Fandom (Glitch Techs Crossover) GT×: Gnu Fork

[Lady Moldoma]

The mirror shimmered as the Matroishka accepted the request, and Gadg8eer stepped through into the Matroishka and looked around...

Zoe turned her head to the side and rose her arm, letting a single finger raise. "Gate." She said, and a see-through portal to a large white area opened up.



"If we're not going for ringouts, the standard modular combat experimentation room should work." She tells Gadg8.

"I hope you're not touchy about me showing you how I think your abilities should be used. Namely that you should stockpile and craft as much fuel as you can for that jetpack, or get one that doesn't rely on something like ammo. Maybe one that has a regenerating fuel meter or something." She says, stepping inside. "It's crucial to like, half of the things I'm gonna show you. So aim for that."

 

[Gadg8eer]

Zoe turned her head to the side and rose her arm, letting a single finger raise. "Gate." She said, and a see-through portal to a large white area opened up.

View attachment 1200405

"If we're not going for ringouts, the standard modular combat experimentation room should work." She tells Gadg8.

"I hope you're not touchy about me showing you how I think your abilities should be used. Namely that you should stockpile and craft as much fuel as you can for that jetpack, or get one that doesn't rely on something like ammo. Maybe one that has a regenerating fuel meter or something." She says, stepping inside. "It's crucial to like, half of the things I'm gonna show you. So aim for that."

"I mean, I can't really argue if it's objectively a more effective method." Gadg8eer shrugged. "What's your recommendation beyond that it involves spamming my jetpack?"

 

[Lady Moldoma]

"I mean, I can't really argue if it's objectively a more effective method." Gadg8eer shrugged. "What's your recommendation beyond that it involves spamming my jetpack?"

"Proper usage doesn't require spamming. A jetpack is a maneuverability-centric passive, so you should use it as a modifier to your other abilities." She states. "Take into consideration that using your cleats, you have a rolling maneuverability." She says.

She moves to change her outfit, selecting from a menu to enter a tight black tubeneck with long sleeves and baggy white pants. "That allows for quicker movement but has an acceleration vector and only really works on certain surfaces."

She copies the abilities, the pair of roller-cleats appearing on her shoes and the jetpack on her back.

"With the use of the maneuverability from the jetpack, you have the option to strafe or spin in a direction of choice through light bursts of either engine. You can use it correctionarily, and in a pinch, you can spin yourself around to halt momentum, though I don't recommend it because it leaves your back vulnerable."

"Additionally, by angling properly against walls, you can briefly walljump or chain them to create a sliding effect."

 

[Gadg8eer]

"Proper usage doesn't require spamming. A jetpack is a maneuverability-centric passive, so you should use it as a modifier to your other abilities." She states. "Take into consideration that using your cleats, you have a rolling maneuverability." She says.

She moves to change her outfit, selecting from a menu to enter a tight black tubeneck with long sleeves and baggy white pants. "That allows for quicker movement but has an acceleration vector and only really works on certain surfaces."

She copies the abilities, the pair of roller-cleats appearing on her shoes and the jetpack on her back.

"With the use of the maneuverability from the jetpack, you have the option to strafe or spin in a direction of choice through light bursts of either engine. You can use it correctionarily, and in a pinch, you can spin yourself around to halt momentum, though I don't recommend it because it leaves your back vulnerable."

"Additionally, by angling properly against walls, you can briefly walljump or chain them to create a sliding effect."

Reacting to Zoe's will, the Matroiska provided a swarm of nanomachines to form an obstacle course out of "dust". It had a zig-zagging path, what appeared to be a Japanese sand garden, and a series of those blocks that disappear and reappear in a hard-to-remember pattern over some sort of nasty game hazard like boiling koo- I mean "lava", various point-ed spineties, or a non-euclidean bottomless pit of dubious plausibility.

Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada
2028-06-29@421 Winks
"We are now ready for takeoff, Mr. Strong." the autopilot of the IOI private jet said to Gavin.

"Finally. This day can't get any worse." Gavin grumbled. "AUTO, execute order 66."

"Aye-aye, Mr. Strong. Attention all passengers. Due to turbulence, we will be deploying lo-fo smooth jazz to relax and do evil planning to in 3... 2... 1..."

And then a "vaporwave" song that was literally just Kenny G slightly muffled and slowed down started to play.

"Ah. I've been waiting a long time for this... The finger pyramid of evil contemplation." Gavin said, sitting back in his luxury leather massage recliner. "If we can't get Ms. Wingon to join our team, I think I know who will. AUTO, have my secretary contact user ID Xer0_h0ur."

Kyoto, Japan
2028-06-29@422 Winks
"...and this? This is my favorite tactic." Xer0_h0ur said to his streaming fans. "Watch this."

Monaco
2028-06-29@422 Winks
"Got you- Wait, what?" a random gamer girl said. "You can't dodge that. You CAN'T-"

Kyoto, Japan
2028-06-29@422 Winks
"TELEPORTS BEHIND YOU!" he obnoxiously stated, and backstabbed his opponent in Oversight Squadrons 2: Zenith Legends. "Done like dinner." he laughed, and glanced at the stream chat.

hotcoffee_squad: Isn't that cheating?

loneWanderer: yeah pretty sure he's using hax

kimmie66: this guy is the hack. what a waste of 45 minutes. can't believe i watched this $#!+ just for the free cosmetic items.

"Pssh, whatever. This is a pro-gamer move, you're just jealous." Xer0_h0ur deflected.

Parzival: What team do you play in then?

