Introducing Mass Tag, a series given to me by my dreams. I put in some hyperlinks to some songs that played in the story, so you know what it is that the characters are listening to! I am so excited to continue this, and can't wait to post the next one! I hope you enjoy it!

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Ty woke up in bed.

They had fallen into a dreamless sleep, but waken up into what seemed to be a dream. He knew this, which also made him realize he was now dreaming lucidly and could do whatever he wanted!

The first thing they did was try to fly by jumping off their bed.
Once they hit the ground, they knew they were awake since they felt pain and couldn't fly. With a small groan from pain and disappointment, they looked at the room around them.

It felt futuristic, to say the least. His bed frame was the shape of a racecar, which looked like it would belong to a child. The car was a lime green, which pleased Ty. The room itself had a carpet that reminded Ty of an arcade with it being dark purple and having confetti patterns. Taking their eyes off the floor, they finally noticed how huge the room was. It had a very high ceiling and was very wide, so it seemed to be a large rectangle. It wasn't even the most exciting part of it though, since the walls had a similar design to the floor, and all corners of the room had backlights that glowed with rainbow colors and changed with a fluid motion. Even with the room having dark colors, it still filled with enough light to see, but not so much that it blinded him.

After being in awe for a few moments, they felt an impact on the side of their head. It felt soft but still managed to move him a bit.

"Hey! People are trying to sleep here!"

Ty looked at the pillow thrower. It was a black girl who looked to be around his age. They had a long black dreadlock ponytail and an expression that could kill. They were in pajamas that had faded blue stripes on them.

"Wait, I don't think I've seen you before. Who are you?"

"My name is Ty."

"My name's Kendra. You must be new here, aren't you?"

"I guess I am. I thought I was dreaming, so I tried to fly."

"That sounds so stupid, but honestly I can believe it. I came here some time ago, but I didn't think that I was dreaming. I just knew I was awake."

Ty took a mental note to not attempt to fly before testing if something was a dream ever again.

"I think I should show you around before you try to run through walls next. Try getting onto your bed. It isn't a car just because it looks fun."

Ty got onto their bed. Once they did, they noticed a big red button at the side of their bed. Once they pressed it, a steering wheel appeared at the foot of the bed, and some pedals appeared near the head of the bed.

"Whoa!"

"Shhh!! Again, people are trying to sleep! It's only-"

When Kendra looked at a digital clock on the wall in front of their bed, they saw how late it was.

"Oh! Never mind! I can't believe it's already ten! We can leave, but please be careful not to wake anyone up."

Ty figured out they were supposed to lay on their stomach to drive, but also found they could adjust their position with a green button next to the red one. This was progress.

"Remember that they move slowly, so don't expect to go zooming across the room."

Ty noted this and drove towards Kendra's car. It moved at a reasonable pace which wasn't too fast or too slow for them.

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Following them out of the room, they saw many more racecar beds and so much more they could explore.

"Hey! Don't wander off just yet! At least introduce yourself! We don't get many new people around here you know."

There were so many people and furs around the room, all having friendly conversations and doing activities. While Ty did want to explore, they decided to talk to some people first. It was the nice thing to do.

The nearest fur was a very big one They were large not only in height but in overall mass. While Ty didn't stare for too long, they did notice a few things. One of those things was that they had a very undefinable body shape. It looked like they were a sort of yellow blob Even then, they couldn't tell what it was.

"Hey! Austen!"

The blob moved. It formed into a shape where their upper body resembled an elephant. Ty was in a bit of shock from this but was able to compose their thoughts. Austen spoke as if they had just woken up from a nap, which they probably did.

"Ugh....What is it this time?"

They looked at Ty.

"Oh! Haven't seen anybody new here in a while!"

While saying this, they started to form into the very full shape of an elephant.

"Hey there! My name's Austen, but I think you know that by now. Who are you?"

"I'm Ty."

"Interesting. Well, I think it's about time I wake up anyways. I need t-"

"To steal food and hide it in your stash again?"

