The scene sets on a late afternoon, out on a residential street with pouring rain forcing everyone indoors. The view stops upon a house, two stories, gray brick, with no lights on other than the top floor window. As the scene pans up, going into the house window, a young man no older than 30 sits up in his bed, blankets tucked all around him, heatpack on his head. He seems to be under the weather while trying to construct a boat out of newspaper. Another man with messy blonde hair paces back and forth in the room, trying to maintain his composure. He looks similar to the man in the bed, only a few years younger. (By now it should be clear the man in the bed is Tyler Fuse and the man walking back and forth is Conor Fuse.)

“C’mon, c’mon, I want my boat, I want my boat!” Conor says in a panic. This causes Tyler to stop what he’s doing and look up at Conor with frustration.

“Dude.” Tyler says sharply. “STFU. You’re supposed to be showing endearing qualities, not annoying ones.”

Conor stops walking around and puts his hands on his hips. “And you’re not supposed to swear. Fuse Bros. never swear!”

Tyler shakes his head. “I didn’t. I said STFU.”

Conor rolls his eyes. “Well, you’re insinuating. You also look dumb with that heatpack on. What are you, a baby?”

The heatpack falls from Tyler’s head in a comical fashion. “I haven’t been feeling well. God forbid I’m just trying to get my temperature down.”

Conor walks to the bedroom window and stares outside. He gives a quick shiver at the thought of seeing all that rain come down before a smile crosses his face for seeing all that rain come down… yes, he’s clearly conflicted. Meanwhile, Tyler goes back to work on folding the paper boat.

“Here you are, brother.” Tyler holds it out for Conor to see. The younger Fuse’s eyes shoot open, his mouth falls down. He loves it!

“You’re The Origami King.” Conor states as he marches over to Tyler and snatches the paper boat from his hand.

“Thanks.” Tyler said with a weak grin. “Now, I’m going back to bed. Will this boat make you leave me alone for a little while? I have a match tomorrow and I’d like to be feeling better by then.”

Conor nods frantically at the question Tyler asked. “For the next fifteen minutes, I won’t bother you.” He says. This response causes Tyler to roll his eyes in a huff, pull the covers over himself and turn away from his annoying younger brother, just praying it will be more than fifteen minutes of rest.

The Codebreaker doesn’t know what to do right now. He sees the rain outside. He looks down at his boat. He even looks back at his brother to make sure Tyler hasn’t sat up from his bed (spoiler: he hasn’t). Conor nods to himself and mumbles something that can’t be picked up. Then, just like a five-year-old who’s had a sudden light bulb go off in his mind, the youngest Fuse races out of the bedroom, down the staircases and to the front door. He finds his lime green rain jacket and puts it on, complete with a lime green plastic rain cap, too.

Conor swings the doors open and his eyes glisten as he sees the oncoming storm in front of him. All smiles, Conor shouts up to his brother.

“I’m going out now! I’ll be right back!” The words stated by someone who usually isn’t…

Conor slams the door shut behind him, making you wonder if that slam was necessary. The door seemed like it would close just fine if it was locked quietly… particularly because Tyler was trying to sleep off his sickness, but, whatever…

Conor runs into the open street. There are no cars and no one is outside, just a steady stream of rain coming down hard. The right side of the street has created quite the stream of water, as the Fuse house sits atop a peaceful decline.

Numerous playful giggles later and Conor places the boat on the stream. “It balances perfectly!” He shouts, almost drawing attention to anyone inside their homes to wonder what the ruckus is about. Realizing the boat has taken off down the stream, Conor starts running beside it, laughing and smiling to himself as he does.

The scene pans out to show there are numerous residential blocks down this hill and Conor could be running alongside the well-made paper boat for a while. An elderly man and what looks to be his daughter walk past Conor as they might be the only other people who are outside at this time. Conor giggles and dances alongside his boat as he walks past them, leaving the elderly man to turn around and question Conor’s mental capacity.

“Honey.” The woman says. It’s clear she’s not the elderly man’s daughter at this point and instead, his girlfriend. “That’s the special needs boy I’ve been telling you about. The one that lives with his brother.”

The elderly man does nothing but reply with an “oh” and a head nod as they vanish from the scene.

Meanwhile, Conor has made some good headway and the paper boat is really taking off! It’s flying downhill and the stream is flowing so well Conor is at a brisk jog in order to keep up.

“Wowies, wowies! What an awesome boat! My brother is THE best guy in the world for making this for me!” Conor sticks out his tongue to catch some raindrops. “Raindrops keep falling on my head! But that doesn’t mean Tyler will be sick in bed! Cryin’s not for him-”

Conor cuts himself off as he sees the paper boat is going even faster now! This quick loss-of-track causes Conor to slip and fall as the boat races on!

“My boat!”

Only to turn into…

A gutter.

“NO!”

Conor gets up, dusts himself off and scrambles to the gutter in hopes to grab the boat in time.

…

…

It’s too late. The boat is gone.

Conor takes a deep look into the sewer. He squints his eyes but all he can see is darkness.

The younger Fuse still maintains hope, however. He stays down on his hands and knees for another 30-seconds in the hopes that somehow, someway, the boat will appear.

Conor gets on one knee. He looks to turn away.

“HIYA, Conor!”

Stunned, The Codebreaker goes back down on all fours and looks into the gutter. He doesn’t see anyone.

“Hi?” He says, questioning if he indeed heard anything or if his mind is playing tricks.

About to leave, that’s when he sees It. A bald-headed man pops up from underneath the darkness of the gutter. He looks to be in his 40s and wears an off-gray trench coat.

