V.I.R.A.L

The concept of trolls and haters were nothing new. They had been around the moment the internet kicked off. The moment people could spread hate and lies without fear of being discovered, the wildfire would only spread. Of course, most were used to this ordeal. It was no different to streamers. They too got the same hate and slur thrown at them without any remorse or thought. When there is no negative outcome for your actions, wouldn't anyone jump on the bandwagon? The targets would be the naïve who would fall victim to the bait. The trolls lived for retaliation. The more the streamer snapped back, the better. This would be no different for Team Rhapsody and a certain girl who had never even heard of the concept…

Percy knocked on the door to the karaoke booth tilting his head left and right. He waited a short while confused why no one was responding. He rechecked his phone, confirming it was the right booth Zinnia had booked. Unclear why no one was answering, Percy decided just to enter himself. Sliding into the room, he found Zinnia by herself looking like she was about to erupt as her fingers were flying across her phone at high speed. She was huffing to herself, gritting her teeth. Percy stepped back startled by Zinnia's emotional high she was suffering. Stepping back caused Zinnia to hear his presence as she looked up at him with tears in her eyes and a look with murderous intent. "Percy! Come here now!!"

Percy swallowed edging towards Zinnia, expecting to be greeted by death itself. All tensed up he leaned forward slightly as Zinnia shoved her phone in his face. "How can people say this sort of stuff?! The nerve of them!"

Percy blankly stared at the phone seeing hateful comments aimed towards Team Rhapsody and in more detail, specific members of the group most being of Alton and her. The more he read, the worse Percy felt. Zinnia had blindly replied to each troll comment with rage and fire not letting a single comment go to waste. She mostly targeted the ones aimed at her friends, but she didn't hesitate to spit at the nasty remarks made against her. "Don't tell me… you replied to all of these haters…"

Zinnia crossed her arms, twitching slightly nodding. "I most certainly did! Cowards! All of them!"

Percy snatched the phone from her hand going into full damage control mode. "Oh, shit! How long were you doing this for? There is still more comments coming through. Ahh! I should have expected this after declaring an all-out war on the Montagues…"

"If there is more let me at them!" Zinnia snapped, clenching her fists together. "Faceless evil like this shouldn't be allowed to continue. If we let them have this day, they will only grow more powerful!"

Percy held the phone away from him stopping Zinnia getting her paws on it as he yelled quickly trying to calm her down. "You fight these trolls, and more will come. Strike them down, and they will be more powerful than you could possibly imagine! Stop before you make things worse!"

Zinnia eventually gave up giving a longwinded snarl sitting down fiddling with her hair which was down in a half ponytail. "Fiiiine! But I'm not going to be happy about it."

Percy wiped his forehead, sensing the storm subsiding. He put Zinnia's phone in his back pocket, stuck in deep thought. "Anyone else knows about the trolls?"

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"Gale saw, he was more worked up about it than me. He said he was going to the lobby to get a better connection."

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" He screamed sprinting out of the booth towards the lobby. He already heard loud yells coming from that direction as he feared the worst. "Please, please don't…"

Gale was in the lobby screaming every word he was already typing away ready to rain hellfire down on the trolls. "I have over 300 confirmed stream takedowns. I am trained in Anti-human warfare, and I'm the top stream sniper in the entire country. You are nothing to me but shit on my shoe! I will wipe you the fuck out with force and willpower the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words!"

Percy leapt forward snatching the phone deleting the comment before he could finish gasping. "That was too close…"

"Hey, hey?! What's the big idea twerp? I wasn't finished."

Percy held his hand out panting. "No more wars with these trolls…"

Gale placed his hands on his hips, giving a cocky laugh. "Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows."

"Huh?"

"Oh, don't worry, I wouldn't expect someone like you to understand my sophisticated mind. I was only quoting one of the most inspiring men of all time, if you paid attention in history class you've might have known. But alas it appears I'm just too smart for the likes of you."

"What? I'm pretty sure Vanguard never said that! Besides, you may act all arrogant now, but you were just about to post a declaration of war on V.I.R.A.L were you not?"

