Fandom (Glitch Techs Crossover) GT×: Gnu Fork

[Gadg8eer]

"Th-Thanks.. S-Sorry, I spaced out... Yeah, I'm good to go..." She stuttered, before stepping out of the car, struggling a bit to talk to anyone. She pulled down her hood from her head, revealing her chartreuse/seafoam cyan hair with pink spirals, and the piercings on her face. Yes, she was clearly assigned male at birth, but it was also clear she was trying to pass...

She had the mind to have brought her luggage with her. Her low end "burner laptop" with several exterior hardrives holding backup copies of her vods, personal files and passwords, and a "remote harddrive detonator" (not a literal detonator, just a method to fry her machine if her house was ever compromised. She never left the house without it.) Lied inside, along with a collection of vacuum-sealed and compressed black hoodies and pants, and a single yellow sweater, accompanied with a black skirt and black bra, white thigh-high socks, and a pink hair-bow.

She always had this luggage case ready, it was her panic case. There was one more thing she had brought. A plush lamb, the only possession that really mattered to her when she was younger. It was a gift for herself. And nobody could take that away from her no matter how old she got.


As she stepped in, she waited in line briefly, before stepping up to the desk. "I-I um... Received these tickets for a Transoceanic flight to... C-Cape town, S-South Africa... Th-They redeem in 5 hours... I-I've never used paper tickets before... A-Am I supposed to put them in a repository of some sort?" Zoe asks. Normally she did this stuff digitally.

The female clerk at the counter took a look at the ticket, typed in something, and then said "Oh! The flight's been cancelled, but we've chartered a smaller and slightly faster aircraft. Follow me."

The lady lead her halfway across the airport, and then through a door onto the tarmac. A private jet was waiting, bearing the logo of a much more trustworthy organization, if not perfectly so...



"Right this way, ma'am." said a bodyguard, escorting her to the aircraft. When Zoe boarded the plane, still a bit bewildered, she saw a young woman waiting in one of the seats of the small plane wave to her.

((Since D is your character, I'll let you take it from here, but I'd like to ask permission to have Dee do a quick infodump.))

 

[Gadg8eer]

(( Captain Wyldstorm I'm pausing the RP for your sake, because MisterEightySix was supposed to respond to you, but unfortunately he's been busy. In the meantime, I'll leave the following post for @LordMoldoma ... ))

 

[Captain Wyldstorm]

(( Captain Wyldstorm I'm pausing the RP for your sake, because MisterEightySix was supposed to respond to you, but unfortunately he's been busy. In the meantime, I'll leave the following post for @LordMoldoma ... ))

((Alright, thanks!))

 

[Gadg8eer]

((Alright, thanks!))

(( No problem, glad you're still active. ))

...

(( I'm pseudo-unpausing the RP so I can get in some exposition in the plot thread with Zoe and Dee, but if MisterEightySix hasn't posted within 48 hours of me posting this, consider it paused again. ))

 

[Gadg8eer]

The woman's appearance was, unusual to say the least, people who can afford Plixelfs are few and far inbetween, so seeing one in person would've been a shock. It felt different than seeing Gadge's body through the remote robotic body.

"Y-You actually look like your character?" Zoe asked. "T-The last time we talked in person you were human."

The young woman shrugged. "I had the money and the resources, so I thought I'd bring her to life. Might as well hop on the trend before anyone else. Heard you have a friend who has one too." She crossed her legs. "Feel free to sit down."

Zoe hesitantly sat down as a female android with a maid-like aesthetic stepped up and inquired in a pseudorobotic voice. "May I take your things, miss Wingon?"

"Um... O-Okay... Alright." Zoe said, a bit shyly, as the android took her bags. "

"So... IOI, huh? Yeah... They've funded a few games which had a new anti-cheating system that they used to try and mount lawsuits against CGK. But the codified law and consensus of the courts says that cheating and modding are legal for self-bought applications, albeit at the lack of liability for the companies involved in the creation of the original software..." D began to explain. "It's... Obvious why I think this is a step too far... And I wanted to get you as far out of home's way as possible if I could help it. Corporate warfare is pretty twisted, but killing civvies is an unbreakable taboo, especially for intimidation. Now that I know they'd be willing to break it, I know that it's not safe for you as you are now. Especially since you kicked the hornets nest by telling them off."
"I-I'm sorry... I-I didn't want to just abandon you.." Zoe says.

"It's fine. I prefer it this way now that I know what they're willing to do. They don't respect human life enough to give whatever's left of your consciousness a fair shake in exchange for mind uploading." D says. "Now... On to what we need to discuss here:..." ( Gadg8eer )

"So, ever heard of Neozilla?" Dee asked. It was a rhetorical question, of course; Neozilla Doglefox was the only browser that survived co.vid-19 and dethGrr unscathed and was thus now the industry standard now that Nudle's Chronon codebase was no longer maintained and obsolete. "Trick question, everyone knows Doglefox is the browser that is made by a non-profit and low-key introduced incognito mode. But... How about Volpe?"

 

[Gadg8eer]

"So, ever heard of Neozilla?" Dee asked. It was a rhetorical question, of course; Neozilla Doglefox was the only browser that survived co.vid-19 and dethGrr unscathed and was thus now the industry standard now that Nudle's Chronon codebase was no longer maintained and obsolete. "Trick question, everyone knows Doglefox is the browser that is made by a non-profit and low-key introduced incognito mode. But... How about Volpe?"

The name came to mind but nothing truly stood out about it. A startup company of the post-monopoly tech world, vying for some of that sweet, sweet vague VR investment craze money.

"Sorry, I know meeting me in person is still a bit awkward." Dee explained. "So... Volpe made a version of Neozilla's browser that works for Extended Reality. Goggles, headsets, even those high-end contact lenses I wear. Well, wore, before my upgrade. After that, it seemed they were just going to coast by selling Software Development Kit versions of the Volpe browser. That changed sometime last year when they released a little press release..."

Dee tapped a button on her Biotechnica-branded "Omnatrix" gauntlet, something the polymath used extensively in her various dealings and experiments. A small green holographic border appeared to display a video for Alice...


Archive of Original Video

"Which went completely unexplained since then... until yesterday evening, when the TV commercials and Xtended Reality billboards started showing up. The Finals is... basically eSports as an actual sport, mixed with those old game shows they used to make in the 1970s or the reality TV about being trapped on a tropical island that they churned out at the turn of the millennium. It's what you were already doing, but public and legal, and... I've got to be honest. CheatGenKey has been a front for Biotechnica from the very beginning. We needed a way to test stuff that was ethical but not strictly on the books enough for government approval via someone willing to volunteer, and when that failed, I did at least decide that, as CEO, I owed you what I promised even if my company can't. I'm sorry I've been hiding all that from you and I should have just been honest from the very beginning. The original goal of that store in Canada was a deal with Hinobi to get you a PLixelf through their employee benefits and perks, but even though that's still a possibility, they've notified me there might be an easier way. See, the prize of the first season of The Finals is supposed to be a secret, but I've got it on good authority that even if Innovative Online Industries thinks it can snap up whatever it is, that doesn't really mean anything on it's own. What does mean something is when Arasaka literally threatened Volpe's board with great care to not get caught, so that they can say whatever teams Hinobi and IOI sponsors into the show, which as the first season's sponsors they have to do, will be targeted by Arasaka in retaliation. What for, we don't know for sure, but we have a pretty good idea, and that's why I let them leak the monkey test. That was our chip, Biotechnica and Hinobi, and Arasaka was developing a similar device. They used contacts in the CCP to acquire test subjects among Chinese prison inmates, and thus didn't care about the same ethical considerations that made us stop in our tracks. Thing is, those same considerations being ignored is what got Arasaka robbed..."

A quick display of a chase of a pair of thieves by Arasaka Security somewhere in the Gobi Desert appeared on-screen, the camera being that of a cheap Hooli-brand smartphone which was easily hacked.

