The Crab

[black king]

A story by BK, who can't write for crap but insists on doing so anyway.

---

Tr0nic woke up to the sound of his alarm going off. He sighed as he hit the button on his clock, wishing he could sleep in a bit but duty called. He'd received a message through Praying Mantis's computer from Dirty Duck to meet him at the MGF staff office at 0800. Couldn't have scheduled it a bit later? 

Tr0n got dressed, picked up some breakfast from the Mantis cafeteria and stepped outside. Cloudy day he thought as he started the walk to the MGF staff office. It wasn't far; few blocks and that was it. He saw a few other members out and about. Most were still getting ready or probably still sleeping. One had an animal they'd freshly caught in a cage from one of the habitats. 

Tr0n arrived at the door and went in. Their was a woman behind a nice desk typing away at a computer. "Hello, Maxine," Tr0n said, doing his best to not sound tired. "I have a meeting with Duck at 8. Do you know where at?"

Maxine stopped typing and glanced up for a second, "They're in meeting room 2. Down the hall on the right. You can go on in." She continued typing away at whatever Duck always had her working on. 

They? Duck didn't say anything about anyone else....

He made his way down the hall. Nice building, but a little earthy for his tastes. Duck had picked dark green for the wall colors in the hall and a faux wood paneling on the bottom half. He came to the door with MEETING ROOM 2 on the sign next to it. He twisted the knob and went in.

Dirty Duck was sitting at the head of the table with Null, Gene, black king, and Nate sitting around him. Duck noticed tr0n enter, "Ah! Good, you're here. Take a seat tr0n."

Tr0n took a seat next to Gene. "Offer you some coffee or caffeine, mate?" Gene asked.

"I'll pass, thanks," tr0n replied. "I will admit I'm surprised. I didn't know you'd all be here."

"Yeah sorry about that. Null asked me to be discrete." Duck replied as he sipped something out of a cup. "I'll let him take it from here."

"Tr0n, myself and other old admins from MGSF have noticed something odd. The site has been sending an odd transmission to prominent old members asking them to return."

"Strange," tron replied, "I haven't noticed any messages."

Nate chimed in "Yeah; Henry, Fluxe, and the other old admins have been containing it from the their accounts logged in here."

"What we want to ask is a little...unorthodox" Duck started, "But with you being a private investigator I figure you might be able to help us figure out what's going on. Technical malfunction is most likely. Old site is falling apart."

"We need The Crab back on the case" black king added.

Tr0n was surprised. It had been ages since he'd been on MGSF after Tappa ruined it. Even longer since anyone had called him The Crab. 

"The old forums shouldn't be too dangerous," Null said, "Mostly just bots roaming around selling lord knows what."

"Spells and potions last I checked." Duck said in an annoyed tone. "Still, we'll pay you and arm you accordingly. Nate?"

Nate reached down and pulled out a leather case and slid it over to Tr0n. He peered inside and saw a firearm with two boxes of ammo.

"Those are special bullets." Nate explained.

"Yeah, they instaban anyone they come on contact with. You shouldn't really need them unless they have some aggressive advertising going on." Gene added.

"We'll of course also support you by codec if needed." black king said.

Tr0n looked at the bad and inspected the bullets. They had a faint orange glow to them. 

"I'm guessing the banning power came from Null?" 

Null and Duck smiled. "Your eye for detail doesn't disappoint." Duck said.

Tr0n nodded and thought for a moment. He reached into his coat pocket, took out a brass lighter and flicked it open and closed a couple times. "Alright. I'll take the case. Be interesting to see the old stomping grounds again. Even if it is in ruins."

Duck gave an einthuiastic nod "Glad to hear it! I make a monthly pilgrimage, but don't go past the entrance. The memory is definitely better than the reality I'm afraid."