"What? No, of course not! I already have enough to last me for a while."

Austen pressed a blue button on the side of their large yellow bed. It lifted their mattress to reveal two sections beneath it which were full of food. One appeared to be refrigerated, and the other was heated. After letting Ty look for a bit, they grabbed a burrito from the heated area and pressed the blue button to lower the mattress.

After observing the awe in Ty's face, they said something which made Ty even more excited.

"Trust me, this isn't even the most amazing part of this place! Talk to me later if you want me to show you the arcade. They even have VR!"

"Will do!"

Ty and Kendra drove away from Austen a bit.

"Is there a button for dry storage?"

"Yes, the purple one is for dry storage."

Ty pressed the button to reveal a pillbox and a metal water bottle.

"What's in there?"

"It's this thing called Adderall. I have to take it in the morning since I have ADHD, which will cause me to be very hyper and make it very hard to focus."

"ADHD, doesn't that make things have an opposite effect on you?"

"Yeah, coffee makes me super tired. Yellow foods make me hyper somehow. Sugar is one of the things that doesn't have the opposite effect though."

"Sounds weird. Anyway, let's go introduce you to mor-"

The room filled with a blaring noise. The backlights flashed red but eventually returned to normal once an announcement started to play over some speakers. The voice was that of some sort of male sports announcer.

"Attention! Please stop what you are doing and listen to me! I have a very important announcement to make. As you all know, you came here having woken up in a racecar bed with no knowledge of how you got here, or why you are here. I am here to answer that second question. You are all here for a competition. Nothing bloody or violent, but still competitive. By way of pressing the black button on the side of your bed, please say if you have ever played paintball or are familiar with the rules."

Ty pressed the button, but Kendra and Austen didn't. After about two minutes, they heard the voice speak again.

"Alright, a staggering number of you haven't done it before. Paintball involves having a gun that shoots paint at other teams or individuals. Your goal would be to shoot as many people as you can with the specific color of paint that you will have in your bullets. This will either make them go on your team, or they will be forced to step out of the competition. This game is similar to that but different in a few ways. The game you will be playing is called 'Mass Tag'. All 50 players will be divided into groups of two, with individual colors which will become the color of your body and clothing. You will have special paintball guns which can turn others into your color if the soft paintball makes contact with them. It will take place in a very large maze with several rooms and plenty more hallways. Use whatever you find to your advantage. When you do this, you will not have your beds. Anything else I forgot? Oh, right! You will win by having the most total mass on your team. The winning team will be transported back to their dimension, and those who were on the team from the start will earn a special prize. If you have any questions, please use the kiosks in the cafeteria to find answers. Mass Tag will begin tomorrow since we finally have enough players."

After this, the majority of whoever was in the room went to the kiosks.

"That's a weird way to put it. I think I was the last player needed. Wait, has something like this ever happened before?"

"Not that I know of. The only thing we heard come from those speakers before was during music share."

"What's music share?"

Austen answered the next question.

"It's basically when anybody wants to put a song on the speakers, we would go to the cafeteria and put in a request. Each day, a few requests would be put on the speakers for everyone to hear. I use it sometimes to share some of my favorite songs."

"What is your favorite type of music?"

"This type of EDM genre called house."

"I think I've heard of that before. I like more electro sorts of songs, they really get me energized!"

"Maybe you can try putting one of the songs you like on the request kiosk. At least one of them should be open."

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After the trio finished touring the arcade, bowling alley, vibe rooms, movie theaters, and the gaming room, they had finally made it to the cafeteria.

"What were the vibe rooms for again?"

"Each one has a different color to represent a different emotion. Anybody who feels one of those emotions can talk with others who feel the same way. I really like the idea, but I never use them myself. But anyway, we're finally here!"

After Kendra finished her explanation, Ty took a small moment to take it in, since he was used to the massive rooms by now. It had the exact appearance of a food court at a mall, except there were a few places that Ty didn't recognize. He had no idea how this was considered to be a cafeteria, but this was probably just a simple way of saying it.

