V.I.R.A.L

"Harriet Russel."

"Huh? Is that you're girlfriend or something?" Zinnia yelled, keeping up with her karaoke session of Michael Jackson Beat it.

"What? No! Pokiero. Her name is Harriet Russel. 23 years old. Signed up as a streamer five years ago. She had always had a healthy number of fans, but it's only been recent since she had a huge boom. It seems V.I.R.A.L were the ones to push her, right around when we joined actually. She mainly streams on weekdays ranging from early mornings to late afternoons."

Gale lifted his head from the sofa, throwing the last clump of crisps into his mouth. "How do you know all of this?"

"It's all public information. She has it on her streaming page. Slightly odd to me that she has all her info on display."

Zinnia glimpses over her shoulder, trying to juggle singing and contributing to the team. "Does she have any more information we can use? Streaming locations? Home address?"

"Zinnia, no one in their right mind would give out their own… holy shit she has her home address on here," Alton spoke in a baffled tone slouching overlooking. "To make matters even crazier, she lives like ten minutes away from my place. Small world."

"Well then, that's all we need. What's the plan? We commence an all-out attack on her house, take her by surprise? Tie her up for the world to see and force her to confess?"

"That's a little dark for you, isn't it?" Gale stated.

"No, that won't work." Alton regrettably said, putting his phone on the table. "If we just attack her like that we may be marked as the bad guys. Besides, we need the public's side on ours if we are to successfully take her down. If the controversy is too small people will forget, and our hard work would all be for nothing."

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"And we still don't know what her abilities are capable of. If we aren't careful, she could drop us all like flies." Gale added looking for once reasonably concerned. "If this girl had physical abilities, she wouldn't be an issue, but mental ones will be little help to me."

Zinnia pauses her song, dropping to the floor cross-legged. "So, what do we do then? If we can't fight her directly or take the fight to her, how do we take her down?"

Alton had Pokiero's stream on with the video paused as he read the chat. He kept watching the discussion gloat over her as an idea came to mind. "We use her fans."

"Her fans? How would we do that?"

"It's simple. If we somehow made her fans turn against her, she would be forced to give up. If we turn enough of her fans against her, drop her viewer count enough, she would be forced to come after us. Make her desperate enough her confession will come out without us even trying."

"Setting a trap by using her body shield against her. That might just work."

"The only problem is still her powers. If we start turning against each other or make the attack seem like a misunderstanding or a fault on our end, it could all come tumbling down." Alton said in a mixed tone flipping his phone around. "We need to find her weakness."

"You think she has a weakness?"

"Every superhuman has a weakness Zinnia. For example, if there is no source of liquids around, I can't use my powers whatsoever. Pretty sure mister punch first never ask questions has no chance against ranged opponents, and you have to touch the target to suppress their emotions. Pokiero has to have a weakness."

"Maybe her mind control has a range limit? If that's the case, you could easily take her down."

"No, if that was the case, she couldn't get to us during her live streams."

"You said she only affects males, we could use that to our advantage. Use Zinnia to take her down."

"No, that wouldn't work. The effect took hold of Zinnia took. Although not as strong, it still captivated her. Besides, she isn't exactly a fighter."

"I thought this was going to be a lot easier." Zinnia pouted, acting like a spoilt brat. "Should we get another teammate? A female who could withstand her might?"

"We don't have time for that. Although… I might have a way to get the number of people watching."

"Really? But why would we need that for?"

"Well, the more people watching our takedown spreads the downfall and likability that she stays out of the streaming service for good, and it gets us more followers."

"I didn't think of that."

"Of course, you didn't." Alton sighs. "Say Gale you think you can do more research into Harriet's background. Family upbringing, any previous controversies or bad she's done."

"I guess I could look into it. What about Zinnia?"

"Zinnia if you can get in contact with the businessman who approached us today. See if you can find any more victims who would tell their stories. I'm going to try and get our views."

"I can try. Who are you going to talk to?"

"An old fan."

****

Iris put her legs up on the small coffee table, flipping a lollypop around her fingers. "Hunting rouge streamers sounds like something right up your alley was this Zinnia or your idea."

"Mine of course. She's a streamer going by Pokiero."

"Oh, her."

"You know her?"

"My sister was meant to have a dual-stream with her a little while back. She turned down the offer, not giving me a reason apart from she didn't feel like it. Our father was pissed. I've seen one of her streams. She's a creep."

"She's also using her powers to manipulate men into throwing their money away to fuel her lifestyle. They are completely unaware they are doing this too. It's ruining some of their lives too." Alton snapped, feeling more frustrated that he too fell for her trap.

Iris swirled her lollypop around, taking one last lick thinking. "Sounds horrible. So, you came to ask for our help? I'll give my sister a call, and we can take down this bastard together."