A few minutes of well wishing later and tr0n was heading towards the MGF Station. Every site had a station that led to every other site on the internet. A lot were in disrepair or abandoned anymore. Places like Reddit or Facebook seemed to hold all the traffic. He hopped on and set his destination as MGSForums.com and took a seat. The trip would take a bit so he pulled out his old iPod. He'd been wanting to try disconnecting from his phone more often and figured the train heading towards a relic of the 2000's would be an appropriate place to see if it still worked. He clicked to a song he'd downloaded after a recommendation from black king as the train went off to his assignment. The Crab was on the case.

[Dirty Duck]

Finally, MGF fanfiction!



Very funny to have the protagonist be "Tron" when he seems to be inside some sort of city inside the computer.

[Null]

I've dreamed of days like this

[black king]

Part 2

---

Crab stepped out of the train and onto the platform. He hadn't been here in ages. The train's door sealed behind him and it continued its way south towards Reddit. Crab was glad to be off the train and happy he'd brought his iPod. Judging by the mental acuity of the other passengers, that train must've been going to r/funny. 

You couldn't see Reddit from this far out, but the light pollution on the sky to the south could only be something massive. Appropriate that it set up shop in the middle of the forums of old. 

Crab flipped open the codec his employers had given him to update them that he was about to start his assignment.

"It's Crab. I'm in front of the old forum"

"Excellent Crab," black king's voice replied. "Age hasn't slowed you down one-"

"Give me that!" Came an annoyed Duck's voice as he wrestled the mic away from bk. "Good to hear, Crab. There's a node right before the entrance you can use to register or log on. Since you already have an account, just go ahead and do that. I use it once a month to make a post to keep the forum from sealing itself off."

"Is the big banner with Liquid your work too?"

"Hey if it gets us an old member or two back I'll keep it up."

Crab walked over and hit the login button. An unfamiliar screen popped up. He saw another link for a legacy login and tried that. 

Much better. 

He input his information and the door unlocked. This was it, the forum he'd joined all those years ago. He took his first step onto the old street and was facing the old Announcement building. Staff used it for site updates and individual members went in to introduce themselves or celebrate milestones. The rest of the street was mostly abandoned with a few bots wandering from building to building or standing in the vacant street.

"I'm in" Crab said through the codec.

"Great!" Duck's voice came back. "We don't know where the transmission is coming from...or why it flipped on. That's where you come in. We're here in shifts so call us if you have any questions or information. BK and I are here for the moment."

"If you're keeping an eye on me, who's running the forum?"

"Duck gave Wayno mod powers for the next couple hours," Bk answered. "Hopefully he won't have to rebuild the PW forum after he's done."

"You guys are braver than me," Crab said taking his first step down the street. "I'm going to start-JESUS CHRIST!"

A being with a massive screen for a torso on legs stood in front of him. 

"GREETINGS! WOULD YOU CARE TO BUY PREMIUM ACCESS TO OUR FORUM? MONTHLY PAYMENT OPTIONS ARE AVAILABLE! PLEASE SELECT YOUR PAYMENT METHOD BELOW TO BEG-"

A shot rang out from Crab's gun as the bullet bounced off the screen, leaving only a small crack. It did shut the machine up though. Duck's voice came through Crab's ear.

"Oh sorry, I'd forgotten about that thing. It's not a bot so the bullets won't kill it." Duck sighed. "It's part of the site itself for new members."

Things have gotten this bad? Crab asked himself, incredulous. He shoved past the welcome wagon and decided to make his way deeper into the forum. He stopped and looked at an old forum map. The place was neatly organized. 

MGSF Map:

He was standing south of the purple Announcement area and behind the old staff offices. The three last org headquarters were still on here, along with org chat itself. Behind org chat tended to be where dead org buildings and forums tended to get relocated to.

I'll look in Other Chat first. People are more likely to head there than MGS chat these days. 

The Opinion section door was open. Crab looked inside and saw the last thing discussed on the boards politically. "People should be more careful in their criticisms of Trump and other right-wing figures" it read. Crab didn't want to see it, but his curiosity got the better of him. He brought it up and hit play. A hologram filled the room with members talking. 

Crab looked at the date this discussion began. August 2018. Almost eight years and we're still going over the same crap with no progress.

