Slender Bungles

When people prove not to be as onboard with a mission or goal as originally thought to be, things can go haywire, fast. The majority was not written by Ocean Elf, but she made some touch-ups and included reactions.

Ugh.

Slender Man realized he had teleported into a rocky wasteland full of sharp stones. Strange shadow creatures moved in the edges of his vision, each uttering bizarre sounds. The sky was grey, and a sinister black fog whirled around him, blocking most of his vision. But all of a sudden, as he was shaking in fear, the fog dispersed in a big gust of wind.

He saw a dark menacing figure levitating far above the ground in a light blue aura, sharp rocks revolving around it.

It laughed coldly.

�What?! Who the heck are you?� Slender Man was now truly terrified for the second time in his life.

�You can call me Daniel.� The figure looked around and grinned menacingly. �Is this not what you and your kind want this world to become? Destruction�pain�is it not what makes you happy, you evil sadist?!�

�W-what? How dare you, mortal!� Slender Man recognized the name, and he knew of a young man called Daniel, who seemed interested in the supernatural and the occult, but how on earth did he manage this?

Daniel then showed his aura turning red, then black. �ATTACK!� he shouted.

The shadow creatures ran toward Slender Man, snarling viciously. He tried desperately to teleport, only to find he could not. He tried to fend them off with his hands and tentacles, but they were too many. The figure waved his hand and the creatures backed down, circling Slender Man. He lunged at the figure, tentacles lashing out. Slender Man let out a blood-curdling scream as they collided with the aura, drawing back the burnt stubs as quickly as he could.

The aura began to pulse rapidly, drawing the rocks around Daniel into a vicious spiral. One by one, they broke off, flying toward Slender Man, regenerating as quickly as they were expended. The rocks exploded as they collided with Slender Man, further burning him.

All the while, the figure was rotating ever faster, fire gathering around him, making a huge fireball. Smaller fireballs burst out, burning Slender Man. And then, as he watched in horror, the gigantic fireball flew toward him. Immense pain drove him to the brink of unconsciousness. As he collapsed, Slender Man felt the same colorful vortex pulling him in. When the teleportation was over, Slender Man landed with a thud in what appeared to be a deserted alley. He panted for breath, trying to collect himself after the terrifying fall.

Back at Mission HQ, Ocean's computer updated her on things. She watched the streaming action and read Daniel's account, but rolled her eyes at the aura stuff. She neither saw nor believed in such new age things, and had disliked his use of a necromancy book when trying to trounce another meme earlier. The whirling around and all those fire balls made her feel dizzy.

Slender Man was rattled, but if Daniel were finished what he was starting to smugly consider a "petty little games" with him, he would get his revenge on them. He would make them pay dearly for wounding his pride.

He could see no sign of anyone. That was a relief. Maybe it was all a dream, the whole thing, and he could go back to what he liked best, killing fictional people and scaring real ones.

what he really thought he needed now was a young person to scare. That would reaffirm his own all too high opinion of himself and regain his power.

Online, Lily had heard of the horror known to all - Slender Man. She had enough of it.

She took a deep breath, steeled herself, and drew up the nasty 4Chan web site, then jumped into the monitor...into a dark alley.

slender Man smelled prey, and he made his way through the dark until he found her.

This was all set up among Daniel and Lily. They told Ocean this, but didn't let her in on the specifics, such as the use of a dirty 4chan alley. Later, Ocean expressed her suspicion that they omitted this information on purpose.

The computer notified Ocean that another person new to the operation was now in the same vicinity as Slender Man.

So Ocean took the other device, her iPad, and teleported, though not through the stench site 4chan.

That didn't mean the destination itself wasn't part of 4chan, which Ocean was to find out shortly.

When she arrived, she grimaced. The place stunk of 4chan.

The next thing she noticed was Lily from a distance.. "Oh crud. She doesn't look ready to take him on by herself." she thought. She was starting to wish Lily had opted to confront him jointly with at least one of the others. This dark alley was no place for a young girl, confident or not. The best Ocean could hope for was that Lily would be a lot more confident than she seemed.