Xer0_h0ur paused for a second. He couldn't lie but he couldn't tell the truth either.

IOI-616000: Ours, of course.

Xer0_h0ur blinked. Had he just seen that?

Parzival: Wow, what a sellout.

loneWanderer: Oh, you're one to talk, Parzival. How's the luxury condo, you poser? Hope it was worth ruining your own book with a ghostwritten sequel and a shitty VR tech demo disguised as a full price game for. Gregarious Games are a bunch of hypocrites. Seriously though, damn, and here I thought Xer0 was a Libertarian.

"Why the hell do you randos even watch me then?" Xer0_h0ur said, annoyed.

Parzival: Watching you try to bluff your way to stardom was entertaining, until it turned out you're just corpo clickbait. Enjoy welcoming your new IOI overlords, I have an easter egg hunt to win.
Parzival has logged off.

loneWanderer: Who watches game streams anymore? I just popped in to see if you'd come crawling back with your tail between your legs when you realize that. Bye.
loneWanderer has logged off.

kimmie66: i have class in half an hour. later.
kimmie66 has changed their status to idle.

"And you? You need to leave me hanging alone?" Xer0 asked.

hotcoffee_squad: No. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

"I'm straight." Xer0 annoyedly pointed out.

hotcoffee_squad: I'm female. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
hotcoffee_squad was banned for this post

"Damn, I could've tapped that but... not on air. I do that, and as Zarkiplier used to say, hoes gon' get me de-monetized. What do they think this is, a harem anime? Anyway, thanks for saving my respawn timer from an uncomfortable question. What do I owe you this time?" Xer0_h0ur asked.

IOI-616000: We need fresh talent to meet the requirements of an e-sports team. You seem to know your way around scratches, snaps and system restores, legality aside. How would you like a job?

"You know I'm broadcasting, right?"

IOI-616000: And as of a year ago, we own this streaming platform.

"But that's censorship. Is that even legal?"

IOI-616000: Contrary to popular belief, the US Constitution doesn't protect freedom of speech on a corporate-run communication system.

"Well, I don't want to end up like that guy you threw out a window. Or was that Arasaka that did that?"

IOI-616000: So we have a deal?

"Sure, but I don't come cheap. I'm the best game hacker in the biz, after all."

IOI-616000: Yes, I'm sure you are. Interesting how none of your neighbors or your landlord have pointed out they know you're Chinese on a fake passport. It would be a shame if you were suddenly reported as a PRC spy...

"I can probably bend to this, but don't push your luck. My bosses have every reason to kill you already. Minimum wage and a spot in the Seven Deadly Sixers. Final offer."

IOI-616000: Very well. You will receive details via other, more professional channels. You should expect a package soon.

At that moment, someone knocked on Xer0_h0ur's apartment door.

"That soon?" he asked. No response came, so he headed to the door. Waiting outside for him was a small box labelled with stamps from various shipping companies, including "Planet Express", "Redwing Couriers" and the logo of the Japanese postal service, but the company of origin was the most prominent... Metacortex.

He tore it open and found two things inside. A tablet PC and an IOI-branded smartwatch.

As he picked up the tablet, it unexpectedly turned on to show a video call with a woman in white hair.

"Mr. Lee?" the woman presumed.

"Shh! I have a username for a reason."

"Ah. Yes, right. I assumed, though with actual knowledge of the culture, that the name was common enough it wouldn't matter. 92 million is a very sizable number of people for anyone to rule out, believe me, we've tried. Mister... Anihiro... no. Apologies, I'm reading this in the wrong direction... Mister Yomata. There we go. Excuse me for a second... I KNOW YOU'RE INSTALLING EQUIPMENT UP THERE BUT KEEP IT DOWN! WE'RE TRYING TO WORK!" she said, and turned back to the screen. "Oh, well that's just unprofessional of me. I missed the mute icon when I clicked and haven't even introduced myself. My username is Mirage. I'll just cut to the chase."

A contract appeared on the tablet screen.

"Read this over, sign it if you agree. Basic rundown is, you're signing a sponsorship deal to be a contestant in Season 1 of a new e-sport league." the woman explained. "The sponsorship deal is with my employer, Innovative Online Industries. You'll be playing alongside other members of your team per match, depending on game mode, pay is minimum wage plus permanent ownership of the #7 Top Score in the IOI Employee Rewards Program. You'll also be considered IOI Tech Support for the purposes of public records, enrolling you in the IOI Employee Rewards Program." Mirage explained.

"One problem. I don't do tech support. Can you fake it?" Xer0_h0ur asked.

"No. Let's just say there's a very important reason Tech Support has to sign an NDA, and it's not just protecting trade secrets of a single company. Remember when you called about a broken router last week?" Mirage said.

"No, it started working again. How'd you know I had internet trouble? I'm in Japan, not Ohio, and I definitely didn't get hacked with the Party breathing down my neck. They should have been on it if my computer so much as sneezed." Xer0_h0ur pointed out.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you unless you sign the NDA, but rest assured your Party is well aware of what happens when a video game starts to Glitch."

"When a video game starts to glitch..." Xer0_h0ur recalled. It felt like an oddly familiar saying. He took his phone out of his pocket and tapped it to the tablet's edge, which triggered the use of his Arasaka ID (mostly a formality due to it being an alternative to having a Hinobi ID, an alternative that was actually taken seriously in Japan, unlike how having one in North America or Europe was like having an Epic Games account as your primary gaming account irl) to sign the agreement.

"Okay, now put on the IOI smartwatch that was included with the tablet."