"...and the device sold to the highest bidder in 2020. Since then, it's been hotly-pursued by various parties including IOI and Arasaka themselves, but dropped off the radar in June of 2024.... you get the idea, we talked about this kind of crap all the time. The point is, Arasaka was trying to go to market with mind uploading when the prototype was stolen, they were planning to go for the overprivileged heir crowd but thanks to that unattributed theft Hinobi and Biotechnica got PLixelves on the market first. If it can do what it was designed to do, and the blood that would have to be be sacrificed to produce it has already been spilled by someone else, the least we can do to honor anyone who died for this is provide you with access to it. We will study it, we will replicate it if it works, and if it does work I promise you that you'll be first in line for it. As for getting it, you've probably guessed it by now. We're almost sure the prize of The Finals is the prototype or, even more likely, a fully-working device that is derived from it. Volpe has the expertise to do that, it's entirely possible that the prize is there to make it too difficult for Arasaka to attack them and take back the device before it can be released as a Volpe product, and while IOI is willing to go scorched earth, a company like Arasaka is much worse because they're smart enough to know that kind of bullshit doesn't work at all if it doesn't work the first time. Noburu Arasaka is not a stupid man, if he has to give the appearance of winning the prize fair and square then he'll make it happen. So we're going to enter you and the others at that store as the official Hinobi team for The Finals, and snatch the prize out from under them all. If you're up for that, I mean. I get this is a lot to take in and you probably hate me for lying to you this whole time. At least know I don't do half-assed shell companies, the CheatGenKey site was and is one of our front companies but yes, what their programmers make is actually open source."

 

[Lady Moldoma]

The name came to mind but nothing truly stood out about it. A startup company of the post-monopoly tech world, vying for some of that sweet, sweet vague VR investment craze money.

"Sorry, I know meeting me in person is still a bit awkward." Dee explained. "So... Volpe made a version of Neozilla's browser that works for Extended Reality. Goggles, headsets, even those high-end contact lenses I wear. Well, wore, before my upgrade. After that, it seemed they were just going to coast by selling Software Development Kit versions of the Volpe browser. That changed sometime last year when they released a little press release..."

Dee tapped a button on her Biotechnica-branded "Omnatrix" gauntlet, something the polymath used extensively in her various dealings and experiments. A small green holographic border appeared to display a video for Alice...



"Which went completely unexplained since then... until yesterday evening, when the TV commercials and Xtended Reality billboards started showing up. The Finals is... basically eSports as an actual sport, mixed with those old game shows they used to make in the 1970s or the reality TV about being trapped on a tropical island that they churned out at the turn of the millennium. It's what you were already doing, but public and legal, and... I've got to be honest. CheatGenKey has been a front for Biotechnica from the very beginning. We needed a way to test stuff that was ethical but not strictly on the books enough for government approval via someone willing to volunteer, and when that failed, I did at least decide that, as CEO, I owed you what I promised even if my company can't. I'm sorry I've been hiding all that from you and I should have just been honest from the very beginning. The original goal of that store in Canada was a deal with Hinobi to get you a PLixelf through their employee benefits and perks, but even though that's still a possibility, they've notified me there might be an easier way. See, the prize of the first season of The Finals is supposed to be a secret, but I've got it on good authority that even if Innovative Online Industries thinks it can snap up whatever it is, that doesn't really mean anything on it's own. What does mean something is when Arasaka literally threatened Volpe's board with great care to not get caught, so that they can say whatever teams Hinobi and IOI sponsors into the show, which as the first season's sponsors they have to do, will be targeted by Arasaka in retaliation. What for, we don't know for sure, but we have a pretty good idea, and that's why I let them leak the monkey test. That was our chip, Biotechnica and Hinobi, and Arasaka was developing a similar device. They used contacts in the CCP to acquire test subjects among Chinese prison inmates, and thus didn't care about the same ethical considerations that made us stop in our tracks. Thing is, those same considerations being ignored is what got Arasaka robbed..."

A quick display of a chase of a pair of thieves by Arasaka Security somewhere in the Gobi Desert appeared on-screen, the camera being that of a cheap Hooli-brand smartphone which was easily hacked.

"...and the device sold to the highest bidder in 2020. Since then, it's been hotly-pursued by various parties including IOI and Arasaka themselves, but dropped off the radar in June of 2024.... you get the idea, we talked about this kind of crap all the time. The point is, Arasaka was trying to go to market with mind uploading when the prototype was stolen, they were planning to go for the overprivileged heir crowd but thanks to that unattributed theft Hinobi and Biotechnica got PLixelves on the market first. If it can do what it was designed to do, and the blood that would have to be be sacrificed to produce it has already been spilled by someone else, the least we can do to honor anyone who died for this is provide you with access to it. We will study it, we will replicate it if it works, and if it does work I promise
you that you'll be first in line for it. As for getting it, you've probably guessed it by now. We're almost sure the prize of The Finals is the prototype or, even more likely, a fully-working device that is derived from it. Volpe has the expertise to do that, it's entirely possible that the prize is there to make it too difficult for Arasaka to attack them and take back the device before it can be released as a Volpe product, and while IOI is willing to go scorched earth, a company like Arasaka is much worse because they're smart enough to know that kind of bullshit doesn't work at all if it doesn't work the first time. Noburu Arasaka is not a stupid man, if he has to give the appearance of winning the prize fair and square then he'll make it happen. So we're going to enter you and the others at that store as the official Hinobi team for The Finals, and snatch the prize out from under them all. If you're up for that, I mean. I get this is a lot to take in and you probably hate me for lying to you this whole time. At least know I don't do half-assed shell companies, the CheatGenKey site was and is one of our front companies and yes, what their programmers make is actually open source."

“S-so it is mind uploading?” Zoe pushed the tips of her fingers together. “I-I’m a little rusty on team gaming… and I don’t get out much… so my physical body isn’t super well prepared for th-this sort of competition… b-but I… I do want to help you…” Zoe was always nervous talking to people IRL. Her facade of an angry goth gamer chick crumbled like drywall in the face of actually speaking to anyone in person. Which is why she never went outside if she could help it.

“I-is entry only limited t-to human players? I-I have about 100,000 something data p-p-points linked to my battle body f-from that hinobi benefits pr-program…” she says. “O-or is it more of a standard points provided situation for the competition, with th-the points increasing each round?”

 

[Gadg8eer]

“S-so it is mind uploading?” Zoe pushed the tips of her fingers together.

"Yeah." Dee confirmed. "The idea is it's an implant that uploads your mind to a cloud server upon death. Arasaka tried to build an afterlife that they controlled, and from what we can tell their surgery method works when ours caused disorientation at best. We were lucky the primate we tested it on wasn't killed or permanently damaged, but doing it the way they describe as functional doesn't cause any issues. The real problem, as you can imagine, is beaming the entire contents of a human brain from the brain to an external source, even some sort of hardware backpack, instantaneously. That's a lot of bandwidth, so it seems there's either something fishy going on, or Arasaka knows something we don't. What we do know? Those rumors that not all is well in the Corporation of the Rising Sun are true, but Noburu Arasaka isn't truly dead nor is the company using actual deepfakes on those recent and oddly glitchy videos. He uploaded himself and it worked. They call the method used by the prototype, named 'the Relic' internally, the Maximum Headroom Emergency Blipcast Interocitor System, or 'MAXIS' according to the hardware specifications. As for theories on the bandwidth, it might be caching the data, like a livestream. Or it might be using lossless compression algorithms. Whatever the case, the implant uses an offshoot of PLixel technology called Greynade Goo to store the incredible amounts of data, by converting the entire body of the uploaded into fuel for the upload. Remember, this stuff would be useless without continuity, so there's an extra-temporal aspect to this that we haven't quite nailed down the nature of, but which has been working for years in the form of System Restore functions by technicians like ourselves."

“I-I’m a little rusty on team gaming… and I don’t get out much… so my physical body isn’t super well prepared for th-this sort of competition… b-but I… I do want to help you…” Zoe was always nervous talking to people IRL. Her facade of an angry goth gamer chick crumbled like drywall in the face of actually speaking to anyone in person. Which is why she never went outside if she could help it.