"That's not why I called you here."

Iris pressed her leg on the table nodding. "I expected that. It's still cool that Avalanche is coming to me for help. What can I do?"

"Well, I need your sister's help. My team are going after this rouge streamer. But we need the numbers to get a good backlash. With our low efforts, it would be futile. We need to take her down alone to build our reputation."

"I get it now. This is a way to blow up and get your name out there. Makes sense why you wouldn't want my sister helping, she might take all the thunder… how about this. When you start the takedown stream, I get my sister to host the said stream. Have her followers watch your stream? Spread the word and get everyone hosting the stream. With those sorts of numbers, we might just get you to the number one streamed channel at the time. Might even get the attention of Vanguard."

"That would be perfect. Is that alright?"

"She would be thrilled to help one of her all-time favourite streamers. Dad might be pissed, but who cares. This is for the good of mankind."

Alton looked at his phone, getting a text from Zinnia. "I need to go. We have a lead."

"Well, I wish you luck. Though you don't need it. The might of Avalanche will live on!" Alton walked out of the coffee shop backwards giving her a thumbs-up as she leaned back smiling to herself. "I'm friends with Avalanche, this is awesome!"

"Can you take your feet off the table please mam."

Iris turned to the old woman as she stood up, biting the last of her lollypop off and throwing the stick at her. "Get fucked, Grandma."

****

"I must thank you again for accepting my plea." The businessman informed bowing. "It means the world to me."

Alton was glued to his phone, going over old photos as he nodded. "Yeah, so listen you mentioned the other day there was more victims of Pokiero. Could you possibly get into contact with them?"

"Contact? I suppose I could message them over the Pokiero forums. I am the moderator of it."

"Of course, you are, but this coincidence might help us. Since you moderate the chat could you get the other victims to flood the forums with people sharing their stories and exposing Pokiero? She would have to step in and take notice."

"Only for your group to add to the fire forcing her to retaliate." He replied. "That could work!"

Alton smirked nodding. "I am a genius after all, and with help from Iris' sister, we will have the numbers. Could you get all of this done by tonight?"

"I could call in sick and start now."

"Great, the closer we can get this done, the better."

"How's Pokiero stream going Zinnia?"

Zinnia snapped out of it going bright red. "Oh, she's doing the same as usual. But she did say she would be doing a late-night stream."

"Then that's when we strike. The only problem we face is her powers. I'm taking a gamble with this if she too believes her powers only work on men due to her live streams. We could use Zinnia as an artificial barrier. Keep Pokiero on her toes. If we keep her distracted, she might not be able to use her powers."

"What if that doesn't work?"

"I do have a backup plan for that," Alton admits lifting his sleeve revealing a sharp icicle inches away from his arm. "I have this icicle inches away from stabbing me, I can only hold it back with sheer concentration. When I'm under Pokiero's spell, I can seemly break out of it if I'm distracted enough. Likewise, I lose all concentration when she gets me. So, if she tries to mind control me, the icicle will stab me breaking me out of the trance and hopefully buys me enough time to get in the final blow."

"Sounds risky and dangerous. What if you hurt yourself?" Zinnia worries.

"It's all we got right now." Alton sighs taking the icicle away. "If we had more time, I could dissect her weakness. Hang on. Call from Gale… talk to me."

"I got more information on Pokiero although it isn't much."

"I'll take whatever I can."

"Well, Harriet Russel had seemed to have quite the troubled upbringing. She struggled to keep her powers hidden as every man used to fantasise over her causing her grief and problems. She was arrested about eight years ago. Her father is imprisoned for child abuse. I'm pretty sure he abused her and her younger brother."

"Why didn't she use her powers on him to control him?"

"I don't know. That's all I could find on my end. How is your research going?"

"Great. We are almost ready. Meet up at the usual place we need to finalise our plan."

"Rodger that. Gale over and out."

"Over and out? What a weirdo. Gale didn't turn up much. We are going to have to work with what we have. I would prefer to have more time, but we don't know how much more her brainwashing goes. I could be in more debt soon then I owe to Monty."

Zinnia looked away as a boy tripped up. She placed the phone down, helping him up. "Are you alright?" The boy blankly stared forward seemly, watching the Pokiero stream. "Oh, don't watch that!" Zinnia covered the screen concerned. "It isn't suitable for you."

Alton gave a strange look as the boy seemed unaffected by the stream giving Zinnia an odd look.

"Oh, there you are Louie!" A woman cried out. "I'm sorry he just wanders off by himself. He's so irresponsible. I keep telling him he can't wander off like this no more." 

"Is he alright?" Zinnia asked.

