Work Text:
Every morning it is the same thing for Barry. He wakes up, he goes down to the grump space, he edits a few videos, sometimes he plays video games, then he goes home and sleeps.But he doesn't have a problem with this. He enjoys the predictability in his life, it didn't always use to be like this...
Back when Barry was young, instead of using his computer skills for videos of people talking about their dicks. There was a time when the man worked for the G.U.N. forces. He hacked into enemy computers to find battle strategies. He saved lives.
Up until one fateful day when some terrorist organization known as 'ROBOTROPOLIS' found the hidden location of the Chaos Emeralds. They found a way to track the energy wavelength given off by the precious jewels.
Now Barry wasn't just any computer geek. He had studied the emeralds his whole life and was even given access to test them and study them up close. Eventually Barry found a was to hide the energy footprint of the emeralds but only by applying his own life force to it. Therefore the government had no other choice but to entrust Barry Kramer with the 7 Chaos Emeralds.
Out of fear the organization had already found their location, they sent Barry out on his own with the 7 emeralds to go start his own life apart from the secret government work.
At first Barry was very cautious about social media. Wanting to be invisible to the world. He was an editor for a popular youtube show but he made sure that no one ever saw his face or heard his voice.
Eventually he started to come out of his shell however. Arin and Jon taught him how fun youtube could be and soon he was in the videos as well. Barry loved his friends from game grumps and when he was with them he felt like a normal person. It was only late at night when he was all alone when he'd remember how much was resting on him protecting the Chaos Emeralds.
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Today was like all days. Barry was adding an echo effect to a dick joke, he wasn't concentrating very hard. This sort of stuff was easy as hell for the editor. Arin walked into the room and sat across from Barry, his hair was tied into a messy bun and he was wearing a sailor moon tee with some sweat pants. He must be in for recording or something, Barry thought.
"Hey man, what's up?" Arin asked politely.
"Nothin' much." Same answer as always.
"what'cha editing?" Arin was now fiddling with a robot figurine that was just on the desk.
"just the newest Game Grumps." Barry answered as he continued splicing the video around.
"oh cool" the grump, obviously bored, left the room.
Barry continued his work. Dan arrived shortly and Arin and him recorded a few episodes of some weird nintendo game. After a few hours the two were done. Arin emerged from the recording room tired. He'd been in there for like 3 hours.
"Hey Arin." Barry greeted.
"Yo man, these fuckin' Kirby Dream Course levels are crazy hard" Arin ranted as he slumped onto an office chair. Dan didn't bother sitting, he was hurrying to meet with some people in the music industry.
"oh I bet." Barry chuckled.
Barry expected Arin to continue the conversation but he must have been tired or something because Arin just sat there quietly. His facial expression changed and Barry noticed that they were in the office alone. Barry focused back onto his work.
It was a good four or five minutes before Arin broke the silence.
"You know Barry, we've been friends for a really long time."
"Yeah, I guess so." Barry said a bit half-heartedly. He was mostly paying attention to his work and it was annoying that he had to pause his music again.
"But it's weird that I don't really know that much about your past y'know?" Arin put his legs up onto the table and leaned back in the chair.
"oh yeah, well I mean, there's not much to talk about I guess..." Barry stopped working, but didn't look up at Arin.
"are you sure?" Arin raised an eyebrow. Barry didn't understand what Arin was trying to accomplish.
"Why is this so important to you?" Barry's voice was light-hearted but his hands were sweating like two horses in the sun.
"I don't know man, is it against the law to be curious about one of my closest friend's past?" Arin was getting a little worked up for some reason. This was making Barry very uncomfortable but one of the most important things he learned while working for GUN was how to play stupid.
"But dude, you know about my life! I took theater in high school, I studied a few months in China during college, I used to live with Jon. What else do you need to know! Should I bring in a resume!?" Barry was pretending to get offended, ironically overemphasizing it to show Arin he wasn't being aggressive.
"Yeah but like, what happened between college and Jon? Like that's 8 years, what even happened?"