"What is 'Gelatin Greatness'?"

When he looked over to Austen, he saw they were already at the strange stall. Approaching it led to no workers, but a few kiosks instead.

"You have to try the Sublime Strawberry Sundae, it's my favorite!"

"Do they have this where you come from, Kendra?"

"Nope. It only seems to exist wherever he came from. Meanwhile, he has never heard of a Hot Dog French Fries joint."

"Me either."

"What? Let me show you!"

Kendra and Ty drove to a place that had a black and green awning over it.

"What do they serve here?"

"It's in the name. Hot Dog French Fries!"

"Anything else?"

"No, but this is already good enough. Better than that corn dog place over there."

Ty placed an order on one of the kiosks and received an "exotic" meal to say the least. On the counter in front of them was what appeared to be a hot dog made of french fries, and french fries made of hot dogs. As they took a bite, they realized why Kendra was so eager to point him over here. While the combination was strange, he still found it tasted great! Even though he didn't like the taste of potatoes that much, he found it somehow managed not to be too overpowering. In other words, better than the corn dog place. (Probably.)

"Ok, now can I please put in my request?"

"Alright, we'll do that first. Let's go get Austen!"

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"Just find the URL and put it in. That's it!"

Ty finally found the song he was looking for and put in the URL for it.

"Ok, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N17omU8oykU seems to be correct, I think this will work!"

Shortly afterward, a song began playing over the speakers. It was the one Ty had chosen.

"I like it so far. What's this one called again?"

"It's called HYPE. It was made by an artist known as Tokyo Machine."


"I feel like I've heard of this guy before. I don't know where though."

Austen came along at this moment after finally finding them. It had taken a while to find them since the "Blazing Cold" ice cream stand had blocked his view of them, or at least that's what he said.

"Alright, where should we go next?"

"How about the arcade? I would love to play beat saber against someone!"

Austen responded to this with a voice that can only be described as determined.

"A new challenger has appeared! Though it may not seem like I would be the one to play such a fast game, I am great at it! I have never lost to a challenger before, for I am able to do songs on Expert plus! I never will lose either!"

Ty responded a bit louder with a phrase only described as menacing to those who understand it. Some of those who could understand were passing by, but heads were turned once this was said.

"hō?…mukatte kuru noka?"

"Wait, what?"

A random red panda responded.

"He's challenging you, big time. Good luck with whatever you're doing, he needed a lot of confidence to say that for sure."

"Thank you, Rena."

"Anytime!"

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Song: url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkYHgxfQZBA Crystallize by Camellia

Video not done by me of somebody actually beating this song: url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtA9RYaSbPI
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The room was filled with anticipation as the multiplayer option was selected, and a song was chosen. A mostly calm, but difficult song was chosen. It was known to separate good players from the superhumans, a test of dedication, precision, and speed. Slicing cubes of different colors was much harder than it sounded and looked to be.

"3, 2, 1, GO!"

The song started slow, but it became faster over time. Soon, they reached the first drop. It was very fast, and Ty realized they had never been able to play any of the camellia songs before. They failed the song. He watched as the elephant made perfect movements to slice the blocks, and decided to just take in what they were doing. Once the song ended, they congratulated Austen.

"Heh, you weren't that bad, but don't be too overconfident next time."

Ty remembered something

"Actually, I can do well on the part you seemed to miss a few blocks at."

"Wait, the second drop?!"

"Yes. Can I show you?"

"Sure, why not?"

They started the song with no-fail on this time. It allowed Ty to progress past the first drop. When the second one came, they managed to hit each block and surpass Austen. When the song ended, Austen was in shock.

"How!? I guess there are just some parts that stumped you. Once you pass those, I think I'd like to try again someday. It will be fair."

"I like that idea, but I don't know if we can. Mass Tag starts tomorrow."

"Maybe we'll meet again someday."

"Yeah."

Kendra decided to say something.

"I didn't want to ruin the moment, but you guys looked so ridiculous! I mean, on the screen it looked cool, but in real life you guys looked so weird!"

