This story goes out to all my friends on VMK, the friends of BestLester. Most names are fictional, completely made up for this story, others were used with permission. Ages and locations are made up too. The story is nearly complete, but I may possibly update for style and fix mistakes. Thanks for reading.
Dedication
for my friend Diamond Meme

Thanks to for following for their permission to use their character names in the story
Blossomflower
Stemaboat_Tyler
Destination
Mrgoopy

Special Thanks to
ElfEbbie (wherever you are)
Sumbyl

Here is a Google Docs link: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=d79mkgd_16hpb5tfd3

Chapter 1 – LaserBean and PonyTales
Hi my name is Brian. All my friends call me Bean. I’ve been playing VMK, the pretty cool free online game, for a couple of years now. I thought I was getting too old for this game because it all seemed kind of boring to me. I mostly “played” to keep in touch with some old friends. But that all changed last month. Let me tell, you, it’s not everyday you get to help out a good friend and solve one of VMK’s biggest mysteries. Hey, my dream of someday working for Disney when I get out of school might come true now! But I digress. Here is my story.

I started playing VMK about two years ago, shortly after it opened. I was 12 then and thought I was kind of old for VMK then. It was a lot different then. I like to make stuff on the computer, like 3D programs in Alice 2.0 and stuff. My dad thinks it’s cool because he says he started programming in 4th grade and helps me make some stuff that is pretty cool. Now I’m 14 and I mostly play to keep in touch with old VMK friends. Some are on the forums sites but there are a few that still stick to VMK Values and don’t want to chat outside of VMK. So I guess you could say the number one reason I keep logging on several nights is week is PonyTales.

Tales and I go way back on VMK. You may have seen us, PonyTales and LaserBean (ok, don’t laugh, it seemed cool at the time ;) ) playing Pirates or Mansion or using inferno magic at the Music Game just to bug the guests there. That’s where we first met, actually. I gave her a “woot! woot!” for her song and it went from there. We don’t do taken or anything (it was cool back when there was no taken on VMK), but we like to hang out and talk about books, computers and weird things we see on VMK. Which is how I almost lost her forever .

Chapter 2 - The Room with no Owner
It was Christmas break and Tales was determined to make a good trader out of me (okay, I *stink* at trading). Tales and I are both in eastern time and it was almost noon. Tales always wears her hair in red pony tales with her large baby-doll eyes and some stylish hat and outfit. I was my usual VMK self--spiky yellow hair and black jolly roger T-shirt and black jeans and shoes. I was wearing my glasses just like in real life. Our mission: get me teleport magic. I was getting hungry, but even an empty stomach and a chilly basement could distract me from my objective. We ended up in this weird trade room called “Doom Traders”. No joke. It originally was football room but with all the dark colored furnishes it was pretty creepy. The spider webs, coffins, cannon dividers, Maleficent thrones, skeleton chairs, Chernabog Carpets and pirates treasure rugs it was a cool room with a fun “dark” feel to it. There was a trading area where you could sit around a Madame Leota’s crystal ball, surrounded by Evil Queen's Candle Holders. Some coffin teleporters finished the décor.

“Cool, I have got to tell the owner how much I like it,” I thought. But the owner, BlackHatMagic wasn’t there. The best part was getting lucky and (with some tips from Tales) I got my teleport magic (thanks Blossomflower, wherever you are!). Woot!

Over the next weeks I went back to Doom Traders several times (it was almost always there in the popular rooms with lots of people and good trades) but this BlackHatMagic was never there. Which kind of made Tales and I curious. If the owner was never there, how could there always be people on the room? How could the room be that popular to never empty out? One day when I was home sick from school I logged on first thing when VMK opened and kept checking for DoomTraders. Sure enough, when I checked at about 10:00am after I got out of a game of pirates, there it was with 4 people. And no owner in sight. I searched all the linked rooms which had similarly creepy names, some of which weirded me out. Dark Horror. Boot Hill Coffin Shop. Dark Red Stay.in on the Carpet. Scream in the Night. It was kind of like a spooky maze, with all the rooms interlinked and some even looked alike. I lost count. But no owner.

When Tales logged on after she got home from school (at least I think she goes to school, but I really don’t know since she always follows VMK values), I shared the latest on my investigation.

“Home ill, huh? Likely story :)” said PonyTales.

We were hanging out in my cozy Briar Patch room, which strangely enough made me feel a little warmer in the January-chilled basement. With any luck I’d have a snow day the next day.

A text bubble appeared over LaserBean’s head. “Hey! :) Don’t laugh I spent all day on this.”

“I guess the place to start is to ask people in the room if they know the owner. Maybe someone has a link, like we have between water slide ride rooms.”

But no one we asked knew the owner. Or at least they said they didn’t…

Chapter 3 – No Answers, Just More Questions
So we spent the rest of the week and the weekend chatting with the people who came to Doom Traders and exploring the different rooms. No one admitted being friends with the owner, BlackHatMagic. It just kept getting weirder and weirder. Stemaboat_Tyler, for example, asked me if I had ever got to the end to the quest kiosk.

