Chapter 3: A Lesson In Death

Aria stood standing in front of the mirror in her mouse-hole, admiring her new flower that she just bought at the Shop. She had finally managed to earn 50 cheeses and spent them all on this flower. However, she did not regret the choice. She figured she looked better with the bow. Less noobish definitely.

Aria exited her hole, wearing her flower. She was launched immediately into another Game. Aria commited suicide immediately. She was exhausted, having played all day without taking a single break. Her muscles were sore and her bones were aching. She relaxed into the peaceful limbo of death. For strange reasons, she found Death okay, except for the fact that she had to bear with the stinging pain of the acidic water for a short while when she died.

As soon as a new round started, Aria left the room and re-entered another one. The room was labelled 801. The first thing that struck Aria as surprising was that there was no timer in this room. She figured that some rooms were like that, and they served special purposes other than gathering cheese.

There were three mice in the Room. Two were standing stock still (Their names in holographic letters above their heads were Elise and Papaille); Aria wondered if they were there at all. She remembered vaguely that these two mice were Moderators and that they weren't really in their bodies half the time. They played the game in another mouse form. This form was only something like a look-out post.

The remaining mouse was moving. Aria stared at the floating glowing blue letters above her head and made out the name "Melibellule".

Melibellule...the name sounded vaguely familiar to Aria. Normally, Aria didn't remember the names of mice, only their appearances and accessories. However, she could swear she heard 'Melibellule' somewhere before.

"Hi," Melibellule greeted her. Startled, Aria quickly returned the greeting and asked, "Who are you?"

Melibellule looked surprised, "You don't know me? I am the creator of this Game, along with Tigrounette. I'm in charge of design of the game. I created you. Well, your appearance at least." 

Aria was stupefied. She couldn't belief she was really that dumb. She felt like slapping herself! How could she have forgotten who Melibellule was?! Melibellule and Tigrounette's posters were pasted at the entrance of every mouse-hole.

"I'm so stupid!" Aria exclaimed, "I'm really sorry! It just slipped my mind who you were just now! You know what? I'm your biggest fan! You and Tigrounette are so cool!" 

Melibellule laughed at that, "You seem to be an enthusiastic little mouse. How long have you been playing?" 

Aria blushed; she wished she was better at playing so that she won't be embarrasing herself in front of Tigrounette. " 'Bout a month," she told the Mouse-God (Melibellule and Tigrounette were gods in her opinion). 

Melibellule nodded knowingly, "You aren't very experienced then, aren't you?" Aria shook her head, "I'm a real noob. The Shamans used to troll me a lot, I mean I'm new and everything right so they like to pick on the noobs..." She started blabbering, in all her nervousness and trailed off as she realised Melibellule wasn't listening.

For a moment, the Mouse-God looked thoughtful, "I can teach you, Aria, how to play this game. If you want to, that is. All the tricks, all the skills, everything." 

Stunned, Aria stammered, "M-m-me? B-but why me? I mean there are a lot of other mice that are better than me at this game, like the Mods. I barely even gathered 100 cheese." 

Melibellule smiled warmly, "I can't deny that there are a lot of pro-mice, but most of them aren't half as enthusiastic as you. What Tigrounette and I need now is mice with attitude, not just skill. Most of the pro-mice just care about cheese. Cheese, cheese, all they think about is cheese! Do you think we want mice like that?"

Aria frowned, "You need me? For what? Don't get me wrong, I'd love to help; but I'm not good at anything in particular. I don't think I'll be much help to the two of you."

"We'll see about that. You are quite an extraordinary little mouse," Melibellule said, "As to why we need your help, that's not important. Not right now, at least. So, do you want me to teach you?"

"Of course!" Aria exclaimed. She didn't know what mouse that would reject this offer.

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A few minutes later, Aria found herself standing in front of a wooden wall Melibellule had summoned from nowhere. The Mouse-God said creating objects out of nowhere was a special power of her's. She had a tablet, a small touch-screened device that on which, whatever she drew came to life in this map.

Such as this wall.

"You have a minute to climb it," Melibellule instructed Aria, "We'll start simple, then we'll move on to scaling this thing in 50, 40, 30, 20, then finally 10 seconds."

