Falcon6’s mansion was definitely a marvel that dwarfed the surrounding buildings in the Power On board. After entering through a black metal gate with Falcon6’s name inscribed upon it, large white marble stairs would lead up past gargantuan pillars face-to-face with a giant solid bronze door of this massive white structure. Golden statues of iconic Nintendo figures lined the rooftops and a large triforce-like icon gleamed brightly above the front doors, providing illumination to the mansion at this dark hour. It was rare to have any sort of yard space in Power On, as many of the buildings were clustered almost on top of each other, but this mansion had a rather sizable fenced-in plot of gleaming green grass around it, with uniformly trimmed bushes and an iconic fountain of an Octorok with a stream of water coming out of its mouth. It was truly a marvel to behold, especially coming from the filth of the regions populated with lowly Goombas. I have laid eyes on the mansion in the past, but it was still probably one of the most aesthetically pleasing edifices in Power On. Obviously, X-Naut128 and TechnoDragon64 were in awe when the mansion came into view on the horizon. Invader8, on the other hand, shared a similar emotion to my own and did not look the slightest bit impressed. My guess was that he could see right through Falcon6’s known superficial and boastful nature, not allowing himself to be distracted by the allure of the fantastic mansion.
When the proud Falcon6 approached his own mansion, almost instantly a swarm of fan girls rushed over to greet the “heroic” sage, many wanting autographs or bargaining for an exclusive invitation into Falcon6’s personal quarters. Although definitely undeserving in my opinion, the fact of the matter was that Falcon6 was a widely-known celebrity on NSider and probably one of the richest users on the forum. Because of the heroic title bestowed upon him, it was only natural for him to attract a significant fan base. With his mansion near the center of NSider activity, it was not an uncommon sight for females from around the forum to flock here, wanting a brief taste of wealth and fame to satisfy their otherwise shallow lives. Falcon6 looked back at the other three NSiders in tow as he approached the sea of fans and smiled from ear to ear. I couldn’t make out exactly what he said, but I could tell it was something proclaiming his own excellence. The fan girls parted like a hot knife through butter as Falcon6 constantly declined their futile requests for entry, claiming that this was a private occasion. I cannot even imagine – nor would I want to imagine – the scene of what a public party would be like at Falcon6’s humble abode.
After making it through the screaming crowd of users outside, the quartet walked inside the gate, which automatically closed and locked behind them. They walked up the staircase slowly, with X-Naut128 nearly tripping on several occasions, and slammed the bronze door shut behind them, much to the dismay of the fan girls. Some of them lingered outside hoping for Falcon6 to reconsider, but most of them dispersed given that the night air was rather frigid. “Damn!” I thought aloud to myself, “How could I spy on this group with all of these mindless idiots raving over Falcon6 as if he were an actual hero?” Even though the four users were inside, I needed a plan to get close enough to spy on them. I did not want to risk losing track of them like I thought I almost did while waiting outside the NSider Arcade. I had to get passed the fan girls outside but could not risk just attacking them directly. Even though it would be an assured victory, there would be too many witnesses in the area and one of them was bound to have at least some fighting skill. It would also attract much attention to the scene and, in this situation, I needed to have a subtle approach.
There was a fire escape on the wall leading to the top of a nearby building, but there would be no way I could clear the jump from building to building and not be noticed by someone, whether it be due to a visual sighting or the sound of my footsteps. I hatched another scheme to distract them all with the name of another famous user on NSider, but that would just alert them to my presence. Just then, however, something happened to rectify my dilemma. The incandescent glow of flamers approached from another direction, which was apparently enough to strike fear into the hearts of these Falcon6 fanatics. Upon seeing the red-orange glow get brighter and brighter, they all dispersed, some of them running in circles while others tried to hide behind the surrounding buildings. Amongst the confusion caused by this moment, I was able to swiftly navigate through all of them and reach Falcon6’s mansion. Even though I pushed my way through in a few instances, I doubt that they had the sense to notice an assassin amongst them. Luckily my hypothesis was affirmed; I noticed no one was following me as I quickly crept to the side of the mansion, where I noticed a window that was slightly open. I could hear voices emanating from inside, but it was a little too tall for me to reach. I could jump up and see inside, but jumping repeatedly wasn’t exactly the best form of espionage. There were no bars to hang from or trash cans to stand on and I desperately needed some sort of boost so I could clearly see into the window and spy on the group.
The sound of footsteps to my left caused me to glance over my shoulder and I was shocked to find out of the fan girls had wandered off in my direction. Judging by the expression on her face, she was rather intimidated by my appearance. I’m guessing that she never saw an assassin – or maybe even a true fighter – in her lifetime. Before she could yell out so much as a syllable, I quickly ran up behind her, placing a hand over her mouth to muffle her voice. I yanked on her over-sized ponytail, dragging her to the ground where she lay there helpless. I was going to leave her unconscious, but the thought of her waking up and alerting Falcon6 (or anyone else for that matter) of my presence would certainly have negative consequences, especially with the possibility of the NOAs looking for me. Thus, I impaled my dagger into her heart and twisted it, causing blood to gush out in every direction from the fatal wound. Her motionless corpse now rested on the ground with a pool of gore surrounding her as a reminder of the painful death she was dealt for crossing my path. I did get some blood on my daggers, but soon enough it slid off onto the road, leaving my daggers once again in premiere condition. Hopefully there would not be any other interference, but this actually proved to be beneficial. Dragging her dead body over by the window of Falcon6’s mansion, I was able to utilize it as a stepping stone, granting me a perfect view of the main living room, where the group happened to be sitting on a large sofa.
