Chapter 1

...Twelve months earlier...

 Two brothers Trenton and Drake Renfield, the elder and younger respectively with similar features like each was a slightly different version from the other, varying only in height and eye colour, Trent's was deep blue which nearly turned black when upset or angry while Drake had a rather emerald green eye colour. They had managed to squeeze out some little time of their part-time job out of college stretching to a week, they lived alone and loath to take anything relating to studies, did they only thing they did best at a time like this; eating and gaming. 

 Their desk and floor were littered with cans upon cans of energy drink with their contents long depleted. 

 "Oh yeah!" Drake whooped and dropped his console, Trenton who groaned in frustration cuffed him jovially at the of his head. 

 " What? I remain the undefeated champion at Mortal Kombat" he grinned. 

 " Well you didn't have to say it so proudly in my face" Trenton said in mock depression and opened his can of energy drink and downed half it contents in one gulp before hearing a doorbell. 

 " It's Oscar!!" Oscar a friend of theirs called. 

 " Let yourself in!!" Trent called back and got a little nudge from Drake on the shoulder. 

 " Shall we go one more round?" Drake offered 

 " And watch myself get beaten hands down again? No thanks I'm good let's play something else" he replied and turned as Oscar made his way to the sitting room and sat on a couch, he was of average height and build with curly blond hair that sometimes drew members of the opposite sex towards him if not for one major turn off, he was a nerd and always successfully managed to bore any female with his intelligence talks, it was difficult to tell which of the two brothers he befriended and how he even managed to do so but their friendship had extended into an easy camaraderie between he and the two brothers and they had their friendship going back a few years. 

 " Whoa this place smells funny " he said wrinkling his little nose slightly and reached for a can of energy drink swimming in a bucket of what was once solid ice cubes now melted to water, he had just gotten it out of the bucket when Drake snatched it from him. 

 " You've got to pay for that" he said

 " Oh c'mon man!" He said in exasperation. 

 " What's up man?" Trent greeted.

 " Doing good, I see you guys don't watch termination right" he inquired and took a sip of the can Trent offered him. 

 " Is that a new game" Drake asked and took a sip of his drink. 

 " Yeah, not one you can play though" he said dismissively

 " What's it about?" Trenton asked intrigued. 

 " Oh the same old typical tactical missions just like GTA but with an added catch it entails the use of specially equipped real players" he enthused and Drake raised an eyebrow. 

 " I mean actually players do these missions in real time, with real rewards, risks, deaths..." He trailed off noticing a look of horror on both Trent's and Drake's face. 

 " Death?" 

 " Yeah that's what makes people love it the risks and er... Deaths" he explained. 

 " Why will anyone play that stuff?" Drake asked and took another shaken sip of his drink. 

 " The two top termination champions wins a prize of a billion and five hundred million dollars respectively" he said and Drake nearly choked on his drink. 

 " Tell me Oscar, do you watch the shit too?" Trenton inquired shaking from palpable rage, Oscar who had noticed their mood change chose the floor that moment as his focus and nodded in affirmation. 

 " Well... Er Oscar thanks for having you drop by but we need to be left alone for a while" Drake said and led Oscar to the door. 

 " Wait.." Oscar began and had the door shut in his face. Upon navigating his way back to the couch Drake was a little surprised to find Trenton bent over his laptop typing furiously. 

 " What are...?" He began but Trent cut in. 

 " Did he mention the name of the company or something that thought of this deathtrap" he asked. 

 " No... Um... Wait what are you tryna do?" 

 " You'll see" Trenton said with a mischievous smile and continued typing for a good thirty minutes before sighing in satisfaction. 

 " What's up?" Drake inquired

 " Look" he said and faced the laptop towards him, it was on the reviews section and it took Drake only a minute to notice that Trent left one filled with a hateful loathing for both the viewers and the owners. 

 " Damn" he gasped " don't you think this review of yours might have repercussions?"

 " Nah I only said the truth, those people have got to be stopped" Trent replied dismissively. 

 They got their answer a fortnight later though and it's repercussions were devastating. 

 *** *** ***

 Trenton was just closing late from his place of work as a columnist for the local newspaper, no sooner had he stepped out into the open street that a heavy downpour commenced and people hurried to get to their homes before getting soaked in the rain. He looked around bewildered and continued on, the papers never said anything about rain tonight so he was as unprepared as everyone and charged on, he walked for thirty minutes and was already halfway home while making a mental note to drink a hot cup of chocolate before retiring to bed, he did get home and when he eventually did nothing prepared him for the situation he encountered, on getting to the door step he noticed that Drake was already home. 

 " At least he might have been spared this lashing" he murmured and rang the doorbell and opened the door to see Drake's unconscious form sprawled facing the door, he never noticed the shadow that moved behind the opened door and crouched over Drake felling for his pulse, slapping him lightly and telling him to stop the joke when a hand moved behind him and brought the wooden bat down on his head with a measured swing, he dropped wordlessly like he had been poleaxed and joined his younger brother in the realm of unconsciousness. 

 ***