He was about to leave when he saw another screen with legs blocking his way out. This one had a different request on its screen with an annoying audio.

"Are you interested in love? Come buy our love potions! Made from the tears of unicorns it'll have her head over heels for you!"

"No thanks" Crab responded dryly.

"How about death? With our Hatian Voodoo death curses and spells, your worst enemy can drop dead from anywhere! Satisfaction guaranteed!* *results not guaranteed"

"Can you just get out of my way?" Crab said with annoyance in his voice; his hand ready to fire his second bullet.

The bot just stared at him blankly with the advertisement still on its torso. 

"Fine." He drew his weapon and fired a shot where the bot's heart would be. It flew backwards and down the two stairs from Other Chat onto the forum proper. The bot's screen went blank and the word BANNED in brown letters appeared. 

Crab figured he should update Duck. He was about to pull out his codec when he thought he saw something out of the corner of his right eye. He would have sworn someone had just ducked behind the Org Alliance building. Against his better judgement, he decided to book it over there. He stopped short of turning the corner. He drew his gun, even though he knew it would be useless on an actual member. He took a deep breath and jumped out around the corner aiming down the back of of the building.

Nothing. No one could have made it all the way to the other side of the Org Alliance building, it was too large. Did they go in one of the back entrances to Org Chat? He looked to his right. Just the wall to keep members out of old, closed down forums. Was his mind playing tricks on him? He went back to the Opinions forum to see if he could recreate it. No luck. Another bot came his way but  thankfully tried to sell his wares to the corpse of the banned bot instead of him.

He pulled out the codec.

"Duck? I've been looking around. No sign of the signal yet. Found some old footage of us arguing right wing politics."

"That was the most recent post in the Opinions section? Hmph maybe Kalash was right about that kind of talk killing forums," Duck said sarcastically.

"There's more," Crab continued. "I think I saw someone watching me after I fired my gun. They ran away before I could get an ID but I'm not 100% sure where to. Org Alliance made sense but they're embassies, crudely drawn art galleries, and of course org chat itself is massive. I could easily be walking into a trap if I follow them in there."

"I agree. Could you see anything about them?" BK asked.

"Hard to tell. They were a bit of a distance away. They were wearing a black....cape? Cloak? Something flowy. Hard to tell underneath, but they looked like they had a smaller build."

Duck and BK both said "Hmm" at the same time. 

"We're not sure. No one but you is really supposed to be there. Well, you and bots. Again this is a just a technical job to see why MGSF is attempting to broadcast a signal. Someone else might be dangerous. Maybe you should come back for your own safety?" Duck said.

"I'll stay and look around some more. That person might be someone who just signed up and doesn't know any better...or maybe that signal was set intentionally by someone."

"Understood." Duck replied, a hint of concern in his voice. "I need to go relieve Wayno. I think Null and Gene are next up if you need them."

"Got it. Crab out."

[black king]

Part 3

---

Crab figured the next best place to look would be the Music area. It had a large antenna that could send messages after all. Wayno and other music lovers were part-time DJ's when they were here.

Of course, Music was the closest to the Org Alliance building and the figure from earlier was still fresh in his mind. 

He made his way into Music and was greeted by another room fallen into disuse. There was another node in the corner called "What Are You Listening To?" that served both as a way for the DJ's to have requests and for members to share their favorite songs.

"Crab, you there? We're here and standing by," came Null's voice through the codec and almost made Crab jump put of his skin.

"Yeah, good to hear you. Gene with you?" Crab replied.

"You know it!" Gene responded.

"Good to have you, man. I'm in Music right now. Figured the old music antenna might be the source of your signal. I'll let you know what I find," Crab said as he went farther back into Music. 

Music had some intersting points. A spot for concerts and meet-ups, an area to listen to other's playlists, and of course a few rooms to relax while the music genre of your choice played. Cran wasn't here for easy listening; he went to the last door in the hall marked "CAUTION: AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY!". 

"Hey, do either of you have a passcode for the music DJ booth?" Crab asked.