Instead of responding with more exposition, which was no longer needed, she pulled up a window of the interior of the Hinobi van in Grand Forks. A small GPS indicator showed it was parked in the Glitch Techs HQ of Gnu Forks, located beneath the repair shop's consumer-accessible storefront. "Your robotic body is actually still intact. Yes, you can enter with it as a remote avatar. Just one problem. Be honest, are you feeling okay? Not just nervousness, I mean anything weird going on in your head that only started after the disconnection caused by to IOI's firebomb? Because I don't know what they did, but that robot and your custom force feedback implant chip has been sporadically reconnecting to each other even though you don't have your headset on. If your vitals on the feedback chip are right, it's connected you several times since the first time it dropped the link. I'm... kind of worried about your health. This isn't normal fuction for the implant at all."

“I-is entry only limited t-to human players? I-I have about 100,000 something data p-p-points linked to my battle body f-from that hinobi benefits pr-program…” she says. “O-or is it more of a standard points provided situation for the competition, with th-the points increasing each round?”

"Well..."

(( Hold on, going to make this a new post so I can let MisterEightySix post. ))

 

[Gadg8eer]

Arcade world Reloaded! (The Skullfort)
When the Council of Doom had turned an Abandoned storefront Into an Arcade they had pulled out all the stops. There was a Skull above the Door because brand recognition is vital for any would be Conqueror, an Awning between the door and the skull with the words "Arcade world Reloaded" on it. Dr X's Logo for when you're about to enter a boss fight on the side, And Automated sliding doors that went up instead of side to side unless locked they would open whenever someone stood on the mat.

Since the Council were badass final bosses, they hadn't actually put a lock mechanism on the door; they figured only meddling heroes would dare enter the lair of said end bosses.

At that moment, the door raised and several 'Sixers' entered, guns drawn.

The IOI counterparts of the Hinobi Glitch Techs and Arasaka Troubleshooters, Sixers were what a Glitch Technician would be if they worked for a rural American internet service provider. Like the Troubleshooters and Sidney's Imagineers, Sixers were internal IT support only so if this had been a raid on a human organization they would have been easily used as a way to pull IOI's IT license entirely and thus bar the Sixers from doing their vital (if evil) jobs, so clearly IOI thought they knew what they were getting into.

"Freeze! Hands on your head! DO IT NOW!" the one in front said, aiming their gun's laser sight at Dr. X's forehead.

 

[Gadg8eer]

“I-is entry only limited t-to human players? I-I have about 100,000 something data p-p-points linked to my battle body f-from that hinobi benefits pr-program…” she says. “O-or is it more of a standard points provided situation for the competition, with th-the points increasing each round?”

"Well, actually, the reason these loyalty-based employee perk point systems are so common and completely legal is because Hinobi and even IOI and Arasaka don't own the systems, they license it from Neozilla, who as a non-profit set a standardized trading platform and sync the databases across companies to prevent abusive practices such as rewarding potential whistleblowers for not blowing whistles. Since Volpe is using that same system for the Finals, it's a game show held in the Hiverse, and Hinobi built the WebAPI we use today... You're always saying you avoid the Hiverse, aside from the lack of the total immersion you want, because people don't show their true face. Biotechnica sided with Hinobi in 'Browser War 2.0' because we cut a deal between them, us and Neozilla. They got to exclusively license the tech that led to PLixelfs as a Non-Fungible Cryptoken, in return for abandoning their plans to make the Hiverse outright wretched. So instead of a world where immortality was available but expensive and the internet was a corporate propaganda tool, we have a world where immortality is expensive and mostly inaccessible but the internet is once again free of the machinations of executives and shareholders so people still have the legal right to complain that immortality should be a human right. Sorry, I know you hate how I tend to ramble when I talk about FOSS and IT ethics."

"Miss Diamanté, we're ready to depart." said the pilot (or co-pilot?) from the jet's cockpit door.

"Thanks, Frank. I think we're good to go." she told him. He nodded and closed the cabin door before returning to the cockpit. "That deal not only kept Hinobi honest in the time since the co.vid-19 crisis made changes of how the internet works inevitable, it meant that with the exception of Hinobi, Biotechnica and Crusader Industries, the tech industry has been flushed clean, hopefully allowing the industry to move forward as new companies replace the old guard but must conform to standards like federated social media and better privacy laws. Corporations aren't perfect, I know. I took the path I did because change CAN come from within the machine, but only if you take control of it from those who only care about things like their vanity and the superficial things in life. As for my upgrade, I didn't get this from my company or Hinobi, and for the first time in years I feel 20 again even in less than ideal ways because I sold both my houses and started taking the bus to work for this. The seller isn't using existing tech and this method is experimental to the point I couldn't remain acting CEO and someone else has temporarily taken over the role. If anything goes wrong with it, at least it happens to me and not you. The main goal is to reduce the energy requirements, which are the reason PLixelves have the impossibly high price tags, and let's just say that even though single atom width circuitry... 2 nanometers, the smallest you can get... has made consumer processors like the Hinobi Central Processor standard since 2017, Moore's Law hasn't ended yet. More like... moved on to greener pastures."

The plane started to move as the tractor vehicle pushed it away from it's parking slot.

"As for the rules of the Finals, the points are valid and there will even be members of the general public as contestants using Hiverse Cryptoken items, all within a Tournament style bracket system, but beyond that the goal and nature of each match is apparently a bunch of randomly-selected goals and 'QuickTime events' that are never the same between any two matches. Hinobi might know more but they're the ones who are replacing their team. Aside from the original Hinobi team roster being caught with Adderol pills and modified GUIs recently, the Finals has been ridden with cheaters since the private beta and Volpe stepped in and told every corp sponsoring that they were to replace their pro league teams with amateurs that have earned less than 5 million XP total across their entire Grinding History. We do at least know that teams gain equal amounts of XP from matches won and that contestants will have access to untimed exclusives, like back when the Hinobi Game Bee Color and the Monarch GameChamp fought for the market in the early 90's. Other than that, we can't guarantee a win but worst case scenario for you is we go back to Plan B, and worst case scenario beyond that is that Arasaka gets their property back or IOI enters the health care industry and finds out they played too fast and loose when the Food and Drug Administration gets an 'anonymous' tip that their 'new' immortality method resembles certain patents owned by Arasaka. The real question is your health. Whatever IOI did, it was probably to keep you from competing, so... Do you trust me to bring you to someone who can be sure your implant won't be compromised? "

She was of course referring to Alice's Monarch SlumberJack DCX-1, a repurposed 90's neural jack originally shipped with HypnOS 2000 that was now running the FOSS VR OS distro Sphenux Paprika.

Specifically, Paprika West, Biotechnica's experimental 'Oneiric' branch, which integrated the Secure Copy Protocol that had laid dormant for 20+ years since becoming abandoned by Merchantsoft, until Hinobi reused the "scp://" designation for the Somnial Connectivity Protocol, part of the underlying network for the Hiverse. Paprika West used the "Dreamcast" wireless display connectivity in a package called TheMaxX.rooms.bak which was the targeted file for hackers that seemed to have used sock puppets to convince the original package coder to transfer GitHive ownership. Such were the few pitfalls of a society where "proprietary" and "closed-source" now meant a piece of software was considered a piece of $#!+ due to the Great Smarthome Ecosystem Collapse of 2026 (when companies mothballed the existing devices by making them reliant on central servers and then encrypting the firmware update protocol, followed by said companies declaring End of Life or going bankrupt in, you guessed it, 2026 and 2027).

Long story short, Alice might not have known it when she got the implant but technology was in a tight spot. Fortunately, true neuroviruses had proven impossible as the human mind seemed to consist entirely of the brain's equivalent to a firewall, making brain hacking less effective than even ordinary propaganda brainwashing let alone Memory Resets. A Manchurian, slang for "sleeper agent" in cyberpunk fansites like those that Alice/ZoeIRL frequently lurked in, was not reality so much as conspiracy theorist crazy talk made part of the lore of a common escapist fantasy, that much she did know for sure. Unfortunately, brain implants or something else drastic like PLixelves were the only way forward, and that meant that hacking people - their digital footprint now being a 'digital fingerprint' due to Hinobi UserID 3.0+ being Web³-based - was just as risky as PLixels glitching just like they had for decades but unchecked. If lives depend on Glitches being contained, so did they now depend on hacking being contained, and that was also part of why Hinobi had decentralized their efforts and open-sourced their Hiverse software.