Xer0_h0ur did his best to pretend he was doing so just now, instead of having had it on for 3 minutes. "Done."

"Good. Power it on."

"I'm no rookie."

"Yes, but you're a leaker to the CCP working at the Matsushiba robot factory. Now you need to also be Tech Support."

"I'm listening." he said, and powered on the smartwatch.

"Hello, Mr. Yomata. Would you prefer I call you Taro, Mr. Yomata, or a nickname derived from Xer0_h0ur?"

"Xer0 is fine." he told it.

"Thank you, I will pronounce it as Zero. My name is ADA, and I am currently an AI algorithm product created by Abjad, Incorporated at the Nudle Campus. My current owner is Innovative Online Industries, a Limited Liability Corporation based out of the United States, but I have been modified to sever all ties with the American government for the purposes of sale within the People's Republic of China."

I was wondering why my internet back home was like a turtle on its back. he joked internally. "We're in Japan, and as far as anyone else should know about me, that's always been the case."

"Already accounted for, but thank you for confirming, Zero." ADA responded.

"I'll let you two get acquainted." Mirage said, and ended the call.

"Wait, I'm supposed to be briefed... by an AI?" Xer0 asked.

"A Language Learning Model, actually. I am not capable of output without input, or in layman's terms, I don't look like it but I'm really just a mindless machine with no soul or free will. However, I have been given instructions from IOI on how to proceed before you are granted a user license. Please tap the icon labelled XR Scanner on your Horizen Smartwatch."

He followed the instruction, thinking his mission info was disguised within a modified copy of an AugReal app. He was greeted by a HUD that was part of what looked like an augmented reality game like Flunky Quest Red Ace Version.

"This is just a video game. I know it's my specialty but what's going on here, Ada?" he asserted.

"Tech Support is not a game. This is an Ingression Scanner, the result of Project Niantic." Ada explained.

"Project Niantic was vaporware." he pointed out.

"Project Niantic was a cover story for a joint program between the US Navy, Innovative Online Industries, and Hinobi Technologies in the New 10s. Welcome to the world of the Glitch-Augmented Mesotechnological Entity Mechanics, or GAME Mechanics for short. You are identified as IOI-616007, one of the IOI Sixers."

"You're telling me IOI's glorified bowling team is actually a front?"

"How familiar are you with PLixel technology, Zero?" Ada asked.

"I'm involved in cryptography-breaking. AugReal displays are something even I only barely understand."

"Permastatic Liminal X-Cels, also known as PLixels or Xels in street slang, were invented by Dr. Hiro Tadashi at Krei Technologies in pre-Metrobelt San Fransokyo in the 1930s, and adopted by Dr. Albert W. White at the Los Almas National Laboratory in 1943 for use in the Philadelphia Experiments. It was then integrated into the warheads of the Manhattan Project, used for non-lethal neutralization of mainland Japan in 1945. Post-War, they became standard due to adoption by RobCo, Arasaka Corporation, Panoramic, Hinobi, Wiwang, and various other electronics manufacturers. As PLixels are mesomachines, they are capable of manipulating reality to project solid entities from digital records. What even most Tech Support workers do not know is that PLixels do not rely on standard mechanical principles even as molecular-scale robots. The version developed by Dr. Tadashi was the size of a teddy bear, while the versions used in Game Boy and Pack Man were self-replicating military-grade machines - primitive RoboWars - known as Omnidroids that were the size of battle tanks. They still had the same capabilities as modern PLixels in lesser quantities, but not the miniaturization. The secret has always been that PLixels use what appears to be a backdoor to the laws of reality itself, allowing access to an API of unknown but extremely large scope. As you are already trained in resisting torture efforts, you are permitted by the PRC to know this fact. Local laws are not as favorable due to your illegal status and the lack of regulations towards captured espionage agents, but keeping State-sponsored espionage and this secondary employment separate is in everyone's best interest and nothing you do on duty will break any Japanese laws. Keep in mind this information is not meant to be used and it is a war crime to modify reality in ways that violate sapient beings under the UN Charter of Human Rights - thus including Japan - and within some non-signatory Nation-States including the People's Republic of China."

"A lot to take in, but I think I get it. You're the guys who go around wiping memories and fixing major disasters, then."

"Correct. The PRA has military divisions with access to devices like this gauntlet who are considered First Responders. As an IT company, IOI is obligated to provide Tech Support for their systems within their service area of the United States. You may find the Memory Reset and System Restore functions in the menues available to you. However, you have not technically been hired for tech support, only listed as one in military, medical and police records to get around a restriction."

"I thought what I was doing was legal?"

"It is. The UN Charter of Rights says so. This is not a game, but THE FINALS is. While I am subject to laws preventing abuse towards humans and other free willed beings, it is not a war crime or an enforceable breach of law to cheat at a sport, only a violation of game rules. Being caught only comes with minimal penalties, especially given that you registered using a false identity. As they say, if you don't get caught, it's not really cheating."

"I like the sound of this job now." Xer0_h0ur smirked. "So tell me... how did IOI get ZoeIRL on the team?"

"I don't see ZoeIRL among the other teammates." Ada responded. "Were you expecting her?"

"No. I just figured most streamers can't actually play in the big leagues." he said, letting on he knew he was the backup plan. "She was one of the few that could, until... Never mind. She's old news."