Marilla had also arrived, and was as unimpressed as Ocean. the timing or place Daniel, Ryan and Lily had chosen was bad, but the timing could hardly be helped since Slender Man had awakened and gotten away from Ameh and NT. And this was supposed to be Lily's personal victory over Slender Man and the fear he caused her.

So, for the time being, everyone agreed to watch and wait from a distance or under cover, as Lily got set to meet Slender Man.

Lily then saw a tall, thin shadow.

"Nice to see you here," he said rather mysteriously, walking up to her, then stopping to kick up a lanky leg to bend and twist in different directions.

Lily shuddered. "Nice to see you too," she said meekly.

From her concealed vantage point, Ocean scowled.. "You're not there to make idle chat or friends with him!" she hissed under her breath.

Lily then pulled out her only weapon: her magical pink wand. Its purity was supposedly able to defeat any dark villain. "Purity wand! Shine!" she said quietly.

Marilla couldn't help the quiet groan of displeasure that escaped her.

Nothing happened, and Slender Man was still charging up to her.

Lily whimpered. It still wasn't working, being held back by one thing - fear.

Ocean looked on with an intensifying scowl. This was not going well , not supposed to happen! Slender Man was still managing to make someone feel intimidated. This would NEVER do! And what the heck was up with the 'purity wand'?

Marilla shook her head, sighing in exasperation. "Come on- you can do better than that." She muttered.

"Yeah, one little sign of smugness from that Slender freak and I'll - "

"Shhh," Marilla silenced Ocean's furious whisper. "Just give it a little more time."

"He's had more than enough time and she is wasting it." Ocean's patience was quickly running out.

"I think I need more people to contribute more power..." Lily whispered. She then called out some names.

"Ocean!"

"Oh, crap." Ocean muttered in frustration.

"Daniel!" Lily called out.

"Not yet." whispered Daniel.

Lily called out the names of the last two. "Ryan! Marilla!"

Marilla shook her head. "This is your fight. You can do it."

Slender Man winced. She knew these people? He just hoped she didn't see his initial reaction to their names.

Ocean fumed quietly. "I wanted our presence to be a shock for him once she faced him down. Now that's blown and he'll know he might get a chance to bully her even a little. This whole thing is going to pot." Her eyes gleamed with fury.

"Take it easy, Ocean," Marilla said, looking to each person in the small group assembled. "If we step in now, she'll never learn. She'll still be a slave to her fear- to that THING." She gestured tersely at Slender Man. "We have to give her time."

Lily looked around frantically, searching desperately for her friends. Why wasn't it working? Why weren't they helping her?

Slender Man snickered. "Looks like your friends have abandoned you. I knew they would," He hissed, using his slimiest tones. "They never cared about you. This was their plan all along." He slunk up along side her, smiling hungrily. "Now you're all mine."

"That's it - " Ocean muttered and was just going to rush Slender Man.

Marilla held her back. "Will you just hold it, Ocean"

"I'll hold it when I get my hands around his slender neck!" Ocean hissed.

Marilla had to stifle a chuckle."I would like nothing more myself, but we've done what we could to prepare her, now she's got to overcome this on her own."

Ocean bristled, clenching her fists in frustration. "And if she doesn't? It's no good. We failed her."

Marilla put a hand on Ocean's shoulder, trying to help her subside. "No, we haven't."

"Really?" Ocean remained unconvinced. "None - and I mean, not one of us was supposed to show a hint of vulnerability to that ruddy basilisk!" She had to fight to keep herself from storming too loudly. She took a quiet, deep breath, and continued a little more gently. "I had my doubts about Lily's readiness for this mission, but I thought seeing us go before her would help her to face him without flinching. I was so wrong. I shouldn't have just let her go into this."

"But Ocean," Marilla counselled, "What good would it have done her not to face this? The next creepy hoax to come along would probably make her scared all over again. We can only do so much to help, and Goodness knows we've tried, and you've expended more effort than most, trying to get people like Lily to rid themselves of this kind of fear."

Ocean remained stern. "Any hint of faltering nerves is playing right into his hands and inflating his ego and sense of power, giving him exactly what he wants. I will not stand for that!"