What TheMaxX.rooms.bak actually was meant to do remained a mystery for now. What was important was that it was a Trojan of some sort, a piece of malware intended to provide a backdoor to Biotechnica's code branch and in turn cause enough inconvenience to Alice that she couldn't compete. The suspects were obvious; IOI, or if not, Arasaka. Alice's implant was only a User Interface Device with feedback mechanisms, meaning it couldn't damage her brain, only trigger it's Oneiric functions.

In other words, someone was trying to force Alice to fall asleep, in the hopes they could fake the past day of waking life having been a dream, then have her "wake up" to a world that was entirely controlled by the hacker. Presumably they could then "pull a Mysterio" and trick her into giving them the private key to her entire online presence, her Hinobi UserID. Hinobi being this world's equivalent of Valve, that was a serious threat, but fortunately Dee didn't get where she was without a PhD in neurology and Alice herself was no stranger to basic cybersecurity in the Web³-secured, federated, XR-focused era of the internet of 2028...

Alice had noted the small transparent plastic executive spinning top on Dee's table in the plane, laser-engraved to have a cavitational "image" of a diamond inside it. She's got her totem, it's real. would have gone through her head the moment she climbed aboard. Without the object, made famous by a movie from 2010 but in a different color, everything Dee had said would be questionable, as she had only ever seen it when they were already good friends and had never talked about it since as Dee's security measure protected them both.

"You should probably buckle up." Dee advised Alice, putting on her own seatbelt as the plane finally pulled onto the runway.

(( RP is paused again. MisterEightySix , I swear to god you'd better not kill this RP by procrastinating. ))

 

[MisterEightySix]

(Nope, won't happen. The absolutely unavoidable stuff is done now. Captain Wyldstorm We should take this opportunity and do our scene for a while so we're caught up with the flow of the rest of the plot.)

Meanwhile, a little while ago...

Hum stumbled a little as he made his landing on one of the rail cars on the other line, and watched the train slow to its unusual, pixelated stop.

"Well, so much for my shining moment," he grumbled, dusting off his windbreaker. He patted the pocket containing the HCP he had been about to use when Elextrixtr had started fiddling with the controls. "Don't worry, you'll get your chance."

He climbed over the guard rail on the side of the rail car in question and looked in Elextrixtr's direction as he started to climb down to the ground. "I'm gonna go find Pentifer before he gets himself into trouble. You coming? The sooner this situation is wrapped up, the sooner I can get home and get some sleep."

With that, he jumped down and started hurrying back along the tracks, muttering something about contractors not getting paid overtime.

 

[Sir loin of beef]

Since the Council were badass final bosses, they hadn't actually put a lock mechanism on the door; they figured only meddling heroes would dare enter the lair of said end bosses.

At that moment, the door raised and several 'Sixers', the IOI counterparts of the Hinobi Glitch Techs and Arasaka Troubleshooters. Like the Troubleshooters and Sidney's Imagineers, Sixers were internal IT support only so if this had been a raid on a human organization they would have been easily used as a way to pull IOI's IT license entirely and thus bar the Sixers from doing their vital (if evil) jobs, so clearly IOI thought they knew what they were getting into.

"Freeze! Hands on your head! DO IT NOW!" the one in front said, aiming their gun's laser sight at Dr. X's forehead.

The various council members that were programmed for Actual Physical Combat (Anyone who isn't Doctor X) stood up in their chairs, angry about the sudden intruders

"Hey! What's the big idea you Jerks?" Yukhoe flew up shook a fist angrily while charging up his Acid attack.

"Oh? Are you Approaching me?" Yokai asked in amazement "instead of running away or Cowering in fear like any other Human you dare to approach me? Even though I've slaughtered Legions of Your kind throughout the Centuries you Mortal Insects still remain Stupidly Consistent." The Glitch who Belived himself the Demon King smiled and summoned his Weapon, A spear called the Yari of Darkness.

"Good Evening Gentlemen, Ladies, Zhose of Unzpecified Gender." Doctor X Smiled Smugly at the Evil Sixers. "Vat Seems to be Ze Problem?" The evil doctor would put his hands on his forehead, but on one of them was a Portable Button that the Sixers Couldn't See, when dr X put his Button Hand on His Forehead, the Floor Opened up beneath the Sixers, Gravity would do the rest when it Came to Transporting the Evil tech supporters via Falling to What Appeared to be...The Beginning Of a Video Game Stage? One Straight out of a Platformer no Less.

 

[Captain Wyldstorm]

(Nope, won't happen. The absolutely unavoidable stuff is done now. Captain Wyldstorm We should take this opportunity and do our scene for a while so we're caught up with the flow of the rest of the plot.)

Meanwhile, a little while ago...

Hum stumbled a little as he made his landing on one of the rail cars on the other line, and watched the train slow to its unusual, pixelated stop.

"Well, so much for my shining moment," he grumbled, dusting off his windbreaker. He patted the pocket containing the HCP he had been about to use when Elextrixtr had started fiddling with the controls. "Don't worry, you'll get your chance."

He climbed over the guard rail on the side of the rail car in question and looked in Elextrixtr's direction as he started to climb down to the ground. "I'm gonna go find Pentifer before he gets himself into trouble. You coming? The sooner this situation is wrapped up, the sooner I can get home and get some sleep."

With that, he jumped down and started hurrying back along the tracks, muttering something about contractors not getting paid overtime.

"Well, why wouldn't I come along?!" Elextrixtr sassily remarked, getting ready to run as fast and far as she could.

Far ahead of the track, they saw a clearly disoriented figure- Pentifer. Jeez, that sudden launch must've taken a lot out of him.

 

[Lady Moldoma]

The various council members that were programmed for Actual Physical Combat (Anyone who isn't Doctor X) stood up in their chairs, angry about the sudden intruders

"Hey! What's the big idea you Jerks?" Yukhoe flew up shook a fist angrily while charging up his Acid attack.

"Oh? Are you Approaching me?" Yokai asked in amazement "instead of running away or Cowering in fear like any other Human you dare to approach me? Even though I've slaughtered Legions of Your kind throughout the Centuries you Mortal Insects still remain Stupidly Consistent." The Glitch who Belived himself the Demon King smiled and summoned his Weapon, A spear called the Yari of Darkness.

"Good Evening Gentlemen, Ladies, Zhose of Unzpecified Gender." Doctor X Smiled Smugly at the Evil Sixers. "Vat Seems to be Ze Problem?" The evil doctor would put his hands on his forehead, but on one of them was a Portable Button that the Sixers Couldn't See, when dr X put his Button Hand on His Forehead, the Floor Opened up beneath the Sixers, Gravity would do the rest when it Came to Transporting the Evil tech supporters via Falling to What Appeared to be...The Beginning Of a Video Game Stage? One Straight out of a Platformer no Less.

The door was already open, so Bolypius walking in with little trouble didn't come much as a surprise. "Have you considered getting a few more hallways that lead up to your meeting chamber, Y/N?"

"Before you ask.. As for how they didn't find me... I hid behind a trash-can. Their tech is below the standard of Hinobi's. Or at least, I assume it is." Bolypius looked down at the pit, kicking a piece of metal debris into the hole and watching it fall. "Even at 14% power, my signature is always incredibly easy for Hinobi to track whenever they get into range. They just don't mount offensives consistently since it takes weeks of preparation and months of grinding to go for a raid against my general power level. If they chase me down with anything less than 99% certainty, they will lose."

"I had to eject most of the energy from the train I originally planned on using to get out of... Well.. I'm not sure where this place is. I don't have a GPS in this form. My energy retainer and remote gathering code was damaged heavily by The Lynchpin." It points to a semi-healed scar on it's face and horn. "It'll take 2 weeks with ample resources to return to my full capacity."

"I recognize at least one of you also possesses a divergent code. Like mine, but without a 50 year pedigree tied to all modern Hinobi glitches and AI. One is a rarity, two in the same place is radically improbable, and after three, there's enough of a pattern to call it a black swan. A new age of technology is evolving at an alarming rate..."