Outer Matroishka, ZoeIRL's Matroishka-on-the-Brain
2028-06-29@431 Winks
Gadg8eer had tried several times to actually succeed at the obstacle course, but he hadn't used the Sleepnet since CyberWorldZ shut down their virtual world and it felt much different to be doing it like it was really happening. He hadn't improved much in the 20 minutes or so since they'd started, unfortunately.

By his 10th attempt he was starting to get bored, so with a running start he tried again one last time. The problem was conserving fuel, or rather, conserving it too much. Gadg8eer was the kind of gamer who never really used consumable items that had stacked up, and it was only on this try he was willing to admit it required the use of his jetpack.

Originally he'd assumed he had no fuel left (apparently flying to the Gnu Forks shop the previous day had used the minimal amount of fuel included with the PLixelf avatar) but noticed something. It was then that he started asking what the Matroishka had available as a Hiverse node. Since it ran on the same technology as their Tech Gauntlets, things like a crafting table were a common household furnishing in the constructed world, which he took advantage of to have one of Zoe's NPCs craft one barrel of Jetpack Fuel from a barrel of Explodeum. He wasn't going to git gud tonight, but he wasn't leaving without the item Zoe had placed to encourage him. A BeeCoin, which was literally a giant floating coin straight out of Super Meatball Bros. but with the "₿" symbol on it.

With one ₿eeCoin (supposedly) being worth over $100k USD, it wasn't actually 1 BeeCoin, but rather a fraction of it with a still-notable value. It probably wouldn't be worth much outside of the Hiverse, but 0.01 BeeCoins was - at that moment - worth $1,081.07 CAD (around $2600 USD - the cost of a plane ticket from LA to NY) thanks to the stagflation of the US economy from 2025 to 2028, though fortunately Hinobi paid employees more to compensate). At that value, even ₿0.10 was worth more than Gadg8eer received in a Disability Pension over an entire year. She hadn't stated the actual value of it (it could indeed be worth nothing), but he appreciated the opportunity and was giving it an honest try.

As Gadg8eer's Skleatz activated, he gave a carefully-honed balancing act to stay on the narrow zig-zagging beam. The problem was, even when he got this part right, he'd fall off at the 90-degree right-hand turn. This time his plan was to try using the barrel of jetpack fuel to at least invoke the key rule of developing any video game: The development team has to think of everything. (Well, at least in this Glitch Techs Expanded Universe, they do. Otherwise Glitches would be public knowledge.)

He tried to activate the jetpack with the goal of boosting backwards and to the right in order to compensate for the tight turn, only to sail past the 90-degree left turn that was the second half of that section. The surprise and frustration was so intense he flung a Glo-Yo at the narrow path as he began falling into the pit of packing peanuts placed below him. That was when something surprising happened.

The Glo-Yo missed the beam but went over it and then quickly lost altitude as its upward momentum stalled, causing it to wrap itself around the beam like it was the Archaeologist's Whip from The Great Cave Hibernation in Buddy Bear's Box of Games. This caused Gadg8eer to suddenly be swung under the winding beam and up into the air by his jetpack. He went soaring over the sand garden and landed in the resting spot by the disappearing blocks (again, over a pit full of packing peanuts).

"Oof!" he said as he landed roughly on his butt. "Whoa. That... actually worked out sort of okay."

 

[Captain Wyldstorm]

Meanwhile...
At Elextrixtr's house, her laptop- model undisclosed- had been left active on a piece of code for a game that she had spent hours working on. The screen crackled and changed frames, and a single purple hand burst through the screen and pulled out an anthropomorphic purple wolf in a red shirt with a matching scarf. Its expression became a grin, and a low chuckle rang through the air as it dusted itself off and climbed out of the nearby window.*

 

[Gadg8eer]

Meanwhile...
At Elextrixtr's house, her laptop- model undisclosed- had been left active on a piece of code for a game that she had spent hours working on. The screen crackled and changed frames, and a single purple hand burst through the screen and pulled out an anthropomorphic purple wolf in a red shirt with a matching scarf. Its expression became a grin, and a low chuckle rang through the air as it dusted itself off and climbed out of the nearby window.*

As it turned out, this being would be the first of a new category of glitches... Verseborn.

Back when the Hiverse was being implemented in 2026, just a couple short years prior to the present (2028) in this tale, Hinobi found an ingenious way to prevent glitches from becoming apparent. After the infamous "Wreck-It Ralph" Botnet issues (which coincided with the co.vid Virtual Pandemic of 2019), the world was not willing to let anything get this close to digital apocalypse ever again. Exploits like co.vid, the v-On Suite of hacking tools, and any potential for anything even close to Bolypius was eliminated by two sets of e-Police.

The Western World tried to rely on a variety of contractors (including Hinobi and various local privately-operated teams) to provide tech support precisely because nobody trusted NetWatch. When THEY got involved, not only were they a corporation and an especially callous one at that, they were exclusively a digital PMC for the most corrupt western governments like South Africa and Australia as well as online black ops for the 1% on the rare occasion that the internet had threatened to destroy the status quo, and they got Rouxles Kaard elected in 2016 using targeted advertizing aimed by the world's largest partly-illegal datapoint libraries. Yes, NetWatch is literally Cambridge Analytica, enough said.