Marilla nodded, but continued thoughtfully. "I know this mission started out as simply 'Operation Mangle slender'. But maybe it has turned into something more than that - something that will empower Lily for the rest of her life. She'll always remember how she conquered her Slender Man fear and know that she can face anything else life throws at her. And Slender Man will be vanquished all the same, regardless of her initial timidity. And You know we won't let him get the best of her. if she really loses her nerve and retreats, or surrenders, or starts to cry or anything like that, then we move. But if she doesn't..." She smiled dryly, chuckling. "Wouldn't it be a real kick in the gear-shaft for Slendy to watch his hold on someone slip away? He'll want to shoot himself after that."

Not even this remark could lighten Ocean's mood. "I keep trying to tell myself that. It isn't working."

Slender Man gazed at Lily, trying to draw her in, saying, "Don't worry. Don't be afraid. It's me, your old pal, Slendy. Come with me, and I'll take you to a magical world. A world of wonder, surprise. But you most certainly will die!"

Daniel's expression suddenly changed. He looked worried. What could he do? But of course...

"Time's up." whispered Ocean.

Daniel nodded at her.

"I'm gonna mess him up but good." she continued.

"No. Get back. I will handle this" Daniel assured.

Lily was ready to give up when she suddenly heard Daniel's voice.

"Lily... Listen."

She jumped. Where was the voice coming from?

"We are near you. But this is something you have to do yourself. He is nonexistent. He can do nothing."

Lily, with a new found courage, suddenly realized. She had nothing to be afraid of.

Slender Man thought to himself. "What is going on? I sense no fear. What? No!"

Lily heard Daniel's voice again. "Use the music. Use it. Weaken him, and I will finish him."

Slender Man looked around, bewildered.

Taking notice of his expression, Lily grinned. Then, gripping her purity wand tightly in her hand, she pondered, "I don't need this! What I need is something dear to me...what about-music!"

She took out the mp3 player that she carried in her pocket at all times, and cranked the volume all the way up for her favorite song, Symposium Magarum. She liked the song because it sounded mysterious, and made her feel strong and brave.

Then... she thought the most awesome thing happened.

The music and the wand interacted with each other to create a force Slender Man could not fight, though not for the reason one might think.

Rainbow lights from her wand beamed in all directions.

"What the...?" Marilla gaped, then grimaced in disgust.

Ocean turned pale and cringed as a wave of nausea hit her.

The others didn't seem effected by this.

As the song continued to play, Lily felt power swelling inside her.

All of a sudden, Slender Man stopped staring then blankly and shielded his blank white face, then dissapated into thin air.

"I did it!" Lily yelled out loud happily.

Ocean shook her head.

As the song ended, Lily stepped back proudly. "My job here is done!" she smirked.

Quick as a flash, Lily returned to the normal world and gladly closed out the gateway to the 4Chan website, still smiling.

"Wait, What?" Ocean scowled. "Now he's just been zapped to who knows where else, and we're left high and dry in this stinking dump. She didn't even have enough nerve to give him a good telling-off. Oh, she did it, alright, screwed it all up!"

"You okay?" Ryan asked.

"No!" Ocean said crossly.

Marilla shook her head. "That was...What the heck?"

Revolting!" Ocean fumed.

Daniel grinned. "I bet I know where that purity wand came from."

"Where?" asked Ocean, who hadn't heard or given much thought to the idea.

"Well, let's just say it's characteristic of a certain series." said Daniel.

Ocean frowned. "If this is more Madoka Magica stuff, I'll blow my freaking top."

Daniel and Ryan shared an amused grin. They received a dirty look from Marilla and a suspicious scowl from Ocean.

"Let's just hope it isn't what I think it is." said Marilla. "That would really screw things up and cancel out everything we're supposed to be doing."

Just exactly what are you all on about? What series?" Ocean demanded to know.

Only Marilla had the courage and honesty to give Ocean the straight answer. "I'm afraid she was calling on the influence of MLP instead of her own strength, which she probably doesn't have."

"MLP...?" Ocean cringed as she put it together. "Oh - my - freaking - gosh...!"

The others turned to see her glaring.

Ocean knew of the My Little Pony meme, but nothing of the specifics since she was never a fan. That the purity wand was an MLP tool explained why she and Marilla suddenly felt unwell.