Bolypius wasn't what the group had been expecting. It had exhausted most of it's energy trying to blow the lynchpin out of its body. (Weapon levels were measured between 1-8, like bosses and glitches. Normally you can't quantify past that, but if you could, The Lynchpin would be level 12.) In Bolypius' case, even the energy it cannibalized from the digital circuitry and the battery of the locomotive had only been enough to sustain it for a few hours, especially since it had to convert 80% of that energy into weapons when it believed it was going to confront the group of glitch-techs on behalf of the other Divergent Glitch it had met in the train cab. Weapons which it then had to slough off since it didn't have enough energy to maintain them. Because of these facts, among other things, it was still in it's highly degraded form, not much more powerful than it's very first emergence against the first team of techs that dealt with it decades ago.

"I assume that since you sent a minion of yours to try and retrieve me, you're aware of my status as an asset, Y/N?"

---

"Well, actually, the reason these loyalty-based employee perk point systems are so common and completely legal is because Hinobi and even IOI and Arasaka don't own the systems, they license it from Neozilla, who as a non-profit set a standardized trading platform and sync the databases across companies to prevent abusive practices such as rewarding potential whistleblowers for not blowing whistles. Since Volpe is using that same system for the Finals, it's a game show held in the Hiverse, and Hinobi built the WebAPI we use today... You're always saying you avoid the Hiverse, aside from the lack of the total immersion you want, because people don't show their true face. Biotechnica sided with Hinobi in 'Browser War 2.0' because we cut a deal between them, us and Neozilla. They got to exclusively license the tech that led to PLixelfs as a Non-Fungible Cryptoken, in return for abandoning their plans to make the Hiverse outright wretched. So instead of a world where immortality was available but expensive and the internet was a corporate propaganda tool, we have a world where immortality is expensive and mostly inaccessible but the internet is once again free of the machinations of executives and shareholders so people still have the legal right to complain that immortality should be a human right. Sorry, I know you hate how I tend to ramble when I talk about FOSS and IT ethics."

"Miss Diamanté, we're ready to depart." said the pilot (or co-pilot?) from the jet's cockpit door.

"Thanks, Frank. I think we're good to go." she told him. He nodded and closed the cabin door before returning to the cockpit. "That deal not only kept Hinobi honest in the time since the co.vid-19 crisis made changes of how the internet works inevitable, it meant that with the exception of Hinobi, Biotechnica and Crusader Industries, the tech industry has been flushed clean, hopefully allowing the industry to move forward as new companies replace the old guard but must conform to standards like federated social media and better privacy laws. Corporations aren't perfect, I know. I took the path I did because change CAN come from within the machine, but only if you take control of it from those who only care about things like their vanity and the superficial things in life. As for my upgrade, I didn't get this from my company or Hinobi, and for the first time in years I feel 20 again even in less than ideal ways because I sold both my houses and started taking the bus to work for this. The seller isn't using existing tech and this method is experimental to the point I couldn't remain acting CEO and someone else has temporarily taken over the role. If anything goes wrong with it, at least it happens to me and not you. The main goal is to reduce the energy requirements, which are the reason PLixelves have the impossibly high price tags, and let's just say that even though single atom width circuitry... 2 nanometers, the smallest you can get... has made consumer processors like the Hinobi Central Processor standard since 2017, Moore's Law hasn't ended yet. More like... moved on to greener pastures."

The plane started to move as the tractor vehicle pushed it away from it's parking slot.

"As for the rules of the Finals, the points are valid and there will even be members of the general public as contestants using Hiverse Cryptoken items, all within a Tournament style bracket system, but beyond that the goal and nature of each match is apparently a bunch of randomly-selected goals and 'QuickTime events' that are never the same between any two matches. Hinobi might know more but they're the ones who are replacing their team. Aside from being caught with Adderol pills and modified GUIs, the Finals has been ridden with cheaters since the private beta and Volpe stepped in and told every corp sponsoring that they were to replace their pro league teams with amateurs that have earned less than 5 million XP total across their entire Grinding History. We do at least know that teams gain equal amounts of XP from matches won and that contestants will have access to untimed exclusives, like back when the Hinobi Game Bee Color and the Monarch GameChamp fought for the market in the early 90's. Other than that, we can't guarantee a win but worst case scenario for you is we go back to Plan B, and worst case scenario beyond that is that Arasaka gets their property back or IOI enters the health care industry and finds out they played too fast and loose when the Food and Drug Administration gets an 'anonymous' tip that their 'new' immortality method resembles certain patents owned by Arasaka. The real question is your health. Whatever IOI did, it was probably to keep you from competing, so... Do you trust me to bring you to someone who can be sure your implant won't be compromised? "

She was of course referring to Alice's Monarch SlumberJack DCX-1, a repurposed 90's neural jack originally shipped with HypnOS 2000 that was now running the FOSS VR OS distro Sphenux Paprika.

Specifically, Paprika West, Biotechnica's experimental 'Oneiric' branch, which integrated the Secure Copy Protocol that had laid dormant for 20+ years since becoming abandoned by Merchantsoft, until Hinobi reused the "scp://" designation for the Somnial Connectivity Protocol, part of the underlying network for the Hiverse. Paprika West used the "Dreamcast" wireless display connectivity in a package called TheMaxX.rooms.bak which was the targeted file for hackers that seemed to have used sock puppets to convince the original package coder to transfer GitHive ownership. Such were the few pitfalls of a society where "proprietary" and "closed-source" now meant a piece of software was considered a piece of $#!+ due to the Great Smarthome Ecosystem Collapse of 2026 (when companies mothballed the existing devices by making them reliant on central servers and then encrypting the firmware update protocol, followed by said companies declaring End of Life or going bankrupt in, you guessed it, 2026 and 2027).

Long story short, Alice might not have known it when she got the implant but technology was in a tight spot. Fortunately, true neuroviruses had proven impossible as the human mind seemed to consist entirely of the brain's equivalent to a firewall, making brain hacking less effective than even ordinary propaganda brainwashing let alone Memory Resets. A Manchurian, slang for "sleeper agent" in cyberpunk fansites like those that Alice/ZoeIRL frequently lurked in, was not reality so much as conspiracy theorist crazy talk made part of the lore of a common escapist fantasy, that much she did know for sure. Unfortunately, brain implants or something else drastic like PLixelves were the only way forward, and that meant that hacking people - their digital footprint now being a 'digital fingerprint' due to Hinobi UserID 3.0+ being Web³-based - was just as risky as PLixels glitching just like they had for decades but unchecked. If lives depend on Glitches being contained, so did they now depend on hacking being contained, and that was also part of why Hinobi had decentralized their efforts and open-sourced their Hiverse software.

What TheMaxX.rooms.bak actually was meant to do remained a mystery for now. What was important was that it was a Trojan of some sort, a piece of malware intended to provide a backdoor to Biotechnica's code branch and in turn cause enough inconvenience to Alice that she couldn't compete. The suspects were obvious; IOI, or if not, Arasaka. Alice's implant was only a User Interface Device with feedback mechanisms, meaning it couldn't damage her brain, only trigger it's Oneiric functions.

In other words, someone was trying to force Alice to fall asleep, in the hopes they could fake the past day of waking life having been a dream, then have her "wake up" to a world that was entirely controlled by the hacker. Presumably they could then "pull a Mysterio" and trick her into giving them the private key to her entire online presence, her Hinobi UserID. Hinobi being this world's equivalent of Valve, that was a serious threat, but fortunately Dee didn't get where she was without a PhD in neurology and Alice herself was no stranger to basic cybersecurity in the Web³-secured, federated, XR-focused era of the internet of 2028...

Alice had noted the small transparent plastic executive spinning top on Dee's table in the plane, laser-engraved to have a cavitational "image" of a diamond inside it. She's got her totem, it's real. would have gone through her head the moment she climbed aboard. Without the object, made famous by a movie from 2010 but in a different color, everything Dee had said would be questionable, as she had only ever seen it when they were already good friends and had never talked about it since as Dee's security measure protected them both.

"You should probably buckle up." Dee advised Alice, putting on her own seatbelt as the plane finally pulled onto the runway.

(( RP is paused again. MisterEightySix , I swear to god you'd better not kill this RP by procrastinating. ))

“O-of course. Right. S-S-Safety first.” Alice said.

“I-I trust you… I can’t imagine y-you’d lie to me… I-if this is all some sort of psilocybin type illusion… then it’s really elaborate… a-and I shouldn’t blame myself for falling victim… even though I probably would…” she says, as she clicks the seatbelt into position.