“A quest!?! What is the quest about?” inquired Tales when she followed me to Doom Traders a few minutes later. Stemaboat_Tyler couldn’t stay any longer.

“He didn’t remember much other than that he was lost and happened to find an open quest kiosk but it was blocked off from the teleporter he arrived on. Oh, and get this.. the quest title was Gate to the Under world”

“OK that is just weird.. What kind of room was it? Like, a mark twain room?”

D’oh! I had forgotten to ask. This detective work was harder than I thought. “I don’t know :( but I did make a nifty map :)” I managed. (Yes, you can say nifty in VMK :) )

For the remainder of January we tried to locate the quest kiosk using hand-drawn maps, splitting up and exploring the maze. It was almost as if the maze kept changing or something. And Doom Traders was always open for business. I had just about given up when she found it.

Chapter 4 – Tales Where are You!?!
On Valentines Day Tales found it. She later said she must have got lucky or something (although at the time it seemed pretty UN-lucky). We found out that since the maze had all the entrances blocked off, you couldn’t just click to follow your friend. You had to follow each other though the like 100 teleporters (or at least it seem that there were that many). Well I was playing a bunch of Haunted Mansion games to get credits so I would buy Tales some of the new stuff that was out for Valentine’s day (hey, I was poor because I was so busy working on the mystery) when she must have messaged me like five times.

“Hey Been!! Omg I found it! Come see!”

“Whoah this is weird. It really is the Gate to the Under world quest.”

“I don’t like this room just hurry ok”

“OK, I just started it and first Q is to walk around room fix times and not to message anyone or I’ll lose for the last time – creepy! Hurry over here Now!”

And that was the last message I had. By the time I got out of mansion she was logged off.

The whole week went by, the weekend… she never logged back on.

Well, I did finally get a snow day that Monday. I spend the whole day trying to figure out what could have gone wrong. What did I have to go on? Well, I had the complete list of room names link to Doom Traders. What was I missing? I had a list of people I talked to looking for clues. I would have to talk to everyone, realizing that any one of them could be Mr. (or Ms. ?) BlackHatMagic on another account.

That was it—I had to think like an evil genius to catch (?) and evil genius. I had to copy down every single person, every single clue and think like a devious person who had a way to get people banned off of VMK. That was the only explanation, because that was no way to really hurt someone through the game. At least I hoped so…

So here’s how it went. How did you find this trading room? Most said they were searching for trades, and the room description promised haunted deals on rare. Have you ever seen the owner? No on had. Don’t you think it’s weird the owner is never here? Not everyone thought it was weird, many being there for their first time. By about the twentieth person I talked too, I was getting hungry, having skipped lunch. But that’s when I got a break.

A tanned looking boy character with curly reddish hair named BeatBoxKid wasn’t all surprised at my questions. He looked cool in his orange hawaiian top and brown pants. He too knew that Doom Traders was always open with no owner in sight. He too had looked around in the maze but said he hadn’t really cared, it was just a really good trade room to him. I hesitated. Was this BlackHatMagic in disguise? He seemed to know almost too much… I vaguely remembered seeing him somewhere before, maybe even in this same room. He had blue space magic, so he couldn't just be a new account created that morning. I had to chance it.

“Well, Mr. Know-It-All,” I thought, “here goes nothing.” I told him about Tales and her mysterious disappearance. I told him about the maze, the quest, everything. Well, except the fact that I was genuinely worried about Tales.

“I can’t believe she’s not back on as another character and right here in this room with me,” I said in disbelief.

“Hmm.. you’ve never been banned before, have you?” asked Box, as if he was grinning on the other side of his computer screen.

“No..” I had to admit, I’d never even been banned. I had been warned a few times, but it was really other people’s fault. It just takes one person to say something and the whole room gets warned.

“Let me tell you what it’s like,” Box began. “It’s the worst feeling you could ever have. You’re in a room with a few friends, hanging it, then Boom, the screen goes black. You think, main, dis connect again. But the message says your account has been banned for giving out personal information.”

I had to know, so I asked him straight out. “So why were you banned? Can you say?”

“I told somebody where I live. Just the sit.ate, you know. But VMK bus.it.id me anyway.”

“Why didn’t you just make a new account? I have a bunch.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, you see.” After a long pause, he continued. “VMK is smart, they block the complete house. Even extra accounts are blocked--unless you go someplace else.”

“Whoah.” This was news to me. OK, maybe this explained why Tales couldn’t get on even with a new account at her house. “How long?”

“I tried log on and said banned a full moon. I was mad, I thought it wasn’t fair . I tried using contact us to ask why. Finally I thought, hey it’s only on moon, some people get banned for tent ears.”

I listed with rapt attention has he explained how quickly the waiting turned to despair and he thought he’d never get back on-line. Just a few days later he missed his friends, especially his best friend Destination (who later was banned for ten years himself!). He tried logging on every day, hoping the ban was lifted. It wasn’t. And that is how he discovered the library computer. The perfect way to play (until someone got the entire library banned >_<).