I was not very well concealed, but I decided not to worry too much about that, since there was probably a sense of safety amongst the group within the mansion and I did not find it likely that Invader8 would be sniffing out for assassins at a time like this. Looking in his direction, I could see that he was biting into a juicy chicken wing with a big smile across his face. The two Cappies were also enjoying some appetizing food and I felt a small jolt of jealousy as I caught wind of the dish’s enchanting aroma; a meal of that quality has recently become quite a rarity for me. “Oh guys!” Invader8 exclaimed with his mouth full to the two newcomers, “I almost forgot to give you each these. It’s your own PM belt. You can trade it in at the store for other PM accessories, but this is a good one to start with. Now that you’re Cappies, you have your own PM boxes all set up.” X-Naut128 looked up, irritated to be distracted from his food, and asked, “How does PM work?” Invader8 replied, “Well, it’s basically how users communicate privately. You can add people to your contacts and send them messages at will…like this!” Although I didn’t hear it, I could tell X-Naut128 received a new private message, as he was looking at his belt and smiling. Invader8 chuckled at the sight of this and said, “You’ll probably want to check your inbox a little more discretely, but that’s the idea. Only you can see and hear messages that have been sent to you.” “K!” X-Naut128 replied obnoxiously as he returned to his food. Invader8 looked mildly annoyed that his helpful advice was being ignored, but his facial expression quickly softened as he returned to his meal.
“I think you two will make fine users once you get used to the way things work around here.” The Sage spoke, “You’ll get the hang of it soon enough and – hey… I’m out of hors d'oeuvres already!? Hey, Goaty!” As soon as he ended his sentence, another user appeared in the doorway dressed in a full navy blue suit lined with gold buttons, slicked back grayish hair, and shiny black shoes. The user spoke out in a soft voice, “Yes, what can I do for you sir?” “Fetch my friends and I some more appetizers!” Falcon6 shouted somewhat obnoxiously at the user who, judging by his attire, was one of Falcon6’s servants. “Of course, sir…” He responded before disappearing into the other room. “This is ridiculous!” I thought to myself, “There must be a better use of my time than to watch these four idiots consume insane amounts of food!” I was seriously considering the decision of leaving them alone and simply returning in the morning, but then TechnoDragon64 asked a question that sparked my interest. “Not that I don’t appreciate the PMs and whatnot, but what’s that gold star around your neck? Now that looks like something I would really want.” I had no idea what he was talking about at first, but then I did notice the gold star pendant that was around his neck. Normally I can point out such subtleties, like how I noticed the golden N pins on those users involved in the robbery at Celadon, so I was surprised that I did not notice this item. Maybe I was too distracted with my mission of killing the X-Naut that I just did not spare it a thought. Regardless, Falcon6 grabbed the gold chain around his neck and appeared to be looking for the right words as even Invader8 seemed puzzled by this item. “Have you always had that?” Invader8 said, “I think this might be the first time I’ve seen something like that. Is it a family heirloom or something?” “Well,” Falcon6 finally said, “Not exactly…I guess there’s no harm in telling you all… you guys have grown on me this past few days…but don’t go telling anyone else, you hear?”
For once, X-Naut128 and I had some sort of common ground, as we were both intrigued by Falcon6’s star-shaped trinket hanging by a chain around his neck. After a deafening cry of “OOOOOHHHH!” from the X-Naut responding to the shiny surface of the item, Falcon6 continued on. “Eh hem…anyway… yeah…just don’t go spreading this around. One post on Power On and I’ll be in serious trouble with the NOAs…” “Yeah, yeah,” Invader8 remarked, growing impatient, “stop building up the suspense and just tell us already!” “Ok…ok…” Falcon6 replied, with a worried look gradually spreading across his face, “I think a few more people know anyway… so it’s not super top secret, but even I don’t know how to – “ “JUST TELL US!” The group screamed in unison so loudly and unexpectedly that even I almost fell off the body I was standing on. I recovered my balance just before Falcon6 began to tell his tale. “Ok, no need to get all grumpy about it, sheesh!” Falcon6 paused for a moment to make sure he had everyone’s attention before continuing, “Anyway, I don’t know the full details about it, but I’ll try to give you the full story to the best of my knowledge. Under a direct order from NOA_ANDY, I must never let this item fall into the wrong hands and I must guard it with my life. It is one of the four unique keys to a weapon known as the … oh what’s its name… ah yes… the 1335… or something.”