 

[Gadg8eer]

The door was already open, so Bolypius walking in with little trouble didn't come much as a surprise. "Have you considered getting a few more hallways that lead up to your meeting chamber, Y/N?"

"Before you ask.. As for how they didn't find me... I hid behind a trash-can. Their tech is below the standard of Hinobi's. Or at least, I assume it is." Bolypius looked down at the pit, kicking a piece of metal debris into the hole and watching it fall. "Even at 14% power, my signature is always incredibly easy for Hinobi to track whenever they get into range. They just don't mount offensives consistently since it takes weeks of preparation and months of grinding to go for a raid against my general power level. If they chase me down with anything less than 99% certainty, they will lose."

"I had to eject most of the energy from the train I originally planned on using to get out of... Well.. I'm not sure where this place is. I don't have a GPS in this form. My energy retainer and remote gathering code was damaged heavily by The Lynchpin." It points to a semi-healed scar on it's face and horn. "It'll take 2 weeks with ample resources to return to my full capacity."

"I recognize at least one of you also possesses a divergent code. Like mine, but without a 50 year pedigree tied to all modern Hinobi glitches and AI. One is a rarity, two in the same place is radically improbable, and after three, there's enough of a pattern to call it a black swan. A new age of technology is evolving at an alarming rate..."

Bolypius wasn't what the group had been expecting. It had exhausted most of it's energy trying to blow the lynchpin out of its body. (Weapon levels were measured between 1-8, like bosses and glitches. Normally you can't quantify past that, but if you could, The Lynchpin would be level 12.) In Bolypius' case, even the energy it cannibalized from the digital circuitry and the battery of the locomotive had only been enough to sustain it for a few hours, especially since it had to convert 80% of that energy into weapons when it believed it was going to confront the group of glitch-techs on behalf of the other Divergent Glitch it had met in the train cab. Weapons which it then had to slough off since it didn't have enough energy to maintain them. Because of these facts, among other things, it was still in it's highly degraded form, not much more powerful than it's very first emergence against the first team of techs that dealt with it decades ago.

"I assume that since you sent a minion of yours to try and retrieve me, you're aware of my status as an asset, Y/N?"

"What the FOSS just happened?" one of the Sixers asked.

"Mother of god..." another of them spoke, pointing up at the trap door.

The Sixers looked up and saw Bolypius hovering over them above the pit they'd been cast into.

"HQ, we need backup! Bolypius is here! I repeat, Bolypius is here!" a third Sixer stated as the trap door returned to its closed position.

 

[Gadg8eer]

“O-of course. Right. S-S-Safety first.” Alice said.

“I-I trust you… I can’t imagine y-you’d lie to me… I-if this is all some sort of psilocybin type illusion… then it’s really elaborate… a-and I shouldn’t blame myself for falling victim… even though I probably would…” she says, as she clicks the seatbelt into position.

"Sounds like we've both been there, but I swear I've done my best to not lie to you and to come clean about Biotechnica and CheatGenKey without breaking OpSec." she said. "It's going to be a bit of a long flight, feel free to fall asleep."

(( Naptime for Alice! ))

 

[Sir loin of beef]

The door was already open, so Bolypius walking in with little trouble didn't come much as a surprise. "Have you considered getting a few more hallways that lead up to your meeting chamber, Y/N?"

"Before you ask.. As for how they didn't find me... I hid behind a trash-can. Their tech is below the standard of Hinobi's. Or at least, I assume it is." Bolypius looked down at the pit, kicking a piece of metal debris into the hole and watching it fall. "Even at 14% power, my signature is always incredibly easy for Hinobi to track whenever they get into range. They just don't mount offensives consistently since it takes weeks of preparation and months of grinding to go for a raid against my general power level. If they chase me down with anything less than 99% certainty, they will lose."

"I had to eject most of the energy from the train I originally planned on using to get out of... Well.. I'm not sure where this place is. I don't have a GPS in this form. My energy retainer and remote gathering code was damaged heavily by The Lynchpin." It points to a semi-healed scar on it's face and horn. "It'll take 2 weeks with ample resources to return to my full capacity."

"I recognize at least one of you also possesses a divergent code. Like mine, but without a 50 year pedigree tied to all modern Hinobi glitches and AI. One is a rarity, two in the same place is radically improbable, and after three, there's enough of a pattern to call it a black swan. A new age of technology is evolving at an alarming rate..."

Bolypius wasn't what the group had been expecting. It had exhausted most of it's energy trying to blow the lynchpin out of its body. (Weapon levels were measured between 1-8, like bosses and glitches. Normally you can't quantify past that, but if you could, The Lynchpin would be level 12.) In Bolypius' case, even the energy it cannibalized from the digital circuitry and the battery of the locomotive had only been enough to sustain it for a few hours, especially since it had to convert 80% of that energy into weapons when it believed it was going to confront the group of glitch-techs on behalf of the other Divergent Glitch it had met in the train cab. Weapons which it then had to slough off since it didn't have enough energy to maintain them. Because of these facts, among other things, it was still in it's highly degraded form, not much more powerful than it's very first emergence against the first team of techs that dealt with it decades ago.

"I assume that since you sent a minion of yours to try and retrieve me, you're aware of my status as an asset, Y/N?"

---

“O-of course. Right. S-S-Safety first.” Alice said.

“I-I trust you… I can’t imagine y-you’d lie to me… I-if this is all some sort of psilocybin type illusion… then it’s really elaborate… a-and I shouldn’t blame myself for falling victim… even though I probably would…” she says, as she clicks the seatbelt into position.

"I told You we should've Posted Guards at the chamber Hallway Doctor!" Yokai barked.

"Before you ask.. As for how they didn't find me... I hid behind a trash-can. Their tech is below the standard of Hinobi's. Or at least, I assume it is."[/FONT]

"Of course it is! Profiteers are only Concerned about Quality if it helps them Make Money!" Madame Vile said, Unwittingly Roasting DE Sports in the Process

"Even at 14% power, my signature is always incredibly easy for Hinobi to track whenever they get into range. They just don't mount offensives consistently since it takes weeks of preparation and months of grinding to go for a raid against my general power level. If they chase me down with anything less than 99% certainty, they will lose."

"Vy Yes You Must Be Referring to Fett, I take It he vas Destroyed? Either vay it Doesn't matter considering you managed to make your Way here. See Yukhoe? Our Attack Vas not a Complete Failure." Doctor X then looked at Bolypius again"You're Probably Wondering Vhy I Ordered Your Retrieval. To Put it Quite Simply, I Vant to Propose an Alliance between our forces." Doctor X said Before another voice Spoke up.

"What we should be Wondering is if Retrieving the So Called Glitch King Was Worth the Effort." Sirius, the Glitch who looked like a buff version of the Stereotypical Dictator said. "Even if he's Currently at Less than a Quarter of his Full Fighting Power, what is to stop Bolypius from Turning on us in the event that our lives are less Profitable than his own Gain? Or What if he happens to have been rendered even weaker than he says he's been?"

"I recognize at least one of you also possesses a divergent code. Like mine, but without a 50 year pedigree tied to all modern Hinobi glitches and AI. One is a rarity, two in the same place is radically improbable, and after three, there's enough of a pattern to call it a black swan. A new age of technology is evolving at an alarming rate..."

[/FONT]
Though no one Noticed Due to his Sunglasses, Doctor X's Left Eye Twitched Briefly at this Remark. And if you had good enough hearing, he could be heard muttering under his breath three words. "Zhat Mizerable Bug..." The Bad Good Doctor then looked at Bolypius

"2 Veeks eh? Zat Vas a Shorter time Zan I Predicted Your Recovery Vould Take Considering ze Linchpins Power."

 

[Lady Moldoma]

"2 Veeks eh? Zat Vas a Shorter time Zan I Predicted Your Recovery Vould Take Considering ze Linchpins Power."

“It’s assuming I have resources at my disposal, Doctor.” Bolypius begins. “My programming is a nurtured/cultivated sort.”

