reeled backwards, bringing a hand up to the side of her face. She could already taste the blood pooling in her mouth.
Great thinking, Vitriolic thought bitterly to herself, tackle the thing made out of fucking metal!
She quickly looked up at Andre, who had already scrambled out of reach. He seemed just as stunned as her: hand still held loosely in a fist at his chest as he stared back. The look of surprise on his face mirrored her own.
Now, Vitriolic wasn’t an expert, but she was damn sure things like these weren’t supposed to scream bloody murder like that.
Or throw a sucker punch, for that matter.
His eyes flickered briefly to the shotgun that had been tossed from her grip before snapping back to meet her gaze. She swallowed hard.
Andre didn’t move, didn’t dare take his eyes off of her.
He was trapped.