“So you see,” he concluded, “Tales will be back., somehow. You’ll find a way to recognize each other.”

I felt very much relieved, and glad that I hadn’t been banned. But I still had a nagging question. “But what prevents this BlackHatMagic, whoever they are, from getting people banned again? People can lose all their rare stuff from like forever. What can we do?”

I could imagine the evil chuckle an the sly grin on Box’s face as he replied, “Easy Bean old chap. We give them some of their own medicine”

“But how!?!” I had to know.

“We set up our own little Doom Traders. When people start going to our room instead of the real room, Black Hat Magic will notice and have to pay attention”

“Uh but won’t that just make them mad?”

There was no missing the delight in Box’s reply: “But that’s the best part. Hehe. Hehe.. Muahaha!”

Chapter 5 – Threats
By Tuesday night we were ready. Box had one-way links to the new Doom Traders using Alice ride teleporters and would set up shop before heading off to school (of the benefits of having a parent on the west coast). He said he had a way to keep from being logged off. As a precaution he would use several of his extra accounts but not his real ones. I would get home from school first and take over from there.

I wasn’t sure at first, but I finally asked my Dad for some ideas. Since he’s a computer security specialist I figured he would be interested in my “being kept safe” from weird people on VMK. Boy, was BlackHatMagic going to be sorry. My Dad said that if our DSL IP address got banned I could use his Verizon wireless card in his laptop. He also set me up with the screen recorder so everything (sound and video) that happened in my VMK room would be recorded. So I was feeling pretty good about the next day.

Junior high has been OK for me, but I wasn’t really paying attention that Wednesday, excited about the detective work we were doing to do. I sprinted from the bus to the house in record time, dumped my bags on the floor, grabbed a soda and snacks from the fridge and ran down the stairs. It seemed like hours for the computer to boot and VMK Pal to log me in. The plan to log in as three characters to keep the room as high on the popular list as possible.

I needn’t have worried. Including my spare account KidLiberty, we had 8 people, which was pretty good for this early in the afternoon. Two of them I recognized as Box’s: WildMike and QueenOfRock. They appeared to be trading, but this was part of the plan. There was a Guest who may have a new character of Box’s there too. I held my breath and opened up the Popular Guest Rooms List. Woot! The plan had worked perfectly. Our was the only Doom Traders on the list. I searched for Doom Traders. Still only ours. “Take that, BlackHatMagic”, I muttered. I set up the video recorder and brought on lumpacoal in as well as wavycompass.

I grabbed my notes and started comparing who was in the room against who I had seen in the original Doom Traders. I it was challenging keeping three characters at once pretending to be trading and chatting, but with Dad’s super-fast computer helping out, I was keeping up OK.

“Wait a second,” I thought, frantically flipping pages back to almost the beginning. “Mrgoopy…” He just stood there by the entrance then suddenly vanished. I knew him! He had been there several times in Doom Traders. Well, I had his picture, now if I could only get him to talk with me. Then we’d see if he noticed he was now in a room owned by LaserBean.

“What the!?!” I almost dropped my notebook on the floor, only catching it by a single page. “Tales?!?” It sure looked like Tales. Although her title was DangerDori now. The red pony tails, a cute outfit composed of a blue princess Aurora top, Cinderella crown and blue jeans”.

A speech bubble popped up over her head. “Where is owner?”

“Oh snap!” I thought quickly. Tales knows KidLiberty… so why was she asking? “He said he’d be right back,” I typed in the keys. I turned to the other computer screen to bring up LaserBean, the room’s owner. When I turned back, DangerDori was clearly having a melt-down.

“Where is Owner!?! I know you’re here somewhere.”

I was having a bad feeling about this. I wished the three hour time difference wasn’t keeping Box from seeing all of this.

“Chill, I’ll message him,” said KidLiberty. “Come on!” I shouted at the screens, grateful I was the only to hear my firsts bang against the keyboard. LaserBean was almost there. Needed to stall..

“So you know Been? Friends?”

“Friends with that id.i.it? Not anymore! I hope he gets his bad self banned forever.”

Uh oh. Alarm bells started going off in my mind. This isn’t going well..

LaserBean entered the room at precisely that moment.

“Somebody talking about me?” I managed to type with shaking hands. I was so mad. This couldn’t possibly be my best friend on VMK. “Wait.. are you Tales!?!”

“Me? Tales? That dumbo is ugly and a mean.i just like you. You’re a scammer copying this room and I hope you get banned just like her.”

“How do you know that?”

“That’s for me to know and you to find out.”

“I think you should calm down a apologize to these nice people here,” I quickly typed, noticing people where hastily vanishing from the room so as to be far, far away in case VMK started handing out warnings or bans. “What’s the problem? Are you Black Hat Magic?”

“I’m warning you...” was the last thing DangerDori said, and then she was gone.

LaserBean was left shouting to an empty space where she used to be.

“I’m going to find out what you’re up to!”


