When Two Worlds Collide

The afternoon passed by quickly and after dinner, Brandon's mom asked him to do the dishes.

He grumbled half-heartedly, gathered up the dishes still left on the table, and headed over to the sink. He rinsed off the dishes in hot water then opened up the dishwasher door.

As he loaded the dishwasher, one of the glasses slipped out of his hand. It shattered on the floor and out of reflex, he reached down to pick it up. The glass was still wet from the rinse that Brandon had given it and his hand slipped across the sharp edge.

The cut wasn't deep, but it bled quite a bit. His mom decided that it wasn't deep enough to require stitches and she wrapped it up tightly in a white bandage.

"You go up and finish your homework honey," she said, "I'll finish these."

He readlily complied with this and it wasn't long before his homework was done. Even though his hand was throbbing, he decided to log onto Battle.net.

"It will probably be less akward then other activities might turn out to be," he thought to himself.

He got the normal greetings from the channel regulars and he tossed a few back. He started talking Protoss Vs. Zerg strategy with Mark6. They hadn't been chatting long when Brandon received a private message:

From FaceStomper: Play me 1on1 newbie. I wanna own your ass.

Brandon was a little surprised. Normally people didn't outright flame him although every once in a while he ran into someone who was jealous of his status in the community.

Brandon wasn't real confident about his skills. There were definitely a lot of people who could beat him down with no problem. He wasn't afraid to lose though. He had fun playing and that was what mattered.

However, he wouldn't have a lot of fun if the person he was playing was going to continuously insult him.

As he pondered this, another message popped up on his screen.

From FaceStomper: What's wrong pussy? Can write battlereports but can't play worth shit. I see how it is.

Justin felt lucky, even a little bit cocky as he stared at the comings and goings of the people in channel NoHackers. Normally when he called his mom a bitch, she flipped off the breaker that controlled the electrical flow to his bedroom and he was forced to sit in the dark for the rest of the night.

But tonight for some reason, when he had arrived in his room after the argument with his mom and flipped on the switch, the light came on. He had headed straight over to his computer and logged onto Battle.net.

He sat staring at the computer screen waiting. He imagined himself as a big, black, venemous spider, waiting for his prey to get tangled in his web. The thought made him grin.

As he watched the aimless chat that flitted across the screen, he was struck by the stupidity of these players who considered themselves to be so elite. They discussed things like strategy, games they had reported or planned to report, and who's game they were going to observe.

Many times, Justin's hands flexed across the keyboard with a scalding flame on his fingertips. But Justin controlled himself. These guys weren't worth it. He wanted the big one.

Then suddenly, Samson was there. It wasn't necessarily the name that tipped him off so quickly but the race of those who weren't away from their keyboards to send Samson their greetings.

"Hey guys," Samson typed and then he started some deep conversation with a guy named Mark6 about how Protoss needed templar tech to survive the swarm.

"Basically," typed Samson, "It comes down to the fact that storm owns hydras/lurks and archons own lings/mutas so basically with this one part of the tech tree, you have the versatility you need to combat the Zerg's main units."

Mark6 agreed with this sentiment.

Justin scowled. Damned know-it-alls thinkin' they're some sort of Starcraft Gods.

"I'm gonna beat his newbie ass," thought Justin and he whispered a challenge to Samson.

Samson was slow to reply and at first, Justin thought that Samson was going to ignore him. He furiously typed another challenge lacing it with insults.

Obviously, Samson was intimidated by Justin's manly threats because he quickly gave in to the pressure and agreed to a game.

Justin called out "Face/Stomper" hoping some prospective observers (maybe Mark6) would try to join the game so he could ban them. Unfortunately, only Samson joined the game.

"Are you ready to die newbie?" typed Justin.

"Hehe," replied Samson, "I very well might. I hurt my hand tonight loading the dishwasher and so my mouse clicking might be kind of slow."

Justin was furious. "STFU you newbie! Quit making damned excuses for why you're going to lose."

He emphatically clicked the OK button and the countdown to the game commenced.

Brandon was glad that the countdown began immediately after FaceStomper's insult. It gave him the excuse he needed to ignore it.

The battle screen appeared and Brandon saw that his choice of random had rewarded him with the Zerg race at 12 o'clock. Due to the fact that this was The Lost Temple and FaceStomper had chosen Protoss, Brandon decided that he would risk placing a hatchery at his natural first. With the early gas that it provided, it would be possible for him to tech to mutas.

He started a spawning pool with his 12th drone and that was when a message popped into his display.

FaceStomper: Random is for pussies.
FaceStomper: Why can't you pick your race like a real man?

"Maybe I'm not a real man," Brandon retorted.

FaceStomper: Maybe you would like a real man! HAHAHA!!

That hit a little too close to home and a hot retort jumped into Brandon's head. But before he began to type it out he stopped himself, took a deep breath, and resolved to get revenge by beating this cocky bastard into the ground.

He had gas now and his hatchery at his main was morphing into a Lair. He had 2 sunkens and a control group of lings protecting his natural and he had a 3rd hatchery morphing in at the top of his ramp.

His scouting overlord had been lucky to discover FaceStomper at the 3 o'clock position and he hovered it there until he saw a Cybernetics Core start to warp in. As the overlord started to move away, another message appeared on his screen.

FaceStomper: That's right, get your bitch ass overlord outta my base.
FaceStomper: Bring him home to big daddy.
FaceStomper: You know you want to be raped by your big, slimy friend.

When Justin typed his "Real Man" insult at Samson, he cracked himself up so much that he forgot to build a pylon. When he hit 'p' for probe the deep voice of the Executor informed him that, "he must construct additional pylons."