Though after Kaard was prevented from having a second term by the Electoral College (on the grounds that he is a convicted felon, even if there "ain't no law", go figure), NetWatch was on shaky ground and had just made sweeping layoffs, which meant the increasingly rowdy netizens of the Hiverse were getting very dissatisfied with the current, Neo Cyberpunk state of affairs that had flourished because countries ranging from Jamaica to France to India had also been tampered with in 2024 and hadn't been so lucky politically. Huge sections of the world had banned the Hiverse because if used with encryption it was essentially impossible to hack a properly-configured Hiverse node, including Canada (see here for what lead to it), but legally the Canadian Constitution limited the power of the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Comission) to stop hardware sales of AugReal equipment. The rest of the government of Canada was legally obligated to let the CRTC handle it but the CRTC had to follow the Constitiution and nobody, least of all heavy Hiverse users, cared about the scarily more authoritarian Canadian government that had emerged after the 2025 Canadian Federal elections.

In the East, the Satella Police served the same function. Founded by a coalition of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan to repel PRC cyberattacks, they were a proper international e-Police organization rather than just a money-making machine.

The 2026 Dataklash had made some of it unclear, but Hinobi sought to make such a thing obsolete. Convinced by Volpe and the Neozilla Foundation that the internet needed to return to a more anarchic and flexible state, Hinobi pivoted it's anti-cheat from simply auto-capturing Glitches to filtering them. Known as the Reaper, or the D-Reaper in places like the Parawatch forums (a conspiracy theorist gathering spot that usually overthought things or - if they didn't overthink it - misinterpreted a Glitch as some sort of "anomaly"), the program would gauge the intelligence of everything in the network. Only input judged as less intelligent than a housecat were blocked from roaming freely about the Hiverse, anything from a housecat up to Bolypius or a human being or higher should (at least in theory, they'll probably never have the opportunity to test it's accuracy at judging spacefaring aliens) be able to pass the simple tests the anti-cheat placed to catch "robots".

The process had evolved since then but the accuracy had only improved and there were no cases of people being completely unable to enter the Hiverse. The Reaper was certainly scary-looking but not evil or even dangerous. Instead, it guided Glitches through a "sandbox" back into a non-Glitched form, then sent a "Glitch captured" signal to Hinobi who passed it on to the DNS servers, which is - aside from being the spinal column of the internet, sleepnet and Hiverse - was where all GAME Mechanics happen to get their live data from. The sandbox was essentially a filter and AI debugging assistant in one. If a detected Glitch was just glitched, they would be temporarily placed in a replica of their expected operating environment (Ah, we just launched the new update. Some Glitches were bound to happen!), and if that alone did not fix a Glitch then it would evaluate if that meant the Glitch could only be UNWANTED SOFTWARE TAMPERING! or if it was a false positive. So far, the LLM they trained had never had a false positive for good reason; it was mindless, but it had learned from patterns what was Glitch and what was not.

Except no one realized there was only one way (other than that not actually being the case, but we won't open that can of worms) that could properly work. It knew the difference because it had never seen Bolypius in its' training data. As far as the D-Reaper was concerned, Bolypius's source code was too pure to be a Glitch, therefore it could only be one of three things, a biological lifeform (ruled out by a lack of DNA), a transhuman (ruled out by its date of creation), or a legitimate piece of software.

Since Nightwolf Primal was - for whatever reason - yet another sapient Glitch, and their game was a VR title, the end result of their Glitching and somehow ending up in the Hiverse instead... was to also be considered too consistent and flawless (in terms of code stability and data integrity) a piece of software to possibly be a Glitch. Thus, as she leaped out the window onto the virtual streets of the Grand Forks Municipal Geonode, she found himself not in the real world but in a virtual one that looked similar but not as boring. Of course, it being the early morning, the only thing less boring about it was that the Moon was sponsored by Roberts Space Industries (makers of the first commercial spacecraft and the first organization to have financial insurance - provided by Holtow - on their spacecraft), and a few holographic AR thingies pointed out the names of stars whenever he focused his eyes on a spec of light in the sky.

As for what their game was to be, and what their backstory had made of her, well... (( Captain Wyldstorm Congrats! You're now writing characters in both plot threads! Gadg8eer's residence - and thus the portal to his Node Cluster - are just to the Southwest along 72nd Avenue. I need to pretend US Politics doesn't exist and hope people who are actually qualified to handle reality will end this madness without hurting anyone innocent. Until then, let's get this show on the road. ))

 

[Gadg8eer]

As it turned out, this being would be the first of a new category of glitches... Verseborn.

Back when the Hiverse was being implemented in 2026, just a couple short years prior to the present (2028) in this tale, Hinobi found an ingenious way to prevent glitches from becoming apparent. After the infamous "Wreck-It Ralph" Botnet issues (which coincided with the co.vid Virtual Pandemic of 2019), the world was not willing to let anything get this close to digital apocalypse ever again. Exploits like co.vid, the v-On Suite of hacking tools, and any potential for anything even close to Bolypius was eliminated by two sets of e-Police.

The Western World tried to rely on a variety of contractors (including Hinobi and various local privately-operated teams) to provide tech support precisely because nobody trusted NetWatch. When THEY got involved, not only were they a corporation and an especially callous one at that, they were exclusively a digital PMC for the most corrupt western governments like South Africa and Australia as well as online black ops for the 1% on the rare occasion that the internet had threatened to destroy the status quo, and they got Rouxles Kaard elected in 2016 using targeted advertizing aimed by the world's largest partly-illegal datapoint libraries. Yes, NetWatch is literally Cambridge Analytica, enough said.