"Oh, don't worry about him. Louie here is blind. He, unfortunately, got into an accident a few months back and had a barrel of acid fall off a truck and blind him."

"That's horrible." Zinnia exclaimed. She kneeled, patting his head. "Well, I'm glad you found your mother." The little boy smiled as the two walked off. Zinnia patted herself down, putting her phone away. "Is there a problem?"

"Oh, no. Nothing. We should get back to base. We will need to be ready. I have faith you will get those victims to come forth. Set that entire forum on fire."

"I will!"

****

Zinnia began laughing to herself, watching the forums blow up. Every post was shitting on Pokiero with anything good about her being deleted by the mods. "It's working. It's working. The forums are falling apart. It's only a matter of time before she has to take action."

"Perfect. Check the stream, see how she is reacting." Alton eggs on. "So, let's go over the plan. We have her come to us. The park around the corner is best and least likely to cause any problems or possible outside casualties. We have Zinnia distract her enough so we can attack her without her knowing. When she's down, we keep her on her toes. Break her will until she confesses to everything she has done. We all clear with the plan? Zinnia? Zinnia!"

"Huh, oh! Yeah." She stutters, wiping her face. "She's super pissed. Banning everyone who brings this up. She's already having a mental breakdown. If we do it. We do it now!"

"Good, Gale. Our next step you need to donate to her. Send the message. Let her know we are coming for her."

"How much do we donate?"

"The smallest amount. Piss her off more."

Gale takes the phone pasting the message he had already planned out donating over. This got Pokiero's attention as Gale was snapped out of the trance. Pokiero began reading the message her rage and anger only building. "One-dollar donation from Rhapsody. Harriet Russel… we are well aware of your twisted means of manipulating and stealing from your viewers. You use your powers, not for good but your twisted gain. We cannot allow such means and lives to be ruined. It's time to bring you to Justice… are you fucking kidding me?! Rhapsody you sly fuck. Who do you think you are making claims like that?!"

"She took the bait!" Zinnia exclaimed dancing around.

"Perfect. All is going to plan. Zinnia. Start the stream, let's save those poor fools from themselves."

Zinnia ran outside, throwing the drone in the air as the stream started. The title in full cap locks reading. Exposing Pokiero the crooked Charismatic Parasite. Alton sent the message to Iris as soon enough their stream began to gain numbers. More then they could ever imagine. Ten thousand. 20 thousand. 50 thousand. More and more as all of Ruby's fans began piggybacking off her stream watching Rhapsody. Zinnia began hopping around losing her mind. "So many people watching us take her down!"

Alton looked in the comments seeing Iris and her sister's word both saying the same thing. Take her down. "Alright team. Let's do this. We move to the park!" The three streamers began running to the park as drones began diving around them streaming from all angles. Alton jumped over a fence as he saw people coming out watching in confusion. "Zinnia where is Harriet now?"

"She's left her home. She's coming."

"Perfect! All of you full speed ahead!"

The three found themselves in the park as each entrance was cut off. They all waited ready for Harriet to come running. The chat was flooded with both confusion and excitement as even know they had no knowledge of what was happening they were hyped for a stream never done before. "Where is she now?"

"Passing the coffee shop! She'll be coming from the front."

"Alright cut all feeds apart from Zinnia's have the only attention on her." All the drones were stuck on Zinnia as Alton smirked. "Where is she now?"

"Still at the coffee shop… she hasn't moved?"

"Something doesn't feel right here." He mutters. "Gale, have you…" He turns around to see Gale on his knees in a trance. Alton's eyes widen as Harriet was already there holding Gale's head tightly shaking it around. "How… No way… she cut the feed to her stream. She knew we were watching."

Pokiero ran her hand through her skinhead huffing. "Just who the fuck do you think you lot are? Messing in my fucking business?! I'm just doing what my fans love, and you try turning that against me?"

"Using your fans as your piggy bank is a disciple act which cannot be forgiven!"

"You think I want that? You think I want any of that?! They can't stop even if I begged them too!" Pokiero screamed, placing on her headphones, having her drone follow her line of sight. "I'll make you regret crossing me, bastards!"

"We going to fight her?"

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"We just need to stall her make her more pissed into a confession. We can handle her."

Pokiero turned her mic on yelling as the sound bounced off everywhere. "The person to take down these haters will get a personal date with me!"

Alton and Zinnia gave a strange look as the bushes began to rustle. Out of nowhere about a dozen men jumped out surrounding the two streamers while Gale was trapped in a trance. Zinnia hopped back in shock. "What the hell?! Where did they all come from?"

"Of course, can't be bothered to face the music and do your dirty work, so you get your fans to do it!"

"You gave me no choice. You don't understand. You don't understand anything! I'll make you understand my pain when you are under my spell! Take care of them, boys!"