Chapter 6 – Time to Get Busy
The game was on. I had “DangerDori’s” threats recorded (and you better believe I made a backup copy of the file!), but I need more proof—witnesses—before I would send it to VMK staff. In the meantime, I had to stay un-banned… What would Box do? He seemed like a kind of rebel hacker or something, but it was an awesome idea to get BlackHatMagic to show himself (herself?). I needed a plan, and fast.

I made sure the video recorder was running again and opened up Popular Guest Rooms. Sure enough, the original Doom Traders was open, right under mine in popularity. What would happen if I made them think they won?

So I logged off all my accounts and worked on my homework. It took longer that usual because all I would think of was that last threat… “I’m warning you..”

When I checked the clock again I was amazed to see how fast a couple hours had gone. My Mom would be home soon. Wednesday was pizza night (woot!) because both of my folks went out, my Dad to the Y and mom to a class. Hopefully I could have some more uninterrupted time to work on the mystery.

Not long after I logged back on I got a message from Box: Dude what happened? I just accidentally logged into the real Doom Traders. It’s packed! Of course! That was the answer!

I had to fix a dozen typos I was trying to type so fast. “Get a screen shot of everyone in the room and I’ll meet you at your room. Try not to talk to anyone yet.”

When I saw “Boom check a rock ah” appear in my guest room search results I took KidLiberty over and had him “lock the door” so no one else could enter. He gave me the titles from the screen shot he took and I added them to my notebook. As I brought him up to speed he didn’t say much other that “hmm” or “oh snap.” When I was finished, there was a long pause from the other end.

“Well what now?” I demanded. This was his idea after all.

“Hold on I’m thinking. Now that we have their attention we don’t want to waste it.”

As I quickly switched LaserBean back to my own Doom Traders room, I realized that the video recorder was on the other computer, where KidLiberty was. So I took KidLiberty to Box’s room.
Just as I entered the room, Box’s extra accounts WildMike and QueenofRock disappeared, leaving a friend request from WildMike.

“Uh Box did you take your extra characters out of my room? They’re gone.”

“Yep, no problem.oh dude. I think I have a plan,” came back Box’s reply. “Let Wild Mike be your friend and move Been to a some room, anywhere. Just - Hide -”

I had no clue what he had in mind, but I took LaserBean to what I call his “locker room”, actually a serious of rooms where I store extra furnishings and posters starting with "Been Locker No I."

“Okays, now what?”

I wasn’t exactly thrilled by Box’s reply. “omg main! What were you thinking! Look at your character kids signature!”

I smacked my forehead in disbelief. Stupid! I forget that KidLiberty’s signature still read: Been Best Buddy. And given that he and LaserBean looked practically the same it was obvious that they were both, well, me.

“Hehe but don’t worry, we’ll use that.” At least somebody had a plan.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re going to take Kid over there to get Black attention. Get them to follow you back your Doom Traders and I’ll meet you there with a few characters and I’ll try to keep them busy while you take Been and follow Wild back to the real Doom Traders. You should have a few minutes to get through the maze before Black catches you and boots you. Or worse. Just keep moving!”

Now this was making some sense. But to solve the maze in just a few minutes? And then what? Before I could ask Box he was gone.

It was time to get busy. So busy, in fact, that I almost missed another friend request message on LaserBean.

Chapter 7 – Ghost Tales and the Race Against Time
A new guest character in was in my locker and there was a new friend request blinking at the bottom of the screen. And the only Guest who would know to look for “Been Locker I” would have to be...

“Miss me Been?”

“Tales?!? Is it really you!” I could hardly believe it was her. The big eyes and the red pony tails where there, but the basic clothes a Guest gets didn’t reflect her usual style.

“Long story. That dumbo got me banned and I am finally back on – at grand mummy house.”

“We figured your full house was banned. What took you so long?!?” I knew she would have been trying her best to get back on, but we had precious little time now and so much to do.

“Well funny thing. I tried from the library using Tales ( I know, dumbo ). Then I tried my other accounts. Nothing worked. And who is We??”

“What.. wait, who are you?!”

“Been, it’s Me. I’ve never heard of that happening before either. Nothing worked. I had to start a new character with a new eh - meh,all.”

“Tales, first I need you to answer me a question.”

“Been! I’m telling the truth!”

There was an easy way to tell if this was really Tales. “Answer me: what was the only fight we have ever had about?”

“Oh.. that’s easy. The first weak after we met you told me my hair with tales made me look like a baby. Then I got mad and ignored you. Come to think of it..”

“Ok ok - Few..” My mind lurched as I quickly shifted gears and tried to put two and two together. From this new information, I knew this was bad. Really bad…

“See! I just got on right now. With only a little time and a slow computer.”

“Well we may only ever have a few minutes. I have a list of what I think are most of Black Hat extra accounts. A friend is distracting them so I can go and try to solve the maze. It may be too late. They know me and can ban me at any second. Hold on a message from Box.”

I clicked open the message to read Box’s urgent note via WildMike: "Go now! I saw somebody just switched from the Black Hat Doom Traders to yours.”

Then all my VMK windows went black. They had taken out KidLiberty. And from Tales’ experience, if they could track down all your accounts that had to mean…

“No!” I had to do something fast. I called Dad’s cell.