"Uhh yeah..." Null responded. "Let me see....it was....rapandcountry. All one word."

"Didn't know you liked country." Gene said.

"Rap and country are overhated genres in my opinion. They're the genres of the people. The voices of the working men. You get it, right Crab?" Null asked.

"Honestly, I think they've both sold out ages ago and aren't really the "common man's" voice anymore."

"Well yeah, if you listen to mainstream crap." Null countered.

"Ah most people do though mate. Hence the name mainstream." Gene said with a bit of banter in his voice.

Crab punched in Null's code and the door opened. He went in and closed the door behind him. The DJ booth had the usual in it, but Crab was here for the antenna past the booth. He did glance at the most recently played song. The sea shanty of Rockstar by Nickelback. Disgusting.

Crab found the antenna's node. He logged in and found the transmission log. Messages had indeed been sent using it. Far more recently than the forum's abandonment. But it couldn't have been the source of the message. The transmissions were only localized. 

"Hey, you guys were getting the transmission when you were on MGF right?" Crab asked.

Null and Gene confirmed the message was strong enough to reach MGF. So what were these, who sent them, and who was listening?

"I think I have a clue, but this isn't the source. Related I think, but are there any other antennas on the site besides Music's?" Crab asked.

Only static answered him.

"Guys? You reading me?"

Still no answer. Maybe the antenna is interfering?

He walked back into the DJ booth and was about to try again when he noticed the door to the booth was open. Someone had come in when he was at the node and was probably still in the room with him.

"So...going to hide all day or are you going to tell me who you are?" Crab asked the room.

The sound of a gun cocking behind him answered his question. Damn. They must've been in the antenna room and I walked right past them. 

"Don't move."

Whoever they were, they were wearing something to distort their voice a bit. Crab cursed himself for letting his guard down. He put his hands up and heard his captor walking around him slowly. Into his view came the person in the cloak from earlier. Crab could see they were indeed of smaller frame, and the cloak was navy blue in the light, not black. Their face was partially covered by the voice modulator like a Mortal Kombat ninja, but Crab could finally see their eyes under the hood. They looked feminine. The arm holding the gun out were dressed in an olive green.

"So, care to tell me why you're sending those transmissions?" he asked her.

Her head tilted in confusion for a split second before returning to keeping her aim on him. 

"Also, how did you get in? The door is password protected and I closed it." Crab also asked hoping to get something out of this.

"Hmph." was her response, as if the question was beneath her. "I have my ways. I wasn't sending those transmissions. I figured you were working with him to try and kill us... but no."

"Ah, and 'he' would be....?" Crab asked.

"Honestly, I thought it might have been Fluxe or Null. But no, you're his stooge. Sent here because they don't know either and are too afraid to come themselves," she replied smugly. "Now onto my question: why don't the bots attack you?"

"Attack me?"

"This isn't Metal Gear. Don't repeat the last bit of my sentence as a question."

Crab had to bite his tongue to avoid saying as a question? "I mean why would they? Kind of hard to sell stuff to corpses, no?" Although he had seen a bot trying to do just that to one he'd shot earlier.

"They've taken aim at me. You clearly know nothing so I'll be on my way." She fired her gun and Crab felt his whole body go numb as his eyelids got heavy. A tranq gun? He thought as fell unconcious.

[tr0nic]

@Node I need to change my vote for Best Topic


This simultaneously makes me blush and is among the most flattering things anyone has ever done in relation to me, you are an utter legend @black king. This may have just made my whole year. Just when I thought my ego could not get any bigger, BK comes in swinging.

[black king]

@Node I need to change my vote for Best Topic


This simultaneously makes me blush and is among the most flattering things anyone has ever done in relation to me, you are an utter legend @black king. This may have just made my whole year. Just when I thought my ego could not get any bigger, BK comes in swinging.

Glad you like it

It's my take on your private investigator life. Just switched NYC with MGSF.