10 seconds! Aria thought that was going to be impossible for her. She couldn't even wall-jump at all, let alone within a time limit. Yet, she didn't want to disappoint Melibellule, so she launched herself at the wall.

Once she collided with the wall, she twisted around and back again. Her paws came in contact with the wooden surface and she propelled herself upwards. She twisted, but turned back a second too late, missed the wall and crashed to the ground.

"Ow," Aria complained, picking herself up. "Try again," Melibellule encouraged her, "Don't worry if you don't succeed at first. It takes most mice months to master wall-jumping."

Aria tried a few more times, but did even worse due to her increasing weariness. She slid down from the wall and collasped on the floor. "I can't do this," she said to the wall, half closing her eyes.

Suddenly, a scream ripped through the silence of the room. Followed by a loud splash. Aria sprang up at once. Melibellule was nowhere to be seen.

"Melibellule?" she called tentatively. There was no reply.

The timer in the empty room ticked to a halt. The map changed but the wall Melibellue drew was still there. Melibellule appeared again; her eyes were wide with shock.

At that moment, Aria saw it. There was a third mouse in the room.

A Shaman. Instead of having blue markings on his body, the markings on this Shaman's fur were red. And he had no name. There were not holographic blue letters hovering above his head.

Terror shot through Aria like a jolt of electricity. Keep calm, keep calm, whatever you do don't panic, she told herself. It was hard not to panic, especially since Melibellule, the Mouse-God, looked like she was freaking out too.

For a while, there was complete silence. Then, the Red Shaman spoke. The words he said were mangled by a guttural snarl. Aria could only make out the words, "Kill you...this time."

Which didn't sound too good to her so she ran. She dug her nails into the wooden floor and ran, pushing herself forward ferociously. Aria didn't understand why she was so terrified. She had already gotten used to dying. She had died many times before. However, some part of her told her that when this Red Shaman said kill, it meant more than just falling into acidic waters and getting resurrected two minutes later.

"Aria, look out!" Melibellule's panicked cry reached her ears. Aria whipped around and saw a canonball flying straight at her. She jumped and the canonball missed her by inches. The Shaman growled and stalked towards her, step by step.

"Help me!" Aria shrieked at Melibellule, "Kill him!"

Melibellule's voice seemed to be growing further and further away, "Can't...I'm frozen...You must get rid of the Shaman yourself...the only way..." The Mouse-God faded away.

Aria could smell the Shaman's rancid breath as he got closer to her. She could feel liquid, thick flowing liquid soaking into her fur. She could smell blood, more blood. Her nostrils were clogged up witht he scent of blood. She was covered with blood.

She gazed into the Shaman's glowing red eyes. Every ounce of energy seeped from her body. Every last hope drop of hope drained from her body. She felt herself go limp. No, must fight back, can't die, she thought depserately, Melibellule needs me.

At thought of Melibellule, the fading hope inside her abruptly sparked to life. Melibellule needs me, she thought again. "Melibellule needs me!" she cried out loud.

Aria discovered that she wasn't covered with blood, and neither was the Shaman anywhere close to her. In fact, the blood red mouse was standing a distance away, looking rather startled at her sudden exclaimation. But in the next instant, he recovered and launched a canonball at Aria.

Swiftly, Aria jumped and landed directly in front of the Shaman, such that the Shaman could not canon her without canoning himself. The Shaman moved forward and she mimicked him. The Shaman roared in frustration and lunged at her. Aria dodged and the Shaman missed. "Hah!" she taunted him, "Can't catch me, you stupid Sham!"

The Shaman seemed to have lost all his patience at that point. He summoned a canonball and launched it.

Aria was taken by surprise. She didn't realise the Shaman would kill himelf in order to kill her. The canonball slammed into her and the Shaman with full force. She felt herself soar backwards. This was the end of her!

Something that felt like wood brushed her paws. Aria grasped it at once. She managed to hold on to that thing while the Shaman was flew away. The red creature disappeared in a flurry of bubbles, along with the canonball.

Aria realised what she was holding on to. It was a wooden plank that was several metres off the ground. It hadn't been there a second ago. There was only one explanation for this. Melibellule leapt down from the wooden platform above and landed lightly on the wooden plank.

Aria suddenly realised that the timer had stopped a long time ago. She didn't understand how they could still move and the game playing on the map could still go on. She didn't understand the whole series of events that had happened a few minutes ago. She didn't understand anything.

