Animator vs Animation: The Dark Web

Chapter 2: The City

At first, no answer. The Chosen One didn't react immediately, standing still with their gaze not meeting each other. He processed the question, making Blue worried. But even, it made him realize just how The Chosen One was getting really tired. Not only physically, but maybe perhaps deeper than the friends have thought?

After a long moment, The Chosen One indolently raised a hand and pointed into the forest; the direction to the city beyond. Blue's eyes followed his gesture, not needing to think twice to know that he was pointing to the city. The Chosen One wasn't going to tell them what happened, but show them. They already saw what happened to nature, but the city was what they needed to see it for themselves.

Blue finally understood; this wasn't just about saving the Outernet. The Chosen One needed them—truly needed them—something that none of them had expected. He knew that The Chosen One was feeling like a fool for himself asking for help.

Blue glanced back at his friends, who were still grouped together. Green slightly fidgeted, the vast responsibility of saving the world scaring him. Red was drawn with clear frustration, along with an unusual sluggishness in his movements. Yellow absentmindedly rubbed his arm where the glitch struck him, lost in thought. And The Second Coming watched them all, hands raised, trying to keep the team together.

Blue's friends, except for The Second Coming, weren't acting like themselves. It was as if the glitch had already dug into their minds. Blue felt strange himself, he had to admit. Deep down, an outraged wildfire was attempting to spark inside of him, daring to disintegrate his calm. But with a deep breath, he blew it away.

Without wasting any time, The Chosen One's feet lifted off the ground, flames bursting from his hands and feet in a controlled blaze. The roar of the fire snapped Yellow, Green, and Red out of their spell, as if awakening from a daydream. He hovered in the air, pointing towards the distant city, and they all nodded their heads. The Chosen One grabbed The Second Coming's arm as he flew, which then he grabbed the rest of his friends linked like a chain.

As they lingered behind The Chosen One, the view of the city slowly became more clear; it was way worse than the Color Gang initially imagined. The city has become completely destroyed. The stick figures landed on the outskirts of the city, and they looked around in devastation.

The buildings that were once so tall and proud were jagged in ways that seemed impossible. Windows were shattered, with broken pieces of glass all over the sidewalk like dangerous crystals of ice. Skyscrapers flickered in and out of existence, pixelating in a blink of an eye. The busy streets that once bustled with life were silent; the only sound being the buzz of the glitches. And the road beneath them was cracked, a red glow running through the fractures. The city, once so lively, was now a cold, dark, and dangerous place.

The Chosen One continued to hover as the Color Gang watched the crumbled city. Green watched him ascend to the air, finally recognizing what he had to go through. From the unsettling silence, he guessed he had to evacuate everyone, which already sounded hard as it is. And from his weariness, he tried to do something—anything—to get this glitch under control. But despite all his powers, the glitch was unstoppable. How strange... A virus overpowering a hollowhead—Green almost wondered how it could come to this.

As the Color Gang scattered across the city to observe, Green's eyes trailed from one glitch to another. The line of buildings almost showed one structure glitching stronger than the one before it. He looked down on his feet where the cracks of the torn-up street glowed, with the red light flaring brighter beyond.

Green could see... an unusual pattern. He noticed that certain parts of the city glitched more violently than others, all of it heading into the middle of the city. Green started to think. The glitches...they must've come from a central point.