“Hey BJ, how’s your mystery going?” Only my Dad calls be BJ.

“Time for plan B. I found Tales but they took out one account. Can I use your laptop?”

“Sure thing. It’s on my desk. I just left the house.”

“Thanks Dad! Gotta go!”

“Hold on.” There was a pause on the other end. “Look, don’t worry. I loaded video capture software last night. It’s almost the same – just better.”

“Right…” I mumbled as I up stairs with the cordless phone smashed to my ear.
“If you need anything, or want me to come home, just call me. I have a couple things I thought of last night. If it gives you an error message when you start just say yes.”

“I’m on it, thanks a million!” The total awesomeness of the MacBook Pro was mesmerizing. Maybe I couldn’t run VMK Pal on a Mac, but I still felt a surge of confidence. Verizon internet connection, check. Firefox, check. VMK login, check. Video feed, check. Lock and load. We could do this.

Chapter 8 – Three Against One?
While I was getting logged back on, Tales and Box were frantically trying to keep things together while holding their breath to see if I could get back on. While Box tried keep for accounts logged in pretending to trade, Tales was creating another account hoping to keep one safe to send with me in the maze while the other could help stall BlackHatMagic’s minions.

I went back to my locker straight away and was relieve Tales (Ghost Tales?) was still there. “Ok,” I said. “Come with me. But first we need a dis,it,thar action. Box needs to keep Black Hat Magic watching my room while we go in his and into the maze.” On a hunch I changed my outfit and signature to makes this just a little harder for our evil genius. A dreams shirt, bird hat and brown pants. And messy brown hair. Perfect.

Hang in there buddy… I muttered to myself as if wrote up the message. Keep him busy there in my room for just on minute where we go in the maze.

“Get ready..” I told Tales. “This is it. I need all the help you can give me.”

Box’s message came back.. “Oh I’ll keep that sun of a busy Grrr!” Box had his rough edges, but I knew he would do his best.

And with a quick “Follow!” to Tales I was off.

I had to just ignore the people in the room and head casually for the coffin teleporters. I wondered what Box was saying. Heheh he was going to earn his ban. We were through the middle coffin and into the maze in no time. That’s when it hit me. I was trying to get LaserBean, my first, best and favorite VMK character through this mess in under five minutes.

“Oh main,” I said. “How do they even remember how to get through this mess themselves?”

“Hmm.. there must be a pattern. Or some kind of clue.”

“Like how there are always for coffin, the on you come in on and three more in a row?”

“Like that skeleton monkey?” I was thinking out loud, trying not to freak out at the fact we were sitting ducks. If they only looked at their room list…

“Duh! that’s got to be it! Did you notice that there’s always just on monkey in each room?”
“Left side is left coffin?”

“Worth a shot!” I said. “Let’s go.”

Amazingly only eight rooms later, going in the middle coffin teleporter when the monkey was in the middle, and to the left or right on the side of the skeleton monkey we were there. The quest kiosk. “Gate to the Underworld.”

What a room! It was a Skull Rock with dark green foggy looking carpets surrounding a Tron teleporter which had a ring of Evil Queen Candle Holders around it. To the left was the lit quest kiosk. Like it was left on for somebody… As was the red Chernaborg carpet setting below the teleporter.

Just one problem. I could reach the kiosk. “Arg! I can’t reach can you?”

“Uh, no.”

So close! “The prize is a ticket to somebody room. Now what?”

“Jump!”

“What!?!” What was she talking about?

“Use your teleport magic!”

Right then I realized how lucky I was to have Tales back right when I needed her.

“Got it! Come on!” I was shouting to the computer screen now.

“Duh! I can’t remember? This is a new guest.. Sorry you got to do this alone.”

Just then I got a message from WildMike. With just one word. No. And then all of Box’s accounts were offline. The Ban.

“Tales, Box is out. It’s up to you. I’m going in.”

“Already on it. I’ve got a cute guest in there now asking for free.”

“Rofl! Go get them Tales,” I replied an clicked on the quest to play. Walk around the room fix times. Don’t message anyone or you will lose for the last time. When I checked again, Tales the Guest was gone.

I jumped as my cell phone chimed loudly. It was a text… from my Dad?

“Forgot: in case of emergency try the scripts on the desktop. I haven’t tested them tho.”

As I wondered what that meant, I went around the room picking the skulls that had been placed around the central teleporter. Six times I collected the skulls.

Next question: Do you believe in ghosts?

That was easy. “Yes,” I typed.

Now use your Bat Magic. Not a problem, I’ve collected pretty much all the magic pins in VMK. 8 down, 2 to go.

Stand on the Chernaborg carpet. It was right below the Tron teleporter. I nabbed the last skull.

A message came in from Tales. “Got the proof? Box is back. We are all now in Black Doom Traders. He is here! I think he knows what we’re doing :(“ Our three against one strategy was failing. And what if BlackHatMagic had helpers too?