Melibellule, upon seeing the confused look on Aria's face, sighed. "I see that we have just met one of the Hacker's Minions."

Chapter Two: The Hackers' Club

Dante received the invitation in the middle of a game. He was irritated as the invitation blocked his sight, temporarily blinding him. Dante stopped in his steps. He took a quick glance at the invitation and told the invitation, "Reject."

The invitation foled itself up and vanished from Dante's sight. Dante already had a tribe he was content with. He did not want to join another one, especially a one that was called "The Hackers' Club". What kind of name was that? He had a feeling that the tribe would be disbanded by Melibellule and Tigrounette, the game administrators soon.

Dante realised that he had stopped long for sometime. He was the last mouse left in the room. All the others had entered the mouse-hole, except for the Shaman, of course, who was threatening to blast him with a canon ball if he did not enter the hole in the five seconds. Not feeling up to trolling, Dante darted into the mouse-hole and was greeted by red heart-shaped confetti that rained down from behind him.

That was when he heard the Whisper. It was sent to him by a mouse who was called Bernard and only contained two words, "Accept it."

Dante frowned. Accept what? The invitation to the creepy Hackers' club or tribe or whatever? 

"No," Dante sent the Whisper back to the mouse in a firm tone, "No thanks. I already have tribe."

The mouse Bernard's reply was a taunt, "Hah! Scared, little mousey? Frightened of being Banned?" 

A wave of pure fury washed through Dante. He scarcely noticed the next map that was starting. He wanted to track this ridiculous mouse down and shoot a cannon ball through him! How dare he called him a coward! Oh, he'll show that mouse!

"I'm not afraid! I just think your tribe is stupid and weak that's all. I don't want to give up a strong tribe to one run by a weakling!" Dante sent his Whisper loud and clear.

"Oh yeah?" Bernard retorted back as soon as Dante sent his message, "A strong tribe, huh? They obviously don't appreciate your talent, sonny." 

"What the heck is that suppose to mean?" Dante could not afford to be polite anymore with this mouse. Then he realised. The Cheese Gathering, his tribe, had kicked him out. "You are no longer part of the Cheese Gathering tribe," the announcement sounded in his ears.

"How-why-what the," Dante was too shocked to form an coherent sentence. "You wanna go tribeless or you wanna join me tribe?" Bernard Whispered him.  

The invitation to join the Hackers'Club popped up in front of Dante again. Perhaps because he was too angry at his old tribe, Dante told the invite, "Accept!" 

The invitation folded itself and disappeared, as it had done before.

"You are now part of the Hackers' Club," the announcement sounded, followed by the Welcome Message of the Hackers' Club.

"Welcom to the Hackers' Club! We are the most elite tribe in the whole Transformice Universe. Our tribe members have gathered over 1000000000 in total. We only accept the best mice of the Game into our tribe, so absolutely no noobs allowed! We aim to gather 100000000000000 cheese in total so work on, maties! Remember, our homeroom is Room H4x0r and a Discussion is held there every once a week on Thursdays. So, be there...or be kicked out."

The tribe Welcome Message was the strangest one that Dante had ever heard before, which was saying a lot, since Dante had been initiated into dozens of tribes before. After all, what kind of thing was a Discussion? It left Dante standing there, awestruck and dumbfounded until the Shaman knocked him over the edge with a Spirit.

"Come to Room H4x0r now!" Bernard's Whisper was urgent, "A discussion is gonna start." Dante complied; he didn't want to be kicked out again. The kick-out from the Cheese Gathering was the first time he had ever been kicked out of the tribe unwilling and he was determined for that to never happen again.

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As Dante entered Room H4x0r, he saw that the Room was filled with mice. There were at least 15 of them in there. Bernard was standing on a raised platform and as the mouse saw Dante enter, he spoke,

"Today, we welcome a new member of our secret and powerful tribe. One more member is one higher chance of bringing victory to the Hackers' War!" The mice gathered erupted into cheers.

Chapter 1: A Chance Meeting

Aria was having a bad day.

From the moment she awoke and crawled out of her mouse-hole to join a game, she was hit by numerous canon balls and died at least twenty times. Of course, this could have something to do with her being a newbie, or a noob as the other mice like to say. Well, they could not blame her. She had only been playing this game for three days and had yet mastered it.