"Vitter actually! This is different, they dare mock Zinnia's mass beauty. Are they not blind to her looks? Can they not see her as I do?! Madness, I cry, madness. They are all sick, sick with jealously for what they do not have."

"Is Gale going off on another one of his sophisticated speeches again?" Alton mumbled walking into the karaoke lobby still looking half asleep gripping a hot chocolate tightly with Emil close behind. "It's too early what's got you so worked up?"

"We were discussing what we were going to do during the summer break!" Percy barked stopping the truth from coming out, the last thing he needed was Alton to find out what the two streamers had been up to. "We were arguing over what to do."

"Hmm, I guess it would be nice to get away and do something non-streaming related. Truth be told I haven't done something like that in a while, and we still got to celebrate the takedown of the phantom streamer. Very well, let us discuss this ordeal with Zinnia."

Percy felt safe as he turned to Gale. "Don't mention these trolls or the comments to Alton. The last thing we need is him getting involved…"

"Very well, I will hold my tongue about these spiteful comments. But let it be known if I ever get my hands on the people who spoke ill of Zinnia, I will personally introduce them to a world of pain."

"Zinnia, oh crap Zinnia!" He cried, rushing ahead of Alton and Emil getting strange looks from them both as he slid into the booth. Alton opened the door raising his eyebrow as Percy turned around laughing. "Sorry, I just really wanted to discuss the plan."

"Alton! You wouldn't believe it…"

"That we haven't discussed the summer break plans with her yet!" He interrupted, turning to Zinnia making exaggerated signs with his hands. He began moving his hand over his neck before not long after making a cross with his arms. Zinnia tilted her head confused but nodding understanding slightly. "Where would you like to spend summer break Zinnia?"

Zinnia kept giving a strange-looking as she shifted between Percy and Alton. "The theme park."

 "Too loud, too expensive." Alton shutdown.

Percy bowed his head thanking Zinnia as he gave his offer handing her back her phone. "What about the zoo?"

"Do we even have one of those?" Emil pointed out.

"Too tiring, too expensive."

"Any ideas Emil?" Percy said, throwing the ball in his court.

Emil pointed to himself, confused. "You noobs want me to decide? I feel, as a brand-new member, I haven't earned such privileges. I shall go with whatever you like."

"Something that we can all do, that is cheap and simple…"

"What about the beach?" Gale spoke up, walking into the booth. "The Sun, the sea, the food. Truly the perfect option for a group of friends, no?"

"He's not wrong… we could get a barbeque going. That might just work." Alton muttered to himself before leaning over to Gale whispering. "Did you put through this idea to see Zinnia in a swimsuit?"

Gale gasped in shock. "How dare you question my motives! I will have you know there is more to life than those impure thoughts, and I quite offended you even thought of such means," The two stared at each other before Gale sighed looking down in defeat. "Yes…"

Zinnia placed her hands together, getting all excited over the idea now completely forgetting the troll comments. "Oh, I heard coconuts are the perfect snack to have on a warm summer's day. We have to try coconuts!"

"So, it's settled on the beach then?" Percy asked. "No objections? Great! How does next Friday sound?"

"Don't see a problem with a Friday."

"Super! We'll meet here first thing on Friday!"

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Zinnia fist-bumped the air already stoked for the event. "We've got to have a juicy steak! Nothing is better than steak, believe it! Oh, now that I'm thinking of it maybe we should invite Iris and her sister? They did help us take down Pokiero."

"The more, the merrier I guess; I'll send her a text asking." Alton shrugged glancing over his phone.

Everyone was prepping for the day as Zinnia frowned tapping Alton. "What's your opinion on trolls?"

"Trolls? Bunch of no lives, best to ignore them. Only causes trouble in the long run. Get tangled in that mess, and it's like adding wood to a fire. Nothing good can come out of it. Heard some streamers got banned because of trolls. You see any trolls or haters lurking in our comments either report them or just let it slide. Don't want to start a pointless war and possibly get us banned. Why'd you ask?"

"Oh! No, no reason. Was just curious!" Zinnia played off glaring at the phone in her hand feeling sick to the stomach.