“Oh, aren’t you going to say hello?” The creepy man says with an insincere grin.

Conor shakes his head no. “I’m not supposed to talk to NPCs.”

The man in the gutter leans his head to the side, as if contemplating the validity of this statement.

“Very smart, Conor. Very smart, indeed.” The creepy man says. “Well, let’s do an introduction. My name is Jason. And your name is…?”

Even though the creepy man already said Conor’s name, he’s clearly playing him up. Conor’s too innocent to catch on, however.

“My name is Conor.” Player Two states.

The creepy man pauses for reflection and then smiles “warmly” again. “Oh, Conor. That’s a nice name.”

“Yeah.” Conor giggles, feeling a little more comfortable. “Conor Xavier Fuse. But my friends call me Conor or The Character Formerly Known as Player Two or The Codebreaker, or The Vintage - eer, that’s another Game though--...”

Conor trails off, leaving the man in the gutter to work past those comments.

“Very cool, Conor, very cool. It sounds like you have lots of friends!” The man says.

Conor’s face lights up at the thought of the word friends. “I do! I have Trashcan Tim, Mushigihara, Gage Blackwood, referee Mark Shields, Darren Downtown Keelber, Lance Warner… my Game Boy…”

Jason seems to grow tired by all these names, even though hearing the words “The Game Boy” make him pause once more. At least Jason knows he’s picked the right person…

“And my brother!” Conor ends his ramblings of names.

“Your… brother?” Jason asked. Bingo.

Conor shakes with excitement. “Yeah! My big bro! He’s the best! Some say he’s a little too angry but I love him lots and lots!”

Jason’s eyes light up. He tries to hold back a mischievous looking smile. “And what’s his name?”

“Tyler.” Conor states. “Tyler Fuse.”

Jason nods, like he’s got the information he wanted. “Oh, that’s great. And where is he?”

“He’s at home, in bed, sick.” Conor mentions with a frown. “I hope he gets better though. He has a big match tomorrow!”

Jason inquiries, “A match?”

“Yeah. We are both wrestlers for DEFIANCE. Tyler is going to take on one of the Resident Evil guys in a dark match before we battle them to the death on pay-per-view!”

Jason’s eyes flicker in the darkness. He stays quiet. Perhaps, for a “normal” person, they could be creeped out by now but Conor has already become too trusting and can’t see past anything than a guy in a gutter.

“Say…” Conor starts. “What’s your full name? Do you have a code name? Like Mushigihara’s name isn’t really Mushi it’s… hmmm, come to think of it, I don’t actually know…”

Jason smiles. “It’s Reeves.” He says slowly. “And I do have a codename, too.”

Conor’s eyes are like “Wow! Awesome! Tell me!”

“If you come closer…” Jason begins, trying to maintain a stoic composure. “I’ll let you know.”

For as kid-like as he seems, Conor isn’t that dumb, not yet. “Hmmm, maybe. I guess it’s a little weird you’re in the sewer. Like, why are you down there to begin with?”

Jason holds his heart as if he’s telling a very traumatic story. “I… I lost my keys.”

“Keys?” Conor asks.

“Yes. Keys. You see, I’m an Uber driver.”

Well, all that cautiousness is out the window now. It’s like Conor has just been told Jason Reeves won the Nobel Peace Prize!

“Storm blew my keys away! Blew my entire automobile away!” Jason remarks.

There is another silence as Conor gets back up on one knee. “I should get going. I told my brother I would annoy him again!”

Just about to leave, Jason looks a little rattled… until he pulls out…

“My boat!” Conor cries, seeing Reeves hold the origami structure out for Player Two to see.

“Yes, that’s right. It’s your boat!” Jason says with a smirk. “Would you like me to return it to you?”

Conor nods and says “uh-huh” a few times.

“Well, c’mon over here pal, let’s go and take a tour of my home down here, ‘we’ want you to meet ‘The Kabal’!” Reeves tries to sound as inviting as possible but to any onlooker it would still be extremely creepy. “Just reach on down here and take it! Take it, take it!”

Conor crawls in close and slowly extends his hand into the sewer…

As Fuse is finger-tip close to the boat, Jason Reeves moves the boat back just a little. Jason’s eyes go red. He stares coldly into Conor’s face.

“My codename.” Reeves mentions. “I forgot to tell you my codename.”

Conor is almost at the boat and asks, “Oh? What is it?” 

“It’s Stalker.”

And with that, Stalker’s red eyes are accompanied by more red eyes, surrounding the entire darkness of the gutter, as if many others are down there with him. Stalker snatches Conor’s arm and pulls it forward… while a darkness starts to engulf Fuse’s entire body.

Conor screams out but because of the storm, no one is there and no one can hear him.

Reeves laughs sadistically as his darkness claims Conor’s entire left arm. Finally, the younger Fuse pulls away and he falls on his back in the middle of the street. Conor looks down at his arm… the darkness is now crawling into his body… his chest, his torso, his legs and his feet.

And finally… his neck and his head.

Conor lays motionless. Completely covered in darkness. There is no lime green jacket. There is no innocent smile.

Conor shouts out once more. He sits up. The darkness has now vanished. He gets on his feet, dusts himself off and calmly begins to ascend back to the home where he came from. There is just one difference…

His demeanor has changed completely. He is stoic, calm and walks with a purpose.

To go back to his house.

To go back to his brother.

All the while an evil laughter is heard from within the sewer, as the scene leaves Conor walking up the hill and back into the darkness of the gutter…

Where only two red eyes are shown.

Two red eyes… and a clear white, evil smile.

“Welcome Conor… to Stalker’s World.”

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