“And that would be an emergency,” I muttered, hastily moving the VMK window, looking for… There! “VMK Scripts… that looks interesting.” There were three icons: MessgeBlast, Sos, and Blahblahblah. Which one to try first. I clicked on MessageBlast. A text window opened:

“WARNING THIS PROGRAM WILL PROBABLY GET YOU BANNED.
Enter character you are logged in as:

I typed in LaserBean and pressed Enter.

Enter the name of any character logged into system right now:

Hehe, since BlackHatMagic decided to join us, that made an obvious choice.

How many messages?

Feeling a little bit evil myself, I typed in 666.

Words starting flying up the screen. I had to time to enjoy it or even wonder if it was really working. Somebody just got a ton of messages. I was now officially in trouble with VMK for hacking. Well, I had to finish this. Back to the quest.

To receive your ticket to the under world, through the black teleporter, use inferno magic.

I was actually enjoying this twisted little quest. What was happening to me? I shook my head as it to clear it. I couldn’t help smiling as I gave the quest a one star rating.

Sure enough, I had received 4 tickets to BlackHatMagic’s rooms. I put one on like a pin, double checked the video recorder was on and clicked on the teleporter in the middle of the room. Here goes nothing...

Chapter 9 – The Evil Lair
The first time I entered a Haunted Mansion Conservatory Room I got the weirdest chills. I still do. But nothing was more creepy than going into BlackHatMagic’s “My Evil Lair” room. The creepy music, the coffins, the candle holders… it took a second. It was a simple room, except that the glass walls were linked with small pictures. I had an idea what I was going to find.

On the left wall, there was a picture by itself, like a header. The picture was of a boy in a vampire outfit with the caption “My Evil Friends”. I quickly started clicking on the dozen or so photos below. I recognized DangerDori and Mrgoopy and some others seemed familiar.. But what was on the other side?

There seemed to be almost twenty, with a header followed by about ten pictures then another header with about ten more. I clicked the top picture. My Defeated Enemies. On a hunch I clicked the last one on the bottom row. [i]It was a picture of PonyTales.

Holding my breath I click on the next header photo: Next to Go. I clicked the first yellow square, which displayed a photo of LaserBean.

I jumped, gasping for air as a the train whistle indicating a incoming message played, seemingly deafening.

It was Tales, pleading now. Been, something is wrong Dark stopped talking but is walking like crazy all over the room. Please plz come!

All right, I had I what wanted. I clicked to my friends list, clicked the Guest who I knew was Tales and followed her. And while it was still loading, I switched to the other window and clicked on “Sos.” As usual, before the script started, a final warning displayed on the screen:

THIS WILL GET YOU BANNED IF IT WORKS
Are You Sure? Type Yes to continue

“Yes,” I said, let’s finish this.

Chapter 10 – Busted
I have never seen that many staff characters in one room at a time. I probably never will again. From what I learned later, the VMK moderators got about 1,000 “Call For Help” messages within ten seconds. “Help! A scammer says he will hurt me!” I can only imagine the panic all the operators started talking at once, flipping screens to locate the source of the problem.

But, it turns out, VMK_Shorty was already watching the room thanks to a particularly nasty tricky played by an oh-so-innocent-looking PonyTales. I asked her tater what she said when she reported BlackHatMagic and used Call For Help. She replied with “ – red face – well it wasn’t very lady like. I don’t want to say.”

Just after the screen loaded everything seemed to go into slow motion as the SOS went out to VMK staff.. Then, silence except the for the muted sounds of the football room.
Tales was talking to HOST_Phinny. I have watched that interchange on video over and again. It went like this:

Tales(Guest)): But it’s true.. he is scamming people and saying if you don’t give him your account and password he will get you banned!

BeatBoxKid: And he did the same thing just now to my account WildMike. Good thing my no,bear has wear,less

HOST_Phinny: Come on, I know BlackHatMagic. That’s a lie! And he would never ask you to, well you know what you said.

Tales: When I refused he said I’d be sorry and I was immediately banned.

At that precise moment VMK_Shorty appeared in the room. I have never heard of him being seen actually inside someone’s room before.

VMK_Shorty: And exactly how do you know BlackHatMagic Phinny?

HOST_Phinny: I know he would never do that because I know him in real. If she really was banned and is playing anyway, she is a cheater and she lie.”

Tales: But I had to get you here while my friend went for proof.

LaserBean: I have the proof. You BlackHatMagic and your accounts DangerDori and Mrgoopy. I have titles and proof

HOST_Phinny: You lie! I know BlackHatMagic. He works with the group in..

VMK_Shorty: Stop.

There was an awkward pause.

VMK_Shorty: My office. Now.

About 6 VMK staff characters, with either VMK_ or QA_ in front of they name, showed up as he continued.

VMK_Shorty: Stop all new log on to the game. We’re shutting down for maintain.ants. And you.. – All of You – don’t move. We’re going to the meeting room.

Uh oh. I thought. Busted. I wondered they would even let me back in the Magic Kingdom for real after this.

BeatBoxKid: So anybody want some popcorn while we’re waiting?

Tales: It’s not funny!