[black king]

Part 4

---

Crab's eyes opened slowly as he became aware of his surroundings. Still in the Music section's DJ booth. How long had he been out? He glanced at his watch. Almost forty minutes!?

He looked in his bag to make sure nothing was missing, then at his codec and saw he had several missed calls. Great.

"Null, do you read me?" Crab asked in a groggy voice through the codec. 

"Crab? What happened? Where have you been? Duck was about the send Nate and Wayno after you," Came Null's reply.

"I ran into that cloaked figure again. She hit me with a tranq dart."

"She? " Came Gene's voice.

"Yeah. Also, I was wrong earlier. She had a cloak like some of the old orgs used to give out to members. It wasn't black; it was dark blue."

Null was quiet for a second. "Hang on a second."

Crab waited while Null talked to someone in the background. Then another joined the call.

"What's up, Null?" came BK's voice.

"You remember a lot about the old orgs." Null stated. "Crab said he saw someone before he was knocked out. Said she was wearing a cloak like the orgs used to give their members for winter."

"The person in black? The only black orgs I can think of are Diamond Dogs, Outer Heaven, and maybe Last Remnant Army."

"LRA was more gray, black was the trim." Crab corrected. "But no, the woman was wearing navy blue and a green suit underneath."

"Wasn't TSF the dark blue org, BK?" Null said, a hint of suspicion in his voice.

"Yes...but so were NGSF and Ground Zeroes." BK responded in a tone that made it clear he didn't like what Null was insinuating. "We had some women in TSF, but that was ages ago. No idea why they'd be there or targeting...wait you said a green sneaking suit underneath?"

"Yeah. Kind of an olive one." Crab confirmed.

"I remember TSF being green too for a bit." Null said.

"Yeah, but never at the same time we were blue." BK said with a renewed confidence. "Do you remember why we switched from green to blue?"

"Cause green was taken by a cooler org?" Gene responded in a way Crab could tell he was smiling.

"Half correct. It was taken by another org." BK stated. "Remember which one Null? The one that had blue as a secondary color?"

Silence at the other end for a moment before a sigh came through

"Oh no..." Null said "You think that person was from MGC?"

"Oh I bet I know who she is too. A woman from MGC? Apparently she has a code for the Music DJ booth that only a staff would have? A lady staff member from MGC with a flair for the dramatic?" 

Another sigh from Null "It's Red Queen isn't it?"

There was a noise from the other end of the codec as another voice came through.

"Hey Crab, thought we lost you." came Duck's voice. "What happened?"

Crab gave them the details Red Queen had given him.

"The bots attacked her? Why? Also why don't they attack you?" was Duck's confused response.

"I'm not sure...maybe I can ask her." Crab replied.

"Going after her, mate? Is that a good idea?" Gene asked.

"No, but it's all I have. She has to be hiding somewhere the bots can't get to."

Null finally spoke up "She's probably hiding in the old MGC private org forum."

"I can't get past that gate without either joining MGC or a password."

"You can log in as me. My username is in lowercase remember and my password is...." BK looked around the room and whispered it into the codec.

"Really?" Crab asked upon hearing the password.

"It was my way to marry two of the things I liked." BK said in his defense.

"Right...I'm going to head out now. I'll call you when I get to MGC's old HQ."

Crab walked out of Music and was back in the main forum. Still bots everywhere, but none of them looked at him aggressively. Well, no more aggressively than a salesman would. He did have to shoot one more that was trying to sell essential oils in another useless pyramid scheme. He went behind org chat to where the old org HQs used to be before the final three moved to the main square with new ones. The path wasn't long and he found an access door for staff. This must've been how she evaded me earlier.

Crab entered BK's credentials and the door unlocked. He took a step forward and saw several buildings in various states of decay. Some were more decrepit than others. Crab smiled to himself as he walked up to a building with a gray and black color scheme. The sign read "The Last Remnant Army" as some memories flooded back to him. "Hello old friend." He said out loud to no one. He walked into the area and saw his welcome thread. He smiled at his old answers and then noticed a bunch of junk in the building. Odd, he hadn't left that there. He read a note sitting on top of the crate "This stuff has to stay here until Zeta fixes their shit after the update for trying to hide topics." The old staff had turned LRA into a storage facility for junk!? He threw the note on the ground and stormed outside.

