V.I.R.A.L - Chapter 252

“Alright, children, I want each of you to pass down your future plans down once finished. You still have plenty of time, so, please. No need to rush.” The teacher walked down the classroom, checking up on each of her students, giving any aid where needed. This was until she stopped at the far end, sighing. “Diego, you need to put down something.”

A young Diego no older than twelve stared blankly at his sheet with the task of putting down what he wanted to be when he’s older. After nearly 30 minutes, he had barley wrote his name, let alone the first sentence. “I just don’t know what to write…”

“There must be something you enjoy, Diego? Tell me, what are you good at?”

Diego shrugged his shoulders, giving off a blank stare. “I don’t know; my mum says I’m a lucky guesser.”

“What about the guitar? You take guitar lessons, right?”

“I gave that up a few weeks ago.”

“Alright, what about the baseball team. You were a pitcher for that, correct?”

“I dropped out after losing two games in a row… I wasn’t good enough.”

“Diego… I know. You jointed the scouts last year, you took part in serval camping trips. What about that?”

Diego gave off another simple shrug, muttering. “I quit two months ago. I was just no good at making friends.”

“Well, you’re going to have to write something. I want an answer by the end of the lesson, or you’re staying behind.”

The teacher stormed off as Diego frowned, staring at the piece of paper cluelessly. That was until he heard a group of students nearby raving and shouting. “What did you put down, Mike?”

“What else did you expect me to put down? I want to be a streamer when I’m older!”

“Haha, we both picked the same thing! Do you want to stream together when we’re old enough?”

“A group streams? That sounds awesome!”

Diego turned back to his page, giving it another thought before just jotting down streamer at the heat of the moment. Turning back to the others, he smiled faintly, ready to show them the same answer he, too, had written down.

****

The lights to the underground tunnels flickered on and off. The survivors were all torn from their spot, dazed by what just happened. Diego was one such taken back, unsure of what just happened. An almighty attack had blown away the entrance from behind, leaving the last survivors trapped. Dragging himself to his feet, he began coughing, looking around. Pushing through the crowd, he stopped seeing it caved in. “Is everyone alright back there?!” A voice yelled from the other side.

“Just peachy,” Diego shouted back, rubbing his head. “I don’t think anyone is injured here.”

“That’s good,” Petra said. “We can’t get to you. I’m going to take the children and find another way around. Can you keep going, Diego?”

Diego turned, seeing a handful of children looking distorted and sick stumbling around from the earthquake. “I suppose I can. What was that?”

“That wasn’t Vanguard, and I doubt the Hawthorne twins can do that.”

“Same with Percy… Whoever it was, let’s hope they are on our side. I’ll see you at the meeting point.”

“Yeah, good luck Diego.”

Diego walked off, staring at the children feeling slightly empty. He grumbled, scratching his neck somewhat confused. “How the hell did I get here? Come on, you brats, let’s keep going.”

“What about the others?” One asked.

“They’ll catch up… Keep up.” Diego sighed, walking ahead. All he could think about was how he wasn’t suited for these sorts of events. He wasn’t any kind of knuckle crushing hero like the other big streamers, not even close. Being one of the top streamers when V.I.R.A.L was still remotely, he never got into high action battle to the deaths like Vanguard and Team Rhapsody. He’d pride himself on that not being a fighter in any regards. He gained popularity thanks to his quirky and relatively dry nature, which was relatable to many others. Many strokes of luck got him exactly where he was today. One thing was for sure, Diego wasn’t cut out for this line of work.

Walking ahead, he stopped making sure the other children were close. He waited, hearing them shouting. “Diego, where are you?!”

Diego stood lost, staring at seeing the children in the distance. He began waving his arm, lifelessly sighing. “Stupid kids… What am I even doing here saving a bunch of nobodies?”

“That’s a question I can answer for you, Diego.” Diego froze on the spot, the hairs on his neck shooting up as he turned, finding the source of the voice. The figure stepped out from the shadows with a snake wrapped around her neck. There was doubt about it, the pale face, dead stare and lifeless appearance matching with the long black hair and a trench coat. “You belong exactly where we say you belong.”

“Morto… What the hell are you going here? Were you following me?!”

Morto scoffed at this tightening her leather gloves with a smirk. “Why, of course, you didn’t just think we’d let you go, now did you? You led us straight to the key figures of the resistance and the last group who can stop us. And while our stage of grief was temporally defeated, Alton and the others are worn down. I will simply step in and finish them off.”

“Why me? I’ve done everything you’ve asked. I’ve never once defied you nor shown any signs of betraying you! Why are you using me for all of this?!”