I agreed with her, especially as my dad walked into the room in his sweats, obviously back early from the Y. I froze as I heard his next words…

“And then you had to shut down the entire game? ... I’ll talk to him right away.”

So this what it felt like to be grounded for the rest of your life…

Chapter 11 – A Surprisingly Happy Ending
As he ended is call, he turned to me. “Sounds like you’ve been busy, BJ.”

Why was he almost smiling instead of giving me “the look?”

“Before you show me what you were able to video, I think I’d better let you in on a little secret. My firm have been doing a security audit for a certain Walt Disney Internet Group. That’s the part of Disney that is in charge of VMK. I discovered a flaw in the game communications protocols, but had no clue that someone on the VMK testing team (or as we call it, Quality Assurance) was harassing players. It just so happens your investigation and mine met in the middle.”

“Bu- but wha-??” This made no sense. Except maybe it explained why he let me use those “hacking” scripts on VMK. “You knew!”

“I didn’t know. When I heard about the project at work, naturally I was interested because I knew you played the game. When… well, the person you know as Shorty called me on my cell phone to tell me there was a hacker in the system show managed to send hundreds of calls for help in seconds, I filled him in on your independent investigation into in-game harassment. I told him I’d join and we’d discuss what just happened.”

“You mean I’m not grounded for life?”

“Well, not yet. And I think they’re trying to tell you something,” he said, gesturing toward the computer screen.

VMK_Shorty told everyone to take a seat. And he asked me to keep recording the room (wow!). Shorty was definitely in charge of the meeting. He asked the questions, and we answered. It was definitely weird sitting around a crystal ball as we heard about the increase of complaints from people claiming to be banned for things they hadn’t done. And how theses were being investigated by one particular staff member who just happened to have another character named… BlackHatMagic.

“Been, I need to you send me the captures you have. Your partner will tell you where to send it.”

Wow. Dad called me his partner!

“You got it.” I typed back, trying to act professional. Partner. “Just on more request.”

“Hold on,” he replied. “First, everyone back to work. Bring us back up. And you too,” he said, getting up and walking over towards HOST_Phinny and BlackMagicHat, “meet me in a half hour in my office.”

Soon the room was emptied out excepted for BeatBoxKid, LaserBean, VMK_Shorty and poor PonyTales, still a guest.

After a pause, VMK_Shorty spoke.

“Are these all you accounts, Been?”

“No sir, this these are my too in game friends. Guest here is was actually banned along with all her accounts for refusing to give her information to Black Magic Hat. Once I heard about the unusual way Tales was banned, I suspected staff could be involved. They helped distract BlackMagicHat while I investigated. If we can get back to that room before it can be changed, there is a list of accounts that were supposed.lie banned.”

“Done. And we’ll fix that ban in a minute, but first, can I trust you? All of you?”

Of course all three of us replied “yes.”

“It’s a little know fact that Phinny is actually not on person, but too.”

“What!” “omg!” “hehe nice” bubbled up over our heads. I had never thought of that, but it did make sense to allow the hosts to be in the game all day long.

“I’m going to find out just how much our host cast was involved. In the meantime, I’m going to need your partner’s help. I hope you can come out with him next weak, I would like to meet you in person.”

Meet me? In person! Like in California? I looked behind me to Dad, who nodded.

“Deal,” I said. “Tales and Box, thanks again for your help. If it were possible, I would hope you could go to DLR as well. In case there is lie.gal action, we would want to hear all about your part.”

“Fair enough.” VMK_Shorty was pleased. Did Shorty think I was adult? What would he say when he found out I was a kid?

“Dude that would be awesome!” came back Box’s enthusiastic reply.

I was really surprised that Tales did answer the same. Maybe she thought I had lied to her, that I was really a grown-up or something. Or…

“idk, maybe,” she replied finally. She was breaking my heart.

“I’ll send you an eh - meh ill.” I actually felt jealous of VMK_Shorty, since he could e-mail her whenever he wanted.

“Ok,” she said at last. “But first, I need you to look the other way for a minute. I want to give my best friend here a miss. So proud of you Been!”

My Dad laughed out loud as he walked out the room. “And by the way,” he called back over his shoulder, “next month I’m supposed to take a look at Pirates of the Caribbean Online. Let me know if you’re interested.”

[i]The End

so wait, I got him the teleport magic? LOL
whee me XD

M O R E... awesome story xD

:) well you got a good trade out of it ;) Lots more lined up.

I just read the second chapter.. but btw, when you get banned, it bans the IP address of a computer, and the account...

So if you get on a different account on a different computer, you can still get on vmk...

The extra accounts AREN'T blocked... if you just use a different computer :D

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So wait, BlackMagicHat somehow gets people banned? creepy. reading this story gives me the chills. I LOVE IT.

MORE. PLEASE. I BEG OF YOU!!!! xD


(btw, in ur first chapter, it says his name is "BlackMagicHat"... but in second chapter, it says "BlackHatMagic" LOL)

Thanks Blossomflower :)
I cleaned up some typo's and added better descriptions of the characters in the story so far. And decided to go with BlackHatMagic. I have to come up with a new quest name to keep the g-rating for this site.