He looked across the street at another familiar building, this one in faded blue and white. The sign had a blue star and three large letters: GRU. Crab hadn't been in since that bastard Edo led a revolt. He noticed the door was ajar and took a step in. The inside was more...colorful than Crab remembered. Damn bronies. He thought to himself. He picked up one of the spray paint cans they had left and walked outside. He shook it up and a pink spray came out beneath the "GRU" letters. The spray started to give out near the end, but he was able to finish it. GRU The Pink Pony Club. Crab chucked to himself and started to walk away. He turned around for one last look, knowing he probably would never see these two buildings again. "Sorry to both of you, that I couldn't make you the next FoxHound or Dead Cell or..." He let the thought hang there before going on.

MGC's old HQ was one of the largest buildings past the wall. Once it was the largest org on the forums and it designed a lot. Red Queen was a higher up so Crab figured the executive area would be where he'd find her. The lobby was in ruins from at this point, nearly two decades of disuse. I'm going to guess the elevators don't work either.

He did find a floor map which showed the executive wing on the west side. The map showed the east wing was for producing weapons, drama, and....actual Metal Gear units!? 

"Hence the name of the org I guess. These older orgs were nuts." Crab said aloud.

He made his way to the stairs and started climbing. The executive area was on the fifth floor. He noticed the stairwell also went down. So far down he couldn't see the bottom, though the lack of electricity probably didn't help. The executive area's stairwell door was locked, but thankfully it was an electronic lock which died when the power went out. Crab forced it open and was in a hallway that kind of reminded him of Duck's MGF staff office. Green walls, but blue carpet. He started to look for Red Queen's office. He passed a few offices: krypton, Solid Snake The Great, and 786Beast until he found the one he was looking for; Red Queen: Chief Executive Officer. The door was open too.

Crab went in and saw an office that, while clearly abandoned, had been used recently. Huge office too. A couch in the corner had been used as a bed recently. Crab went to the computer, but it was broken.

Damn. He was about to call Duck and Null with boring news of an ampty office when something caught his eye on the table by the couch. It was an MGC blue-and green tape recorder. It also had a picture of a red crown on it. Crab rewound the tape, sat facing the door so as not to get jumped again, and pressed play.

[black king]

Part 5 - penultimate chapter

---

Crab had been listening to Red Queen's logs for about 15 minutes now. So far, it detailed how she'd received a transmission to return to MGSF like Null and Duck had told him. She'd arrived and was attacked by several of the bots around the site. She'd evaded them and was able to figured out they couldn't get past the wall into the old private forums. Her old staff password had still worked and she took up residence in her old office. She'd have to make occasional runs into the old FoxHound tavern for food. Otherwise she'd stayed low and kept planning on how to get back to the train station and leave the site.

He'd hoped she'd had more info on these killer bots she'd talked about but nothing so far. He got to the part where she'd seen him coming out of the opinion section. 

"I saw someone come out of the old Opinion & Confession section. I didn't recognize him. I was wondering if that's the one responsible for the bots attacking...they didn't attack him. He did attack one of them though and the other didn't even seem to react. I'm going to keep an eye on him and see what happens."

I haven't been physically attacked, no. Crab thought. Why are they attacking you? He kept listening to the next entry.

"I found that guy again. He's got a codec and I was able to listen in. Imagine my surprise when I heard Null's voice. I thought they might be behind this, but no. I talked to their errand boy and he was clueless. God this is so frustrating! I want to go home! Those bots and their master holed up in the staff office won't let me!"

Their master?

Crab heard the door to the stairwell opening. He quickly put the recorder back on hid in one of the boxes in the office.

Red Queen walked in and took off her mask. "Damn bots. Their always hiding in the kitchen." She took out a bag of potato chips and began to eat as she walked over to her office window. She stared out, the height of the office making it possible to see the forum over the wall. 