“The 1337!” I exclaimed in a surprised tone under my breath. I have only heard about it very briefly in legends and other folklore, but supposedly a device or entity of some sort exists somewhere within NSider’s domain that can provide a user with ultimate power, far exceeding the limits of even the NOAs. According to the story I heard many years ago, the 1337 was first crafted by NOA_Shaun and worked by fusing a G-Mod Crystal with a user’s genome, super-powering one’s every fiber to incredible new and unmatched levels of strength. It was first created so that NOA_Shaun could form his personal “Pickle Army”, a division of NSider’s military that would be literally unstoppable. However, with modern science and technology, it seems highly improbable that an object like this could still exist as it would certainly compromise the security of the forum. What was even more unbelievable is that, in accordance with his tale, Falcon6 was assigned to guard one of the keys to this all-powerful device. “You mean the 1337?” Invader8 asked, interrupting my train of thought, “That’s just a fairytale, isn’t it? A story told to young warriors to instill confidence…” Falcon6 simply shrugged. “I don’t know, I’ve never seen it nor heard about it since I was given this gold star two years ago. I do know that it’s one-of-a-kind and of crucial importance.” “Wait…” TechnoDragon64 said, “I’m a little confused here. What exactly is this 1337?” Falcon6 proceeded to answer this question with nearly the exact tale that I had heard before, which baffled me even further. I hardly gave a second thought that an object like this was real, but everything he said was exactly like the story I had heard and the star around his neck supposedly affirmed his tale. “So yeah…” He said at the end of his retelling, “I have vowed never take it off and won’t even entrust it to my closest friends.” “GEE TANKS!” X-Naut128 perked up from his trance of being encapsulated by this story. Technodragon64 glared at him and said, “If Falcon6 won’t trust fellow Sages, why the hell would he trust you?” After looking pensive for a moment, X-Naut128 looked back at TechnoDragon64 and said, “Cause I R awesome, rite!?”
Following a brief period of awkward silence, Falcon6 continued on, “So anyway, this star is apparently pretty damn important. Being associated with an ageless legend isn’t too shabby in my book.” “I don’t know…” Invader8 said with a tone of skepticism in his voice, “it seems like this is all surreal. I mean, why would they give something like this to a regular user?” “Regular user!?” Falcon6 quickly retorted, “I AM THE HERO OF NSIDER!” Upon shouting these words, shrieks and squeals rang up from the outside and the legion of fan girls that was once in disarray began chanting Falcon6’s name, beckoning for him to emerge from the mansion. Looking back, the orange glow on the horizon had disappeared and now the attention was back on this so-called hero. “That’s my cue!” Falcon6 said, rising up from the sofa and strolling over to the door with a cocky stride.
I knew Falcon6 opened the front doors of his mansion when the screams began to reach a deafening level, but I tried to block them out and concentrate on the conversation between the remaining three users. I could barely decipher their words, but they were still audible to a point at which I could understand them. “So…” TechnoDragon64 said to Invader8, “Is all of that really true?” Invader8 paused for a moment and looked towards the ceiling before responding, “I don’t know, really. He didn’t seem like he was lying…but at the same time it’s pretty hard to believe.” “Why would share that information with us, though?” TechnoDragon64 asked, to which once again Invader8 paused before replying rather bluntly, “Probably because he’s an idiot… which is probably why no one would expect him to have something like that.” “Yeah I guess…” TechnoDragon64 said, “Is that why he goes around calling himself a hero?” “Maybe…” Invader8 replied with uncertainty, “It’s just… I’ve known Falcon6 for years now and never heard anything about that…” TechnoDragon64 said in response, “He did say that he didn’t even trust some of his fellow Sages with the information.” “Ah true…” Invader8 said, “But why tell us? Why now?” “I don’t know.” TechnoDragon64 said, “What do you think X-Naut128?” X-Naut128 looked up from a bowl of chips that he had devoured while the group was talking and said with crumbs surrounding his lips, “Yah wut u need?” “Ugh… never mind…” Invader8 said, trying to control his emotions as X-Naut128 continued to grotesquely consume every morsel of food in sight, “I wonder if he was on such a high from showing off his fame and fortune to you guys that he wanted to go that extra step and prove how cool he really was.” “Based on what you told me about him,” TechnoDragon64 stated, “I wouldn’t doubt that.”
I knew the crew would be spending the night at the mansion, so I decided to take a little break and return by daybreak. Still, as I hopped down off the fan girl’s corpse, I had trouble processing all of the information presented in such a short amount of time. Within two days, I had heard the story of V and the legend of the 1337, two stories that I thought did not have much, if any, truth to them. A spark of curiosity struck me, however, before I left Falcon6’s mansion. I decided to check who exactly it was that I had murdered. After all, it was only fitting that I thanked the user properly for serving as an invaluable stepping stone. I examined the left pocket of her pants and found her ID card as well as some posts she was carrying around with her. “MarioKartLady,” I said to myself as I read the name on the card, “hmm…I could get in trouble for that one…” Without another moment’s hesitation, I dashed into the depths of Power On, knowing that I could now use the posts I collected from her to buy a decent meal. After listening in on a story like that, rest and relaxation was exactly what I needed before I started the day anew.
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