"That's so specific, are you a stalker or something? Why do you need to know that?"
"I don't know it's just kinda weird!"
"Is it??? I don't try mapping out what happened when in your life! I'm sure I'd find some block of time you've never talked about!"
"No you wouldn't I don't think there's a near decade I'm just hiding! But I mean if it was like a bad time you don't need to. I'm just curious..."
"No, well, i dunno sort of, whatever. I just don't like bringing up that part of my life..."
"well alright" Arin stood up "turn off the lights and lock the door when you leave. Goodnight." Arin departed the building.
Barry finished up his work soon, and turned off the lights and locked the door on his way out. He was thinking about Arin. He felt like he could trust Arin. He had been his closest friend for the past 4 years, suspecting him of being a spy or something would be ridiculous, Barry had known him for this long, if he had been a spy he would have made it known sooner.
He walked to his car deep in thought and barely payed attention to the road as he drove home. Once he arrived in front of he and Dan's place he had a feeling of being watched. Barry did his best to ignore it. He was just paranoid because of what Arin said. Barry convinced himself that this wasn't weird and that he was just overreacting.
Barry looked at his phone as he unlocked the door. The time read 10:34pm, he was a bit late but he was sure Dan would still be awake. Dan wasn't the kind to go to sleep early.
Barry dropped his phone when he saw what was going on inside his house. Dan was tied to a chair, there was black duct tape over his mouth and his eyes were wide and terrified. There were several masked men standing on both his sides and Arin stood in front of them.
Arin was sporting a black hoodie with a white Symbol that looked like a bald mans face with a bit mustache and circular glasses.
"So Barry, you've managed to fool everyone for this long..." he paused to pick up the phone Barry had just dropped. "but I think I'm done pretending to be your friend."
"Wha... What's going on?" Barry asked quietly, he knew exactly what it was, his worst nightmares becoming reality, but he clung onto this safety net of confusion. Maybe Arin would think he messed up.
"Stop fooling around Barry Kramer. Where are the Chaos Emeralds!?" Arin leaned on one leg and crossed his arms. His face wore a smirk that really wasn't like him. It was sharp, like he knew how goddamn clever he was for finding out.
"I don't know! What are you even talking about!!" Barry exclaimed rather than asked. He looked nervously at Dan who looked as scared and confused as a deer caught in the headlights of an alien spacecraft.
Arin grabbed Barry by the shirt collar and slammed the door behind him, next thing he knew Arin punched the air out his lungs and his chest against the door.
The shorter man fell onto his knees and tried to catch his breath, in the corner of his eye he noticed Dan desperately trying to move that chair somehow. Arin towered above him.
"So Bear, I'll ask again" He leaned in ". Where. Are. The. Chaos. Emeralds.!?" Arin's voice was dark, and his breath was hot.
"I... I don't know..." Barry said weakly "I, I left GUN a long time ago... I just wanted a normal life. Please, don't hurt me."
"You fucking coward." Arin Growled as he slapped the other man. "I know you know where they hid them!" Arin roared directly into Barry's ear.
With this, Barry finally understood he couldn't get by by being passive. Fighting back would be easy, not only was Barry pretty physically fit, he also had combined his life energy with the chaos emeralds to keep them hidden. Meaning he had the power of the chaos emeralds even when they were still hidden away in his yard.
"Get away from me." Barry stated, quietly yet angrily. He shoved Arin away hard. It wasn't very hard but enough to surprise Arin.
"ah, so I'm right huh? You know something, don't you." Arin stood up with an air of condescension.
"fuck off" the editor stood as well, he glared at Arin. He couldn't believe that these last years of friendship was just a lie to get some top secret information out of him.
"Oh I'm sorry Care-Bare did I hurt your feelings?" Arin jested.
"What will it take for you to leave?"
"Oh, how rude. Kicking out your closest friend? You know Barry you did a way better job hiding you identity from the world than I did. That is until you joined Game Grumps. But I was pretty will known in the ROBOTROPOLIS team and if you would've known about me if you did a little more research."