Though after Kaard was prevented from having a second term by the Electoral College (on the grounds that he is a convicted felon, even if there "ain't no law", go figure), NetWatch was on shaky ground and had just made sweeping layoffs, which meant the increasingly rowdy netizens of the Hiverse were getting very dissatisfied with the current, Neo Cyberpunk state of affairs that had flourished because countries ranging from Jamaica to France to India had also been tampered with in 2024 and hadn't been so lucky politically. Huge sections of the world had banned the Hiverse because if used with encryption it was essentially impossible to hack a properly-configured Hiverse node, including Canada (see here for what lead to it), but legally the Canadian Constitution limited the power of the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Comission) to stop hardware sales of AugReal equipment. The rest of the government of Canada was legally obligated to let the CRTC handle it but the CRTC had to follow the Constitiution and nobody, least of all heavy Hiverse users, cared about the scarily more authoritarian Canadian government that had emerged after the 2025 Canadian Federal elections.

In the East, the Satella Police served the same function. Founded by a coalition of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan to repel PRC cyberattacks, they were a proper international e-Police organization rather than just a money-making machine.

The 2026 Dataklash had made some of it unclear, but Hinobi sought to make such a thing obsolete. Convinced by Volpe and the Neozilla Foundation that the internet needed to return to a more anarchic and flexible state, Hinobi pivoted it's anti-cheat from simply auto-capturing Glitches to filtering them. Known as the Reaper, or the D-Reaper in places like the Parawatch forums (a conspiracy theorist gathering spot that usually overthought things or - if they didn't overthink it - misinterpreted a Glitch as some sort of "anomaly"), the program would gauge the intelligence of everything in the network. Only input judged as less intelligent than a housecat were blocked from roaming freely about the Hiverse, anything from a housecat up to Bolypius or a human being or higher should (at least in theory, they'll probably never have the opportunity to test it's accuracy at judging spacefaring aliens) be able to pass the simple tests the anti-cheat placed to catch "robots".

The process had evolved since then but the accuracy had only improved and there were no cases of people being completely unable to enter the Hiverse. The Reaper was certainly scary-looking but not evil or even dangerous. Instead, it guided Glitches through a "sandbox" back into a non-Glitched form, then sent a "Glitch captured" signal to Hinobi who passed it on to the DNS servers, which is - aside from being the spinal column of the internet, sleepnet and Hiverse - was where all GAME Mechanics happen to get their live data from. The sandbox was essentially a filter and AI debugging assistant in one. If a detected Glitch was just glitched, they would be temporarily placed in a replica of their expected operating environment (Ah, we just launched the new update. Some Glitches were bound to happen!), and if that alone did not fix a Glitch then it would evaluate if that meant the Glitch could only be UNWANTED SOFTWARE TAMPERING! or if it was a false positive. So far, the LLM they trained had never had a false positive for good reason; it was mindless, but it had learned from patterns what was Glitch and what was not.

Except no one realized there was only one way (other than that not actually being the case, but we won't open that can of worms) that could properly work. It knew the difference because it had never seen Bolypius in its' training data. As far as the D-Reaper was concerned, Bolypius's source code was too pure to be a Glitch, therefore it could only be one of three things, a biological lifeform (ruled out by a lack of DNA), a transhuman (ruled out by its date of creation), or a legitimate piece of software.

Since Nightwolf Primal was - for whatever reason - yet another sapient Glitch, and his game was a VR title, the end result of him Glitching and somehow ending up in the Hiverse instead... was to also be considered too consistent and flawless (in terms of code stability and data integrity) a piece of software to possibly be a Glitch. Thus, as he leaped out the window onto the virtual streets of the Grand Forks Municipal Geonode, he found himself not in the real world but in a virtual one that looked similar but not as boring. Of course, it being the early morning, the only thing less boring about it was that the Moon was sponsored by Roberts Space Industries (makers of the first commercial spacecraft and the first organization to have financial insurance - provided by Holtow - on their spacecraft), and a few holographic AR thingies pointed out the names of stars whenever he focused his eyes on a spec of light in the sky.

As for what his game was to be, and what his backstory had made of him, well... (( Captain Wyldstorm Congrats! You're now writing characters in both plot threads! Gadg8eer's residence - and thus the portal to his Node Cluster - are just to the Southwest along 72nd Avenue. I need to pretend US Politics doesn't exist and hope people who are actually qualified to handle reality will end this madness without hurting anyone innocent. Until then, let's get this show on the road. ))

As Nightwolf looked around, they saw a SynTaxi cab payphone nearby. SynTaxi was a virtual "taxi" company that provided ad-supported movement within Hiverse nodes, though having just been made real she was probably not yet aware of that.

 

[Captain Wyldstorm]

As Nightwolf looked around, he saw a SynTaxi cab payphone nearby. SynTaxi was a virtual "taxi" company that provided ad-supported movement within Hiverse nodes, though having just been made real he was probably not yet aware of that.

So... much... technology!!!
Poor Nightwolf looked like she was about to become overwhelmed from all the tech, and immediately attempted to hide in an alleyway.
"What is this land...?" She asked herself quietly.
(For future reference, Nightwolf is female with she/they pronouns. But still... DOUBLE PLOT DISTRACTION LOL)

 

[Gadg8eer]

So... much... technology!!!
Poor Nightwolf looked like she was about to become overwhelmed from all the tech, and immediately attempted to hide in an alleyway.
"What is this land...?" She asked herself quietly.
(For future reference, Nightwolf is female with she/they pronouns. But still... DOUBLE PLOT DISTRACTION LOL)

The alley in question was just to the southwest of the private node they had just exited. Nearby, she saw she was surrounded by relatively small buildings, none nearly so extravagant as the glow-y cyberpunk-looking payphone or the persistent transparent overlay which gave the moon the look of a projector casting "RSI" onto the moon's face. The lines on the road were lit with an irredescant glow, but there were no truly obvious signs that this place was truly futuristic beyond that, and the glowing road markings were not afforded to the gravel alley between the location's single- and two-story houses. The city was very conservative about their Geoscape Node and didn't like too much tech being visible.