Crab decided he'd take the opportunity to repay her favor from earlier and hopefully get some answers. He readied his gun and jumped out of the box, weapon drawn at Red Queen. She jumped at the noise and dropped her mask and bag of chips to reach for her gun, but stopped when she saw Crab had his on her.

"Well, how the turns have tabled." Crab said with a hint of satisfaction. His gun may only work against bots, though Queen didn't know that. "Time for some answers. I think I know who you are now. I think you're Red Queen. I think you've been hiding in here from bots becaise you got a signal from here asking you to come back. I think you know more than you've said. I was sent here to investigate the signal by Dirty Duck. Tell me what it is."

"Correct on all accounts. How'd you know all that?"

"Your logs were a great help."

Red Queen muttered something under her breath then said "I've been stuck here for almost a week. I thought you might have been behind it when I saw you at the Opinions area. I knew you were working for Null at least when I met you in Music. I thought either he was behind it or knew who was...but no. You were useless to my goal of getting the hell out of here."

"Why'd you think I was behind it when you saw me?"

"I've only seen one other person in my time here. Or so I thought. You and the guy in the staff forum. When I first got here there was a guy standing near the entrance to the announcements and staff building to greet me. He had a cloak too, and I couldn't see who he was. I figured it was Refluxe or Pricey or someone like that. When I got close a bunch of bots came out of the staff building sprinting towards me. I hauled ass away from that but they were persistent. I dove into the visitor's side of the FH tavern and they ransacked the place looking for me. I thought I was done for until I saw the old private forums. My old code still worked and the bots couldn't follow. I thought you were him when I first saw you since no bots attacked you."

"Any idea who this other person is?" Crab asked.

"No...I haven't made any progress on that."

"What about the transmission? I thought it might have been coming from the Music radio antenna."

"No, it's coming from the staff antenna" Queen replied. "Pricey had it installed ages ago to communicate with forum affiliates and such when that was a thing. It hadn't been used in ages."

"So the mystery lies in the staff forum then." Crab said.

The thought hung in the air before Queen broke it.

"I'd offer to help. No one wants to leave more than me. But I attract the wrong kind of attention I think," she said. 

Crab lowered the gun he'd been aiming. "You also have a reputation for being untrustworthy and a drama magnet. I'm a little hesistant to trust you."

"True." she said with a smile. "I have a reputation for fun on internet forums. But I'm guessing you don't have many options or other leads."

Crab didn't. He turned to leave and heard the sound of Queen's gun cocking behind him. You've got to be kidding me.

She was aiming her pistol at him now. She smiled, then set it down on her desk. "As a sign of good faith." she said with a wink.

Crab decided to leave before she changed her mind. He took the stairs two at a time on the way down and left MGC's HQ. He continued to walk towards the forum as he called up Duck.

"Find anything useful, Crab?" Duck asked.

"Found Red Queen. We talked. She's been stranded here a bit. Says someone is currently in the staff forum sending your transmission and sending bots to attack people."

"I don't like it. Why would the bots only attack her? Something's rotten here." Duck replied.

"I don't know. I'm going to the staff forum to get an answer."

"Be careful, Crab. I'll send you backup if you need it."

"Got it, Crab out."

Crab was at the wall now. He went through and made it to Org Alliance. He kept up a brisk pace, noting no bots attacked him as he walked past the Help Desk and finally arrived at the entrace to the staff forum. He caught his breath for a moment and pulled on the door only to find it locked. He called Duck up again."

"I can't get in the door, Duck."

"Oh, yeah I totally forgot. You need a staff password. Use BK's on the keypad on the right."