Not only that, but Lily had just boosted Slender Man's energy and ego by using the wand, which might have acted as an actual purity wand if MLP had never become a 4chan meme. But now with MLP and 4chan being inextricably linked, it had the opposite effect.

Adding to Ocean's dismay was the fact that Lily had turned to a meme from a troll pit when she chickened out on Slender Man. Ocean thought she had made herself very clear about memes, and 4chan. They were all corrupt, and could not be used to eliminate each other. Using My Little Pony rainbow sparkly wands on Slender Man was like covering up the smell of cigarette smoke with more cigarette smoke. So what Lily did was at best, unbelievably thoughtless, or worse, a deliberate undermining of the whole operation.

"This is unbelievable!" Ocean fumed. "If I'd known she would pull this crap, I never would've let her in on this! I wanted her to see Slendy crumble. I wanted him to see her laugh in his face. And then we would show ourselves and make him eat every last one of his vile actions. But - she doesn't get it, let alone care. Ugh! This makes me sick! - And it's no laughing matter." She threw a quick glare at Daniel, then turned and walked away from the others to calm down.

"What now?" asked Daniel.

"Oh, now you want advice." Marilla said tersely, rolling her eyes. "Teleport into wherever she and that nauseating MLP wand sent Slendy. Hopefully not another 4chan hangout.

Don't hold your breath on that!" Ocean called back.

"Hold it, before we all confront him," said Ryan, "I'd like a few words with him. But I need to go back and get a few things."

This is wasting time." Ocean said, returning to the group, stern-faced.

"How about back at Slendy's old haunt," Marilla suggested. "His beloved woods. Nothing like getting thrashed on your own home turf." she flashed a wicked grin.

Yes, that's where it was meant to go down." said Ocean.

What more discussion there was, didn't accomplish much, as Ryan was intent on doing things his way, and Daniel insisted on going after Lily to bring her back to be part of the mission.

So, the group split up. Daniel left to talk to Lily, Ryan, back to get what he needed for confronting Slender Man, and Marilla and Ocean returned to Mission HQ to discuss their concerns about Lily and the boys, and to relieve their rebelling stomachs. It was clear to them now that Lily was not cut out for this, and there was just something about the boys that made them a little uneasy.

Marilla was looking especially tired, so Ocean suggested she call it a day and try to get some rest. She would remain to keep an eye on things as the others were supposed to get their turn facing Slender Man down.

Marilla expressed similar doubts as Ocean about the way the others might handle things, but for now, all the girls could do was wait it out.

Marilla left for home, but could still keep an eye on things from there with her computer live-streaming it, and if it turned out she couldn't manage to rest, that was what she might as well do.

So Ocean was now on her own at Mission HQ.

In a new location and not understanding what had happened yet, Slender Man gaped for a few moments, then glowered. "She got away! The brat! But how?" he growled to himself. "When did everyone learn teleportation all of a sudden?

All at once, Slender Man straightened up defiantly. "hah!" He sneered. "I'll get her again. She couldn't maintain that little burst of strength for long. The little girl is still scared. I'll get her yet. At least those others never showed up again and probably won't, all of them scared too. They couldn't kill me and I'll get my revenge ten times over! I'll carve Marilla up and use her to fuel the fire I'll throw Daniel into, and make Lily watch the whole thing before I break her arms and legs and rip her up and turn her mind to a hopeless piece of mush filled with abject terror. It's just a matter of finding and trapping those mites."

Just after doing some research on Slender Man and hoping Lily would forgive him for not coming to action earlier. Ryan decided it was time to take Slender Man into his own "world of hated". Packing the items he might need to deal with this guy Including a machete for slicing his tentacles up, and his miracle disguise stone as he knew it would come into good use. He also packed other things as well and with it all said and done, used his base teleporter and teleported to where Lily's wand took Slender Man.

At this time, Ryan remembered to used the stone to disguise himself as a well known "friend" of Slender Man's, to fool him, to catch him off guard..

Ryan found an old trailer where Slender Man was hiding inside. He spoke to him. "Slendy, It looks like we drove the Manglers out of this state of being".