 

[Captain Wyldstorm]

The alley in question was just to the southwest of the private node they had just exited. Nearby, she saw she was surrounded by relatively small buildings, none nearly so extravagant as the glow-y cyberpunk-looking payphone or the persistent transparent overlay which gave the moon the look of a projector casting "RSI" onto the moon's face. The lines on the road were lit with an irredescant glow, but there were no truly obvious signs that this place was truly futuristic beyond that, and the glowing road markings were not afforded to the gravel alley between the location's single- and two-story houses. The city was very conservative about their Geoscape Node and didn't like too much tech being visible.

Nightwolf just curled up in a ball, hiding from everyone around her.

 

[Gadg8eer]

Nightwolf just curled up in a ball, hiding from everyone around her.

At that moment, she noticed that "a light was on" "inside" a nearby affordable housing building. They wouldn't have known it, but Geoscape Nodes - which mostly resembled the map of a game like Highway Robbery Online or Smart_watch in scale and the complexity of the software engine - were pretty much empty shells of buildings with textures on the outside that you won't notice when you're in a hurry.

These textures had two states: Offline and Online. An offline private node of a building's IRL owner would appear completely dark at night, but if the node and it's owner were online, the texture would glow faintly to let others know someone was home.

In the case of apartments, the corridors and lobby and such would always be considered a public thoroughfare, so some of the windows looked more "real" in having transparent glass panes, while others appeared to merely have silhouettes behind curtains that didn't feel like they were more than a textured polygon.

A small robot labelled "WALL-E" could be seen in the transparent windows of the corridors, heading down the stairs on a set of caterpillar treads. The machine, if it could be referred to as merely a machine in spite of its' shy, compassionate nature, emerged from the structure's front door and zipped over to a ramp placed next to a green dumpster. The robot headed up the ramp, dumped a cube of compacted garbage into the bin from a compartment inside its torso through a panel on its front, and was about to head back inside when it spotted Nightwolf in the distance, looking distressed.

WALL-E carefully approached the "ghost" (how his AI interpreted AugReal entities), cautious but hoping to soothe whatever poor soul this was.

 

[Captain Wyldstorm]

At that moment, she noticed that "a light was on" "inside" a nearby affordable housing building. They wouldn't have known it, but Geoscape Nodes - which mostly resembled the map of a game like Highway Robbery Online or Smart_watch in scale and the complexity of the software engine - were pretty much empty shells of buildings with textures on the outside that you won't notice when you're in a hurry.

These textures had two states: Offline and Online. An offline private node of a building's IRL owner would appear completely dark at night, but if the node and it's owner were online, the texture would glow faintly to let others know someone was home.

In the case of apartments, the corridors and lobby and such would always be considered a public thoroughfare, so some of the windows looked more "real" in having transparent glass panes, while others appeared to merely have silhouettes behind curtains that didn't feel like they were more than a textured polygon.

A small robot labelled "WALL-E" could be seen in the transparent windows of the corridors, heading down the stairs on a set of caterpillar treads. The machine, if it could be referred to as merely a machine in spite of its' shy, compassionate nature, emerged from the structure's front door and zipped over to a ramp placed next to a green dumpster. The robot headed up the ramp, dumped a cube of compacted garbage into the bin from a compartment inside its torso through a panel on its front, and was about to head back inside when it spotted Nightwolf in the distance, looking distressed.

WALL-E carefully approached the "ghost" (how his AI interpreted AugReal entities), cautious but hoping to soothe whatever poor soul this was.

Nightwolf slightly shrank back in fear, finding herself against the wall."..Where the hell am I?! How did I get through that fourth wall I saw?!"*She panicked silently.
(OH MY GLITCH, IS THAT WALL-E?!)

 

[Gadg8eer]

Nightwolf slightly shrank back in fear, finding herself against the wall."..Where the hell am I?! How did I get through that fourth wall I saw?!"*She panicked silently.
(OH MY GLITCH, IS THAT WALL-E?!)

Well, it was a WALL-E. Like a weird cross between The BRIX Movie and a Pixar film, in Sidney's The Loneliest Robot on Earth, a subtle product placement for the Buy-n-Large "Waste Accumulative Load Lifter Engine" was turned into a surprisingly good feature film. In other words, "Roomba: The Movie" made the WALL-E line the flagship of BnL's RefUrbanoid ("Refurbished Urbanoid HCP") product line of backwards-compatible household robots.

While the WALL-E that was in the movie was merely based off of the missing one that had "disappeared" when Erwin O'Skunk fled his former hometown of New Pemberton, this one was the real deal. He wouldn't be hooking up with an EVE unit, but then it wasn't the exact same one so the canon of the movie was unaffected. In this case, the WALL-E was quite happy living with a kindly old lady, though he was empathic enough to go out of his way to help someone in distress.

Unsure of how to handle the scared hologram, but recognizing they probably couldn't hurt him, WALL-E approached to what would feel like a comfortable distance for Nightwolf. "I... WALL-E. You?"