"I don't want to talk Arin, I don't want to kill you either. But if I must then I will."
"Hm you're pretty confident. I'd like to see you try."
Arin raised his fists. Barry took a deep breath and raised his as well.
Arin was the first to attack, he ran at Barry incredibly fast and tried to land a punch onto his face but Barry leaned back and he missed, Barry then put out his foot to trip Arin but he dragged the shorter man down with him. Barry managed to pin Arin down but before he could attempt to do anything Arin lifted his knee and kicked him in the dick.
Barry rolled off of Arin and stayed in the fetus position while Arin laughed and prepared to kick him again while he was hunched over but Barry quickly rolled to the other side and grabbed his foot and pulled it to the right making Arin fall once again.
Barry jumped to his feet and grabbed Arin by both his legs and threw him towards the wall.
Arin, shocked by Barry's incredible strength got up and prepared a ball of pure energy and shot it towards Barry.
"As a member of ROBOTROPOLIS I am gifted with the weaponizing special powers our boss has created using ARTIFICIAL CHAOS!" He shouted, the energy was like a lazer, Barry dodged it with ease but it left a hole in the door behind him, making him a bit nervous.
"I can even mix it with some of my physical attacks!" Arin bragged as his fist glowed a bright blue and flew at a super high speed right into Barry's gut causing him to fly backwards right into Dan. Who was still flipping his shit silently on that chair. Barry untied him and told him to run as far as possible. Which he did.
Barry stood up, and spit to the side.
"Impressive" He said wiping the blood and spit from his mouth. He felt a little winded but that quickly cleared up as he was using the emeralds power to heal.
"not bad yourself. I've never seen anyone survive an attack like that" Arin chuckled. "Maybe I'm holding back because we've been friends for so long... you know this'd be so much easier if you told me where the emeralds were so I wouldn't have to kill you."
Barry walked to Arin, looked him in the eyes, and then kicked him in the face. Arin almost fell but caught himself.
"I see how it is..." Arin responded while looking up at the editor.
Arin gathered that energy attack yet again and this time made it do a rapid fire of small aura bullets around the room. Compleatly distorying the place and hurting Barry a little but only giving small cuts and tatters on his clothes. Barry knew he couldn't dodge this attack so he focused on blocking it as much as he could.
When Arin was finished Barry grabbed the Arm that was controlling this power and he tried to slam Arin onto the ground but the two ended up just wrestling. Arin eventually made a small blast with his power knocking the two away from each other.
"ALRIGHT ENOUGH FOOLING AROUND!" Arin shouted as the area around him started sparking and glowing
“Prepare to face my dreaded WHIRLWIND ATTACK!” Arin shouts triumphantly.
“Hmph.” Barry scoffs, unphased. Little does Arin know, Barry is in possession of the Chaos Emeralds. And he wasn't going to hide it any longer.
As the taller man approached him, swinging his arms wildly, making the light flash like this was some fuckin' rave party. Barry Chaos controlled to behind Arin and grabbed his hair and threw him onto the ground.
"I'm sorry Arin, but I'm done playing." Barry muttered. The hooded men who came with Arin realised what Barry had just done and they all attacked Barry with knives but he vaporized them instantly. Barry looked down at Arin.
"You were looking for the chaos emeralds?" Barry lifted his arms and the 7 emeralds floated in a circle around his head like an unholy halo. "look no further"
"Barry..." Arin looked up. There was an invisible force holding him down. Like gravity had just became 40x stronger.
"I have infinite power Arin, with these emeralds I could destroy the whole planet if I wanted to. Now I bet you wish you hadn't messed with me huh?"
"I'm sorry Barry..."
"It's too late for that."
"But we used to be friends"
"and you would've just killed me if I wasn't as strong as I am."
"..."
"That's what I thought." Barry crouched down so he was right next to Arin's face. "You're the REAL coward here."
And Barry used his ability to destroy every last atom in Arin's body. Completely vaporizing him. The next day he skipped town and left to start a new life in a new country. Somewhere in Eastern Europe where they wont recognize him.
The End.