"For the last time, Jeff, stop calling me Slendy." he said irritably, "Either call me by my full name or call me Sir Scare! Anyway Jeff I need your help to drive the hopefull Meme Manglers out of their Superman socks. Can you help me?"

"No I cannot." Ryan replied "and I am not Jeff The Killer." He pulled the stone out and then transformed back into himself. "I am Ryan but you can call me your last person you'll have to face until the group comes back."

"Wow," Ocean rolled her eyes as she watched it all unfold in a live stream back at Mission HQ. Just what was the point of that?" she muttered to herself.

Slender Man twitched. He eyed Ryan suspiciously, his expression turning angrier by the second. "Well you met with the wrong person as I am going to crush you with my brute force"

"Just try me." Ryan challenged. "If your going to fight me, Let me take you to my place."

"You Fool!" slender Man scoffed. "it doesn't matter where we battle. Everyone is afraid of me."

"Oh?" said Ryan. "Then explain why us Manglers crumpled you. Either way to battle I will take you"

With that, he snapped his fingers and the two were teleported into a glass arena." Just try to beat me here in this colosseum, especially with my secret weapon. He pulled out his dual disk and placed a field card with a picture of Roselina's Ice World on it, and set it.

"I don't think you're cut out for meme-mangling." Ocean said as she watched unimpressed back at Mission HQ.

Roselina's Ice World music began playing.

Ocean rolled her eyes. "Oh, really? What kind of music is this?" When she read out the title, she shook her head. Probably some video game. She looked it up, and sure enough. She rolled her eyes.

For a moment, Slender Man became cocky, as the music gave him an idea. "You fool. Pianos only make me stronger." He jeered.

"Oh Yeah?" Ryan wasn't stumped for a second by that claim. "Well just look at what the soundtracks making of you. The piano is assisting the soundtrack, NOT YOU!"

"Exactly nada. Tinny electronic piano anyway." Ocean muttered.

The music was accompanied by an Icy wind storm. These forces combined to sap Slender Man of his strength and stamina, just long enough for Ryan to come up with his next idea.

"Now," Ryan said with a grin, "I will summon my assistant. Ira come forth!"

The pony came to the field to help Ryan with the take-down.

"Ohmigosh, what kind of dweeb outfit this has turned out to be." Ocean reflected as she looked at the action stream in disappointment. She wasn't sure whether or not "Ira" was a 'My Little Pony' but feeling blistered over the whole Lily fiasco, she was in no mood to see ponies for a while.

The collisions slender Man endured sapped him of even more strength and energy.

Ryan then took out his machete and crashed on Slender Man, Depriving him of all his tentacles in the process.

Slender Man snarled and shrieked with pain and rage as amazing amounts of damage collided onto him. He could do very little, other than attempt retreat, because Ryan was not afraid of him.

"Another thing" Ryan said, "When I was disguised as Jeff The Killer, looking for you and your trailer, I found your stupid 8 retarded pages that you threaten people into going after. There is no way, Slendy, that you can beat me. You were not a challenge at all. However I want to make you suffer for all the poor souls you mistreated. For Now Slendy I will freeze your body in this Carbonite Compressed Air solution I made."

Once that was done, it literally froze Slender Man to total weakness that not even he could resist. "Hmm that worked out well, I'll just lock this frozen body in my NewEgg discontainment prison and find the other Manglers. I might as well take a momento while I'm at it. The final battle will definitely be grand as soon as I find them. Also I can't wait to show them this picture. One more thing, when I find them your fate will not be good. Peace Idiot While I enjoy some cold tentacle stew."

"Not so fast." Ocean muttered at the computer screen. "This isn't just a game. You'll never be a meme-mangler until you realize that."

At least Ryan and Daniel managed a passing mention of what Slender Man had done to deserve consequences, but much of the time, they seemed more interested in bedazzling displays of power, and Ryan sure liked talking about what he was doing. He also seemed way too stuck on video games to take this seriously.

In the meantime, Daniel was running through the cyber roads, doing his best to dodge traffic. Even so, he narrowly escaped being run over by a gigantic google search bus.

After a while, he found Lily in Quotev, studying and reading.

This too, flashed up on the screen at Mission HQ, provoking an "Urgh." from Ocean.