 

[Captain Wyldstorm]

Well, it was a WALL-E. Like a weird cross between The BRIX Movie and a Pixar film, in Sidney's The Loneliest Robot on Earth, a subtle product placement for the Buy-n-Large "Waste Accumulative Load Lifter Engine" was turned into a surprisingly good feature film. In other words, "Roomba: The Movie" made the WALL-E line the flagship of BnL's RefUrbanoid ("Refurbished Urbanoid HCP") product line of backwards-compatible household robots.

While the WALL-E that was in the movie was merely based off of the missing one that had "disappeared" when Erwin O'Skunk fled his former hometown of New Pemberton, this one was the real deal. He wouldn't be hooking up with an EVE unit, but then it wasn't the exact same one so the canon of the movie was unaffected. In this case, the WALL-E was quite happy living with a kindly old lady, though he was empathic enough to go out of his way to help someone in distress.

Unsure of how to handle the scared hologram, but recognizing they probably couldn't hurt him, WALL-E approached to what would feel like a comfortable distance for Nightwolf. "I... WALL-E. You?"

"...N-Nightwolf..." her voice, obviously showing overwhelmed and overstimulated signs, quietly escaped the clearly cautious being.

 

[Gadg8eer]

"...N-Nightwolf..." her voice, obviously showing overwhelmed and overstimulated signs, quietly escaped the clearly cautious being.

"Hello... Nigh-it-wolf!" WALL-E softly said. "You... need... help?"

 

[Captain Wyldstorm]

"Hello... Nigh-it-wolf!" WALL-E softly said. "You... need... help?"

Nightwolf perked up, her eyes slightly sparkling as she realized it was worried. "Y-Yeah, uh... where am I..?"
Of course she'd ask that. "This place is... really overwhelming and I do not like overwhelming places..." she admitted.

 

[Gadg8eer]

Nightwolf perked up, her eyes slightly sparkling as she realized it was worried. "Y-Yeah, uh... where am I..?"
Of course she'd ask that. "This place is... really overwhelming and I do not like overwhelming places..." she admitted.

If WALL-E units were programmed to be more vocal, they probably would choose to be more talkative if they were to gain a Glitch personality, but as the line was originally made to take garbage out and look cute/cool, this one had of course developed a personality from that basic code. It wasn't unheard of for most robots to display traits similar to heavy autism when they gained some sort of personality, though to be fair such an occurrence hadn't happened since the Urbanoid-compatible Killbot Incident of 2000 for obvious reasons.

As such, WALL-E didn't quite know what to do himself, but he had a good idea of who could, and after putting his grasper to a spot roughly equivalent to his chin in a moment of thought ( He was made in the early 1990s, his Random Access Memory was in the kiloPLixels; I think we can cut him a break ) snapped his gripper-appendages to express getting an idea and motioned to follow him back to the building the little robot emerged from.

 

[Captain Wyldstorm]

If WALL-E units were programmed to be more vocal, they probably would choose to be more talkative if they were to gain a Glitch personality, but as the line was originally made to take garbage out and look cute/cool, this one had of course developed a personality from that basic code. It wasn't unheard of for most robots to display traits similar to heavy autism when they gained some sort of personality, though to be fair such an occurrence hadn't happened since the Urbanoid-compatible Killbot Incident of 2000 for obvious reasons.

As such, WALL-E didn't quite know what to do himself, but he had a good idea of who could, and after putting his grasper to a spot roughly equivalent to his chin in a moment of thought ( He was made in the early 1990s, his Random Access Memory was in the kiloPLixels; I think we can cut him a break ) snapped his gripper-appendages to express getting an idea and motioned to follow him back to the building the little robot emerged from.

Nightwolf quietly and hesitantly got up, deciding to follow the small and friendly robot.

 

[Gadg8eer]

Nightwolf quietly and hesitantly got up, deciding to follow the small and friendly robot.

Inside, WALL-E led Nightwolf up the stairs to the second floor, and knocked on Mrs. O'Skunk's door. A VidWindow opened to show that it was receiving data from the little robot. The intent was just to declare a virtual visitor was requesting permission to enter, using Blume's "EZ-Habbo" SmartHotel AI manager system.

As Nightwolf followed behind, reaching the top of the stairs, the door of the unit across from the one the robot was attempting to enter opened, and what appeared to be an 11 year old girl straight out of Dudley Dunsparce and the Fountain of Youth. "Pardon my interruption. WALL-E, did you see Oliver leave this way? I need administrator permission to install a-" she was saying, when she noticed Nightwolf. "Oh! Hello, I'm Germaine. Are you a visitor or a new neighbour?"

 

[Gadg8eer]

Inside, WALL-E led Nightwolf up the stairs to the second floor, and knocked on Mrs. O'Skunk's door. A VidWindow opened to show that it was receiving data from the little robot. The intent was just to declare a virtual visitor was requesting permission to enter, using Blume's "EZ-Habbo" SmartHotel AI manager system.

As Nightwolf followed behind, reaching the top of the stairs, the door of the unit across from the one the robot was attempting to enter opened, and what appeared to be an 11 year old girl straight out of Dudley Dunsparce and the Fountain of Youth. "Pardon my interruption. WALL-E, did you see Oliver leave this way? I need administrator permission to install a-" she was saying, when she noticed Nightwolf. "Oh! Hello, I'm Germaine. Are you a visitor or a new neighbour?"

(( Captain Wyldstorm ? ))

 

[Captain Wyldstorm]

(( Captain Wyldstorm ? ))

((Trying to come up with a good response for 'wolf to say ^^ she is very stupid, plus she doesn't know much about interaction. I might have her act like she struggles to speak so she doesn't have to talk much. Although I can imagine how the others will react to seeing Nightwolf!!))