Crab saw the keypad and entered the password. The door clicked open and he went inside, the door locking behind him. The hallway in front of him had no other doors save for the one at the end. He walked down and saw some portraits on the wall. On the left were some in a pyramid shape with the word STAFF written above them. Crab saw some familiar faces on it. Nate and Wayno had black frames around their pictures. Above them Crab saw pictures of Austin Powers, Dolan Duck, a guy wearing a black crown, and...was that Batman wearing a robe? They all had red frames. Above them were pictures of Null, Bane from The Dark Knight Rises, and a sugar bowl in blue frames. The one lone picture above them all was a picture of a badger in a gold frame. A lot of the pictures had the glass shattered and some had a few slashes across them. Crab turned around and saw more pictures. Lots more on the opposite side, all in green frames. They had EMERITUS written above them. Even more of them had been vandalized, one of which Crab recognized. A woman's picture with Red Queen written on the frame. Three stood out off to the side by themselves; no words above them. The frames identitified the pictures as Mitch, Gary, and Joe. Crab realized this was a memorial wall.

"Rest in peace, guys." Crab said to the pictures.

Crab turned to go through the door and saw something written above the door: "The trick is in what emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same."

Interesting philosophy.

He went in the door and was in a large office area. A few cubicles were around with names of the forum mods on them. Offices lined the exterior that had been used by the global mods.

"Crab, you in yet?" Duck's voice came through the codec.

"Yeah, I'm on the first floor." Crab responded.

"Good, Null said you can head up the elevator to the third floor to get to the antenna access. It's similar to the music one, just more powerful."

Crab walked to the elevator by the break room and pushed the button. Nothing happened. Getting sick of the stairs.

Crab went to the nearby stairs and looked at the sign:

B: Incoming reports, Archives, and Meeting Room.
G: Reception, Moderator Offices
2F: Admin Offices
3F: Utility and Roof Access

Crab began to climb and stopped at the second floor. The door had been smashed open. Crab peaked in and saw a fairly luxurious, executive office space. Crab walked past the one decoration in the entrance by the defunct elevator, a hammer resembling Thor's in a case with the word BAN etched into the metal. Past the waiting area, their were four doors to the admin offices. All were open and all had been ransacked. The last door at the far end was closed. Crab slowly turned the knob and opened it.

It was a small meeting room with only four chairs, three of which had also been turned over. Like the opinion forum, it had an archive to play old meetings. The most recent one was only a little over a week old and titled "They're gone". Crab hit play.

A projection of a man Crab didn't recognize was standing at the table.

"They're gone....all left." He slammed both hands down on the table and knocked one of the chairs over in anger. "NO! These bastards ruined me. I'm going to end them. They think they can just ruin a man and run away? Not face the music? Hahaha no, I don't think so. I'll show them. I'll free the site from these tyrants and allow the members access to what they've always wanted!"

Crab jumped in fear as a bot came in, but realized it was only a projection.

"What are your orders, Mr. Miller?" It asked.

The man, clearly Mr. Miller, looked at the bot and said: "Have you used the admin computers to unban all our bots?"

"Yes, sir," it replied.

"Then we have to get them back here. They'll be no match for our sheer numbers. Once the pesky staff have been taken care of, the old members will return and we hehehe will be welcomed as liberators! Take the bots downstairs and download the faces of the staff. They're to be eliminated on sight. I noticed the admins have a way to communicate with other boards. It hasn't been used in ages, but if I can find where they are now, I can lure them here."

"Understood, sir. What should we do in the meantime?" the bot asked.

"Blend in with these other weird bots. They're all selling weird crap. A bunch of kitchen bots won't attract any more attention." Mr. Miller said and closed the meeting.

Crab stood in silence for a second. He called up Duck. "I've found the source of your transmission. A guy named Miller and his bots want to lure all current and former staff back to MGSF to eliminate you with bots. Says you ruined his life."

"Miller? Let me ask the others if they know anyone by the name." Duck said.

The line was silent for a few moments as people chatted on the other end. Null's voice was the one that returned to Crab's ear.

"Crab, I'm going to send you a picture. Tell me if this is the guy you saw."

The image flashed up on the screen. 

"He looks about ten years younger, but yeah that's him."

Crab scrolled down to see his information

VANCE MILLER
THE KITCHEN GANGSTER

[Aragorn]