"Come on, it's time." Daniel said to Lily.

She grinned and followed him.

Ocean frowned. This would either come to nothing, or Lily would royally screw it all up again. As far as she was concerned, Daniel was wasting his time. Lily had definitely disqualified herself from the mission, first by way of fear, then by turning to a 4chan meme for help.

Daniel and Lily ran off to a deserted road, where it suddenly grew dark.

They saw a rage commic me gusta face shaped door that leaded to a portal. It said 4CHAN on the sign. There were other ways of getting to where slender Man was, but they still chose the smelly 4chan route.

Ocean scowled, suspicions rising.

These people seemed to know an awful lot about troll subculture, and were not boycotting 4chan, which had been mandated upon signing up. To be a meme-mangler was to be a sworn enemy of 4chan and all trolls. It is true that sometimes having a wealth of knowledge about the enemy does help, but Ryan, Daniel and Lily had shown so little interest in mangling all but the silliest anti-chains that their interest in this operation seemed dubious.

Instead, they seemed too comfortable, too much at home in the 4chan setting. This could mean they either had trolling in their history, or were still trolls, and Mission Meme-Mangle was just a new boredom-buster to them. That explained Daniel's amused reaction to Lily's wand. It came from MLP, a 4chan meme, he knew it, and was unperturbed. Whether he found the irony funny, or was anticipating some fireworks from Ocean or Marilla over it was unclear.

Lily and Daniel stepped in. The troll stench would've been overpowering to Marilla and Ocean, but apparently didn't effect Daniel and Lily all that much.

They only just managed to avoid all the NSFW pictures flooding the boards, daring to delve deeper.

Now it was full of wanna-be scary freaks that seemed to be in some kind of trance. In the deepest spot stood Slender Man, in full vigor, surrounded by fans. Ryan's prison had been merely a game, and so, apparently, was this.

Daniel made a sword out of blue light and quickly dispatched the fans. They weren't physically harmed, but they dropped down in dismay and vanished.

"Yeah right." Ocean rolled her eyes.

Before the now healed Slender Man could react, they knocked him out and dragged him off.

"So, we take him to the garden?" Asked Daniel.

"Yes. Oh gosh! Argh!" Lily barely escaped being hit by the same bus. "Dangit dude, did you get your driver's license at a circus?" Lily stomped angrily.

"I know right! I think we should take a route with less traffic" Daniel ran to a small path.

Ocean facepalmed. "Now, she finally shows a little personality. Where was that when facing Slender Man? And if I ever hear 'I know right' again, it'll be too soon." she huffed.

There was a sign that read "to the Garden of Peace"

They ran through the path that brought them to a glass gate at noon time. On this gate was a big carved rose. It was glowing. Daniel touched it and the gate vanished, only to reappear as soon as they were in.

"Great. Now..." He touched Slender Man with his cutlass.

"Urgh. Where am-!"

Before Slender Man could utter another word, Daniel was cutting through him, not dealing actual damage to him, but causing him great pain. "You!" Slash. "Are." Slash. "despicable!" He was cutting him like crazy. "Why! Why! What do you gain? What do you gain by causing fear? Only pain to yourself, as of now!" He threw his cutlass in the air. It created doubles of itself, and they all rained down on the gaping Slender Man.

"Oh, what the heck is this crap?" Ocean looked on, unimpressed.

Then Daniel caught the cutlass and duplicated himself many times. In a matter of minutes, there were 100 Daniels cutting Slender Man up.

Ocean put her head in her hands. "Ugh, this is awful."

Daniel continued. "See how weak you are?" His real self said it. "You cannot win. No matter how hard you try, you remain only a creepypasta, only able to cause fear on ad-yuck-miration from some certain sickos! You can harm no one! You are still merely yet another 4chan troll!"

"Should've just gone with that, Daniel, without all the meming yourself." said Ocean.

Daniel continued. "See Lily? Don't be afraid! And now�"

All the duplicates vanished, and Trails of the Angels started playing.

"ahhh, thank goodness, now that's much better." said Ocean.

When the melody finally ended, Slender Man couldn't move.