I'll try to get chapter 5 ready tonight.

Oh I love this! This is one of the first vmk stories I've read that seems realistic and actually plausible =]
Nice job =]]

Thanks Jackalope :) I thought of writing one like the movie Tron, but went with a psychological thriller this time. I hope you like the story--there's plenty more coming.

OH THAT WAS SO AWESOME I THOUGHT IT WAS TALES I PANICKED ROFL

btw, you still mentioned the word "BlackMagicHat" LOL

OK so wait.. Blackhatmagic owns a place called doom traders, and that place.. scams people in some magic way? O_o

So why is bean and box doing this imitation doom traders again? LOL

Chapter 6 has been posted. Do you think the story is too long? too much detail?
So why is bean and box doing this imitation doom traders again? LOL
I changed a word in the story to be clear that they're trying to get BlackHatMagic's attention by stealing all the visitors to go to the "new" Doom Traders.

OH ok now I get it! LOL I was confused, because I thought the plot was... to find who BlackHatMagic was. But then I missed the part why they wanted to make a fake doom traders. LOL

But... BlackHatMagic gets people banned in some way? O_o. Are they still on that case? Or something? LOL

I'm gonna read chapter 6 now. xD I'm so excited. xD

~~~~~

WOOO I just read chapter 6! So the plan is to capture magic hat guy? xD woohoo! LOL, he seems very determined, he even recorded everything xD

But.. how the heck will he get through the maze in a few minutes! O_O. scary.

LOL, there's one baby part I don't get... what did bean mean when he screamed "of course! that was the answer!" when he got that message from box that said that the real doom traders was packed? O_O. What was the answer?? LOL

XD this story is so awesome, it's so realistic!

please.
post.
more!

xD I love your grammar and spelling... it's not wrong and annoying like some other stories. xD

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eh, this one part confuses me..

“But what prevents this BlackHatMagic, whoever they are, for getting people banned again? People can lose all their rare stuff from like forever. What can we do?”

O_O. did you mean "But what prevents this BlackHatMagic, whoever they are, FROM getting people banned again?" LOL

And what exactly did he mean by that? O_o. the magic hat guy... bans people? and how exactly did bean... know that the guy bans people? LOL
WAS IT BECAUSE OF TALES?! o_o eh idk im lost. LOL

So really, that's the only part that puzzles me... LOL

I thought I must have missed a part, so I keep reading it over and over again.. still don't get it o_O..

P.S,
chapter 6 aint too long, just the right amount of detail xD

I can't wait 'till there's more =]

I have realized this is going to go over 9 chapters. D'oh!
Posted chapters 8 and 9. Finishing writing chapters 10 and 11. I think the total will be 11 chapters. I went back fixed a wrong name in chapter 7 and changed the mysterious quest name. My first try was turned down as non- G-rated by a moderator here, so I have finally changed it to the new name, "Gate to Under world".

This is your last chance to read the entire story before I post the ending.

I thought about a few different endings before I chose the one I did I hope you have enjoyed the story and let me know what you think. Your comments will help me write an even better second story (not a sequel though).

-Kit-
__________________
Remember Tale Spin!

Great story! lol Im in it :D

I just posted the final chapter. I am working on posting a PDF version. I hope to eventually get back to it and refine it a bit more. It's been a great experience posting the story chapter by chapter, although I haven't got a lot of feed back yet.

Please feel free to post your comments!

For now, I will be working on a VMK music video project.

Cheers,
-Kit-

PS: If you liked the story, please rate the thread using the "Thread Tools" above. :) thanks

hey its Vienna but i have a q
is this partially true or all true or wat bc i was reading this and was SWEET he know's VMK_Shorty and blah but thats what i wanted to know bc that is cool and i like the part that Beans had to go evil genius on BlackHatMagic that seriously sounds like me... LOL:cool::CastMem:ROFL

I made everything up, drawing ideas and some details from a lot of different things. I did a bunch of research so I think the story is *possible*, but not probable. Except for some game character names that were used with permission.

I'm glad you enjoyed the story.

My thoughts about the story: Every on-line game is hackable. Any company could get bad employees. Regular people will cross the line when they feel that have reason to. I feel that the players on VMK form real relationships. I also wonder if the game will keep growing enough so that people will stick with it as they "grow up". If not, only fan sites like this can prevent these friendships from being doomed to failure.

What will VMK be like in 10 years? I have some ideas for a future story about that ;)

-Kit-

Two words can describe this.
OMG PWNFUL!!

xDD I really enjoyed the story Chapter to Chapter. This could totally happen in real VMK life. I expect more awesome stories from you Kit =)

I tried to post a PDF version, but too big for this forum. The zipped DOC files opens with MS Word and the free OpenOffice.

Update: fixed more grammar today and added information on how Box got back in the story: His neighbor had wireless internet. Updated the printable DOC version.

EDIT: I am taking down the attachment versions.

I published the story online at http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=d79mkgd_16hpb5tfd3