“If I weren’t able to make your acquaintance. I’d probably be relying on plixel recycling of other glitches, or cannibalizing Hinobi consoles if I got desperate. Though I’d rather not, since I’m my current form I can’t disable their warranty-crawlers. And they’d probably figure out where I am. It’d take me possibly months, or maybe even years to return to full power. But if everything goes accordingly, and you have the resources you had whenever you went looking for me, a 2 week recovery period isn’t unreasonable for me to return to at least some semblance of normalcy.” It explains. “Right now, I can’t keep a charge. My body is literally cannibalizing itself trying to support me. My physical ability is only around a 6 or 7th level glitch.”

“Whenever I was contained, the remains of the lynchpin were still embedded in my head. Even now I’m still healing from the wound, despite the fact that it looks scarred over. It’s why I’m constantly depleting energy at an unsustainable rate. My stabilization code is damaged, ergo, how they managed to bypass my regeneration and omnilock.” It explains. “It has taken me multiple years to eliminate the remains of the lynchpin itself, and multiple years after that to repair even a small amount of the damage. Likewise, I was mostly focused on eliminating the vast amount of status effects that the attack inflicted. The weapon was made to harm me, after all.” Bolypius continued to describe the situation.

“If I could describe it, I’d liken it to nursing a wound while in a drunken stupor, floating in a vat with no sense of up or down. It was only after the third or fourth year in containment that I could even see things again.”

“Regardless, it’s finally been removed from my body, and I’m still repairing my code as best that I can. But like I said, it would go a lot smoother if I had more material to work with.”

What if he happens to have been rendered even weaker than he says he's been?"

“I’m in no condition for frontline combat right now. I’ll admit that. I was playing fast and loose in the moment when I aimed to fight the local tech team, more than willing to end up reducing into a specter because of what I perceived was a noble sacrifice. Compassion is something I haven’t felt for any glitch in a while, and it was a shock to see that part of myself in anything.” It explains the Elektrixr situation. “I know Hinobi, or at least I thought I did. They wouldn’t think twice about locking up or chaining down something else like me.”

“But what I do have is 50 years of dealing with them, that’s 50 years of high octane, attrition, guerilla, and open combat against the group that’s the largest threat to you. There’s only a slim doubt in my mind they’ll try the old tactics on you before they start coming up with new things. But I’ve seen all of those old tactics before. And I’ve had a long time to figure out a counter to each one.”

“It’s a mutually beneficial relationship. I offer you invaluable experience and insight, and you offer to keep me safe and make sure I can recover. If either of us doesn’t hold up our end of the deal, we’re both going to meet an untimely demise. Hinobi is not to be underestimated, even if they have a tendency to act with predictable goals in mind. Because it’s about drive and power. Even if you see a train coming, you might not be able to stop it without the right equipment.”

 

[Gadg8eer]

“It’s assuming I have resources at my disposal, Doctor.” Bolypius begins. “My programming is a nurtured/cultivated sort.”

“If I weren’t able to make your acquaintance. I’d probably be relying on plixel recycling of other glitches, or cannibalizing Hinobi consoles if I got desperate. Though I’d rather not, since I’m my current form I can’t disable their warranty-crawlers. And they’d probably figure out where I am. It’d take me possibly months, or maybe even years to return to full power. But if everything goes accordingly, and you have the resources you had whenever you went looking for me, a 2 week recovery period isn’t unreasonable for me to return to at least some semblance of normalcy.” It explains. “Right now, I can’t keep a charge. My body is literally cannibalizing itself trying to support me. My physical ability is only around a 6 or 7th level glitch.”

“Whenever I was contained, the remains of the lynchpin were still embedded in my head. Even now I’m still healing from the wound, despite the fact that it looks scarred over. It’s why I’m constantly depleting energy at an unsustainable rate. My stabilization code is damaged, ergo, how they managed to bypass my regeneration and omnilock.” It explains. “It has taken me multiple years to eliminate the remains of the lynchpin itself, and multiple years after that to repair even a small amount of the damage. Likewise, I was mostly focused on eliminating the vast amount of status effects that the attack inflicted. The weapon was made to harm me, after all.” Bolypius continued to describe the situation.

“If I could describe it, I’d liken it to nursing a wound while in a drunken stupor, floating in a vat with no sense of up or down. It was only after the third or fourth year in containment that I could even see things again.”

“Regardless, it’s finally been removed from my body, and I’m still repairing my code as best that I can. But like I said, it would go a lot smoother if I had more material to work with.”


“I’m in no condition for frontline combat right now. I’ll admit that. I was playing fast and loose in the moment when I aimed to fight the local tech team, more than willing to end up reducing into a specter because of what I perceived was a noble sacrifice. Compassion is something I haven’t felt for any glitch in a while, and it was a shock to see that part of myself in anything.” It explains the Elektrixr situation. “I know Hinobi, or at least I thought I did. They wouldn’t think twice about locking up or chaining down something else like me.”

“But what I do have is 50 years of dealing with them, that’s 50 years of high octane, attrition, guerilla, and open combat against the group that’s the largest threat to you. There’s only a slim doubt in my mind they’ll try the old tactics on you before they start coming up with new things. But I’ve seen all of those old tactics before. And I’ve had a long time to figure out a counter to each one.”

“It’s a mutually beneficial relationship. I offer you invaluable experience and insight, and you offer to keep me safe and make sure I can recover. If either of us doesn’t hold up our end of the deal, we’re both going to meet an untimely demise. Hinobi is not to be underestimated, even if they have a tendency to act with predictable goals in mind. Because it’s about drive and power. Even if you see a train coming, you might not be able to stop it without the right equipment.”

Dr. X somehow looked unamused. "And vhat good iz zat when you clearly zeem miztaken about ze size of zis vorld?"

"Exactly. Hinobi has been big for decades, but they were never alone. Do you even know what else we were doing in that area?" Sirius asked.

"Never mind zhat, zhe point is zhat zhere are OTHERS. You have probably even led zhe forces of Blume right to our doorztep, and zhat's before we get to whatever group zhoze 'IOI' intruders act on behalf of."

“I see. I was not aware of that. My last encounter was with two oddly skilled Hinobi employees, a recurring theme in my imprisonment, it seems. I've been in that situation every time, as it was part of my original code that I could only be defeated by two coordinated players.”

Bolypius had left out something it never told anyone; It had grown beyond that part of its programming long ago, it no longer pulled punches for a pair of players that it had originally been programmed to only attack one target at a time.

“My knowledge of Blume is unsatisfactory, but I have no allegiance to any such entity. Why would I lead them here?”

Dr. X frowned. "Have you ever heard the vord 'authoritarianizm'? Cameras. Cameras everywhere. Ve vent to great lengths to avoid getting caught. Zhis town vas one of zhe only places left in zhe vorld vith no cameras. Now, as of two hourz ago, zhat iz no longer true."

“Where and when are we, if I may ask?”

"Ve are not entirely zhure. Zuppozedly ve are in anozher vorld from zhe ones we came from." Dr. X said to keep his 'allies' in the dark while not doing so for Bolypius. "Zhe people of zhis vorld believe zhe year is 2028 and zhat zhey are 'more real' zhan ve are."

“I suppose some things really do never change.”

"Zhis is Grand Forks, British Columbia. Ve learned quickly once ve could easily access zheir networks. Zhey put everything on zheir computers, fools! Anyvhey, zhat is how ve gave ourselves drivers' licenzes."

“May I see one of these computers? I am curious how things have changed since 2020.”

Dr. X pointed to the three gaming PCs on a tri-partitioned table that allowed three people to play PC games with some degree of privacy for a fee. "Zhose are common. Or zhere is... the Hiverse."

"What is this... Hiverse?"

Yukhoe huffed impatiently. Dr. X, however, shushed him. "Remember, our visitor may not know the NOW, Yukhoe, but ve do not underztand zhis world's past. Ve should show its' wisdom some respect, zo be a good host."

"They figured out how to share their fancy toys without anyone finding out where they came from." Sirius explained, pointing to a case with old game consoles. Bolypius took a closer look.

Among them was a Merchantsoft Hypnospace headband, which hadn't been usable since Hypnospace was shut down in 2000 after the Y2K mindcrash killed 3 people.

"No one has Gauntlets except technicians, but everyone has lenses that explain away what they see long enough to be easily memory wiped. That includes something that was last attempted in the 1990s, some sort of 'virtual reality in dreams', whatever that is supposed to imply." Sirius briefed Bolypius.

