Press Start [homestuck] (on hold)

Chapter Nine - WaveCrasher

Steven's POV

I pulled out my phone and sent a message to WaveCrasher, opening up a pesterlog.

DesolateJayfeather: Hey, you ready to start?

WaveCrasher: Uh, not exactly. Do we have to start right away?

DJ: Yes. There's an emergency and I need to get into the game as soon as possible.

WC: OK, let me get ready first, then we can begin communications.

DJ: Fine. But be quick about it.

I closed the chat with that and sighed exasperatedly. WaveCrasher was another of the friends I had made over the internet, and while I knew that he lived in a nearby town, we had never met in person. His real name was, as far as I could figure, Ry Serket, and my impression of him was that he was a somewhat nervous and wishy-washy person, but that he was also energetic and happy, when he had due reason to be. He was also an amazing computer programmer and gamer. I had decided to include him in the Sburb roster for those reasons, but also because I think he was somewhat lonely.

"Sly, what do you think I should do once we're in game?" I asked him.

Sly climbed up on top of my laptop and looked directly at me, once again making me relive the shock of having a magical kitten guardian who had sentient thought and speech. It was a scientific phenomenon. "You'll need to hurry along the process of the game and build your home base up to the sky, using grist. For that, you'll have to defeat lots of enemies to collect grist. Then this WaveCrasher can use the grist through the server program and build staircases and new floors to get you up to the portal in the sky. Then you can get through that portal and you should show up in Jez's world."

That sounded complicated to my still somewhat dazed mind, but it was all necessary.

I messaged WC again, saying,

DJ: I'm ready to start, what about you?

WC: Yeah, fine. The server program is starting. Get ready.

I closed the chat again, and ran to the kitchen cupboard. While it was a handy place to store food and cooking implements, I also stored my set of throwing knives there. Don't ask, it's actually quite a good place. Not that you would ever need any of this info, unless you were me. Or someone trying to assassinate me. Please don't. I captchalogued these, as well as some food items that wouldn't spoil. Including the instant mashed potatoes, just in case. I have priorities.

A big rumble, and I saw that there had been a cylindrical machine dropped on my coffee table. Sly had jumped up on my shoulder in surprise, but now relaxed, his sharp claws ungripping themselves from my shirt. I ran back to my bedroom, which didn't take long (I lived in a three room apartment.), and threw on my favorite blue and black jacket, some socks, and white sneakers. I also captchalogued a few more necessary items, like a blanket, a can of tuna for Sly, and a flashlight. As I picked up the flashlight, Sly clicked his tongue at me.

"Tsk, tsk. You won't be needing that, not where you're going." He advised. "Might as well save some captcha cards."

"I don't need to save any, they conserve themselves." I told him cockily, and it was true. My captcha modus, Hoarder, discarded captchalogued items once they had gone for more than a day without use. This could sometimes be a blessing, and sometimes a curse. But, it always left me with many more empty cards in my deck. I headed back out to the living room, noticing immediately that there were more machines placed down. Me and Sly got to work, with Sly using magic to move the machines to more optimal positions and me doing functions like taking out the cruxite and reforming it and all those. Once the timer appeared in the air and the kernel-sprite was ready, I started to search for an inanimate object to prototype. While looking under my bed, I found the perfect thing.

A toy stuffed puppy, which was admittedly quite cute, a gag gift from one of my friends for my last birthday. It wore a silly purple and green beanie and a horrible doggy jacket and mittens, and it had a dopey grin on its scrunched up face. I had never been much of a dog person, preferring the quiet company of cats, but this one was particularly grotesque. It was perfect. I brought it out, looking at the timer. 4:13 seconds left. Sly gaped at me, seeing the ugly pug toy in my hands.

"Oh, you can't possibly be serious..." He muttered, looking from my expression, to the pug, to me. "Oh..." He continued. I started to toss it into the portal. But he blocked it with magic.

"No way!" Sly protested. "Couldn't you pick something less conspicuous, like a hang-in-there kitten poster or a gallon of ketchup or a diagram of the solar system or something?"

"None of those thing are conspicuous at all!" I said exasperatedly. "Besides, this is the only suitable thing I can spare!"

"That's no were near suitable!" He screeched. "I would sooner fuse with those awful clothes you're wearing!"

"These are not awful!" I countered.

"Those shoes SO do not go with that shirt!"

"Quiet! I'm prototyping it!"

"No, you are certainly not! I am your guardian, and I demand that you-"

"Yeah, you're my guardian, which means that you do what I say! Do I have to prototype you first?" I threatened, and Sly hissed at me in contempt, promptly jumping into the kernel-sprite.

"Who knows?" I said humorously. "This may even give you some sort of ugly pug powers or something." I tossed the stuffy in after him. The room suddenly went completely dark, but I hadn't lost consiousness yet. I reached out for whatever was in front of me, but I grasped some sort of smooth metal, unlike anything I had in my apartment. I used it as a support to stand up and pulled out my flashlight from its card. "Won't need a light where you're going, my ass." I muttered under my breath. I shined it forward, and looked straight into a completelyblack face with bulging white eyes. There was, of course, a body attached to the face, but I couldn't make out its features, as it was slamming against me with intense force. I staggered backwards, dropping my flashlight.

"Welcome, Prince, to the dark moon of Derse." Hissed a sinister voice.

A/N: Hey guys! Decided to post a Press Start update because HOLY SHIT I HAVEN'T POSTED FOR 11 DAYS. I'm sorry I've been gone a lot, but as the story's starting to unfold more, I'll be updating more frequently. On a side note, thank you guys for 60 followers! 0u0 So excited.

~Steve