Boom.
Origin Earth
Our story begins on what we believe to be Earth. November 1, 2006. While James was unable to be found, and Benjamin was too busy to help, Steven, Topher, Chris, and Mark set off in Chris' Car on a mission to find an ice cream cake for Jeanette's birthday. The trip to the store was no problem, and they purchased the perfect cake, with a picture of Trogdor, and the words "Happy Birthday Jeanette, we will rock you!"
The trip back led to signs of something wrong. As the group of friends drove back, they noticed first a lack of cars on roads, then an abundance of rats filling the roads. And, finally, as they approached their apartment, the rats increased in size while decreasing in frequency. Those remaining were what they recognized as ROUSes, rodents of unusual size. The sky grew dark, and a storm began to brew.
With expert skill in his car, Topher managed to swerve and take out enough of the rats for the crew to make a run for inside the first floor of the building. Topher grabbed his machete and Steven brought the cake.
The entrance of the towers consisted of two sets of doors. Peering through, the crew saw three remaining rats, gnawing on three dead bodies. Topher gave his machete to Mark, and pulled out a multiuse knife tool for himself.
They rushed in. Steven ran to the garbage door, as the other three stood to face the rats. Two rats rushed Topher, and one rushed Steven. As Steven looked in the garbage room, he saw it was full of small rats, and several more larger ones. Rats like garbage. Makes sense.
While holding the cake, Steven managed to fight off the rat biting his legs. Topher stabbed and disabled one rat, Mark missed, and Chris picked up and threw a large rug over another. The battle was quick. Steven was bloodied, but the cake was fine.
Upon searching the bodies, they found one cell phone and some spare change. While Chris attempted to fashion some crude armour by cutting armholes in the rug, Topher called upstairs to see if Benjamin, Jeanette and James were alright. The phone call as follows:
Unknown Husky Voice: Hello?
Topher: Hi, is Ben there?
Unknown Husky Voice: Oh, Ben is here. Mostly.
Topher: What?
Unknown Husky Voice: I said Ben is here, but almost dead, douchebag!
Topher: Oh, hi Rich.
Unknown Husky Voice: This is not Rich. This is Willard.
Topher: Who?
Willard: Come and see. *click*
The group prepared themselves, and entered the elevator. On the 11th floor, there were two more rats outside in the hallway. Steven stayed back to protect the cake. The remainder rushed the rats. Topher grabbed a fire extinguisher, and sprayed the area with dust, creating a difficult to see environment. They managed to down the two without taking much damage, and run round the corner to see the door to the apartment is open.
On the table lied an unconscious Jeanette. Willard stood by the TV in the corner. Benjamin, almost dead, leaned up against the TV, surrounded by three more rats.
Steven: Why are you here?
Willard: I must kill you all. There is a nexus here. That is all I know.
Steven: Why?
Willard: Sic-em!
As a team, they defeated the rats. Steven grabbed one and swung it down triumphantly on the cake, then stabbed it with a kitchen knife.
Willard picked up Benjamin by his shirt, and threatened him with a knife. Steven ran to Benjamin's room and grabbed his katana. Chris threw his rug armour at Willard, who easily batted it away, and slashed at Chris. Topher rushed. Benjamin fell as Willard dropped him. Deekin ran out of James' room, having appeared from nowhere.
Deekin: Good, I'm not too late.
Deekin leaped into the air, and rained a breath of fire down on Willard. He began to charge another spell. Willard fell and burned.
Deekin: He cannot be here. We must kill him.
Chris stepped on Willard's throat, and Topher took the final blow, as Deekin released his Heal spell to completely recover the crew. Deekin then ran to James' room, where Steven was staring at a swirling set of blue and yellow rings, blaring a monotone C# that grew quickly loud. Luke, who had been on his way over for the birthday party, arrived just at this point, and exited the elevator.
Deekin: Oh dear...
At which point, everything exploded.
Meanwhile;
Luke's Version:
Luke: Shit, they never tell me about things more than an hour in advance. Ah well, might as well make my way to the towers to join in the fun.
He thought to himself. So off he went, on his usual stroll through the city to campus. He'd made the trip many times before, but this time was different. At first, he thought the lack of cars on the road just meant that there was a football game on or something - never really cared about that stuff.
He thought he saw Topher's car on the street heading west, but his car's so common it really could have been anyone. Then the rats started showing up and swarming the roads.
Luke: Better stay off the streets, take the back roads, sneak through people's backyards when possible.
This meant it took him a lot longer than he had initially planned to get to campus. By then, Topher and the others would surely be back. Now within a kilometer of campus, he realized there were a lot fewer rats, but those left were big ones. Someone had a serious pest problem.
They were all heading towards campus, so he thought it would be wise to arm himself, so he did ... at the local gas station ... with a squeegee. Time to run. So he sprinted across campus and finally reached the towers. After pausing to catch a breath, he saw Topher's car haphazardly parked in front with dozens of rat corpses in the bumper.
Luke: That's Topher for you, go big or go home. Literally, in his case.
When he got into the tower, there was a rug missing. More accurately, a couple circular pieces of rug cut from a whole.
Luke: This is the only one messed with, so maybe someone decided to wear it in a drunken stupor. Nobody's crazy enough to use a carpet to fight giant rats ... right?
There were also dead bodies (with nothing on them after a quick search), it was surprising how roughed up they were from the rats. Yuck. They didn't look familiar, though, and he couldn't save them, so he figured he'd better at least get to his friends.
He hit the elevator button. Naturally, it took a long time to come down from the 11th floor.
Luke: Maybe they're holed up up there... Waiting impatiently, he didn't notice the rat until it bit he. he cursed, then hit it with the squeegee as hard as he could, knocking it out cold.
Ding! The elevator had finally come to the main floor. Naturally, it shows up a minute too late. It's almost like a movie or something... He got in the elevator and paced inside until he heard a ding on the 11th floor. He stepped out and...
Boom.