“Well, you aren’t wrong. You have been a rather splendid lapdog doing our biddings, so I must thank you there. But you see, Diego, that’s the only reason we ever did keep you around, and we might have continued this little game if we had any need for streamers. But now, with our own stage of grief with more on the way, we have little need for the old ways. That and you are weak, meaning you no longer serve a purpose.”

Diego flinched, jumping back as a shadow grazed his stomach launching him into the wall to his right. Slouched down, he collapsed, defeated without any chance. Coughing up blood, he glimpsed at the CEO feeling all hope fade from his heart. “Why am I here again?”

****

Diego didn’t have the most excellent upbringing. His father left his mother just before he was born, affecting him heavily. Growing up with just his mother in a poor area of Rhinefield wasn’t easy on him. He never had anything to really call his own, and his mother was forced to work till late, leaving Diego to look after himself for most of it. Because of this, he was never one to seek out new things or receive the loving care others would.

Being alone would take a toll when he reached school as he struggled to make any real friends. Although he would try his very hardest to follow anyone, he could make him feel wanted. Whatever the other children liked, so did Diego. Whatever the other children wore, he, too, would try his best to copy. As a follower, Diego was always drawn to the next trend in hopes of fitting in. Although he was generally accepted into these groups for that sole reason. Once he had reached high school, Diego was still exactly where he started, with no friends of his own. This, however, wouldn’t bother him. It was quite the opposite, with Diego being just happy enough to be around people being sufficient for him. That didn’t stop Diego from trying new things taught from a young age, the only lesson from his mother. Everyone is good at something. You just need to find what that is. Not genuinely understanding this lesson, Diego would jump from hobby to hobby, try out every musical instrument possible, football, baseball, acting, and cooking. By his last year of school, Diego had tried more or less everything under the sun, and when he found no real progress from a few weeks, he’d simply give it up like the countless other things he threw away.

Around that time, the streaming fad picked up heavily for his friendship group, with each of them jumping at the chance at hitting it big like the popular streamers at the time. Diego was no different; in fact, he was already first in line, ready to start his new career simply because others were too. He wasn’t precisely optimistic, to say the least. He was not a very good fighter, nor could he speak well in public, already setting up a disaster. However, he signed up as Crimson Dawn and tried his best to keep up. As expected, his growth was prolonged, with hardly any viewers. The others were the same, and soon enough, most if not all of his friends gave up moving onto something else. Diego was just about ready to do the same until the unexpected happens. A pot of luck that would bring him where he was today. His video went viral. Overnight Crimson Dawn became hot news skyrocketing him to the top 100 streamers at the time. The overwhelming sense of nature had finally settled him somewhere. Finally, finding something he was good at, he decided to stick with it seeing steady growth. Taking on his new personality, Diego would grow to reach the top ten in just three years with the same level as big streamers like Vanguard, the Hawthorne twins, Goro and Stag.

Everything seemed to be going well; however, the main problem still was there. Diego didn’t like streaming; it was quite the opposite; he hated it. Out of all the things he was good at, it pissed him off. It was streaming. To him, streaming was a lower-class easy cash grab that anyone could do; after all, he had made it how hard could it be? But with nothing else to fall back on and fearful of the idea of trying new things. Diego went along with his hated career choice, still as lonely as ever with no real goal or plan for what he would do. Simply following trends to keep his channel afloat would only be a matter of time before Diego’s smash hit career would come tumbling down.

****

Slouched over, Diego struggled but eventually stood back up. His intentions were far from the fighting; he was one to always know when and where to pick fights. Because of this, he had never lost any fights picking those weaker than him to go after. This was a whole different ball game. His mindset was to run. To get far away, no one else mattered; he was going to survive no matter what. Ready to do so, he tried escaping to Morto’s expected result. Running ahead, leaving the children to their deaths, Morto shook her head, blocking off Diego’s escape. He saw this well ahead of time but was still powerless to do anything about it crashing to the floor. “I expected nothing less from the coward who, through sheer luck, got to where you were today. While your ability to see into the future is quite remarkable, unless you can back it up with power, it’s useless. You’re nothing but a weak follower who copies what everyone else is doing in hopes of making it. In fact, I don’t think you have a single original bone in your body, Diego Jolts.”

Diego stared at the ground, knowing what his fate was to become. His future was black, his death inevitable. Because of this, he began laughing. This caught Morto off guard as he stood up, turning to her with a desperate yet crazed smile as he began tapping his forehead. “Well, isn’t that just the story of my life?! I hate this all, saving people, risking my life. Why the hell would I do that for?! You tried convincing me otherwise, didn’t you, Sae… Screw it, fuck it. If I’m going to die, there’s no harm in trying something new, right? I’m good at that. So just this once, how about it? Let’s see what being a hero is like!”