Toxic (Ready Player One)

Chapter 2: Burnout

Raven's POV

"ROBIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I jolt awake when I heard my brother's name being yelled. I looked over at him. He looks terrified, curled up into a ball on his bed with his long black bangs falling into his eyes.

"It'll be okay, Robin..." I try to calm him, knowing he wouldn't calm down. He and I both knew I was lying. He looks at me, his eyes wide and fearful as heavy footsteps approach the door.

The door slams open and our stepmother, Mrs. Thompson storms in. She grabs Robin by his hair and slams him into the ground, breaking his nose in the process. He groans and cries, face down on the floor, and I cower under the covers.

"Where are my gloves you little bitch!!" She snarls, grabbing the back of his neck and forcing him up.

"I-I don't know!"

"Penny said she saw you take them. Where the hell are they?!" Mrs. Thompson slaps him hard across the face.

My eyes narrow. Penny was Mrs. Thompson's real daughter, who absolutely hated us. And I hated her. She was mean, petty, and vindictive, and was constantly framing us, giving Mrs. Thompson reason to beat us.

"PENNY IS A LIAR!" I scream, standing up. Mrs. Thompson threw Robin back on the floor and slowly walked over to where I stood on the bed. She punched me in the stomach, hard, and I fell back into the bed, nearly cracking my head open on the wall. She loomed over me and continued to punch me, making me nearly throw up my meager dinner she was "forced" to give us last night.

"No!" Robin gasped, running towards me-

Mrs. Thompson hit him too and he fell.

She finally stepped away from us. "Get ready for school, pathetic losers," she scoffed, leaving the room and slamming the door shut.

Rain was curled up on the floor, sobbing. I instantly got up, wincing as the intense pain flooded my senses, and ran over to him. "Robin? Robin, talk to me. 1-10."

"8," he groaned.

"That bad? Anything broken?"

"My nose," he sighed, sitting up. Bright red blood streamed from it.

I quickly grabbed the first aid kit I always kept in our room and patched him up. "Better?"

He nodded slowly.

"Okay. Let's get out of here, yeah?" I stood up and held my hand out to him.

"Okay, Raven."

-

So there you have it. Raven and Robin. I know what you're thinking- were our parents obsessed with birds or something? Well, kind of. My name was taken from the ever-popular poem from Edgar Allen Poe, and my brother was named after Robin Hood. Fitting that he was also the best archer in the OASIS. His avatar was a combination of Hawkeye and Robin Hood, and went by the user HawkHood. I was more into science, and dabbled in chemicals- and poison. My avatar was a combination of Bruce Banner and Natasha Romanoff. I wore a leather catsuit and a lab coat, and always had a million different chemical weapons on me. I went by the user Toxicious. We didn't use our real names in the OASIS- Robin became Nate, the name of Laura and Clint's third child, and I became Hiro-Kala, the name of one of the Hulk's children in the Marvel comics. Together, Robin and I formed the Toxic Arrow, the most feared PvP gang in the OASIS. Robin and I were unstoppable. We were like Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, only cooler. And Robin wasn't dead.

Robin and I ran out of the house, headed to our safehold in an abandoned warehouse. We lived in downtown Columbus, just a few blocks away from IOI headquarters. Honestly, I don't know what IOI even does anymore, since Parzival banned them from the OASIS.

Just thinking of Parzival made me shiver with excitement. Just yesterday, I had extended an invitation to him and the High Five, inviting them to join our gang. I was praying they'd say yes.

Robin and I arrived at the warehouse and quickly got set up in our rigs. Once our visors were on and our passwords were verified, we slowly shifted identities.

"Any word yet, Kala?" Robin- I mean Nate- asked me. Everyone in the OASIS called me Toxicious or Hiro. Nate was the only one I permitted to call me Kala.

"Checking..." I opened my email. Inside was an email from Parzival! "He accepted!!" I squealed.

"We better get ready!" Nate said. We walked out of spawn onto the balcony overlooking the commons. Hundreds of avatars were already there, and they cheered when they spotted us.

"Alright Toxic Arrow!" I said, using a megaphone spell to amplify my voice. "We've got a special arrival today- the High Five is going to join us!"

The avatars went nuts at this news.

"Let's be sure to look our best for them, and show them what we've got!" Nate yelled.

"Toxic Arrow! Toxic Arrow!" They chanted.

"Let's go!" I yelled. The avatars began to dash around, getting ready for their arrival.

"Should I change?" I asked Nate, surveying my look in the wardrobe menu. I had on my standard clothes: black leather catsuit, lab coat,  goggles, and a belt of chemicals around my hips. My hair was pitch black with the ends dyed neon green, and it was swept into a high ponytail.

"Just a couple things," Nate said. He stepped closer and took my hair out of the ponytail, using a spell to make it long and wavy. He took the goggles off my face and put them on my head instead. "There, you look gorgeous."

"I'm so excited to meet Parzival," I confessed, leaning on the balcony.

Nate laughed. "Omg Kala, you have such a cyber-crush on this guy!"

I scoffed. "It's not a cyber-crush if you know who he is in real life. Plus, you're one to talk! We both know you're dying to meet Daitoooo~" I sang the last word, and Nate blushed.

"S-Shut up!" I giggled and looked back over the railing. Suddenly, an alarm rang in my ear, and a screen popped up in front of me. "Unauthorized vehicles approaching danger point," my AI, Jarvis 2.0 said.

I looked at the surveillance footage. There were three vehicles: a monster truck, a pink and black bike that I recognized from Akira, and-

"A Delorean!" I sputtered, pointing at the footage. "That's them! Let 'em in Jarvis."

The garage hissed open, and the three vehicles made their way inside. Nate and I rushed down to the garage. I eagerly tapped in the access code to open the door, and as it hissed open-

Five avatars spun around to look at us. A shorter ninja, dressed in a yellow suit and mask, a taller ninja in red samurai armor, an extremely tall orc, a girl with red spiked hair, and...

Him.

Parzival himself.

"Kala?" Nate whispered into our private comm. "Youre blushing."

Ngl I'm loving this