Both Austen and Ty had a quick response.

"We know!"

"Alright! Geez you guys, I get it!"

After a bit more conversation about technique, Ty noticed a digital clock in the wall.

"Oh! It's already four. Is there anything else I don't know about yet?"

"Nothing I can think of. Anything you want to do?"

Ty thought of an idea.

"Want to race?"

"Why not?"
"I'm up for it!"

"Ok, we will start here at the arcade. We have to go through the food court and pick up one item each. We have to get them safely to our rooms while going through the bowling alley, the movie theater, the gaming room, and the main room. We have to then eat the item as fast as we can, and whoever does this all first will win."

After explaining the rules, the speakers played Light it up, a song by Camellia.

"3, 2, 1, Go!"

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"Congrats Kendra!"

"That was smart to choose soda. It was a real risky move, but it worked out well."

"I knew it would work!"

"Yeah, but how did you not spill anything?

"I just held it steady and held my finger over the lid."

"I never even knew these could move so fast!"

"That was really fun, but I think it's time to settle down a bit"

"What? We started at four! How has it been two hours?"

"Time flies when you're having fun, especially here it seems. Plus we did have to keep on telling Ty the layout. He still came in last though."

"It's so confusing! I wish I knew more on the layout here."

"Alright, I think I'm going to take a nap now, I haven't done so much in a while."

"Wow, I guess even being on a bed can tire you out."

"Hey! We did other stuff too. We were out of our beds half the time!"

"I guess so. Are you feeling tired Ty?"

"No. I am actually really excited to see more of what this place has to offer!"

"Ok! Let's go!"

Before they could even start to drive away, Austen stopped them.

"Make sure you go to sleep early tonight. We have to have as much energy as possible. We don't know what's going to happen, so we need to be prepared."

"I haven't seen you so serious since I first challenged you to beat saber! Alright, we'll go to bed at...ten. Sounds good?"

"Perfect."

"Alright, see you then!"

Ty and Kendra sped off to their next adventure.


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An alarm sound played. It echoed through the vibrant halls. After this sound played, Ty rose off the floor. He heard the groans of somebody else near him. He took a moment to adjust to the light around him, which stung his eyes a bit until he had the chance to wake up fully. He looked at his hands. They were navy blue. He looked at the hallway. It had a similar aesthetic to the rest of the place, with the arcade carpet flooring, the dark purple and confetti pattern looking as inviting as ever. The walls were painted purple as well, with the backlights illuminating the corners and plenty of neon lights on the walls. It felt much more like a laser tag arena than one for paintball, but it had its feel to it as well. He looked at a bear who was still on the floor.

"Hello? I'm Ty. Who are you?"

The bear responded with a voice like it was half asleep, which they probably were.

"Hold on."

The bear started to stretch, which allowed them to get up off the floor.

"I'm..."

They took a moment to yawn, which made Ty yawn as well

"I'm Lance."

The bear seemed to have a voice like it was always half asleep. It was deep and calm, but also carried that strange feeling of laziness that Ty never could experience.

"I guess we're teammates now."

"Yeah, I guess so."

The announcer spoke over the speakers again.

"Rise and shine contestants! You have all been paired together with teammates you probably haven't met before, so take a bit of time to get to know each other before wandering off. After this, you will find two paintball guns where each of you started, one for each person. Remember that the most massive team will win! Oh, and no violence please."

Ty and Lance looked at each other a bit confused.

"Uh...I guess I can go first. I'm pretty lazy most of the time, never was really into sports and stuff like that. Most of the time, I'm probably going to be taking a nap or something like that. I always am feeling so tired. Don't worry though, I'm going to try and do my best for this. Just please don't make me run a lot, I can't do that for too long."

"Ok! I am pretty energetic most of the time. The stereotypical and dictionary definition of an extrovert. What else? Oh, I don't really like sports myself. I just can't be super aggressive all the time. I would call myself fast, and I'm pretty great at dodging."

