Away from the action of the high speed chase between government forces and a ragtag group of teenagers out for coffee, a battle was being fought.
This was not a physical battle, no, something so crude as martial combat would be unsuited to resolve this conflict. This battle was not over land, or resources, or any of the numerously petty things humans try to hoard in their greed and quests for happiness. The battle that was being fought was one of ideals, the format of combat a deep engaging intellectual debate, and the battleground? A small image board located deep in the recesses of the internet.
Fingers danced across keyboards at ludicrous speeds, each combatant skillfully and methodically crafting their post that would surely crush their enemies and force them to see enlightenment. Members from all across the globe joined this battleground, each with their own agenda and ideas and every single one convinced they were right without fail.
F5 keys were mashed, enter keys destroyed, minds boggled at obscure Captcha verification images, some spent hours responding to entire swaths of posts, striking down the inferior opinions of many in one fell blow, while others shot out responses like snakebites: quick and efficient, always reacting to new information and thinking on their feet.
Now, the subject matter of this battle was clearly of the utmost importance, and indeed it was. The current topic of discussion could be read to all at the top of the thread, in bright blue lettering, as if yelling a challenge to all who viewed it to join the grand tournament unfolding below. It read:
"Rin is best girl, prove me wrong."
Of course, this was referring to the currently airing anime: Limited Shield Works
As if to add insult to injury, the body of the thread further incited readers to fall into the pit of bickering which made up this particular thread:
"Protip: You can't."
Sweat poured down Isaac's forehead as he went about his work, fingers blitzing across the keyboard faster than a road runner on cocaine, crafting the one singular post which would crush every dissenting opinion into the dust and make these plebeians realize who the best two dimensional fictional girl really was, because that is of the utmost importance.
After roughly 30 minutes and 3 water bottles worth of perspiration, Isaac let out a sigh of relief and admired his post, it was beautiful, a work of art. Truly any who gazed upon it would fall to their knees and realize the error of their ways and praise him for delivering them to the promised land, it read:
">implying Rin is the best girl
>implying Sakura isn't the undisputed queen
Are we even watching the same show? How can any of you plebs like that unpure, disgusting piece of trash tsundere Rin, when in the very same episode we are introduced to the beautiful flower that is Sakura? What does Rin have, that Sakura doesn't (besides STDs)? Sakura is prime waifu material, she can cook, is loyal, and is much more kawaii than that bitch Rin who is only good for eating your food and being bossy.
Sakura-chan is the one and only best girl, and by even implying Rin could be anywhere near her on the pillar of purity is an insult of the highest caliber, leave this site immediately."
Smiling to himself, already envisioning the Rin-lovers breaking down into tears as their reality crumbles around them, Isaac quickly filled in the Captcha verification image and hit "Post".
His web browser paused for a moment, before loading an error page, in large, bold red text, it displayed:
"You seem to have mistyped the verification, please reload the page and try again."
Isaac stared at the error message until the page automatically refreshed, revealing a blank post form, ready to be filled out.
A tear began to well up in his eye as he realized the gravity of what had just taken place.
His masterpiece, his magnum opus, the work of art he had poured his soul into; gone in an instant.
He clenched his fists in race, a snarl appearing on his chubby face as the tear finds it's way down his cheek.
Infuriated, he quickly exists the imageboard and is greeted by his background image, a mosaic of his beloved Sakura-chan, with the ever present reminder on the bottom "Jet fuel can't melt steel girders."
After looking at his beloved for a while, Isaac began to calm down, and went back to the image board, but to a different sub forum, this one relating to news around japan.
Most of the threads were basic, day to day stuff: Japanese government putting fluoride in the water, citizens freedoms slowly being destroyed by various shadow organizations, etc. But one thread in particular caught his eye, it was about a chase between several unmarked police vehicles he quickly ID'd as TL cruisers, chasing a group of teenagers. The poster of the thread attached an image, and he quickly recognized the blue hair of Silver (A better name would be blue, Isaac had always thought) as well as the telltale faces and styles of the rest of the crew. Despite never having met the other members of Starlight in person, Isaac had done his research like any reasonably cautious (read: extremely paranoid) individual should, and knew at least the appearances of his comrades in arms.
Isaac shook his head, what had they gotten themselves into this time? But then he thought: maybe this wasn't limited to just SH members, maybe this was the beginning of it all, martial law, armed police squads in the streets, the rounding up of dissenters, transportation to internment camps, torture followed by execution after he admits to his crimes...
Quickly, Isaac checked the perimeter sensors he'd set up remotely by piggy-backing on the local wifi networks and radio signals bouncing around the area, and breathed a sigh of relief when they gave the all clear. So it wasn't happening. Yet.
He decided that getting some more info on the whole situation would be for the best, so he picked up his phone and sent a text to Silver and Tren, with the shaky cell-phone picture of them running from the TL cruisers with the message:
"Up to no good kids?"
However, moments after he pressed the send button he received an error message: "Recipient out of service range or does not exist."
"Hm, they must have disabled their phones, or they're being jammed. This could be serious, I'll check with Data, just to be sure."
Keying in a new message addressed to Data, Isaac sent the image found in the thread, with the contents
"Dats, Found this on the Net, tried contacting the kids, phones are bricked, little bird have anything to tell me? -Z-B"
The message sent this time, and Isaac waited for a response while watching the thread about the chase.