Heroes of Tetris REWRITTEN

Chapter 1: The Disguise of the Darkness

Anime rested comfortably in his bed, until his sweet dreams of playing his Switch all day were interrupted by very real nightmares showing graphic depictions of anarchy, kidnapping, murder, all culminating in the destruction of that world. And as he lied there and watched, the plot changed, and soon he was defeating the curse that had been placed upon this dream. But before he could see himself put a stop to the darkness, he woke up.

Anime awoke to the shining sun in his eyes, a great departure from the dullen landscape he had just escaped. It was still raining lightly from the night before, which was the perfect weather, in his opinion. He got up and started his morning routine, which involved eating breakfast, showering, applying deodorant and getting dressed. As he left his apartment, he noticed his neighbor, Card, do the same, and so, initiated the following conversation:

"Card! How're you this fine morning!" Anime asked politely.

"Not too good, had some weirdo dream last night. Felt like a god damn fever dream. What about you? Got work today?" Card responded.

"My day off, decided to walk around the city for once. You finish work at 5, right?"

"Yeah but I dunno if I'll come over later, got some more stuff to do. Anyways, see ya." Card finished as he closed his car door and drove off.

Anime playfully slid down the handrail and hopped over to the south side of town, which was usually less populated. As he walked by the forest, he swore he could hear someone beckoning him to it, and he was dragged in against his will. He cautiously treaded the dirt path as the rustling leaves blocked out all sounds. Eventually, he reached a podium, or rather, a stump that had some sort of object haphazardly slammed inside it. A tree with a face appeared to guard this stump, as it was the closest one to it and was clearly the oldest.

The tree spoke weakly, barely able to catch its breath long enough to talk. "Anime, my boy, do you know why you've come here?"

"Not really, although this forest is giving me some major déjà vu."

"It's because a great evil threatens to destroy the world, and possibly the universe, unless you stop it."

"Why me?"

"Because, long ago, and many parallel universes away, a different version of you swore to me that no matter when or where the darkness showed itself, you'd always be there to stop it. Now, have you seen those oddly shaped meteors?"

"The super blocky ones? If so, then yeah."

"Those blocks are only the beginning."

"And you know this, how?"

"In a different universe, as I had mentioned before, something similar happened, and that's when you showed up and put a stop to it, albeit at a very dire cost. The Anime of that universe lost his friends on the way and died as he declared his oath to destroy the darkness. I know this only because that sword contained the stories of the ones before you."

"I- I see... I must be the one to defeat the darkness! Thank you, tree, for guiding me along my destiny! Now, where do I start?"

"The answer to that is quite simple, see that rod sticking out of the tree? That's the handle to the original Anime's sword and is the only thing strong enough to put a stop to the darkness."

"I understand!" Anime yelled as he yanked the sword out of the stump. As he did so, he felt the world become darker and more sinister.

The tree chuckled. "You foolish boy! Thanks to you the darkness will be released, and nothing will be able to stop it this time. Not even you or that god forsaken sword!" The surrounding trees' roots wrapped around Anime's wrists and ankles, he tried to swing his sword, but the more he tried, the more the roots tightened around his wrist, nearly crushing it. He jerked back just enough to get room to slice at any of the roots, which, through a combination of luck and skill, gave him just enough time to escape the forest, where he started to run straight for his apartment. "It matters not if he escapes now, although he will be quite an inconvenience later, but once my powers have grown a bit more, he will be easy to kill for my master."

As Anime ran for apartment, he bumped into Card, although he couldn't focus on that. His head was racing with visions of previous versions of himself dying to the darkness. This couldn't be how he goes, he thought, killed by some malevolent force without a second thought.

His thoughts were interrupted by Card's shouting. "Anime! Get a hold of yourself! What the fuck happened? Why are you carrying a sword?"

Before Anime could answer any of Card's burning questions, he passed out and Card barely caught him. "Anime?! ANIME?!" He whipped out his phone and started to dial 911 when a bolt of dark energy shot from the forest and disintegrated it instantly. "FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!"