"Nice. That sounds helpful."

Lance noticed some things on the floor next to him. It was two paintball guns and a pill on a small water bottle.

"Is this yours?"

"Oh, yeah. I need that so I don't become super hyper and can't focus."

"ADHD?"

"Yeah."

"I actually have a cousin who has it. I know what it's like. At least from what they told me."

"Do you guys get along well?"

"Yeah. We're like, total opposites, but we still get along really well."

"Thanks for sharing."

"Anytime."

"Alright, let's get moving!"

Ty took their pill. He noticed a cheese stick attached to the side of the water bottle. He broke it in half.

"You want this for now? I don't know if we're going to eat much during all this."

"Oh. No thanks. That's for you. Besides, If you don't eat it, won't you feel nauseous?"

"Not really. I don't need a lot."

"Oh."

Lance took the half.

"Hey, thanks. I think we'll get along well."

"I'm glad to hear that."

As soon as Lance finished their half, they felt a small object sail over their head.

"What was that?!"

He saw Ty do something pretty impressive after that. Ty ran along the floor and slid across it right before he got shot. He shot one of them from behind during this and hid behind a wall before the other one could react. Lance decided to try and help. He shot the other dumbfounded orange teammate and turned them navy blue as well.

"Damn Ty! How did you move that fast?"

"It's really easy, I just had to get a running start and fall in a specific way. The part that surprises me is that I did that on carpet."

Kendra turned to the red panda that was blue beside her.

"Rena, we need to learn how to do that. They got us good."

"No thanks, that looked like it hurt. Did it?"

"Only a little, but I don't even feel it much the next day."

"That still sounds weird to me. You can try if you want to, but I'm not going to."

Turning away from the blue panda, Kendra went over to Lance.

"Who's this guy?"

"I'm Lance, I-"

"Ok cool. We have to get moving, I saw another team somewhere near us."

Ty brushed themselves off.

"Let's go!"

The team went through the vibrant halls, eventually reaching a four-way split. There were three hallways, and what seemed to be a computer lab.

"What's that?"

"I think it's a computer lab of some sort."

When the team stepped in, They saw the room looked like it was an office cubicle area, but there were only some dividers in between computers. It was mainly white and grey. It didn't seem to match the atmosphere of everywhere else. Ty went over to one of the computers. It was their computer which they had at their house, a Chromebook. Logging in to it led to a somewhat worrying discovery.

"Guys, take a look at this!"

He managed to cast the Chromebook's screen to a larger monitor.

"This is a scoreboard of all the teams. Apparently, the purple team is winning."

"Who's on that team?"

"It says Austen and some guy named Jax is winning."

"Wait, there's something else. Click on that thing.

Ty clicked on the thing.

"It's some sort of camera footage above this whole thing."

Ty flipped through the cameras for a bit until he saw something which made him stop.

"Woah. That thing's so huge! What is it?"

The thing he saw was a large, purple blob that was somewhat translucent. It seemed to have an indent in the middle of it. The blob was spilling out of one of the walls. A name appeared on the footage.

"Wait, that's Austen?!"

"See if you can get another angle!"

Ty flipped through the camera footage again, eventually finding one inside the room the blob was in. A purple rhino was giving something to the purple blob. Upon closer inspection, the blob seemed to have the head of a very swollen elephant.

"Oh my god, that really is him. Why did we doubt that? Nobody else I've ever met had their name spelled like that!"

Ty interrupted Kendra before she said her next sentence.

"If they're winning, then we have to be doing something wrong. Wait. The announcer guy said the most massive team would win, right? So this must mean if somebody on the team is massive, then that counts as the total team mass."

As everybody started to realize what this meant, Kendra blurted out the thought on everyone's mind.

"Things just got weird, everyone."

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Alright, you made it! I hope you enjoyed the story and that you may look forward to it continuing in the future! I think my style changed a lot this time, since I attempted a few new things such as putting in song references. Thank you so much for reading this if you did, and I hope you are having a great day!