He heard the mocking laughs of Daniel and Ryan. But then the laughs became more, he also heard sneers and angry voices, calling him out. He could not even move to cover his ears.

With tremendous effort, he opened his inky eyes, and saw he was in a colorful vortex, surrounded by human shadows he could not reach. They kept mocking him, for what seemed to be an eternity. Try as he might, he was unable to hurl insults back at them.

Then it stopped.

"Hold Up a bit." Ryan put in. " I want to make this battle a little more interesting." He took out his dual disk once again and Inserted a field card that had a floor tile design that looked like the floor panels of the Golem arena from Minecraft. Only Ryan edited it to contain a lava surface. "Slendy will totally be "burning furiously!"

Ocean sighed in annoyance.

slender Man was now in what seemed to be an arena. There were flying weapons everywhere. Bows, muskets, swords, axes, spears, anything you could think of, plus a hot lava floor. Pain. Very much pain.

Then it stopped once again.

Slender Man looked up, only to behold another horror. About a million Google buses were speeding at him. He was run over so many times he lost count.

"Oh, that's just whacked." said Ocean, still watching from Mission HQ. By now, she had removed the headset, and had muted the sound until the arena scene was over.

"Now," Daniel said, "for the sake of Lily, I will play you a special song."

Ocean continued scowling. Since when did Lily deserve a special song?

Decretum started playing, and it was as horrible to slender Man as the other piece.

When it ended, everything was greyed out.

Daniel backed away and threw the cutlass in the air. It vanished in a burst of blue light.

Every attack launched at Slender Man by Ryan or Daniel had no real or lasting effect other than increasing his ability to heal himself.

"You think you can scare me," said Ryan, "but the cake is a lie!"

Daniel smirked.

"Where the heck does cake fit into this?" Ocean muttered in annoyance, and drew up another browser window to research that phrase. It made no sense on its own or in this context as far as she was concerned. It was cause for suspicion.

Suspicion confirmed. 'The cake is a lie' was another meme. It strengthened Slender Man to the point where he was able to teleport right out of the scene.

It was a number of things that revitalized Slender Man. Lily's continuing fear of him, hers and Ryan's use of memes they actually liked, Daniel's amusement at those.. Slender Man teleported back to his woods in a flash of the blue light.

Ocean glared, enraged. These people were not meme manglers, and they never even tried to understand what it was all about. They were just players and hero wanna-bes.

Patience utterly exhausted, Ocean teleported out of Mission HQ, and to the garden where Daniel and Ryan were.

"Just in time." said Daniel. Apparently he had not yet noticed Slendy's disappearing act. "He's all yours" He sat and took a bucket of cherries and started eating them. "Anyone want some?"

"Yes please!" said Ryan.

"No." said Ocean, glaring at all of them. "What utter screw-ups you are! Trying to fight Slender Man with MLP and video game memes that you think are cool!" Her voice rose considerably on the last few words.

They stared at her in confusion.

Ocean rounded on Lily first. "Using a My Little Pony wand, and saying how nice it was to see Slender Man! You don't go making nice to someone like that and you do not rub him out with another pathetic meme!"

Lily stood there, dumbfounded.

"As for you!" She looked at Ryan next. "Video game memes! You really thought that was a good idea?"

"And you!" Ocean confronted Daniel. "I do not like your propencity for using things that are a bit too close to the occult." Her stare became even colder. "I saw you smirk at those two calling on other memes."

"Same deer in the headlights looks from the other three. "You didn't end him. You just entertained yourselves a little. But that's all it was about for you, wasn't it?"

The three exchanged nervous glances and snickered to themselves.

"You don't mangle memes by promoting more memes. I'd hoped you could understand that much. And here it's all just a huge joke to you. I got news for you lot, This is not a babysitting service or means to swell your egos. And I do not appreciate you laughing behind my back. So congrats gang, you are permanently disqualified from this mission! None of you have what it takes to be a meme-mangler, let alone associate with me on any project or mission. You failed spectacularly! Go back home and entertain yourselves with your silly games and stupid 4chan memes and whatever floats your boat. I wash my hands of you and you are unsubscribed from all further communications with Mission HQ."

Ocean teleported back to Mission HQ, leaving the meme-loving bunglers behind.

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