Justin slammed his fist down on the desk and cursed.

He composed himself quickly and continued probe production after the pylon warped in. He also began to warp in a Gateway now that he had a place to put it. At that moment, Samson's overlord floated into Justin's main.

For a moment, Justin wondered how the overlord had gotten there so quickly. Then he realized that Samson's base must be at the top position.

His thoughts drifted back to the conversation that Samson and Mark6 had been having before the game. "Templar HA!" he said out loud, "I'll spank his ass with reavers."

Since reavers was his selected tech of choice, Justin started gas and when his gateway completed its warp, he started a cybernetics core.

Samson's overlord started floating away at that point and since Samson hadn't responded to his last "gay" insult, Justin decided that it must have gotten to him. He typed a couple of more insults about getting raped by an overlord and then went back to concentrating on his build order.

While his Cybernetics Core was warping in, Justin spared the expense to build three zealots. He sent them to his ramp and placed them in a row along the top edge of the ramp. He also sent along a probe to warp in a pylon and a shield battery. Justin had learned this trick yesterday from some NoHackers player. The player had managed to kill all 36 of his zerglings without losing a single zealot.

Suddently, a deep voice informed Justin that, "His base was under attack". He scrolled all around his base looking for the intruder. It took him a moment to spot a lone zergling pouding on his warping robotics facility.

"What the fuck?" he yelled. "How did he get through?"

He scrolled over to his ramp and saw all three of his zealots milling around down in his natural. Angrily, he sent the zealots back up the ramp to his main and quickly disposed of the intruder.

At first, he was livid. Samson had pulled some kind of trick on him. But he realized that no more zerg troops were coming at the moment so he moved his zealots back into position on his ramp and chuckled to himself. "If that one zergling is all he has, I'm in great shape," he thought.

He was beginning to feel pretty cocky again. As his robotics facility came online and his shuttle started to build he typed, "I hope your gay ass is ready to get owned."

Samson-RK-: Yeah, I'm ready, come and get me... ;-)

The one gate build puzzled Brandon. At first he thought it might be an early expansion build, but the cybernetics core had come too early for a stunt like that. His next thought was some kind of an early high templar/archon build. "Maybe he was listening to our conversation after all," he thought to himself.

Whatever it was, Brandon decided that he would need more information. He decided to send out a scout and chose one of the zerglings sitting idly in his natural for the mission.

The zergling went scampering towards 3 o'clock. When it reached the ramp, it stopped even though Brandon had clicked inside FaceStomper's main. Brandon realized that there must be some sort of obstruction at the top of the ramp.

Silently he cursed. If there were zealots on hold up there, he would not get his much needed intelligence information. He decided that it was only 1 zergling and worth the sacrifice to try.

He ran the zergling halfway up the ramp and then quickly clicked back down inside the gully. To his surprise and amusement, 3 zealots followed his zergling down the ramp. Once they were down the ramp, Brandon pulled a slick little end around move and was quickly up onto FaceStomper's plateau leaving the zealots milling around in a confused fashion at the bottom of the ramp.

He ran the zergling into FaceStompers main and the first thing he spotted was a warping building. He clicked on it and saw that it was a warping robotics facility.

That was all the information he needed. "Its gotta be a reaver drop," he thought.

He had the zergling attack the robotics facility, then returned his attention back to his main.

A few seconds later, a message popped up on his screen. He rolled his eyes.

FaceStomper: I hope your gay ass is ready to get owned.

"YOU MOTHERFUCKING HACKER!!" typed Justin furiously as the white explosion indicated that his shuttle had indeed blown up before he had the chance to get either one of his reavers out onto the ground.

Justin couldn't believe it. Samson had fucking hacked him. There was no way Samson could have built the perfect counter to his strategy without using a map hack.

Samson-RK-: Why would I have scouted you if I was hacking?

The mutas were in Justin's base now destroying his probes. There was only one thing Justin could do now.

"YOU ARE GAY,"
"YOU ARE GAY,"
"YOU ARE GAY,"
"YOU ARE GAY,"
"YOU ARE GAY," he spammed up the screen.

His nexus exploded.

Samson-RK-: Look, I am NOT gay!

Samson-RK-: Wow, I can't believe winning means that much to you.
Samson-RK-: Okay, if that's the way you want it...
Samson-RK- has left the game

The mutas stopped their attack on Justin's main. The victory prompt appeared on his screen. He stared at it for a few seconds in numb amazement. The amazement quickly turned to fury.

"That MOTHERFUCKER!" he yelled and kicked one of the legs that held up his desk. He kicked with such force that his foot slipped to the left and landed with a hard thump against his computer. He looked up sharply at the screen. It had gone blank.

He stared at the screen for a second, his heart gripped with a cold terror. The computer needed to work, he needed to get back in that channel before Samson gave him a bad name.

Suddenly, he heard a yell from downstairs, "Justin, you watch your mouth!"

Without even thinking he yelled, "Shut up bitch!!"

There was a beep from his computer and he sighed with relief as it started to reboot. Then suddenly the lights went out.

It took Justin a moment to realize what had happened, "Awww shit, the breaker."

Justin threw open the door to his bedroom and ran downstairs. His mother had returned to the couch and she was sitting watching the television with a look of grim determination. Even as Justin pleaded with her to give him back his power he realized that it was a losing battle.

As he argued with his mother, a cold fury began to twist in his stomach. But it wasn't at his mother, it was at Samson.

"Somehow, I will get you Samson," he thought silently, "You just wait."