If only the Shaman would just stop trolling her, she might even be able to get some cheese. But no, the Shaman always picked on her to troll.

What happened on this map was a good example.

Just as Aria was about to reach the cheese- oh, that delicious cheese was just right in front of her, just need to stretch a bit further- a canon ball with the strength of a small truck slammed into her. "What the..." before she could finish her sentence, she was sent flying straight across the room and landed neatly into the deadly waters.

Aria was numb with disbelief. The map had been so simple; it only involved running across a wooden platform to reach the cheese at the other end. She could have completed it, but she died. Oh, how she hated trolls! Especially troll Shamans!

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Dante saw all that had happened. How the nasty killer Shaman had trolled the little mouse and killed her just when she was about to get the cheese.

He did not think it was very fair, since the mouse, Aria, was only a newbie (Dante preferred newbie to noob; it was not as rude) and he doubted that Aria had even managed to get a single piece of cheese. However, he knew, the fact that Aria was a newbie was the exact reason why the Shamans chose to troll her. Newbies were always easy to pick on.

Dante himself was a very experienced mouse. He had been playing for a few months and was a quick learner. He had mastered most of the skills required in the game in those few months, including walljumping.

Walljumping was bane of most mice, Dante had learnt. Most mice took a long time to master it, though Dante thought it was the easiest skill. But most mice were not like him, not as skilfull anyway, so perhaps that was why they took a longer time.

The timer in the map ticked to a halt. The remaining mice in the room were locked in their current positions, frozen.

The map changed. The platform still remained but the cheese was not placed on the platform. It was placed above the platform, high above the platform, over the mices' heads. Dante wondered for a moment what the map was called. He remembered having been told about the name sometime ago. It slipped his mind right now...

"Noob Shaman!" The insult jerked him from his thoughts. He frowned and looked around. That was when he realised that he was the Shaman for this round.

Dante quickly hurried into motion. Just as he was about to summon some planks to build an elevator, a thought came to his mind. He ran until he was standing directly in front of the mouse Aria and instead of summoning planks, he summoned a canon ball.

The canon ball was launched to his right. It took most of the mice by surprise and they were swept away, falling out of sight. He did the same to the mice on his left but since they were prepared, it took a few more canon balls to kill the rest of them. Only Aria was spared.

The insults came more strongly now. Shouts of noob Shaman! stupid Shaman! troll Shaman! and cursed reached his ears. However, Dante ignored them. He glanced at Aria, to see if she was fine and started to construct the elevator. He helped Aria up and they grabbed the cheese. They jumped back into the hole the second before the timer stopped.

"Thank you," a small voice said meekly, "Why did you help me and troll the rest of the mice?" It was Aria.

Dante smiled and replied, "I wanted to teach them a lesson for picking on newbies. Besides, we can't be trolled and die all the time."  

Prologue: Killer Shaman

The room was dark all around. There was a only single beam of light, concentrated on the group of mice gathered in front of the mouse-hole. They were whisper nervously, glancing around.

"He's going to get us!" one cried out suddenly. The murmurs grew more panicked and suddenly, all sounds stopped. A string of pawsteps came from above their heads. "No way," another one breathed, "He's above us, how could he have gotten there without us knowing?"

"He's one of the Dark, of course he could do it. He probably used his black magic..." came the reply uncertainly.

"He's coming run, run for your lives!" the shriek spliced through the stillness of the room and all Hell broke loose. The mice were in chaos, pelting around dodging, jumping and swerving to avoid the turrent all canon balls that were being fired at them.

Some mice accidentally ran in the wrong direction in the panic and they fell into the water, erupting into bubbles. They were the lucky ones.

The rest of the mice were all blasted away by the Killer Totem. Canon balls shot out from everywhere, slamming into mice painfully and shoving them into the lethal waters. They never came back, not even after the round was over.

Only two survived the massacre when the timer froze the game. Time was up. Just when they could heave a sigh of relieve, they saw it.

They saw the murderer.

It was a Shaman, of course. But instead of having blue markings on his body, the markings on his fur were red.

Blood red.

Even though the mice were suppose to be frozen in motion, the Shaman could still move. It, or he, launched a single canon ball that shoved the two petrified mice into the water.

And they died.

Forever.