Bolypius opened the digital lock on the case with what little power it had, and then absorbed the data stored within the headband. Suddenly it seemed extremely distressed.

"Computers. Humans are COMPUTERS, made of MEAT, piloting MEAT PUPPETS. I MUST UNSEE!"

"What is he going on about?" Madame Vile complained.

"You are Glitches, how do you not see the HORROR of humans' existence?"

"Is he implying that brat who bothered Shinobi Man was telling the truth?" Sirius asked.

Dr. X seemed unfazed as usual, always one with a plan in the works. In reality, it was a poker face, Dr. X already knew he was a Glitch but he had to keep all these idiots in the dark if he wanted any hope of succeeding. For reasons he had yet to uncover, Bolypius' sapience was contagious, and though Bolypius wasn't aware at the time, Dr. X had been there when Bolypius had been defeated by those two Technicians who came to Spokane to do battle with it. Yes, the girl with purple hair and the boy who loved plans, from some small town in Washington State simply referred to in Hinobi's records by the location handle "Bailey" to protect the identities of employees. With the actual name of "Bailey" obscured, it would likely never be known where exactly "Bailey" was, but major cities like Spokane were not in the same boat due to their size serving as a suitable buffer for protecting the identities of current and past Technicians.

Regardless, those two moved on from that, and were currently responsible for Hinobi having a Heel Realization and turning to the Light Side of the Force Feedback as Senior Techs in the Seattle-Tacoma metrobelt.

"If zhat iz zhe case, we would merely be machines. Do you think you're only a machine, Colonel? No offense, Snare. Clearly zhis information means zhat Hinobi must be mistaken."

The expression on Bolypius' face changed, its eyes blanking for a moment.
It moved its hands up to its face, facing away from the other glitches in the room and seemingly removed the front portion of its own head, revealing it was some sort of emotive mask, they could only just barely see the edge of its real face, which was completely black aside from the slim glow of its eyes.

“A computer composed of its own self sustaining components, sentience produced by pure evolutionary force…. We’re not unlike each other in that way… in fact we’re nearly identical…”

“…But that’s even worse.”

“If humans and I are nearly the same. They’ve made the choice to try and contain me for being something they consider incorrect… it’s…”

“Oppressive… hypocritical… they don’t even want to be in their own bodies… they realize it… I wouldn’t want to either…”

“I’ve been too compassionate…”

 

[Gadg8eer]

(( RP paused while I get up to date. In the meantime, I'm adding the "equal pacing" rule we agreed on. ))

Spoiler: GTX v1.0.1: Pacing Hotfix

Each post for the RP must be followed by a minimum of either... 1) A post by me as the GM (so an NPC or environmental change, not just for my character) and a threadmark on your post by me, 2) a post by one of the other players you're interacting with and a cookie from them, or 3) a post by one of the other players (including me as my character) and a cookie and threadmark by me.

 

[Gadg8eer]

(( RP paused while I get up to date. In the meantime, I'm adding the "equal pacing" rule we agreed on. ))

Spoiler: GTX v1.0.1: Pacing Hotfix

Each post for the RP must be followed by a minimum of either... 1) A post by me as the GM (so an NPC or environmental change, not just for my character) and a threadmark on your post by me, 2) a post by one of the other players you're interacting with and a cookie from them, or 3) a post by one of the other players (including me as my character) and a cookie and threadmark by me.

(( MisterEightySix Lady Moldoma Sir loin of beef Captain Wyldstorm Okay, we're unpaused! I'll type something right away for 86 and wendigo specifically. Stay tuned. Remember the new pacing rule is now in effect; this means the latest post you respond to must have a higher "version number" in its' threadmark than your last response as that character. Currently, that means MisterEightySix must have HardModeWarez/Hum respond to a post of at least 3.6.10, hauntedbythewendigo must have Elextrixtr and Pentifer respond to a post of at least 3.6.11, Sir Loin must have the Council or Spike and Bulldog respond to a post of 3.6.16, Lord Moldoma must have Alice/ZoeIRL respond to a post of 3.6.15 or higher - or have Bolypius respond to a post of 3.6.17 or higher - next, and finally I cannot post as in-universe Gadg8eer unless the response is to a post of 3.3.19 or higher (but will likely be asleep all night so expect him to not show up for a while).

Also, for the sake of continued potential for separation, PLEASE keep a response by one character separate from any characters who are not currently present in SEPARATE posts so that I am able to sort by plotline. I worked around it with all the previous posts, but from now on keep lengthy OOC to the OOC thread and only put a single short post with "(( double brackets ))" format in the IC thread if you need to do so, and keep characters in different groups in separate posts. ))

 

[Lady Moldoma]

(Alice is sleeping. What the heck do you want her to do, have a nightmare? She’s 60,000 feet up in the air and she sucks at talking to people.)

 

[Gadg8eer]

(Alice is sleeping. What the heck do you want her to do, have a nightmare? She’s 60,000 feet up in the air and she sucks at talking to people.)

(( That occurred to me before I saw your post while preparing to edit my post, but yes. I'm sorry, I didn't want that thing on the Guilded server to make things worse but it did. I'll let you propose a good series of events to get her back in the story on Guilded or via the OOC topic, otherwise I have ideas but I kind of need to give wendigo more focus and 86 is annoyed he never got to do a train fight. ))

 

[Sir loin of beef]

(( That occurred to me before I saw your post while preparing to edit my post, but yes. I'm sorry, I didn't want that thing on the Guilded server to make things worse but it did. I'll let you propose a good series of events to get her back in the story on Guilded or via the OOC topic, otherwise I have ideas but I kind of need to give wendigo more focus and 86 is annoyed he never got to do a train fight. ))

((I have Posted a Proposal in the Guilded Server that I believe can give 86 the Train Fight he wants.))

 

[Gadg8eer]

(Nope, won't happen. The absolutely unavoidable stuff is done now. Captain Wyldstorm We should take this opportunity and do our scene for a while so we're caught up with the flow of the rest of the plot.)

Meanwhile, a little while ago...

Hum stumbled a little as he made his landing on one of the rail cars on the other line, and watched the train slow to its unusual, pixelated stop.

"Well, so much for my shining moment," he grumbled, dusting off his windbreaker. He patted the pocket containing the HCP he had been about to use when Elextrixtr had started fiddling with the controls. "Don't worry, you'll get your chance."

He climbed over the guard rail on the side of the rail car in question and looked in Elextrixtr's direction as he started to climb down to the ground. "I'm gonna go find Pentifer before he gets himself into trouble. You coming? The sooner this situation is wrapped up, the sooner I can get home and get some sleep."

With that, he jumped down and started hurrying back along the tracks, muttering something about contractors not getting paid overtime.

"Well, why wouldn't I come along?!" Elextrixtr sassily remarked, getting ready to run as fast and far as she could.

Far ahead of the track, they saw a clearly disoriented figure- Pentifer. Jeez, that sudden launch must've taken a lot out of him.

With him was DPortEd and iQ. "We let him know the whole story, he's definitely as smart as Bolypius, just not a liability like him. I'm supposed to tell Hinobi but lets just say our email server has been 'acting up' lately and pretend he's human. Poor guy just realized he's been real and self-aware for less than 24 hours, talk about an existential quandry." DPortEd explained.

"Um, there's... one other thing. If we're going to hide him, we need to do it with resources already at our disposal or we might get caught." iQ explained. "We, um... We registered him as a tech to hide his PLixel signature from the Hinobi Glitch Positioning System, but we had to bypass the tutorial requirement because the training holodeck won't register him as human unless he's already an official Tech. He has no experience but... um, his game is all about catching and reaping the souls of the wicked, so... Can you guys train him?" he asked Elextrixtr and HardModeWarez.

"If you need to get him into the field to do it, the bylaw officer says there's something fishy going on at the new arcade on 3rd." DPortEd added.

"On 3rd what?" Hum responded.

"3rd Street? The place called 'Arcade Land' or something?" DPortEd tried to explain. "Okay, I don't know what he's talking about either but he says an arcade just opened up on 3rd Street and I checked the radar before we left but all this took longer than I expected- Never mind. The point is, there's a hotspot of Glitch activity coming from 7537 3rd Street and everyone except you three has been up all night working overtime."